Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.
Thank you. How we good.
So I appreciate you all being here this morning.
Listen, let me share just a couple of quick words with you
and we'll dive into this. Just a couple things that have
kind of recently come up that are not in your worship guide.
Couple of dates to mark on your calendar for me, if you would.
We have a church plant in Tarboro for those of you who are
guests here that we love and we're, we want to support and we
want to help them with their lunch.
And so 2 Saturdays, August the 30th, let's mark it down
someplace. And September 27th, we're going
to have work days down in Tarboro.
One, the first one's going to kind of help with the place, the
physical part of it. The 27th, we need all hands on
deck. That's when we're going to go
door to door all across that whole community, inviting people
to the launch service. So mark those two dates down.
And then one other thing is we're going to have another trip
out to Western North Carolina to continue to help with some of
the relief effort. This will be a kind of a house
building trip. And so this is going to be
October 2nd through 5th. So just a couple of dates to
keep in mind. We'll, we'll give you a lot more
details in the weeks ahead. Listen, two weeks ago I shared
about our understanding of the why and The Who of the church as
I share this brief series in which I want to just invite you
to come be the King's bride. This is a series about the
church and about what we do as a church.
But then what about lead us to as well?
And all these sermons connect together and they build on one
another, whether or not it seems that way to anybody but me in
the mirror. But I talked about salvation, I
talked about the church, I talked about baptism.
And and this morning we're going to talk about the scriptural
connection of formal, formal church membership.
So let me just ask you, because each week I'm asking you an
important question. And this morning the question
is, why be a church member? That's going to be important.
Now. Next week we're going to start
defining discipleship for you. So these are just important
messages that are setting the stage for us.
Now. This should be an interesting
sermon for some of you. You might say, well, I'm already
a church member, why in the world would I need to hear this?
Well, this also might be affirming to you to recognize,
oh, that's what church membership really means, and I'm
thankful for it. Or maybe you're not a church
member and you're curious as to why should I ever even
officially join a church? So these are things we're going
to talk about for a few moments from the Word of God.
And so this could even be tough for some of you.
And so again, I just want to thank the new members for
showing us this in action. Amen.
Yeah. So just welcome, welcome,
welcome. So let's talk about a few things
this morning. This is about a seven point
sermon, so hang in there. That's no, no exaggeration.
But they're going to go quickly and we'll be out somewhere near
time or, you know, within an hour or two of it.
So listen, the first thing we need to talk about is our, our
culture and church membership. Let let me just set the stage
for us a little bit. I, you know, I, as I've
mentioned too many times, I've had the opportunity working with
a lot of churches around the world.
And one of the things that I've had the privilege of doing is
working with national Baptist leaders in other countries and,
and, and, and especially in places, frankly, where the
church is persecuted. And so been a lot of persecuted
places. And one of those opportunities
has been in the Ukraine. And whether you realize this or
not, and you might not think about this with the war that is
going on there, but in a war zone like that, the Ukrainian
Baptists have lost probably half of their churches and pastors so
far. And so I've been consulting with
them for the last couple of years to actually talk to them
about how do you help rebuild? How do you help replant, How do
you help retrain these leaders, which is a relationship that
I'll continue to try to help them with because they would
desperately love to have their churches back.
Yet I worry that here in a place of peace and freedom that we
fall prey. And this is going to sound like
a strong word, but it's the right one where we fall prey to
a satanic misunderstanding and devaluing of the church and
church membership. We, we live in a culture of
virtually lawless, unlimited individualism where most people
believe they can do whatever they want, however they want
without any repercussion. And, and we want to believe
often that what our media tells us that we deserve this or that
and we can have it all our own way and that and, and we want to
have the right to have that immediately and, and completely
to our individual autonomous satisfaction.
Teresa and I went to high school together and I grew up in this
little town in eastern Oklahoma. And this little town when I was
growing up really didn't have any fast food restaurants.
