Discipleship Week 1 • Membership

Show Notes

Sunday, August 7th • Beau Bradberry

"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." — Hebrews 13:17

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Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

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Thanks for listening.

Hey, good morning.

Glad that you guys are with us.

If you've got your Bibles with you today, open them up to Hebrews chapter 13.

We are going to look at one verse today as our main verse, verse 17.

If you don't have a Bible, I've gotten away from saying this, and I don't know why.

If you don't have a Bible, or you have a Bible that's in a different translation than what

we have and what we use, which is typically the ESV, but we have free Bibles available

at the back of the church.

And so if you want to grab one of those after the service is over with, we would love to give

you a copy of God's Word.

You can grab one, keep it.

It is yours.

A couple of things, one for today, and then two for the future.

We will be taking the Lord's Supper today at the very end of the service.

And so we had our wonderful greeting team out there making sure that you had these, but

if you somehow missed them as you got by, or you were just beelined straight for the coffee,

and you walked past the Lord's Supper elements, you can go back and pick those up.

They're at the very back of the auditorium.

I promise it's fine to get up and move around, do what you need to do.

Announcements for the future.

I want to remind you, our family mission trip, September 2nd to the 5th to Black Mountains

Children's Home.

The cost is $30 per family member, and you can pick up one of the applications back in

the back, or registration forms, not applications, we're not denying you, registration forms back

in the back.

I do want to say this, our space is somewhat limited, all right?

We have plenty of space for what we think, but the space is somewhat limited.

So what we would like to prevent, if at all possible, is the last minute registration.

So if you could go back and pick one of those up, fill those out, you can give that to me,

you can give it to Joel Van Ham, you can give it to Don Coulter as we are leading this together.

So we'd love to have you guys join us as we serve together as a church.

And then lastly, next Sunday, all right, kids, y'all are excited about school, right?

We got our students in here.

Y'all are just ready, right?

No, you're not.

All right, teachers, even less, right?

But for all of the regulars of us who are ready to get back in the routine of life, school's

starting back, and what we've been doing together as that as a church for the last several years

is we've been gathering back together, coming out of summer break to do some different

things as a church family.

And so on this card, you see we have our fall schedule that's available.

Those aren't on the seats around you this week, but there are some extra copies at the

table as you leave, so grab one of those.

And next week, we're going to come together here on our campus and just have a picnic time

together.

Don't worry, we are going to eat inside together, but there'll be things outside for kids and

for families for us to do.

And if nothing else, just a wonderful time of fellowship as we draw back together and get

ready for our fall season.

Well, what we are beginning today is a five-week series on discipleship.

And where we've done this, this has kind of been another pattern that we've gone into in

our fall season the last several years of looking at discipleship and talking about it.

And we're going to look at a lot of different areas with discipleship.

But how we're going to start this off this year is by looking at church membership.

So this is going to be an important piece during the course of the service.

You'll see there's this white card that there are several of them.

I think at least three on each one of the rows throughout the auditorium.

And you're going to want to look at this over the course of the service.

And then toward the end, there's going to be a piece that we can respond with that.

And we'll go all over these things.

So make sure that you have this as we talk about church membership together.

Now, as we get going, I want to lay all the cards out on the table about church membership.

All right?

Because what we have, the beauty of where we live, the beauty of how God is working and

moving is, is we have a lot of churches, right?

Right down the road, there's Kitty Wake.

Right down the road, there's Lexington Baptist.

All scattered, all around us are different churches, similar denominations, different denominations.

There's some churches that you walk in and there's, it's more formal, right?

More people have shirts and ties and dresses on than, than, than we do, right?

There, there's, there's, there's a choir that's there.

There's, there, there, there's just different things that, that they have.

There's churches who are, who are maybe even less formal than, than we are that are gathered

in our community where, where maybe the pastor's wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Sunday morning.

And, and what we have is a diversity of churches.

We have a diversity of worship styles.

We have a diversity of denominations.

And I would argue, even though that, that I am the way that I am and serving in the context

that I serve in, in the denomination that I serve in, I think there's a lot of beauty

with that.

And with the variety of churches becomes a variety of expectation and even a variety of

practice of church membership.

So you will find, as we talk about membership today, it may be different than what you're

used to.

You may become from a church or church background where membership's never discussed and they

don't care and it's, it's whoever we get on a weekend and week out basis.

