God Fulfills His Promises Through Jesus
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Membership
Membership
A. This morning we have the pleasure of receiving and welcoming a new member.
1. We are going to publicly welcome our newest member, Carol Abel…
B. I have had opportunity to welcome many members over the almost 12 years that I have been pastor here.
1. Praise God!
C. I wish I could tell you all who have joined over the years are still here.
a. Obviously not — or we would have multiple every-chair-filled services
b. Church membership, like life in this fallen world, is full of ups and downs.
D.Even with all its seeming flaws, church membership is important to our spiritual growth in the same way that our natural family is important to our emotional and civic development.
The world has devalued the Biblically-defined family children being raised in the secure, nurturing environment of one man married to one woman for life.
I watched a news program Thursday night that talked about groups and professors who say there is no need for the nuclear family — that it should be abolished and children raised by the “extended community.” Whatever that means. I think that means children should be raised by the government like the old Soviet Union and communist China raise and brainwash their children
But study after study tells us there is no better predictor of success for any child, brown, black or white than that they are raised in a Bible-based family of: one woman married to one man for life.
There is simply no better environment!
E. I would say the same thing is true of those who would follow Jesus as His disciple.
I firmly believe what is true for the natural family is just as true for spiritual family.
We cannot attempt to live outside of relationship with other believers and expect to be successful in fulfilling God’s will for us.
It is simply NOT possible.
1. Church membership is God’s design for the Christian life.
2. Anyone who would tell you they are a Christian but are NOT part of a local church whether formally or informally is NOT living out BIBLICAL Christianity.
I challenge you in this.
If you are watching online, or if you are here this morning, I would love to have a discussion with you about the necessity of being in a church — not based on your opinions — but based on the Word of God.
E. Biblical Christians understand that God has placed us in the Body of Christ.
1. Whether or not you make the formal commitment of membership, like Sister Carol you recognize the truth of:
2. 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.
F. Over the past several years I have repeatedly mentioned a 2009 book by Joseph Hellerman entitled: When the church was a family. In his book Hellerman says:
1. Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. (Repeat)
i. People who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding, and they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to their fellow human beings.
2. Hellerman goes on to say:
i. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life.
ii. People who stay … grow.
iii. People who leave do NOT grow.
3. All words to ponder and pray about!
G. This morning New Life Family Church has the privilege of welcoming and COVENENTING WITH Carol Abel
1. 1 ADULT and 0 Junior member.
2. A woman who has elected to put down roots not only in Christ, but also in this local expression of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
H. Sister Carol Abel, would come forward?
1. Please face the congregation.
2. Board, would you come and join Sister Carol — standing behind her?
L. As New Life Family Church welcomes Carol Abel as our newest member, I want to remind us that we are not an orphanage but rather a Family.
1. Jesus said in John 14:18 (NIV) I will not leave you as orphans; …
M. In an orphanage:
1. Orphans are not related.
2. Their common bond is merely that they all reside at one location — the orphanage.
N. But, in A Family:
1. It’s NOT that way!
2. The family is BLOOD-related. The BLOOD of Jesus.
3. And here at New Life we don’t merely meet at a physical location, we are united by the blood of Jesus.
O. So it is our privilege to receive into the membership of this church family, __1__Adult and 0 Junior members who have…
1. … made proper application and have been approved by the Official Board of the church and are now ready to receive the fellowship of this congregation.
P. Sister Carol, as I mentioned in our New Member class a few weeks ago:
1. You as our new members, and we as a church are going to remind each other of our responsibilities and privileges.
2. Our FAMILY COVENANT together.
Q. I will begin with our newest member:
1.Sister Carol, I am going to read a statement and ask that if you agree with it that you say, “I do.”
R. Here goes:
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.
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.
U. 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.
V. Do you further promise to:
1. watch over the other members of this church in Christian love?
2. to remember each other in prayer?
3. to aid each other in distress and sickness
4. to be courteous and forgiving to one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
W. Church, please stand. Do you promise to:
1. watch over Sister Carol Abel in Christian love?
