Last few weeks now is we’ve been going to the scriptures to see what God says about the church so essentially we are doing some Systematic Theology we are doing a doctrinal study on the doctrine of the church and recently we considered this question together is church membership
Biblical and we looked at the fact that if there’s really no direct command in scripture that says something like Thou shalt become a church member then why should anyone do that why emphasize it so much well it actually turns out and we saw in that message that the concept
Of church membership is present all over the New Testament and I encourage you if you missed that sermon to go back and listen to it then last week we began to answer a related question which was this since church membership is biblical what are the responsibilities of a church member it’s
Like saying okay I joined the church now what right and so this is part two of that answer in part one last week we covered five different biblical responsibilities of church members here’s the ones that we went over a symbol participate protect Define and love just quickly running
Through them with very little detail you’ll have to go back and listen if you want more detail but one we assemble We Gather on a regular basis in obedience to the word of God most explicitly probably in Hebrews 10:24 and 25 which talks about not neglecting to meet
Together right and then we participate ipate in what we meant by that last week is we participate in the ordinances of the church that Jesus instituted he instituted two different ordinances in his church baptism and the Lord’s Supper one of which we get to participate in today I’m thankful for that then we
Protect what do we protect church members protect the gospel when we in our own private time when we pursue this deeper knowledge and understanding of the scriptures for ourselves we’re not only helping ourselves as individuals but we’re helping the entire church we’re helping protect the entire church from false
Teaching because we can spot it each one of us because we know our Bibles right we also Define the membership in a sense that each church member is partly responsible for both receiving members and dismissing members and we talked about that some and then church members also have a responsibility to
Love love God first and foremost right that governs everything and then also love one another in Ephesians it says we are to be rooted and grounded in love everything we do in other words is under this Banner of love and love not in our definition but
Love in the definition of God how God defines love and of course we went into much more detail on each of those points last week so uh please use the technology that God has blessed all of us with to be able to go back and listen anytime
You want all that is available to you on the Church website so today we are going to add four more responsibilities from the scripture to that list list so here is number six submit submit submission is an essential part of being a church member I think I told you um in that
Sermon I pointed this out in the sermon about the biblical case for church membership that church membership is unlike any other types of memberships that we’re famili amiliar with you know you can become a member of Costco you can become a member of a golf
Club you can become a member of a gym to work out in all those things are different types of memberships that we’re familiar with but when it comes to a local church it’s actually very appropriate to say it this way when you join a church you submit to that
Church we are agreeing to submit ourselves to a particular set of Christians to help us follow Jesus we’re asking that particular set that particular body in that particular place to care for us and love us and help us and yes even try to bring us back when we start straying away from
God so who is it exactly that we are to submit to in this act of church membership well it’s two things it’s both submitting to one another and submitting to the leaders of the church that you’re joining let’s look at some uh biblical texts that tell us this first Ephesians
5:21 talks about this submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ Ephesians 5:21 when you join a church in formal membership you essentially make yourself a willing servant to that body of Believers it’s not like by the way in case that worries you what I’ve got to
Become a servant it’s not like the bad stories at the University of the sororities and the fraternities where the people who’ve been there the longest get to abuse you until you earn your place or something um as soon as you become a church member the existing members of that church
Submit to you as well it’s mutual in the sense that they want to serve you and they want to help you and and and walk with you and lock arms with you on this pilgrimage that we’re all on as Believers if you are a Believer here today this pilgrimage toward
Heaven and your fellow Church members are going to Value you and honor you and listen to you and you do the same for them and like Philippians says you’re going to consider other members more significant than yourselves and in that way we submit to one another or in the
Words of the Apostle Peter he says clothe yourselves All of You cover yourselves clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble that’s 1 Peter 55 and all that is done as Ephesians said out of reverence for
