Run! Pursue!
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Receive New Member:
We have the joy and the privilege of welcoming a new member into our family today.
As we think about Church membership, we realize it is more than voting at the Annual Business Meeting.
Church membership is an affirmation by the applicant that they agree with and support the church's beliefs and doctrine.
It is not unusual for churches to have attendees who don't fully affirm a church's doctrine.
For instance, one of our distinctive doctrines is that we believe in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of tongues.
That is different from what most of the churches in this area believe.
Church membership, therefore, becomes a statement of affirmation that you identify with both the church and her members in what the church believes.
Church membership is also a commitment to serve.
When you become a part or member of a church, you are affirming the 1 Corinthians 12 metaphor that you will be a functioning member of the body.
I encourage you to read again verses 12-27 of 1 Cor. 12 for a clear picture that the body of Christ, the church, is to be comprised of functioning or serving members.
A variety of people will attend church for a variety of reasons.
But those whom God leads to become members are affirming that they have a functioning role in the church.
Church membership is an applicant’s declaration that he or she wants to be a part of the family of New Life.
That they want to contribute to this church accomplishing what God has called it to do.
They are saying: “You can count on me.”
Church membership also shows obedience to Hebrews 13:17 that says:
Hebrews 13:17 (ISV) … follow and be submissive to your leaders, Hebrews 13:17 (NLT) [Those leaders’] work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.
My joy as Pastor is to bring us all to a place of unity through the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:2–3 (LSB) [Exhorts us] … with all humility and gentleness, with patience, [to] bear… with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The formal step of church membership goes a long way to help us achieve the goal of peace and unity by taking us from ME-thinking to OTHERS-thinking.
As says: Philippians 2:3–5 (GW) Don’t act out of selfish ambition or be conceited. Instead, humbly think of others as being better than yourselves. 4 Don’t be concerned only about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others. 5 Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
So, taking this formal step of church membership emphasizes that a light has come on in our thinking.
That we understand and want to obey God’s design for the Christian life — to think about others — to care for others.
i. BIBLICAL Christianity ALWAYS involves individual Christians being a part of a local Body of believers.
ii. The Bible does NOT teach the concept of “Lone Ranger” Christians.
iii. Too many people today have NO community — they live in their own bubble.
BUT, Biblical Christians understand that God has placed them in “Community” in the Body of Christ.
i. Whether or not you make a formal commitment I hope you recognize:
ii. 1 Corinthians 12:18, 27 (NASB95) But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
And then Ephesians 3:10 reminds us that: His [God’s] intent [is] that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
At its heart, church membership is about being family and relating to each other in such a way that we build one another up in Jesus.
Can we please remember that?
Please?
Do I really need to be a member of a church?
Absolutely!
From Acts 2 through Revelation 3, the New Testament is about the local church in one way or another.
Why?
Because the local church is God's plan A for His ministry on earth, and He did not leave us with a plan B.
Bring Members Forward
Bring Members Forward
A. So, this morning New Life Family Church has the privilege of welcoming, loving and COVENENTING WITH 1 new ADULT member.
1. A man who has elected to put down roots not only in Christ, but also in this church.
2. Mark Huber, would you come forward?
3. Please face the congregation.
B. Would the Board:
Madeline, Jay (on vacation), George (Mark’s father), Michelle, and Cecelia Funderburk .
Will all of you come and stand behind this new member?
Mark has…
… made proper application and have been approved by the Official Board of the church
I sat down with him and talked to them about what church membership involves.
It was a longer church membership class because Mark feels a call to credentialed ministry!
So, he is now ready to receive the right hand of fellowship by this congregation.
Our new member, and we as a church are going to remind each other of our responsibilities and privileges.
1. It is our FAMILY COVENANT together.
H. I will begin with our newest member:
1. I am going to read a statement and ask that if you agree with it that you say, “I do.”
I. Here goes:
J. Having been led by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and desiring fellowship with people of like precious faith, and now in the presence of God and this assembly you are entering into a covenant relationship with these members of the Body of Christ.
K. So, do you promise that with the help of the Holy Spirit you will:
1. walk together with the other members of this church in Christian love?
2. work for the advancement of this church?
3. help it pursue holiness and a deeper knowledge of Jesus?
4. promote its prosperity and spirituality?