And I remember when McDonald's came to town that let me make me
sound like I'm old, which I am, but that's not the point.
It just came really late to this small town.
And my father liked hamburgers. And so, but, but before that, in
Tahlequah, OK, the metropolis of Tahlequah, you know, you had to
go to a hole in the wall mom and pop burger place where you walk
in and everybody knew him by name and he could order his
pineapple milkshake and his weird configuration of a
cheeseburger. So he goes into McDonald's and
there's poor little high school girl waiting on him and he walks
in. He has no idea how this works.
So he walks in there and he says, I'd like to have a double
cheeseburger with grilled onions.
And I'd like to have the Pickles, you know, diced up
finely. And then I, you know, I'd like
to have a pineapple milkshake. Well, the girl just stares back
at him and, and basically says, Sir, I don't have a button for
that. Well, my dad was not necessarily
the most patient human being in the world.
So bless her heart, she she experienced his impatience.
I'll leave it at that. And I remember him grabbing me
and dragging me out of McDonald's.
So my very first time to try McDonald's, I didn't even get to
try McDonald's. What a loss, you know, I mean,
what a huge loss. Obviously you can look at me and
you can realize I've been to a few McDonald's since then.
But this attitude is not simply outside the church.
Sometimes it's inside the church also.
And many want easy and comfortable doctrine and easy
and comfortable expectations to feed their own self defined
desires and and consumerism frankly.
And they expect the church to conform to and frankly entertain
them to their personal preferences or else, you know,
and this is not new, as I've shared with many of you, and I
appreciate the hundreds of you who are coming on Wednesday
nights. People often do not want real
truth. I'm telling you everything here
that we're doing connects. So our Wednesdays and Sundays
really connect more than you might think.
But listen to Second Timothy 4, which I've read on a Wednesday
night. It says, I charge in the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the
living and the dead, and by His appearing in His Kingdom.
Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season,
reproof, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
Here we go, for the time is coming when people will not
endure sound teaching, but have itching ears.
They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth
and wander off in the myths. Humanity works really hard to
rationalize and to self justify, frankly.
And as I shared one Wednesday night, this, this verb form of
will turn away. And that verse 4 literally, it's
a strong medical term that really means to twist a limb.
In other words, they're, they're they're going to get they're
going to work so hard to get away from the truth.
They're going to twist their ankles and blow out their knees
because they want to reject it and they deceive themselves.
But but one of the things that I've had to work through is the
fact that church leaders often fall prey to this and, and, and,
and they fear standing against the tide of self-centered church
definitions and self-centered church expectations lest they
lose their employment. And so a pastor recently came to
see me and just listen to what he says.
I want my church to change, but I don't want to produce any
conflict, create waves, or knock over any apple carts.
Now we we looked at his church and studied his church.
His church is absolutely dying. Nobody's being saved, Nobody's
joining the church, but they're unwilling to change to become
healthy. Well, blessing or curse, my
friends, this is what you've gotten into.
I'm a notorious apple cart kicker and wave maker, and so
we've got to understand growth never occurs without change.
It just won't. A baby doesn't stay a baby.
That cute little puppy, no matter how much we wish it
would, grows up into that big old mangy dog.
And a seed doesn't stay a seed. But, but let me just stop for a
second. And I mean this with my whole
heart. Teresa will tell you, I was a
bit overwhelmed last night, but I, I just want to express my
deepest appreciation to you, Englewood family, for your
willingness to adapt these last few weeks with our changes and
connect groups. And I especially want to call
out a certain age group. Thank you, senior adults,
because I know it was a significant change and I know
that it's required a lot of patience.
And I just appreciate you. I really, really do, and I just
want to thank you for that. And last night I got to spend
some time with a wonderful Connect group and fellowship and
they gave us a lovely house warming gift.
Frankly, I was a little overwhelmed and humbled by that.
It's just a wonderful thing to be part of a church family.
