A Plan for Participation
Surviving the Pandemic as a Congregation • Sermon • Submitted
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INTRODUCTION:
1. Every Plan for Participation must start with desire of the membership to participate.
A. The first qualification of man to be an elder is to desire the position.
1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.
1. This is not only true of the eldership but every job with-in the church including simply being a Christian.
B. Part of desiring the role of a Christian is counting the cost of discipleship.
1. If you have been baptized and started your walk as a disciple of Christ you should have counted the cost of discipleship.
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. 34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
2. Part of counting the cost is actually being a disciple and following Jesus.
A. Being a disciple and following Christ requires sacrifice.
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
B. Being a follower of Christ not only requires sacrifice but daily sacrifice.
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
3. There are several ways we make daily sacrifices and most of them are service orientated.
A. Today what we are concerned with is the sacrifice of being a part of the Church.
1. The sacrifice of coming to worship.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
2. The sacrifice of being a priest of God.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
A. Which is the sacrifice of being a part of the worship.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
1. Singing, praying, preaching is all part of the sacrifice that is the fruit of our lips.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
A. If we seek the city that is to come then we must offer God this sacrifice.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
2. Serving at the alter is part of being a priest and serving in worship.
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
2. Now that we understand that we need desire to participate and that participation is a must let us make a plan for participation.
BODY:
1. The first question is—how do we get everyone involved?
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
A. The first step is to get to know one another by spending quality time with one another.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
1. How will we get to know one another’s strengths if we don’t spend quality time together?
B. The second step is to get to know one another’s strengths and weakness.
1. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and if we are going to use people effectively in the ministry we need to know each others.
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
C. The third step is to be willing to work on our weaknesses with each other.
1. When Jesus caught the disciples sleep He told them...
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
A. We need each other!
D. The fourth step is then to plan how to use those strengths and weaknesses to the benefit of the church.
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
CONCLUSION:
1. Everyone’s participation in a strong congregation is a must.
A. As a congregation we must figure out how to empower people to serve.
1. As a congregation we must come together and use our resources.
A. This takes having a plan for participation.