Membership

Good morning. Can you hear me? That's great.

Good morning. My name's Chris. I'm a teaching pastor here at Watermark,

and I echo Leo's sentiments about the weather.

In fact, I'm from the UK, so in the UK, it's like 24 degrees is like tropical weather.

And yet here, I'm getting cold at 24 degrees, so I'm feeling a real wimp.

And one of the things that I've been just thinking about and reading recently,

I've been reading 1 Corinthians.

And in 1 Corinthians, I just had this very simple thought struck me.

Jesus loves his church.

Did you get that?

It's not rocket science. It's not kind of mind-blowing,

except you see when you read through Scripture, Jesus calls his church,

his building, his temple, his bride, his body, his flock, his saints, his disciples,

his servants, his family, his people.

Jesus loves his church.

And just kind of look around you for a second.

Okay, it's audience participation.

Okay, look around you.

The church is not a building.

The church is not a place.

The church is primarily a people.

You and me, we are the church.

Which means you and I are the church that Jesus loves.

You and I are the church that is so costly that Jesus died,

paid the ultimate price that you might come to be part of his church.

That's how much he wants you to be part of his body.

He paid with his entire life.

It is grace, pure grace, that you are part of his church.

And if you think about it, it truly is grace,

because if you actually get to know each other,

then you are really amazed that it's grace,

because some of you have just incredibly weird tastes in TV shows.

Some of you have strange personalities.

Some of us have habits,

which normally we would never hang around with people

who had those kind of habits, right?

They're not the kind of people you'd always choose

to hang out on a Friday night with.

But Jesus died that you and I might be part of his body.

He says he loves his church.

Some people say,

I love Jesus, but I don't like the church.

That's a bit like saying,

I like you, but your body is really ugly.

You know, that's not nice, right?

That's not the way you love the church.

And yet Jesus says the church is his plan A.

You know, in the Bible,

he doesn't have a plan B, right?

The church is his plan A.

And all through the New Testament,

90 times out of 114 times,

whenever the word church is mentioned,

it's all about the local church.

All about the local church.

So the question that kind of kept coming back to me was,

if Jesus loves his church that much,

how much do I love his church?

How much do I love this church

that he's brought me into?

And today we're kind of talking about membership.

And if this is your first time

and you're a visitor here,

you're just really welcome.

You kind of listen in to the conversation

that we want to be having.

And really, I just, I mentioned last week,

but I'm just so aware that membership is something

we as a church have not really talked about well.

We haven't done well at all, I think.

We've done it since,

we've done it since right at the beginning.

And yet, I think some of you,

I mean, I know that we haven't done it well

because some of you are like saying,

I'm not sure whether I am a signed member

of the church or not.

Let me just check.

Did I sign that thing?

Okay, I've been talking to some of you,

so I know that this is the case,

which shows that actually we want to make

what it means to be a member

more meaningful in the church.

And so that's what we want to kind of be

talking about today, looking at the Bible.

We're going to be having some membership classes

coming up, and we just really want everyone

to be engaged with this.

Many churches practice membership,

and it's kind of becomes this like

exclusive little holy club for really holy people.

I don't know if you've been in those kind of churches.

You know, I've also seen other churches

where they do kind of membership,

and it's like they lower the bar so low to be a member

that kind of anyone can just kind of walk in,

and suddenly they're kind of the member of the church.

And yet, when you look at Scripture,

Jesus never lowers the bar for what it means

to be a disciple of his.

In fact, Jesus lost followers

because he wouldn't lower the bar.

And the church actually grew

because he wouldn't lower the bar.

And he didn't say,

okay, you've got to kind of meet up to this standard

to be a member of the church.

He said, no, I have met the standard.

Now I want you to follow me

and walk with me

in your brokenness, in your sinfulness,

and realize that I am going to lead you to walk

as I call you to be as part of my people.

So here's why I think

we just need to be talking about membership.

Because as a church,

I think just even what Jeremy was sharing,

one of the most amazing things I see

is we're really a community who serves together,

who really tries to value each other,

engage in each other's lives,

and it's just amazing to see.

I could tell you many stories of what I'm seeing.

But I also noticed some other things.

I noticed that sometimes when difficulty

or struggles come,

when it comes to just kind of moving away,

sometimes people just slip out of the back door.

And you're like, oh, where was that person?

And they're like, oh, they left like two months ago.

And you're like, but as a family,

we want to be able to walk with you in that.

We want to be able to send you.

That's a great time for us to pray for you together.

And if we don't see that that's part of being a family,

you know, we've missed something

of what it means to be church.