And, and that's what we do all the way to another extreme where you'll get a church that

says, no, it all begins and funnels through within the context of membership of who we are.

So unless you're a member here, you can worship with us, but we're going to pause the brakes.

We're going to pump the brakes.

We're going to pause the relationship with you on anything beyond that.

It's like in a little while, we're going to take Lord's Supper together.

And I'll go ahead and say this.

If you're a part of another church, we invite you to partake in the Lord's Supper together

with us at the end of our service.

You may be a part of a different denomination, but if you've put your faith, hope, trust in

Jesus Christ and he is your Lord and Savior, and it is by grace through faith in which you

are saved, not through your own works.

And we invite you to partake within that with us together because we believe, right, we may

find some areas that we are different and some areas where we're going to disagree and maybe

some areas where very politely we could argue with each other.

All right.

But we find that we're brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so we want to partake in that together.

All right.

But you'll find other churches that fall harder on that line in areas like Lord's Supper,

in areas like going on mission trips, in areas of different parts in the body of Christ within

them.

And so what we're going to look at today, I'm going to acknowledge we may come from different

experiences.

I came from a much different experience than what we have here.

But as we as leadership process through and over the history of Willow Ridge Church, right,

this isn't something that's happened as I sat behind my desk this week, but this is what

we, who we are as the body, as Willow Ridge Church, as this part of the Bride of Christ.

All right.

But there's another piece of the cards.

Not only are there churches who are different, but I would be willing to bet that gathered within

here this morning, there's various groups of people who are in here with different views

concerning church membership.

All right.

There, we, we're going to differ in here and it's largely going to be based on your former

experiences or where you've come from.

And as I thought about these this week, I looked at my own life and I thought, you know, there's

probably three types of people who were gathered in here today, which, which makes it beautiful

that we're in here together and their view on church membership.

The first one would be someone who says, yeah, like church membership is important and we

are church members of Willow Ridge Church.

And we're kind of surprised that, that others aren't as passionate and as dedicated to, to

the thought, the concept, the, the idea of, of church membership as we are.

So you'd probably fall.

I'll be honest with you, I'm 43 years old, been, been doing this for, for a pretty long

time, right?

That's probably where I am.

I love church membership.

I love knowing that this is the body that I belong to and that you and I have that special

covenant relationship together, right?

So that's one group of people.

But there's, there's another, right?

Another group that may be due to former circumstances that, that you're not necessarily against it.

Like you're not like throwing, you know, uh, throwing things at me right now because I'm

talking about this, but maybe within your, within your spirit right now, there's a little

bit of, of unsettling as we think about church membership.

And you're like, Hey man, church membership is cool.

That's good.

Um, that's for you.

It's not really for us.

That's not where we are.

You know, we just want to come here.

We want to worship, we want to give, we want to participate.

But as far as like formally engaging and connecting ourselves, right?

With, with Willow Ridge or with a specific church, that's not for us.

We're, we're not going to do that.

Now I want to be honest with you.

That was me for a long time.

It's me for a long time.

And not just me before I got into ministry.

I went through a season in my life where that was me.

As a pastor, as someone serving in ministry.

And so, so maybe that's you.

And then I think there's probably a third group.

And this third group is probably most people.

Most people on, on, on any given Sunday in our congregation that, that the thought is, well,

you know, I'm, I'm a member or I'm not a member, but I haven't really ever thought about it.

I don't spend much time thinking about church membership.

Maybe you're new to church or you've been to churches where this hasn't been discussed or made a big deal.

And so it's just something within your brain.

You're like, this, this just isn't something that that's crossed through my mind.

Something that I put a lot of depth into.

And so what I want us to do today is recognize that there are good brothers and sisters in Christ who fall into these lines of thought, right?

Super pro church membership and everything should funnel and go through that.

And we're passionate about it to, to kind of anti, right?

Anti establishment a little bit within there of like, no, that's not what I want to commit myself to.

And then somebody's probably in the middle.

I'm like, I hadn't really ever thought about it.

Like it just doesn't ever cross my mind.

And what I want to look at this morning is what I believe the Bible teaches us about church membership.

And then specifically that we as leaders, what are we saying that it means to be a member of Willow Ridge Church?

Because maybe your past experience is defining for you of what it means to join, of what it means to align yourself, to become a member.

