Why This Matters

The Church is the Hope of the World

Matthew 16:13-18 NCV
When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his followers, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”They answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah, and still others say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”Then Jesus asked them, “And who do you say I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”Jesus answered, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because no person taught you that. My Father in heaven showed you who I am. So I tell you, you are Peter. On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it.

There is Nothing like the Church when the Church is Working Right

Acts 2:44-47 NIV
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The Eternal Destiny of my Neighbor Hangs in the Balance so We Better get It Right

Revelation 20:11-15 NLT
And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

No other organization, team, or individual in the world can do what the church can do! The church was given both the right and the responsibility to spread the life saving message, the hope filled promises of God, the healing power of the cross to a broken and messed up world. Only the message of Jesus Christ can break down the walls of division, racism, and hate.

When Jesus Christ gets a hold of your life, He begins to turn you into the absolute best version of you, in fact in the Bible it states that he makes you a new person from the inside out. NOTHING else in our world can do this:

Religion (man’s attempt) often makes you bitter not better;
Education can fill your head with knowledge but it can’t heal your heart from hate;
Medicine can fix the broken parts of your outside, but it can’t fix a broken view of mankind;
Police and laws can tell you what you can’t do, but they can’t teach you what you must do…
And do I even need to tell you what government and politics can’t do???

At Friendship our vision: To glorify God as an effective and influential church!

We recognize the responsibility that we have to spread the life giving, death defeating message of Jesus Christ and we want to be as effective as possible and influence as many people as possible for Jesus Christ…because the church is the hope of the world!!

How about instead of running around boycotting everything we think is wrong, we simply start living out what’s right! Jesus never said, “You are the police of the world” he said I want you to be the “Light to the world”.

You see when we as a church of individuals are living out the truth of Jesus every day, as we become more and more like Christ in everything we do, that is attractive! People say things like, “whats different about you” “Id be freaking out if I were in that situation” “You handled that so well”

So as a church, once someone accepts Jesus Christ we come alongside them and help teach and show them how to become more like Christ. At Friendship we say that we do ministry to help people become Spiritually Deep, Financially Stable, and Relationally Satisfied. We see these three key areas as essential parts of the discipleship process. And when we as a church are a group of people who have been grounded deep in spiritual truth, when we handle our finances in a way that honor God, and when we are at peace in the relationships we have, we become magnetic! People want to be around us, they want to spend time with us, and even if they don’t, at least they respect us because we are consistent.

People like to talk about overseas, poverty stricken areas, going downtown and doing X…none of that’s bad, but what about your neighbor Bob, the builder… you coach little league with him, he’s a great dad and an awesome neighbor…but he doesn’t know Jesus. You gotta realize, it doesn’t matter how good Bob is if he doesn’t know Christ he’s going to hell…what are you going to do about it?

Your friend you just did Wine and Canvas with, or Cork and Craft, or Pot and Pottery… Cynthia, Sally, Cammy, whatever. She’s a great friend, an awesome mom, but she doesn’t know Jesus. She’s going to Hell…what are you going to do about it?

College/HS, the person you eat with, share a biology table with, play sports, marching band, show choir…great people, but if they don’t know Jesus they are going to Hell…what are you going to do about it?

Up until this point at Friendship most of our strategy has been based around getting people here so they can hear the message of Jesus. Weekend Services, Big Sundays, Events, and even though Small Groups happen off site, they are still an organized activity of the main church body (not abandoning any of it, adding to it).

It’s time us to take the next step, I believe we’ve got a tremendous base of people who really understand this last point, that what we do as a church will literally impact the eternal destiny of those around them. So, it’s time for us to get into the subdivisions and neighborhoods that surround us, but in an organic way, and through the people who actually live in those neighborhoods. The process for this will be very simple,

Reach 1 (person, home, street, block, neighborhood)
Coach Up (Spiritually Deep, Financially Stable, Relationally Satisfied)
Multiply (Neighborhood groups, additional services, neighborhood churches, additional campus’)

We want to move from being the ministry destination to being a hub that equips people within their neighborhoods to do ministry…because the eternal destiny of their neighbor hangs in the balance!

Critic: Oh you just want numbers! HECK YEAH WE DO!!!!

Every number has a name, every name has a story, every story matters to God…your story matters to God!

Critic: The church was meant to be small and intimate…

Well then you’ll need to have a conversation with Peter, cause the church started with 120 and the next day they had over 3,000…Peter should have written a church growth book!

Reach 1, Coach Up, Multiply…

Over the next three weeks we are going to dig into each of those parts of the process individually and lay out the strategy of how we are going to be the hope for the people of the Southside. I’m going to ask you to be here throughout this whole series, commit to it. If you’re going to be out of town listen to it.

In closing I ask, what about you? What do you believe about Jesus?

Listen To Entire Message Here