+

The Once and Future SCC

Casting Vision

+Four Weeks of Remembering

Mission, Vision and Distinctives

What is The Church?

Why we do what we do . . .

Where are we headed and how do we get there?

+

In Brief . . .

+

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love

people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

The Mission

+

The V

ision

SCC seeks to accomplish its Mission by SCC seeks to accomplish its Mission by living out its distictives, such that all life is living out its distictives, such that all life is an exercise of loving God - in the heart, an exercise of loving God - in the heart, the home and the household of God.the home and the household of God.

+The Distinctives

Theocentric

Biblically Guided

Gospel Driven

Disciple-Making

Christ-Cultural

Faithful: In Commitment In Discipline

Family Focused Elders Body Life Church Planting The Home Men Women

World Engaging

+

In more detail . . .

+The Mission

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark

12

:29

-31

+The Mission

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark

12

:29

-31

+The Mission

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark

12

:29

-31

+The Mission

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark

12

:29

-31

+The Mission

Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark

12

:29

-31

+

God IS Love

I John 4:8I John 4:8

+

The V

ision

SCC seeks to accomplish its Mission by SCC seeks to accomplish its Mission by living out its distictives, such that all life is living out its distictives, such that all life is an exercise of loving God - in the heart, an exercise of loving God - in the heart, the home and the household of God.the home and the household of God.

+The breakdown

The Heart

The Home

The Household of God

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Mark 16:27)

Ephesians 5 Husbands/Wives Fathers/Mothers/Children

J. Edwards

+

“Every family . . . a little church . . .”

"Every family ought to be a little church, consecrated to Christ and

wholly influenced and governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are like to

prove ineffectual."-Jonathan Edwards

+The breakdown

The Heart

The Home

The Household of God

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Mark 16:27)

Ephesians 5 Husbands/Wives Fathers/Mothers/Children

J. Edwards

The New Commandment; The New Commission; The New Calling John 13 Matthew 28 Acts 1

+The New Commandment; The

New Commission; The New Calling John 13

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:

just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this

all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for

one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Mathew 28 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And

behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew

28:19-20)

Acts 1 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

+

the distinctives

+The Distinctives

Theocentric

Biblically Guided

Gospel Driven

Disciple-Making

Christ-Cultural

Faithful: In Commitment In Discipline

Family Focused Elders Body Life Church Planting The Home Men Women

World Engaging

+

You might Remember . . .

Ours are much like it .

. .

+The Distinctives

Theocentric

Biblically Guided

Gospel Driven

Disciple-Making

Christ-Cultural

Faithful: In Commitment In Discipline

Family Focused Elders Body Life Church Planting The Home Men Women

World Engaging

+the-o-cen-tric:

Having in mind and intent, God at the center.

He is not just at the center, as if there is some backdrop or stage on which to place Him.

God IS the center.

"Ask a man his view of God and by his answer you can predict with certainty his spiritual future."       -Tozer

+Biblically Guided The fact is that God has spoken and those words are

the very nutrients a healthy spiritual life requires.

Language is powerful (James 3:5-12) because God speaks - He made the world(s) with words

He has communicated to us in words

Jesus is called The Word (logos)

We need the Bible and we need it to guide us. It is our course, our map and our compass.

The invaluable nature of God's spoken and inspired and inerrant Word cannot be overstated. It is the breath of God (2 Tim 3:16) the work of the Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). It is our sole authority for faith and practice.

+To Review:

Our Mission is to Love God and Love people

Our Vision is to distinctively work out that Mission in all spheres of life

Philosophically, those distinctives are: Being Theocentric Being Biblically Guided Being Gospel Driven Being Disciple-Making* Being Christ-Cultural*

+Gospel Driven

The Gospel is the means to life AND the life lived.

In truth, the Gospel is THE Story.

At a real point in real human history, God the Son, took on flesh and became a man to do something that would reverse all our filthiness and free us to delight in God and fulfill our purpose for existence, which is radiating and reflecting His glory.

We are sinners and broken, but there is good news. That is what “gospel” means – good news. This is what the Gospel is: we are saved from God by God.

+Disciple-Making Everything we do should be

focused on discipleship if we define discipleship as following Christ.

As people join in the family of God they will need to be taught to obey everything that Jesus commanded.

Christians who are more mature in their walk (should) come alongside less mature Christians.

We believe that saints should spend time together.

Unless all three converge, discipleship is not happening.