You know, some of us don't know exactly

what we believe and why we believe.

I don't know if you,

I did an iTunes update this last week.

Do you know when you get the iTunes update

and they give you all the new terms and conditions,

how many of you actually ever read them?

Or do you just click agree?

Like, I have never read a single one of those iTunes.

Now, Alfie told me,

like, I have no idea what I'm signing up to.

No idea.

Alfie actually told me that apparently

you're not supposed to make nuclear weapons

with your iPad.

So that's one of the agreements,

which I didn't know.

But it's a good thing I'm keeping that one.

But the thing is,

nothing terrible has happened to me so far.

So I think it's cool, right?

I think it's fine.

And you know, the thing is,

I can treat church in the same way.

It's like, I know the deal.

I just click agree by coming to church on a Sunday.

But in fact, do I understand

what I'm really signing up for

when I say I'm a Christian and I belong to the church?

Do I know what it is?

You know, I have,

I've had people come to me and say,

hey, I need you to sign this form

to say that I'm a member of Watermark

for the school that my child is trying to get in.

And I haven't seen them for weeks or months.

And I've heard they go into about three different churches.

And I'm like,

maybe we need to think about

what it actually means to be a member of a church.

Because the Bible has some very significant things

to say about it.

And so I want us just to talk about

a few different things.

Membership is about commitment.

Membership is about belonging.

Membership is about accountability.

And membership is about submission.

Okay?

So that's just kind of where we're going to go.

We're going to start with

membership is about commitment.

And if you have your Bible

or your bulletin with you,

we're just going to kind of go through

a few of these different passages together.

So we're going to start looking in Acts 2.

Acts 2, it's the birth of the church.

Remember, Jesus says to Peter,

I'm going to build my church through you, Peter.

I'm going to build it.

It's my church.

And then Pentecost happens.

The Spirit comes down.

3,000 people get saved.

And do you know what it says?

It says they got baptized

and they get added to the church.

And then verse 42 says,

they devoted themselves

to the apostles' teaching,

the fellowship,

the breaking of bread,

and the prayers.

They devoted themselves.

Do you know what that word devoted means?

It actually means to cling on to,

to hold fast to

with perseverance and persistence.

That's what it means.

You know,

when you have a teenager

who is devoted

to playing Assassin's Creed

on their Xbox One,

what does it look like?

Right?

You know,

they will,

even though they could be eating

or sleeping,

they're willing

to hold fast

to that game console

just because there's something

about it that's important for them.

Nothing's moving them from that.

There's a commitment.

When the passage says

they devoted themselves,

they committed themselves

to the apostles' teaching.

They were so desperate

for God's word

that they were going

to just cling to it.

They were committed

to one another.

So it says

they had all things in common.

They sold their possessions.

They gave money

to those who are in need.

I mean,

just think how committed

you've got to be

to give away your stuff.

I mean,

that's pretty committed.

And then,

they were meeting daily

in the temple.

You know,

they were kind of,

so the temple's like

Sunday sermon,

kind of,

it's big group gathering.

A lot of people

can fit there.

Then they met

in each other's homes,

small groups,

like our CGs.

They're loving each other.

And they're doing

all of this

and it doesn't seem like,

oh no,

I've got to do this.

It's actually,

Jesus has captured them

in such a way

that their commitment

to Jesus

is always lived out

through the commitment

to the people

that he provides

around them

in his church.

So here's the progression

of faith.

You hear and believe

the gospel.

You get baptized.

You get added

to a local church

and then you devote

yourselves there

to the people,

to God's word,

to prayer,

to really following Christ

in that community.

That's the biblical pattern.

So if you're thinking about it,

in the first century

in Jerusalem,

how many churches were there?

One.

Good answer, Graham.

Yes.

There was one church.

So when you got baptized,

which church you got committed to

was the church in Jerusalem

because there was only one.

There was no other choices.

And baptism was a huge sign

of commitment

because in a pagan culture,

you know,

being a Christian

wasn't cool.

But now the issue

for us

in our society

is in Hong Kong,

you know,

there's like over 1,500 churches.

And when you get baptized,

you get brought

into God's

universal church

and you're a believer

but you need to learn

where do I express that,

my identity in Christ

in a local church body?

Where do I do that?

And hopefully what you do

is you get baptized

and if you're not,

if you're Christian

and you're not baptized,

we want to encourage you

to get baptized.

So you get baptized

and then you,

hopefully you stay

in your local church.

But the thing is,

in our society,

things move.

People move.

Things change.

And so then

when you move on,

how are you going to express

your commitment

to your new church?

