Sunday’s Sermons

Text: Hebrews 13:1                                                         4/13/08 p.m.

Thesis: We must work to strengthen our love for one another

 

Intro: Guys, I don’t know if you realize it but we’ve come a long way in 3 1/2 years.

Our Members’ Meetings of today compared to our Business Meetings in 2004 are almost night and day different.

It’s not because of some name change. The change has been born out of heart change.

There are three things I want for us as a church. I want us all to grow personally in Christ. I want us to grow as a church in Christ. And I want us to impact our community for Christ.

Here they are again, personal growth, church growth, and community impact.

Let me recap some of the amazing things we’ve seen just in the last year that reflect growth personally, as a church, and as we impact our community.

Our personal stand to love the revealed word of God by joining the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is huge.

Our names are in the latest edition of the CrossRoads magazine kind of a cool deal.

Guys, that was a big deal.  But even bigger than that was the way we treated each other in the process.

I do not know of any member that we lost because of that decision. And I know of numerous conversations that were had, born out of love for each other, that kept us together and moving forward.

I am proud of our display of brotherly love for each other in that whole process.

Our children’s Sunday school teachers have gone for training and we’re going to implement some new curriculum with our kids that will strengthen their personal knowledge and love for Christ.

I am so excited about that and it’s going to start in June.

I went to the first meeting ready and prepared to do the hard work of convincing and it wasn’t necessary.

A love for these kids and a love for Scripture made the transition so easy and joyful for me.

There has been an outpouring of love and support for families in this church over the past year that greatly exalts Christ.

Support for Selina and Chelsey has been strong.

Support for the Heneburys has been strong.

Support for Ota and the family through Sabrina’s death was strong.

I’m excited about what God is doing in us and through us here at Mambrino Baptist Church we must work to keep it going.

I want us to look at one verse together tonight and then we’ll have our members’ meeting

 

Read Hebrews 13:1

 

I) What is brotherly love? What are we after?

a)      Brotherly love is love that is kind, sympathetic, and helpful

i)        Remember, there are three things I want for us. I want personal growth, church growth, and community impact.

ii)      Church growth is all about brotherly love.

iii)    When I say church growth I don’t mean mainly numerical growth. That idea is there but it is the minority idea not the majority.

iv)    By church growth I mean a strengthening of the church, a coming together of the church, a deepening of relationships in the church.

v)      That’s what I mean by church growth. How do we get there?

vi)    1 Thessalonians 4:9, “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.”

vii)  If you are a Christian you know all about brotherly love because God taught you.

viii)            You didn’t go to the university of God or God High School. Every Christian was taught brotherly love through the life and work of Christ.

ix)    1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

x)      The more we know about Christ, the more we grow personally in the faith, the more the church will grow.

xi)    How does Jesus show his love for us?

xii)  Even before the foundation of the world he committed to die for us so that we could be redeemed (Rev 13.8)

xiii)            Jesus committed to die for us and our names where written in the book of life even before God created the heavens and the earth.

xiv)            Jesus was shaping the history of the Old Testament in order to build up to and explain what his coming would be all about.

xv)  We have Noah so we can know the glory of salvation through one man.

xvi)            We have Abraham so we can know the provision of a sacrifice for God’s chosen people.

xvii)          We have David so we can know the glory of the coming sinless and all powerful king.

xviii)        We have God’s faithfulness to the Hebrew people so we can know his great love for sinners.

xix)            And then Jesus takes on flesh. Out of love Jesus becomes a helpless babe.

xx)  Out of love Jesus faithfully obeys God in all things. Out of love for us Jesus fulfills all righteousness because he knows we cannot fulfill one iota of righteousness.

xxi)            Out of love Jesus lays down his life for us. Knowing the heartache knowing the excruciating pain Jesus obeys the redemptive will of the father.

xxii)          Out of love for us Jesus bears all of God’s wrath against sin for us.  Jesus makes it so we can be restored to God.

xxiii)        God is just- sin is punished in Christ.

xxiv)        And God is the justifier- through Christ God has provided a way for restoration.

xxv)          Jesus went through torture, crucifixion, and death for sins for us so we wouldn’t have to go through it.

xxvi)        And ever since then he’s been interceding for us in the very presence of God.

xxvii)      Jesus love us. It is my calling as your pastor to help you understand the love of Christ for you.

xxviii)    It is my calling as your pastor to show you from Scripture what it means to be satisfied, to be joyfully content, with all that Jesus is for you.

xxix)        It is my calling as your pastor to show you from Scripture what it means to obey Christ.

xxx)          When you get those things then it leads to brotherly love.  He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

xxxi)        Personal growth is going to happen through your individual bible study and through preaching.

xxxii)      Church growth is going to happen through Sunday School small group bible study.

xxxiii)    Strong relationships must be seen in corporate worship but it doesn’t come from corporate worship.

xxxiv)    Strong relationships come from gathering together to challenge and encourage one another with the truth of all that Jesus Christ is.

b)      Hebrews 13:1 says, “Let brotherly love continue.”

i)        Let brotherly love remain

ii)      John Calvin wrote, This instruction “is generally very needful, for nothing flows away so easily as love; when every one things of himself more than he ought, he will allow to others less than he ought; and then many offences happen daily which cause separations” (Hebrews, 339).

iii)    When we stop loving Jesus as we should we stop loving each other as we should.

iv)    When we start loving ourselves we stop loving others.

v)      And this multiples separations and increases divisions.

vi)    Let brotherly love continue. Keep growing in your knowledge of Christ and it will cause brotherly love to continue.

vii)  Jesus Christ didn’t die just to show you what true love is. Jesus Christ died to restore you to God thus making it possible for you to truly love.

viii)            We’re going to start our members’ meeting with a very specific time of prayer.

ix)    Let me give you my prayer requests.

x)      Pray that God will show me, Brother Paul, how to love you with all kindness, sympathy, and helpfulness.

xi)    Pray that God will direct me as I lead this church to increase your personal growth. Pray that God will show me what discipleship should look like here.

xii)  Pray that God will direct me as I lead this church to increase our growth as a church. Pray that God will show me how to work to bring us together.

xiii)            And finally, pray that God will lead me as I structure this church to impact our community.

xiv)            As Dale sings one verse of our invitation hymn I want you to form groups with those people around you so we can pray.

xv)  So, Dale is going to sing, you are going to form groups, and I’m going to lead us as we pray for these specific things.

xvi)            I’ll give you one thing to pray for and you will pray as a group. Then I’ll give you another thing and you will pray. Then I’ll give you another and you will pray.

xvii)          Dale, come and sing. Church form up for prayer.