Nick Sorenson's take on Living for Christ and Serving in the Church

The Essential Qualities of a New Testament Church This post is notes taken from an 1987 sermon given by the (at that time) future A.G. superintendent Dr. George O. Wood, and of course the Acts 2 text itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoDbhN1uTOk I find George to have been a humble man, with the Spirit of God in him. He held multiple degrees including a law degree, yet he never seemed to let it get to his head.  In this sermon, I believe he was on a mission to walk more closely with what we see in the Acts church. He is one of my all time favorite Assembly of God superintendents. He spoke in our chapel services at Evangel University in Springfield MO many times while my wife and I attended. It was always a moving time and not just by persuasive words but by the Spirit of God. On to his message (and I would highly encourage you to watch it for yourself at the YouTube link above).   Acts 2:38-47 Early Church Characteristics (13 Qualities of Unity): 1. Repentance 2. Baptism ...

What is Our Purpose in This Life?   Do we all have purpose? Does doing something big make us more important? What about the quadriplegic in a wheel chair or the person(s) with disease who can’t support themselves? Do these people still have purpose? This begs the question of what are we here (on earth) for in the first place. As Christians, what are our first two commandments given by Jesus Himself? Matthew 22: 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. If a person still has the ability to do these two things, they are fulfilling their God given purpose! Everything else we do (for the Lord) is just a mission. As important as it may seem, the mission we're on is NOT our purpose. We all have...

  Family Integrated Church: I will not claim to grasp every factor that contributes to young people leaving the church, since undoubtedly there are several. What I will say for certain is that one major factor I see as a potential cause, is a lack of leadership by husbands and fathers. It’s common for the church, or its staff, to be expected to fill in for this absence. Sometimes the absence is due to a broken family, but just as often it stems from spiritual apathy in men. I’m not sure why this apathy is common (I have some guesses on that in a later paragraph), but it is possible that, at least in part, the man doesn’t lead because he feels that the responsibility is already covered by the church. I feel that there is a place for the church to supply this spiritual leadership, normally supplied by the man as the leader of his house. However, I feel this should be the exception rather than the norm. Sunday school was originally instituted and intended for situation...

  Is it God’s Will for His Children / Heirs (Christians) to Live in Wealth? All we have to go by in answering this question are examples in the Bible of those who were righteous. Here is a list of four children of God, followed by Jesus himself with details of their dwellings and financial status: Abraham considered righteous wealthy lived in tents Joseph (of Genesis. Coat of many colors) considered righteous poor for a season – followed by wealthy for another season his home was a prison cell after Potifar’s wife falsely accused him of an attempted rape. She did this in vengeance following her failure to seduce righteous Joseph. Later, as second in command in Egypt, he likely lived in the Pharaoh’s palace. He was appointed to this position by God for the purpose of saving His people from famine. Esther considered righteous possibly poor or moderate in wealth at the beginning of l...