Sunday March 12, 2017

God's Green House

The Green House Concept

A greenhouse is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, glass or
plastic, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown. The greenhouses have
equipment including heating, cooling, lighting, and may be computer-controlled to optimize
conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity, etc.) for plant growth. This allows for the production of
plants (fruits, vegetables, flowers) that cannot normally grow outside in the area. Many
commercial glass greenhouses or hothouses are high tech production facilities for vegetables or
flowers. The Netherlands has some of the largest greenhouses in the world.

A green house provides a controlled environment and a conducive environment, so that what
cannot normally grow outside, can grow inside.

The Local Church - God's Green House

In many ways, we can envision the local church community to be God's Green House - a place,
an environment where every believer can thrive and reach their highest and best in God.

Ephesians 4:15-16
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself
in love.

Using the imagery of a body, the Bible teaches us that

 the body is joined and knit together by what every joint supplies - all of us are needed to
keep the body together
 as every part does its share, it causes growth of the body - when all of us do our part, the
body grows
 the body is edified (built up) in love - everything must be done in love for the body to be
built up.

As God's green house, we need to cultivate and maintain an environment that will cause a
knitting together, the growth, and the building up of the body.

An environment where everyone is valued - there are no super heroes, no superstars - we are all
on level ground and we are all valuable to God.

An environment where everyone is encouraged to participate, provided opportunity to

participate and encouraged do their part and the growth of the body is credited to everyone -
because even the smallest thing done and even what is done 'behind the scenes' contributes to
the growth of the body.

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An environment where everything is done in love. Remember 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what the
God-kind of love is. In such an environment there is no jealousy, no competition, no using the
people or church for self-actualization, instead we put others before self.

Philippians 2:1-8
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if
any affection and mercy,
2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
others better than himself.
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of
men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of
death, even the death of the cross.

This (Philippians 2:1-8) is a powerful passage on how all of us must walk as believers.

Vs 3: Esteem others better than yourself

Vs 4 : Look out for the well-being and interests of others

Vs 5 : Walk in the mind of Christ - a willingness to humble yourself and lay yourself down for
others

When you die to self and lay yourself down for others - God will cause a multiplication to come
forth.

John 12:24
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but
if it dies, it produces much grain.

Creating A Culture of Nurturing, Discipling And Developing People

God's green house should be a place where we are continuously nurturing, discipling and
developing people.

The true greatness of a leader is not measured purely in terms of his individual accomplishment,
but in how many other leaders he has been able to raise and release into their full potential.

(The following is extracted from APC Publication "Kingdom Builders", Chapter 4).

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Kingdom Building is about building people

1 Corinthians 3:9,10
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the
foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

You (people) are God's field.

You (people) are God's building.

Some of us are called to lay foundations for local churches (e.g. Paul for the Corinthian church
and other churches).
Some of us are called to build (the local church) on the foundation that has been laid.

In both cases - we are building people.

In order to build people, we must have people in our hearts - not ministry, not title, not position,
etc.

2 Corinthians 7:3 I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die
together and to live together.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ at His coming?
20 For you are our glory and joy.

Only when you have people in your heart, are you able to write into their hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living
God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

When we let God write people in our hearts first, He then gives us the grace to write into their
hearts.

We write into peoples hearts not with ink (natural human means) but by the Spirit.

Part of developing people includes:

 creating opportunities for people
 training and equipping people
 bringing correction to people
 releasing people when they need to be released

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Let us all have a heart not only to look out for our own interests (my healing, my blessing, my
promotion, my ministry, my anointing, my fame, etc. etc.) but instead for the well-being, growth
and development of others. This is how God wants His body to be built.

If we want the house to be stronger and bigger we need more pillars - more leaders.

We must continuously raise more leaders.

Celebrating Another's Progress

God's green house should be a place where we celebrate each others progress.

When others progress spiritually or in their call, their gifting or anointing we should be happy
and celebrate that. Encourage them on further.

Developing The Supernatural

As people of God we are called to live supernaturally.

This is actually a shift - a transition we are making - moving from the way we have been
accustomed to living - to a new way of living, that is, living supernaturally.

The Gospel message "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is here" (Matthew 4:17) simply means -
have a complete turn around, and embrace this Kingdom. So we go from living according to the
world to living according to the Kingdom of God.

Part of Kingdom living is manifesting the supernatural in life and ministry.

As we learn to manifest the supernatural, the gifts of the Spirit, minister healing and deliverance
we will make mistakes, we will have accidents along the way, etc.

The problem is not with the Giver of the gift, or with the gift itself, but with us - we who are
learning how to use and administer the gift correctly.

We will make mistakes - but we understand we are learning, which means:

1, we do not condemn people for their mistakes or write them off, but we correct in love
2, we must be willing to accept our mistakes, receive correction and keep learning

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.

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Our Greatest Evangelism Program

As God's green house we are working towards raising every one up to fulfill our mandate, which
is to combine the three streams of (1)healings & miracles, (2)prophetic and deliverance with
(3)missions.

This content below is a copy paste from: apcwo.org/about-us/evangelism

Evangelism happens as every believer at APC shares the Gospel with those they come into
contact, with signs, wonders and miracles. This is our evangelism strategy: share the Gospel and
demonstrate God's power through healings, deliverance, miracles and the supernatural. Hence,
our goal is to equip every believer at APC to share the message of Jesus Christ and manifest His
power and glory by meeting the needs of people supernaturally.

This is the same strategy the Lord Jesus gave when he sent out His 12 apostles (Matthew
10:1,7,8), when He sent out 70 other disciples (Luke 10:1,9) and the commission He gave to all
believers (Mark 16:15-18). He told His apostles to pass on to new disciples all that He had taught
them (Matthew 28:18-20), which included this strategy of power evangelism. And this is exactly
how the Early Church evangelized as recorded through the book of Acts.

We know that all people, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, in urban or rural settings, will
respond to the Gospel when it is presented with accompanying demonstration of the
supernatural power of God. Nicodemus, a religious scholar of Jesus' day came to Jesus because
he recognized that no one can do such miracles unless God is with Him (John 3:1-2). A man of
importance, the Roman Centurion recognized Jesus' spiritual authority and came to Jesus asking
for healing for his servant (Matthew 8:1-13). The Lord Jesus expected entire cities to repent in
response to the mighty works He did (Matthew 11:20-26). As we see in the book of Acts, the
Early Church impacted religious leaders, governors, spiritualists, intellectuals and many others by
the power of God.

Evangelism outreaches that APC conducts are touch-points or opportunities where we can
interface with people around us.

Our biggest evangelism program is every believer at APC sharing the Gospel, anywhere, anytime
and demonstrating the power of God through healings, deliverance and miracles.

This is why we desire to see every believer equipped and trained in ministering the supernatural.

We are God's green house to see God's people equipped and trained in ministering the
supernatural. Let's make it happen.

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 Sermon Notes

USEFUL RESOURCES

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