And I don't know if you know this, but last Sunday we had
more people in our Bible studies than we've had since before
COVID. And so, and it's not the numbers
that I'm after, it's the fact that I just want as many souls
as possible studying the word of God together and loving on one
another. You know what I mean?
Absolutely. So way to go Inglewood.
Thank you for that so much. And if you're not a part of any
of that, it's time to join. But because unfortunately, a lot
of people just dumb down or underestimate or even avoid the
significance of church membership.
So let's talk about this for a few moments and and talk
specifically about not just church involvement, but
membership. Let's look at the Kingdom value
of church membership. Remember that the church is the
King's bride and also the King's representative of the Kingdom
here on earth. And so she's precious and holy
and, and it must be treated with respect and with high
expectations, right? Theologian Michael Horton says
this. The visible church is where
you'll find Christ's Kingdom on earth.
And to disregard the Kingdom is to disregard its king.
So Jesus, who holds all authority in heaven and earth,
is delegated to the church, the authority to March on the
nations and to make disciples, just like you saw the Taiwanese
team do, right? Just like we're going to see
happening in Tarbor, just like we need to see happening in
Rocky Mount. So we look forward to being
together with members at some point of the Universal Church.
I have friends from all around the world and I look forward to
introducing you. And one day we're all going to
be there, every tribe, every tongue in every nation gathered
in the throne room. And I look forward to that
moment in heaven. But until that end, local
churches represent him and they represent the Great Commission
responsibility that he has delegated.
And, and we may not always do that perfectly.
Maybe we never do it perfectly, maybe we never do it perfectly,
but we're going to honestly seeking to fulfill His mission.
So we need to understand the value or His value for His body
and how that ought to dictate my commitment to her.
So in our study back in Acts, we saw Christians united with
individual but also interconnected churches.
They were added to the church and other churches were planted,
but they continued to communicate with them.
And at times it even took up offerings to help one another in
times of need. And so they identified, if you
don't understand the church, and if you're a person sitting here
and you know somebody, because I bet you do, you'll sit there and
say, well, I can serve Jesus, but I don't need the church.
You're really missing out on the bulk of the New Testament.
That's really not what the Bible teaches.
And so you've got to understand that even early on in church
history, you've got to understand this.
They knew who went, who their members were.
They identified as churches and others identified them, even
persecuted them as local churches.
They knew exactly who these people were.
So we're not created for isolation.
We're not born again into isolation.
My one of my mentors and friends, Tom Rainer, wrote this.
He said the New Testament does not have a plan for growing as a
Christian outside of the local church.
From Acts chapter 2 to Revelation chapter 3, the New
Testament is all about the local church.
And it is if you honestly read the Bible.
And so we are saved. We practice spiritual
disciplines. We are gifted individually
wonderfully by the Holy Spirit, but we are also expected to join
a local congregation and use them all for mutual edification,
for the building up the body, as well As for, and here's a cuss
word in our culture, accountability.
So after salvation, a Christian should join a church as soon as
possible with eagerness, with passion, to be used in the
greatest way with their spiritual giftedness and
service. There's no other context for
using your spiritual gifts like that.
So we do so because we simply seek.
We do. But see some, here's the
problem, I'll get there. Some people don't do this
because they're simply seeking something for themselves in the
church. And, and, and we need to, and
although we ought to be blessed by the church, we also need to
understand that we need to bring great glory to God and to be
used to build up the church. Paul talked about this all the
time, a very troubled church in Corinth, and he wrote this in
First Corinthians 12. He says to each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
That just means spiritual gift. That's the context.
And then in chapter 14, so with yourself, since you are eager
for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in
building up the church. These aren't for your individual
honor badges. This is for you to build up the
body and you've got to be in the body in order to do that.
So one of the things that we're addressing is where we're
looking at this idea that the Christian life, and this is a
great phrase, it's ideally A discipleship journey in
community. That's what it is.
