There’s a song that goes:<\/p>\n
My hope is built on nothing less Refrain<\/strong><\/em> I think some people live that out.\u00a0 Their hope is truly in Jesus and not in the world.\u00a0 And because of that they take the mission Jesus gave us, of making disciples, seriously.\u00a0 But there are plenty of others who might say they stand on Jesus when they really just stand on their own opinion of Jesus.\u00a0 And many of the people like to keep their religion indoors and just have a country club kind of church where only people who fit in already are welcomed.\u00a0 And there are tons of individual churches who keep themselves safely hidden behind their closed doors and cut off from everybody else and there isn’t even a chance for unity in our mission to save the world.<\/p>\n Any church that is an island to itself is missing the point:<\/p>\n Ephesians 4:11-16<\/strong> [Jesus] is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.\u00a0 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ. <\/em><\/p>\n Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.\u00a0 Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.\u00a0 Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.<\/em><\/p>\n Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> (Duration: 45:58 — 21.0MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s a song that goes: My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly leaned on Jesus’ name. Refrain On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. I think some people live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,12,30,166],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-choices","tag-church","tag-relationships","tag-salvation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\nthan Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
\nI dare not trust the sweetest frame,
\nbut wholly leaned on Jesus’ name.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOn Christ the solid rock I stand;
\nall other ground is sinking sand,
\nall other ground is sinking sand.<\/p>\n