Good morning. It's great to be with you this morning. It's great to be back. Carol and I had a wonderful time in central Virginia this past week or so with our Three kids now, our son and his wife and our daughter. It's a great time to get away just to be relaxed and enjoy the beauty of that part of the country and have some good family time and check out some new restaurants that I hope make it to Oroville one day. We're entering a busy time. Everything's getting ramped up for the fall, and I hope you'll take advantage of those opportunities and get involved in joining a connection group and have a small group that you'll grow with over the next school year around the Word of God and prayer and fellowship and good meals together. We really do need to be invested in one another. That's the only way we'll grow, as we just sang in that last song, that ember sitting by itself will go out. But we do need to have other logs, as it were, brothers and sisters around us who will help us to burn brightly. Some things coming up that'll be of interest to you. At the end of October, we are going to celebrate Reformation Sunday. We must always be vigilant in defending the gospel. The gospel is under threat continuously, even within our own hearts at times. And so we need to be reminded of what it is that we believe, what it is that has saved us, what it is that we are to proclaim to a world that seems to spiral more and more out of control into a state of confusion. And during the month of October as well, we are going to have baptisms. And so if you hear the voice of God calling you to follow him and to obey him by passing through the waters of baptism, come and see me and we'll be glad to arrange for a baptism service that we will have actually during one of our Sunday morning services. So come and see me and we'll talk about that as we can grow together. And one of the ways we do that is by practicing that which the Lord has given us, the Lord's table, baptism, fellowship, and things of that nature. Well, I begin this morning with the true confessions of a former sports fanatic. It's been a journey, but some things just need to be said. I mean, there's football in the fall, and hockey in the winter, and baseball in the spring, and swimming and golf in the summer, and it never seems to end. And for one, this pastor has just finally had enough. But it's time to face reality and say, that's it. I quit this sports business once and for all. You can't get me near one of those sports arenas again. You want to know why? Because every time I go there, they're just asking me for money. It's as if somehow the price of the ticket of admission is not enough. I've noticed something else about sports fans. It's that they don't often seem very friendly towards new fans who want to come and join their team. They're afraid they might disrupt the traditions that this sports team has had. You know, those seats aren't very comfortable either. Some of them are just hard. I've been going to sporting events for most of my life, and not once has the coach ever asked me what's the next play they should run. Even those referees, the ones that are supposed to know all the rules, they've made so many decisions I can't agree with, I just can't participate anymore. Then I go and I sit down and I look around me and I suspect that many of those people are really just hypocrites. You see, they're just there to see their friends and to check out what each other is wearing. And you know, some of those sporting events have the audacity to go in overtime. I mean, I gotta get home and get to some of my activities and can't they respect my time? And then there's the band. You know, what's wrong with the old cheers that we had when I was growing up? They're playing these new tunes today, I just can't seem to figure out what they're doing. And I wish they would take into account my schedule. This always seems to be going on, and it interrupts, the games interrupt with what I want to be doing. You know, when I was a child, my parents made me go to these sporting events, and I decided I'm not going to do the same thing to my kids. I'm going to let them decide for themselves whether they want to go to a sporting event or any event at all. Okay, for the record, I'm not talking about sports at all. Because I'm not a disgruntled sports fan, I'm still an avid sports fan. But all I've done is change the subject in the comments that I've just given you. Because they're an actual collection of responses from people who have reasons for why they no longer attend church. Or they don't attend church as often as they once did. Or they just don't seem to want to go with the flow or fit in. And so really only the names have been withheld to protect the guilty. But it does bring me to some important questions this morning. Why is there so much confusion about church membership? Why are there so many questions and misunderstandings about this subject? Why are there so many who buy the ticket to admission, but fail to live out the promises and responsibilities of church membership? Now we're not going to be able to go into detail about all of these questions as we finish our series on the M&Ms of the Christian life. But we will look at an important subject, membership, in our final lesson for this series. It's been a good run this summer as we have been challenged to think biblically about all of these different issues, to overcome the cultural miseducation that many of us have received on these issues and look at them through the lens of scripture and what God would actually say. You know, this is a subject that doesn't lend itself to just one passage. But I would