(Re-written notes from a Dec. 28, 2008, Bible study at Corona International Christian Fellowship; video of Hillsong's "With Everything" added on Oct. 10, 2009; reposted June 18, 2010, with video on church membership from 9Marks.)
A certain credit card has the slogan: "Membership has its privileges." The idea is that if you are fortunate enough to be approved for this credit card, you get a lot of cool things the more you use it, such as travel perks or first shot at prime concert seats. Not only that, you move up into the same orbit as people such as Tiger Woods and Al Pacino.
But they forget to tell you that membership has its responsibilities as well - the biggest of which is, pay your bill on time. Chronically be late - or worse, skip payments - your privileges will be taken away.
In God's economy, thankfully the privilege - or more accurately, the right -- of being a son or daughter of His through Jesus Christ won't be taken away when we fall short of what is required of us as members of His church.
But that's not to say that we don't have responsibilities that we ought to strive toward. More specifically, as members of a community we call church, as members of a community we call Corona International Christian Fellowship, we DO have responsibilities.
We may not achieve those responsibilities 100 percent - after all, on this side of heaven, who can? - but to NOT move toward meeting them, well, that pretty much falls into disobedience of what the Lord desires of us.
SCRIPTURE READING
1 Corinthians 12:12-20 (NASB)
12 For even as the body is one and {yet} has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not {a part} of the body," it is not for this reason any the less {a part} of the body. 16 And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not {a part} of the body," it is not for this reason any the less {a part} of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?Context: Who remembers the reason Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth?
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.
To summarize, the church was messed up. It allowed its members to live in sin, it allowed its members to abuse gifts of the Spirit …
- Maybe the Corinthians got too casual about being members of a church.
- Maybe they didn't take church membership seriously.
- Maybe they took church membership for granted and turned the church into a social club, where people would show off their spiritual gifts and try to "one-up" each other. …
And sometimes, I wonder, have we, as a church called CICF, taken our membership a little too casually, or not as seriously as we ought to? (Quick note: The NIV falls a little short is in some of the direct translation from the original language. In the NIV, instead of "member" as in the NASB or NKJV, it uses "parts." And sometimes, the impact is lost in our reading.)
That Paul used the analogy of a body to equate it with the church was NOT JUST PRETTY FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. In Paul's day, it was pretty much understood that when one mentioned "member" most people used it in the context of the body, as in a "division of the body" or body part, or literally, "things of the body."
The idea is this: For a church to function properly, its members, ALL its members, have to fulfill their assigned responsibilities.
Verses 18-19 again:
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.Teaching point No. 1: The Lord put you here, in this church, in this community called CICF, because He desired it that way, because He has a role for you to fulfill to help His church.
What do I mean by that? The easiest way to describe it is by my calling, and Pastor Ed's calling, your Bible teachers' calling, to this church.
Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.In other words, Pastor Ed, your Bible teachers and me are called to prepare you for works of service to build up His church, to be unified in the truth of the saving grace of God through His Son, Jesus, and to grow into the image of the Son.
You're saying, great, that's your role … what about the rest of us? Our job as pastors is to help you indentify those roles, and the associated responsibilities. Some of you have gotten to that point. Some of you are still praying and waiting on the Lord to reveal that to you - if that's you, come to Pastor Ed or me and we'll pray with you and help you, with the Lord's guidance, figure it out.
Church membership is NOT a solo act.
Verse 19 says:
19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.Sure, I get up here, Pastor Ed gets up here, to share the Word with you on Sundays. But it's not just us that make the Sunday service happen. Yes, the worship team is part of that, but behind the scenes, it's Virgie putting together the bulletin, the ushers making sure everything is in place, Jimmy making sure the PowerPoint works, the finance committee making sure our bills are paid, the children's ministry teachers meeting the spiritual needs of your children, the unsung volunteers who clean up after you when the day is done.
Verse 20
20 But now there are many members, but one body.In doing working together as a body, we, as God's church, with its members fulfilling their responsibilities, glorify the Lord and show to a lost world the path to salvation.
Know this, and know it well: God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
You have a role here. You may not know it right now, it may not be the role you envisioned for yourself, but God's got if laid out for you already, because you are a member of His church.
Teaching Point No. 2: We need to be faithful with what the Lord has given us as members of His church.
Luke 16:10-13 (NIV)
10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?In other words, we have to pay attention to detail with our responsibilities, from the smallest detail that no one but the Lord may see to those things that are highly visible, such as last weekend's Christmas program. If we're not, how can we expect the Lord to entrust us with larger things, like our own church building?
