How to Be a Great Church

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
How to Be a Great Church

I. Introduction

A. Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT) ³⁷Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

B. Matthew 28:18-20 (NAS) ¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

C. “A great commitment to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, makes a great church.” (Rick Warren)

1. The strategy is, Jesus says, “I’m going to turn you .”

2. Beginning in —Jesus is turning you loose to be His hands and feet!

D. Love with all you have, and love your as yourself!

E. Luke 10:1 (NLT) The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.

1. The one thing that really mattered is that they first had to !

II. How to Be a Great Church

A. Just get out of the place where you !

1. Jesus is already in the lives of the people in your neighborhood!

2. There are a lot of different things you can do to begin to with your neighbors!

B. Do ministry in !

1. By ourselves—we can easily get .

C. for your neighborhood regularly!

1. Luke 10:2 (NLT) These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Neighbor Chart

D. In your neighborhood, look for the person of .

1. Luke 10:5-6 (NAS) ⁵“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ ⁶If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.”

2. The “person of peace” in our situation is somebody in our neighborhood who is hospitable—and receptive—and responsive—and open to becoming a .

E. Love with

1. Luke 10:4 (NLT) “Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals.”

2. Jesus wanted them to have to ask people for . And that meant that they would have to be .

F. Don’t be discouraged by .

1. Isaiah 53:3a (NLT) He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

2. Luke 10:16 (NLT) “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”

3. If somebody doesn’t respond to your first conversation by wanting to become your best friend—don’t get .

III. Conclusion