Have you ever thought to yourself, is church membership even biblical? Has someone ever said to you, listen friend, I don't need to join a church. I'm a Christian and that's sufficient. Well, this evening, we want to consider the topic understanding church membership, and by that, I mean the biblical and theological reasoning behind the practice of joining a church. Why would we do that? Now, there is some resistance to the idea of joining a church, and several reasons can be heard from time to time, and I want to give you some I've heard over the years. Four examples of resistance. Number one, Well, there's no verse in the Bible that tells me to join a church. Or number two, I'm a member of the universal church already. No more is needed than that. Or number three, joining a church feels too much like being a member of an organization. I don't really like the way that feels. Because maybe with that third reason, this person is quite averse to joining anything. And so they're like, listen, I don't join anything. So I'm not going to join a church. It's going to be consistent. Or fourthly, listen, joining a church sounds like there might be expectations placed upon me. I do not want any of those. So these are four examples of things that I've heard over the years about the notion of joining a local church. And this is nothing new under the sun. These are reasons that would certainly precede our generation and that will follow our generation. Reasons that might come to someone's mind about the notion of joining a church. Baptists did not make up church membership. Besides the Baptist tradition, there are other faith traditions that join churches or have their Candidates join churches. The question is, is it biblical? Should Christians join a local church? Not only is it biblical, is this therefore a responsibility we have? Christians are members of the universal church and by that I mean when someone is saved, they are saved and in Christ just like any other believer around the world is saved and in Christ if they've trusted him. We belong to a universal church. The saints throughout the ages, the saints in the ages to come, no doubt, it will all be true that we are all the great cloud of witnesses, the universal church. This happens upon conversion, a member of the body of Christ globally. But in the New Testament, the people of God are committed to local churches. Universal church membership is not denied by the New Testament, but it does not end there. In the New Testament, the people of God are committed to local churches, and the word membership is simply a word that we're using to describe commitment. That's what we mean by that. We don't mean that the church is like any other organization. And somebody might say, well, listen, I get phone calls all the time or advertisements in the mail always wanting me to join something. I don't want to join anything. But we're talking about the notion of commitment to a body of Christ locally. Christians are members of the universal church, but something more is taught in the word of God. In the Baptist Catechism of 1677, question 104 says, what is the duty of those rightly baptized? And the answer, it is the duty of those rightly baptized to give up or join themselves to some visible orderly church of Jesus Christ, that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Question 105 of the Baptist Catechism, what is the visible church? The Visible Church is the organized society of professing believers in all ages and places wherein the gospel is truly preached and the ordinances of baptism in the Lord's Supper are rightly administered. We're talking about being members of the universal church by conversion and being members of the local body of Christ, the Visible Church, by commitment. We're talking about conversion and commitment and that the Bible teaches both for those in Christ. In order to capture the reasoning, both biblical and theological, about this topic tonight, I felt it would be helpful to give 10 supporting reasons, my 10 theses, of why church membership is biblical. There are some blanks on the board. And that is so that I don't give everything away ahead of time right on the board for you tonight, but to walk through it one by one. And I'm not going to take time to fill in the blanks, though I do want to review them along the way. 10 reasons why church membership is biblical. And along the way, I want to give textual support and biblical reasoning about each one. There are texts that imply something like church membership if it's to be kept. There are texts that seem to assume some kind of commitment to a body of Christ for that text to make sense. And so the reasoning will work in terms of both identifying an assumption and following toward an implication through these biblical texts. Reason number one of ten. The New Testament letters were written to organized churches. The New Testament letters were written to organized churches. 