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Be Fruitful and Multiply
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Bible College class from the course on Dispensations. Deals with the need to plant churches and how the commission given to Noah teaches this.
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Pastor David Reagan
Antioch Baptist Church
11/18/2002
Sermon Recordings:
Scripture References:
Sermon Notes:
1. The curiosity: Why be
fruitful AND multiply? Are they not the same? Is God just repeating Himself?
What is the spiritual application of the three parts of this commission: be
fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth?
2. The problem
a. Churches and church movements go through
stages of history that tend to follow specific generations of preachers and
Chistians (compare Judges 2:7-13).
1) First generation: the pioneers
2) Second generation: the builders
3) Third generation: the managers (trying to
hold on to what the earlier generations built)
4) Fourth generation: the traitors (who sell
out the purposes and beliefs of earlier generations)
5) NOTE: Every third generation needs a time of
revival and renewal. We are entering the fourth generation and have not seen
this renewal.
b. Four kinds of churches today demonstrate our
need
1) Dying churches -- 4,000 churches per year
are shutting down in America
2) Shadow churches -- Large buildings with a
handful of people
3) Fighting churches -- Preachers and
congregations grabbing for their part of the remaining Christians
4) Worldly churches -- churches which will do
anything to hold a crowd
c. Churches have a life cycle just like other
things in this world. They eventually get old and die. In order to keep the
work of Christ going, we must be starting new churches. Many churches know the
importance of soul-winning and foreign missions. We fail most in the starting
of new churches. The spiritual application of being fruitful is to win souls;
of multiplying is to start new churches; of replenishing the earth is to send
out missionaries. We must be doing all three.
3. The example of creation (Job 12:7-8)
a. All of God's creatures are designed to
reproduce themselves (Genesis 1:11-12)
b. Living things in this world dies and must be
replaced
c. How many 50 year old churches are doing a
great work for God? How many 100 year old churches? Churches die?spiritually
if not physically. Churches must reproduce churches.
4. The example of the early commissions
a. Made up of three parts (Genesis 1:28;
9:1)
b. Difference between fruitfulness and
multiplication (1Chronicles 4:27)
1) Fruitfulness ? bearing offspring
[soul-winning]
2) Multiplying ? increasing by dividing into
more groups [church-planting]
c. The danger of refusing to multiply
1) The command (Genesis 9:1)
2) The conflict: their disobedience (Genesis
11:1-6)
3) The constraint: God forces multiplication
(Genesis 11:7-9)
4) Application: Are there churches today that
want to make a name for themselves and build a tower to reach unto heaven? Is
it possible that God allows church splits to compensate for churches that will
not multiply or send out young preachers to start new churches?
5. The example of the first church in
Jerusalem
a. Their command to go (Acts 1:8)
b. Their conflict with God in not going (Acts
1:4-5; 2:33, 41, 46; 4:4; 5:13)
c. The constraint to go (Acts 8:1-4)
6. The ministry of the Apostle Paul
(1Corinthians 11:1)
a. He established new churches (Acts 14:23;
15:41)
b. This is not just for foreign missionaries.
We should be doing missions at home and in our immediate area. We should also
be reaching outside our immediate are to start churches across the nation.
7. Paul?s command to Timothy
a. Do the work of an evangelist (2Timothy
4:5)
b. Philip, the only man called an evangelist in
scripture (Acts 1:8), demonstrates the work of an evangelist (Acts 8)
1) Preaching the gospel to the lost (v.5,
40)
2) Winning lost souls to Christ (v.26-39)
3) Opening new areas up to the gospel (v.5)
c. Application to pastors
1) If the first two jobs of an evangelist
(preaching and soul-winning) are the duty of a pastor, then the third duty
(open up new areas) must also be his duty.
2) Pastors should be opening up new areas to
the gospel. Church planting is one of the best ways to do this. We need a new
vision for our churches?one that properly balances our threefold commission:
a.) Be fruitful -- win souls
b.) Multiply -- plant churches
c.) Replenish the earth -- send missionaries
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