FULFILLING HIS DREAM
Does God have a dream for His people? And, if so, what is it. Well, He showed us in several passages; Acts 2, Acts 4-5, John 17, and the 4th chapter of Ephesians. The whole chapter speaks to this, but for sake of brevity I have excerpted a few specific passages below.
Ephesians 4
(NCV) -- (1-3) ... I urge you who have been
chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you. Always be humble,
gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. You are joined together with
peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way
… (11-13) And Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to
be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some
to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people. Christ gave those
gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of
Christ stronger. This work must continue until we are all joined together in
the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like
a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection … (15-16)
Speaking the
truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head. The
whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held
together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong
with love … (20-24) But
what you learned in Christ was not like this. I know that you heard about him,
and you are in him, so you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught
to leave your old self—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old
self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to
do. But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, to become a new person.
That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy ... (30-32) The Spirit is God’s
proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will
make you free when the final day comes. Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never
shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. Be kind and
loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.
So what do we see in
Ephesians 4 that helps express God’s dream for all of us? How do we “FULFILL HIS
DREAM”?
DEVELOPMENT
Increasing in the wisdom and knowledge of the things of God.
This is learning to be like Christ.
At Philadelphia currently the opportunities for that include:RELATIONSHIP
Recognizing the importance of building new friendships and strengthening old ones.
We need to have friends and
be friendly. We need to spend time enjoying each other’s company. Some of the
ways we do this at Philadelphia include:
ENCOURAGEMENT
Meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of our fellow “Philadelphia Folks” and being a blessing to someone inside the church in some way every day.
Try to “touch” someone within
the church every day. Think about those who are sick. Or those who were not in
service with us the previous Sunday or Wednesday. Call, write, text, Facebook,
Tweet, visit, etc. Find a way to let folks know you care.
AUTHENTICITY
Worshipping and praising God “with all we got” just because He is, and not only because of what He does.
We worship together on:
We pray together:
MISSION
Accomplishing the purpose for which God created and
gifted us by being a blessing to someone outside the church in some way every
day so that we can share with them by word or by action the Gospel.
Just let someone know you
care in some tangible way:
Those kinds of little things
make a BIG IMPACT.