The Christian, the Christian life is a discipleship journey
in the, in the context of community or in community with
others. And so one of the things that
we're addressing through our Connect groups is the idea that
our reach ministry that you're going to be hearing more and
more and more about is going to reach out to everybody in our
church role. There should be no inactive
church member. That category doesn't exist in
Scripture. And so one of the things we want
to do is love people back into. In fact, last night at this
Connect group meeting, I was just listening over listening
talk about reach. We're going to do this.
We're going to reach these people, going to reach that
people. It's so exciting.
And so if we're committed to Christ as our head, we must also
be committed to to the body, his body, the church.
There's no ecclesiological decapitation allowed.
You don't get to do that. That's not biblical.
So officially and formally commit to a local church to be
in the best position to become the most obedient disciple.
And so to believe that you can best serve Christ while not
being accountable as an official church member is, frankly, to
ignore a major percentage of the New Testament teaching.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The New Testament church understood her responsibility.
And the New Testament church, I promise you, knew who was in and
knew who was out. They had to as they faced
persecution and they faced false teaching.
They knew who was a member, and they knew who was not a member.
They had to know that every church to which Paul wrote could
be identified. They met together in a specific
city, in a specific place to serve and share together in
specific ways. And they dealt with those who
did not live the Christian life nor teach proper doctrine and
were forced to preserve and protect the integrity of the
body by knowing who was in, who was a member.
Now, on Wednesday nights, I'm teaching theological triage.
In other words, I'm teaching what are the most important
doctrines for us to believe in? What are some secondary and
tertiary doctrines? Last Wednesday night, again,
just by the way, we had the largest adult attendance on a
Wednesday night at Inglewood. I, I, it's all long before
COVID. I don't know the last time.
So you need to be here if you're not coming.
And this Wednesday night, we're going to talk about some of the
secondary and tertiary doctrines that may sound technical and
academic, but it's not. These are things we need to
believe, some that are worth dying for and some that are that
we can, we can have different interpretations about.
And how do we understand those? That's Wednesday night.
But the early church had to know.
The other church had to deal with those that were not of the
fold. They could not survive without
knowing. They didn't have a church on
every corner. They didn't have the luxury of
that much choice. They had to know.
And so they also had to practically perform Great
Commission tasks and, and missional tasks.
So #3 let's look at the practical ministry of church
membership. So to do all that, they were
commanded, they organized leadership, and they organized
delegation, and they organized ministry lists.
You need to study church history sometime.
And so in the Bible we even hear about an enrollment of widows on
a list to receive food and care. Listen to first Timothy 5.
Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of
age, having been the wife of one husband.
And our deacons right here at Inglewood are doing this.
Our, our, our, our deacons take care of our widows.
Our deacons take care of our shut insurance.
In fact, one of the, my favorite parts of the week is when I get
to go out with a Deacon and we go, I go visit shut insurance
with them every week. I get to meet these wonderful
people who are also going to be incredible prayer partners for
us. And so the early church knew who
their leaders were. They knew who their members
were. They had a list of called
qualifications for them as members.
They also knew what their ministry needs were.
And so belonging to a church includes the church taking
specific responsibility for you, and you taking specifically
specific responsibility for other members.
It's a give and take. It's a wonderful thing, and I'm
sorry if that's not what church has meant to you.
I'm sorry if no one has told you that before.
I'm sorry if there's been no expectation of that.
I'm sorry if some church leader or church has failed you.
I see this way too often in my ministry.
Sometimes churches legitimately fail in fulfilling their part of
the covenant relationship with his members.
In fact, I'm writing a book about it right now.
But just like Paul and Barnabas sometimes had to go separate
ways at one point in their missions work, we believe God is
leading Inglewood to go down a a new path to best serve Him.
And so we want to separate ourselves from any of that
negative past and move forward in a positive way.
We must be obedient to him. But then yet then, because even
like these new members, they have a chance to start in a
brand new place, a brand new family, we got to welcome them
there. A lot of these folks are going
to plug in their experienced leaders.