But as we look at this this morning, you're like, okay, well, that resonates well with me.

Now, here's the thing when it comes to church membership is that, and I wish there was, it would make this message a whole lot easier for me this morning, right?

There's not the passage of scripture that we can turn to that says, and join a church, thus says the Lord, right?

We can't find that.

Google church membership and you're not going to find the passage of scripture that says this.

But what I would also plead with you and say, if that's where your mind's going, because that's where my mind went for so long.

The Bible doesn't say it.

The Bible doesn't say church member.

So we don't have to worry about that.

Is that nowhere in the Bible also is the word Trinity.

But we take from scripture and understand from scripture the doctrine of the Trinity, where we believe there is one God who exists eternally as three distinct persons.

God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Spirit.

So within this, what we acknowledge within scripture is what we study are that there are truths that come from this that we're called to look at and wrestle with and draw from that.

And I believe as we look at this, right, while there's not the passage of scripture that says yes, and you join a church, church membership is not used in scripture, that we can look at different passages and draw from that and begin to see.

There were some that we were going to talk about this morning, but we're running out of time as different ones like Romans chapter 12, where it talks about the believers are one body together.

And as Paul writes that to the church at Rome, he's addressing this to them.

And then within there, but you're like, okay, well, he's talking about the body as a whole.

But the words that he uses in the context of Romans 12 are words like one another, right?

Not they who were far off, but within the context of the local body of the bride of Christ.

And we see this throughout scripture.

But I believe Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17 will help us and what we want to look at with this this morning.

And so I'm going to read the whole verse, and then we're going to come back and break it down in four different sections and look at church membership.

So the writer of Hebrews says this,

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage.

And so what I want us to look at in this one verse is why church membership, why membership matters.

All right, so let's start off, let's look at the first part of that.

Obey your leaders and submit to them.

So the writer of Hebrews begins this by saying within the context of the church setting, there are leaders.

All right, and we're going to talk about these leaders.

We can look throughout scripture, what we see in the New Testament within the church, the leaders of the church, referred to as pastors, elders, overseers, right?

It's what we find in scripture is those who this has been entrusted with, the gospel entrusted with.

And whenever you see pastor, elder, and overseer within scripture, there carries some similarity and some commonality between the titles and the roles and the responsibilities of there.

Okay, so obey your leaders, this isn't necessarily just talking about those who are far away.

It's not talking about church leaders that like in a denominational setting, but it's in the context of your church.

Obey your leaders and submit to them.

And submit to them.

So the first thing that I want us to see is that membership matters as you declare who your leaders are.

Membership matters as you declare who your leaders are.

So God gives us this model of church, and he gave us the leadership model.

We didn't sit down and think, what's the best way to do this?

We didn't go and sit down with Apple or Amazon or IBM or whoever and say, what is the best leadership model that we can draw from culture?

No, the leadership model in which we see of what we're to do is drawn in and found from scripture.

So God gives us this leadership model, and then what God does is he places on these leaders a calling to lead, right?

That's what leaders are.

Leaders are supposed to lead.

And then Jesus, within the context of this, well, what are we to lead to?

Where are we going?

What are we mainstreaming?

What are we headed toward?

And it goes all the way back to the Great Commission.

The process of what Jesus is calling the church to do is what Jesus has called us as individuals to do.

So in Matthew 28, when he gives us the Great Commission, the Great Commission we all know.

If I were to ask you, what is the thing that comes from the Great Commission?

We all begin with, and it's so important in that very first part, right?

And we get that.

We are to go.

We are to go.

And so we do that.

We've been going this summer.

We're challenging you to go.

We hope with this that families can begin to build the importance within the dynamic of who they are as they lead their kids to go.

And so we're doing this.

We're doing this.

We go.

And so Matthew 28 tells us to go, but we have to go with an end in mind.

We have to go with a goal.

And Jesus says that the goal is to make disciples, right?

Make disciples.

And then he gives us, because he's kind and he's gracious of who he is, he doesn't just say, and then go figure out what that looks like or what that means.

But he tells us what it means to do that.

He says you were to go and you were to baptize them, right?

So this is to be for believers.

And then you're to teach them to obey.

Teach them to obey Jesus' words.

All that I, Jesus, has commanded you, the believers that he gives the task to.

So this is very important as we read this.

