Have You Signed On The Dotted Line?

TITLE: HAVE YOU SIGNED ON THE DOTTED LINE?

SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 9:57-62

When was the last time you signed a contract? Any kind of contract – A Mortgage - A Car Loan - A New Job - A Marriage License - A School Admissions Agreement. Now consider this - How many pages was the contract? More importantly, did you make sure you read every page before you signed it?

Every relationship has a contract of sorts. The relationship between an Employer And Employee - A Husband And Wife - Even Friend To Friend. While some of these relationships have agreements in the form of a written contract or spoken vows, as the relationship continues, we discover that many of the “Terms” go unwritten and unspoken, relying –

• Less on words and more on the worth of the relationship

• Less on treatise and more on trust

The Israelites had seen God display his Worth and Trustworthiness, not only through their deliverance from slavery, but also through God’s providing for their needs on their journey to Sinai. It was at Sinai, with those experiences of God’s faithfulness fresh in their memories, they are faced with a question -- will they sign their name on the dotted line?

• LEVITICUS 26:12 “AND I WILL WALK AMONG YOU, AND WILL BE YOUR GOD, AND YE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE”

• God gave the people the 10 Commandments

• The people all answered as one and signed the contract with God

• Would you and I have done the same?

It was JOSHUA who faced his neighbors and friends in JOSHUA 24:15 - “AND IF IT SEEM EVIL UNTO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE; WHETHER THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED THAT WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, OR THE GODS OF THE AMORITES, IN WHOSE LAND YE DWELL: BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

• He said you can cut up and clown if you want – But for me and My House

• You can play with God all you want – But for me and My House

• What he was saying is, make your own decision – But for me and My House, WE WILL SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE

No matter where we are in our faith journey, we all are faced with that reality every day – indeed, every moment of every day. When we woke up this morning -

• How many of us knew every detail the day would hold?

• How many of us have ever wondered why something happened or what next step we should take?

• Like Israel, we aren’t always given a reason, but we are given a relationship – a relationship with our God who is for us and with us

• We might not know the way, but we can know the Way

• Like Israel, we, too, are faced with a question -- Will we trust more in what we know or Who we know?

• It is an age-old question

• A present-moment opportunity

• HAVE YOU SIGNED ON THE DOTTED LINE?

We sign our name to thousands of documents in our lifetime to secure anything from homes to cell phone agreements and do it without even reading the contracts most of the time. When it comes to “belonging” to a people of God however, we turn into a conspiracy theorists and feel threatened. It’s an interesting thing to watch.

As Christians, we are already members of a body we don’t deserve to be in. Jesus is our head and we fit together to nurture and care for each other. This all came by the Gospel’s effect on our lives. We are truly members who cannot lose our membership because the dues were paid by another way back on Calvary. This is why we should use the word “PARTNERSHIP” when it comes to being a part of the local Church and to formalize the reality that already exists.

• We know most traditional churches refer to this as ‘membership” which is fine

• I think “membership” is an antiquated term for us today

• I believe we should be coming to the Church as a ‘Partnership’

• But I believe that word ‘membership’ is empty freight in our culture and is already taken Biblically through Salvation

• We aren’t trying to be hip, but clear

• Even Jesus said we are CO-LABORERS with Him – I CORINTHIANS 3:9 says “WE ARE LABORERS TOGETHER WITH GOD….”

• Understanding this, we don’t come together in ‘Membership’ but we come together in ‘Partnership’ each bringing our spiritual gifting to the body of Christ

• HAVE YOU SIGNED ON THE DOTTED LINE?

To simply attend and volunteer at a local church without partnership is nothing more than “hedging your bets” as we are ready to extricate ourselves and cancel our “belonging” when it doesn’t fit.