A couple practical ways we all can show faithfulness - fulfill our responsibilities as members - to what the Lord has given us as members of His church.
1. Be on time on Sunday, or to anything related to the work of His church, such as a ministry meeting, worship team rehearsal, care group or young adult Bible study.
Yes, life does happen, traffic is bad in these parts, and yes, I do know that the Lord knows your heart, that you want to be here on time. I tell you what, though, sometimes people will say "the Lord knows my heart" and they are chronically late, I have to wonder if they are asking the Lord to show them their hearts, you know?
Listen, we can be on time for work five days a week, we can be on time to classes at school … why can't we be on time for the Lord - who gives us so much more than a paycheck or a grade - once or twice during the week?
2. Bring your Bibles with you on Sundays, along with an expectant attitude. We are a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church
3. Be responsible to your role in this church. Do what you can to fulfill it. If you can't fulfill it, contact those who are affected by it as soon as you can to enlist their help.
Some of you are good at doing that, and I thank you and the Lord. Others, and you know who you are (some of which either Pastor Ed or I have spoken to) still have to work on this. In addition to talking to you about it, we're also praying about it as well.
There is no shame in asking for help. The real shame is not asking for it, when all along, there are people ready to step up and provide the help. Check with each other, especially when not asked, if help is needed, whether it be help with a specific task or just prayer.
In other words, ask each other, in loving ways, "How's your walk doing? Are you needing anything? Is it something I can help you with? Can I pray with you for whatever it is?"Teaching point No. 3: Make sure you attend as many Sundays as you can early next year, because church membership will be spelled out for you, and your responsibilities, as well as the pastors' responsibilities, as members of the Body of Christ will be laid out for you.
Pastor Ed, at a recent brainstorming session at the Andersons' home, mentioned that there will be membership sessions in January that will remind us what it means to be a church community. And membership will be more formal than what we have been used to in the past. (No, he didn't put me up to preaching on this topic today. I pretty much told him, when he asked for the day off, that this would be the message.)
It will require commitment and responsibility on ALL our parts to
1) attend;We are not the only church that is taking, or has taken this approach of formal membership. We're not turning CICF into an exclusive club. We are laying it out, for all to see, in as clear terms as possible, ALL of our responsibilities as members of the Body of Christ.
2) catch up if we miss any sessions; and
3) apply the teachings to fulfill our God-given roles as members of His church.
It won't be perfect, after all, what church is perfect this side of heaven?
Let me share with you what the Lord shared with me when He first called me to my role here at CICF. It was 2002. I was at a midweek service at a friend's church. There was a guest speaker who taught out of the opening chapter of Joshua, when Joshua first took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died. And the speaker threw out this out:
There are church people and there are kingdom people. Church people just show up every Sunday, expecting the church, and God, to do something FOR them.
Kingdom people wake up every morning and say, "God, what can I do for Your church, for You, to bring You glory, today?"
The question I ask you is ...
Which are you:
a church person, or
a kingdom person?
Added June 18, 2010
6-Membership from 9Marks on Vimeo.
Excerpted quote:
"Membership confronts that idea of consumerism (church shopping) and says, 'Actually, what's going here is about more than just you, it's even more than just you and Jesus. The church is actually about us as a community -- encouraging each other, admonishing each other, growing together in Christ.' ... If you don't have membership, if you don't have an idea of who's in the church and who's outside the church, you don't get that idea of commitment that is so clearly part of the New Testament understanding of what it means to be a church."
Added Oct. 10, 2009 ...
With Everything
Joel Houston © 2008 Hillsong Publishing CCLI Song No, 5060779
Verse 1
Open our eyes
To see the things that make Your heart cry
To be the church that You would desire
Your light to be seen
Verse 2
Break down our pride
And all the walls we've built up inside
Our earthly crowns and all our desires
We lay at Your feet
Pre-chorus
Let hope rise and darkness tremble
In Your holy light
That every eye will see Jesus our God
Great and mighty to be praised
Chorus 1
With everything
With everything
We will shout for Your glory
With everything
With everything
We will shout forth Your praise
Verse 3
God of all days
Glorious in all of Your ways
Oh the majesty the wonders and grace
In the light of Your Name
Pre-chorus
Let hope rise and darkness tremble
In Your holy light
That every eye will see Jesus our God
Great and mighty to be praised
Chorus 1
With everything
With everything
We will shout for Your glory
With everything
With everything
We will shout forth Your praise
Chorus 2
Our hearts they cry be glorified
Be lifted high above all names
For You our King with everything
We will shout forth Your praise
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