Am I The Church?
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Social
What is the church?
I want to start with telling you who is not the church.
A member of a social club.
A member of a non-profit charity.
You are not the church if you have never commited their lives to Christ.
If you go to church services because your family has also attended there, you are not the church.
If you financially support the church, you are not the church.
The reason that I wanted to start with who is not the church is because these are some of the main definitions that people have about the church.
Now let’s look at who the church is.
1. Am I part of all people, everywhere, who call on the name of Jesus Christ for salvation?
I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
2. Am I a believer built on the apostles and prophets teaching with Christ as the cornerstone?
Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
3. Am I a person who has accepted Christ message and have been baptized in water?
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
4. Have I devoted myself to the scripture, each other believer and prayer?
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
5. Do I submit to the leadership authority of the local church body?
Remember those who rule over you, who have proclaimed to you the word of God. Follow their faith, considering the results it has produced in their lives.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do this with joy and not complaining, for that would not be profitable to you.
Now if we go back and look at the things I said the church is not we will realize that every one of the things I said occurs in the church.
social.
charity.
People that have not made a commitment to Christ.
Family members.
Tithing. We don’t tithe to the church, we tithe to the Lord. When we say that we are tithing to the local church we are getting it wrong. The local church is where we give our tithe to the Lord.
All of these things are in our church but that is not what makes you a part of the Church. Instead these things are a result of what God has done in our lives and the Church that He has built.