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What Does A Visitor Think?

What Does A Visitor Think?.

joanlyons
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What Does A Visitor Think?

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  1. What Does A Visitor Think?

  2. “Then the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.” (Acts 11:22-23)

  3. “…Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.” (I Thess 1:3)

  4. “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to everlasting life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.” (Acts 13:48-49)

  5. Truly Loves God And His Word • Our love for God’s word is clearly seen: • Imagine visiting the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12) • The people of Nehemiah’s day (Neh. 8:1-6) • Do people see us opening Bibles? Can they tell we are interested? Do we prepare and participate in class? Do they see us making notes and trying to learn? • Our love for God is visible and audible! • When we do things we really care about, it shows! It also shows when we don’t care! • They will notice your presence! (Mk 12:29-30) • Our love, respect, and appreciation for God is expressed by our worship & attitude (Psalm 111:1) • How do we talk about God? Prayers? Songs?

  6. Truly Loves To Worship The Lord • Imagine Being A Visitor In Malachi’s day: • The worship was likely structurally correct • It evidently wasn’t important to them (vs. 7-8) • Their worship was half-hearted (vs. 12-14) • You would likely wonder why they even bothered showing up! (vs. 10) • The reality is that what is visible in our worship does reflect the state of our hearts! • It’s easy to slip into a check-list worship style • Right structure without emotion and thought results in vain worship. (John 4:24; Col. 3:16) • Do I focus on the worship at hand? Do I participate? Do I seem interested in the worship?

  7. Truly Loves Others • Visitors don’t just casually notice, but are looking for how members interact! • Many seek to belong… will say, “I am looking for a HOME church” - Family! (Rom 12:4-5, 10-11) • They’ll be able to see if God is really in us by our love for one another… Why would they want to be somewhere where God is not? (I John 4:11-12) • Visitors can see our concern for others as well: • Danger of being too “internally focused” that we are not visitor conscious (1 Cor. 14:17, 22-25) • Interest them as individuals? Care for their souls? Can they see Jesus in us? (Mark 10:21) • Helpful to them? Ask questions? Give full attention?

  8. It may be that a person’s first real impression of the Lord is from us… “You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Cor. 3:3) - What do we show them about being a Christian? - What do we show them about God? - What can they see about salvation? - What do they know about this local church?

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