make the case that it actually permeates all throughout the New Testament, and you'll see that as we go along. And so I encourage you to stay with me as we look at different passages this morning, as we look at some different thoughts as you follow along in your sermon outline this morning as we look at this important subject. But let us pray. Father, we are a needy people. And even as we have just sung that we are your people, Father, we know that left to ourselves, we will never live up to the requirements of that calling. And so we thank you that Jesus is sufficient to meet us this morning. And so we invite his leadership, his guidance, his direction. Father, we want your spirit to empower us and equip us to hear and to listen this morning, because we, as I've said, are a needy people, and you are a need provider. Lead us, we pray this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. We begin with the question membership, what's in a word? Now, as we begin this subject, I want to make clear two different things, two different words that sometimes get confused. They're the words principle and process. And I want to implore you not to confuse the two. Many of the objections that I have heard in my years in ministry have more to do about the process of membership and not the principle of membership itself. And so I want you to keep those two terms separate and understand the difference, principle and process. But first we want to look at what are some wrong images of membership. Whenever we talk about a particular subject, oftentimes we have to define what we do not mean so that we are able to define what it is that we do. And I think church membership is one of those issues. And so I begin today by quoting from Jonathan Lehman, the editorial director of Nine Marks. Nine Marks Ministry is a church consultation ministry that you would do well to check out one of their books, either on the internet or in a library, Nine Marks. But Mr. Lehman says this, too many Christians today view their relationship with the local church consumeristically, and he goes on, as if churches were gas stations. You drive around once a week looking to fill your tank spiritually. You find the station with the lowest prices and the car wash option. Maybe you join the rewards program. And church membership is the rewards program. Loyalty to that brand brings extra benefits. And I think he challenges us with what he says today, and so we want to look at two current cultural models that we do not mean when we talk about church membership. And the first one is the church is not a country club. You know, in a country club, you fill out an application, and you pay a monthly fee. You show up at the club whenever you want to, whenever it's convenient to your schedule, and you think you're going to receive some benefit. And actually, you really don't care if other members of the club come. If they come, you'll interact with them, but if they don't, you won't really miss them. And at times, you actually hope new members don't join the club because it might interfere with what you want to do when you go to the club. It might damper how you use the facilities on that day. Because the club, a country club, is tailored just to meet the needs of the members, to satisfy their personal preferences. And if those personal preferences are not met, well, then complaints usually follow with the threat to bring their membership somewhere else. But the church is not to be like a country club. A second model of membership is like getting a rewards card. You sign up and you get a card, and then there's benefits. And you decide, you alone decide when or even if you will use that card and where you will use it. And there's only benefits involved with this card. There aren't any responsibilities. There aren't any things that are expected of you. And if the card no longer serves you, well, it's time to get a better rewards card. It's time to get a better club. And so you ditch the current card that you have. But in response to those common understandings of what it means to be a member, I want to challenge the cultural way we've looked at it. I want to challenge even perhaps our own errant thinking as we have thought about the issue of church membership. And so I offer the following definition, which is mine. So I recognize that you might disagree with a little word here or there, but hear me out as I give you this definition. Church membership is the gathering of those set apart by God, placed into his family by grace, and empowered for service for the common good and the glory of God. Church membership is the outward expression of what God has done inwardly and spiritually. The same God who calls, indeed commands us to be members of the kingdom of God, expects us to show that status by identification with and commitment to a local expression of that kingdom, namely the local church. A proper understanding of the local church is that it is an expression of the kingdom of God. And if we truly have entered into the kingdom of God by faith, by grace, through Christ alone, it needs to show up somehow that, in fact, we are members of that kingdom, citizens of that kingdom. And so there is an intentional effort on my part to show that discipleship, Christian growth, and commitment and activity in the local church, all are part of the same piece. But a common objection to this view goes something like this, but I can't find it in the Bible. And so the challenge goes, well, if I can't find it in the Bible, I don't have to do it. But does that mean that membership itself is not in the Bible? What does it mean that it is not found in the Bible? Now, I will