It's going to be wonderful. So, so right now you can
personally play a vital role by joining, growing and getting
involved right here, right now at Inglewood like you've
witnessed them doing. Let us press on to be the best.
Let us let us have the most complete example of discipleship
that we can possibly share. And I'm going to talk about
discipleship all next week. But but other churches in the
lost world around us desperately need this.
Because let me tell you something.
Let me skip practical. It's difficult, maybe impossible
to care for a flock. Well, if the shepherd and the
other sheep don't know who the actual members of the flock
really are, becomes really hard. So #4 let's look at the
submission. Well, oh, another cuss word to
church membership. People don't like that word in
this culture. It's because they don't
understand it. As I read 2 weeks ago, Jonathan
Lehman radically challenges us concerning church membership.
He says church membership is a formal relationship between a
church and a Christian, characterized by the church's
affirmation and oversight of a Christian's discipleship and the
Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in
the care of the church. Now this gets even stronger.
Listen to this. Christ does not call us to join
a church, but to submit to a church.
And we just don't think like that.
A lot of times we think this is some choice.
And if I don't like this show, I'll just go find another show.
See. And many in our culture would be
unwilling to engage in that level of accountability because
they don't want to submit to anyone and they don't understand
biblical submission. Biblical submission is like the
I do's of a wedding ceremony. The submission's not by
manipulation. It's not by coercion, but ought
to be driven in Christian marriage by a sense of God's
calling to serve and to submit to him first and then willingly
to one another because of the prior commitment to him and his
will. That's what a Christian marriage
survives on listen, we choose to submit to one another in love
and service in the church, much like a husband and wife.
I mean, listen, you got to understand God has just blessed
me in this way when I married Teresa.
We, we sacrifice for one another to have a strong marriage.
And many unfortunately don't know church being like this.
It's been something else, something wrong, something
incomplete, something human driven perhaps.
Listen to what Paul wrote, Listen to what he wrote here in
Ephesians chapter 5. Look carefully then, how you
walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time,
because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Not get drunk with wine for that's debauchery, but be filled
with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with
your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the
Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting to one another of reverence for Christ, not just
reverence for one another, but because of Him first.
So he challenges this local church in Ephesus to live wisely
in a very unwise world. They were surrounded by paganism
and to encourage one another in action and worship according to
God's will. And as they're full of the
Spirit, to willingly, thankfully submit to one another, not
necessarily just because of one another, but because of Christ.
That's the key. And we missed that point in
church life in our experience unfortunately, and in our human
earthly minds and values. We want church and frankly
everything else to be about us and only see the problem of
submission to other humans and don't connect it to the
submission to Christ. So we may just think it's about
that pastor who seeks to Lord authority over you or some power
hungry power group in the church who want to run the church
rather than trusting God to God his bride.
But the church has to be more than that.
Paul drives home his point. He continues in Ephesians 5.
Wives, submit your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband
is the head of the wife. He visits Christ as the head of
the church, his body and his and is himself its Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should
submit and everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church, and
gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify, make might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water
with the Word, so that he might present the Church to himself in
splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that
she might be holy without blame, without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own
bodies. He who loves his wife loves
himself. For no one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ
does the Church, because we are members of His body.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast
to his wife, and the two shall become one.
Now listen to this. This mystery is profound, and
I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and
let the wife see that she respects her husband.
So this image of marriage and this image of the Church go hand
in hand and that, and that's part of the part of the point we
submit to one another in Christian marriage.
We do that in that relationship, thankfully, joyfully, willingly,
not just because of our love for our spouse, but because we have
submitted to and love Christ and believe with all of our hearts
that our marriage is his will. And in difficult times, your
marriage can survive because both partners recognize
submission to Christ as the key and not simply to one another.
Now listen, I believe it is God's will for me to be married
to Teresa Joe Baker. God has blessed me with the
kindest, sweetest, greatest Christ follower I've ever met on
this planet. My wife and I'm honored to be
her husband. I'm difficult to get along with
sometimes. I'm not sure that she's always
honored to be my wife, but I'm very honored to be her husband.