Christ and you know when every church member takes that responsibility before God when every church member takes that seriously it is a beautiful thing it is a beautiful thing that is what we could call a gospel culture people of humility people who know that they have been forgiven much
Right Jesus said he who for who he who has been forgiven little loves little Luke 7:47 church members are people who realize that God has forgiven them not just a little tiny bit of sin but a lot of sin because we are sinners to the core right they
Realize how patient God has been with them and so they can be patient with others and when that is the culture of a church when that’s the vibe of the church if you want to use it like that I’m not sure why anybody would not want
To be a member of something like that that is a beautiful beautiful thing will it be perfect new far from it but there is no Community like it it’s a supernatural Community it’s a countercultural community unified around the gospel these aren’t when we think about this submission to one another this
Picture comes into sharp Focus these aren’t high and mighty self-righteous people they’re Meek they’re servants they’re not looking down their nose at me um thinking that they’re better than me they’re fellow strugglers they’re fellow sinners sinners who have found refuge and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ
And just want others to find it too so church members submit to one another by serving one another by being humble with one another who else do church members M submit to the Bible makes it clear that church members are also to submit to the leaders of the
Church we looked at this before um but let’s look at it again Hebrews 13 verse1 17 says this and I hope maybe you can take notes and take more time with each of these but Hebrews 13:17 says obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as
Those who will have to give an account let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you so not only uh is this statement in that verse evidence that it is God’s will that we actually have leaders over us in the
Local church who who can get to know us well know us enough to Shepherd us and so forth it’s also an example in Scripture that tells us what our posture should be toward those that lead the church the Elders of the church are are men that are raised up by God affirmed
By the whole church congregation to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word of God so that they can Shepherd and equip us to do what God calls us to do and those Elders are going to have to give an account to God for how they did
This that is a serious thing but we see so well I see it so clearly um the wisdom of God to set up this clear pattern of a plurality of Elders so that the church isn’t following and submitting and obeying one guy they are following multiple Shepherds who meet together who hold one
Another accountable who help one another make sound decisions who know their people who talk about how they can best minister to those people and so on and so forth and the writer of Hebrews says let them do this with joy and not with groaning in other words don’t give your Shepherds a hard
Time submit to them don’t be a thorn in their side and I don’t know of anybody like that in our church I I just I’m just preaching what the word of God says so don’t think I’m pointing at someone but I’ve heard of people in churches who
Feel like who feel like it’s their duty to keep the pastor humble in their own way I guess and so they constantly disagree with them or they constantly criticize them or they constantly just give them a general hard time right God says ‘ don’t do that I’ve given you Shepherds to
Watch over your soul they’re devoting their very lives to teaching you to praying for you to equipping you and if you make it extra hard on them how in the world is that going to be beneficial to you that’s what he says that would be of no advantage to you so the
Implication is to make them most effective submit to them let them lead and they’ll be able to do that job that the Lord’s given them with joy and not with groaning and you will be the direct beneficiary of that much more can be said about that but that’s number seven
Church members submit both to one another in loving humble service and to the leaders of the church as they keep watch over our souls moving to number seven evangelize this is a responsibility of every church member church members are to constantly be sharing the gospel with everyone that they possibly
Can um did you know that in Ephesians chapter 4 the Lord explicitly states that it is the job of all the saints to do the work of the ministry the job of all the saints I think that is probably misunderstood by a lot of people in churches today um evangelism and lots of
Other aspects of ministry aren’t just the job of the people in full-time Ministry it’s all of our responsibility let’s look at it together this is uh Ephesians 4 11 and 12 it says this and he gave the apostles the prophets the evang Angel ists the Shepherds and
Teachers here it is to equip the Saints for the work of Ministry for building up the body of Christ so it’s not merely the pastors and Elders job to do the work of ministry all by themselves but they are in a position to equip all the saints to do the work of the
