CBFC Worship Service 10/11/2026 | Our Mission: Membership

Welcome again to Community Bible Fellowship Church.

My name is Daniel.

Just a brief correction to something Andrew said.

He said that Taco Twednesday would be this Wednesday.

It's actually this Twednesday, so don't get confused.

6 to 8 p.m.

this Twednesday.

And we are talking about church membership this morning.

This super fun, exciting topic of church membership.

We're going to be looking at this from Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians 2, verses 11 to 22.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention Ephesians 2:11–22

If you want to find your way to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And while you do, I want to briefly talk about Porches, marriage, and the government.

Porches, marriage, and the government.

Sociologists have begun to point out something interesting about modern homes, and it's that porches, front porches, are disappearing.

They're not like vanishing, no one's stealing them.

If you go home and your front porch is missing, don't call a sociologist.

We're just not building them as much anymore.

New homes are being built, and they're not being built typically with front porches.

A hundred years ago, large front porches were commonplace.

Families would spend evenings sitting outside on them talking with their neighbors, probably smoking some cigarettes, watching their children play, interacting with the people around them.

But increasingly, we've been moving from front porches to back decks.

From the public communal front of the house to the privacy of our backyards.

Now I'm not saying that everything was better a hundred years ago, or that you need to go home and build a front porch or start smoking cigarettes, but don't actually.

But I think this illustrates something broader that we see happening in our culture.

We've increasingly organized our lives around privacy and independence.

We want our own space, our own time, our own lives without other people getting too involved.

There's been a shift away from outward-facing community toward inward-facing privacy.

And put simply, we live in a world of increasing individualism.

That's Porches.

Then there's marriage.

Over the past several decades, we've seen marriage rates plummeting and cohabitation skyrocketing.

More and more and more couples are willing to share a home and a life together without making the public binding commitment of marriage.

And that reluctance to commit extends far beyond marriage as well.

We see it in our jobs, our friendships, even like our Friday night plans.

We hesitate to commit to something because commitment limits our options.

Like, what if something better comes along?

What if I find a better opportunity, a better relationship, a better job, a better way to spend my Friday evening?

We live in a world of non-commitment.

And then there's the government.

I didn't know all of the time was even an option for the federal government, but in 1958 it was.

And by 2025, that number had fallen to just 17%.

That was last year.

This year, who knows?

7%.

And it's not just the government, right?

The authority in general.

Americans are extremely distrusting of authority.

And I'm not saying there's not good reason for some of that distrust.

Authorities and institutions have failed people.

The government has failed people.

The church has failed people sometimes terribly.

But it also reflects how deeply suspicious we have become of institutions, of authority in general.

We don't like being told what to do.

We don't like being accountable to others or submitting to others or being under the power of others.

We want to make our own decisions and live on our own terms.

We live in a world that hates authority.

And I think all three of these realities reveal something about us.

We tend to still want community but without vulnerability.

And we want relationships but without commitment.

And we want guidance and protection without submission.

Simply put, we are living in a culture drunk with individualism, non-commitment, and a hatred of authority.

And nowhere does this become more tragic than in the church.

We've been accustomed to bring our anti-authority, anti-commitment individualism to church with us, and to think about Christianity primarily as a personal relationship between me and Jesus, just me and him.

So we want the blessings of belonging to Christ without the responsibilities of belonging to his people.

We want salvation and comfort and assurance, even fellowship sometimes, but we resist accountability, commitment, submission, and sacrifice.

And so we've lost sight of something fundamental about what the church actually is, about what salvation actually means, and about what it means to belong to Christ's people.

Over the past three weeks, we've been looking at our mission as a church, as Andrew said, it's to glorify God by magnifying his name, maturing his people, and multiplying his church.

And today we're going to conclude that series, turning our attention to this idea of church membership.

What does it mean to actually belong to a church and the church and this church?

Why does it matter, and how does Christ call us to live that out?

So let's look at God's word in Ephesians 2 now.

And I invite you to stand if you're able for the reading of God's Word.

In Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 11.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

God's word reads as follows.

Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called to the uncircumcision uh uncircumcision, by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body, through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens, with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Maybe seated.

Will you pray with me now?

Lord Jesus, you are building a kingdom and a family and a temple in your world and here in CBFC.

