Author: EggMonkey

The sermon series that we are going through right now, ?Life360, ? has been exciting to preach. The sermon on April 27 dealt with ?Faith: Broadband Beliefs, ? the idea that our faith is developed when we hear, read, and study the Bible and then live it out. The exciting part of that sermon was the realization that, even though each of us has an individual faith, we are connected by the common beliefs of the Bible. OK, we ?ve probably understood that at a very basic level, that we share biblical beliefs in common. However, not only do we have common understanding of facts found in the Bible, but that foundational faith connects us together.

The sermon pointed out Hebrews 10:25, which tells us to meet together and to encourage each other. About what? We went back to Hebrews 2:1 for the answer: ?We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ?

If we truly want to live the ?abundant life ? that Jesus promises us (John 10:10), we need to hold on to what we have heard from God ?s Word, and we need to read it and study it, and then we need to live it. But we don ?t have to do it on our own. We are members of one body, and we need to continue meeting together so we can encourage each other and make sure that ?we do not drifty away. ?

Obviously, we cannot neglect coming together to worship on Sunday morning. It ?s the best place to find the core of discipleship ?worship, study, fellowship, service, witnessing, and prayer ?all in one place. I ?d suggest, however, that the single hour is only a portion of what we need to connect to each other through the truth of the Bible. If you ?re not a member of one of our Sunday morning Adult Bible Fellowship groups, start checking them out and find one where you can connect with adults who are near your age or who are in your stage of life. These groups meet to study the Bible and to fellowship, encouraging each other so that we do not drift away.

I ?m not good at relationships, but I ?m getting better. How do I know? Well, God and I communicate a lot more than we did before, and more and more frequently, we communicate about other people.

I suspect that my prayer life has been a lot like most people ?s: about my needs, when I have needs. But that started to change dramatically when I began participating in a men ?s group in Cincinnati. We spent a lot of time in fellowship, talking about our week, sharing our struggles, encouraging each other, and studying the Bible, but we spent most of our time in prayer.

I had never experienced such prayer times before ?sometimes as long as half an hour. While that really isn ?t a long time, considering there were about six to eight of us any given night, it was a long time for a bunch of guys. We started praying those perfunctory prayers: ?Thank you, God, for this and that ? and ?God bless us all ?; we were just on auto-pilot. At some point, our prayers changed. Instead of praying for someone who had an illness, we boldly asked for healing. Instead of thanking God for his power, we openly thanked him for deliverance from addiction. We prayed about promotions, parenting skills, and even traffic tickets.

The thing is, I can ?t say whether our prayers changed because we got closer or whether we got closer because of our prayers. Either way, it ?s clear that there ?s a connection between our relationships and our prayers. In his letter of encouragement to Timothy, Paul writes: ?I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone ? (1 Timothy 2:1). If you would like to grow the connections you have with your brothers and sisters in Christ, grab a copy of the weekly prayer list at the welcome center or ask to have it sent to your email address and join us Wednesdays at 1:15 in Mark ?s office for the weekly prayer meeting.

For some reason, church membership is a tough topic. Reading the New Testament, it seems the early church understood that when you become a Christian, you are a ?member ? of the church. Just as when a child is born he becomes part of the family, when a person is ?reborn ? they become part of the church family. Just as there are roles, rights, and responsibilities to fulfill within a family, the early church seemed to understand the same for being a Christian.

Today we seem to believe that being a member of a church is like being a member of any other organization, and so we come and go as we please, withhold our support when we are angry, and pick and choose how and when we participate and even submit to the authority of the leaders. Maybe it ?s because we have a lot of choices among churches or because it ?s so easy to place, transfer, or quit membership. Whatever the reason, we seem to forget that being a member of the church is more like being a member of a body or a family. We recognize the tragedy of broken families, and we are disgusted by the thought of a dismembered body, but we don ?t always place such importance on the connections we have as the body of Christ.

Even though ?membership ? isn ?t a requirement for being a Christian, we must recognize the connectedness we have to each other because of our own relationships with Christ. Paul writes about this in Ephesians 2:19-22: ?You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. ? The church is not a loose association by simple choice; we are connected to each other because we are members of the body of Christ. Let ?s continue to work together as he builds us into that holy dwelling.

I hate money. While I enjoy the pleasures that come from what money can buy (as my indulgences in coffee, dining out, and computers will testify), there ?s just too much effort that must go into making money, tracking money, and even spending money. I know that there ?s more than a bit of laziness in my attitude: it ?s difficult to figure out money, so I just try to avoid it.

The hard reality is that money is a necessary tool that we must use wisely or it can hurt us. Another hard reality, specifically here at Memorial, is that while there are a few areas where we could cut back more in our spending, we ?re at a point where the effort to save our nickels and dimes is becoming counterproductive. To put it bluntly, the bigger problem we are facing is that we are not giving in such a way that would indicate we are a healthy body.

Without trying to launch a guilt trip or to call attention to anyone ?s financial stability, let ?s consider together, as a body, how we can get connected by giving. First, we get connected to God through giving because it recognizes that everything we have comes from God (James 1:17). Second, we get connected to each other through giving because we develop the attitude that the first church had; Acts 4:32 says that ?All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. ?

It ?s no secret that our region, and by extension our families and our church family, is facing tough times. And it ?s easy to go into ?cutback mode, ? but let ?s not lose sight of the eternal significance of even our monthly bills. Because we are connected as one body, because we must be ?one in heart and mind, ? we share the responsibility of supporting the body by giving our money. It may be more difficult for some of us than others, but let ?s take Paul ?s advice in 1 Timothy 6:17 and not put our hope in money, which is uncertain, but put our hope in God ?who richly provides us with everything. ?