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  WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE NEEDED FOR THE CHURCH TODAY？
  by Stephen Elliott
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the need for the church to shift its
focus from lifestyle and friendship evangelism, which has shown limited
effectiveness, to seeking after the presence of God through signs,
wonders, and miracles. It highlights the importance of relying on the
power of the Holy Spirit to draw people in rather than solely on human
efforts.

Topics: "Seeking God's Presence", "Power of the Holy Spirit"
Scripture References: Acts 1:8, 1 Corinthians 2:4, Mark 16:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:5

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DESCRIPTION
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The sermon emphasizes the need for the church to shift its focus from
lifestyle and friendship evangelism, which has shown limited
effectiveness, to seeking after the presence of God through signs,
wonders, and miracles. It highlights the importance of relying on the
power of the Holy Spirit to draw people in rather than solely on human
efforts.

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CONTENT
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The most important message for the church, boy that's a great question
and I know I could answer in probably a hundred different ways, but if I
would say one thing that the church needs to pay attention to right now
is to stop relying on lifestyle and friendship evangelism as its major
emphasis on how to win people for Christ. We have about a 40-year track
record and we know that lifestyle evangelism and friendship evangelism
does not result in hardly anybody coming to faith in Christ. Now I'm not
saying that a Christian shouldn't live christianly and they should of
course live godly, but as an evangelism strategy we know it doesn't work
very very well.

Some people do come to faith because of how people live, but not very
many. The research is almost universally acknowledged that only about
one percent of Christians these days are actually sharing their faith
per year and only about five percent of Christians in their lifetime
will ever lead somebody to the Lord. If we take that back to the book of
Acts and think what if only one percent of the people in the upper room
shared their faith and only five percent ever saw somebody come to faith
in Christ, where would the church be? Lifestyle and friendship
evangelism is not the reason why the church is exploding outside of
North America.

Outside of North America the primary reason why the church is exploding
with growth and with vitality is because they're leaning so heavily into
seeking after the presence of God in their midst. Signs and wonders and
miracles, things of that nature, and so an increased openness to the
personal work of the Holy Spirit and stop relying on lifestyle and
friendship evangelism as a way of drawing people in. Count on God to
draw people in when God shows up with power and strength.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/X6VsLpjXslE.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/stephen-elliott/what-is-the-most-important-message-needed-for-the-church-today/
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