What is Church?

What is Church?

Dave Riddle - 6/09/2024

Key Passages: Acts 2:42-44, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5

“There is no relationship with God apart from His family”

Consumerism is about:

- satisfaction

- Entitlement

- More for me

- Obsession

- Devouring

- We think WE are doing the devouring, but instead IT devours us.

Community is about:

- being on mission

- Responsibility

- Serving others

- Freedom

- Creating

Partnership

- God desires for you to be an active partner, not a passive observer.

- 2 Corinthians 8:23

- Philippians 1:4-5

- Hebrews 10:33

- Philemon 17

- Acts 2:42-44

- koinos: “All things in common” = common; shared by all our several

- koinonos: associate, comrade, companion, sharer, partner

- koinonia: fellowship, association, joint participation, communion, community, the state one has in something, partnership

The mindset of partnership

- 2 Corinthians 8:1-5

- melos: being a living part of an interconnected body/dynamic body.

- Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12

- a partner is someone who is engaged with the organization’s mission

What is our focus?

- Privilege or responsibility?

- Get or give?

- Passive or active involvement?

How?

- Philippians 2:3-5

- Love, unity, humility, a common mission…

- A family on mission

Calling All Calvary - The Universal Calling

Calling All Calvary - The Universal Calling

Dave Riddle - 7/16/2023

Key Passage: 1 Corinthians 12

We are the body of Christ

Spiritual Body

Unity (one) + Diversity (many)

• 1 Corinthians 12:27

• We are more than the sum of our parts.

• Multiplication not addition

You are one

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

We are many

1 Corinthians 12:19-20

Functionality

Romans 12:4-8

• One body… but we don’t all have the same function

• We have been given different gifts

• When we don’t live into those gifts we compromise the functionality of the body

Interconnectedness

1 Corinthians 12:15-16

• We are connected and interlocked together.

• We need each other.

• We need community.

Interdependence 

1 Corinthians 12:17-18, 21

• We need each other and we need our differences.

Constructed by God

1 Corinthians 12:24-25

• God has out the body together

• …so that there would be no division in the body

United In Love

1 Corinthians 12:31

• And l I will show you an even better way

• LOVE • 1 Corinthians 13

• Romans 12:9-10

• When one suffers, we all suffer. When one is honored, we all rejoice • 1 Corinthians 12:26

• Philippians 2:4

• James 2:15-16

• John 13:35

Life in the Spirit

House Rules - Holy Spirit

Dave Riddle - 10/16/2022

Key Passage:  John 14:16-17

Life in the Spirit

• walking in the power and leadership of the Holy Spirit, while bearing spiritual fruit and utilizing spiritual gifts.

A Promise Fulfilled

• John 14:16-17

  • We need help!

• John 16:7

  • Jesus was leaving, but He didn’t leave us without help!

  • Helper = paraklētos - summoned, called to one's side, esp. called to one's aid. One who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate. One who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor. In the widest sense, a helper, aider, assistant

Friendship

• Holy Spirit “…is the loving, self-communicating, out-fanning and out-pouring presence of the eternal divine life of the triune God. By the Spirit, God draws near to the creature and mediates a knowledge of divinity in a hundred thousand ways.” - Jürgen Moltmann

Conviction

• John 16:8-9

  • We are completely dependent on the Holy Spirit bearing fruit in our gospel work and in our lives.

New Life

• Acts 2:37-38

• John 3:5-6

• John 6:63a

Empowered Life

• Acts 1:8

• 2 Timothy 1:7

  • Power = dynamis (Greek: δύναμις) strength, ability of power, especially inherent power, residing in something (or someone) by virtue of its (or their) nature.

• Galatians 5:16

Changed (Fruitful) Life

• Galatians 5:22-23

• Galatians 5:25 - If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit

  • Keep in step = stoicheo (Greek: στοιχέω) -literally, to march in military rank; to proceed in a row as the march of a soldier. Figuratively, to conform (in virtue, piety)

Gifted Life

• 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

  • We are strengthened by each other’s gifts.

• 1 Corinthians 12:12

Directed Life

• John 16:3

• 1 Corinthians 2:14

Eternal Life

• Ephesians 1:13-14

• Ephesians 4:30

United Life

• 1 Corinthians 12:13

• koinōnia (Greek: κοινωνία) - fellowship, association, community, intimacy, joint participation (the share which one has in anything), communion.

Church is Who We Are

Church is Who We Are

Sunday, September 19, 2021
Dave Riddle

Unchanging Love

Unchanging Love

Dave Riddle 9/05/2021

Key passage: 1 Corinthians 13

The Highest Way of All - Love

• 1 Corinthians. 12:31 - Love!

… is Lonnnnnnnng-tempered 

• Patient - 1 Corinthians 12:4

…is Kind

• 1 Corinthians 12:4

• 1 John 3

…Does Not Boil Over with Jealousy 

• 1 Corinthians 12:4

…is not Boastful

• 1 Corinthians 12:4

• This word is only used one time

…is not self-inflated

• psysioo- literally, to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up.

• 1 Corinthians 12:4

…is not crude or inappropriate 

• 1 Corinthians 12:5

• Lacking in care for others around them

…isn’t self-centered

• 1 Corinthians 12:5

• “Cure selfishness and you have just replanted the Garden of Eden” - RCH Lenski

…Isn’t moved to anger

• 1 Corinthians 12:5

• Of our interactions are defined by rage, we aren’t living in love.

  • Irascible - not just angry but anger that leads to wrong action.

…doesn’t keep score

• loguzomai- to take inventory, an ancient bookkeeping term that means to calculate or reckon. To make it keep a permanent record.

• 1 Corinthians 12:5

…Responds Correctly to  Truth and Iniquity

• 1 Corinthians 12:6

• Love doesn’t find joy in unrighteousness or the failures of others.

…Persists

• 1 Corinthians 7-8a

• “Bears all things” - covers, supports, protects.