And if within your spirit, within your being, there's a person of you who's like, man, I don't know about this whole following thing, right?

Because I've got to obey someone.

And I've got to obey someone who may be just as jacked up, messed up, flawed, have all their issues, all the things that they've got to work through.

I'm following an imperfect leader, right?

Amen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But Jesus says, here's who we're to obey.

We're to obey Jesus.

We're to obey Jesus.

You know, the difference between, there's lots of differences, but the difference between Christianity and the cult is who are we looking at?

Like, we're not here to obey me, right?

We're here to obey Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

So that's, so my responsibility to you is not to share with you what I want.

It's not to share with you what I think.

But my responsibility is to share with you what God says so that we, you and me, in this together, arm's length, getting dirty together, can obey him.

And that's what we want to say so that we want to obey him.

And this is my responsibility, right?

A few verses back in Hebrews 13, 7, it says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their faith, right?

The burden that we have.

Remember your leaders.

Hold them accountable.

Those who spoke to you the word of God.

And then I love this.

Consider the outcome of their way of life.

Here's what that means.

You watch me.

The burden, the beautiful burden of what I get to carry, the beautiful burden of what Dave gets to carry, of what Berger gets to carry, of what Joel gets to carry, what Dawn gets to carry, what our elders get to carry, right?

It's this burden of what the word of God says.

Look and examine it.

Examine it.

And then, and then, imitate their faith.

Imitate their faith.

So what this is, is accountability.

What this is, is the beauty of this.

Like, it's not our job to manipulate.

It's not our job to control.

It is our job, as your leaders, to understand God's word, apply that to our life, teach that, and then be representatives of that.

Right?

It's why, just on a side note, really, really quickly, if you teach God's word, put time into it.

Five minutes before the lesson is supposed to start, don't open your Bible or open your material.

Take the time to walk through, to examine within your own life, to see what the word of God needs to teach you and work out in you through the spirit of the Lord as he leads,

so that those who you teach can observe that in you, and then they can imitate your faith.

Right?

And so the Bible calls you and I to be led.

The Bible calls you and I to obey.

The Bible calls you and I to submit.

Right?

But I've fought against this in my life.

I don't know if you have, but we've talked about this before.

We've got some of you, my wife's one.

Right?

You're just rule followers.

Right?

Y'all know those people?

Right?

Maybe you are one.

You're rule followers.

And then those of us are bent sinfully in another direction and like, yeah, we're not.

You know?

Like, our favorite question is usually why.

Right?

Well, why do I have to do that?

Why do I have to do that?

Why do I have to do that?

And you're there.

And that was me for so long.

And still, it's what the Lord's working in my life.

Right?

So much.

But I find within this, there's one of two things that causes us as a people to, even as believers, even as believers, there's one of two things that cause us to resist obedience of the word of God and submission to it.

The first thing that I notice, and this is what I suffered from and suffered from in so many areas of my life still, is pride.

It's pride.

It's sin.

It's no one is going to tell me what to do.

That's against the gospel.

It's against it.

It's pride.

It's that I know more.

It's that I'm not teachable.

It's that I'm not able to be molded and shaped more.

Right?

I praise the Lord that there are men and women in my life who see things about me, speak that into my life.

And I'm not talking about just the good things, but about the junk and the mess, and they speak it, and the beautiful opportunity I have to respond to that.

So pride can prevent this.

But the other thing, and I want to be sensitive to this as well, is the other thing that causes you to resist this obey and submit is hurt.

It's hurt.

I'm not foolish enough to believe that there's not a group of people, maybe a large group of people in here.

And your resistance to church leadership specifically is because in past circumstances, leadership has been used to manipulate you and to hurt you and to abuse you.

So many have walked that path.

And I want to say that if that is you, there's so much grace for you.

But what we would love to do is walking you through that so that you can find freedom and forgiveness in where you've gone.

So first, we look at leadership, membership matters as you declare who your leaders are.

Number two.

Let's keep reading the second part of the verse.

For they are keeping watch over your souls.

Number two.

Membership matters as the flock is defined.

So this is the calling that God has placed on all those who find themselves in the biblical leadership position.

The pastor, the elders, the overseers.

This is what we're responsible for.

That we are responsible for keeping watch over your souls.

So the question comes, the reason why membership matters for me is this.

Who am I responsible for?

Right?

Years ago, I was a youth pastor.

