What Is My Duty To My Church? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: August 18, 2007

Date Preached: August 19, 2007

Where Preached: OZHBC (PM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: A Study in 1 Peter

Sermon Title: What is my duty to my church?

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:22 - 25

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love for the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flowers of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, 25 but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Introduction:

Duty and responsibility are words that many people TALK about, but they are not something that many people LIVE by… I believe that duty and responsibility are 2 things people do not want to deal with because it interferes with their lives.

But the reality of the world reveals that in the physical world we ALL have to deal with duty and responsibility all the time, whether we want to or not. Some people choose to ignore their duties and responsibilities in life and it ultimately leads to unhappiness and failure.

But there are others in this world that accept their roles and responsibilities, like all the…

Dads out there whose duty and responsibility is to provide for their families. He is tasked to provide them with shelter, food and protection from the outside world. We see dads all the time understanding this duty and responsibility and doing what it takes to meet their responsibilities and to fulfill their duties as a dad and husband.

Like all the moms out there whose duty and responsibility is to provide for their families as well. Moms may be part of the financial provision for their family OR they may be the nurturing provider, OR in many cases they find themselves handling both!

Moms all around the world understand that when their child comes into this world, that they have a duty and a responsibility to protect, shelter and nurture that child.

• What about all the employees out in the world that have their own duties and responsibilities at work…

• What about all the students out there that have their own duties and responsibilities in school

• And there are those who take these duties and responsibilities seriously, and there are those who do not!

But this evening I am gonna meddle a bit into your own lives…I am gonna step on some toes and make some here a bit uncomfortable! I don’t do this for pleasure, but I do this because it is what God has called me to do!

I have found that when it comes to the spiritual world that many who claim Christ as Savior and Lord, simply do not think their Christian DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY is important. They want to claim the privilege of salvation, but they reject the duty and responsibility that comes with salvation!

In their minds they think, “I am saved, I am part of the kingdom, and the Bible tells me that God would never leave NOR forsake me, it promises me that nothing I do can take me out of God’s hand! So preacher, I don’t care what you say I need to do, I don’t HAVE to DO anything to be saved!”

Well, in the strictest sense of salvation that statement is true, in that you can’t DO anything to be saved! You cannot work for your salvation! But this viewpoint is missing the point altogether!

Salvation leads to service… not the opposite! I am not saying that if you are not willing to fulfill your duties and responsibilities of salvation that you will lose your salvation! Nowhere in the Bible supports such a statement!

But, I want you to understand something tonight that you may have NEVER ever thought about before. Being saved and having eternal assurance is NOT what salvation is all about!

Being saved just to have heaven as your eternal home… being saved just to avoid the eternal judgment of God… these are the benefits of our salvation but not the end!

Being saved is NOT about our eternal security in Christ, but it is all about service to the One who has saved us! It is all about being obedient and submissive to His plans and purpose. It is all about doing what He is leading you to do! Being saved is all about being willing to look at what God wants and ignore what YOU want!

1. Being saved is about loving God…(v.22a)

22a – “…since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth thru the Spirit…”