concede the point that if you're looking for the word membership, you will not find it in the Bible. But then I have a question for you. Do you live consistently? If there is a word that's not found in the Bible, do you not believe it? Let's ask a couple of questions. The term rapture is not found anywhere in the Bible. Even if there is no universal agreement among Christians as to what it means or when it's going to happen, the fact remains most of us are happy to accept the term to apply to something else. It's a useful term to talk about future and time events, even if we don't agree, but the term itself is not found in the Bible. What are some other words that are not found in the Bible? How about the word trinity? Would anyone here disagree with the idea that the Bible teaches that in the one being that is God, there are three persons who have existed eternally? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? The church has always been happy to use this term to talk about something that is inherent and true in the scriptures, though the word itself is not explicit. There are other key words that are found in the Bible, such as incarnation or the hypostatic union, which talks about the union of Christ as completely God and completely man and one person forever. The word ascension is not there. Omniscience is not there. Even the word Bible is not in the Bible. And yet I would agree that all of us would accept those terms and recognize that we can find the teachings of those words in the Bible, even if we don't find the word itself. So I don't think that's a legitimate argument to start with. Well, the word membership is not there. But let's get back to the word itself, membership. If you mean a particular process of membership, then you are correct. There is no particular prescribed or described process of membership in the Bible. I believe that's something that's left up to the authority of the local church. But there's also no prescribed or described way to celebrate communion. And yet we seem to have no trouble celebrating communion. or baptism, or prayer meetings, or church meetings, or whatever else we do, because we find principles in the Bible that we pull together to describe what it is that we are to do. Again, do not confuse process with principle. The principle is that believers in Jesus Christ are in a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As a result, they are also in a covenant relationship with one another, and as there is a tangible way of expressing that covenant commitment through the Lord's Table, through baptism, through prayer meetings, through Bible studies, so there should be a tangible way of expressing that commitment within the local church. God is not redeeming a bunch of Lone Ranger Christians who can then decide what they will do on their own with their own membership card. Because I believe that a careful reading of the New Testament shows that the concept, the principle of membership is everywhere. Let's think of some applications. We believe in the fullness of the inerrancy and inspiration of the Word of God, that we need to live out every iota, every jot and tittle of the Word of God. which involves things like the one another commands, do not forsake the gathering of one another, love one another, serve one another, pray for one another, give to one another, give to the church. But how does the local church know for whom it is responsible before God? Without membership. If there's this intangible, but yet not defined barrier, boundary of who's in and who's not, how do we know for whom the church is responsible? How does the church know? Paul commanded Timothy that the church should take care of the widows and said put them on the list. How do we know then which ones we can put on the list unless we know who is among us? How do the elders and pastors know who to shepherd without membership? How does the church fulfill its call to judge those who are on the inside and not those on the outside? We'll look at that when we get to 1 Corinthians. That as a church we are called not to judge those on the outside, that's God's business. who are called to judge those that are on the inside. How do we know who's on the inside? How can the church practice discipline without membership and knowing who is subject to it? How does one live out these one another commands of which there are a dozen unless there's been an active, verbal, public commitment to one another through membership? Think about those questions. Okay? If you have an answer, come at me, but come at me with the Scriptures, not with the culture and not with your personal preference. Okay? We need to realize that there are many challenges to biblical membership. The culture works against us here. Like many of you, I grew up and was taught the idea of rugged individualism. And we had particular notions of freedom, of personal autonomy, of the rights of the individuals, of the rights of the family, and things like that. But we need to recognize that though there can be truths and usefulness in those principles, if they are not derived directly from the Word of God, we cannot let a cultural way of understanding interfere with a biblical way of understanding. The fact is, we are not autonomous. We've been purchased with a great price. We are slaves to Christ. Yes, slaves to serve. Yes, slaves to be involved with this family. But it is not ultimately up to us to decide how we will live out our lives. We have the commandments of the Word of God and the authority of the Word. And so I believe that, like all American school children, as we learned about the history of America, as it moved against the