And I just praise the Lord that I got through a lot of difficult seasons of me being a bonehead as a youth pastor.

And we had open gym night.

We had open gym night on Sunday nights after church was over with.

And we'd play basketball for several hours.

This was before Aaron and I had kids.

And we'd stay up to like midnight during the summers just playing ball, playing ball, playing ball.

And it kind of grew to where a lot of kids were coming and not necessarily playing basketball.

They were doing other stuff in and around the church.

Nothing bad, nothing terrible.

We had pool tables, all that kind of stuff.

And I, as the leader, did an extremely poor job of making sure we had enough adults there.

Right?

Like I said, I wasn't a dad.

I didn't have kids.

Right?

God had to teach me a lot of things in that.

It was phenomenal to see in my life the moment I had a newborn son and a newborn daughter.

The desire in my life to raise the amount of chaperones that constantly existed.

Right?

Right?

Like we're doing a hard enough time keeping our eyes on these two.

We need more people.

All right?

And so we were there and I had an intern who was there with me.

He actually pastors Lake Murray Baptist Church now.

His name's David Sons.

And he was interning for me.

And he came up to me.

He's like, man, we've had an accident.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

We've had an accident.

He said, Jimmy broke his nose.

Now, I'm playing basketball.

And ain't nobody broke their nose on the basketball court, number one.

And number two, I have no clue who Jimmy is.

None whatsoever.

And he said, I said, okay, we can handle this, right?

Let's call his mom.

The hospital's right across.

He's like, well, man, I just found out that Jimmy's nose is broke because Jimmy's mom's here.

I was like, okay.

All right.

And at that moment, right, I didn't know Jimmy was there.

I was playing basketball, not engaged.

I'm completely 100% at fault.

And we begin the walk out to the parking lot of this.

We're about to get yelled at, right?

Like that's what's going to happen.

And that's what happened.

And her first words out of her mouth were, I'll never forget this, who's responsible?

And in that moment, I wanted to promote David to my position.

He is, ma'am.

You know, we just hired him.

I just voted 1-0.

He's got it, right?

Right?

She wouldn't know who's responsible.

Membership matters as the flock is defined because within this battle of what we walk through as pastors is,

I'll be honest with you, I just want to know who I'm responsible for.

I want to know who I'm responsible for.

And what membership does is it defines the flock.

You've identified, you've chosen us, and now we are tasked with keeping watch over your soul is what Scripture tells us, right?

Now, ultimately, what we're concerned about, right, is more than just your day-to-day of things.

We're concerned with your soul, your eternity, your growth, your obedience to the Lord, right?

There's concern.

Well, you could argue and say, well, would we not care about other believers?

Do you not care about so-and-so that lives down the road?

Do you not care about so-and-so that lives on the other side of the world?

Do you not care about these other individuals?

And the answer to that is absolutely yes, yes, I do care.

But when I look at what Scripture teaches me, what I've been entrusted with is the flock.

Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 5.

He says, verse 1,

So I exhort the elders among you, among you, as a congregation, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,

as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Verse 2, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly,

as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge,

but being examples to the flock.

So Peter lays this out, do we care about others?

Yes, we care about others, but who are we responsible for?

We're responsible for those who've been entrusted to us, that which is among you.

This past week, I believe it was Thursday, and it was Wednesday morning,

sitting down at Starbucks and kind of going through some stuff for my message that morning,

and a pastor, a friend of mine, ironically David Sons, who used to be an intern,

he comes walking in, and he sat down, and we began to talk,

and we began to talk about what he's preaching about on Sunday morning,

and what I'm preaching about on Sunday morning,

and we began to talk through some things that we're going through,

and some things that we're facing,

and what you got in that moment sitting at that table,

and it was beautiful, was two pastors with the concern of the flock that God's entrusted them with.

Yes, I care about what's happening at his church,

but what I'm responsible for here.

And let's keep on in the third part,

because this is where the weight begins to be felt.

As those who will give, as those who will have to give an account.

So we as leaders are given the responsibility to watch over souls that we will be given,

that we will be held accountable for.

So membership matters as leadership is held accountable.

Accountable is one of the beautiful words of Scripture.

It's what Jesus does with us.

We are to be held accountable for that which is entrusted with us.

We do not have the time this morning to look at all of the different areas,

but Jesus consistently preaches about this and uses this as illustrations in parables and teachings.

