Building Blocks of the Church

Ecclesiastes 1; Ecclesiastes 2; Ecclesiastes 3; Psalm 45; Ephesians 2
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Scripture

Ephesians 2

17 Then Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to you who were far away from God. And He preached it to us who were near God. 18 Now all of us can go to the Father through Christ by way of the one Holy Spirit. 19 From now on you are not strangers and people who are not citizens. You are citizens together with those who belong to God. You belong in God's family.
20 This family is built on the teachings of the missionaries and the early preachers. Jesus Christ Himself is the cornerstone, which is the most important part of the building. 21 Christ keeps this building together and it is growing into a holy building for the Lord.
22 You are also being put together as a part of this building because God lives in you by His Spirit.

Observation

Southern Baptists have 5,000 International Missionaries that work all over the world and around 5,000 Missionaries that work within the USA. They are the first building blocks of Christ’s Church as it is planted throughout the world. These Missionaries are getting a lot of help from local churches as more and more churches send out mission teams for one and two week mission trips.

Just take a minute and read about the P.E.A.C.E. plan that Saddleback church has put into place. It is very exciting! Saddleback has sent out over 7,000 of its own members since the P.E.A.C.E. plan was started a few years ago.

Weeklong mission teams and short term missionary service has its place, but we are never going to replace the need for Career Missionaries. In fact, the more folks go out on short-term trips the more career missionaries we will have. It easier for God’s people to say “yes” to God’s call to a career of service once they have had the experience of being on the mission field and being with the people. Mission trips change people. They don’t come back the same!

We have a Missions team in Athens, Greece right now and they have been working to start a church among the gypsy people. At the end of June we have another team going to Mexico to help start a church up in the mountains and next week I will be traveling to Uganda to help start churches there. We are sending out building blocks for future churches in Greece, Mexico, and Uganda all within a month’s time just from our small church. It is exciting!

Application

I will pray for my Missionary friends today.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be your building blocks for churches all around this world. It is exciting to see what you are doing. You are Sovereign and your church will be established all over this globe. There is no stopping this plan though the enemy sure tries. We are in warfare daily and your church is definitely under Satan’s attack. I am glad that we already know that your church will have the final victory. You poured out your blood for us. We are blood bought and we know that you have us in the Palm of your Hand! I pray for John and Jeanie Seale, Phil and Peggy Templin, Roy and Dirce Cooper, Jim and Debbie Merrill, Don and Edith Kennedy, Jerry Rankin, and I pray for all of our other missionary friends around the world. I pray for Hugh Roberts today that you heal him and get him ready for our missionary trip to Uganda next week. In Jesus Name Amen.

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