“I am the vine; you are the branches.
If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;
Apart from Me you can do nothing . . .
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” (John 15:5)
Last week in my eBlast, I mentioned that the LCPC Elders developed a new Mission Statement:
We Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples of Jesus
It is a good statement, one that any church could emulate and use but in order for this statement to guide us, in order for this statement to have an impact upon our lives and upon the ministries at LCPC, we need to pray. Nothing is more important than this first step.
For us as individuals and for us as a church, we need to be praying to Jesus, asking to grow in our intimacy with Him, asking for guidance from Him, asking that much fruit would come from our efforts for Him as a church.
It is through our intimacy with Him that everything else flows – Our Love for God, our Love for People and our desire to Make Disciples of Jesus. If we are not intimately connecting with Jesus, then I worry that all of our efforts are futile. We will be going through the motions of “church” and the things that we do “in Jesus’ name” will be comfortable and nice but will not have the impact that we desire. All of our activity, all of our ministry, must come from our intimacy with Jesus.
Pray that we might grow in our abiding relationship with Jesus. It is through this intimacy with Jesus that everything else will flow. Pray! It is the hardest work that we can do for each of us, for our church and for God’s Kingdom.
Hope to see you on Sunday and have a great rest of the week.