The Church is in the Business of Making Men Good

(Sermon Outline)

1)      I am becoming more convinced that the greatest problem in America is the church of Jesus Christ.

a)      At face value that is an extremely negative statement, but communication is about trying to understand where someone is coming from.

b)      I am convinced that the church is the greatest problem in America because it is also the only hope for America. 

c)      The problem in America is a sin problem and only the gospel of Jesus Christ deals with that.

d)      For example, a very serious issue in the US today is corporations owning national politics.  It is a perversion of justice and it is accomplished by taking bribes.

e)      Where do we get people who know what justice is and have the moral integrity to not be corrupted?

f)       The answer is found in restoring the church so we can transform the world.  That means we need to understand what the Christianity is and isn’t.

2)      What Christianity isn’t – Pharisaical Religion

a)      Who the Pharisees were

b)      Accidental pharisees

c)      Matthew 23:27–28 (NKJV) — 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

i)        True religion is about life and not forms

ii)      The Christian bubble

iii)    Indoctrination (According to Google – the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically) and external conformity.

iv)    How do we measure transformation? Amount of growth.

d)      Matthew 23:13 (NKJV) — 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

i)        There is a world of life in Christ that Pharisees do not enter into and hinder others from doing so.

3)      What Christianity is – The place where good men are made

a)      The modern issue of blaming guns rather than shooters.  We do the same with politics and business.  Everything is a blessing or curse according to the character and morality of the men and women who have authority over it. 

b)      THEREFORE, THE NUMBER ONE QUESTION TO GIVE US HOPE FOR THE FUTURE IS, WHERE ARE GOOD MEN AND WOMEN MADE?

i)        Family?  There are good and bad families so something precedes families

ii)      The family of God first and foremost.  – Our connection there to Christ and eachother!

c)      Ephesians 2:19 (NKJV) — 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

d)      1 Peter 4:3–4 (NKJV) — 3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

e)      1 Peter 1:22–23 (NKJV) — 22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

f)       John 13:34–35 (NKJV) — 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

4)      The Fellowship of the Saints

a)      1 John 1:3–4 (NKJV) — 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

b)      The importance of fellowship, relationship and connecting

i)        Discussion with Renshi

ii)      Discussion with Lee

iii)    The people we journey through life with become precious to us even if we fail to express it often.

c)      COVID may have set up another great harvest if we figure out how to give living water to a thirsty world.

d)      A deep need for belonging

e)      The effects of the fall and redemption

f)       Parasites take, Christian give and receive.

g)      We need to prayerfully wrestle with God for a vision of how to build the church to reach the harvest.

h)      The ultimate measurement of the church is not profession of doctrine, but transformed life – that it makes men good.

i)        1 Timothy 6:3 (NKJV) — 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,

5)      The church is in the business of making men good.

a)      That statement would be considered heretical in many churches.

b)      In other churches it would become grounds for Pharisaical.

c)      We need to avoid both of those pitfalls and develop the household of God to reproduce the life of Christ – that family of God that makes men good.