We need more than fans… because this is more than a Game!
Romans 1:18-25 (ESV)
Every society anchors it’s ideals in its virtues (for better or worse). The real danger is not the absence of virtue. There is no historical evidence of an utterly virtueless society. The great danger is the wrong virtues! When we redefine virtue as evil and evil as virtue, the very thread which holds civilization intact is threatened.
Mark Rutland, Hanging By a Thread
“Church” (def.) Greek word, “ekklesia” - a special company of people called out at the request of a responsible authority.
back into right relationship with God.
II Corinthians 5:17-20 (NLT)
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given US the task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave US this wonderful message of reconciliation. So WE are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through US. WE speak for Christ when WE plead, “Come back to God!”
He is going to use the Church to deal finally with
“Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give YOU the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and what ever YOU loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Romans 16:20 (ESV)
“The God of peace will soon crush satan under YOUR feet…”
He is going to use the Church to express His hope to a darkened
“But YOU are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that YOU may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
“But I am a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that I may proclaim the excellencies of him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
