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Message: Choosing A Church

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Choosing A Church

In the next fifteen years it is estimated that 25,000,000 American will choose a church. How shall they make their choice? Wouldn't it be wonderful it each one would begin with an open Bible in his hand? Let him read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, thus coming to believe deeply and earnestly that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Christ, the son of God. And then let him read on into the book of Acts. There he will find the dynamic preaching of the good news about Christ. He will find that Peter, on Pentecost, preached a sermon about Christ at the end of which the people believed that Jesus was the divine son of God. They asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said unto them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" Acts 2:37,38.

In each of the major conversion stories in the book of Acts you will find the same pattern for becoming a Christian. Faith in Christ as the divine son of God, repentance from past sins, making known, or confessing, faith in Christ before men, and baptism for remission of sins. Would it not be wonderful if the millions of Americans who will choose a church in the next fifteen years would choose a church in this ancient, Godgiven way of becoming a Christian? There is no way but God's way to be saved (Matthew 7:21).

Would it not be wonderful also if these millions would worship in the same simple way that the early Christians did? It was a genuine way that the early Christians were taught to worship: simple, yet profound. There were only five avenues of worship in the early church - singing of hymns, offering of prayers, giving of their financial means, eating the Lord's supper and hearing the apostles' teaching, which we now have written in the Holy Scriptures. Beyond these five avenues of worship we have no scriptural authority to go on. (Matthew 15:9).

Would it not be wonderful also if these millions would become members of the church which is recognized, ordered, governed according to the New Testament? The idea of going back and following the pattern of becoming a Christian, of worshipping and of living in the approved apostolic manner is solid ground upon which all of us can and should stand.

Since disunity is wrong and displeasing to our Lord, let each one of us pray more fervently for unity of all sincere believers in Christ (John 17:21; I Cor. 1:10-13). Let us also work to return to the Lord's church and to restore its purity and its power. Let each one of us go back and stand with our Lord in His church. Then we will find that we are standing with each other in the great, all-conquering army of the Lord.

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