Introduction
When we look for a church to attend and to make it our home church, we wants something that feels right; a place that we are made to feel comfortable. And what we are saying to ourselves is that we want a place where the people are more like us than different from us.
Think about it. People who do not have the same political viewpoint as you, makes you feel uncomfortable discussing politics with them. We would much rather talk politics with someone who agrees with us. People who do not see the workings of a church just like you makes you feel uncomfortable in a business meeting. We would love if everyone agreed with us as to how to do the business of the church, so business meeting went off without a hitch. Anne and I do not have children or grandchildren; and so, when we are around people talking about their children or grandchildren sometimes it makes us feel uncomfortable because it is not a conversation we can contribute to. We are different then them, we do not have any children or grandchildren to talk about.
And so, to avoid the uncomfortable, we pick our friends by choosing people who are more like us than different from us. To avoid, the uncomfortable, we pick the church we will membership with by how much the people are like us. If you do not think that is true; look at how many churches have older congregations and they can not get young people to attend and then there is the opposite group- the younger church that has a difficulty attracting older people. Now, you cannot tell me that God is not calling younger people to older peoples’ churches and older people to younger peoples’ churches. Rather we are choosing our church membership on what feels comfortable rather than what God may desire for us.
Here is the problem. God did not intend to base membership in the local church based upon how comfortable you are in that fellowship. God based membership upon where you were to be the most effective in His service. In case you forgot, we are called to serve Him.
Let look at that and make some conclusions. Turn with me in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 12:13- 18.
Scripture
1 Corinthians 12:13-18 (NIV)
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
16 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 cease to be part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
POINT #1
WE MUST OVERLOOK THE NEED FOR COMFORTABLILITY IN WHERE WE ESTABLISH OUR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP BY LOOKING BENEATH THE SURFACE AT THE JESUS IN OUR FELLOW CHURCH MEMBERS’ HEARTS.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Let me tell you that Jews and Greeks in the first century had nothing in common. They were two entirely different lifestyles. In fact, I think it is a fair statement to say that these two people groups didn’t like each other. They saw the world differently. But God put them together. It says that they were given the same one Spirit.
And then there was the slave and free. Once again, two entirely different lifestyles. They too would have nothing in common. And most likely, the slaves resented being held slave by the free people. And probably the free persons would dislike going to church with their slaves. But God put them to together. And it says that they were given the same one Spirit.
Why did God set up church this way? In the natural world, the differences between us divide us. For example, instead of calling ourselves all Americans; some will call themselves Italian Americans, African Americans, Caucasian American. What happened to: we are just Americans.
In the spiritual world, God says those differences do not need to divide us, instead they can unite us; they can even make us stronger. And He did that to show the power and wisdom of our God. Let me read you a Scripture. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 (NIV)
22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Whereas the world says: let’s separate us by our differences; God says: let me put them together and show you what I can do.
Point #2
WHEN MAN BUILDS ANYTHING, HE GENERALLY WORKS WITH MATERIALS THAT ARE UNIFORM; WHEN GOD BUILDS, HE BUILDS WITH UNIQUE MATERIALS.
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
I remember back in the Old Testament when the people decided to build a tower that reached to the heavens. That story is found in Genesis 11:3-4 (NIV)
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
And what I find so interesting is verse 3 where the Scripture says that they used brick instead of stone. You see the thing about brick is that it is uniform; they are all shaped the same way- same size, same height, and probably close to the same weight. And it doesn’t matter what brick you pick up and where you put that brick in the building process, it goes.
But God, He does not build that way. If you remember last week’s sermon, I used the Scriptural reference of 1 Peter 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus builds with stones. The thing about stones that each one of them is unique. No two stones are alike. And you cannot just pick up a stone and put in anywhere in the structure. Each stone must be hand-picked by the stone mason and placed in its unique location where it is the only match that would fit right there in that spot.
And the Apostle Paul confirms that in today’s Scripture. God arranges the parts in the body to fit perfectly together.
So, what is the point? We want to be bricks in a church; we want to be in a church where people are just like us. But God, He is arranging His Church differently. He wants to put people in a church where they uniquely fit in and make that church work the way that He intended it to work.
The problem is choosing a church based upon anything other than our own comfortability makes us feel uncomfortable. And I understand that, if all your friends go across town to another church, but you cannot because Jesus says that He wants you right here will make you uncomfortable. But the question is do I do what makes me feel comfortable or do I do what God wants.
Point #3
IF YOU ALLOW GOD TO CHOSE WHERE YOU ARE TO SERVE HIM IN THE LOCAL CHURCH THEN YOU CAN BE CONFIDENT THAT YOU ARE VALUABLE NOT ONLY TO GOD BUT TO THAT LOCAL CHURCH.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
If you let God place you where He needs, you will be definitely be valuable to that church.
It saddens me when I hear that some churches have no music people; because I know of other churches where there are music people not even being used because they have too many.
It saddens me when I hear some churches cannot recruit anyone to teach a Sunday School class and some churches have excellent teachers sitting on the sideline because there are two many teachers in that church.
It saddens me when I hear some churches cannot pay their bills because that church is full of members struggling themselves, and other churches are just banking money because they have a lot of generous givers and a lot more money than they spend..
Unfortunately, what that these things tell me is that many Christians join a church because it feels right, and maybe a lot are not listening to God and where He wants to place you.
Let me ask you a question: when you chose the church you are in did you join because it felt right or was it because this is where you knew that God wanted to place you.
Let us pray!
