You Need To Be The Church – Sermon Series Part 2 of 4

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being here. Today we are continuing on a sermon series about how it is important to follow Jesus, not man-made or human-made rules and religions.

Now, of course, religion is very important in today’s world and society. I am not saying religion is bad, but saying it is very very critical that you make sure that you are following what Jesus says, not some type of worldly or earthly traditions.

If you have not seen last week’s message, check it out in a card here. There will be a playlist with this entire sermon series in it, so navigate to the YouTube channel to check that out. Of course, if this is your first time visiting, I hope that you take advantage of the links in the description below. Follow us on social media etc so that you can continue to be updated. In addition, if you are returning and you have not done that, please consider doing so.

Today we are talking about how it is important for you to be the church. Now what do I mean by that? Well, the church is not a place. Yes of course you go to church and we call it church and a lot of structures or buildings are created and they are called a church building or it is a certain type of church. But the thing to remember is exactly like the government, the government is not a place or a building, the government is all of us the people. So a church is the people and that it is not me saying that, that the church is all of us people. We are the church. The building is simply a place where we meet.

It is important. It is very very important, Jesus did not come here and say hey stop all religion, He said no come here and he came here and He said listen it is very very important that you guys start thinking for yourselves. That you learn how to understand and interpret the scripture. That you talk about this with other people. That you have fellowship and that you meet together. You guys are the body of Christ, you are the church and have a meeting place so that you can fellowship and grow in your faith.

That is what we have today. That is what we call church. But remember the church is the body of Christ. All of these verses will be referenced in the description below so come back later, read them in your Bible. I am going to read them to you but read before and after, get the context, study it, meditate on it, learn, form an opinion, talk about that opinion with others, and correct it as interpreted and given through the holy spirit.

Here we go, Colossians chapter 1 verse 18, ‘And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. So that in everything he might have the supremacy.’ Now of course what we are focusing on is that first part. Who is he? We are talking about Jesus here. Jesus is the head of the body, the church. So the body is the church. The body of Christ, that is us, the believers.

As a Christian you are part of the church, the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the church, His church, us as His bride. Another analogy. He is the head of the church because it is his body, it is the body of Christ. Christ is the head, it is his body, but not only are you a part of the body you are the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:27, ‘Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.’

Now what is this referring to? Well again like I said read before, get some context. Now you are the body of Christ, it means that you have become a new creation, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Now you are the body of Christ, you are a part of it, that is excellent.

What is the body of Christ? The church. You are the church. This means that everything you do, you are representing Christ. You are representing Christ. You are acting not only as yourself now but for something larger.

It is like if you work at a certain company and when you are wearing the employee uniform they say while you are in uniform you are not to do this, you are not to do that, you need to do this, you cannot go out to the clubs or you cannot be doing reckless things or sometimes they do not even want you smoking with your uniform on or drinking or doing any of that. You need to be a good representation of this company.

When you become a Christian, that is what Christ says, He says hey you now have Christ in your identity. You are a Christian, you are of Christ, you are part of the body of Christ, you are now part of the kingdom of God. You have entered into this company so to speak, you are the church.

When you are out and about in this world you need to be a good representation of that. You need to be a good representation if you are out there doing all these crazy terrible things, that is not a good representation of what a Christian is.

What is a good representation? Jesus, He was the best representation. Why was He? Because he is the one who started it all. We are to follow Jesus. Follow His example. Do what He did. How do we know what He did? It is right here, it is right here in this Book. Read it. It is right there.

What to remember? Be the church. You are the church. You are the body of Christ. What are some effective ways that you can be the church? Well number one, write this down, meet with other people. We are going to talk about this. Like I said this is a part of a sermon series. We have got a couple more after this so stay tuned for them.

But it is very very important, you have to have eyes to see and ears to hear. What does that mean? It means you have to start forming your own opinions and beliefs, read the Bible, start to understand it, and internalize it. But then do not just sit by yourself, meet with others and talk about it and learn more about it and discuss it.

A great way to do that is by commenting below. Comment, get in some discussion, some interaction. You can do that, be respectful, be polite, and remember that you could be wrong on something and so could someone else. Together you can work together to better interpret what these words really mean and a great way to do that is to have the holy spirit within you. If you do not have that, ask for it, ask God. Remember you have to be living in love and you have to have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior in order to have that as well.

Another way to be the church is to continually read the Bible, communicate with God, that is through reading the Bible and praying to Him. So communicating with God by reading the Bible and praying so that He will speak to you. He will lift words off the pages. He will.

You could read one chapter one day and the same chapter next week and you can get two different things from it. Because whatever is going on in your life, the Bible, the Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It will speak to you, remember to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Though if you are close-minded and you shut your heart, you are not going to hear, you are not going to see. You have to have open eyes, open ears, an open mind, and open heart in order to understand and interpret. You are acting not only for yourself, now you are identifying as something larger. You are the church. Remember you are important, you matter.

1 Corinthians 12:21-26, ‘Remember you are the body of Christ. The eye cannot say to the hand, I do not need you and the head cannot say to the feet, I do not need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and the parts we think are less honorable we treat with special honor, and the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty.’

‘Well our presentable parts need no special treatment, but God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.’