And we ask that you would draw near to us as your temple here, by your Holy Spirit, to open our eyes, to see the truth of your word, to hear all that is true and discard what is not, to have our focus on you, Lord, and your glory.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.

The heart of what we just read in Ephesians 2 is this incredible reality that in Christ we belong.

There's a lot going on here, we're not going to get into all of it, but that's a major idea.

We belong.

We belong to Jesus and we belong to his people.

And that belonging changes everything about how we understand the church and our relationship to one another.

So this morning, as we consider church membership, I want us to look at three things: the privilege of belonging, the nature of belonging, and the responsibility of belonging.

The privilege, the nature, and the responsibility of belonging.

First, the privilege of belonging.

Before we talk about church membership in particular, before we talk about commitments and responsibilities and all that, we need to see what an extraordinary privilege it is to belong to the people of God.

Verses 11 and 12 with me.

Paul tells the Ephesians and surrounding cities, these Gentile Christians, to remember what they once were.

You were separated from Christ, alienated from his kingdom, strangers to God's promises, having no hope and without God in the world.

See, throughout the Old Testament, God had chosen a particular people for himself.

He called Abraham.

He made a covenant with him and his descendants, and then he gave them the signs for their being part of the covenant community.

They were his people and he was their God.

He dwelt amongst his people.

And belonging to that people was not some vague, invisible reality.

It was something recognizable.

Israel was a covenant community with identifiable members and covenant signs and real responsibilities to one another.

But these Gentiles were outsiders to that.

They had no share in these promises from God, no place among God's covenant people, no place in his kingdom, and worse still, their exclusion was a sign that they were alienated from God Himself.

This is us.

Alienated from God.

But then comes verse 13.

Listen to these glorious words.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything for all people everywhere.

Those who were far off have been brought near.

Those who were strangers have been welcomed home.

Those who were without hope have been given an eternal inheritance in Christ by the blood of Jesus, by his sacrifice.

So Jesus died to bring us to God and therefore to bring us together to one another as his people, not to remain as individuals.

Look at verses 14 through 16.

Through his cross, Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile and reconciles us both to God and to one another in one body.

So humanity becomes one in a new humanity brought together through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The same blood that brings us near to God brings us near to one another.

And then Paul gives these three breathtaking pictures of what we have now become, not just as individuals, but as the people corporately of God.

First is verse 19.

The people who were scattered abroad now belong to a kingdom that will never fail, under a king who will never fall, as a people who will never be overthrown.

So we're fellow citizens with the saints in God's kingdom.

Second, we're members of God's household.

We're family.

We sometimes use this language so much of brothers and sisters that we become numb to it, but this is an incredible, incredible truth.

The Almighty Creator of the universe has become our father, and he has given us brothers and sisters here and in every nation, every generation, every corner of the earth.

Look around this room.

These people aren't just strangers, some of them are in some sense, but they're family.

Forever.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

That is an amazing thing.

And third, then, verses 20 and 22.

We're built and being built together into God's temple.

We are stones in God's temple dwelling place.

In the Old Testament, there was a God's glorious presence that dwelt in the physical temple behind the veil where only the high priest could enter, and only once a year.

But now, through Jesus Christ, God Himself is making us, his gathered saints, into that same reality by his spirit.

Do you see what Christ has given you in the gospel?

You were a stranger and now you're a citizen in his kingdom.

You were an outsider without a family, and now you're a child of God with brothers and sisters.

You were far from God, and now you're part of his very dwelling place.

The church is not merely some organization to join, it is a people that Christ has purchased with his blood, a family that he has welcomed you into, and a temple that he is building for his glory through you.

But that raises an important question.

If Christ has not only saved us, but made us by salvation members of his people, how is that belonging supposed to be expressed?

Is it simply enough to belong to the universal church, the invisible church, or does Scripture call us to commit ourselves to an actual identifiable local congregation?

And this brings us to our second point, the nature of belonging.

We all have the privilege of belonging to Christ's church.

But what is the nature of our belonging?

We need to make an important distinction.

Everyone who has been saved by Jesus belongs to his universal church, sometimes called the invisible church, which is all believers throughout time and space.

That's what Ephesians 2 is describing.

We are now all members of his household.

The question is, how is that spiritual reality supposed to be expressed in our lives?

Can I belong to Jesus and to his invisible universal church without ever committing myself to a particular local church?

And that's the question of church membership.

