Why Be a Church Member?

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.

Thank you. How we good.

So I appreciate you all being here this morning.

Listen, let me share just a couple of quick words with you

and we'll dive into this. Just a couple things that have

kind of recently come up that are not in your worship guide.

Couple of dates to mark on your calendar for me, if you would.

We have a church plant in Tarboro for those of you who are

guests here that we love and we're, we want to support and we

want to help them with their lunch.

And so 2 Saturdays, August the 30th, let's mark it down

someplace. And September 27th, we're going

to have work days down in Tarboro.

One, the first one's going to kind of help with the place, the

physical part of it. The 27th, we need all hands on

deck. That's when we're going to go

door to door all across that whole community, inviting people

to the launch service. So mark those two dates down.

And then one other thing is we're going to have another trip

out to Western North Carolina to continue to help with some of

the relief effort. This will be a kind of a house

building trip. And so this is going to be

October 2nd through 5th. So just a couple of dates to

keep in mind. We'll, we'll give you a lot more

details in the weeks ahead. Listen, two weeks ago I shared

about our understanding of the why and The Who of the church as

I share this brief series in which I want to just invite you

to come be the King's bride. This is a series about the

church and about what we do as a church.

But then what about lead us to as well?

And all these sermons connect together and they build on one

another, whether or not it seems that way to anybody but me in

the mirror. But I talked about salvation, I

talked about the church, I talked about baptism.

And and this morning we're going to talk about the scriptural

connection of formal, formal church membership.

So let me just ask you, because each week I'm asking you an

important question. And this morning the question

is, why be a church member? That's going to be important.

Now. Next week we're going to start

defining discipleship for you. So these are just important

messages that are setting the stage for us.

Now. This should be an interesting

sermon for some of you. You might say, well, I'm already

a church member, why in the world would I need to hear this?

Well, this also might be affirming to you to recognize,

oh, that's what church membership really means, and I'm

thankful for it. Or maybe you're not a church

member and you're curious as to why should I ever even

officially join a church? So these are things we're going

to talk about for a few moments from the Word of God.

And so this could even be tough for some of you.

And so again, I just want to thank the new members for

showing us this in action. Amen.

Yeah. So just welcome, welcome,

welcome. So let's talk about a few things

this morning. This is about a seven point

sermon, so hang in there. That's no, no exaggeration.

But they're going to go quickly and we'll be out somewhere near

time or, you know, within an hour or two of it.

So listen, the first thing we need to talk about is our, our

culture and church membership. Let let me just set the stage

for us a little bit. I, you know, I, as I've

mentioned too many times, I've had the opportunity working with

a lot of churches around the world.

And one of the things that I've had the privilege of doing is

working with national Baptist leaders in other countries and,

and, and, and especially in places, frankly, where the

church is persecuted. And so been a lot of persecuted

places. And one of those opportunities

has been in the Ukraine. And whether you realize this or

not, and you might not think about this with the war that is

going on there, but in a war zone like that, the Ukrainian

Baptists have lost probably half of their churches and pastors so

far. And so I've been consulting with

them for the last couple of years to actually talk to them

about how do you help rebuild? How do you help replant, How do

you help retrain these leaders, which is a relationship that

I'll continue to try to help them with because they would

desperately love to have their churches back.

Yet I worry that here in a place of peace and freedom that we

fall prey. And this is going to sound like

a strong word, but it's the right one where we fall prey to

a satanic misunderstanding and devaluing of the church and

church membership. We, we live in a culture of

virtually lawless, unlimited individualism where most people

believe they can do whatever they want, however they want

without any repercussion. And, and we want to believe

often that what our media tells us that we deserve this or that

and we can have it all our own way and that and, and we want to

have the right to have that immediately and, and completely

to our individual autonomous satisfaction.

Teresa and I went to high school together and I grew up in this

little town in eastern Oklahoma. And this little town when I was

growing up really didn't have any fast food restaurants.

