“Refocusing Your Priorities in 2011”

Part 3: Reaffirming Your Commitment to the Church

Intro: Everybody Loves Raymond “Prodigal Son” episode

Ray believed in God, but found all kinds of excuses

to avoid church involvement.

Do you know anyone like Ray?

What is the Church?

Is it a place or a building?Is it an organization?

No! The Bible describes the Church as the Body of Christ! It is the living, breathing

representation of Jesus on the earth.The Body of Christ is people.

What is the Church?

1 Corinthians 12:12, 27“The body is a unit, though it is made of many parts; and though all its parts are

many, they form one body. … Now you are the body of Christ,

and each one of you is a part of it.”

What is the Church?

Romans 12:4-5 “For just as each of us has one body

with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many,

form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

Who is the Head?

Colossians 1:18a(Referring to Jesus)

“And he is the head of the body, the church… ”

A Unique Valentine’s Day Card

A Unique Valentine’s Day Card

Believers who want nothing to do with the Church are saying to Jesus,“I love you… but I hate Your Body.”

How would you receive that if you were Him?

Missing Body Parts

1 Corinthians 12: 15-16“Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’

it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say,

‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop

being part of the body.

Missing Body Parts

1 Corinthians 12: 21-22“The eye cannot say to the hand,

‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet,

‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that

seem to be weaker are indispensable…”

Missing Body Parts

Did you read Andrea Jeremiah’s article in our church newsletter?

Missing Body Parts

You miss out on so many of the blessings of being a

Christian when you choose to exclude yourself from church involvement.

Missing Body Parts

You also rob others of the fullness of the presence of

Christ when you are absent from the Body.

Missing Body Parts

Romans 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the Law.”

Life Application: The Lord’s Supper

Communion is more than ritual!It is a regular reaffirmation

of your commitment to Christ AND His Body, the Church.

Warning!

1 Corinthians 11:27-29“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner

will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to

examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of

Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”