royalty, which is why most of the time we're against a king, moved against the royalty of England, and fought for a rigorous notion of freedom and independence, we need to recognize that while that's part of history, and it's a beautiful history, the history of America does not equal the kingdom of God. And our allegiance is to be first and foremost to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we read culture through a scriptural lens and let the scriptures challenge what we think and what we do and how we are to act and how we are to respond. We don't interpret the scriptures in light of the culture. The fact remains, my friends, is we have a king. and we are in a kingdom, and we are his subjects, and we serve him in his kingdom through the local church. Some other challenges that we face involve the idea that everyone making an individual decision for Christ, which is true so far as it goes, but the fact is we don't just come to Jesus alone. We come to Jesus and join the family of the redeemed and the elect of all time. We're plagued by a consumeristic attitude. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If marketing didn't work, marketing would not be done. But the fact is, the advertising campaigns that we are all subject to do, in fact, have an impact on us. And maybe we've had a misunderstanding of what the gospel is. The gospel is not just life insurance to get out of hell. The gospel is the death, burial, teachings, life, resurrection, ascension, glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all about who He is. And He is the one that says, I will build my church. Take up your cross and follow me. The church is not a smorgasbord. where you come and decide what you wanna pick and choose from. When Christ purchases you, he brings you all in and wants a all person, a whole person commitment. But there is one final challenge that has to be confessed to this idea of membership, and that is the unfortunate history of abusive leadership. The unfortunate history of church politics that have caused a number of people to say, well, you know, I just, I don't want anything to do with the church if that's the way it's going to be. I hear that. I understand the pain, the difficulty that involves with that. But we have to filter our experiences in light of the truth of God's word, not the other way around. You see, in most parts of the world, in most parts of church history, there really hasn't been a problem with membership because they're more community-oriented. They grew up in extended families, extended communities. The idea of joining a church, they understood that they were joining a community. It's those of us that have grown up in a more individualistic culture that tend to blanch at the idea of membership. And thus we need to just humbly go to the Lord and say, are there some things in my life that need to change? You see, from the beginning of church history, the church has had a process of initiating and welcoming those God has saved. and training them in the faith as active members of the local church. Going back to the early 2nd century, there was a teaching called the didache. It was a form of catechism. Didache is simply the Greek word for teaching. It was a way of instructing those that had come to Christ, teaching them in the doctrines of the faith, and receiving them into membership. And so, we see then the questions that are there throughout the New Testament. How do we live them out? And we see the history of the early church that understood that membership was important. So, membership, what's in a word? I think we need to look beyond just the process, beyond just the word, and look at the application and principle. But secondly, membership, what's in the word? We all agree now that we can use terms that are not in the Bible to describe things that happen in the Bible, so let's look what the Bible actually says. And the images tell the story. God gives us images to show what his family looks like, how he wants his family to live, how he wants them to interact, in fact, what their responsibilities are. So we have, for example, that we are all part of one body, which we will look at momentarily when we get to 1 Corinthians 12. We have the image in 1 Corinthians 10 that we're all eating of the one loaf. We have the image of the church as we just sang in the last hymn as a temple or as a family. And so we see that it is God who is the one that is calling men and women out of every situation, tribe, language, nation, kindred, whatever it is, and placing them into His family. And just as there is baptism, just as there is practice of the Lord's table, just as there is discipleship and discipline, there needs to be some type of public commitment that we are connecting with Christ through his body. In contemporary legal terms, we enter into contracts. And there's conditions for the contract. And usually at somewhere along in the contract, there is an opt-out clause. But there's no opt-out clause when Jesus calls you. He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. And so when he calls, he says, follow. When he calls, we are to come. When he calls, we are to obey. God is the one that's in charge. He is the one who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in the gospel. He is the one that causes them to be born again of the spirit and to be brought into the family of God through the blood of Christ. and they are now members of the family. But the interesting thing in any family is, at least in God's family, there are not two classes of people. There are not members and non-members. There's only one class, those that are called, who then show publicly