The Most Important Work of the Church

Occassionally I'll talk about something that I think is an essential part of what it means to be a God follower. Yesterday was one of them when I continued my series on the Sermon on the Mount and talked about "Blessed Are the Peacemakers". Here's just a snip from that talk. You can download the entire sermon at our website.

I want you to see something here in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus gave us seven characteristics of his church community. Jews were very conscious about the significance of numbers. The number seven is God’s number and the number for perfection. So, when Jesus gave us seven characteristics he was saying that these qualities should be central to the life of the church. And the seventh of the seven characteristics is the most important one.

Jesus is telling us THE MOST IMPORTANT THING about being a church isn’t the number of people converted, isn’t whether people speak in tongues or not, isn’t how we vote in the elections. It’s none of that. The most important thing is that we pursue peace in all our relationships. So whether it’s in our church or in our families or at work or wherever we go - God is calling us to make peace.