And, and listen to this. I believe it is God's will for
me to. It's stronger than that.
I believe I would have been disobedient and in sin if I did
not marry her. I believe it was God's will.
And when I perform a wedding ceremony and they go through
intensive premarital pastoral care, they have to express in
writing why they know it is God's will for them to marry
their fiance and they would be in sin if they did not get
married. Then we discuss those truths and
I share that as part of the wedding ceremony.
That's a major part of the wedding ceremony.
Why these two people know beyond any shadow of a doubt it is
God's will for them to be married to one another.
This is serious business, church membership serious too.
It's parallel. It's a it's an image of one of
the other. Joining the church ought to be
something you know is God's will.
Listen to says in Ephesians 521, submitting to one another out of
reverence for Christ. See, it's the same relationship
that we have. This is the key to strong
marriage. It's the key to your church
membership. So I want you to believe it's
clearly God's will for you to be a member of Englewood Baptist
Church before you seek to join her.
And Jesus described this type of submission as service.
He says in Matthew 20, He says, but Jesus called them to him and
said, you know, that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over
them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
It should not be so among you. But whoever would be great among
you must be your servant. And whoever must be first among
you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Point #5 another cuss word, the accountability of church
membership. This is something that some
people don't ever want to think about.
They want to deny that it's true.
We gather to serve him and we gather to serve one another.
But to to best do that, we must know who is really a member of
the flock. Endeavour and Alexander wrote
this. Church membership is means by
which the boundaries of church membership are drawn.
We know who you are. According to John 10, the Good
Shepherd knows his sheep and they know his voice, right?
They are identifiable and he'll leave the 99 to go after the
one, but he's got to know he has 100 in the 1st place to do that.
This becomes very practical and logistical for leaders.
A coach needs to know who his players are and what position
that they're skilled at. Just as a general needs to know
each soldier in their talents and Christian leaders, pastors
must also know the specific parts of the local body.
What are your gifts? What is your spirit of skill, as
Exodus would describe it? What are your talents and
experiences so that together we serve in the greatest way?
We're not going to know that unless you're a member.
See, we actually bear as leaders the responsibility for specific
sheep through the Church of God. Peter writes about it.
He says in first Peter 5 shepherd, the flock of God that
is among you, exercising oversight not by compulsion, but
willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but
eagerly or in the book of Acts chapter 20.
Take careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock
in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for
the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
And we simply so we simply cannot be ignorant as shepherds
of who the specific sheep are in order to serve God well, we need
to know who you are so we can make sure that there there are
people who are assigned to you, to minister to you, as well as a
place of service for you to be assigned to serve others, to use
your calling, to use your giftedness to serve God will.
We cannot fulfill that obligation if if we're not
involved with one another. We can't fulfill our obligation
to other Christians, and we can't do it to church leaders
without the personal, specific involvement in the local church.
And other Christians and church leaders can't fulfill their
obligations to you without your specific involvement.
Now, many don't like this, either due to their
individualism or some lousy past church experience.
I know so many around the world who would love the privilege and
opportunity to become a member of a church again.
Dever and Alexander Wright Corrective discipline assumes
that it's important for a person himself to know that he's a
member of the church. He can't be expected to submit
to the church's discipline, another cuss word, if he is
unaware of his own membership in the church.
It also assumes that other members need to know whether or
not a person is a member. Listen to what Paul wrote to the
Corinthians in chapter 5. For what have I had to do with
judging outsiders? Is it not those outside the
church whom you are to judge? Excuse me, is that is not those
inside the church whom you are to judge.
God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among
you. So the church is responsible for
the members spiritual health, but there's no way for spiritual
accountability to work if no one knows who a member is.