27 New Testament books, 21 of them are letters. Of the 21 letters, you see these letters addressed. Addressed to cities, addressed to churches, addressed to individuals, if it's something like Timothy or Titus or Philemon. But when the churches are addressed, they are associated with locations. For example, the book of Philippians is written to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. but also in Philippians 1.1 to the overseers and deacons who are at this church. These are church officers. It turns out that there was church government, an organized church that we can imply existed because there are overseers and deacons leading and serving. Letters were written to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 1, 2. The churches of Galatia, Galatians 1, 2. The church in Philippi, Philippians 1, 1. The church in Rome, Romans 1, 7. In other words, if you were not committed to a local body of Christ, you didn't receive these letters. Just think about what must be implied. If these letters are sent, and it wasn't to something like 7012 Shipley Lane, these early church believers met first in homes. And therefore, your intentionality to gather with a body of Christ would ensure that as the word of God was taught and preached, and if letters were sent and received, you would receive it in Philippi if you were at that church. Not if you were just saying, oh, I'm part of the universal church, I don't need to gather anywhere with anybody. Well then the whole notion of the New Testament letters written to churches assumes that they are organized, and like in the Church of Philippi, there are overseers and deacons presiding in the church. So point number one, reason number one why church membership is biblical is because people were supposed to gather and hear the words of the apostles in organized churches that initially met in homes. We see this in Romans chapter 16, where there is a particular person in Romans 16 addressed as the one whose church met in her home. New Testament letters. were written to organized churches. And therefore there is this notion of a body of Christ, a visible body of Christ, that is brought into the foreground of the minds of these readers. No letters are coming to them. It's not like they were just publishing it on the town square so that anybody who claimed to be some ambiguous follower of Jesus would come across these letters. Written to organized churches. Reason number two. There are reports in the New Testament of people being counted and added. There are reports in the New Testament of people being counted and added. Acts chapter 2 verse 41, Peter preaches in Acts 2 and one of the results is told in verse 41. So those who received his word were baptized. Now, that doesn't mean they were baptized just anywhere or by anyone. There is an awareness by the biblical author that these converts would have come forward and said, I want to be baptized. I want to identify myself, not just as a part of the universal church. I want to be associated with the believers visibly. I want to be baptized. And so these are baptized and added, it tells us in Acts 2.41. And those added that day were about 3,000 souls. So people are being received into the midst here who are responding to the word preached, and they are being baptized, and they are being counted, and they are being added. These souls matter. And these souls are being incorporated into the visible practice of the church. In Acts 16, Verse five, so the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. So the churches were strengthened and they increased. How do they know that they increased? Because people who responded to the gospel said so. They increased in numbers because these respondents were baptized and counted and added. That's how Luke knows they increased in number. And it tells us people were added to those churches, being strengthened in the faith, and increasing in numbers. There's some kind of formal recognition of being incorporated, baptized, and counted among the Christians. In 1 Timothy 5, leaving Acts for a moment, we notice in one of Paul's last letters of his life, in 1 Timothy 5.9, he says, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband. And he's talking here about believers in Ephesus, to which Timothy is going to be ministering and overseeing some administrative matters, that there is going to be an understanding about who the widows are in their midst. They're known. It's like these are the widows that belong with us. And we actually are going to know enough about them in our visible church setting that we're going to be able to incorporate their age one way or the other. If they're less than 60, they're not enrolled in this particular regard. If they're over 60, they are enrolled. These are people who are incorporated and formally recognized within the church. New Testament letters were written to organized churches. There are reports in the New Testament of people being counted and added. Number three, elders are called to shepherd a particular flock. Elders are called to shepherd a particular flock. First Peter five verse two, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Pause for a moment here before we look at the next text from Hebrews 13. In 1 Peter 5, shepherd the flock that is among you. There's something very specific about that that Peter is expecting his readers to be able to understand as they receive these instructions. These overseers are not the overseers of Christians anywhere and everywhere. I've had some pastors of some churches say to me, when I've gone to my particular church, people in the church have said to me, well, you know, we really think of the pastor as the community's pastor. Well, that's not what 1 Peter 5 says. 1 Peter 5 does not say he's the pastor of a particular city, the pastor of a region or a place, or of a particular village or location, the community at large. He's the pastor of the flock. How do you identify what that flock is? How do you know who's under your oversight? Is it just any believer who comes in those doors and that may stay for a few weeks or not, who might not even have a right understanding of the gospel but proclaim themselves to be a Christian? How do you know how to identify the flock? And it sounds pretty important because in 1 Peter 5, he expects him to exercise oversight and willingly as God would have you do it. And so there is a responsibility and an accountability under God. They need to be able to identify who the flock is. There's a lot at stake