Because the metaphors for the invisible church that Paul uses here in Ephesians 2, the church as a household, as a family, as a temple, he also uses for particular local congregations.

Now, like the Trinity and many other Christian doctrines and practices, there's no single passage of Scripture that explicitly defines, explains, and commands local church membership.

But, like the Trinity, that doesn't mean it's unbiblical.

There are all sorts of things that we believe and practice because they're necessary implications of what Scripture teaches, even when we don't have a single verse explicitly commanding them.

And I want us to see this morning that the New Testament, really the whole Bible, consistently assumes that Christians will belong to identifiable local congregations with recognized leaders and real responsibilities to one another.

And really, in many ways, this shouldn't surprise us.

If we're reading our Bible left to right, then we see that throughout the Old Testament, God's people were always an identifiable covenant community with names and numbers of who belonged and who didn't, some being added in by faith, others being removed in discipline.

And if someone wanted to join that community, it required a clear and visible sign.

If you're a dude in ancient Israel and you want to participate in the community life of Israel or the Passover, you gotta go through some stuff first.

It's not there's a commitment there.

You gotta get some things removed.

So you can't just walk into the community of God's people and be a part of it in all of the ways.

There are formal processes in place that identify some as God's people and others as not.

Some as insiders and some as outsiders.

And while the the coming of Jesus in the New Testament has transformed the nature of God's covenant people, the basic principle hasn't changed.

God's people are still a recognizable community, committed to Him and to one another.

And so the New Testament doesn't need to introduce the idea of identifiable membership from scratch.

It already assumes it.

So let me give you a definition of church membership, and then we'll walk through three questions that help us see how this is assumed and practiced in the New Testament.

Here's a definition.

This is a modified version I stole from Stephen Whitmer, and it's that church membership is a clear, continuing, mutual commitment between a Christian and a local church, in which the church recognizes and shepherds that Christian as one of its own, and the Christian submits to the church's oversight and commits to its shared life.

Church membership is a clear, continuing, mutual commitment between a Christian and a local church, in which the church recognizes and shepherds that Christian as one of its own, and the Christian submits to the church's oversight and commits to its shared life.

That's a mouthful, I know.

We'll unpack it relatively briefly.

And to do that, let's consider three questions.

First, who belongs to the church?

Who belongs to the church?

Well, in Acts 2, when the church in the New Covenant is formed following Peter's sermon at Pentecost, we're told that those who received his word were baptized, and then we read that there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Added to what?

Well, to the community of believers in that city, in Jerusalem.

And then verse 47 tells us that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So from the start, there's a recognizable, trackable, counted community of Christians and people were being added to it.

And notice that those who believed were baptized before being added to the church's number.

Baptism was not merely a private expression of personal faith, it was a public declaration that belonging to uh of belonging to Christ and his people, that a believer proclaimed, and that the church proclaimed of uh in baptizing them.

So these individuals professed faith in Jesus, and through baptism they were publicly received into the community of believers and added to their number.

And that's an important part of what church membership does today.

When a church receives someone into membership and baptizes them, it's saying, We have heard your profession of faith, we've seen evidence of God's grace in your life, and we recognize you as a brother or sister in Christ.

You're one of us.

Meaning, if and when we wrestle with assurance of our salvation, one of the things God's people can look to for comfort is our membership in his church, by which God, through his church, declares us one of his.

So if you're a baptized member of this church, you have the stamp of God's gathered people on you that says, He's one of us.

She's one of us.

That's our brother or sister.

Now the church can't see anyone's heart perfectly.

Only God knows infallibly who belongs to him.

But Christ has entrusted his church with the responsibility of recognizing and affirming credible professions of faith.

We can also look to passages like 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul is addressing a congregation with a man living in serious, unrepentant sexual sin, and he commands the congregation to exercise church discipline on this man.

And in verses 12 to 13, he asks, Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those outside.

So notice that distinction.

Again, there are inside the church and there's outside the church.

How could these people exercise church discipline or remove someone from the church's fellowship if there were no recognizable distinction between those who belonged to the church and those who didn't?

There are clearly, throughout the New Testament, those who are considered insiders and those, even professing believers, like here, who are labeled then as outsiders.

Jesus himself assumes something similar in Matthew 18, where he outlines church discipline and instructs believers confronting an unrepentant brother to bring the matter before the local church that he or she is a part of.