What does this mean? It means you are the body of Christ, you matter, you are important whether you believe it or not. Whether you have a big role or a small role, you are important and if you start suffering the rest of us suffer with you. If something good happens to you the rest of us rejoice with you. You are the body of Christ, each one of you is a part of it.

Then continue reading. ‘God has a point in the church’, what is the church? All of us, within us, within our community. ‘Within all of the people God has appointed up first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, and also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, those speaking in different kinds of tongues.’

‘Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.’

What does this mean? It means we are all part of the same body. We may not all have the same gifts and that is great. All of those that are listed there, you may not even have one of those, but you might have something else. Not everyone can have these. We all have to work together to support one another, working together, helping each other out, making sure that we are all part of the church. We are all leading as an example.

When someone says why are you so different? Why does your life always seem to be put together? Why are you always so happy? Why do you always have a smile on your face? I feel like my life is falling apart. You say hey I am a Christian, I have Jesus. I say wow.

Most people say that they are a Christian, but I do not notice anything different about them. Well, that is sad, that is really sad. You need to be different. Take pride in that difference because that is who God created you to be. You are wearing that uniform of Christ. You are part of the body of Christ. Be a good representation so that other people want to join the body of Christ.

Let’s keep reading. Another verse, Matthew chapter 5 verse 14, this is about the salt and the light, we have talked about this before. ‘You are the salt and light of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.’ That is verse 13. We backed it up a little bit.

‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.’

You want people to see the good that you do and you do not want them to give you the glory, you want them to give glory to God. So when someone says wow you did a great job at this, I am so impressed. They are complimenting you, say yes thank you, I was given that ability from God, He gets the glory. Everything we do we need to do to glorify God.

Now that does not mean you cannot feel satisfied in your work, you have to. God wants you to. He wants you to be happy with what you do. He wants you to be satisfied in your work. He wants you to know that what you are doing is important and to feel important, to feel like you are making a difference.

Remember you are part of the church of the body of Christ. You need to be a good representation of that church and remember that the church is not a place, the church is people. The church is people, it is very very important.

If you have something going on in your life, people at your church, you should be able to ask them, talk to the church elders or the church leaders, say you need prayer, you need help, you need guidance. Your pastors, they should always be ready and willing to meet with you, to talk to you. Obviously, they are busy, but someone within the church can squeeze time in to meet with you. A lot of churches even have someone on staff that is completely designated to meeting with people, community outreach positions, or care in ministry, something like that.

In addition, you can always comment below, whatever you have going on in your life, comment below and we can help you out. We can pray for you. Number one if you need prayer, comment down below I need prayer, pray for me, something like that. You do not have to tell us what it is, we will pray for you. If you want to get more specific, send us a message, contact us, we can reach out to you, we can meet with you, we can help you as best we can.

We are all in this together. We have to start caring for each other and loving one another, putting others above ourselves, valuing others, and remember to be humble. We need to live with God in mind. It is so important as we continue this sermon series, remember we need to follow Jesus, not tradition, not man-made religion, follow Jesus.

If your church is doing things that are tradition and you do not understand why, find out why. If there is a good reason behind it from the Bible and you understand it, then great. If not, find a church that talks and preaches from the Bible, because we need to be following Jesus, following His example, being the example as well. Remember that you are the church, you are the body of Christ.

So your church when you go there and you talk to people, that should be the mentality of all of you guys, that you are the body of Christ, that you guys need to be a good representation. So if you see your fellow church person, your fellow churchgoer out doing something crazy, they are out doing something wrong, feel free to say hey is this something Jesus would want us to do?

Loop yourself in, say us because that will keep them from being defensive even though you might not be doing it. You could go up, hey is this something Jesus would want us to do? Leave it at that. Remember all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for correcting and other things in righteousness. That is why you loop that us in there, hey is this something God would want us to do? Is this something Jesus would want us to do? Is this something Jesus would be doing?

Help build each other up so that you guys are all being an excellent representation of Christ. It is very very important, I hope you got that by now and I hope that you continue to come back. We got two more messages on how to follow leading the life of Christ, the religious life, following God, not religion, and the importance of being the church in the body of Christ.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank you so much for this time today. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your body, to be part of the body of Christ, and for reminding us that no matter what role we play, what part we have, that we are all important. That without us in this role the rest of the body suffers. Without each and every person there the rest of us suffer. They are important.

Lord, please give them that sense of importance and that sense of responsibility. That what they do matters. That everyone else is taking notice. They are now in a spotlight. The fact that they are a Christian, the fact that they believe in God and they identify with you, they are under a microscope. Everything they do, Lord help them to live a life worthy of that name, to be worthy of being called a Christian, that they will be happy to have that name. Like James says, rejoice that they have that name.

God, I ask that they would all be convicted with a strong desire to be more like you. To lead by example and to be an excellent representation of you and that they would remember that they are the church and that wherever they are going and fellowshipping with others, that others there would have that mentality as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks again for being here. Remember we have got some discussions going on, so check out the Facebook page. You can comment there. You can also comment on the YouTube channel as well. Engage in that discussion because through this discussion we can inspire more people to get involved. They can read, they can learn, they can understand. You are the body of Christ, you matter, you are important. Get out there and be the salt and the light of the earth. Be an excellent example, be worthy of having called yourself a Christian. God bless.