13 Characteristics of a Growing Church: Devoted

As the phone rang for the fifteenth million time today, I groaned and reached for the receiver. I don't know about you but my family is pretty messed up, and I don't always jump at the opportunity to be sucked into that drama. However, they are still my family and they will always be my family. No matter where we are or what we have done or not done in our lives, we will always have one another. I thought about that today as I picked up that phone to talk to my dad, and it goes along perfectly with the characteristic of a growing church that we will be talking about today.

So here's a quick recap of the Characteristics of a Growing Church:
1st Love Genuinely
2nd Hate What is Evil
3rd Cling to What is Good

The 4th characteristic of a growing is Church is Devotion.
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love;" Romans 12:10a NASB

So what does it mean to be devoted? According to Dictionary.com devotion is defined as "zealous or ardent in attachment, loyalty, or affection." When you are devoted to something or someone you are zealous (passionate) about it/them. You won't easily let it/them go. You cling to it/them like family.

I know that some families aren't like this, but in my family there was never anything that you could do to be kicked out. That's what a growing church is like. We should cling to one another like family. That doesn't mean letting everyone get away with everything or to continue sinning. What it does mean that as a family we should confront those sins and help our brothers and sisters turn from those things in their lives. Why not minister to the one who is struggling with their sins and addictions instead of shunning them because they aren't as righteous or holy as we see ourselves to be?

In families we see the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly in our family members. Still we love one another. Still we accept one another. Why can't our churches be like that? Why do we shun the young mother who had sex outside of marriage even after she has repented of her sin? Why do we treat people that honestly want help overcoming their porn addictions like they are lepers instead of offering love and healing?

That's not how Jesus operated. He didn't shun people. He didn't act better than them. He went to them and accepted them as children of God. He showed them unconditional love and healing. He turned them from their sins by welcoming them into HIS family. A growing church is a family.

We are the family of God.

Isn't it time that we started acting like it?

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13 Characteristics of a Growing Church: Love

This week I have been prepping to preach the Sunday morning and Sunday night services at Villebrook Baptist Church while my pastor recovers from surgery. While I was studying and praying, God laid it on my heart that I should talk about characteristics of a growing church as laid out in Romans. I don't want to give everything away before I preach but I will give you the first point in my 13 point sermon and then for the sake of attention spans, I will break the other 12 points out over the next few weeks. Hope that sounds good to you because that's the plan...so here you go...the sneak preview of my GIANT HUGE 13 Point Sermon...

The 1st Characteristic of a Growing Church is Love.
"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." Romans 12:9

In the English language, the word love is tossed about WAY to easily! We love pizza. We love going to the movies. We love our favorite sports team--Go Cards! But what does it mean to have a genuine love?

I don't want to go into a ton of detail here about all the different words for love in the Greek language (For more about the 4 Greek Words for Love, Click here to visit my wife's blog). Basically, unlike English the Greek language has several different words for love and each of these words have a unique meaning and usage. The word translated here as "love" is the Greek word "agape". Agape is an unconditionally, Christ-like love.

According to Romans 12:9 a growing church should have a genuine Christ-like, unconditional love. That means that we really have to love people where they are. We can't say "I love and accept you" with out mouths and let our actions show them differently. If you do you can gaurantee that those people will not bother coming to your church again. We are to hate the sin and love the sinner (Jude 1:22-24). When Christ was reaching out to people around Him, He didn't tell them how awful they were or how bad their lifestyle was. First, He met their need and showed them love. Then He told them to turn from their sins and from their ungodly lifestyle and they did.

That's what it means to have a Christ-like love!

A growing church meets sinners (every single one of us) where they are, shows them the unconditional love of Christ, and then through that love and relationship points them to Christ!

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