Ministry and what is one massive aspect to the ministry what kind of ministry are we talking about well we can look very clearly in 2 Corinthians 5 where we’re told that Christians have been given a Ministry of reconciliation God it says there he’s reconciling the world to himself through
His son Jesus and he’s entrusted the message of that reconciliation to all all of us is redeemed people and he says we’re ambassadors for Christ he says we’re supposed to be God’s mouthpiece to the world here it is therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us
We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God 2 Corinthians 5:20 and 21 so in a sense our meetings are like the Huddle for the
Saints and then when we leave here we go out and we actually run the place this is where this is where every church member gathers together to become better equipped so that we can all then go out and be ambassadors this is where we regroup this is where we get re-
Encouraged this is where we get equipped to do this and uh if you go into a Christian bookstore if there is such a thing nowadays uh there’s lot lot of church growth books how to grow the church and all sorts of titles but there’s really only one God ordained Church growth
Program you know what it is it’s God’s people going out in their own lives and proclaiming the gospel to people there it is that’s it when we do that God grows his church it’s not a formula per se but but it is how God works he saves people through the hearing of the
Gospel and when he saves people they are baptized and incorporated into the church and then those people are then continuously taught to obey all that the Lord has commanded us that’s just a pattern that’s how the church grows so church members are you doing that are you sharing the
Gospel we could look at verse after verse that makes it so clear that this is our responsibility just for the sake of time I’m just going to share one with you from first Peter we can spend the whole time together looking at them but listen to First Peter
2:9 it says but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may Proclaim clim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light that’s pretty clear isn’t it Christians are people chosen by God set apart for
Him in Holiness so that we would proclaim the excellencies of what he’s done through Jesus Christ that’s every Christian every church member we are to be proclaiming those excellencies maybe you’re here today or you’re listening to this later perhaps with the all the technology that’s available to us
Now but maybe you’re here today and you’ve never really heard what this good news is or you hadn’t heard it very clearly or maybe it just hadn’t clicked with you what if I told you that you could have all your sins forgiven forever that interest you do you know that you could leave
Here today having been made right with your maker and become permanently safe in him there’s no multi-step process to it there’s no working your way up to it there’s no patches you have to earn there’s no test you have to pass there’s no Hoops you have to jump
Through here’s how God has set up this glorious gift of Salvation to us are you ready instead of leaving sinful Humanity in our sin and our filth and our Brokenness God actually took it upon himself to send us a redeemer that in and of itself is an act of unfathomable
Mercy would you want to pursue your enemies to rescue them that’s what God did and the way he did it was to give us another representative man you see Adam the first man acted as our representative before God and when he sinned sin was passed down to all of
His descendants that’s all of us so sin is in our very nature now if you wonder why it’s so natural for you and I to love sin that’s why it’s in us our sin nature passed from our father Adam that makes all our desires just out of whack
Right so what does God do does he say you know what work harder at being good people and I’ll really think about saving you that would be such a cruel thing for God to say wouldn’t it when you understand what man is and what’s in here and how broken our desires are that
Would be a cruel thing to tell people who are so out of whack whose hearts are so full of sin to tell them to do the right thing on their own power can’t do it we can’t do it the Prophet Jeremiah sums up our uh our sinful condition when he says can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil so a leopard can’t say I think I’ll just get rid of these spots just like like that we can’t say I think I’ll just get rid of this sin we can’t do
It so what God did for us hopeless Sinners what was to send us a second representative man this time he sent his only son the Lord Jesus Christ and he took on human flesh and became our fellow man and instead of failing to obey God like Adam did
Jesus obeyed his father in every single respect he never sinned one time and it was The Sovereign plan of God to send this perfectly innocent sinless son to provide atonement for our sin and Jesus willingly takes on this task out of love for his father and love
For Sinners and he lays down his life at the cross and that that’s exactly what it was it was a laying down of his life willingly he said no man takes my life for me I lay it down of my own accord John 10:18 and we saw earlier in 2
Corinthians 5:21 what God was doing there there’s this awesome exchange that’s happening the theologians have called it The Great Exchange and that will be forever the best news that anyone will ever hear in your entire life is this that at the cross God was laying the
