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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Are you a MEMBER of the church?

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Being a member of the Church happens when you receive a salvation experience according to scripture-
Repentance, Baptism, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit-
Living a sincere life, ever longing to walk in the spirit and to please and obey God. 

THAT experience makes you a Child of God! 
THAT experience makes you a part of the body of Christ.

Joining a local Church, however,  is totally voluntary.
No one makes you sign a membership!

Examples in the New Testament Church of Membership:
Believers were added to the church (Acts 2:47)
Records of membership kept (1Tim 5:9)
Members could be removed (1 Cor 5:12-13)
Members could transfer (Rom 16:1)

Commitment (membership) to a local Church is the assumed responsibility one claims in furthering the gospel and working in the Kingdom of God.
To maintain membership, one must continue to walk orderly, to live a consistent life based on scriptural teaching.

Reasons for Membership
Accountability. We make ourselves accountable to each other. We encourage each other. We disciple each other. Unwillingness to join a church implies ones unwillingness to be held accountable to scripture.

Commitment. Members of the church ought to be firmly committed to one another and to the ministry of the church. Those who are not members have little care or concern regarding ministry.

Orderliness.  All things in the church must be done in an orderly manner
(1 Cor 14:40) Even God operates with ordliness! (Creation for example)

Responsibilities of Membership
Attendance. A church member should strive to support all services and activities that pertain to him. Non-attending members are generally a weight on ministry. (Acts 20:7  Heb 10:24-25)

Giving. The sacrificial giving of the members of the church finances much if not all of the ministry of that church. Many “niceties” we enjoy in the church are a direct result of a church’s sacrificial givers. (1 Cor 16:2)

Fellowship.  Social interaction. The commitment of bonding and supporting and encouraging other members. It is vitally important to associate with fellow believers outside of church services. (Acts 2:42)

Ministry. Praying for each other. Encouraging each other. Serving each other. Edifying. Admonishing. Teaching. Comforting. Exhorting. Doing good to one another.
If one desires to be a part of leadership he should fully embrace being committed to a church and do so by becoming a member.

His membership proves his accountability to the church, his commitment to the services, his support of the ministries and his financial giving to the work of the church.

Ones membership to the Church proves to God that you take your salvation experience seriously enough to commit to furthering the gospel to others through a local ministry.


Membership has its privileges!

You enjoy good Godly friendships, good Godly teaching, anointed singing, sound doctrine, faith building messages.
  
Involvement (membership) gives room to expand your desires, abilities and talents.

Many members have grown in their singing ministries, their teaching ministries, their musical abilities, their preaching abilities ALL because they were given a place to perform such desires right in their local church!

Through your membership (Commitment) God can richly bless your faithfulness, your giving, and your serving. He promises to bless the church and those who work in the church. He promises to take care of those who financially support the church and the man of God.

no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (PS 84:11)

Not convinced that membership is absolutely necessary?
Did you know God keeps records?

The Book of Life is a record written by God before the creation of the world, listing people who will live forever in the kingdom of heaven. The Book of Life assures that God knows his true followers, keeps and protects them during their earthly journey, and brings them home to him in heaven when they die.

Luke 10:20 Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.  Luke 10:20

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.


Revelation 20:15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.


Revelation 21:27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Rom 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.    COUNT ME IN!!!   WRITE MY NAME!

The big deal isn’t  “DO I HAVE TO”?
It’s“I GET TO” be a member of this great church!

"And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."
(Revelation 20:15)

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