5. sustain its worship, doctrines and disciplines?
6. contribute regularly and cheerfully to the support of its ministries and activities?
7. If so answer: I do.
L. Do you promise to:
1. maintain your personal devotions?
2. seek the salvation of the lost?
3. avoid sin by avoiding the very appearance of evil?
4. seek that love which thinks no evil?
5. If so answer: I do.
M. Do you further promise to:
1. watch over the other members of this church in Christian love?
2. to remember them in prayer?
3. to aid them in times of distress and sickness
4. to be courteous and forgiving to them even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
N. Church, please stand. Do you promise to:
1. watch over Mark in Christian love?
2. to remember him in prayer?
3. to aid him in distress and sickness?
4. to be courteous and forgiving to him even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
We therefore, as the Church of Jesus Christ and members of His Body, now receive you, into our fellowship and communion, recognizing that God has already added you to His Church. And we pray that the blessing of the Lord be upon you always.
Prayer with the Board.
ALL come and welcome!
Sunday message:
PRAYER
2 Timothy 2:22 (NLT) Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
God is calling on us to exercise.
Not so much physical exercise, but spiritual exercise.
In our text, God is calling on us to run.
Now, I don’t know about you, but actual running has never been something that excited me.
I’ve done it over the years — grudgingly — trying to stay in shape.
But for 52 years I have been trying to put sin in the rear-view mirror and run after Jesus.
1 Corinthians 9:24 (LSB) Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
I don’t run the race of Christianity grudgingly.
I do it willingly, enthusiatically.
I do it with a desire to finish the race and win the prize.
I may not win 1st place.
I may only get a participation trophy.
But that’s enough!
Yes, I run FROM sin and run TO Jesus.
That’s what our text is telling us to do.
Run From Sin
Run From Sin
First of all we are told we need to flee, to run away from sin.
This is not the only time Paul gives these instructions.
Wait a minute?
Run?
Isn’t that cowardice in the face of the enemy?
Is Paul a coward and telling us to be cowards?
What about what Jesus said:
Luke 9:1–2 (LSB) And calling the twelve together, He gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 And He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Mark 16:17–18 (LSB) “And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 and they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
What about what Peter says:
1 Peter 5:8–9 (LSB) Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world.
James said something similar:
James 4:5–8 (NLT) Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the Spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. 6 And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you…
Is the Bible giving mixed signals?
Not at all!
Paul was definitely NOT afraid to stare the down demonic forces.
He did it time and time again.
On his first missionary trip, Paul immediately confronted the demonic. He didn’t run.
Acts 13:6–12 (LSB) And when they [Paul & Barnabas] had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, 10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? 11 “Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Of course we remember
Acts 16:16–18 (LSB) Now it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a servant-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” 18 And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed, Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her!” And it left at that very moment.
Paul was known as someone who confronted and cast out demons.
Acts 19:11–16 (LSB) And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that cloths or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. 13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I implore you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Now seven sons of one named Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them, subdued all of them, and utterly prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
But in our text and a 3 other places Paul instructs us not to confront, but to run:
Sometimes it is just plain stupid to expose our vulnerability and taunt the devil to hit us in that spot.
What spots?
2 Timothy 2:22 (LSB)
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
As our text says, and remember, Paul is writing to YOUNG Timothy, flee, or shun “youthful lusts.”
As a young man Timothy is vulnerable to the lusts, the inordinate desires, that young people face:
Sex, success or fame in the eyes of the world, taking unethical shortcuts, and so forth.
10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evils, and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, O man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:10–11 (LSB) For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evils, and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, O man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness.
Here we see Paul tell Timothy run away from, shun, flee the love of money.
How many people have made money their god, their driving passion and goal in life?
Paul said such a course of action takes you away from Jesus, it “pierces” your life with many griefs.
So instead, run!
Run away from a love of money.
Run toward, pursue the “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness” that comes from Jesus.
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Here believers, living in a pagan-worshipping, hypersexualized Corinthian society are told to flee, the shun, o get away from sexual immorality. The Greek word, “porneia”
Instead of turning a blind eye, or even embracing or celebrating the sexual sin of our society, we are to shun it.
Too many Christians and their churches have conformed to societal norms.
But God tells us to shun pornography, sex before marriage, cohabitation, homosexuality, transsexuality and on and on.
