Thomas Carlyle once said, “The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder, a nothing, a no man”. Rick Warren wrote in the Purpose Driven Life, “Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction and events without reason. Without a purpose life is trivial, petty, and pointless.” Every inspirational speaker urges the importance of life goals. They’ll tell you that life without goals is definitely not the right path. No one is wrong about that. In fact, it’s 100% correct and the same is true for any intuition but especially the Church of Jesus Christ. Without a purpose we shrivel and die maybe not physically but it kills the soul. Again the same is true of churches that have no real purpose they will shrivel and die. Christ gave the church purpose and we note in this passage its origin.

I. Worship is Essential – Matthew 28:16-18

1. The purpose of the church is to produce mature believers in Jesus Christ. Mature believers want to properly worship our heavenly father. That worship begins with a proper attitude and understanding of the church. If our relationship with God is not healthy, all worship is nothing more than religious pageantry. Your involvement makes for a wholesome worship experience in harmony with God’s people. Worship unto God is vital to receive His wisdom guidance and direction. We touched on this at the outset of this series but we are not applying it truths.

2. We tend to look to external things to enhance our worship. The true quality of our worship, however, rests within us… If we do not allowed God the essence of self, our worship will be void of His presence. If we quite ourselves and “be still” as our call to worship begins we acknowledge His presence and show respect to others who need the quiet moment to “be still”.

3. The Bible teaches that all members are asked to give a proper attitude of worship. I want to do everything in my power to heighten our spiritual time of worship and to give all of you the message that God wants you to have and what you need.
The principality of powers that is spiritual wickedness begins its evil manipulation and wicked warfare to disrupt worship to our heavenly Father. These things work in discord and prevent a smooth transition to a great worship. We need to beware of these.

3. These hindrances to worship happen and sometimes it is our fault and other times it those unseen evil powers. You may see your pastor flustered and wonder why he is so concern. Why does he care if the music isn’t just right or the microphone or the heat or what the noise level is? It is because God loves you and you need what he has for you. However, Satan and his evil demonic forces want to disrupt, hinder and stop worship to God. “We need to respect other members who come to worship.
Another characteristic of a mature church is that it has purpose…

II The Purpose define: Matt. 28:19-20

1. This purpose must be defined by the scriptures and the designer Himself “Jesus Christ”. We must come to understand the church is the light and salt of this world. Folks look at our world! Jesus Himself was the one who ordained and commissioned the church. The church was empowered by the Holy Spirit just as Jesus promise in John 14: 16, 17. The lives of the disciples were completely transformed on the day of Pentecost.

The Church exploded as we read in Acts 2:41–Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.

2. Why does the church exist? What is it ultimate purpose? Jesus Christ, before ascending to the Father, spoke directly to these questions. One day on a mountain in Galilee He spoke in clear and simple language in (Matt. 28:19-20). “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

3. The Book of Acts demonstrates this beyond doubt… Luke’s document is a precise record of the disciples’ activities and accomplishments as they seriously and systematically carried out Jesus Christ’s marching orders. People who became followers of Christ were immediately identified as “disciples.” They were not called Christians until the church was founded in Antioch (Acts 11:26). They cared for one another and assisted the assembly.

The church therefore exists to carry out two foundational functions—evangelism (to make disciples) and edification (to teach them). By these two functions we can define the purpose of the church again is to produce mature believers in Jesus Christ engaging them in local gathered community.

4. Jesus teaches His disciples about evangelism in verse 19 it is to reach the world with the gospel. We start right here at our home. We have the Lord Jesus outreach program in Acts 1:8. There is no place on earth where the gospel of Jesus should not be preached and where disciples should not be made. We are all called to reach others for Christ not just the Pastor or a few other leaders. Now we understand that God has given us gifted people to teach us this truth it is referred to as…

III The Perfecting of the Saints – Ephesians 4:11-13

1. The apostle Paul amplifies this truth in his letter to the Church at Ephesus. He stressed the perfecting of the saints in verse 12. The word “perfecting” comes from a Greek root word the means “fully grown’. The gifted men (leaders) equipped the saints to do the work of the ministry. Again the work includes evangelism and edification. Edification can only be done one with another; the Greek word is “koinonia” it means fellowship. We need to faithfully come together to edify one another.

2. We need to work together to achieve the purpose of the church. My gifts are to equip you to do the work of ministry. The immature church is one that lacks purpose because it is the one that think it is the pastor’ job to do the work of the ministry. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the organism of the church. We are to use our prospective spiritual gifts to help advance the purpose of the church thereby help the church to grow. Some are gifted to teach, help, discern and some are gifted to work with seniors, children and youth so forth and so on. What are you doing?

Conclusion:

A number of characteristics are required before an institution can be properly called a church. The true church is far better than any other organization, association or institution on the face of the earth. It moves toward being like Jesus Christ, because it represents Him in the world, because its life is energized by the Holy Spirit, because it lives under the instruction of the Word of God, because it applies spiritual power mutually through fellowship and service among its members. It therefore is the greatest association, organization, institution in the face of the earth.