Sins of every person who would ever come to Faith In Jesus he laid all those sins on Jesus Jesus was taking our sin there he was acting as our substitute and God pours out his righteous wrath against Jesus instead of us he he pours out the Wrath that we should have received in
Hell he pours it out on his son instead so that now whoever will turn from their sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ as their only savior as the only made only way to be made right with God they are given the righteous record of Jesus Jesus’s sinless record replaces their sinful
Record It’s the Great Exchange Christ takes our sin and he gives us his righteousness can you imagine that that’s glorious and the good news that Christians have to share is this that can be you today if you turn from from your sin you turn to Jesus in faith it happens
Instantaneously he makes you right with God right on the spot you have a new heart that has new desires and you know by the way that that’s how it’s um it’s genuine that it’s a real work of God that you begin to hate your sin you
Loved it before now you hate it you’re constantly fighting against it and now you love God’s word and you love God’s people and you love obeying him and you get this unexplainable peace that passes all understanding when you know that when you stand before
God he will say to you come into the joy of your master he won’t condemn you and then then you have even more good news that same Christ Rose from the grave 3 days after being crucified now he’s glorified in heaven and he promises that one day he’s going to raise all of
His people and bring them all to live with him in heaven where there won’t be any more pain or death or sorrow or sin and what do you have to do to uh receive that gift as I said you just have to repent and believe in Jesus as your
Savior not some option among many saviors but the Savior the only way and you don’t come to him with a resume that says I’ve got these good things Lord I hope you’ll be proud and save me the only thing on our resume that you bring is the sin that needs
Forgiveness that’s all that’s there and you just bring it to them and you say Lord I need your mercy I need your grace will you make me right with you and it’s and it’s my desire to make you my master now I want to do things your way and when a person does
That their slate is wiped clean he makes that person right with God and he even gives you the holy spirit of God living within you who’s teaching you day by by day and helping you understand the Bible and bringing truthful things to mind about Christ from scripture and he helps you fight
Against your sin and you won’t be sinless in this life but one day he’s going to glorify you so that you won’t have to be engaged in that fight any longer it’ll be gone your sins will be gone forever and then we get to experience
The peace and the joy that we were made for this totally unhindered communion with our creator directly in his presence forever getting to do things and experience things that will blow our minds for the rest of Eternity so will you go on loving your sin today or will you bring it to Jesus
And Trust in his perfect righteousness to save you and free you from being a slave to that sin that is the gospel that is the good news that if you come to him he will not cast you out he’ll give you rest all your problems won’t be solved instantly but your biggest one
Will your greatest problem which is the terrifying Prospect of one day standing before your creator covered in your rebellious sin against him he’s taken away all that fear in Christ because if you’re in him he doesn’t see that sin on you anymore he sees Christ righteousness which makes
You perfectly fit for Heaven All by his Merit not yours what a glorious gospel that is I wanted to share it with you today in case you hadn’t heard it but I also wanted to remind you that is what all church members need to have on their
Tongues not in the exact way that I worded it today but in your own way sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and what he’s done for Sinners so that he might save and bring people to himself church members are responsible to evangelizing number eight give church members give their
Time their talent their resources and yes even their money to the local church that they’ve committed themselves to and I know there are all kinds of spiritual abuse happening here about around money in our culture you turn on the TV for instance and there’s preachers on there who constantly talk about giving them
Money um and attaching God’s name to their get rich scheme saying that if you give money to them God will make you rich that is a false Gospel called the Prosperity Gospel is not from God it’s from Satan um and those preachers if you can call them that are using God’s name to
Get rich and causing other other people to sin because they feel justified in having this desire to be rich because God’s name is now attached to it that is a wicked thing and we abhor the Prosperity Gospel having said that we ought not shrink away from speaking about money though the Bible
Has a lot to say about how Christians ought to handle their money for instance Jesus says this in Matthew 6 he sayso not lay up for yourselves Treasures on Earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where neither moth
Nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal and then he says for where your treasure is there your heart will be also what is Jesus saying he’s basically saying that we can gauge Our Hearts by how we use our money to say it another way the use of
Money acts like a thermometer for our hearts where are we investing what God has given us should we invest it all in Earthly things or should we invest in something Eternal that’s going to last beyond this lifetime a man named Jamie Dunlop puts it this way in in his little booklet that he
Has um about giving let me read you a quote he says quote Benjamin Franklin is famous for saying that nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes had he been a Christian he might have mentioned a third the local church after all no other institution has Jesus’s promise promise of
Permanence I will build my church and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against it Matthew 16:18 and then he says it’s like God whispering in your ear in 1890 invest in the automobile or in 1990 invest in the internet in Matthew 16 Jesus is telling the apostles invest in the church this
One’s going to last so you want a good return on your investment invest in things that have God’s guarantee on them investing something that will last beyond this Earthly life into eternity church members give to the local church just to give you another resource I gave a sermon in 2022 that you might
Be interested in listening to for more detail about Christian giving is called giving an act of worship and we were going through the book of Philippians at the time and we got to chapter 4 in verses 14 to 20 let me just remind you what the Apostle said
There he is commending the Believers in Philippi for giving him money to help his gospel work and listen to what he says I’ll bring it up here this is Philippians 4:1 17-18 he says not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your
Credit I have received full payment and more I am well supplied having received from epaphroditus the gifts you sent and look at what what he calls these gifts these monetary gifts a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God now that’s not the typical way that most people think about giving
Nowadays the gifts sent by God’s people their contributions to missionary work we might say are said to be a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God this is the point I’m trying to make when we give of our money to the gospel Ministry and we do it cheerfully like 2
Corinthians 9:7 says we are doing something that pleases God he receives it as an act of worship to him it’s like this lovely fragrance it’s a pleasing sacrifice to him so I think we need to train ourselves to think like that as I give of my money to the local church this is
An act of worship to my God who saved me he’s been so kind to forgive me to wash me clean to give me peace with him all that I have is his anyways and so I just want to cheerfully give a portion back to him from what he’s
Blessed me with so that the local church can Steward that money for the Great Commission and continue it on the The Gospel work throughout the world and I think that’s another thing we need to wrap our minds around when it comes to giving the reason that giving is a responsibility of every church
Member is because the Great Commission is a responsibility of every church member if we truly want the gospel to go forth and if we truly want the body of Christ to continually be built up and discipled then we will be willing and happy to give our money toward that
End so giving is a lot of things it’s an act of worship to God uh it’s a helpful thermometer for where my heart really is am I clinging with a white knuckle fist to my money or do I say you know what God gave it to me anyways I want it to
Be used for his glory and we release it cheerfully it’s a way to keep the Great Commission going going strong it’s an opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is literally I guess and ultimately it brings glory to God how does it do that let me use John
Piper’s analogy he says this quote why do I give my wife flowers not because I have to imagine the look on her face if that’s what I told her but because I want to because she’s amazing because she’s delightful because I want in some small way to communicate all of my feelings of
Love for her and Delight in her to her end quote so in the same way the heart that loves and cherishes its savior will want to give toward the things that the savior loves the institution that the savior’s using for the Salvation of the world the
Things that the savior is using for the building up his of his people that’s the local church and then on top of that for some reason God chooses to bless us for doing it now that is a gracious setup isn’t it he rewards Us in heaven for giving
Him of what he already owns and what he gave us in the first place why does he do that we only have money because he provided it for us right and yet when we’re faithful to give him back a portion of it through his local church to be used for his
Glory he rewards us I don’t know why but he does and Paul says there in Philippians 4 that their giving was a good thing not because he wanted the gift but because he wanted them to receive the reward for it verse 17 amazing so there it is church members give lastly number
Nine church members pray church members are to be people of prayer Paul told the Believers in Rome in chapter 15 and: 30 to strive together with him in their prayers to God on his behalf church members are to be constantly praying for many things for their leaders for their fellow members