2. to remember her in prayer?
3. to aid her in distress and sickness?
4. to be courteous and forgiving to her even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
X. We therefore, as the Church of Jesus Christ and members of His Body, now receive Carol Abel 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.
1. Prayer with the Board.
2. Since we have a new wave of covid, we will not physically greet Sister Carol this morning — instead let’s give God applause for bringing her to be a part of us!
Be sure to let her know by telephone, text, a card, how much you are glad she has joined New Life.
As we close out this special Christmas service, I want to remind us that for the past several weeks we have been looking at the promises of God concerning the birth of a Son who would save His people.
In fact says:
20 For all of God’s promises find their “yes” of fulfillment in him. And as his “yes” and our “amen” ascend to God, we bring him glory!
As TIMOTHY D. PADGETT writes in his book: The Hope of the Incarnation
Too often, we think of our salvation as a “get out of jail free” card, where God regretfully relents and allows us to go free. But God is not a stingy Redeemer. Restoring the lost and broken with hope is kind of His thing. God reaching into our mess to make incarnate His majesty is not a bug but a feature of His eternal character.
As He did in Creation, so He does in Redemption. The Incarnation demonstrates God’s commitment to fulfill His promise to renew His world and continue His pattern of creating light from darkness, fullness from emptiness, and life from death.
This is our great hope of Advent. As the great Egyptian pastor, Athanasius of Alexandria, said, [I]nstead of just healing a wound, He both fashioned essential being and restored to health the thing that He had formed.”
God has not left us in the darkness but brings us into the light. He is not content to leave us as sinners but calls us as His dear children.
So when we look back to the now fulfilled hope of His first coming, we can look with even greater confidence to the greater hope of Second Coming. “Christ Has Died; Christ is Risen; Christ will Come Again.”
So, as we bring this service to an end let us remember what the advent wreath and each of its candles remind us:
In Jesus is the fulfillment of peace. Not just peace at the Incarnation, but we can have peace in this crazy, crazy world as we await His soon return:
John 14:27 (NLT) “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
In Jesus is the fulfilment of Joy. Not just the joy of His Incarnation, but joy as we await the immanent return of Jesus for His church, His Bride:
Luke 2:10–11 (NASB95)
… the angel said to [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and in Him is the fulfilment of Love. He loved us so much that He came among us to be with us, to suffer on the cross for us.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
His love is not just the love shown through His first coming, but the love that sustains us until the trumpet sounds and we go to be with Him for eternity:
In a world filled with hopelessness, Jesus was born as a result of hope. Remember from a few weeks back? Biblical Hope is not the wishy-washy, maybe of the world, but a confident expectation that what God promised, He will do:
17 This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah concerning him: 18 “Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. 20 He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. 21 And his name will be the hope of all the world.”
12 Again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, And He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, In Him shall the Gentiles hope.” 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Timothy Padgett goes on to say:
Christianity is at its core a theology of hope.
Hope is a funny thing. When we speak of someone having hope, too often we just mean that they are happy, almost to the point that hope is the same as wishing or being optimistic. But there is more to being hopeful than looking on the bright side of life.
To have [Biblical] hope is to be realistic but not despondent. It is to look the world's troubles squarely in the face and yet be confident that things are in motion to make all things new.
To have [Biblical] hope is to be realistic but not despondent. It is to look the world's troubles squarely in the face and yet be confident that things are in motion to make all things new.
You do not hope for what you have in hand, but for those things you are confident will come in time.
This is the constant theme of the Bible, lurking behind the entire scriptural narrative. God comes to emptiness, to death, to sickness, and He brings fulness, life, and wholeness. In the face of countless times when life seems the definition of hopelessness, God takes joy in changing the trajectory for the better. He delights in making something from nothing.
Let’s end the service by standing and worshipping God for being so good to give us the Hope of His Son, Jesus. Let’s worship the One who loves us so much He gives us everything we need until He comes again.