Worship Faithfully Series

“What is Expected of a Church Member: Worship Faithfully”

Introduction:

When you commit yourself to the membership of the church you are joining a 2,000-year-old institution established by Jesus himself. Jesus said, “I will establish my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” In Acts 2, it says that those who believed the message and were baptized were added to the church by God. Did you notice that the people did not have an option about being members of the church? Being a Christian and being a church member went hand in hand.

I do not believe that there is a more important institution on this Earth than the Church. I do not believe there is a greater voice of grace and truth than the church.

People always want to know what is expected of them before they commit to something. That is why most likely before you accept a new job you will read through the job description to know what is expected of you. It would not be good to dive into a job not knowing what your employer wanted you to accomplish. Many times we want to know the minimal expectations are, because many people like to meet just what is enough to make it by. We are like that some in our relationships with Christ. A lot of people may want to know what is expected of them as members of the Church. People may want to know what they need to do to be in good standing with God. This is a kind of touchy subject, because we as the church do not have any requirements other than a person be a Christian in order to be a member of the church here. While we do not revoke membership of people we do not feel are doing their role, I do feel the Bible makes it clear that God has some expectations of the members of the church. We set no requirements for you as members of Oak Grove Christian Church, but God sets expectations for you as a member of Christ’s Church, which he bought with his own blood. The expectations that I am going to talk about for the next few weeks are not ones set forth by me or the eldership, but are set forth by God in his word, which every person is subject to.

The reason why I bring these next few messages over the next few weeks is because in our world and church there is a lot of confusion. People assume that if they come to church every now and then they are saved, they assume that if they are members of a particular congregation than they will go to Heaven. Many times you will read the obituaries in the newspaper and see someone’s name and they will say they were a member maybe of Oak Grove Christian Church, but they have not been around for many years. Are we a member of the church because we came down the aisle at invitation time and placed our membership and are on the church role book? Are we members of a church because that is where we were baptized? No! Church membership is not a one-time event that we do, but is a constant lifestyle that we live.

Church membership is extremely important. Not necessarily membership to a particular local congregation, but membership to the Church is important because it is the church that is the Bride of Christ which Christ is returning for, and if someone is not a part of the church they are not saved.

One thing that the Bible plainly teaches is that God has always expected His people to worship, not only privately, but also together as a body. That is why God set the Sabbath day as a day of worship for the Jews. That is why God set apart certain days for his people to meet together to worship Him. We as Christians worship on Sunday corporately. Is this something that God really expects you to do if you a part of His church? What if you don’t do it? Can’t you worship at home in privacy just as well? Those are all questions that many of us want to know the answers to when it comes to worship.

Text: Psalms 96

I. Why Should We Worship Regularly?

Perhaps some want to know the answer to why should we worship on a regular basis. Perhaps some want to know how many times they should be at church. I believe that there are several reasons why we should worship together on a regular basis.

a. We Were Created to Worship

Isaiah 43:20-21

I want you to know that God does not need out love and acceptance of him to make himself happy. Granted, he wants us to love him more than anything else and he wants us to be with Him more than anything else. Still, we must understand that we were created to worship. I believe this is why every civilization that has ever lived has had some idea of worshiping a god of some type. God didn’t create us because he was lonely, but he created us to be in fellowship with him, and so that we might bring praise to Him for who He is and what He has done. So, worship is what we were intended to do when we were created.