that they are called by identifying with a local expression of the kingdom of God. Secondly, membership fulfills biblical faithfulness to God. So at this point, the objection is given, well, you know, I'm a member of the universal church, so I don't need to be a member of a local church. Now, it's true, we just confessed the Nicene Creed, which says we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church, that one true church that is composed of all true believers from beginning to end, called out of every nation and every tribe and every family, the ones that will be in the throngs of the redeemed around the throne of God. And so it's true, we're a member of the universal church. But who are the ones to whom then you are accountable? Who oversees you, helps you grow in the faith? Who under God is the one exercising authority over you? Who under God is the one under whom you are in authority? You see, we as evangelical Protestants, we reject the idea of a Protestant pope. or a centralized committee that would somehow oversee the universal church of true believers. So it's not enough then to be a member of the universal church. How do we show that we are subject to a local expression of that universal church unless we are members? How do we show that we are serving the king who has called us to be part of his family? Now, I recognize we're blessed in the age in which we live, with technology all over the place and different ways of connecting with truth. But no website, no matter how good it is. No radio or television or internet preacher, no matter how elegant and faithful he is. No home group, no matter how useful or spiritual it is. No family meeting, no matter how loving or faithful it is, no campus ministry or other parachurch ministry, no matter how effective or fruitful it is, can take the place of the gathered saints and communion of believers in the local church. It's God's plan A. If you are a Christian, born again of the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit unto eternity, then you need to confess the gospel truth that the church is your eternal family. The church with all the diversity that God has given to it, composed of young and old and Jew and Gentile and men and women, the rich and the poor, that is with whom we will spend eternity. And that is with whom we should walk and live and serve while we are here on this earth. The local church is the best expression of the kingdom of God. And if we are members of the kingdom of God, we need to show it in expressive, active, obedient participation in the local church. Church membership allows the elders and pastors to do their jobs and fulfill their roles before God. They know the ones that they are to train, the ones they are to discipline, the ones they are to encourage, the ones they are to discipline if they go astray. Because church discipline is an act of love. Remember, God disciplines those he loves. If you find yourself in some type of difficulty in your life, it might be God is disciplining you to make you more like Jesus Christ. And the church is to be an instrument of that discipline, not for punishment, not for humiliation, not for any other purpose other than to demonstrate the corrective love of God and to keep saints walking on the straight and narrow. How can they do that unless they know who the members are? We live in a society that is so happy. It's litigious. It'll sue somebody at the drop of the hat for any reason. Membership is what protects the church and the members in a society that has gone astray in the courts. If there is church membership and there is church discipline, you will have a witness of integrity, a witness of community, a witness of holiness. But where there is no church membership, and worse, where there is no church discipline, or someone who will not submit to church discipline, they just go down the road to the next church, or go across town to another assembly, and it affects the witness of the entire body of Christ. So I think the church has failed. I think the church has failed not because she has talked about church membership too much, but because she has not talked about it enough. Showing that it's got a biblical foundation, a biblical reality that there are things that simply need to be done so that we can live out as the redeemed, set apart, identified people of God. If we're in Christ, our names have been written in the Lamb's book of life. That's true. That's our hope. But how does that person who's written the Lamb's book of life grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ unless his name is also written in the local church? The cultural appeals that we sometimes have to freedom or to other things, autonomy, simply need to take a knee to the authority of scripture, to the authority of the church, of the elect, the called out ones, the called out saints who live in service to their king. So we've seen membership what's in a word, membership what's in the word. Obviously, this is a subject that is much bigger than can be handled in one Sunday, just like all the other ones in the M&M series. But let's conclude by looking at our third point, membership, responsibilities, and expectations. And at this point, then, we're going to look at what Paul says as he writes to the church in Corinth. We're just going to read through it, make a few observations, because we will come back to this passage. Because starting next Sunday, we will begin an in-depth study of the book of 1 Corinthians. And Paul says to this local church in Corinth, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, sorry, If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an ear, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one 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. