“About Your Faith”                                                                Don’t Check Your Faith at the Door

John 14:5-7,9, ”Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ ⁶ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ⁷ If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. ⁹ …Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father….’” 

John 20:24-28, ”Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵ I will not believe.’ ²⁶ A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.’  ²⁸ Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

Who’s Your One?                                                                      “The Real Reason” 

Mark 2:1-12, “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ ⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ ’Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ ⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in His spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things?        ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat and walk”? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So He said to the man, ¹¹ ’I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”

How?                                                                                      “The Real Reason”

2 Corinthians 5:11, 18-20, ¹¹ ”Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience…. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 

Romans 10:13-15, ¹³ “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. ¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” 

 See John 1:35-46 

“Why?”                                                                             The Real Reason 

Acts 2:47, ”Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” 

      a. Everybody ____________________. 

      b. When we die, it’s not the __________________. 

      c. Where we go depends on decisions made in this _______. 

      d. Five minutes in punishment turns anyone into  a  _____________________________________. 

2. The “Why” behind the church? People are in _____________.

2 Corinthians 5:11, 18-20, ”Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience…. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 

3. The dirty word for Jesus-followers: ____________________. 

Romans 10:13-15, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. ¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” 

“What Worship Should Look Like”                               The Church No One Wants to Be   

See 1 Corinthians 11:4-6, 13-15,17; 14:34-35 

     I Did                                                                                                                                           “The Church No One Wants to Be”

1 Corinthians 7:1-5,  “Now for the matters you wrote about: ‘It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.’ ² But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. ³ The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. ⁵ Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Harmony in the House

“The Church No One Wanted to Be”

Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 

1 Corinthians 1:10, ”I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.” 

1 Corinthians 3:5-9, “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

 So, how does this end?