And I remember when McDonald's came to town that let me make me

sound like I'm old, which I am, but that's not the point.

It just came really late to this small town.

And my father liked hamburgers. And so, but, but before that, in

Tahlequah, OK, the metropolis of Tahlequah, you know, you had to

go to a hole in the wall mom and pop burger place where you walk

in and everybody knew him by name and he could order his

pineapple milkshake and his weird configuration of a

cheeseburger. So he goes into McDonald's and

there's poor little high school girl waiting on him and he walks

in. He has no idea how this works.

So he walks in there and he says, I'd like to have a double

cheeseburger with grilled onions.

And I'd like to have the Pickles, you know, diced up

finely. And then I, you know, I'd like

to have a pineapple milkshake. Well, the girl just stares back

at him and, and basically says, Sir, I don't have a button for

that. Well, my dad was not necessarily

the most patient human being in the world.

So bless her heart, she she experienced his impatience.

I'll leave it at that. And I remember him grabbing me

and dragging me out of McDonald's.

So my very first time to try McDonald's, I didn't even get to

try McDonald's. What a loss, you know, I mean,

what a huge loss. Obviously you can look at me and

you can realize I've been to a few McDonald's since then.

But this attitude is not simply outside the church.

Sometimes it's inside the church also.

And many want easy and comfortable doctrine and easy

and comfortable expectations to feed their own self defined

desires and and consumerism frankly.

And they expect the church to conform to and frankly entertain

them to their personal preferences or else, you know,

and this is not new, as I've shared with many of you, and I

appreciate the hundreds of you who are coming on Wednesday

nights. People often do not want real

truth. I'm telling you everything here

that we're doing connects. So our Wednesdays and Sundays

really connect more than you might think.

But listen to Second Timothy 4, which I've read on a Wednesday

night. It says, I charge in the

presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the

living and the dead, and by His appearing in His Kingdom.

Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season,

reproof, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Here we go, for the time is coming when people will not

endure sound teaching, but have itching ears.

They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit

their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth

and wander off in the myths. Humanity works really hard to

rationalize and to self justify, frankly.

And as I shared one Wednesday night, this, this verb form of

will turn away. And that verse 4 literally, it's

a strong medical term that really means to twist a limb.

In other words, they're, they're they're going to get they're

going to work so hard to get away from the truth.

They're going to twist their ankles and blow out their knees

because they want to reject it and they deceive themselves.

But but one of the things that I've had to work through is the

fact that church leaders often fall prey to this and, and, and,

and they fear standing against the tide of self-centered church

definitions and self-centered church expectations lest they

lose their employment. And so a pastor recently came to

see me and just listen to what he says.

I want my church to change, but I don't want to produce any

conflict, create waves, or knock over any apple carts.

Now we we looked at his church and studied his church.

His church is absolutely dying. Nobody's being saved, Nobody's

joining the church, but they're unwilling to change to become

healthy. Well, blessing or curse, my

friends, this is what you've gotten into.

I'm a notorious apple cart kicker and wave maker, and so

we've got to understand growth never occurs without change.

It just won't. A baby doesn't stay a baby.

That cute little puppy, no matter how much we wish it

would, grows up into that big old mangy dog.

And a seed doesn't stay a seed. But, but let me just stop for a

second. And I mean this with my whole

heart. Teresa will tell you, I was a

bit overwhelmed last night, but I, I just want to express my

deepest appreciation to you, Englewood family, for your

willingness to adapt these last few weeks with our changes and

connect groups. And I especially want to call

out a certain age group. Thank you, senior adults,

because I know it was a significant change and I know

that it's required a lot of patience.

And I just appreciate you. I really, really do, and I just

want to thank you for that. And last night I got to spend

some time with a wonderful Connect group and fellowship and

they gave us a lovely house warming gift.

Frankly, I was a little overwhelmed and humbled by that.

It's just a wonderful thing to be part of a church family.