So the point isn't that early Christians necessarily had the same like membership meetings and the same role and procedures that we use today.

The point is that belonging to a local church was a recognizable reality.

There were people who belonged to that congregation and people who didn't.

And that brings us to our second question.

Who is responsible for whom?

Whom is who I had to look up the whos and whom's.

Who is responsible for whom?

I think is right.

The New Testament teaches that God has appointed elders to shepherd and oversee his local church.

Now think about what that means practically, how that works.

Acts 20, 28, Paul tells the Ephesian elders, pay 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.

Elders are called to pay careful attention to the flock that God has entrusted to them.

1 Peter 5 2, Peter tells elders to shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

Hebrews 13, 17, Christians are commanded to obey their elders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Now here's my question.

Which Christians are the elders of CBFC responsible to shepherd?

Who will they be held accountable by God for caring for spiritually?

Is it every Christian within a 10-mile radius?

Is it everyone that used to come to CBFC but moved 15 years ago?

Is it everyone who's ever visited?

Is it every Christian everywhere?

Of course not.

It is a particular group of known, identifiable Christians that have committed themselves to the church that the church has committed to shepherd.

And similarly, on the flip side, Christians are repeatedly called to obey their elders and submit to them.

Hebrews 13.

These are repeated commands in scripture.

So the question then again is which pastors are you responsible for submitting to and obeying?

Is it every pastor whose sermon you've watched on TV?

Is it the elders at the church up the street?

Is it every pastor and every every elder and every church everywhere?

Of course not.

Scripture assumes that particular shepherds are responsible for particular sheep.

And that particular sheep are responsible for being led and submitting to the leadership of particular elders.

So there has to be some way of knowing who these people are, and that's part of what membership does in the New Testament and throughout church history since then.

It makes that relationship clear.

The church says, we recognize you as one of our own, and we're committing ourselves to care for your soul.

And the Christian says, I'm entrusting myself to the biblical oversight and care of these elders.

Now again, that doesn't mean that the elders have unlimited authority.

Far from it.

Pastors are often called under shepherds.

They shepherd under Christ, the true shepherd, or as Peter calls them, the chief shepherd, the chief pastor.

They're accountable to Christ, they're accountable to his word.

Their authority is never independent of scripture, and it must never be used to manipulate or control people or pursue their own selfish ends or anything like that.

But biblical shepherding requires a recognizable mutual relationship of responsibility between elders of a local church and the people.

And then, real quickly, there's the third question to whom have we committed ourselves?

Church membership isn't merely about pastors and their responsibility to members, it's about the responsibility that all Christians have toward one another in a given church.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the local church in Corinth as a body with many different members, many different body parts that need one another, that depend on one another, that only work when they all are unified and together.

Verse 25 says that the members should have the same care for one another.

Verse 26 says, if one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

He goes on to explain the absurdity of trying to be a part, a body part that's disconnected from the rest of the body.

In Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, we were commanded to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another.

These one another commands about Christian life in a local community are throughout Scripture, and they assume something more than simply attending church alongside other Christians.

They assume real, enduring relationships of mutual responsibility, of mutual obligation toward others in our church.

So who are the Christians you've committed yourself to love, encourage, serve, disciple, and care for?

And who has the responsibility of doing that for you?

That's what church membership establishes.

So put these three questions together.

Who belongs to the church?

Scripture assumes an identifiable people.

Who is responsible for whom?

Well, Scripture establishes accountable shepherding relationships.

And to whom have we committed ourselves?

Scripture calls us into mutual responsibility.

And that's that's in a nutshell the biblical picture of church membership.

Again, we're not saying that a membership class or having your name on a roll saves anybody, or that a particular administrative process is explicitly commanded in Scripture.

We're just saying that the New Testament's picture of the local church requires something more than occasional attendance or informal association.

It calls for and expects a clear, continuing, mutual commitment to a particular body of believers with particular leaders.

So to try to enjoy the benefits of the church's teaching, its worship, its community, without being willing to commit yourself to it, is not totally unlike a man trying to enjoy the benefits of cohabiting with his girlfriend without being willing to commit himself to her in marriage.

All analogies break down, I understand that, but the commitment piece is crucial in the New Testament church.

To show up now and then, even to show up regularly, but refuse to commit yourself to a local body and submit to its leadership is to be, to use Paul's metaphor, an amputated finger disconnected from the rest of the body.