They could simply walk away. They could simply reject any
correction. They could simply even reject
encouragement and not be redeemed like a Matthew 18
passage would suggest. Or in Second Corinthians chapter
2. For such a one, this punishment
by the majority is enough. See them.
The church held people accountable.
Second Thessalonians chapter 3. If anyone does not obey what we
say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to
do with him, that he may be ashamed.
Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
But many in our culture just don't like this part.
The Bible tells us in multiple places that the church must hold
her members accountable and even discipline them.
And no matter if you've ever seen it or not, or don't like it
at all, the Scripture is full of it.
That that that this designated, shepherded, defined, obedient
group of people watch out for one another and protect the the
sanctity of the body. So as imperfect people, because
that's who and what we are saved by grace.
We imitate Jesus by loving others through intentional
relationships for encouragement, accountability, and holiness.
We do that corporately. We do that individually.
But fall in humanity is often much more skilled at competition
than community. They often seek to get rather
than to give, to promote themselves rather than lift one
another up. Again, listen to Tom Rayner.
You don't get to treat the church like a social club where
you pay your dues, the pastors and staff for your hired hands,
and you expect certain perks in return.
Sacrificing self for the benefit of others is at the very heart
of the mind and the life of Christ.
So number six, let's look at the pathways of church membership.
For many of you, the next step is to become an official member
like these you have seen today. This is reserved for those
who've been born again, biblically baptized by
immersion, and are seeking to serve the Lord with all their
hearts and lives and around the world.
As I've said a minute many times, I work with persecuted
people who pay tremendous prices for their membership in a local
church. They're starving for more and
more churches too. But but true discipline is our
true discipleship. True discipleship is not
measured by attendance alone. It's not.
We love having you here and if you're a guest visiting today, I
know it may be a weird message, but if you're here today and
you're visiting today, we love having you here and we want you
to come back. But this is just the beginning.
It's too easy to walk away. It's too easy to reject
accountability. It's too easy to find someplace
else to just attend. So don't just hang out with the
bride. Commit to the bride and and
don't just be present to check off some religious duty list or
to appease someone else or to maintain some family tradition.
Join and be an active part of the official community.
I know people who will not officially join a church in
North Carolina, in Nash County in Rocky Mountain.
I know people who will not officially join a church because
their previous generations belong to a different one
grandma belong to a different church, and they see church
membership as more of a family tradition than a present
commitment to service in God's Kingdom.
And they think by leaving another church and joining this
one that they're somehow defying or neglecting that family
tradition. And I just want to say to you,
that's not true. You're actually affirming the
discipleship and the foundation they built into you so that you
could go on and serve well in a new place.
You honour them. So don't miss this opportunity
to use your giftedness and calling to serve others.
And so our church constitution and bylaws is full of, of, of
definitions and expectations. There are expectations of
membership. You don't get to be inactive
here according to our to our bylaws.
Did you know that that members here are actually supposed to
hold you accountable according to what this document says?
Did you know that membership can even be terminated according to
this document? Did you know that church
discipline is actually described?
I promise it's right here. I have it, I could read it all,
but I'm not going to. It's a serious business.
So #7 As we close, let's just think about the decision for
church membership. Christ established His church
for specific purposes, and He knew we desperately needed it to
be the disciples that we're supposed to be.
There's a reason why solitary confinement's a severe
punishment. That's not who we're designed or
created to be. The early church devoted
themselves to the fellowship and breaking of bread.
They devoted themselves to Koinonia.
You know that word which means to hold things in common, but it
also means to enter into each other's life.
And so we're to enter into one another's life.
And they were single mindedly, continuously devoted to that in
the book of Acts, the Bible says so church commitment requires
focused action. It requires intentionality.
It's not going to happen by accident.
And, and, and we have been saved and gifted and called to use our
giftedness to commit to serve one another, to serve this
community. But unfortunately, there's some
who avoid, intentionally avoid such closeness with others.
They they don't want to be known.
They don't want to have that kind of accountability in their
life. And the result is they make it
very, very difficult, if not impossible to receive the
spiritual support they need in life.