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unrepresentable parts are treated with greater modesty. which are more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. And so the first thing we see is the reality of church membership. He calls them members. Yes, he's using a metaphor. But he also calls them members, and in speaking to a local church, reminds them that membership in the universal church should express itself in membership in the local church. It is God who calls each member to the church. Now, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. We recognize in the sovereignty of God, in the providence of God, in the kindness of God, in the goodness of God, he is the one that has called his eternal family into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see that more clearly when we look at 1 Corinthians 1. God is the one who calls. God is the one who commands. God is the one who gives the gifts as he chooses. To each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Now we're just gonna read some passages out of 1 Corinthians 12. All these are empowered by one and the same spirit, who apportions to each individually as he wills. All were made to drink of one spirit, and God has appointed in the church, and then it goes on and gives different gifts. But the distribution of these gifts given to the body of Christ, yes, for the ultimate good of the universal body of Christ, also need to be for the ultimate good of the local church, the expression of the body of Christ in a particular locality. And he does it as he chooses. He shows that he's in control of the process from beginning to end. Each member and each gift is needed for the success of the church. Do you know what your gifts are? what your spiritual gift is, what your spiritual gifts are. Are you using them? Are you using them in service in this local church because we have desperate need of you to be using them so that this church can be growing up into fruition and fruitfulness as you use your gifts. Some families, They make the church their home. Others find uses for the church to satisfy their own needs. Let's take the notorious Tate family. Perhaps you've met one of them. The chief of the clan is Dick Tate, who insists on running everything in the church. His brother Rotate wants to change everything all the time. Aunt Agitate has a knack for stirring up trouble, joined by her husband Iritate, who always lends a hand in that endeavor. The next generation of Tates has its own characteristics. Hesitate and his wife Vegetate would just as soon wait until later to deal with the needs of the church and to fulfill them. Aunt Imitate thinks we just have to get back to the good old days. Devastate announces certainty that the church is doomed and the husband Potentate alone promises to be able to save the church. I want to suggest another Tate family. one that builds up the church, one that grows the church instead of criticizing or sitting in judgment on the church. Rehabilitate is committed to bringing healing and reconciliation to those who've been bruised by sin. Facilitate loves to organize activities and get programs going that mobilize the church. Her daughter Gravitate is a worshiper and loves getting people involved in praising the Lord and serving in worship ministries. Her brother, Orion Tate, is good at bringing in visitors, welcoming newcomers, and integrating those new to the community into the fellowship of the church. And they've passed it on to the next generation. For their nephew, Meditate, is a prayer warrior who wants to bring all things under God's attention. and have God-empowered ministry. Their granddaughter, Felisa Tate, is one who is quick to encourage others and who enters into their victories and their celebrations. To which Tate family do you belong? And how would the Lord have you serve in this local church? And are you doing what he's already revealed to you to do? Having seen some of the responsibilities, in a sense, or the expectations, we now move to the responsibilities, and we'll go through them quickly. First one is show up regularly. We're really good at making excuses. We're really good at abusing the grace of God. Oh, you know, I'm just tired today. Oh, it's raining today. Oh, it's not raining today, it's too hot. Oh, it's snowing out. Oh, I just need me time. But once you open the door to the flesh for any kind of excuse to not be gathered regularly with the saints of God, do you know that you actually show up in the scriptures? Hebrews 10 says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some. but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. In a little town in Texas, there was a supply pastor, that is one that's helping a church with a pastor while they're in between pastors, and he came into town one day, and he preached his message, had lunch with the church, and then went on his way, and it's continued on for several weeks, and even a couple of months as he was in this church, and one Sunday morning, he came early into town and showed up at a donut shop, Had his Bible open, was going over his notes. There was a guy sitting down the table from him and said, you a preacher or something? I said, yeah, I preach at so-and-so church here in town. And the man got excited and said, hey, I'm a member of that church. It was a small church, and the pastor had been there for several months, and he knew all the regulars. And he said, well, I've been preaching there for a while, and I've never seen you before. The man looked at him kind of strange and said, I