Functioning as a Part of the Body of Christ - Sermon

In our "Following Jesus" series at Grace Church I preached this weekend on "Functioning as a Part of the Body of Christ. Here is the sermon manuscript and her is the sermon audio (right click and then click on "save link as").

Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

...Suppose God said to forgiven man that his plan was to create a new humanity of all the people who trust in His crucified and Risen Son and that they will form one organism called “The Body of Christ” or the Church and will be united together in Christ in a special way that by being united together the Son will restore them to the likeness of God that was intended for them in the original Creation. This God and His Son will use this united people, the church—the body of Christ, to show the world the glory, the wisdom, the love, the patience and the mercy of God and His Son—Jesus Christ. Now suppose many people who have been saved by this God say with their thoughts and their actions – “no thank you God. I don’t need to be a functioning and closely knit part of the body that you have formed. I know I need to be made like you originally intended and I need to glorify you but I can and will do it without the encumbering body and restrictive organism called the church.” How ungrateful, foolish, and arrogant would we be to say that to God! Yet so many Christians by their lives and attitudes do this very thing. Oh, they may admit that they are part of the big C Church but they do not submit themselves to real people in a local church with their time, money, energy, gifts and commitment...