And then they wonder where God is when crisis happens.
So to simply attend as part of a crowd of hundreds of people,
it's an incomplete discipleship journey.
And, and, and it might be a great start.
And again, we're overjoyed that you are here, but it's not going
to be enough to become all that you could be.
We're not called to be several independent bodies meeting
together on Sunday morning or whenever you feel like it, or
whenever you're forced to come and dragged here by Mama.
We are here for an accountable to one another, and when one
member slips and falls, the other must be there to pick them
up and to catch them and to hold them and help them get their
footing again. We're bound together by the Holy
Spirit. We're devoted to entering into
each other's lives with love, to strengthen the young and
struggling believer, to protect a weaker brother and sister in a
tough spot, to love back the inactive, wandering members, to
reach a lost world all around us.
But this can't be real if you hold people at an emotional,
spiritual, and relational distance, trust in God's plan
and submit to Him. The early church was.
Here's a word for the day. The early church was was
Homothymodon. It means they are of 1 accord.
They were one together and compared to their old legalistic
religion this was revolutionary. This was life altering to them.
It was freeing to them. And our culture is starving.
This post postmodern pre Christian culture is starving to
death for that kind of authentic community.
Out of their fiercely independent autonomy and desire
to define their own personal truth, they seek others with
whom they can share their belief and and who will believe with
them. For for others, that will help
them find comfort and assurance in the midst of the chaos in in
which they live. And this church should be the
leading peer community of truth for them.
But we've seen a lot of poor examples.
So Englewood, we got to show them.
I need you to join us to take whatever step.
Your first step is to become a real covenant member of this
church. Right now.
Who's going to come to begin that process?
Who needs to be saved? Who needs to be baptized?
Who needs to go through our, our, our discover Inglewood
process? Just like you've seen all of
these people and many more. There are many more getting
ready to go through the next one.
On your Next Steps card, you'll see a little QR code down here.
You can either fill this out, drop it one of these boxes, or
you can click on that QR code and you can sign up for that and
we'll follow up with you. We'll help you with those steps.
But right now, in a moment when we sing, I'm going to invite you
to come. Pastors are going to be here.
They're going to be people in that Next Steps room right over
there who would love to visit with you privately, discreetly.
But what's my next step for church membership so that then
we can truly make disciples together, uniting our
giftedness, uniting Our Calling to serve together as a family,
as a body, as a bride and members.
I hope that you'll show your support with those who need to
come, that you'll let them know that they would be most welcome
to join the family and to join you on this faith journey.
So let's pray and encourage them right now.
Father, we thank you that we were never designed to do this
alone. That Father, you call us to be a
disciple, but that's not something we do by ourself.
That's something we do together. That's something we do in
community. That's something we do as part
of a family. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for the new members who've joined us.
Father, I met with many of them myself and, and know their
hearts and know their desire to serve.
Some of them are experienced leaders.
We thank you, Father for bringing them our way,
strengthening this body, the Father.
There may be someone here and the very first step they need to
take is salvation. They recognize they've never
trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
That's the first step. For others, it might be to be
biblically baptized like people are going to be next week.
For others, it's it's a conversation about how do I move
my membership from one church to another so that I can serve here
because that's what I believe God wants me to do.
That's the only time they should do it is because they believe
you want them to, Father. So Father, as we sing in just a
moment, I pray people will come. People can come and pray at
these steps, but also pray they'll go to the next steps
room to share with those who just love to sit down with them,
have a casual conversation, take their time to talk through this
and pray with them. So Father, bless us now in
Christ's name, Amen. Stand with me.
We're going to sing together. Some of us will be up here, some
folks are going to be over there in that next steps room.
You don't have to come up here first.
You can go right over there or you can come see us first.
You can come pray whatever you need to do as we sing.
Thank you so much for listening today.
And I also hope that you'll go to
ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless you and your families.
Thank you once again.