And I don't know if you know this, but last Sunday we had

more people in our Bible studies than we've had since before

COVID. And so, and it's not the numbers

that I'm after, it's the fact that I just want as many souls

as possible studying the word of God together and loving on one

another. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. So way to go Inglewood.

Thank you for that so much. And if you're not a part of any

of that, it's time to join. But because unfortunately, a lot

of people just dumb down or underestimate or even avoid the

significance of church membership.

So let's talk about this for a few moments and and talk

specifically about not just church involvement, but

membership. Let's look at the Kingdom value

of church membership. Remember that the church is the

King's bride and also the King's representative of the Kingdom

here on earth. And so she's precious and holy

and, and it must be treated with respect and with high

expectations, right? Theologian Michael Horton says

this. The visible church is where

you'll find Christ's Kingdom on earth.

And to disregard the Kingdom is to disregard its king.

So Jesus, who holds all authority in heaven and earth,

is delegated to the church, the authority to March on the

nations and to make disciples, just like you saw the Taiwanese

team do, right? Just like we're going to see

happening in Tarbor, just like we need to see happening in

Rocky Mount. So we look forward to being

together with members at some point of the Universal Church.

I have friends from all around the world and I look forward to

introducing you. And one day we're all going to

be there, every tribe, every tongue in every nation gathered

in the throne room. And I look forward to that

moment in heaven. But until that end, local

churches represent him and they represent the Great Commission

responsibility that he has delegated.

And, and we may not always do that perfectly.

Maybe we never do it perfectly, maybe we never do it perfectly,

but we're going to honestly seeking to fulfill His mission.

So we need to understand the value or His value for His body

and how that ought to dictate my commitment to her.

So in our study back in Acts, we saw Christians united with

individual but also interconnected churches.

They were added to the church and other churches were planted,

but they continued to communicate with them.

And at times it even took up offerings to help one another in

times of need. And so they identified, if you

don't understand the church, and if you're a person sitting here

and you know somebody, because I bet you do, you'll sit there and

say, well, I can serve Jesus, but I don't need the church.

You're really missing out on the bulk of the New Testament.

That's really not what the Bible teaches.

And so you've got to understand that even early on in church

history, you've got to understand this.

They knew who went, who their members were.

They identified as churches and others identified them, even

persecuted them as local churches.

They knew exactly who these people were.

So we're not created for isolation.

We're not born again into isolation.

My one of my mentors and friends, Tom Rainer, wrote this.

He said the New Testament does not have a plan for growing as a

Christian outside of the local church.

From Acts chapter 2 to Revelation chapter 3, the New

Acts 2 · chapter mention Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Testament is all about the local church.

And it is if you honestly read the Bible.

And so we are saved. We practice spiritual

disciplines. We are gifted individually

wonderfully by the Holy Spirit, but we are also expected to join

a local congregation and use them all for mutual edification,

for the building up the body, as well As for, and here's a cuss

word in our culture, accountability.

So after salvation, a Christian should join a church as soon as

possible with eagerness, with passion, to be used in the

greatest way with their spiritual giftedness and

service. There's no other context for

using your spiritual gifts like that.

So we do so because we simply seek.

We do. But see some, here's the

problem, I'll get there. Some people don't do this

because they're simply seeking something for themselves in the

church. And, and, and we need to, and

although we ought to be blessed by the church, we also need to

understand that we need to bring great glory to God and to be

used to build up the church. Paul talked about this all the

time, a very troubled church in Corinth, and he wrote this in

First Corinthians 12. He says to each is given the

manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

That just means spiritual gift. That's the context.

And then in chapter 14, so with yourself, since you are eager

for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in

building up the church. These aren't for your individual

honor badges. This is for you to build up the

body and you've got to be in the body in order to do that.

So one of the things that we're addressing is where we're

looking at this idea that the Christian life, and this is a

great phrase, it's ideally A discipleship journey in

community. That's what it is.