An amputated finger on its own can't see, can't taste, can't smell, can't do anything, accomplish anything, help anyone.

It isn't meant to exist on its own.

You weren't meant to exist on your own.

You weren't meant to suffer alone or rejoice alone or take on life in the Christian walk alone.

Membership connects you to the rest of the body, joining you to a group of people who are committed to you and to your spiritual good, who will serve you and disciple you, and who you then have the obligation to serve and love as well.

And if that's what membership is, then the next question is unavoidable.

What does commitment, what does that commitment to membership, actually look like?

What does it require of us?

And that brings us to our third point, the responsibility of belonging.

We've seen that belonging to Christ's people is an extraordinary privilege, and that Scripture calls us to express that belonging through meaningful commitment to a local church.

But what does that actually look like?

What are you committing yourself to when you become a member at CBFC?

I want to give four simple responsibilities.

Show up, lean in, stand down, and reach out.

Show up, lean in, stand down, reach out.

First, show up.

Hebrews 10, 24 to 25, again, commands us not to neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another.

So one of the simplest and most powerful and important things that you can do as a church member is simply to be here.

Come to worship, come regularly, as often as you are able to prioritize gathering with God's people.

And there are a million reasons and a million personal benefits for this, but notice why Hebrews tells us to gather.

Not merely so that we can hear a good sermon for ourselves or sing some songs, but so that we can encourage one another with our presence.

You have no idea how much your mere presence in this room encourages and strengthens those around you.

We come in here as hurting, suffering, broken, sinful, guilty people.

And I don't always need you to like say something to me to encourage me in a dark season or quote a Bible verse to me to help me out.

I just need to see you and be with you here.

Your faithfulness in merely showing up encourages me to be faithful.

I've I've walked through those doors some Sundays on the verge of tears and have left strengthened.

And I don't remember a word of any sermon or that anybody said to me, but I remember that you were here and I was here with my family.

Your presence matters.

And just as your presence on its own is a source of encouragement, your absence can be a real discouragement to brothers and sisters who need you and need to be with you.

So I want to encourage you, church members, to show up.

And second, then lean in.

I want to spend a little bit more time here.

Church membership means allowing other Christians into your life and deliberately entering into theirs.

It means building relationships that go beyond Sunday morning small talk.

A great way that we do this here at CBFC is through small groups.

If you're a part of a small group, or if you're not a part of a small group, I want to encourage you to talk to Andrew, who gave announcements.

We'd love to get you connected to a small group to do these sorts of things more deeply.

It means knowing one another well enough to recognize when someone is struggling, to notice when someone is drifting, to speak the truth in love to them.

Hebrews 3.13 says, Exhort one another every day, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

So we as believers have the possibility, have a have a drift toward being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

And the way that God has given us to protect us from that is one another exhorting each other every day.

Galatians 6.1 tells us that if someone is caught in a transgression, those who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

So we need one another to become more like Jesus, and that means both encouragement and correction.

We need brothers and sisters who will encourage us toward godliness and remind us of God's promises and pray with us and strengthen us when we're weary.

But we also need people who know us enough and love us enough to confront us when we're wandering.

And that is what church discipline is supposed to look like most of the time.

We hear the word church discipline.

We tend to think of excommunication and removing someone from membership.

And yes, scripture teaches that sometimes that's necessary, but that is the last resort after persistent, serious, unrepentant public sin being addressed numerous times by numerous people on numerous levels.

Most of church discipline is simply ordinary Christians lovingly helping one another turn away from sin and turn toward Jesus.

That's where Jesus begins in Matthew 18, when he's talking about the procedure of church discipline.

Verse 15 says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

And most conversations don't need to go anywhere further than that.

This is supposed to be happening all the time and not going any further to the extent of bringing in other people.

A brother notices that you're becoming bitter or angry and he lovingly challenges you.

A sister hears your gossip and gently calls you to repentance.

A friend notices you've been withdrawing from fellowship and comes alongside you.

And when you're the one wandering, you listen.

You receive correction with humility because you know you need it.

That's part of what we're promising each other in church membership.

I won't leave you alone in your sin, and I'm asking you not to leave me alone in mine.

There's a famous story in Homer's uh Odyssey.