As he talks about, you and I will give an account of what we talk about.

So we, just a handful, gather together as believers, right?

That we've been given and entrusted with the gospel, right?

You will be held accountable for what you do with that.

So we ask our question, do we share it like we should?

We're entrusted with the gifts that God has given us,

and we will be held accountable for them.

Do we use them to glorify God?

We have been given and entrusted with the knowledge and with our salvation.

And so do we, because we'll be held accountable for that, do we seek to grow in obedience so you and I will be held accountable for the Lord.

In Romans 14, Paul writes about this.

And he says,

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or you?

Why do you not despise your brother?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For it is written,

As I live, says the Lord,

every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

And what the writer of Hebrews says is that not only will we give an account of ourselves,

but we as leaders, pastors, elders, overseers,

will be held accountable for you.

Now grace covers it.

I want you to understand that and hear that.

Grace covers it.

We are found in Christ.

We are eternally set and secure.

Grace covers it all.

But before God,

I will give an account for how I teach the scripture

and how I shepherd the flock that God has entrusted me with.

And that matters to me.

That matters to me.

I met with my men's group.

We meet on Thursdays for lunch and Bible study and prayer request time came around

and a lot of things that are going on.

And I just said,

this is this peace that's just keeping me up at night.

The more that I wrestle,

the more that I walk through,

the more that I understand this beautiful calling of what God has for me,

I need to know that I'm held accountable.

All right.

The fourth,

and then we'll move on and talk about us here.

All right.

It says this in Hebrews 13,

the last part of verse 17,

let them leadership do this with joy and not with groaning.

For that would be of no advantage to you.

Right.

And membership matters as we seek to grow one another.

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5 11,

therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

Paul says in Philippians 2,

the challenge to the church there,

make my joy complete is what he says.

And then he begins to lift out what this begins to look like in maturity in Christ.

Right.

Thursday was a tough dad emotional day for me.

I took my kids to high school and I walked in and they never said it.

But I felt it.

Right.

Dad.

Leave.

You know.

Just leave.

And so I went and I paid for everything.

And I wanted to be around for that.

That's the good part.

Right.

And then they they they they they they scattered.

Right.

And and that's.

And then I watched them because I didn't leave right away.

And I was the creepy dad that kind of lingered a little bit.

And then I came back before I told them that I was going to come back to watch where they were and what they were doing.

And I'm getting there, people.

I'm getting there.

But pray for me.

It's tough.

I got a daughter.

Right.

And so but what warmed my heart was when I got back, they had done what they were supposed to do.

They had they were supposed to do these things.

They had done them.

They were there.

They were excited.

And believe it or not, when I came back, there was no more money for me to give.

But they were glad that I was there with them.

Right.

Or at least they pretended and made me feel that way.

So, Emma, if that's not the case, don't tell me.

All right.

But they were they were glad.

And here's what I saw.

Here's where my heart went from being difficult day to like this is a good day.

Right.

Because they they made my joy complete because they were doing what they're supposed to do as they're growing up to be the man and woman of God that God's called them to.

Right.

Made my joy complete.

And so when we when we see this, where am I?

Where am I going with this?

Like as we see you grow.

And as we see membership as being a part of this body and we see men and women of faith take steps of obedience, we celebrate all that God's doing as you're going and as you're working.

And so all that we ask you to do right in this is to grow, to believe what God's word tells us and use it for growth in a way that's going to benefit the entire body.

So, so grab this grab this piece of paper that we have for you.

So what we have here is we have our Willow Ridge Church membership covenant.

Now, what Pastor Dave does, Pastor Dave teaches a class that goes through this for membership.

It teaches it, I believe, Dave, you teach this every quarter at least within our church.

And then you've even done one-on-ones with people that can't make it, right?

But what we wanted to do in this morning was kind of shrink this down a little bit and kind of walk through some of this.

And so if you go ahead and jump down to the bottom where you see today, here's what we're kind of looking at to do.

We're going to ask that maybe, maybe the Lord's leading you to respond this morning, all right?

And there's different ways that you can respond.

You can respond that first one, RC, I'm recommitting to my membership covenant as a member of Willow Ridge Church.

So I'll just give you a heads up.

That's what the Bradberries are filling out, right?

I know I'm the pastor, but I'm a member.