The Christian, the Christian life is a discipleship journey

in the, in the context of community or in community with

others. And so one of the things that

we're addressing through our Connect groups is the idea that

our reach ministry that you're going to be hearing more and

more and more about is going to reach out to everybody in our

church role. There should be no inactive

church member. That category doesn't exist in

Scripture. And so one of the things we want

to do is love people back into. In fact, last night at this

Connect group meeting, I was just listening over listening

talk about reach. We're going to do this.

We're going to reach these people, going to reach that

people. It's so exciting.

And so if we're committed to Christ as our head, we must also

be committed to to the body, his body, the church.

There's no ecclesiological decapitation allowed.

You don't get to do that. That's not biblical.

So officially and formally commit to a local church to be

in the best position to become the most obedient disciple.

And so to believe that you can best serve Christ while not

being accountable as an official church member is, frankly, to

ignore a major percentage of the New Testament teaching.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

The New Testament church understood her responsibility.

And the New Testament church, I promise you, knew who was in and

knew who was out. They had to as they faced

persecution and they faced false teaching.

They knew who was a member, and they knew who was not a member.

They had to know that every church to which Paul wrote could

be identified. They met together in a specific

city, in a specific place to serve and share together in

specific ways. And they dealt with those who

did not live the Christian life nor teach proper doctrine and

were forced to preserve and protect the integrity of the

body by knowing who was in, who was a member.

Now, on Wednesday nights, I'm teaching theological triage.

In other words, I'm teaching what are the most important

doctrines for us to believe in? What are some secondary and

tertiary doctrines? Last Wednesday night, again,

just by the way, we had the largest adult attendance on a

Wednesday night at Inglewood. I, I, it's all long before

COVID. I don't know the last time.

So you need to be here if you're not coming.

And this Wednesday night, we're going to talk about some of the

secondary and tertiary doctrines that may sound technical and

academic, but it's not. These are things we need to

believe, some that are worth dying for and some that are that

we can, we can have different interpretations about.

And how do we understand those? That's Wednesday night.

But the early church had to know.

The other church had to deal with those that were not of the

fold. They could not survive without

knowing. They didn't have a church on

every corner. They didn't have the luxury of

that much choice. They had to know.

And so they also had to practically perform Great

Commission tasks and, and missional tasks.

So #3 let's look at the practical ministry of church

membership. So to do all that, they were

commanded, they organized leadership, and they organized

delegation, and they organized ministry lists.

You need to study church history sometime.

And so in the Bible we even hear about an enrollment of widows on

a list to receive food and care. Listen to first Timothy 5.

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of

age, having been the wife of one husband.

And our deacons right here at Inglewood are doing this.

Our, our, our, our deacons take care of our widows.

Our deacons take care of our shut insurance.

In fact, one of the, my favorite parts of the week is when I get

to go out with a Deacon and we go, I go visit shut insurance

with them every week. I get to meet these wonderful

people who are also going to be incredible prayer partners for

us. And so the early church knew who

their leaders were. They knew who their members

were. They had a list of called

qualifications for them as members.

They also knew what their ministry needs were.

And so belonging to a church includes the church taking

specific responsibility for you, and you taking specifically

specific responsibility for other members.

It's a give and take. It's a wonderful thing, and I'm

sorry if that's not what church has meant to you.

I'm sorry if no one has told you that before.

I'm sorry if there's been no expectation of that.

I'm sorry if some church leader or church has failed you.

I see this way too often in my ministry.

Sometimes churches legitimately fail in fulfilling their part of

the covenant relationship with his members.

In fact, I'm writing a book about it right now.

But just like Paul and Barnabas sometimes had to go separate

ways at one point in their missions work, we believe God is

leading Inglewood to go down a a new path to best serve Him.

And so we want to separate ourselves from any of that

negative past and move forward in a positive way.

We must be obedient to him. But then yet then, because even

like these new members, they have a chance to start in a

brand new place, a brand new family, we got to welcome them

there. A lot of these folks are going

to plug in their experienced leaders.

