Are you following Jesus? #32

As we seen in a earlier lesson, followers of Jesus are to be committed to a fellowship of believers. For those that are committed another problem has risen amongst them. A dating mentality of the church. What I mean by this is no meaningful commitment to a church. They go hopping from one church to another based on how they feel from one Sunday to the next or if a few bumps in the road hit. This is not the picture of the church in the new testament! This is the consumer mentality we have grabbed onto all the time looking at self! looking for the best church, to meet my needs! So we end up find something wrong with every church and are constantly moving....remember church is about worship of God, growing in Christ, and loving and serving others! It is not about you!



Look at this statistic: One of the largest denominations in the USA has 16 million members but the average attendance on Sunday is 6 million. Membership doesn't mean much and commitment is lacking big time! The church in the bible is pictured as a body in 1 Corinthians:



* Read carefully to see a picture of true church and commitment:

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.



Don't miss the word "ONE" in the scripture above. We are to be a part of the church, nothing about jumping around trying to find what is best for me! You are needed where you are at, you are important for serving the church! You have important service to give to the local church. Get in there and be committed to the service of the King!



Also notice how important each member is!!!! When you are missing the whole church suffers! Be a committed member of the church. The church is the body of Christ and when you as a follower of Christ are not here when the church is gathered the body of Jesus has suffered a major hemorrhaging and we all suffer!



Do you see according to God how important you are!



The picture of a committed member of the church is very clear in the bible. Are you a committed follower and member of the church Jesus gave himself for?



Tom