Sermons found for the topic Church Growth

Sleeping With the Enemy - Revelation 2:18-29

You can have the cheap thrills of the world and feel sick to your stomach the next morning. Or you can have Jesus now, a new life now, forgiveness now, real pleasure now, and you will one day rise to shine like the Morning Star. More

Church of the Living Dead - Revelation 3:1-6

The Sardis spirit overtakes us whenever we begin to take God’s gifts for granted. How quickly we can become the Church of the Living Dead and not even know it. More

The Church Christ Prefers - Revelation 3:7-13

Jesus wants his churches to be motivated by love, founded on the truth, strong under pressure, and unashamed of his name. More

What I’ve Learned About Preaching

Preaching is the highest calling in the whole world, worthy of the greatest effort week by week, as men called by God rise in the power of the Spirit to deliver the Word of God to a waiting congregation. More

Why I Believe in a Last-Days Worldwide Awakening

If we are indeed living in the last days before the return of Christ, we should expect things to get better and worse at the same time. We should expect hard times and good times, increasing opposition and amazing open doors, trouble ahead and glorious gospel victories. More

How Do You Measure Success? - 2 Corinthians 3:1-3

God measures our success in terms of lives changed. He’s evidently not that impressed by the size of our budget or by the stained glass in our sanctuary. The One who hung the stars in space doesn’t really care how many books we’ve written or how much money we make or whether or not we see our name in lights. More

Kingdoms in Conflict - Matthew 6:10

“Your kingdom come” is not a passive prayer. If you ever decide to make the kingdom of God the first priority in your life, you may not become a missionary, but you will become fundamentally different from the world around you. More

How to Kill a New Christian - Part 2 - Romans 14:1-12

Christians have always disagreed - a lot! And it’s not a bad thing. But there is always a danger that our own personal preferences will grow so important that we no longer accept our brothers and sisters in the Lord who disagree with us. The great unifying factor for the people of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has broken down the wall that separated us from God and from one another. In Him we are joined together in the body of Christ. If we truly believe in Him, we can let Him deal with those who disagree with us. In the meantime, don’t forget to treat those who disagree as brothers and sisters in the Lord. More

What Happens to Those Who Never Heard About Jesus? - Romans 2:12

No question is more central to the missionary enterprise than the state of those without Christ. Are they really lost? Are those who never hear also lost? And that raises an important question. How can God send people to hell for not believing in Jesus, if they never even heard of him in the first place? More

Great Joy in the City - Acts 8:4-8

Throughout history, God has grown and moved his church as his people scattered to diverse locations geographically. This pattern has not changed and believers are still called to grow and expand as a church today, whether we move across national boundaries, ethnic and cultural boundaries, or do church planting in our immediate communities. Beginning with the first generation of believers in the book of Acts, we hear of Phillip, who was emboldened and changed by the power of God as he moved out in obedience to spread the Gospel. Despite severe persecution, great joy descended on those who received the truth that came with power. In this present age, we have the account of the phenomenal growth of the church in China. In 1949 all Christian missionaries were evicted leaving less than one million indigenous believers behind. They faced relentless bloodbaths and eradication. Yet the church grew in the midst of that persecution when determined believers scattered and went underground. The challenge to believers today remains the same—to be willing to be moved out of our personal comfort zones, to walk in faith, to make personal sacrifices, and most importantly, to trust God for our personal well-being and needs. More

First Century Patterns For 21st-Century Churches - Various

How closely should local churches follow the patterns of the New Testament? The answer is, as closely as possible, understanding that no one is 100% consistent and that outward forms will change over time. That means we need to focus on the key functions of the church, giving freedom to differ on how those functions are expressed. More

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified - I Corinthians 2:1-5

"I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2). We have a word for people like Paul. We call a person like him a “one-note Johnny.” He was More

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Shortly before Christmas Dr. David Olford called and asked if I would consider speaking in early January at an evening session of the Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching in Memphis, Tennessee. He told me that More

Lessons for Modern-Day Sowers of the Word - Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

The last few days I have been meditating on the famous parable of the seed and the sower. It is obviously important because is found in three different places in the gospels (with Jesus’ explanation in parenthes More

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

“I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (v. 2). We have a word for people like Paul. We call a person like him a “one-note Johnny.” He was a man More

The Next Hero - Hebrews 11:39-40

Hebrews 11 is God’s “Perpetual Plaque” of those who lived by faith. And if you look closely, you can see there is plenty of room for more names. There’s room for you and there’s room for me. More

THE P.U.I.H. - Acts 2

I don’t know what image comes into your mind when you hear the word Pentecostal. When I hear the word, my mind always goes back to the small town in Alabama where I grew up. Back then, there were only four chu More

A Place to Belong - Acts 2:41-47

With this message I am beginning a four-part sermon series based on our 1999 theme: A Place to Belong. The pastoral staff arrived at this theme several months ago as we considered what we were hearing from many people More

Ten Happy Years: - Various

It all started late in 1988 when I was sitting at my desk at home in Garland, Texas wondering what I would do with the rest of my life. I was 36 years old, with a wife, three children, a mortgage, and no regular job. More

What Does it Mean to be Filled With the Spirit? - Ephesians 5:18

The 20th century has been rightly called the “Age of the Holy Spirit.” There are many reasons for this, but the greatest has to do with the rise of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. It is no secret tha More

Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts - Various

The name Peter Drucker will be familiar to you if you are a student of business or economics. To put it simply, he is one of the great minds of the 20th century. His writings include Managing for Results, The New So More

Seize the Day! - Various

The scene is a prep school somewhere in New England. On a beautiful fall morning the bright young men have gathered in English Literature class, fearing the worst—long, boring hours arguing about Beowulf and th More