The Catalyst Community

In the good times and the bad, God remains good. Using wisdom literature books of the Bible such as Job, we learn how not to use our bad experiences to make conclusions on the nature of God.

If the Bible says that God is good, then He is good. Choose to trust God regardless of your situation.

There are two steps to Bible interpretation are:

Exegesis and Hermeneutics

Exegesis is the careful systematic study of scripture to discover the original meaning. It is therefore understanding the there and then.

Hermeneutics is knowing how the writer's intentions and words find contemporary relevance to us. It therefore means understanding the here and now

As a good bible student, you must be able to do proper exegesis and one of the approaches while doing exegesis is knowing the historical context. This deals with knowing the time, culture, geography, when it was written, and what necessitated the writing.

The very core of our faith isn't ordinary, it started with a Man dying and rising again. Our decision to follow Jesus is a call to radical living and men who follow Jesus are dead men, you have to pick up your cross and follow Him.

Jesus must command our desires not the treasures of this world. We are called to be different and our actions must show for it.

We have to be radical in the Christian faith.

Our devotion is not complete if we have not learnt how to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In this sermon, we are taught how to pray for the church and we address prayers on churches that are being persecuted, churches that no longer maintain the standards set by God in His Word in terms of doctrine, and churches that have become lukewarm, that there is rejuvenation, revival and repentance in these churches.

The church of Christ is an assembly of His people called out on the revelation of Him as Lord and Saviour. The Bible must be our single authority to what the church must be.

The most important thing is the doctrine of Christ, you know the truth of Christ by what they declare. We must be united at the core.

Every church must have a strong discipleship culture. The unity of faith is God's desire.

The amount of grace in any local assembly is dependent on 2 things:

• Love for the saints

• Honour for the ministry gift.

True growth in Christ will always be marked by love for the saints. The more you study the Word of God, the more you inculcate the culture of the early church which is love.

Our devotion to God isn't complete until we learn the family side of it. Love for God mandates love for the saints.

As the church of Christ, we have been called out from the world into the family of God. We have been called out from darkness into light.

Because of Christ's sacrifice, we have been sealed with the Spirit of God who seperates us and marks us as God's chosen ones.

When it comes to the making of important decisions or essential things, it isn't based on the closest or finest but based on the value provided. We can't randomly make decisions when it comes to church.

There are 4 major things to look out for in a church:

1. Proper understanding of the Gospel

2. Theology on money

3. Theology on charismatic ministry

4. Mission mindedness

At Jesus' ascension, He didn't give a farewell but a commission for the work. The great commission is the vision of every church and we must strategies beyond the culture. To be Viral means to be widespread irrespective of culture.

Christ's church must have this message every day that God has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as propitiation of our sins and has bestowed eternal life upon all who believe.

The greatest tool of Biblical interpretation is common sense, this will help in knowing which principle to use in every situation. You need to understand the 'there and then' before understanding the 'here and now'. Exegesis must be done before hermeneutics.

There are certain questions to ask in hermeneutics:

1. Did the conversation in any way extend to us?

2. Is there comparability?

3. What is inherently moral and what is cultural?

Our priority will always be the Word of God and Biblical Interpretation is an everyday job.