It's going to be wonderful. So, so right now you can

personally play a vital role by joining, growing and getting

involved right here, right now at Inglewood like you've

witnessed them doing. Let us press on to be the best.

Let us let us have the most complete example of discipleship

that we can possibly share. And I'm going to talk about

discipleship all next week. But but other churches in the

lost world around us desperately need this.

Because let me tell you something.

Let me skip practical. It's difficult, maybe impossible

to care for a flock. Well, if the shepherd and the

other sheep don't know who the actual members of the flock

really are, becomes really hard. So #4 let's look at the

submission. Well, oh, another cuss word to

church membership. People don't like that word in

this culture. It's because they don't

understand it. As I read 2 weeks ago, Jonathan

Lehman radically challenges us concerning church membership.

He says church membership is a formal relationship between a

church and a Christian, characterized by the church's

affirmation and oversight of a Christian's discipleship and the

Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in

the care of the church. Now this gets even stronger.

Listen to this. Christ does not call us to join

a church, but to submit to a church.

And we just don't think like that.

A lot of times we think this is some choice.

And if I don't like this show, I'll just go find another show.

See. And many in our culture would be

unwilling to engage in that level of accountability because

they don't want to submit to anyone and they don't understand

biblical submission. Biblical submission is like the

I do's of a wedding ceremony. The submission's not by

manipulation. It's not by coercion, but ought

to be driven in Christian marriage by a sense of God's

calling to serve and to submit to him first and then willingly

to one another because of the prior commitment to him and his

will. That's what a Christian marriage

survives on listen, we choose to submit to one another in love

and service in the church, much like a husband and wife.

I mean, listen, you got to understand God has just blessed

me in this way when I married Teresa.

We, we sacrifice for one another to have a strong marriage.

And many unfortunately don't know church being like this.

It's been something else, something wrong, something

incomplete, something human driven perhaps.

Listen to what Paul wrote, Listen to what he wrote here in

Ephesians chapter 5. Look carefully then, how you

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time,

because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Not get drunk with wine for that's debauchery, but be filled

with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with

your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the

Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Submitting to one another of reverence for Christ, not just

reverence for one another, but because of Him first.

So he challenges this local church in Ephesus to live wisely

in a very unwise world. They were surrounded by paganism

and to encourage one another in action and worship according to

God's will. And as they're full of the

Spirit, to willingly, thankfully submit to one another, not

necessarily just because of one another, but because of Christ.

That's the key. And we missed that point in

church life in our experience unfortunately, and in our human

earthly minds and values. We want church and frankly

everything else to be about us and only see the problem of

submission to other humans and don't connect it to the

submission to Christ. So we may just think it's about

that pastor who seeks to Lord authority over you or some power

hungry power group in the church who want to run the church

rather than trusting God to God his bride.

But the church has to be more than that.

Paul drives home his point. He continues in Ephesians 5.

Wives, submit your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband

is the head of the wife. He visits Christ as the head of

the church, his body and his and is himself its Savior.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should

submit and everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church, and

gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify, make might

sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water

with the Word, so that he might present the Church to himself in

splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that

she might be holy without blame, without blemish.

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own

bodies. He who loves his wife loves

himself. For no one ever hated his own

flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ

does the Church, because we are members of His body.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast

to his wife, and the two shall become one.

Now listen to this. This mystery is profound, and

I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and

let the wife see that she respects her husband.

So this image of marriage and this image of the Church go hand

in hand and that, and that's part of the part of the point we

submit to one another in Christian marriage.

We do that in that relationship, thankfully, joyfully, willingly,

not just because of our love for our spouse, but because we have

submitted to and love Christ and believe with all of our hearts

that our marriage is his will. And in difficult times, your

marriage can survive because both partners recognize

submission to Christ as the key and not simply to one another.

