I
was moved by an article on Fox News about a couple who made a great sacrifice
for their church. The Chinese government
has been increasing persecution of local churches. This has included sending bulldozers to
destroy church buildings. A couple
bravely stood in between a bulldozer and their church building. The bulldozer pushed them into a ditch. The husband managed to crawl out. His wife, Ding Cuimei, was killed. You can read the story here. This story of courage and sacrificed led to a
series of thoughts I would like to share.
Your Local Church is
Very Important to God
Local
churches are central to God’s plans to spread the gospel and to transform us
into the image of Christ. The New
Testament teaches this in many ways:
Most
of the books of the New Testament are written either to a specific local
church, a group of local churches, or with instructions for someone overseeing
a local church. The book of Acts tells the story of how the gospel spread and a
big part of that story is how new churches were started and grew. Throughout
the New Testament the role of local churches is pervasive. See for yourself (if
you hold your cursor over a verse, it should pop up):
Matthew 18:17, Acts 8:1, Acts 11:22, Acts 11:26, Acts
12:5, Acts 13:1, Acts 14:23, Acts 14:27, Acts 15:3, Acts 15:4, Acts 15:22, Acts
15:30, Acts 15:41, Acts 16:5, Acts 18:22, Acts 20:17, Acts 20:28, Romans 16:4, Romans
16:5, Romans 16:16, Romans 16:23, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 4:17, 1
Corinthians 5:12, 1 Corinthians 7:17, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:5, 1
Corinthians 14:12, 1 Corinthians 14:26, 1 Corinthians 16:1,1 Corinthians 16:19,
2 Corinthians 1:1, 2 Corinthians 8:1, 2 Corinthians 8:18, 2 Corinthians 8:19, 2
Corinthians 8:23, 2 Corinthians 8:24, 2 Corinthians 11:28, Galatians 1:2, Colossians
4:15, Colossians 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 1 Thessalonians 2:14, 2
Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 1 Timothy 3:5, 1 Timothy 3:15, 1
Timothy 5:16, 1 Timothy 5:17, Philemon 1:2, James 5:14, 3 John 1:6, 3 John 1:9,
Revelation 1:4, Revelation 1:11, Revelation 2:1, Revelation 2:7, Revelation
2:8, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 2:12, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:18, Revelation
2:29, Revelation 3:1, Revelation 3:6, Revelation 3:7, Revelation 3:13, Revelation
3:14, Revelation 3:22, Revelation 22:16
The
above verses are not talking about a vague concept of church.They are talking
about local churches. Those local
churches were filled with struggling, imperfect people just like my church and
your church. Those churches had
problems. Some had really serious
problems, and others were doing relatively well, but none of them were
perfect. Just like our churches today.
Are
the verses I listed the only evidence of how important local churches are in
God’s plan? Not even close. The “one another” verses found throughout the
New Testament are more evidence of the importance of Christians serving and
worshipping together. In the letter of 1
John, one of the main points is that true Christians have a deep love for other
Christians. We’ll see more evidence
below.
Living for Your Church
is as Important as Being Willing to Die for Your Church
Most
of us will never be called to die for our church as Ding was in China. But God calls all of us to do something which
in some ways is just as challenging.
Once we are saved, He asks us to live our whole lives for His Church.
Last
month I had the honor of leading our church and community as we celebrated the
life and mourned the loss of one of our long time church members. Ann had been an active member of our church
since she moved to Severn with her husband around 1950. She attended, and served, and worshipped, and
used her gifts, and gave, and loved for over sixty years in her local
church. I usually encourage people to
come to church more. Ann was so weak her
last few months, that part of me wanted to encourage her to stay home. She could hardly keep awake or keep her head
up. But she wanted to be there so
much. I wish more people loved their
church and lived for their church as much as she did.
Some Ways We can Live
for Our Church
Practically
speaking, how can you live for Christ by living for a local church? Here are some ways:
1. Attend.
Show up! Every Sunday. If you’re out of town, attend another
church. Make it clear to friends and
family that you really love them, but for you Sunday morning is for worshipping
God together with other believers. If
you have a job which requires you to work on Sunday mornings to provide an
essential service, then go to a type of church meeting on a different day. There are lots of church meetings and Bible
studies all through the week, so there really is no excuse.
2. Do more than just attend worship service on
Sunday morning. Be involved in some type
of small group: a Sunday School or Bible
study or prayer group. Many of these
groups will be connected to a specific local church, but it is also fine to be
involved with groups connected to a ministry where people from different local
churches work together (Christian schools, ministries to the poor, Christian
crisis pregnancy ministries, and more).
These should be in addition to, not in place of, weekly worship at a
local church.
3. Give. Churches
need money to serve and carry out God’s work.
Give sacrificially.
4. Use the gifts and abilities God has given you
to serve and build up your local church.
Whether it’s singing, playing a musical instrument, teaching children or
adults, encouraging the downtrodden, organizing events, providing leadership,
running a sound or video system, keeping up with the church bills and finances,
or many other abilities, God wants you to use the gifts He has given you to
serve His Church.
5. Invite others to attend with you. Don’t give up.
6. Pray.
Pray for your church leaders.
Pray for other church members.
7. Guard your church from evil. I wish there was a magic barrier to keep evil
out of churches. I hate conflict. But sometimes God will ask you to fight the
good fight to protect your church from evil, or at least to support your
leaders who God calls to watch over His Church (Acts 20:30-31).
What if My Church is
Messed Up?
Don’t
give up on church because it has problems.
Most of us have had a bad experience in church at some point. I doubt that many of you have been hurt as
badly by a church as me and my family were hurt at a previous church. Here’s the thing. When we finally felt we had to leave that
church, the very next Sunday we were sitting in a pew worshipping in another
church.
The
churches in the New Testament also had problems. Some of them had severe problems. God’s solution was never for His people to
give up on church.
Sometimes
God may call you to stay and work to correct problems and bring healing to a
broken church. Other times you may feel
led to leave. If you leave, find another
church.
Jesus also Died for the
Church.
Ding
Cuimei was not the first person to die for the Church. Or the most important person. It is true that Jesus died for you
individually (Praise God for his amazing love and grace!). It is also true that Jesus died for His
Church, which He loves and cares for:
Ephesians
5:
25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her
26 to make her holy, cleansing her
by the washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as
a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and
blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought
to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 After all, no one ever hated
their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the
church--
30 for we are members of his body.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
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