said I was a member of the church. I didn't say I was fanatical about it. How fanatical was it for Christ to leave the glories of heaven, to come and live among us for 30 plus years, to live out the perfect righteousness of God, to suffer at the hands of those he created, to hang on a cross between heaven and earth, to save his people? How many Sundays do you have left here on earth? The fact is you don't know. You don't know how many you left. All these special days that God has set apart for us to be part of his family, to receive the teaching of the word, the fellowship of the saints, to worship and serve and be part of a loving family. How will our excuses stack up on that day? When you show up regularly, be the priest you are called to be. We're gonna celebrate Reformation Sunday in a few weeks, and one of the things that the Reformation reminded us is that we are all priests. We're all priests serving the one king and his kingdom, and in the priesthood of believers, a priest is always on duty. Praying, ministering, serving, helping, loving. He wants all of us to be serving. As we serve, we make disciples as ambassadors of Christ. It's a command that goes out to all of us, not just to the specialists, not just to the hired guns. But they need to be equipped and so the elders and the pastors are to train and equip the saints for ministry so that they can go out then and pour their lives into the lives of other people and make disciples of them. All of you have enough information about Christ to lead someone else to Christ and to train them in Christ. So pray and ask the Lord for those open doors, and then walk through them. Then we preach and defend the gospel. We'll just simply move on, because that's the responsibility of all of us. And we practice church discipline. We are called to watch over one another. We are called to look over for one another. We are called to make sure that we are walking on the straight and narrow path, and in order to do that, we need to know who belongs and who doesn't. And as we practice church discipline, it is a form of loving one another. It's God's design that these love one another commands be lived out in the community of the local church, believer on believer, as we share life one with another. And when it is done and shown in the local church, it tells the world that God is at work among his people. And as we're doing all of that, we are called and commanded indeed to submit to spiritual authority. The writer of Hebrews, as he writes to this group of believers, thinking of going back to Judaism to turn away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, he says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they're keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account, an account to God, an account that will be a heavy burden for the teacher to bear on that day. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. This verse screams out membership. Because we make that public commitment that these are the leaders to whom we will submit. And we trust God to direct them to lead us in a way that is honoring to him. So we've looked briefly at what's in a word, and what's in the word, and what are some responsibilities. In weeks to come, we are going to have a membership class led by the elders. Give you an opportunity to hear more about the church and to take that active step. There are already applications available out here in the Welcome Center. You can go out and take one, bring it home, look it over, fill it out, because we need you, each one of you, to be involved here so that we can be a blessing to the community of Oroville and beyond. And those of you whose names have been on the rolls, whether for a short period of time or long, think about your commitment and how would God want you to use the gifts that he has given you right now How would He want you to serve right now? What are the new victories that we can develop now, the new days of blessing now, not living just on past fruit and past activities, but what can we be doing now? Yes, this has been an interesting message, an unusual one. This is not the type of message that we typically do here. I'm going to ask you, however, to take seriously what has been said, not to quickly dismiss because you had already made up your mind before you came in, but to consider seriously what has been said and to go to the word itself and think through the principles that are involved in there. And it would be a privilege for myself, for Pastor Brian, for the elders to engage with you in the weeks to come on this issue. We ourselves recognize we are under authority before God, a responsibility that we take seriously because we're gonna have a conversation with him one day about our leadership. So we need you to pray for us even as we are commanded to pray for you. And I pray that as we go forward and as we think about this more in the weeks to come, we will see that this local expression of the bride of Christ will become more faithful, more fruitful, more beautiful for the love and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we ask you now by your Spirit to lead us. We thank you for what you have shown us. I pray that you would filter out all that has been said in a way that would keep that which is solid and true and correct that which is not. I pray that as well for the people sitting here, that they would do the same in their own hearts. And we thank you that we can look to you to be our ultimate good and true shepherd, that you will lead and guide us, and that we can trust you in how you do it as we surrender ourselves to you as our Lord and as our Savior, even Jesus Christ. Amen.