spiritually. Hebrews 13, 17 says, the leaders are those keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account. Well, how do you know who you're going to give an account for? Is it just anybody that claims to be a believer? Anybody just sits in a pew in a church? Or is there an understanding of those who can comprise the recognized flock, those whose souls are entrusted to the leaders for watchkeeping? Who makes up this flock? How do you know who to shepherd? Whose souls are the leaders entrusted with? Elders are called to shepherd a particular flock. Church membership is how you identify that. Church membership is the practical means of identifying the flock to be shepherded in the oversight of souls. Number four, the practice of excommunication involves removal from something you belong to. The practice of excommunication involves removal from something you belong to. if someone did not belong to a church. then excommunicating them means nothing. In other words, what are you expelling them from? An excommunication in the gospels and in the letters was not primarily about sending them out from attending your church. It's well understood that even in the New Testament days and beyond, those who were breaking fellowship with the church were still welcome to hear the gospel. They were just treated as unbelievers and not recognized by what they had earlier claimed and confessed. The practice of excommunication involves removal from something you belong to. Here's some texts. Matthew 18, 17. The church must treat the unrepentant sinner as, quote, a Gentile and a tax collector, which means to consider them an unbeliever. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2, Paul says, let him who has done this be removed from among you. And he's talking about a particular egregious sin that has not been responded to with repentance and that the church has not done anything with in order to identify and remove this member. Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 1 Corinthians 5 13, purge the evil person from among you. The final stage of church discipline is something called excommunication. The expulsion of someone from the fellowship of the saints must imply it is a fellowship to which that person belongs. But how do you know they belong? Is it just because they've been around for a few days or a few weeks or a few months? Like, how do you know they belong? And that removing them from that fellowship or excommunicating them in the final stage of church discipline would mean anything to them. The practice of excommunication involves removal from something you belong to. Number five, taking matters of discipline to the church assumes an identifiable church body. Taking matters of discipline to the church assumes an identifiable church body. Back to Matthew 18. In verse 17, Jesus is talking about pleading with people to turn from sin. And if that person will not hear you, your brother refuses to listen, you're to take others. And if they don't listen to the others as well, then he says, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. But how do you know who that is? How do you know to whom you bring the cases of church discipline? Who is the church? Is it anybody off the street that comes in and claims that they're a Christian? If they gather together, do they hear these matters of church discipline as well? How do you identify the church? And if he refuses to listen to the church, Jesus says, then you're to consider him as a tax collector, a Gentile, which would mean unbeliever. In 1 Corinthians 5 verse 4, Paul says, when you are assembled, and he's writing this to the church that is in Corinth, this is a group of people who assemble together. They're a recognized church. When you are assembled, who's assembled, and how do you know the assembly happens? Is it just anybody who's been visiting, or is it a recognized group that is considered the church in that area, a recognized and formalized body of believers? Who has assembled and how do you know what's happened and who's making these decisions as the identifiable church body? Those that would be considered with the word members or those who have committed themselves to one another. Taking matters of church discipline to the church assumes an identifiable church body. Church membership is how you identify the body to which you bring the matters of church discipline. Number six. Christian obedience involves actions toward one another. And it's important that we realize the letters that I'm about to cite, the letters are written to the body of Christ gathering at a particular location, a particular city, a particular church home, literally a house church, and that they are called to then obey these commands toward one another in the context of what I'm about to cite to you. The immediate context is the gathered body of Christ. They have a responsibility toward one another. Christian obedience involves actions toward one another. Ephesians 4.2, bear with one another. Ephesians 5.19, sing truth to one another. Colossians 3.13, forgive one another. Colossians 3.16, teach and admonish one another. 1 Corinthians 12, 25, care for one another. Galatians 5, 13, serve one another. 1 Peter 4, 9, show hospitality toward one another. 