How do the elders know

that you're committed there?

How do you understand

what the church

really believes

more than you just

kind of like the music

and you like the atmosphere?

The way that we do that

is through membership process.

That's why we do it.

One of the things

I've noticed,

you know,

in Hong Kong,

I don't think it's only Hong Kong,

I think it's a lot of places,

but we can sometimes

treat Christianity

and church

kind of like a buffet.

You know,

we do church

kind of buffet style.

You know,

there's a bit of

spiritual sashimi over here,

a bit of teaching curry

over there.

You know,

we pick and choose

the little bits we like.

And so I hear this

all the time.

I hear,

hey,

I've started going

to this new church

and I just really love

the sermons over there.

They're so relevant.

But the community

is not great there.

I love going to that church

because they have

great community over there.

So I want to get engaged

in that community group there.

And then sometimes

my friends invite me

to another church

and I love the music there.

Right?

We're doing church

spiritual buffet style.

And the question is,

where has God called you

to love the church,

not just to date the church?

Are you there to give

or are you there to get?

The call of membership

is to stop dating the church

and to settle down

and marry her,

if I can use that analogy.

Right?

Now,

I'm not saying,

you go to a church,

you will find no church

which is a perfect church

which does everything.

If you join it,

anyway,

even if it was a perfect church,

it wouldn't be perfect

after you've joined.

But,

what membership is saying,

I'm going from being

a fan of this church

to being a family member.

I'm going from saying,

I like this,

to saying,

I'm committed.

I'm going to devote myself here.

That's what membership is about.

And so,

some of us

really just don't understand

in terms of,

Hong Kong is very transient.

It's very transient.

Some of us are only here

for a short time.

But God actually says,

when you look

and prayerfully look around

different churches,

you have to think,

where am I going to get plugged in?

Even if it's just a short time,

where is the church

I'm going to devote myself to?

And if it's this church,

great.

If it's another church,

great.

But God calls you

to devote yourself,

no matter how long you're here,

to a church.

Membership is about

commitment

to Jesus first

and then to the body

that he loves.

Okay,

that's the first thing.

Second thing,

membership is about

belonging.

Flick over to 1 Corinthians

for me.

I just want to spend

a little bit of time here.

1 Corinthians 12,

1 Corinthians 12:12

verse 12,

says this,

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,

slave or free,

and all were made

to drink of one spirit.

Did you notice

how many times he said all?

Did you get that?

He said,

All members,

all baptized,

all drink of one body.

Yet we're one together,

but all of us

are important.

In the church in Corinth,

which is where Paul's talking,

it's a local church,

he's talking to people

who are thinking

things like that.

Well,

if I'm not engaged,

there's plenty of other people

who can take my place.

They're looking at everybody

else around them

and saying,

well,

I'm not as gifted as them.

I'm not as good

a communicator as them.

I'm not as extroverted as them.

I'm not quite as good.

So I'm not going to be a mist

if I don't engage in the body.

And Paul is saying to them,

guys,

don't you understand

who you are?

Don't you understand

what Jesus has brought you in?

You're a body.

And he says,

if the foot,

verse 14,

the foot should say,

because I'm not a hand,

I don't belong to the body,

that would not make it

any less a part of the body.

He's saying,

if you are a foot

and you go AWOL,

okay,

you're saying,

well,

I'm only smelly

and a little hairy.

I don't get much pictures

on Facebook.

So therefore,

I'm not so important.

He's saying,

no,

don't you realize,

just as with the body,

every part is valuable.

You have a unique contribution

to make in the body

where God has placed you.

Did you get that?

You,

say,

me,

I,

have a unique contribution

to make to God's body

that he has placed here.

I think we can miss that sometimes.

You know,

I heard of one guy

who left his church

recently

because the elders

wouldn't let him charge his phone

during the service.

Do you think he understood

his role as a member of the body?

I don't think so

because what this is saying

is there is something bigger

than just you

that God has brought you

to be a part of

and you have value in that.

The speaker,

Charles Spurgeon,

he said this to some people

who say,

hey,

I can be a good Christian

but I don't intend

to give myself to a church.

This is what he says.

He says,

think of a brick.

Okay?

What is the brick made for?

It's made to build a house.

It's no use

for the brick

to tell you

that it's just as good

a brick

while it's kicking about

on the ground

by itself

as it would be

as part of a house.

Actually,

by itself,

it's a good for nothing brick.

This is what Spurgeon says.

He's saying,

a detached Christian,

like a detached foot,

is not living

according to the purpose

that God has saved you for.