For the health of the church as a whole for the spread of the Gospel in their community and around the world lots of things to pray for Paul talks about this man named epais in Colossians 4:12 this what he says about epais he was always struggling on your behalf in
His prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God wow what a commendation that was do we do that as church members do we pray for our fellow members that they may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God
I love having the church directory app on my phone I hope all of you do that have any sort of phone because we can pull that thing out anytime go through the list of members and pray for one another I highly recommend you do that
Get on the email prayer list so that you can pull up your email as well pray through that list anytime you want to we just need constant prayer and you know what I’ve found this this is this is my personal testimony to you I have seen it
Firsthand in my time my short time as a pastor the more that you pray for people the more you love those people it’s just how it works I can’t explain it it just works it is hard to be mad at people you pray for it’s hard not to love people that
You’re praying for and bringing to the throne of grace often that’s my testimony to you God uses prayer to cultivate a love in your heart for those people we could look at so many scriptural examples of Prayer of prayer for one another let me just read a
Couple to to show us what the early church was doing to show us what we should be doing this is just the pattern that Believers that members of churches do acts 12:5 so Peter was kept in prison but Earnest prayer for him was made to God by the
Church Acts 2:42 says that the uh these people that were being saved and they were being added to the church it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers Romans 12:12 says be constant in prayer that’s plain enough isn’t it 1
Thessalonians 5:17 essentially says the same thing pray without ceasing so that the encouragement the commands to prayer in scripture are numerous so it ought to go without saying church members ought to be prayer warriors come to prayer meeting pray with other belever belies if our church is going to be used by God
It’s going to be how the book of Zechariah puts it not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord we need God we need his holy spirit to help us or we won’t be fruitful and the church that recognizes its deep need for God in everything that
It does will not only pray individually but will often pray corporately as well so there’s some of our responsibilities as church members could we have listed other responsibilities or rewarded some things slightly different or perhaps broke down some of those into subcategories yes we could um but I hope
This was at least a good overview I almost categorized these into just three categories I almost did it like this Christians church members have a responsibility to Holiness unity and love just about everything that we talked about for the past two weeks could fall under one of those
Headings and then we ought to say this as we close this little two-part responsibilities of church members why are church members charged with these particular ular responsibilities here’s why because we are to imitate and exhibit the character of our God we should for instance we should walk in
Holiness because he is Holy we ought to love because he is love we ought to be unified because the Divine Trinity is Unified we could go on and on there’s so much depth we could go into but I hope these two sermons were helpful to
You I hope they either taught you or or at least reminded us of what our responsibilities are and if you’re not a church member again I just I pray that God would use these past few sermons to just cause you to think about that next step it’s a clear biblical step for
Every Christian to take and I’m here Mark’s here to answer questions about that or pray with you or help you if you have anything along those lines I think we should do this I mentioned it earlier after hearing all those UH responsibilities those biblical responsibilities I think we ought to
Read our entire church member Covenant together we usually read about half of it every time we have the Lord’s supper and then the very next time we have it we’ll read the other half and so about every two months we’re reading through it in in its entirety but it just seems
Appropriate after hearing this today that we ought to read the whole thing and with all that fresh on our mind I think we’ll see that our membership Covenant is simply a rewarding of all the things that we’ve been looking at for the past two weeks it is not extra
Biblical extra things that God really doesn’t tell us to do but if you’re going to be a church member you got to go over and above and do these other things that we’ve made up no it’s just the description of what a Christian should be so let’s all stand
And whether you’re a member or not just go ahead and stand but if you are a member please read along with me and let’s just remind ourselves one more time what we committed ourselves to when we became church members of Jackson Bible Church so read out loud with me if
You are a member if you’re not just follow along and I pray that you would just be drawing some conclusions in your mind like okay yeah we we talked about that I could see how that would be under this category these are biblical things read it with
