What Is a True Church?
About this sermon
In “What is a True Church,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about the condition of the church, the authority of Scripture, holiness. Drawing especially from 1 Corinthians 13, Exodus 25, 1 Chronicles 13, Timothy 3, the teaching emphasizes that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Exodus 25. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Timothy 3. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that the believer must answer fear with trust in God, sober judgment, and faithful action. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Romans 13, Acts 4. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Genesis 1, Mark 16. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
well praise god did y'all have a good worship time amen praise god i'm actually enjoying playing again i'm glad y'all can tolerate my mediocre guitar playing and singing but i think it's better to just worship free i may have to stay over here a little bit i want you to take your bibles out this morning i do have a word that i felt like the lord wanted me to share of course i'm preparing about three or four different messages at this time and sometimes i don't know exactly what the lord's going to do and then i can be studying three or four different things and it's none of the above it's always something different however yesterday i took a walk up in the woods to go pray and as i was up there i felt the lord just kind of download something in me this morning about the true church what is the church what is a picture of the true church y'all think you can handle that this morning i think we need to know because listen we live in a world right now of people that are so confused and they're confused because there's churches all kinds of different churches all kinds of different denominations all kinds of different beliefs and doctrines and philosophies there's so many out there and and people get moved by the idea that well some you know they're they do good works they're good people they're sincere they help the poor they try to help street people or or women that are you know being caught up in the sex trafficking thing listen i praise god for every good deed that's done in the world because there's plenty of evil being done but just doing good does not make you saved it doesn't make you a christian and it doesn't necessarily make you a church there's a lot of charities out there that do a lot of good feed the poor and uh and help people but they have nothing to do with jesus christ of nazareth they have nothing to do with the bible they have nothing to do with eternal life as a matter of fact it's amazing the bible is very clear in the love chapter in first corinthians 13 that you can give all your goods to the poor you can give your body to be burned and still not have love and you say how is that possible how can i you know give my whole life to serve and help the poor give everything i own to help the poor i'm doing good deeds i'm a good person and still not have love because let me just explain something to you the bible is very clear that god almighty jehovah yahweh the lord jesus christ god in the flesh that god is love and apart from walking with him in truth you don't have real love you have human love you have human emotion but you don't have or know the true love of god and you never will you won't find it in a girlfriend a boyfriend a husband a wife
- 0:03:01
true love and true satisfaction and true intimacy that the human soul and spirit longs for can only be found the one that made them amen so there's a lot of counterfeits out there you know we got the roman catholic church he claims that it's the true church you got the church of christ a lot of them claim that they're the only church you can go to and be saved right then you've got the people so you got these extremes that say you know we're the true church or we're the only true church and then you've got the other side of the coin that says well anybody names the name of jesus is you know any group of people that say they're christian or in the name of jesus is a church and there's just a whole lot of confusion out there we got a lot of preachers out there that are more like women than they are men we got a myth and so this morning just as briefly as i can let's look at the church what is the true church now god gave a blueprint in the book of acts and i want you to just go ahead and turn to the book of acts chapter 1 this morning and this is almost a continuation of the last three weeks when we've had about new testament prophets and prophecy and the gifts of the holy spirit and so last week i talked about the baptism of the holy spirit the evidence of speaking in other tongues and the nine gifts of the holy spirit and and how that is for today and how god wants his church to be filled with his anointing his holy spirit his power and to flow in the gifts and that's why i think it's awesome that you know the fruit of that is coming forth tongues interpretation and prophecy this morning in church and uh you know i believe we're going to see more and more of the gifts of the holy spirit flowing but let's just get something down in us look folks don't be deceived by people who appear to be nice niceness does not mean that you are walking in the truth niceness or sweetness or apparently looking charitable does not mean that you are not truly a diabolically evil person listen the most diabolical evil in the world is something that appears to be sincere nice genuine loving helpful and yet it's leading you away from god it's leading you away from the lord jesus it's leading you away from the truth of the bible the scriptures anything like that is evil and remember this this is what a lot of people forget as we're getting this if if you look back to adam and eve in the
- 0:06:03
garden and say here's the thing i believe it i believe these things are not myths or fables i believe they're real and i believe when we look back to adam and eve in the garden and we see that god placed two trees in the garden and he told them and of course there were many other trees around them fruit trees and things that they could eat i'm sure that were far more delicious than what we have now the earth wasn't corrupted and polluted and defiled but here's something he put the tree in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life two trees tree of life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil listen the good and evil there was a good and evil on this bad tree good nice sweet charitable is not always of god you hear me the antichrist will come sounding good the bible warns us he will come as a man of peace that he may even be instrumental in making peace between israel and the palestinians and everybody can say how can a man who will bring peace and stop war and stop this division and strife how can that man be bad the bible warns us that even satan himself comes sometimes as an angel of life meaning he angel of light rather he appears to be something that he is not and let me just warn you young people oh and that's older people everybody that comes into your life is not necessarily good for you no matter how good it appears oh not everything that shines is gold right well we got to wake up y'all with me there's a lot of counterfeits out there a lot of counterfeit churches full of sincere people who want to do good or think they're trying to do good but let's look at it let's look at the blueprint now a lot of people say well we're you know we've moved in the modern age you know the book of acts is not the way things are supposed to be let me just explain something to you the church of acts the church born in the midst of holy ghost fire and revival is god's original blueprint for what a church is supposed to look like and it's supposed to be okay now hear what i'm saying we have this written down the acts of the apostles by the apostle luke
- 0:09:05
who was both there with jesus those years watched everything jesus did and then he was also traveled with paul so luke had a good knowledge of what was going on he was also a physician which means he was rather smart man and he's the one that god used to write the book of acts now i want to say this and this ought to go without saying but the church of jesus christ true christianity is governed by one thing primarily and that is the bible the word of god if we're not going to to believe it and do our best to obey it what in the world are we doing i don't understand the christians who want to be buddhist and christian you understand we have got to decide am i going to live am i going to be as a true christian i'm going to live by the word of god or not now remember this the church in the book of acts was born in the fire of revival so i'm going to put this little preface on this it was born in the fire revival and let's just put it this way born by god born by the holy spirit brought forth by the power of god not every church gets to start in a revival not every christian you know the first christians that got saved there when the church was born in the book of acts they got they got saved in the midst of an outpouring of the holy spirit that was probably pretty hard for most of us to comprehend the awesome presence of god and the glory of god and the power of god that was flowing but just because a church maybe doesn't start in the fire revival like on the day of pentecost and maybe you know not every christian gets to get saved in that so what we've got to do is though as a church as a person as a christian we should we should aspire to grow to what they were we should that should be our desire we're not going to do everything exactly the way they did and we're not going to be able to it was a different time but that god gave us what happened with them as a church as it was in its infancy and born so perfectly and operating and functioning so perfectly that he gave us a blueprint of what a true church is supposed to look like for the rest of time until jesus would return now listen to me folks i'm going to be real blunt today if your church and i have people listening by blog talk radio people listen in the podcast if your church or if a church
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