Now listen, I believe it is God's will for me to be married

to Teresa Joe Baker. God has blessed me with the

kindest, sweetest, greatest Christ follower I've ever met on

this planet. My wife and I'm honored to be

her husband. I'm difficult to get along with

sometimes. I'm not sure that she's always

honored to be my wife, but I'm very honored to be her husband.

And, and listen to this. I believe it is God's will for

me to. It's stronger than that.

I believe I would have been disobedient and in sin if I did

not marry her. I believe it was God's will.

And when I perform a wedding ceremony and they go through

intensive premarital pastoral care, they have to express in

writing why they know it is God's will for them to marry

their fiance and they would be in sin if they did not get

married. Then we discuss those truths and

I share that as part of the wedding ceremony.

That's a major part of the wedding ceremony.

Why these two people know beyond any shadow of a doubt it is

God's will for them to be married to one another.

This is serious business, church membership serious too.

It's parallel. It's a it's an image of one of

the other. Joining the church ought to be

something you know is God's will.

Listen to says in Ephesians 521, submitting to one another out of

reverence for Christ. See, it's the same relationship

that we have. This is the key to strong

marriage. It's the key to your church

membership. So I want you to believe it's

clearly God's will for you to be a member of Englewood Baptist

Church before you seek to join her.

And Jesus described this type of submission as service.

He says in Matthew 20, He says, but Jesus called them to him and

said, you know, that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over

them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

It should not be so among you. But whoever would be great among

you must be your servant. And whoever must be first among

you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be

served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Point #5 another cuss word, the accountability of church

membership. This is something that some

people don't ever want to think about.

They want to deny that it's true.

We gather to serve him and we gather to serve one another.

But to to best do that, we must know who is really a member of

the flock. Endeavour and Alexander wrote

this. Church membership is means by

which the boundaries of church membership are drawn.

We know who you are. According to John 10, the Good

Shepherd knows his sheep and they know his voice, right?

They are identifiable and he'll leave the 99 to go after the

one, but he's got to know he has 100 in the 1st place to do that.

This becomes very practical and logistical for leaders.

A coach needs to know who his players are and what position

that they're skilled at. Just as a general needs to know

each soldier in their talents and Christian leaders, pastors

must also know the specific parts of the local body.

What are your gifts? What is your spirit of skill, as

Exodus would describe it? What are your talents and

experiences so that together we serve in the greatest way?

We're not going to know that unless you're a member.

See, we actually bear as leaders the responsibility for specific

sheep through the Church of God. Peter writes about it.

He says in first Peter 5 shepherd, the flock of God that

is among you, exercising oversight not by compulsion, but

willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but

eagerly or in the book of Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

Take careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock

in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for

the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

And we simply so we simply cannot be ignorant as shepherds

of who the specific sheep are in order to serve God well, we need

to know who you are so we can make sure that there there are

people who are assigned to you, to minister to you, as well as a

place of service for you to be assigned to serve others, to use

your calling, to use your giftedness to serve God will.

We cannot fulfill that obligation if if we're not

involved with one another. We can't fulfill our obligation

to other Christians, and we can't do it to church leaders

without the personal, specific involvement in the local church.

And other Christians and church leaders can't fulfill their

obligations to you without your specific involvement.

Now, many don't like this, either due to their

individualism or some lousy past church experience.

I know so many around the world who would love the privilege and

opportunity to become a member of a church again.

Dever and Alexander Wright Corrective discipline assumes

that it's important for a person himself to know that he's a

member of the church. He can't be expected to submit

to the church's discipline, another cuss word, if he is

unaware of his own membership in the church.

It also assumes that other members need to know whether or

not a person is a member. Listen to what Paul wrote to the

Corinthians in chapter 5. For what have I had to do with

judging outsiders? Is it not those outside the

church whom you are to judge? Excuse me, is that is not those

inside the church whom you are to judge.

God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among

you. So the church is responsible for

the members spiritual health, but there's no way for spiritual

accountability to work if no one knows who a member is.