Me having been brought by divine grace to repent and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior and having been baptized in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit we do now in the presence of the Triune God and this assembly most solemnly and
Joyfully enter into Covenant with one another as one body in Christ number one I will Faithfully participate with this church in worship prayer Study Fellowship and the ordinances of baptism and communion and will use my spiritual gifts for the common good through my involvement and even sacrifice I will seek to illustrate to
My family and the immense significance of life in the body of Christ two in addition to attending the regular meetings of the church in the spirit of a true disciple of Christ I will diligently train myself and my family in the discipline and instruction of the Lord seeking to develop Christian
Character and practical godliness three I acknowledge that sin leaves me with weaknesses and failures but I will not use them to excuse bad behavior but instead will strive to live a Godly life I will pursue Holiness and seek genuine repentance and forgiveness when necessary I will not abuse or treat
As cheap the grace of God by which we are all saved Sav D for I will accept and fellowship with all members regardless of ethnicity background social status level of Education Etc since all are of equal value in Christ five I will pursue peace with all people especially with other believers always
Being slow to take offense and eager to reconcile I will shun gossip and divisive words knowing that they are destructive to Christian Fellowship six I will seek by Divine Aid to live carefully in the world denying ungodliness and worldly lusts I will be just and honest in my dealings and
Faithful in my responsibilities and commitments I will abide by the standards of sexual Purity and ethical Integrity as taught in the Bible seven I will watch over the other members in love as they watch over me I will remember them in prayer help them in sickness and distress promote their
Spiritual growth and stir them up to love and Good Deeds eight I will seek to maintain a healthy marriage and godly relationship with my children if applicable as I know this honors God and is designed to picture the relationship between Christ and the church if I am single I will seek to
Maintain healthy relationships with others especially the household of faith nine I will contr tribute cheerfully voluntarily and regularly to this church for its General Ministry and expenses the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel throughout the world I will dedicate myself my money and my
Possessions to the cause of Christ as a faithful Steward 10 I will pray for seek and actively procla claim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Salvation of my family friends neighbors co-workers acquaintances and people of all Nations 11 if I become consistently neglectful of these duties or guilty of
Conduct by which the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or his church may be Dishonored I understand that I will be counseled admonished or if necessary disciplined as per biblical standards for the purpose of restoring my fellowship with Christ my fellowship with his church and for my personal growth in
Holiness if there comes a time when I decide I no longer wish to be a part of Jackson Bible Church I will call the church or send a letter letting them know that I no longer wish to be considered a member Jackson bible church family moreover I agree that when I
Leave this church body I will as soon as possible carry out the spirit of this Covenant by uniting with another local church where I can be taught to trust and obey the word of God and now we read Hebrews ver 13 as the closing now may the God of Peace who
Brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep by the blood of the Eternal Covenant equip us with everything good that we may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glor
Glory forever and ever amen amen that’s Hebrews 13:20 and 21 let’s pray together and then we’ll take the Lord’s Supper father thank you for giving us your gospel you have graciously mercifully called us out of darkness in to your Marvelous Light your gospel has formed a gospel people for your own
Glory here in Jackson South Carolina and now our lives Lord are governed by this glorious gospel this church seeks to take the gospel to our neighbors as well as across the entire Globe Lord help us to be faithful ambassadors for Christ would you help us have the awareness of all these
Responsibilities Lord would you grow us into maturity into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ may we take joy in these responsibilities help us Lord in areas that were neglecting perhaps help us also to realize Lord that these responsibilities are simultaneously glorious privileges they
Are not some burdensome thing to us but they bring us joy because we know they please you when we do these things in obedience Lord I also pray that you would use your gospel to bring others into your fold today may you take the gospel that was
Shared today and cause it to bear fruit fruit do what only you can do bringing dead bones to life we pray all of this in Jesus our savior’s name amen amen amen you
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