God has assembled us together as a church for a reason. You are part of Bellevue by God’s great and grand design. This message takes a look at how we can function together as the body of Christ to make disciples.

Functioning as the Body of Christ

Notes:

Functioning as the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 12:1-11

3 Ways God Provides for us to FUNCTION

1. DIVERSITY for the common good (vs 7)

varieties (vs 4-6, plural) of

gifts
services
activities

           common good = bring together for usefulness, assemble in a heap

2. POWER to accomplish Spiritual Work (vs 11a)

3. INTENTIONALITY of God’s purpose. (vs 11b)

3 Applications for TODAY:

1. You are UNIQUELY You

2. God will enable you for His work

3. You are here ON PURPOSE

Articles and Blogs

6 Areas Where the Enemy Attacks Your Church – Chuck Lawless

It’s OK for Kids to Be Bored During Church – Melissa Edgington

5 Books You Should Read This Election Year – Trevin Wax

Worth Repeating

“Do NOT ever forget that only Jesus can make America great..but only if we repent, turn back to Him, honor and bow to Him and welcome Him back!” – @MichaelAYouseff

“There’s a big difference between sermons that people like, and sermons that are powerful.” @crazylove

“If it takes much time to learn things in our sport, our class, or our job, we say it’s too hard. Taking a lot of time to excel at something does not mean it’s too hard. It simply means that it takes time and our job, as expressed by my teaching colleague, Tami Blackshear, is to ‘Give time, time!’” – Bobby Simpson – Higher Ground Softball

“Being able to trust God and carry on is essential to withstanding trials.” @davidjeremiah

“You become like the 5 people you spend most of your time with. #choosewisely” Cindy Smith = @cindywsmith

Another Look

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A friend messaged me a question the other day that set me to thinking: “Why don’t Baptists celebrate Lent in some form?”

The first explanation is that Baptists began as a revolt against both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in large part because of prescribed rituals the church demanded that were not explicitly required by Scripture. Lent is certainly one of those. While the idea of self-denial and fasting are both Biblical concepts, observing them as a ritual is neither prescribed as a mandate nor described as a common practice among early followers of Jesus. At some point in Church history, the Church established the practice as a necessary means to demonstrate one’s piety. For the most part, Baptists – especially THIS ONE – tend to push back against mandated outward expressions of religiosity.

Second, Lent largely has become a forty-day feel good exercise for many. They can perform an act of “devotion” for 40 days then live like the devil the other 325. Most people who observe Lent do not treat it as such, but rituals like Lent can give one a false sense of holiness. Holiness is found in a relationship with Jesus daily walk with Him, not in a religious ritual. “Being good” outwardly for a short amount of time is no substitute for walking with the Lord daily.

Finally, fasting, prayer, and self-denial are to be regular parts of our Spiritual Disciplines, not relegated to a season of time. Lent precedes our celebration of the most important event in history – the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we should live in the power and reality of the Resurrection every day.

There is nothing wrong with observing Lent and there is equally nothing wrong with not observing it. To assess one’s devotion or piety based on their observance of a ritual not commanded in Scripture is legalism. Paul encouraged the Colossian Christians to not let others pass judgment on them because of their observance (or lack of same) of festivals, moons, and celebrations. (Colossians 2:16-23)

So what is a healthy approach during the Lenten season?

First, on a daily basis cast off all sin and whatever other weights hinder your walk with Christ (Hebrews 12:1).

Second, practice regular self-denial (Mark 8:34). Our own desires compete for devotion that belongs to Jesus.

Third, be in constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and abide in God’s Word every day (Colossians 3:16).

What a unique gift reminded me about life purpose.  Watch the video and see what you think.

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord! -Psalm 134:1

The Levites were the servants of the Lord who bore the responsibility of mediating between God. Among other things, these priests prepared placed on the altar the sacrifices brought by people seeking to be right before God. They also prayed on behalf of the people, made necessary repairs and maintained the Temple, as well as keeping the censors burning with incense and all other furnishings in the Temple operating as God prescribed.

Night duty could seem a boring task. The crowds were pretty much gone, the place was empty, and mostly mundane, tedious tasks remained such as refilling censors, keeping the fires going, and basically making sure things were ready for the next day. Night duty was not the most glamorous, but nonetheless, the priests took it seriously and rendered their service to God.

In our Christian walk, we may sometimes feel like we are on “night duty.” No one notices what we are doing. We have a low profile while other Christians get attention for their more visible acts of service. We find ourselves engaged in the routine, mundane activities of the faith and long for something more glamorous or exciting.

Psalm 134:1 is a reminder to us of the importance of the “night shift” in God’s eyes. If the night shift did not do their duty, the fires would go out, the incense would not burn, some needs would not receive intercessory prayer since they would get pushed back on the daytime to do list by the hectic schedule encountered by the day shift. If the night shift were not on duty, the Temple would not be open during the night season, when God may be dealing one of His wayward children directing them to sacrifice and pray.

Never mistake the “night shift” of your faith walk for a useless, wasted time. God has you where you are in your season of life for His purpose. Use the down time to pray more fervently for people on your heart. Be prepared for God to send someone your who needs the special attention someone more swamped with spiritual activity could not give them. Regardless of how it may seem, “nothing” is never happening.

Be faithful on the night shift. God may have strategically placed you because He wants to “leave the light on” for some returning child.