They could simply walk away. They could simply reject any

correction. They could simply even reject

encouragement and not be redeemed like a Matthew 18

passage would suggest. Or in Second Corinthians chapter

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

2. For such a one, this punishment

by the majority is enough. See them.

The church held people accountable.

Second Thessalonians chapter 3. If anyone does not obey what we

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to

do with him, that he may be ashamed.

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

But many in our culture just don't like this part.

The Bible tells us in multiple places that the church must hold

her members accountable and even discipline them.

And no matter if you've ever seen it or not, or don't like it

at all, the Scripture is full of it.

That that that this designated, shepherded, defined, obedient

group of people watch out for one another and protect the the

sanctity of the body. So as imperfect people, because

that's who and what we are saved by grace.

We imitate Jesus by loving others through intentional

relationships for encouragement, accountability, and holiness.

We do that corporately. We do that individually.

But fall in humanity is often much more skilled at competition

than community. They often seek to get rather

than to give, to promote themselves rather than lift one

another up. Again, listen to Tom Rayner.

You don't get to treat the church like a social club where

you pay your dues, the pastors and staff for your hired hands,

and you expect certain perks in return.

Sacrificing self for the benefit of others is at the very heart

of the mind and the life of Christ.

So number six, let's look at the pathways of church membership.

For many of you, the next step is to become an official member

like these you have seen today. This is reserved for those

who've been born again, biblically baptized by

immersion, and are seeking to serve the Lord with all their

hearts and lives and around the world.

As I've said a minute many times, I work with persecuted

people who pay tremendous prices for their membership in a local

church. They're starving for more and

more churches too. But but true discipline is our

true discipleship. True discipleship is not

measured by attendance alone. It's not.

We love having you here and if you're a guest visiting today, I

know it may be a weird message, but if you're here today and

you're visiting today, we love having you here and we want you

to come back. But this is just the beginning.

It's too easy to walk away. It's too easy to reject

accountability. It's too easy to find someplace

else to just attend. So don't just hang out with the

bride. Commit to the bride and and

don't just be present to check off some religious duty list or

to appease someone else or to maintain some family tradition.

Join and be an active part of the official community.

I know people who will not officially join a church in

North Carolina, in Nash County in Rocky Mountain.

I know people who will not officially join a church because

their previous generations belong to a different one

grandma belong to a different church, and they see church

membership as more of a family tradition than a present

commitment to service in God's Kingdom.

And they think by leaving another church and joining this

one that they're somehow defying or neglecting that family

tradition. And I just want to say to you,

that's not true. You're actually affirming the

discipleship and the foundation they built into you so that you

could go on and serve well in a new place.

You honour them. So don't miss this opportunity

to use your giftedness and calling to serve others.

And so our church constitution and bylaws is full of, of, of

definitions and expectations. There are expectations of

membership. You don't get to be inactive

here according to our to our bylaws.

Did you know that that members here are actually supposed to

hold you accountable according to what this document says?

Did you know that membership can even be terminated according to

this document? Did you know that church

discipline is actually described?

I promise it's right here. I have it, I could read it all,

but I'm not going to. It's a serious business.

So #7 As we close, let's just think about the decision for

church membership. Christ established His church

for specific purposes, and He knew we desperately needed it to

be the disciples that we're supposed to be.

There's a reason why solitary confinement's a severe

punishment. That's not who we're designed or

created to be. The early church devoted

themselves to the fellowship and breaking of bread.

They devoted themselves to Koinonia.

You know that word which means to hold things in common, but it

also means to enter into each other's life.

And so we're to enter into one another's life.

And they were single mindedly, continuously devoted to that in

the book of Acts, the Bible says so church commitment requires

focused action. It requires intentionality.

It's not going to happen by accident.

And, and, and we have been saved and gifted and called to use our

giftedness to commit to serve one another, to serve this

community. But unfortunately, there's some

who avoid, intentionally avoid such closeness with others.

