Being Equipped as The Church

Check this video OUT!

http://www.rightnowblog.org/are-you-a-trader/church/

(Sorry I couldn't get it to embed)

When I first watched this video I thought it was about how we should go out and serve people.  It is, but there is more...

In the context of the church, look at what is happening in the video.
Leaders in the church are equipping the saints for the ministry that the church has been called to.  Together members of the church are living out their calling to make disciples by pointing to Jesus through serving the poor.

Keep looking at our questions from Sunday night.  My guess is that the church has meant very little to you in your life.  That's sad, but I can totally relate.  The church has meant little to me as well.  Why give my time, money, energy to something that I don't identify with?  That's the question I came to and that the question of our generation.  If the church is irrelevant to me, then what's the point in investing my life there?  The point is found in the pages of the New Testament.  You are the church if you identify with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  You are responsible for the church as much as your pastor is.  When you take Communion, you are saying, "I will get under the arms of my brothers and sisters and help them along where they are weak."  And, "I will find those that can hold me up when I am weak and make the Jesus look like a phony."  We need each other to step up and fight for one another in the name of Jesus.  He has given us a life that is not meant to be lived individualistically, but rather in community with others who are in relationship with him.

Here are the questions from Sunday... THINK through the Word of God, FIND other passages that relate to the church, ACT according to what you have BELIEVED about Jesus.

Love you guys.

Loren

Living in the Church - Ephesians 4:1-16

1. Who is Paul talking to?  How does being a prisoner qualify Paul to speak?

2. What is the calling you have received?

3. Explain vs. 7-10 in the context of your own life.  What does it have to do with Communion and Baptism?

4. How are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers equipping you for ministry?  Who are they?  Do you feel equipped?  Why or why not?

5. What is your responsibility as a Christian to the body of believers?

How are you executing that responsibility?  How should you execute that responsibility?

6. If you’ve ever spent much time in the ocean, you know the feeling of bobbing up and down in the water.  Paul’s talking about instability here.  Do your beliefs have firm grounding in the truth of Scripture?  Can you quickly explain why Jesus in the Way, the Truth and the Life?  Does your life (actions, words, attitudes) show your faith in Him in very tangible ways?  How so?

7. Where is the church on your list of life priorities?  Read vs. 15-16 carefully.  Can you see your part in the body of Christ?  How can you be used to build up the church by Christ’s love in you?

Baptism

Its been a while since we've seen any action around here.  Let's get started.

Our desire at Mosaic is that you would know what you believe about Jesus and why.  If you have placed your faith (Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1, ESV) in Jesus and have committed to die daily to your self, take up your cross and follow him, then we want you to be a part of a local church where you can live out Christ's command to GO and make disciples of the nations.  Baptism is a huge part of that.  By being baptized you are...

1.  Identifying yourself with the body of Christ.
2.  Physically demonstrating the spiritual reality that you have died and been buried with Christ and raised to new life with him.
3. You are obedient to the command of Christ in one area while striving to obey in all areas.

This is not for people that have gotten their lives in perfect order.  It is not a symbol of success, but rather a means of showing your belief and acceptance of God's grace in your life as you surrender to his continued work in you.  God is the focus.  He is the one who is drawing you to a new life in him, and he is worth the "risk".  When someone is baptized, the church around them is to keep them accountable to the commitment they have made with Jesus.  We submit to other believers around us and we also help them to remain faithful to the call of Jesus on their life.
Remember that...

...The Lord commands it as a part of discipleship.

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, 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, ESV)

...Union with Christ is done by Immersion (Literal reading of the Greek)

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, ESV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

(1 Peter 3:18-21, ESV)

...For New Covenant believers ONLY through faith in Jesus

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12, ESV)

It is...

...Uncompromisingly commanded by Jesus.

...Universally administered to Christians entering the early local church.

...Uniquely connected to conversion as an unrepeatable expression of saving faith.

Any questions, PLEASE ask us or talk with someone about this.  It is IMPORTANT that you take this step as a believer, that cannot be emphasized enough.

Love you guys.

Loren