+Christ CulturalCHRISTIANITY IS NOT MULTICULTURAL, IT IS  MULTIETHNIC – IT IS SINGULAR IN CULTURE, THAT IS  . . . CHRIST. – T. Anyabwile

- The Body (of Christ) is made up of an innumerable amount of people, derived from all over the globe, made up of a multitude of ethnicities – yet, unified by a singular factor: Christ.

+THREE MORE DISTINCTIVES

Faithful: In Commitment In Discipline

Family Focused Elders Body Life Church Planting The Home Men Women

World Engaging

This is the authority and responsibility given in “where two or three are gathered . . . “ Deut. 17 & 19; Matt. 18

The is the point of what Church is- The Family of God. The Nature and roles in the

Trinity trickle down Every family should flourish,

yet be intimate The roles go: Trinity, God to

man, Husband to wife to children, Christ to elders to Body

We are left here for a purpose, a purpose that includes getting front row seats to see God work

+To Review: Our Mission is to Love God and Love people

Our Vision is to distinctively work out that Mission in all spheres of life

Philosophically, those distinctives are: Being Theocentric Being Biblically Guided Being Gospel Driven Being Disciple-Making Being Christ-Cultural The Practical distinctives are:

Being Faithful in Commitment and Discipline Being Family Focused Being World Engaging

+THE NATURE OF THE

CHURCH – WHAT IS IT?

+The Words Defined

From the Greek ekklesia

Means: The Assembly Not to be confused with “called out ones” Think Butter-fly

Appearances: Matthew 16:18, 18:17 Acts 8:3, 9:31, 13:1, 14:23 Romans 16: 1-5, 16, 23

+Two levels of the Assembly

The Universal Church

Acts 8:3

Acts 9:31

Hebrews 12:22-24

The Local Church Acts 13:1

Acts 14:23

Each of the Epistles and Revelation 2-3 (22:16)

+So, What IS the Church?

What attributes stay constant in these texts?

What attributes change?

What is the focus on?

+ NOTICE . . .

NOTICENOTICE

+The Big Picture

GOD

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD GOD and a

chosen People

The GOD-Man*The GOD-Man*

GOD and a chosen People

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD

+The Big Picture

GOD

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD GOD and a

chosen People

The GOD-Man*The GOD-Man*

GOD and a chosen People

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD

+Some Images of the Church

• The People of God

• Household of God

• The Body of Christ

• The Temple of the Holy Spirit

• What’s missing? . . What’s missing? . .

+

+

It’s always about God and PeopleRemember Mark 12:28-34Remember Mark 12:28-34

+BUT, WAIT . . . LOOK AROUND . . . 1. How much time is being

spent?

2. How much money is being spent?

3. What level of comfort is poured into other things?

4. Look around . . .

WHOA

+The People of God

2 Corinthians 6:16

Old Testament – God’s People Exodus 15:13 Hosea 1:9-10; 2:23 (Romans 9:24-26) Ezekiel 36:22-28

+The Big Picture

GOD

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD GOD and a

chosen People

The GOD-Man*The GOD-Man*

GOD and a chosen People

GOD and Man*

Man vs. GOD

Parallel, but Parallel, but distinctdistinct

+The Household of God

14 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long;

15 but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:14-15

+The Body of Christ

• Emphasizes the Connection of the Church as a group of believers, with Christ.

• Some aspects of the Body of Christ– Christ is the Head (Col. 1:18)– The Body is parts, put together (1 Cor. 12:12)– The Body parts depend on one another (1 Cor. 12:26)– The Body must be unified (Eph. 4:4-6)– The Body of Christ, the Church, is Local and Universal – “a

microcosm . . . a small-scale example” (Acts 8, 13)– The Body of Christ is an extension of His ministry (1 Cor.

3:9)

+The Temple of the Holy Spirit

The Doctrine: John 14:12 & 16:7

The Individual 1 Cor. 6:19

The Assembly 1 Cor. 3:16-17 Eph. 2:21-22

+The Church is not . . .

The Church is . . . The Church is not an Organization, it is an organism.

The Church is not a building – that is the meeting place of the Church.

The Church is not a “good thing”, it is Life.

The Church is not a sales pitch, it is an election – and we are not voting!

The Church is not ours, we are His – a Bride for the Bridegroom.

The Church is not American, it is Christian.

+

The Church is not SundayIT IS ALWAYS AND SUNDAY IS A CELEBRATION . . .

. . . NOT AN ORGANIZATIONAL SALES-PITCH, DELIVERED IN A BUILDING FOR AMERICAN CONSUMERS PACKAGED BY US IN WAYS THAT “WORK”, BECAUSE IT IS “GOOD” AND “SAFE

FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY”

+

The Once and Future SCC

Casting Vision