What Do I Owe This Local Church

1
What Do I Owe This Local Church

• Learning how to offer our bodies as living
  sacrifices in our Lords kingdom

2
Realizing Our Debt

• The social-gospel concept - What does this
  church owe me?
• Our Lord does not owe us.
• So likewise you, when you have done all those
  things which you are commanded, say, 'We are
  unprofitable servants. We have done what was our
  duty to do.' Luke 1710

3
Realizing Our Debt

• The social-gospel concept - What does this
  church owe me?
• What can I provide?
• And let us consider one another in orderto
  stir up love and good works, 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.
  Hebrews 1024,25

4
Realizing Our Debt

• We owe Him a lifelong debt.
• We owe Him our lives
• For the love of Christ compels us, because
  we judge thus that if One died for all, then all
  died and He died for all, that those who live
  should live no longer for themselves, but for Him
  who died for them and rose again. 2
  Corinthians 514,15

5
Realizing Our Debt

• Each of us owes Him a lifelong debt.
• Each person owes Him his body as a living
  sacrifice.

• I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
  mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
  living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
  is your reasonable service. Romans 121

6
Offering Our Lives

• In the local church (1 Peter 25)
• The church is clearly described as the realm
  wherein we glorify God.

• Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly
  abundantly above all that we ask or think,
  according to the power that works in us, to Him
  be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all
  generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians
  320,21

7
Offering Our Lives

• Therefore, we ought to seek local church
  membership.
• Working together collectively.

• And they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
  doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of
  bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every
  soul, and many wonders and signs were done
  through the apostles. Now all who believed were
  together, and had all things in common. Acts
  242-44

8
Offering Our Lives

• Therefore, we ought to seek local-church
  membership.
• Paul tried to join the disciples.

• And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to
  join the disciples but they were all afraid of
  him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.
  But Barnabas took him and brought him to the
  apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen
  the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to
  him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus
  in the name of Jesus.
  Acts 926,27

9
Offering Our Lives

• Therefore, we ought to seek local-church
  membership.
• Paul and Barnabas in Antioch.

• Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
  And when he had found him, he brought him to
  Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they
  assembled with the church and taught a great many
  people. And the disciples were first called
  Christians in Antioch. Acts
  1125,26

10
Our Time

• The present timeTODAY
• We dont know about tomorrow, and yesterday is
  gone.

• Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we
  will go to such and such a city, spend a year
  there, buy and sell, and make a profit whereas,
  you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For
  what is your life? It is even a vapor that
  appears for a little time and then vanishes
  away. James 413,14

11
Our Time

• To assemble with the saints
• Looking out for one another

• But exhort one another daily, while it is called
  today, lest any of you be hardened through the
  deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews
  313

12
Our Time

• To study Gods word
• To contribute to the teaching

• For though by this time you ought to be
  teachers, you need someone to teach you again the
  first principles of the oracles of God and you
  have come to need milk and not solid food.
  Hebrews 512

13
Our Time

• To study Gods word
• To grow spiritually

• But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
  and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both
  now and forever. Amen. 2 Peter
  318

14
Our Time

• To study Gods word
• To rightly divide the word

• Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,
  a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly
  dividing the word of truth.
  2 Timothy 215

15
Our Time

• To encourage, edify, and restore brethren
• Help bear one anothers burdens.

• Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass,
  you who are spiritual restore such a one in a
  spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest
  you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens,
  and so fulfill the law of Christ.
  Galatians 61,2

16
My Cooperation

• Striving together
• Seeking unity

• Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of
  our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
  same thing, and that there be no divisions among
  you, but that you be perfectly joined together in
  the same mind and in the same judgment.
  1 Corinthians 110

17
My Cooperation

• Striving together
• Sacrificing my preferences

• Therefore let us pursue the things which make
  for peace and the things by which one may edify
  another. Romans 1419

18
My Cooperation

• Striving together
• Controlling my tongue

• Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth,
  but what is good for necessary edification, that
  it may impart grace to the hearers.
  Ephesians 429

19
My Cooperation

• But we command you, brethren, in the name of our
  Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every
  brother who walks disorderly and not according to
  the tradition which he received from us.
  2 Thessalonians 36

• Striving together
• Discipline

20
My Money

• As a faithful steward
• All things belong to God.
• I use what He has provided to honor and glorify
  Him.

• Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to
  the LORD your God, also the earth with all that
  is in it.
  Deuteronomy 1014

21
My Money

• As God has prospered me
• My giving should be reflective of my income or
  prosperity.

• Now concerning the collection for the saints, as
  I have given orders to the churches of Galatia,
  so you must also do. On the first day of the week
  let each one of you lay something aside, storing
  up as he may prosper, that there be no
  collections when I come.
  1 Corinthians 161,2

22
My Money

• As God has prospered me
• According to what I have, not what I dont have.

• For if there is first a willing mind, it is
  accepted according to what one has, and not
  according to what he does not have. 2
  Corinthians 812

23
My Money

• No, but I will surely buy it from you for a
  price nor will I offer burnt offerings to the
  LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So
  David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for
  fifty shekels of silver. 2 Samuel 2424

• As God has prospered me
• Giving should cost me something.

24
My Money

• According to my love for God
• Personal choice.

• I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the
  sincerity of your love by the diligence of
  others. 2 Corinthians 88

25
Concluding Thoughts

• Are you paying your personal debts to this local
  church?
• What will you do if you fall behind in your
  payments?

• And if one member suffers, all the members
  suffer with it or if one member is honored, all
  the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body
  of Christ, and members individually. 1
  Corinthians 1226,27