VISION OF LIVING HOPE CHURCH OF GOD

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VISION OF LIVING HOPE CHURCH OF GOD

• Giving The World Hope in Christ

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OUR MISSION STATEMENT

• We are devoted to leading people into a vibrant
  relationship with Jesus Christ through membership
  into His family by developing a Christ like
  maturity by means of equipping the saints for
  active ministry in the church as well as
  designing purposeful opportunities for missions
  in order to exalt and magnify Gods name.

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• L Love - let us be known by our love
• I Increasing in love and knowledge of God
• V Victory through Christ
• I In Obedience
• N Nurture Development of disciplines
• G Giving Glory Through a life of worship
• H Healing For the hurting
• O Outreach Proclamation of hope
• P Prayer
• E Encouragement Reassurance

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LIVING HOPE

• L Love let us be known for our love
• 1 Jo 316-17 By this we know love, because He
  laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
  lay down our lives for the brethren.
• But whoever has this world's goods, and sees
  his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from
  him, how does the love of God abide in him?
• If a church is Christ like it will recognize
  people at their point of need, relate to people
  in spite of their traditions, and respond to
  people in a therapeutic context. Our desire is
  to demonstrate a caring attitude so that people
  would feel safe to share their hurts and find
  emotional, psychological, and spiritual
  wholeness. We can only do this by demonstrating
  a Christ like attitude.
• 1 Jo 47-8 Beloved, let us love one another,
  for love is of God and everyone who loves is
  born of God and knows God. He who does not love
  does not know God, for God is love.
• Shouldnt congregations that bear the name
  Christian be a places of acceptance, mercy,
  and grace?

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LIVING HOPE

• I Increasing in love and knowledge of God
• Col 110 that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
  fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good
  work and increasing in the knowledge of God
• Growth of a Christian cannot occur without a
  deeper intimacy with God. We teach and model
  the disciplines of studying and meditating on
  the Word of God, prayer, fasting, worship,
  stewardship and being with the fellowship of the
  believers.
• Eph 117-18 that the God of our Lord Jesus
  Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the
  spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
  of Him,
• the eyes of your understanding being
  enlightened that you may know what is the hope
  of His calling, what are the riches of the glory
  of His inheritance in the saints,

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LIVING HOPE

• V Victory through Christ - He is all
  sufficient.
• 1 Co 1557 But thanks be to God, who gives us the
  victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• We are victorious, complete, conquerors, because
  of Jesus,. We have victory over all
  principalities, powers and dominion because of
  the work of the cross
• We are a people that are over comers by the blood
  of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony.
• Re 1211 "And they overcame him by the blood of
  the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and
  they did not love their lives to the death.
• Ro 837-38 Yet in all these things we are more
  than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I
  am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor
  angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things
  present nor things to come, nor height nor depth,
  nor any other created thing, shall be able to
  separate us from the love of God which is in
  Christ Jesus our Lord.

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LIVING HOPE

• I In Obedience
• John 1423 Jesus answered and said to him, "If
  anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My
  Father will love him, and We will come to him and
  make Our home with him.
• Without obedience a disciple of Christ will not
  experience abundant life. Obedience requires
  total dependence on God to work through you. To
  experience Him at work in and through you, you
  must obey Him. When you obey Him, He will
  accomplish His work through you and you will
  come to know Him by experience. For you to DO
  the will of God, you must adjust your life to
  Him, His purposes, and His ways.
• Obedience is the outward expression of your love
  of God.
• Obey gt Trust gt Believe gt Know gt Love Ladder of
  obedience
• Jer 723 "But this is what I commanded them,
  saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God,
  and you shall be My people. And walk in all the
  ways that I have commanded you, that it may be
  well with you.'

