Members of the Body

August 2010 Newsletter

I’d like to take a few minutes to remind each of you how extremely important you are to this church. As you contemplate your membership in Christ’s church (which I would like you to do with me for a moment), please do so from God’s point of view. When God adds members to his church, he does so one person at a time. Each piece of the body is an individual, different, very particular piece.

In other words, there is simply no replacing you in this church. If you’re gone or simply not an active, functioning part of our community, the rest of us miss out. We don’t get the unique “you” God created and gave to his church. As Christians, we belong together. Read what the apostle Paul tells us about the bond we share:

¹⁹ …. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. (Eph 2.19b, NLT)

In his book The Weight of Glory, CS Lewis writes on exactly what Paul meant by membership for the Christian. His words are worth reading here:

The very word membership is of Christian origin, but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning…almost the reverse of what St. Paul meant by members. By members he meant what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another… A row of identically dressed soldiers set side by side, or a number of citizens listed as voters in a constituency are not members of anything in the Pauline sense. I am afraid that when we describe a man as “a member of the church” we usually mean nothing Pauline; we mean only that he is a unit — that he is one more specimen of some kind of things as X and Y and Z. How true membership in a body differs from inclusion in a collective may be seen in the structure of a family. The grandfather, the parents, the grown-up son, the child, the dog, and the cat are true members (in the organic sense), precisely because they are not members or units of a homogeneous class. They are not interchangeable. Each person is almost a species in himself… . If you subtract any one member, you have not simply reduced the family in number; you have inflicted an injury on its structure.

My prayer for you is that you take up residence here. Plant your roots deeply in the ground at DCC and love this place like your home—because it is! Whether you’ve been here 10 years or 10 days, look anew at this local brotherhood as your dear family. Get to know someone better. Repair a lost friendship. Serve the body in the unique way only you are able. Because in Paul’s words:

²⁵ This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.²⁶ If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. ²⁷ All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. (1 Cor 12.25-27, NLT)

Your Brother in Christ,

-bill

Search through Old Sermons Much Easier!

Overhaul to the Podcast pages: Lots of pretty pics & downloads! www.2010.billmesaeh.com (Now possum-free!)

Pain

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself. - CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Made for This: Fellowship

Your relationship to Christ is personal, but God never intended for it to be private.  We were made to live in unity with each other.  The church—our Christian brotherhood—is especially called to show love within its ranks.  Christian love focused outside the church is evangelism; when it is focused inside, fellowship occurs.

 

 

Scripture Used

1 Peter 2.17
Phil 1.3-11 (NLT)
1 Cor 13.13
Phil 1.2 (the Message)
Rom 12.5 (NLT)
James 3.18 (the Message)
Eph 4.15 (NLT)
Gal 6.2 (NLT)
1 John 3.18 (NLT)
Gal 6.10 (NLT)
Eph 4.3 (NLT)
2 Tim 2.33 (NLT)
1 Cor 1.10 (NLT)
Rom 14.19 (Ph)
Eph 4.2 (NLT)
Rom 14.13 (NLT)
Prov 17.4 (NLT)
Matt 18.15-17 (NLT) [referenced but not quoted)
Phil 4.2-3 (NLT)
Heb 13.17 (NLT)

Quotes & Statements

You were called to belong, not just believe.

Your relationship to Christ is personal, but God never intends for it to be private.

Referenced CS Lewis: The Weight of Glory

1. Less is more
a. Move beyond potato salad
b. You can worship in a crowd, but you can’t fellowship in one.

2. Be honest
a. Accept the tunnel of chaos.

3. Love with your hands
a. Stop saying “I’ll pray for you.”
b. Let Nike take over your spiritual life; just do it.

4. Prioritize the brotherhood
a. Be available.

5. Take the initiative
a. Be a friend to have a friend.

 

· Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is immaturity.

 

1. Focus on what we have in common, not our differences
a. Look: we all believe we worship the same God, share the same salvation, love the same Jesus, read the same Bible, and have the same destiny.
b. So, forget about everything else.

