FULLY ALIVE

“I Can’t Become Fully Alive…Without the Local Church!”
Pastor Dan Levy – April 23, 2023

Psalm 92:12-13 — The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing…

Hebrews 10:25 — And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Jesus calls us to have a personal relationship with Him, not a private one.

1. If I want to EXPERIENCE God’s MIRACULOUS POWER in my life, I must be planted in the local church.
   
   1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27 — There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts....All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
   
   The church is the visible manifestation of Christ’s invisible presence in the world.
   

2. If I want to grow in CHRISTLIKENESS, I will be planted in the local church.
   
   Ephesians 4:11-16 — Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
   
   Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit 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.