Take Ownership Of The Church

In a few days we’re going to be celebrating the Fourth of July. Obviously, this is more than just a date on the calendar. Primarily this is a day to celebrate our country’s independence. But, it is also a day to be with family, light fireworks, and hope that the corn is now knee high. Besides these things, it is also, at least for me, the unofficial sign that we are now in the thick of summer. That being the case, we’re usually dealing with some pretty good heat at this time. And one of the best ways to beat that heat is to head down to the water, either the river or the pool. When you go to the water, what’s your approach? Do you cannonball in? Do you kind of just slide in nonchalantly? Or do you take your time, starting with just dipping a toe in? It really doesn’t matter, the important point is that you get in to cool down and relax.

Getting involved in the Church is somewhat like getting into the water. The approach that you take really doesn’t matter too much, it’s more just that you do it. Why do we have to get involved at all, though? Can’t we just sit back and let others do the work? There’s always that temptation, but it’s not good to fall into. And why? Because this is your Church. Now I’m not just talking about this congregation, I’m talking about the Church at large. It may be run and headed by Jesus, but he has made you a key aspect to it. This is your Church. So get up and take ownership of it.

In today’s lesson, Saul is going to show us not only how to get involved and take ownership of the Church, but also deal with the fears and disappointment of when we think we’ve failed. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Now if you remember Saul’s story, you see that it was literally just days before that he was trying to destroy this Church. Yet, because of the Word of God and the risen Christ, Saul has done a complete 180. At once, it says, he began to work, his job here being preaching. He immediately gets to work.

Now, I get how your sinful minds work because mine does the same thing. We’re going to immediately come up with several excuses as to why it makes sense for Saul to take ownership of his Church, but not us. We’re going to try and reason out that Saul is a bad example to use to show that it’s good for us get involved. First excuse we might throw out is that Saul is an apostle, a wise man, and more knowledgeable about the Scriptures than any of us here. And you’d be right. None of us has been called to be an apostle and none of us has the gifts that the Spirit had given Saul. Yet, this does not mean that you have somehow become worthless and that work you do is meaningless.

Second excuse we might use is that we’re not the kind of person to make a splash like Saul did in the church. You may feel like you’re not one who just is going to jump right on in. Again, so what? Is the only job we can do in the church preaching? Do we have to stand in front of others in order to please God with our actions? Do we have to be flashy and out in the open? No.

You might not be an apostle, or a leader, or an out in the open kind of person for the Church. But God still has work for you to do and he considers you an important part of the equation. In one of Saul’s writings, a letter to the Corinthian congregation, he talks about the Church as if it were a body. Some of us are like a hand. Others are like an eye. But plenty of us are like the parts of the body that may not be as visible or as flashy, like the foot or like the ear. Yet, if you’ve ever had a problem with these less visible parts of your body like an ankle or a rib, you would realize quite quickly how invaluable they actually are.

So for those times when you wanted the eyes to take over, or the hands, because you are only the “lowly” knee, you’ve hurt Church. You may have thought that you were being humble by letting others do the work, but you were actually being quite selfish. When you have not stepped up and taken ownership by refusing to clean the church, or not coming to our meetings, or not telling your children about bible stories, or not studying the bible on your own, you were doing the work of Satan not of God.