And what we're doing today is we are recommitting to our membership covenant as members of Willow Ridge Church, right?

There's the next one that's down in the SF.

I want to join Willow Ridge Church by statement of faith.

I've accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord and have been baptized by immersion.

And so you're saying that you're declaring that you'd like to join Willow Ridge Church.

The next one down, the FB, I want to join Willow Ridge Church by faith and baptism.

I want to confess Christ as my Savior and Lord, and I want to be immersed in baptism.

And so that's the next part that you can join.

So you were not a believer, a professing believer, but today you profess that.

B, down there at the bottom is baptism.

I want to join Willow Ridge Church by baptism.

I've accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I want to be baptized.

And so those are those four, but then there's lastly, because we're at a spot where we just want to be here and guide and direct.

You see that there's the cue there on the bottom, and it says, I have more questions before I make my decision.

If that's you this morning, that's okay.

That's okay.

What we're going to ask, and maybe you're not at a spot right now where any of these apply to you.

All right?

That's okay, too.

That's okay.

This isn't my heart in this message this morning.

It's not a membership drive, but my heart in this this morning is for us to walk through and understand why membership matters,

and what we're going to look at quickly is what you're committing to within this.

And maybe this doesn't apply to you.

But if it does, if you flip over on the back, you'll see we have the different persons of your family that's there.

So, for instance, the Bradberries, I will fill out for all four of us, and I will check the RC box for all of us.

And so please do that for us today if this is how the Lord's leading you to.

But what are you committing to?

We said there's different churches.

Different churches view this differently.

What are you committing to?

And so, as you'll see, there's the four bullets on the top, and I'll go through those really quickly.

The Willow Ridge Church membership.

Number one, I will protect the unity.

I will protect the unity of Willow Ridge Church by acting in love toward other members,

by refusing to gossip and following the leadership of my pastors, staff, and leaders.

I will protect the unity.

All right?

Number one within this, it's very clear from Scripture, reputation matters.

Reputation matters.

Who we are as the body of Christ and what people think and know of us matters as we seek to live to glorify God.

And we ask you to join us in the fight for unity within that.

We are the bride of Christ, and we're called to reflect that.

And so you fight for that with us, and we are called to be a people of unity, not division.

It's what we looked at in our study of 1 Corinthians.

So I will protect, number one, the unity of our church.

Number two, I will share the responsibility.

So I will share the responsibility of Willow Ridge Church by praying for its growth,

by sharing the gospel with people far from God, by engaging in discipleship,

by inviting people far from God to attend, and by giving my tithes regularly.

So just within there, like it's, we share in this.

Just like I hope your family is balanced in your home,

and that within there for all of the people who live in your home,

there's a shared ownership of that home that's there, right?

We're all given with specific responsibilities to do,

and the beauty of this is some are the same, and some are different.

Some are different.

But what we're asking for in the sharing of the responsibility is,

number one, we ask that you pray.

We ask that you pray for us, that you pray for this church,

and that you pray for each other.

Number two, by committing to share the responsibility,

you commit to share the gospel.

God calls all of us as believers, and we hold ourselves accountable for that,

that when God presents you and opens the opportunity to,

you share the gospel with those who don't know it.

Number three, you engage in discipleship for yourself and for others,

that we recognize that God calls all of us to grow in our relationship with him,

to mature in our relationship with him,

and that we are held accountable as we help one another grow.

Number four, that you invite others.

You invite others.

It's not that we want to promote the name of Willow Ridge,

but we want to promote the name of Jesus,

and the best way and the best opportunity we have to do that

is in the gathering of others.

And so you invite others.

And then lastly, how do you share the responsibility?

You bring your tithes and your offerings.

We looked at this last week, right?

God commands us to.

I'll say this.

I'll continue to say this.

I know how much one family at Willow Ridge Church gives.

My family.

That's it.

I don't know how much any other family here gives.

I don't want to know how much any other family gives.

That's for the burden and the responsibility of Joel as he works through that in our finances.

But here's what I want to say to you.

Here's what I want to say to you.

If you don't give, the Bible gives us a tithe, 10%.

We can look at tithe and offerings to grow and move from there.

God has it.

All right?

I'm not worried about that.

This isn't a message of how to give so that we can get more.

What it is is an opportunity so that you can give,

so that you can live in and experience the blessing of God that comes from a faithful giver.