You're living in disobedience

and the house without you,

the body without you,

investing and contributing,

will suffer

just as you will spiritually

if you're not engaged

with a local church body.

Verse 18 says,

God has arranged you here.

You get that?

God has arranged you here.

What that means is

you matter in the body.

Just say that.

I matter.

Just say that again.

I matter.

Yeah,

you count

in the body of Christ

because he's building something

and he's called you

to be part of his body.

You know,

we live in a society

that values independence.

You know,

it says like,

basically,

my identity

is built of juggling

a whole load of different

things in my life.

So,

I'm a husband,

I'm a father,

I'm a brother,

I'm a son,

I'm an employee,

I'm a church member.

And so,

we're kind of juggling

all of these things

in our lives.

And you know,

when life gets busy,

you've got to drop

one of the balls.

And sometimes,

what we do is we kind of,

okay,

the church one,

we're just going to drop

a little bit.

But if you see

that you belong

as part of this,

even if you can't

make a meeting

because things are crazy,

you'll find other ways

to think,

how do I express

being part

of this local body?

Don't underplay

God's design

in having you here

for however long

he has placed you here.

And if this is the church

that you feel

God has called you to be,

then God says,

I have placed you here

not to be detached

but to plug in.

You matter.

What that also means

is this.

It's not just

belonging here

means you are valuable,

but it also means

that we have responsibility

towards each other.

Do you know

the Bible has over

50 one another's statements?

Love one another,

carry one another's burdens,

forgive one another,

a whole load

of different things.

And yet,

those one another's

are not just about

kind of serving

occasionally,

although that's great.

In verse 25

in the passage,

which I didn't read there,

it says,

you've got to care

for one another

as a family,

as a body

who's responsible

for one another.

You know,

that's how we flourish

together.

Do you know

the difference

between being

a babysitter

or just leading

in the kids ministry

and being a parent?

Okay?

What's the difference?

You know,

I've done babysitting before.

I've done kids ministry

before.

You know,

you do your task,

you play with the kids,

you do whatever,

you teach them,

and then,

and you kind of hope

they just don't kill each other

or anything like that,

and then at the end of the day,

you just kind of hand them back,

and then your job's done,

and then you,

and then usually what you do

is you just complain

about the parents

of like,

hey,

shouldn't they have brought up

their kids a bit better

because it was such a nightmare

for me doing that?

And that's how you do it.

But if you're the parent,

you have responsibility,

and I've talked to many of you

as new parents,

there's this just incredible joy

when you have a new child,

but also a credible sense of,

wow,

I'm responsible for this.

And now that child,

you view very differently

than if I'm just the babysitter,

right?

They're your family.

You have a responsibility.

And so,

in the same way Paul is talking about here,

the way that we see each other,

if you see yourself so interconnected,

is we belong,

and therefore we're responsible

for each other,

which means things like,

if you lead a CG,

I mean,

just here's an example.

I don't know if you've ever

led a Bible study in a CG,

or if you've actually just turned up

to your CG,

your community group.

The difference is often,

the amount of prayer

that you pray

when you're actually leading the study

compared to if you just turn up

is quite considerable.

You know,

if you just turn up

on a Sunday morning

and it's just kind of,

hey,

whatever,

and if you're preaching,

the amount of prayer

and the amount of thought

that you're talking about it

is different,

right?

If you see yourself

as a member of the body

with responsibility

to each other,

then when you come on a Sunday,

how much are you praying

for our time together?

Not just,

oh,

I hope I hear a good sermon.

Or when you meet

to the community group

and are you praying

that God would be there,

present,

because you see

it's us together,

it's not just one or two people

who's doing everything

and I'm just gonna turn up.

Do you see that?

That's what members see.

We belong,

we're responsible,

we all matter in this.

If someone doesn't show up

in your CG

for five weeks

or in the service,

a fan will say,

oh,

it's a shame,

haven't seen them for a while.

A family member will say,

hey,

let me give them a ring,

let me see how they're doing.

Do you see the difference?

That's what membership is about.

It's about commitment,

it's about belonging,

thirdly,

it's about accountability.

There's another verse

on your sheet,

which we didn't read,

but I'd like to just

read it to you now.

Hebrews 3,

Hebrews 3:12

verse 12.

Again,

this is written

to a local church.

He says,

take care,

brothers,

lest there be in any of you

an evil,

unbelieving heart

leading you to fall away

from the living God.

But exhort one another

every day

as long as it's called today,

that none of you

may be hardened

by the deceitfulness

of sin.

Did you get that?

Exhort one another

every day

as long as it's called today.