1 Peter 4, 8, love one another. And you can go on. These are not the extent of the one another commands, but these are not ambiguous Christians when the Ephesians read this letter or the Corinthians read this letter. It's like these are the people we've committed and covenanted with. Like these are our church people. Now, of course, they're to act and represent the Lord outside the gathering of the church in ways that demonstrate their ambassadorship for the Lord Jesus, and they are to even love their enemies and bless those who persecute them, of course. But the immediate context of each of these one another commands recognizes a gathering in a local assembly in Ephesus, in Corinth, in Peter's readers, Dei, and then Colossae, and in the Galatian churches, it goes on and on. These are not ambiguous Christians. They're those who gather together locally. Number seven, Christian maturity involves accountability. Christian maturity involves accountability. We need to be those who are able to be corrected and admonished with others caring for our souls and exercising spiritual oversight over our hearts because we do not do well isolated spiritually for very long. Listen to James 5. James 5 19 says, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death. How do you know who you're supposed to go after? How do you identify them? How do you recognize when someone has departed? And how do you know if you have responsibility towards someone else who is a confessing believer? In James 5, 19 and 20, these commands make sense in the local body of Christ that is committed to one another in the Lord. We would call that commitment church membership. That's the modern name for it, but that's what that is. In Galatians 6.1, Paul says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you of the spirit should restore him in a spirit of gentleness and keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. You see, Christian maturity involves accountability, and this is one of the reasons there's much resistance in our day to belonging to an organized assembly of believers. People don't like accountability. They just want to do what they want. They want everybody to stay out of their business. Stay out of my life. Let me do what I want. But Christian maturity and growth in wisdom involves accountability. We need one another. The Bible says so. So the question is not whether you believe that Christ is Lord and that you want to follow him as a disciple. That's about conversion, but that's not all the Bible teaches. To follow Christ involves being committed to all that the Bible says you need in Christ. And 1 Corinthians 12.21 says, 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. And these are metaphors of the local body of Christ where someone in Corinth can't look at another person and say, you know what, I don't really need this person. The body is composed of its various parts of which we say there is need for them all to function well as the body. 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. We need one another. We need one another for growth and wisdom, correction and admonishment, encouragement and oversight. Christian maturity involves accountability. And if people are honest in our day and age who are resistant to the notion of church membership, one of the honest statements they might make is, I don't want to be accountable to anybody for anything. Well, okay. I mean, at least we know where we're at on that, like that that's what's going on, but Christian growth and maturity will recognize the need for accountability. Number eight, discipleship involves submission to teaching and authority in the church. Discipleship involves submission to teaching and authority in the church. For instance, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Or Hebrews 13 verse 18. Obey your leaders and submit to them. Now, how is a group of people to know who their leaders are and the leaders know who they are to serve and oversee? There must be some sense of recognition among the group who belongs and who doesn't. And the way we draw those lines, we use the language church membership. Discipleship involves submission to teaching and authority. Who are the leaders over? Anybody and everybody? Or a particular flock? Now, some people, just like they might say, I don't want to be accountable to anybody for anything, they might say, I don't want to submit to any authority that the scripture tells me I should submit to. And here, the idea of submitting to the teaching of the leaders in Hebrews 13, 18, or having respect and honor toward those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord to admonish you in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, somebody might say, but see, that's the thing I don't want in my life. I want to be free from authority and free from accountability. Well, then at least we know what we're dealing with. At least we realize that there is a resistance to church membership that is connected to the fleshly desire to live out the way one wants one's path to unfold, regardless of any wisdom or accountability or insight from anyone else. Discipleship, though. Following the Lord in obedience. Discipleship involves submission to teaching and authority by God's own revelation in the Word. Number nine. Decisions are made by a recognized congregation. Decisions are made by a recognized congregation. This is a very important passage. It's in Acts chapter six. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. The twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It's not right that we should give up the preaching of the word to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom whom will appoint to this duty. Well, there's a lot going on there. And it all supports the notion that decisions are being made by a recognized congregation. For example, the disciples summon the full number of the disciples. The 12 apostles summon the full number of the disciples. That's clearer. The 12 apostles summon the full number, which means there are, besides the 12 apostles, a full number of disciples that they can know. They know the number of them. They know who they are. And they know when they've gathered and when they haven't. Okay, these are not just random people, you know, around Jerusalem or elsewhere that say that they're a believer. These are the people that they would say, now that we've got them present, that's the full number. And then there's apparently such a sharing of life that they say, we need seven people of good reputation. And apparently, the fellowship and the life sharing among the saints there in that full number of disciples is such that they can say, well, I know some reputations of folks to put forward. He says, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. In other words, the congregation is involved in the particular process of decision making for needs that need to be filled, duties that need to be exercised, and there is a number of disciples that is brought together to administer this particular task. We would call this the recognized congregation. We would say, that's like a church business meeting. That's what that sounds like. That sounds like they said, well, at our quarterly meeting this year, we're gonna gather together so that we can have this discussion because here's the need and here we need to have a vote. And so we're putting forward here names and people and considering reputations and there's a number that have gathered. Act six is really important in this notion, point nine, and decisions are made by a recognized congregation. Another text would be 2 Corinthians 2. In 2 Corinthians 2, verses 6 to 8, Paul recognizes that in an earlier situation, a matter of church discipline had to take place, and this ostracism of this person needed to be overcome now by a re-embracing of this person, because apparently sorrow and godly repentance has taken place, and so this person needs to be restored, because that's the goal of church discipline. Even the goal of excommunication is with a view toward ultimate repentance and restoration. You want that to be the goal. So Paul says, 2 Corinthians 2.6, for such a one, the punishment by the majority is enough. Oh, hold on there. By the majority? How do you know when you've reached a majority? You must have in mind a recognized group of people who have acted. And here this majority, he says, it's enough so that you should now turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. The Corinthian church could meet in such a recognized way that they knew when a majority decision had been reached. And that means you're counting particular things. There is a formal recognition in the church. We simply call that church membership. This is the people who have committed to the church in Corinth, and the majority of them have now exercised what was called church discipline, and he says, in my judgment, that has now exceeded the point, and we need to now restore this person. Number 10. Congregations are called to guard the gospel. Congregations are called to guard the gospel. How do we keep a clear understanding of the gospel in the church. It is not only the responsibility of those who exercise oversight as elders, even though in Titus chapter one and in verse five, those who are in oversight or elders of the church are to preach and proclaim sound doctrine and be able to rebuke those who oppose it. But even church leadership in churches, as you know, in denominations far and wide, can go astray. So the ultimate responsibility for guarding the gospel belongs to the congregation. And by practicing church membership, the church has affirmed someone's particular profession of faith and understanding of the gospel in a way that we say, you can be counted a member of the church, you hold to the same gospel we preach. But, apart from church membership, What is to keep the church from deviating in an area that would be more like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons if we simply have people gathering to say, well, I belong to this church without any formal acknowledgement and recognition by the congregation that this person preaches or teaches or holds to the same gospel we preach? In other words, someone could come into a congregation, and this does happen, and they have a false understanding of the gospel, and they could easily say, yeah, I belong to that church, the church in Galatia, or the church in Corinth, or the church in Rome, yeah, that's my church. And how could you say otherwise, unless your church can recognize in a formal way, we to one another, we hold to the same gospel, or in the hearing of someone's deviation from it, dear friend, We do not hold to the same gospel. What you are saying of Christ, that the son of God was the first of God's created works in the world, we don't believe that. We believe he's the eternal son of God. And so what we say about the son is different. you cannot be a member of this church because we are not saying the same things about Jesus where someone says, well, you know, I'm a member, I belong to this particular church, the church in Rome. And you know, I believe that Jesus, he was just a really great teacher. Would you think he's anything more than that? Well, you know, I think he's probably the most moral person that's ever lived. I really think his example was great. And you know, I'm just, you know, I'm not really ready to affirm anything else, but I want to, I want to come to your church and belong to you. And we'd say, well, dear friend, We can't affirm your confession. You are actually not saying about Jesus what the Christian faith says about Jesus. We do not recognize your confession. One of the ways congregations guard the gospel is through the practice of church membership. To say to one another, you hold to the same gospel we confess, or to say to someone else, you do not belong here with us as a member, you do not hold the same gospel we