And you only know what that looks like,

and you only know what that feels like when you begin to give.

And if you say, I can't, I can't,

here's what I would plead with your heart this morning.

Right?

There were so many times of what we see in Scripture

where the people of God stand at a moment and they say,

there's no way I can do this.

And God says, I can, you just got to trust me.

I can, you just got to trust me.

And there's so many areas in our life that that's hard to see.

But God is so good as he blesses those who give.

The third one that we see on here is I will serve God and others.

The card says, I will serve God through ministries of my church,

by discovering my personal spiritual gifts,

by being equipped to serve,

and by warmly welcoming those who visit.

I will serve God and others.

We want you to serve in your church by using your gifts.

This is the different part here, right?

We want you to serve in how God has gifted you in the context of the body here.

And us as leaders, if you say, I don't know what my gifts are,

I don't know where I'm supposed to serve,

it is our job as leaders to find places for each and every one of you to serve.

That's what we're tasked with.

And so I would challenge you to use this place as an opportunity

to serve God, serve others, and use your gifts.

And then lastly, number four, I will support the testimony.

The card says, I will support the testimony of Willow Ridge Church

by attending faithfully and by living out my faith every day.

Here's what I call this.

I call this the gather, and I call this the scatter.

We'll close by talking about this real quick.

Hebrews 10.25, right of Hebrews says, tells us,

gives us a command to not neglect the gathering together, right?

About two and a half years ago, COVID crept into our world and scattered us.

But the truth is, COVID didn't start a system of scattering us on Sundays.

Life, sin, and choices.

From the very beginning, if the writer of Hebrews had to address it,

we know that it was an issue then and an issue today.

Created a culture where it says that this isn't as high a value as everything else.

But the writer of Hebrews says, no, no, no, no, no, you need to gather.

Do not neglect the gathering together.

I love the fact that right now there's a group of people joining us online.

I love the fact that they can be with us in the teaching of God's word.

But I'm going to say this.

It ain't the same.

It ain't the same.

You don't believe me?

You don't believe me?

Next Thanksgiving, get you a microwave TV dinner.

Heat it up and Zoom to your mama's house.

All right?

It ain't the same.

It ain't the same.

God called us and created us to be gathered in together.

To grow.

There's four people this morning.

Four people.

That in conversations, as they walked up to me,

encouraged me and increased the joy in my heart by the story that they told me.

Do you know where that doesn't happen?

That doesn't happen if I'm on my couch.

Doesn't.

It can't.

Because we're created and called to be together.

So that we can scatter.

We can scatter.

Go.

Go.

Go.

and go share and go live for the glory of God

so that we can gather back together

and celebrate all that God's done.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, I thank you so much for who you are, Lord,

and the joy of what it means to pastor this church.

Lord, I thank you for the men and women and children

that are here.

Lord, I thank you for the journeys of where they're at

and where they're on, Lord, and what they're doing.

Lord, I want to thank you

that right now we have people who showed up this morning

who were members.

I want to thank you that right now we have people

who showed up and they're kind of anti-against membership.

And there's some people that just haven't thought about it.

But today, Lord, that there's a wrestling within our spirit

for those of us who membership matters

to really seek and to evaluate.

Are we fulfilling what we've agreed to?

Is our word our word?

Are we protecting the unity?

Are we sharing the responsibility?

Are we serving God and others through our congregation?

Are we supporting the testimony of the church?

Lord, it's a gut check and a reality check for me as well.

Is this who I am?

Is this what I'm doing?

Lord, for those of us who are not members,

Lord, for the men and women and families

who you are calling to join our church,

Lord, I pray that they will.

And for those, Lord, who you are leading

to another congregation,

Lord, I excitingly see them go,

Lord, and know how you're going to use them

for your name and for your glory

in that local congregation.

And Lord, for people, we just need to have a conversation.

We need to talk with them.

We need to pray with them.

We need to encourage them.

Lord, I pray that we'll be willing

and be faithful to do that.

Lord, as we get ready to take part

in the Lord's Supper in here,

just a moment together.

Lord, I thank you

for the sacrifice that you made

that is seen and made evident, Lord,

through a body of believers

who were broken and sinful,

but yet redeemed

by the blood of Christ.

Lord, we celebrate you.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening

to the Willow Ridge Church Weekly Podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed listening

to this week's message.

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