They they don't want to be known.

They don't want to have that kind of accountability in their

life. And the result is they make it

very, very difficult, if not impossible to receive the

spiritual support they need in life.

And then they wonder where God is when crisis happens.

So to simply attend as part of a crowd of hundreds of people,

it's an incomplete discipleship journey.

And, and, and it might be a great start.

And again, we're overjoyed that you are here, but it's not going

to be enough to become all that you could be.

We're not called to be several independent bodies meeting

together on Sunday morning or whenever you feel like it, or

whenever you're forced to come and dragged here by Mama.

We are here for an accountable to one another, and when one

member slips and falls, the other must be there to pick them

up and to catch them and to hold them and help them get their

footing again. We're bound together by the Holy

Spirit. We're devoted to entering into

each other's lives with love, to strengthen the young and

struggling believer, to protect a weaker brother and sister in a

tough spot, to love back the inactive, wandering members, to

reach a lost world all around us.

But this can't be real if you hold people at an emotional,

spiritual, and relational distance, trust in God's plan

and submit to Him. The early church was.

Here's a word for the day. The early church was was

Homothymodon. It means they are of 1 accord.

They were one together and compared to their old legalistic

religion this was revolutionary. This was life altering to them.

It was freeing to them. And our culture is starving.

This post postmodern pre Christian culture is starving to

death for that kind of authentic community.

Out of their fiercely independent autonomy and desire

to define their own personal truth, they seek others with

whom they can share their belief and and who will believe with

them. For for others, that will help

them find comfort and assurance in the midst of the chaos in in

which they live. And this church should be the

leading peer community of truth for them.

But we've seen a lot of poor examples.

So Englewood, we got to show them.

I need you to join us to take whatever step.

Your first step is to become a real covenant member of this

church. Right now.

Who's going to come to begin that process?

Who needs to be saved? Who needs to be baptized?

Who needs to go through our, our, our discover Inglewood

process? Just like you've seen all of

these people and many more. There are many more getting

ready to go through the next one.

On your Next Steps card, you'll see a little QR code down here.

You can either fill this out, drop it one of these boxes, or

you can click on that QR code and you can sign up for that and

we'll follow up with you. We'll help you with those steps.

But right now, in a moment when we sing, I'm going to invite you

to come. Pastors are going to be here.

They're going to be people in that Next Steps room right over

there who would love to visit with you privately, discreetly.

But what's my next step for church membership so that then

we can truly make disciples together, uniting our

giftedness, uniting Our Calling to serve together as a family,

as a body, as a bride and members.

I hope that you'll show your support with those who need to

come, that you'll let them know that they would be most welcome

to join the family and to join you on this faith journey.

So let's pray and encourage them right now.

Father, we thank you that we were never designed to do this

alone. That Father, you call us to be a

disciple, but that's not something we do by ourself.

That's something we do together. That's something we do in

community. That's something we do as part

of a family. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for the new members who've joined us.

Father, I met with many of them myself and, and know their

hearts and know their desire to serve.

Some of them are experienced leaders.

We thank you, Father for bringing them our way,

strengthening this body, the Father.

There may be someone here and the very first step they need to

take is salvation. They recognize they've never

trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

That's the first step. For others, it might be to be

biblically baptized like people are going to be next week.

For others, it's it's a conversation about how do I move

my membership from one church to another so that I can serve here

because that's what I believe God wants me to do.

That's the only time they should do it is because they believe

you want them to, Father. So Father, as we sing in just a

moment, I pray people will come. People can come and pray at

these steps, but also pray they'll go to the next steps

room to share with those who just love to sit down with them,

have a casual conversation, take their time to talk through this

and pray with them. So Father, bless us now in

Christ's name, Amen. Stand with me.

We're going to sing together. Some of us will be up here, some

folks are going to be over there in that next steps room.

You don't have to come up here first.

You can go right over there or you can come see us first.

You can come pray whatever you need to do as we sing.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.