profess. Someone who says, well, there's no verse that tells me that I need to be a member of a local church, is someone who is missing the point that biblical and theological reasoning from these elements and more would lead you to say, you know what? Committing yourself to a local church makes a lot of sense of a lot of texts. And commitment to a local church is a way we work out our obedience to a lot of biblical imperatives toward one another. It does no good to say, I can follow Jesus faithfully just as a member of the universal church. Well, if you ignore the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and the letters, I guess you can say that. But you're essentially not looking to the New Testament for guidance toward your spiritual flourishing. So we're saying, are we members of the universal church? Yes. Should we belong to a local body of Christ? Absolutely. It is both biblical and sound practice. The pastor of First Baptist Church, Clinton, Louisiana named Tom Hicks said something I love. He said, the idea of private churchless Christianity was foreign to New Testament believers. Think of that. The idea of private churchless Christianity was foreign to New Testament believers. According to the New Testament, here's a definition for the local church. This is not on the board. I realize I'm out of room on the board. So this is not there. A definition of a local church, concisely. A local church is the assembly of baptized believers who have covenanted together for regular corporate worship and fellowship. The local church is the assembly of baptized believers who have covenanted together for regular corporate worship and fellowship. Corporate worship and fellowship cover everything. Corporate worship involves the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, the baptism of converts, and the taking of the Lord's Supper. It involves singing and giving and praying and the public reading of Scripture. It involves the matters of church discipline. When the church assembles and gathers together, corporate worship. So a local church is the assembly of baptized believers who have covenanted together for regular corporate worship and Fellowship, what does that cover? Well, the sharing of time together and resources together and life together, burden sharing as a practice, honest living with one another, genuine discipleship that takes place, formation of friendships that are cultivated, fellowship. A local church is the assembly of baptized believers who have covenanted together for regular corporate worship and fellowship. That's what we are, Cosmo Steele Baptist Church. We're an example of this. We meet at 7012 Shipley Lane to be a local church of baptized believers, there are bodies as well, of baptized believers who covenanted together for regular corporate worship. And by covenanted together, what I mean is we've committed to one another through church membership. We've said, this is my church. You are my people. You are my family of God. I want to follow Christ with you. And then we seek to obey the word of God with one another to heed all the commands of Christ through his word and the teachings of the apostles that should shape our life and corporate life and individual life together. The pastor of First Baptist Church, Clinton, Louisiana, Tom Hicks, he says again, New Testament church membership was composed of those who were baptized and who attended public worship, who submitted to the leadership and discipline of the church and who participated in its life and fellowship. In his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, D.C., Mark Dever. Love this quote. Mark Devers says, church membership is our opportunity to grasp hold of one another in responsibility and love. Ah, that's amazing. That is a fantastic way of thinking about church membership. Church membership is our opportunity to grasp hold of one another in responsibility and love. We're saying, I'm not, it's not just me and Jesus. Like, I wanna be responsible in the lives of the saints to be an encouragement toward and receive encouragement from one another. He goes on to say, by identifying ourselves with a particular church, we let the pastors and other members of that church know that we intend to be committed in attendance, in giving, in prayer, in service. And we allow fellow believers to have great expectations of us in these areas. We make it known we are the responsibility of this local church. And then Deborah says, concludingly, we assure the church of our commitment to Christ and serving with them. And we call for their commitment to serve and encourage as well us. It's certainly the case that in our culture, these ideas of belonging to a body of Christ and having accountability and authority and responsibility in the midst of the gathering, this is quite counter-cultural. This is not the trending vibe of things. It feels constraining to some people. It's like, why am I going to shackle myself up with responsibility and accountability? Doing your own thing, your own way all your days sounds like freedom. I know it sounds like it, but biblically it's not. But to love one another and to bind your heart with fellow believers in Christ, that produces a kind of joy and peace and stability of spiritual growth and life that feels freeing, even if the culture scratches their heads. Membership is countercultural. So be it. Be counter-cultural then. Light of the world, salt of the earth. Joining a church is a way of saying, you are the family of God that I want to grow with in Christ. And so it's a good thing and a biblical thing and a theologically sound thing to say, I should be a member of a local church so that I can love Jesus and love the people of Jesus. Let's pray.