Why Does River Church Exist? 9am

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matthew 28:19–20 NLT

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Out of these two passages, come 5 reasons why River Church Exists.

1. River Church Exists to Worship.

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind

Worship is adoration, love, reverence, respect, devotion...

River Church Exists to Worship the Lord

John 4:23 NLT

23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

One of the Functions of the Holy Spirit is assist us in worship, in prayer, and intercession. He also convicts us of sin and empowers us to overcome temptations.

Romans 8:26 NLT

26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

One way the Sprit helps us to worship is with a prayer language.

1 Corinthians 14:2–4 NLT

2 For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. 3 But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them. 4 A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.

How do We Love the Lord with All of Our Hearts?

By Worshipping Him.

When we express our love for the Lord, we are worshipping Him. We should not hold anything back when worshipping the Lord because He did not hold anything back from us.

We are also to love him with our soul and mind. Our Soul contains our will and with our will we decide to worship the Lord even when we may not feel like it. We make decisions… we decide to forgive when we really want to take revenge.

We love the Lord with our mind as well. We don’t check our brains at the door to worship the Lord. Logically, Christianity makes way more sense than anything else. We need to engage our mind in developing our core beliefs and why we believe that way.

Matthew 4:10 NLT

10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Notice, Worship comes before Service. Worshipping the Lord is the first reason our church exists and it’s why we each exist as well.

How Do We Worship the Lord?

Do we have to be here in church? No. We worship him in a variety of ways… Love and devotion, worship services, acts of kindness… anything done in His name.

It can be loud or not loud...

River Church Exists to Minister to Others.

Ministry is demonstrating God’s love to others by meeting their needs and healing their hurts in the name of Jesus. Every time we touch other people with the Love of Jesus, we are ministering.

We want to impact Every area of people’s lives: Physical, Mental, Social and Spiritual

1 Peter 4:10 NLT

10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

When you offer to pray for someone… give a kind word, even give someone water in the name of Jesus, it’s ministry. We are to love other people...

Dr. Rene Spitz of New York compared two sets of infants in two institutions. In one institution called “Nursery,” the mothers took care of their own infants. In the second called “Foundling home,” one overworked nurse took care of 12 infants.

The test results: “Nursery” babies began with an IQ of 101.5. This rose in one year to 105.

“Foundling” babies started with IQ 124, but declined to 45 within two years. Moreover, in two years, 37% of “Foundling” children died; but in five years, “Nursery” did not lose a child

“Love not Rules makes the difference in People’s Lives”

River Church’s job is to Prepare You for Ministry

Ephesians 4:12 NLT

12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

We want to plug you into a ministry.

Benevolence Ministry / Celebrate Recovery / Jail Ministry @ Rivarde / Youth / Children / Women’s Ministry / Men’s Ministry / Outreach Ministry / Connect Group Ministry

River Church Exists to Effectively Communicate The Gospel.

Matthew 28:19 NLT

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We exist to communicate Jesus’ story. We are his ambassadors.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

God has given us the responsibility to tell others what he has done and is doing in our lives and church.

The proper reading of go and make disciples is … As You go… As you go into the Grocery Store, Make disciples… As you pick your kids up from school, make disciples… as you go to work, make disciples… We are to tell the world about jesus love for them.

Did you know that Jesus ave 5 great Commissions? Each Gospel and the book of Acts. (Matt 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:47-49; John 20:21; Acts 1:8)

Everyone of these tells us to go and tell the world.

Question - If you had the cure for cancer, would you tell anyone? Of course. We have something better. We haver the secret of living forever. As long as there is anyone who doesn’t know Jesus, we have a mandate to tell them about Jesus.

Acts 1:8 NLT

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jerusalem - Our immediate area

1. Take a co-worker out for coffee;

2. Take cookies to work;

3. Offer to baby sit for a neighbor;

4. Take some one to a sports events;

5. Invite them to church; “Come and See…

6. Go to lunch and leave a really big tip and invite them to church; (John Wyres)

7. Help with hospital visits;

8. Help with counseling; financial, etc

9. Invite them to an Alpha Group

10.Participate in FTM – July 4th

11.Get trained and host a small group.

12. Help with VBS, Youth, Children, or Prison

Judea - Our Surrounding Area

1 Learn How to Host a Connect Group

2. Host or lead a Connect Group

3. Participate in Church Wide Events

4. Support Missions and outreaches: Disaster Relief, Prison Ministry,

Samaria - People who are Different than You are

1 Homeless Ministry

2. Prison Ministry

3. ESL

4. CR

5. Youth

Ends of the Earth - Around the World.

Mission Trip

Missions Support

Evangelism is everyone responsibility.

River Church Exists to Provide Fellowship.

Matthew 28:19–20 NLT

Go, baptize & Teach are all part of making disciples....

Ephesians 2:19 NLT

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.

Ephesians 4:9–10 NLT

9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

RC exists to provide fellowship for Believers

5. River Church Exists to Disciple into Life-Long Followers of Jesus Christ.

Discipleship is the process of helping Followers of Jesus to become more like Jesus in their thinking, their thoughts, feelings, etc. The Process when someone is Born Again and continues the rest of our lives.

Colossians 1:28 NLT

28 So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.

RC is called not just to reach people, but to teach the people.

When a baby is born, the parents are responsible to feed the baby. It’s our spiritual job as well.

Ephesians 4:11–13 TEV

11 It was he who “gave gifts”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. 12 He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. 13 And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature.

We are to become Mature.

Take advantage of Wednesday services and Connect Groups.

Conclusion

When You examine the ministry of Jesus on earth, it included each of these 5 components we just discussed.

Paul both fulfilled and explained these purposes in his ministry. Eph 4:1-16 and Acts 2:1-47. The church taught each other, they fellowshipped together, they worshipped together, they ministered together and they evangelized.

Today, the purpose of the church has not changed. We exist to edify, to encourage, to exalt, to equip and to evangelize. In other words we exist to worship the Lord; to minister to others; to evangelize the world; to bring them into fellowship and to disciple them to maturity.

Ask yourself…

How can I worship God better?

How can I serve in his name?

\What can I do to witness to others?

Am I involved in fellowship? A ministry or small group

Am I learning and growing?

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