I Am A Church Member

Kidz World Today - Children’s Church

1 Corinthians 12:27 NKJV

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

Confession of Faith

I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith!

A Tale of Two Church Members

Tony

Earl and Kevin

Ther

Earl and Kevin attended church here at UCF, as a matter of fact they met here! Things were going along well for both them and their families! Both men were married, both in their early to mid 40’s, both had 2 kids!

Earl and Kevin would meet weekly and have breakfast, talk about their two favorite teams - Earl liked the 49’ers and Kevin liked the Cowboys!

But this particular Saturday morning when they met - Earl could tell something was bothering Kevin!

He finally asked Kevin what’s up - looks like something is on your mind!

Kevin said me and my family have decided to leave UCF

I came to the church to learn the deep truths about the bible, but Pastor Ken is just not feeding us! Not only that - there are several people in the church who are just hypocrites! Don’t you realize - Cynthia is having an affair on her husband! Several people are still going out to bars and drinking heavily and there are still in leadership roles at the church!

Then someone told me they ask Pastor Ken to go visit a family member at the church who was having hernia surgery and he didn’t go!

Kevin then said to Earl, man you and your family are cool, you are one of the few families we enjoy, but I can’t take the hypocrites at the church - so we are leaving!

His final statement was we are Two different types of church members

What’s The Difference?

Many of us have lost or never understood the biblical understanding of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ

We join churches expecting others to serve us, to feed us, and to care for us.

We don’t like the hypocrites in the church, but we fail to see our own hypocrisies.

I Am A Church Member

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 5). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I Am A Church Member

Edition.

I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God!

I Am A Church Member

In the next few messages, I want us to look at and reevaluate, rediscover the joy of church membership and what the bible says about being a member of the body of Christ!

At the end of this series - My prayer is that you will be new or renewed attitude about church membership!

The Country Club Mindset!

Country Club Membership means perks. Membership means privileges. Membership means others will serve me. Just pay the going rate, and you can have others taking care of you while you enjoy a life of leisure. And, tragically, this understanding of membership is what many church members hold. “This is my church, so you have to do things they way I want or I won’t come and won't pay my tithes!

The Church Country Club members -For them, membership is about receiving instead of giving, being served instead of serving, rights instead of responsibilities, and entitlements instead of sacrifices. This wrongful view of membership sees the tithes and offerings as membership dues that entitle members to a never-ending list of privileges and expectations, instead of an unconditional cheerful gift to God.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 10). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith!

What Does The Bible Say About Church Membership?

of membership sees the tithes and offerings as membership dues that entitle members to a never-ending list of privileges and expectations, instead of an unconditional cheerful gift to God.

1 Corinthians 12:12–27 NKJV

12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

I can see it through the eyes of my faith!

1St Cor 12:12-27

Membership Means We Are All Important Parts of the Whole Body

Paul uses the metaphor that the Church is like a body with many parts or many members

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 11). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 11). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

1 Cor 12:28-31

1 Corinthians 12:28–31 NKJV

28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 11). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Love is the attitude and action all members should have

Membership Means Everything We Say and Do Is Based on a Biblical Foundation of Love

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 13). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

1 Corinthians 13 NLT

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 11). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Many refer to Chapter 13 as the Love - chapter! While there is nothing wrong with using the love chapter in these contexts, its original meaning was to demonstrate how church members relate one to another.

Membership Means We Are Different but We Still Work Together

Each part, therefore, has to do its work, or the whole body suffers. There is a beautiful diversity in the midst of unity in church membership. The Bible makes it clear that if one part does not do its job, the whole body does not function well. But if one part does its job well, the whole body rejoices and is stronger:

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 13). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

1 Corinthians 12:26 NKJV

26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 12). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 12). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (pp. 12-13). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Church Membership Is Functioning Membership

Do you know how to remain a member of a country club? Pay your dues. Do that and people will be available to serve you.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 14). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Do you know how to remain a biblical member of a church? Give abundantly and serve without hesitation.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 13). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Biblical church membership gives without qualification. Biblical membership views the tithes and offerings as joyous giving. There are no strings attached. Biblical church membership serves and ministers as a natural way of doing things. Biblical church membership is functioning membership.

One of the ongoing questions you should ask yourself and God in prayer is: “How can I best serve my church?”

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 15). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

You should never ask yourself if you should be serving your church.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (pp. 14-15). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

If you are a member, you must be a functioning member. It’s just that simple.

I am a Church Member

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 15). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

My First Pledge

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (pp. 16-17). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I am a church member. It’s not membership as in a a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in : “Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it” ().

Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, whether I am an “eye,” an “ear,” or a “hand.”

As a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others.

I will remember that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” ().

Next Steps

Read The Bible In A Year

Thank God in Prayer for 500 people to Attend UCF Weekly

Make Every Sunday - Back To Church Sunday!

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 18). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 18). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 18). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.