Imagine a large room in heaven with wall to wall shelves, those shelves rising from the floor all the way to the top of a ceiling so high it is barely visible from ground level.  On those shelves, stacked as tightly as imaginable, are thousands of blessings…blessings intended for God’s people in response to their obedience and faithfulness in the area of generosity.  The blessings are in this room because they are unclaimed.  What if we are missing out on receiving some of God’s greatest blessings because we are not faithful with what He has given us?

Articles and Blogs

21 Signs Your Church Needs to Change – Carey Nieuhof

Why the Missional Movement Will Fail – Mike Breen (VergeNetwork.org)

10 Misperceptions Laypersons Have About Pastors – Chuck Lawless

Worth Repeating

“Maturing is realizing how many things don’t require your comment.”  From Life Hacks twitter feed

“Buildings don’t reach people; people reach people.”  Dr. Michael Catt, Pastor, Sherwood Baptist Church, Albany, GA

“A congregation who prays for their pastors will be a better-fed congregation than those who do not.” — Alistair Begg  from @MattSmethurst

“Sometimes the most intelligible thing we could ever say is, ‘I don’t know.'” @CindyKeating

“Self-control is the ability to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.” – Tim Keller @DailyKeller

Another Look

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Francis Chan – How NOT to Make Disciples

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I like to photograph signs. I have amassed a bit of a collection from many different places. Some signs make so much sense that one wonders why someone even needed to place it, while other signs defy explanation. Some signs are informational; others, directional. Regardless of a sign’s position or purpose, most all of them hold one thing in common – people ignore them.

Many restaurants sport directional signs indicating which driveway is the entrance and which is the exit. One such restaurant in Tifton can lay claim to the most often ignored signs. In order to “cheat” their way into the drive-thru line, customers often enter through the exit portal, causing a logjam of traffic in the parking lot. I am sure they think it is quite OK for everyone else to wait so that they can save themselves 50 yards of driving around the building.

While I know that in the grand scheme of things, ignoring the directional signs at a restaurant (or any other sign for that matter) seems inconsequential, the practice reflects a deeper, more insidious attitude that pervades our modern cultures thinking. We have no regard for the “small things.” We pay little attention to the details, cutting corners and hoping to get away with neglecting the less obvious particulars of life.

We all have experienced diminished product quality, lax customer service, and empty promises. These stand as convicting proof of our inattention to details. The Bible, however, teaches us the importance of faithfulness to the “little things.”

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ – Matthew 25:21, 23

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” – Luke 16:10

Let me encourage you to be careful to mind the minutiae in your life. While we wait for the grand events in life, we lose sight of the fact that how we manage our routines will determine our success or failure. A brick mason tediously lays one small single brick after another in the process of building a wall. Each individual brick may seem small and insignificant when compared to the completed wall, but the mason must take great care to lay each brick, one by one, with precision and care. If one brick is mislaid, the entire wall will be marred. So also, our lives consist of several and individual opportunities to the right things and to do things the right way each day. While each moment may seem small and insignificant when isolated, we must remember that one “mislaid” opportunity may prove to be difficult to overcome down the road.

Pay attention to your habits. Don’t allow bad attitudes to linger. Be careful not to cut corners. Don’t neglect time to pray and read your Bible. Don’t think because no one is looking that you are free to skimp on any good thing or to get away with some bad thing.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men… – Colossians 3:23

“Just follow your heart.”  Ever heard that?  Do you realize how dangerous that it?  Today’s vlog looks at some of the things that the Bible has to say about the human heart and what we need to do about it.

I think we started messing up when we began assigning postal addresses to churches, because that is when church became a place rather than a people. Church became somewhere we went rather than who we are.

Some would argue that the New Testament identifies churches by location. The books of the Bible written by Paul were addressed specific locations, but he addresses them to the CHURCH that is IN Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, etc. In the New Testament the church was understood to be a geographical collection of PEOPLE, not a place. Somewhere in the past, however, we assigned an address to the church and it became a destination where people gathered rather than the gathered people themselves.

The first century concept of membership is radically different that our contemporary understanding of membership. Today, a member is someone who holds a vested interest in an organization, and as such is entitled to specific privileges and rights by virtue of that vested interest. The New Testament concept of membership is that of an integral part of a larger whole, a part responsible to the whole to carry out some function that serves the whole. In the New Testament mindset of church, a believer was considered a member of the body, a “body part” in today’s understanding.

My hand is responsible to do things for my feet that they cannot do for themselves. My feet cannot put on socks alone, but they need the hand to accomplish that task. Likewise, the hands cannot by themselves go to the drawer to retrieve a pair of socks, they need the feet to walk them over there. They BOTH need the eyes to help them see how to get there and to pick out the right pair of socks. Membership in the New Testament mindset always denotes function, responsibility, and partnership.

So then, the church is not a building, property, or address; but PEOPLE who, at least for a short time every week, gather at a specific location. The PEOPLE, not the PLACE, are the church.

So let me ask you three questions:

1. Do you belong to a local body of believers, a church?

2. Are you taking responsibility to function WITH the group, to serve each other and the community?

3. If the answer to either is no, what are you waiting for?

Your church is not where you go on Sunday morning. YOU are the church. You are the church at that address on Sunday morning, and YOU are the church while at your job, shopping, the kids’ ballgame, or even on vacation. You are the church. You are a hand, an eye, a foot, a brain, a heart of some spiritually organic collection of redeemed people known as a church. Forget the selfish, egocentric mindset of membership that expects to be served, but rather embrace the Biblical model of membership and become a functioning body part. You will be surprised how fulfilling your created purpose will add meaning and joy to life.