Not shun the people caught in the trap of such things, but speaking the truth to them in love.
The truth is, “porneia,” sexual immorality is a sin against our own body — our body that is to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Our body that, as a believer, doesn’t belong to us — Jesus paid for it with His blood.
We are to use our bodies, not please our sexual lusts, but to glorify God.
But let me be clear about how we respond to people caught up in sexual immorality.
There is a difference between how we deal with someone who calls themselves —prides themselves on being — a Christian and someone who has never really known Christ.
In the chapter before the passage I just read, the Apostle Paul talks about dealing with a person, maybe even a leader, or a generous donor, who is committing sexual immorality that even the sexually permissive people of his society didn’t condone.
1 Corinthians 5:1–2 (LSB) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
1 Corinthians 5:6 (LSB) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
So, someone WHO KNOWS BETTER, should not be allowed to stay in the church.
We do what Paul says in: Galatians 6:1 (LSB) Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
But if the person refuses to leave that sin behind, then Matthew 18 comes into play.
After the process, we do not treat them as, or allow them to be church members — we treat them for what they are sinners in need of salvation.
But, if we have people come into the church WHO DON’T KNOW BETTER, we do what ...
1 Corinthians 5:9–11 (LSB) I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
And finally,
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Now this one seems like it would be easy to stand and confront it.
But apparently we weak humans are particularly vulnerable to idolatry.
So we run from it, we shun it.
The commentary in the Fire Bible says:
In order to remain pure and set apart for God’s highest purposes, a follower of Christ must avoid the ungodly desires and behaviors that our human nature craves and follows.
This requires a constant and clear determination (i.e., a definite and personal choice) to stay away from situations, people or things that would tempt us to defy God and his standards of character and purity.
We cannot flirt with temptation, moral compromise or selfishness and expect to escape the consequences.
Many believers are repeatedly frustrated because they keep giving in to the same temptations.
They wonder why they do not seem to have the spiritual strength to resist and overcome compromising situations.
The problem comes from putting oneself in tempting or morally compromising situations in the first place.
Such foolish choices set a person up for spiritual failure.
God’s Word tells us to “flee the evil desires” (v. 22), sexual immorality, the love of money and idolatry.
I’m sure there are others I haven’t mentioned.
Listen to the Holy Spirit.
When He tells you to run, RUN!
If we make unwise choices to be in the wrong places at the wrong times, we have already made a critical mistake.
By doing so, we are setting ourselves up for failure.
We must make wise and godly choices from the start and avoid certain situations altogether (cf. 1Co 6:18).
So, it seems that we confront the devil when he stands in the way of someone being saved, or if he causes Jesus to be looked down upon, of if he is the author of the sickness in someone.
But when he rears his ugly head and comes against us in areas where we KNOW we are particularly vulnerable — we need to run.
Run. Not just AWAY from sin, but to Jesus.
Run to Jesus
Run to Jesus
The key is not simply to focus on what we must avoid;
instead, we must consider what we should actually do.
This means that we do not just “flee” from bad things, but we run toward and “pursue” God’s good things.
We run to Jesus who embodies what our text says:
righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace
What 1 Timothy 6:11 says:
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness.
Again, as the Fire Bible Commentary on 2 Timothy 2:22 says
We will not have to worry as much about staying out of trouble spiritually if we go after the things that are right and get actively involved in God’s purposes for our lives.
By concerning ourselves with all the positive things God has for us to do, we will not be preoccupied with the negative things God tells us to avoid (see Pr 1:10, note; Ps 119:9, note; 1Pe 1:16, note).
Are You In The Race?
Are You In The Race?
As we run FROM sin and run TO Jesus, do we realize this is a team sport?
The last part of our text says:
Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
This morning Mark Huber declared he is on the team with us.
That he is going to run.
That he feels a call to help others, especially young people run.
Our text tells us to “pursue … with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
With our fellow church members.
As the worship team comes ...
What about you?
Are you fleeing the things that will destroy your soul?
Are you running after Jesus. Crying out to Him?
Maybe you need prayer.
I invite you to come forward to repent of your sins and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.
Come if you have not run and need to be delivered — as people of faith gather around you and pray, there is deliverance.
Maybe you have some other need.
I beg of you, in the Name of Jesus, don’t leave here like you came.