I haven't seen the movie, I don't know if it's in there, but in uh the book, Odysseus has to sail past the sirens, these uh vicious creatures whose beautiful singing irresistibly lures sailors to their deaths.

And Odysseus is going by, he wants to hear their song, but he knows that when he does, he'll be unable to resist it, and so he orders his men to tie him to the mast of the ship and to not release him, no matter how desperately he begs them to release him later on.

And sure enough, when he hears the sirens singing, he begins pleading with his men to untie him, to let him go, and they refuse.

They trust his earlier word and bind him even tighter, and they carry him safely past the danger.

And in the sense, that's what we're doing when we commit ourselves to one another in church membership.

We're saying, I need to be bound to you and to this community, and I know my heart is deceitful, and I know there will come a day when I'm tempted to wander away from Christ into sin and its destructiveness.

And if and when that day comes, don't listen to me when I tell you to leave me alone.

Love me enough to call me back in gentleness, even when I don't want to hear it.

We're asking one another to hold us to the commitments we've made to Jesus even when our sinful hearts want to abandon them.

Not because we want to control one another or punish one another, but because we love each other too much to watch one another drift away from Christ.

And what a beautiful gift church discipline is when we view it that way.

So show up, lean in, third of them, stand down.

By that I mean lay down your independence and your pride and your self-rule, and be willing to submit to the biblical oversight of the church's elders that Christ has put over you.

We've already seen this in Hebrews 13, 17.

Obey your leaders and submit to them.

And remember that church membership is a mutual commitment.

The elders commit themselves to shepherding you and praying for you and teaching you God's word and counseling you and caring for you and protecting you from error and caring for your soul.

And you commit yourself then to receiving that care in its various forms.

That doesn't mean blindly obeying pastors or never questioning their decisions.

Elders are fallible men, accountable to Christ and his word, but it does mean cultivating humility and teachability and a willingness to be shepherded.

Don't insist on living the Christian life entirely on your own terms.

Christ has graciously provided shepherds for the good of his flock, and we are called to honor, respect, and submit to them.

And often what that means for old Americans like us who hate authority is that we need to stand down.

For the record, I'm not an elder, so I can say that.

It's not weird, right?

Fourth and finally, church membership isn't merely about what you receive from others.

It is about giving yourself to others, reaching out.

1 Peter 4 10 says, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

That's what we were talking about in Sunday school.

We just we did my whole sermon in Sunday school.

We do this every week, it drives me nuts.

All believers have received spiritual gifts for the good of the body, and we are called to use our spiritual gifts then to serve the body that God has placed us in, to serve, to volunteer, practice hospitality, give generously, and pray for people by name and visit the lonely and care for the hurting and welcome newcomers and disciple younger believers and help bear the burdens of others.

To be a church member, to be a member of CBFC means reaching out to serve the members of this church, of this family.

And that brings us back to our definition.

Church membership is a clear, continuing, mutual commitment.

It's the church saying, You belong to us, and we'll care for you, and it's you saying, I belong to you, and I will give myself to your good.

So show up, lean in, stand down, and reach out.

Those aren't merely obligations to endure, they are gifts Christ has given us for our good.

Because Christ cares for his people through his people.

And as we give ourselves to one another in love, Ephesians 2 says, He is building us together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

That's why Jesus died.

That's what all this is about.

That's what Christ is doing among us.

As we love one another and serve one another and build one another up in love, Christ himself is building his temple.

And one day that work will be finished and perfected.

In Revelation 21, John sees a new creation, and he hears a voice from heaven declaring, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

No more sin, no more hostility, no more divisions, no more wandering.

The church perfected and glorified, dwelling with her Savior forever.

That is what Christ is building us into, and that is what we're helping one another toward in church membership.

So, brothers and sisters, belong to his people, love his people, build his people up until that glorious day when God Himself dwells among us forever.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, would you give us the grace to receive the truth of your word and to go eagerly and earnestly to live it out?

Would you build Community Bible Fellowship Church into a glorious family and temple of your Holy Spirit?

That we would lean in to serve one another and to love one another, to submit to one another, to disciple one another for your glory, that you would be magnified and put on display through the community of your people here at CBFC.

Lord, we long for the day when we see you return, and we pray that you would come quickly to make all things new and good forever.

Give us grace until that day by your Holy Spirit.

We pray.

Amen.

Thank you, Daniel.

Please stand with us as we sing Man of Sorrows.