This is a message from Bro. Roy Graneau, South Edmonton Church of Christ.
Is the name of the church important?


1. The church belongs to Christ

Mt 16:13-19

18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

2. God has placed all things spiritual in one name, not names: the name of Jesus

Acts 4:10-12

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Eph 5:23-25

3. The church is married to Christ, not man

22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. Colossians 3:5-7

Over the last three (3) years I have been recovering from a situation where I lost a lot of money in a Ponzi Scheme. In the beginning, the intention was to invest some money and make a good return to plan my future. In my mind though I had some doubts, I was curious by this particular investment as it promised at least 10% per month. I was blown away, my mind racing, thinking about all the good things I could do and the opportunity to make my life better. This is the trap that is laid by greed. It tempts you into thinking that life is not fair and that there is an easy way, than working hard to reach your goals. It tells you that you don't need to work hard, you can do things that will make you rich in a short time. Things which are not necessarily those you would normally do. In other words, you will be moving away from the norm, and into a realm that you think is a blessing.

Greed (covetousness) is a deadly sin, which is bundled with such things as fornication, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence. We covet because we want to be better than others. But God demands a different standard for us. It is truly by hard work that we achieve wealth and peace of mind with God. The bibles teaches us in Genesis 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." God was speaking to Adam after his disobedience. He had lost paradise, and was now being punished for his disobedience.

You see we may have good intentions, but the devil is always working to entice us to sin. Christians are the main target of the devil. We belong to God, but the devil wants us to be his children. Greed is just another method he uses to reach this objective. During the time of the Ponzi schemes, so many lives were affected. Even preachers lost their way and got trapped into the web of greed. To this day, many are still suffering from the effects of greed.

Ephesians 5:3 explains that, "but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;". The children of God should never be caught in the pit of greed. We must rid ourselves of any connection with greed, and be satisfied with what God has given us.

We must learn from our mistakes today. I have learnt so much over the last three (3) years, and I keep praying to God daily to shield me from the temptation of sin like these. God has given me food, clothes and shelter, those are the basic physiological things that we need. Praise God..