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LIVING HOPE

• N Nurture - Development of disciples.
• Discipleship means to be like Christ.
• Eph 411-13 And He Himself gave some to be
  apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and
  some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of
  the saints for the work of ministry, for the
  edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come
  to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
  the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure
  of the stature of the fullness of Christ
• One of the primary goals of the Church must be
  the life transformation of each of its members.
  The body of Christ is thus composed of
  interdependent members, each having received from
  the Holy Spirit gifts which are to be exercised
  for the upholding of the whole body and for the
  bearing of one anothers spiritual burdens. We
  thus desire to encourage each other keeping in
  mind that no amount of gifting can take the place
  of a personal, intimate, daily time with God.
• If a church does not have a vertical relationship
  with Christ, then all of its horizontal
  relationships are meaningless.
• Col 128 Him we preach, warning every man and
  teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may
  present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

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LIVING HOPE

• G Giving glory - through a life of worship
• John 424 "God is Spirit, and those who worship
  Him must worship in spirit and truth."
• As a body we recognize that we do not belong to
  ourselves, having been purchased by the Lord
  Jesus Christ and that He alone is Lord. He is
  the Head of the church, enthroned with all
  authority. True worship is a life totally
  surrendered to Him in deed and in actions.
  Worship is our expression of submission to His
  Lordship.
• 1 Pe 411 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the
  oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do
  it as with the ability which God supplies, that
  in all things God may be glorified through Jesus
  Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion
  forever and ever. Amen.

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LIVING HOPE

• H Healing - for the hurting
• Ga 61 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any
  trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a
  one in a spirit of gentleness, considering
  yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one
  another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
  Christ.
• A caring church will demonstrate oneness (unity)
  to all people, will show an attitude that each
  person is important, that people can change, by
  the Holy Spirit who is the agent of change. He
  is the One who changes lives and imparts
  spiritual truth. We need to provide practical
  ways by which people can build relationships. We
  do this by applying truth in those areas of
  bondage, exposing the lies in our lives, and by
  dealing with our heart issues.
• Eze 3626 "I will give you a new heart and put a
  new spirit within you I will take the heart of
  stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of
  flesh.

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LIVING HOPE

• O Outreach - Proclamation of Hope
• Mt 2819-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of
  all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
  the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
• "teaching them to observe all things that I
  have commanded you and lo, I am with you always,
  even to the end of the age." Amen.
• We accept the Great Commission as a priority of
  the church, collectively and of each believer
  individually, and it is our desire to share as
  widely and effectively as possible the good news
  of Gods forgiveness in Christ. God equips and
  calls believers into a variety of vocations and
  ministries and within that context each person
  is to be a witness by word and deed to the Lord
  Jesus Christ.
• 2 Ti 42 -3 Preach the word! Be ready in season
  and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with
  all longsuffering and teaching.
• For the time will come when they will not
  endure sound doctrine, but according to their own
  desires, because they have itching ears, they
  will heap up for themselves teachers
• 2 Ti 44 and they will turn their ears away from
  the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

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LIVING HOPE

• P Prayer - God will do nothing but in answer
  to prayer
• The world has yet to see a Christ like,
  victorious, and fruitful believer who was not a
  person of considerable prayer - Jim Cymbala
• 1 Ti 28 I will therefore that men pray every
  where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
  doubting.
• For the believer, taking time each day with Gods
  Word and in prayer is indispensable.
• Each day we need to wait upon God for His
  presence and His love to be revealed. It is our
  aim to help Christians to see the absolute
  necessity of spending time with the Lord Jesus.
  Without this, the joy and power of Gods Holy
  Spirit in daily life cannot be experienced.
• Php 46-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in
  everything by prayer and supplication, with
  thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
  God
• and the peace of God, which surpasses all
  understanding, will guard your hearts and minds
  through Christ Jesus.

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LIVING HOPE

• E Encouragement - Reassurance in Stressful
  times
• Heb 1024-25 And let us consider one another in
  order to stir up love and good works,
• not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
  together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting
  one another, and so much the more as you see the
  Day approaching.
• All Christians have problems from time to time
  that can hinder spiritual and emotional growth.
  The problems can be a result of personal sin,
  sins of others that effect an individual, crises,
  lack of spiritual discipline, chemical imbalance,
  dysfunctional development in childhood, etc.
  The challenge for the church today is to help
  individuals to realize that there is nothing
  impossible for God. God has always been
  concerned with the heart of the individual. We
  as a church must be ready to extend a hand of
  encouragement and healing to all who want to
  walk in freedom.
• Jer 2911-13 For I know the thoughts that I think
  toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and
  not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
  Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me,
  and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me
  and find Me, when you search for Me with all your
  heart.