Internally Strong, Externally Focused

Date: 02/22/2009 Series: Being the Church Sermon: Internally Strong, Externally Focused Text: Matthew 28:18-20; John 17:14-18 There is a conversation that cycles through the church community – “where should we put our attention?” Should the Church’s emphasis be on becoming internally strong - GROWING the Saints? Or should our attention be focused externally - GOING to the lost and suffering? Should we be focused on GROWING or GOING? This question gets danced around, dissected, and debated in the church today: Internally Strong or Externally Focused? And I am here this morning to tell you that the answer is YES. YES, we need to be INTERNALLY STRONG - we dare not ever forsake our fellowship or our study. YES, we need to be EXTERNALLY FOCUSED - we dare not forsake a lost and dying world. These two emphases are NOT competing interests or mutually exclusive but rather we will see that these two realities are complementary. To be INTERNALLY STRONG we must be EXTERNALLY FOCUSED. At the same time, we cannot be EXTERNALLY FOCUSED - and effective - if we are not INTERNALLY STRONG. These are two sides of the same coin. We are not free to flip the coin and merely choose a side. Rather, we will discover that as a church we GROW as we GO. These impulses are not mutually exclusive of, but rather utterly dependent upon, one another.