You know,

the context

that this is written in

is a local church

where things have been tough

around them

and some of the Christians

are looking around

at the society

and they're saying,

maybe it would be easier

for us if we kind of

became Jews

rather than just

stayed as Christians

because Jews get an easier

ride in society

and there's this temptation

for them

to kind of go easy

on the Jesus stuff

and just fit in

with the crowd.

And the author

of Hebrews

is saying to them,

guys,

you need to help

each other with this.

Like,

does anyone ever feel

that pressure

at work,

the pressure

and family

to just

dumb down

your relationship

with Jesus?

Anyone feel that?

Because this passage

says sin

is deceitful.

It can twist you.

It creeps up on you

like a persuasive salesman

trying to sell you

a handbag

or a new drone

and you can't afford it

but before you know it,

you've,

you're taken.

You're in.

And the author

of Hebrews says,

listen,

that responsibility

for each other

means you are going

to exhort each other

to come back to Jesus.

What that means is,

exhort means urge,

implore,

encourage,

say,

hey,

I'm with you,

come on,

let's run this race together.

That's what it means.

In Watermark,

our community groups

are really where

we want to encourage

that to take place.

Because I don't know

about you,

but I'm always tempted,

you know,

prone to wander,

prone to wander.

Anyone else prone to wander?

Graham is.

Good,

this one.

All the rest of you,

I need you to talk to me.

But you see,

that's,

that's what we're like

as a community.

Because,

you know,

the number one thing

that turns non-Christians

off Christians

and off Christianity

is actually Christians.

You know?

Christians who say,

hey,

I go to church,

I do all these things,

but then,

actually,

all through the week,

they're living a life

which has no bearing

on how the gospel

is changing them.

And the thing that people

keep telling me again and again,

oh,

Christians,

you're just hypocrites.

And you know,

yes,

we are all here,

everyone is a hypocrite,

actually,

but I don't want to be

pursuing hypocrisy,

I want you to help me

to live faithfully.

And so,

your responsibility,

my responsibility

as a member,

that's why we encourage you

to get into community groups,

is that you'll be

helping each other,

engage in each other's life,

so that we are not hypocrites,

but we are people

who honor Jesus

in the way that we live.

And when we mess up,

we're just calling each other

back to the grace

and the mercy

and the kindness of Jesus,

and helping each other

on that road.

Are we up for that?

Are you up for that?

That's what accountability means,

but it means something

also more than that.

And here's the thing

which is a little culturally,

you know,

we struggle with.

Throughout Scripture,

it tells us

that actually part of this process

of discipleship

is church discipline.

Same word,

disciple discipline.

I don't like the word discipline

because it reminds me

of harsh punishment.

It reminds me

of when I was at school,

we used to have

corporal punishment,

you know,

where they hit you

with a cane.

I just avoided it

and got my friend in trouble

because I just got to stay

in the corridor.

I was kicking a stone

in the playground.

And my friend,

I heard him getting beaten,

and I was just standing

in the corridor.

And that's my impression

of what discipline is.

It's the kind of punishment

that I want to avoid.

And yet,

that's not what the Bible

calls discipline.

This says,

discipline is about discipleship.

It's what Hebrews

is talking about.

And Jesus talks about it

in the same way.

He says,

Matthew 18.

He says,

when,

if a brother sins against you,

and go and tell him his fault,

go and sort it out together.

If there's issues of sin,

don't just leave them,

sort them out.

And he says,

if he doesn't listen to you,

take two or three others with you.

And so it's not a kind of

he said,

she said kind of thing.

No,

like,

do it as a community.

And then,

if they still won't listen to that,

tell it to the church.

And then if he still won't listen

to the church,

he says,

treat them as a Gentile

and a tax collector.

This is hard,

but this is Jesus talking.

What he says is this.

Sin is serious,

but discipline is not about punishment.

Discipline is about bringing us back to Jesus.

It's about helping us to win each other over

so we're not going to be hypocrites

in the world around us.

And he says,

sin is deceitful,

so therefore,

as a church,

we need to be praying for each other.

We need to be calling those who we see

going astray,

calling them back.

This is part of what it means

to be a member.

At a previous church,

there were a couple.

They were living together.

They were sleeping together.

But they said,

hey,

we're Bible-believing Christians.

We love Jesus.

But they refused to get married

because they just said,

okay,

marriage is just signing a piece of paper.

That's what they said.

We love each other.

That's all that's necessary.

What do you do in that situation?

If you're a member,

if you're an elder,

what do you do?

You know,

do you say,

well,

marriage is just a human institution.

It doesn't really matter

as long as they love each other.