The Role Of A Church Member Series

Introduction

Welcome everyone! I hope your week has been well. It’s good to be with you on this fine morning.

Today, we’re wrapping up a series where we are looking at the different roles within in the church.

Next week, we’re going to kick off a new series on the After Life. We all have questions about life after death-What happens when we die? Is there a heaven? Is there really a hell? Are we really good enough? What happens when we die?

We’re going to spend the next three weeks talking about that so I hope you can be here for that.

Today, we’re going to finish talking about the church and the different roles within the church. Many of us know the church is made of attendees, volunteers and leaders (elders and deacons) and each role is vital to the health and well being of the church.

The last couple of week’s we’ve been talking about the spiritual leaders and the super servants of the church-the elders and deacons and their role.

Today, we’re going to shift the focus to the body of Christ. We’re going to talk about how we can be a good and contributing member to the body of Christ.

Before we jump into this, let’s be a little honest about something, there are going to be things that we talk about that if we applied to a different season of life, we would normally be doing it. The reality is we’re still living in a Covid kind of world.

What may be normal for some isn’t always normal for others? As the old saying goes, ‘Season come and season go,’ and so maybe you seat here finding yourself in a different season. A season of frustration, a season of hurt, and a season of not understanding.

You just can’t do the things you want to or the things that you use to and its frustration. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok. It won’t always be this way and it won’t last forever. Where ever you find yourself during this season of life just be obedient to Jesus and cling to Him.

There will come a time when God may restore and bring back the things that you desire or He may give you a completely different task. Just continue to cling to Him and seek Him out in this season.

So as you are listening today there might be things you are not able to do right now, but there are other things that you might be able to go all in on.

Today, I’m going to give you six different ways you can be a good member within the body of Christ

Slide 1. Good Members Are Present

The most obvious way to express your commitment to God’s church is by being in it on a regularly bases. Understand your physical presences matters.

Slide Paul said, “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” Colossians 3:16 (NLT)

Now understand the early church did have access to the Old Testament, but they didn’t have the New Testament or any other kind of Christian literature-like we have today.

And so meeting together and being present with one another was a priority for the early church.

Because within those meetings people would share the Good News of Jesus Christ. They would share the stories of the miracles. They would share his parables and His deep spiritual truths. They would share the stories about His run-ins with the religious leaders and how he stood firm against them and their hypocrisy.

And most of all they would share the story about the raisin Savior who came and made away for all people to experience the grace and mercy of the Father.

And what’s interesting is that they just didn’t tell these stories with everyone sitting in a circle.

No sometimes these deep spiritual truth were also told in the form of a song. It wasn’t uncommon for the early church to use music to help teach about the Savior. They would use psalms, hymns, and other spiritual music.

And so they made meeting together a priority so that these stories and these spiritual truths could be passed on from person to person-generation to generation.

And we still see this happening today.

And when we make showing up a priority man it’s such an encouragement to the people around us. Because I really don’t think we understand how our physical presence can make an impact on someone else.

Because what’s easier for someone, is it easier for someone to worship on Sunday morning when this thing is more than half full or is it easier to worship when this place is looking like a ghost town.