2. Be realistic
a. God wants you to love real people, not ideal people.

3. Encourage rather than criticize
a. Criticism is satanic. (Rev 12.10)

4. Refuse to gossip
a. People who will gossip with you will also gossip about you.

5. Resolve conflict God’s way

6. Support your pastor and leaders
a. They’re not perfect, but they’re God-chosen.

 

God made the church to meet your five deepest needs:

§ Purpose to live for
§ People to live with
§ Principles to live by
§ Profession to live out
§ Power to live on

(Taken from: Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life)

C. S. Lewis on “Membership”

 

The very word membership is of Christian origin, but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning. In any book on logic you may see the expression “members of a class.” It must be most emphatically stated that the items or particulars included in a homogeneous class are almost the reverse of what St. Paul meant by members. By members he meant what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another, things differing not only in structure and function but also in dignity… . A row of identically dressed soldiers set side by side, or a number of citizens listed as voters in a constituency are not members of anything in the Pauline sense. I am afraid that when we describe a man as “a member of the church” we usually mean nothing Pauline; we mean only that he is a unit — that he is one more specimen of some kind of things as X and Y and Z. How true membership in a body differs from inclusion in a collective may be seen in the structure of a family. The grandfather, the parents, the grown-up son, the child, the dog, and the cat are true members (in the organic sense), precisely because they are not members or units of a homogeneous class. They are not interchangeable. Each person is almost a species in himself… . If you subtract any one member, you have not simply reduced the family in number; you have inflicted an injury on its structure.

- Taken from CS Lewis: The Weight of Glory

Made for This: Evangelism

Like a city on a hill, God saved you and adopted you into his family to shine brightly in this dark world.  When we love God, we worship.  When we love fellow believers, we minister.  When we love nonbelievers, we evangelize.

 

 

 

Scripture Used

Matthew 28.19-20 (NLT)

Luke 8.16-21 (NLT)

Mark 3.21 (referenced, but not quoted)

Quotes

In the world, you have to do something to be somebody.

In Christianity, God makes us someone so we can do some things.

“My identity is light, so my activity is shining.”

“My identity is family, so my activity is serving.”

 

References

I referenced George Whitefield’s “How to Listen to a Sermon.”

http://www.contagiouschristian.com/

Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life

Strobel, Lee: Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary

How to Listen to a Sermon

by George Whitefield

Keys for getting the most out of what the preacher says
Jesus said, 'Therefore consider carefully how you listen' (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage.

1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. To enter His house merely to have our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to ourselves.

2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God. If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what those conditions were! And shall we not pay the same respect to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?

3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister. That was the reason Jesus Christ Himself could not do many mighty works, nor preach to any great effect among those of His own country; for they were offended at Him. Take heed therefore, and beware of entertaining any dislike against those whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers over you.
Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves. And though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting his doctrine. For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ’s name. And we know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they said (see Matt. 23:1-3).

4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think. Preferring one teacher over another has often been of ill consequence to the church of God. It was a fault which the great Apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the Corinthians: 'For whereas one said, I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos: are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but instruments in God’s hands by whom you believed?' (1 Cor. 1:12; 2:3-5).
Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to those who shall be heirs of salvation? And are they not all therefore greatly to be esteemed for their work’s sake?

5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered. When our Savior was discoursing at the last supper with His beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should betray Him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and said, 'Lord, is it I?' (Matt. 26:22).
Oh, that persons, in like manner, when preachers are dissuading from any sin or persuading to any duty, instead of crying, 'This was intended for such and such a one!' instead would turn their thoughts inwardly, and say, 'Lord, is it I?' How far more beneficial should we find discourses to be than now they generally are!

6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God to be your duty.
No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: 'Praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the mysteries of the gospel' (Eph. 6:19-20). And if so great an apostle as St. Paul needed the prayers of his people, much more do those ministers who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.
If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds!

This excerpt is adapted from Sermon 28 from The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield. Published by E. and C. Dilly, 1771-1772, London. George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a British Methodist evangelist whose powerful sermons fanned the flames of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies.