Topic: Our Part in Edifying the Body of Christ – Discover the Book by Dr John Barnett  10 October 2022

Click HERE for Previous MESSAGES

Our Part in Edifying the Body of Christ

As we open to Ephesians 4  we are Christ’s church; and, as a member of Christ’s Church, we each need to understand what God expects from us. 

God Ordained Local Churches

The New Testament church was made up of a universal body of redeemed saints. But all of those saints located in identifiable, local, geographic gatherings that were deeply connected at every level: spiritually, emotionally, financially, and relationally.

The New Testament believers were not taught to drift around to find the best program for their kids, or for the one church that fit their schedules, or for a church that better matched their music tastes.

New Testament believers were taught that God wanted them to stay put in their local church, and pour out their lives into one group of people day after day, and week after week. Next, we need to realize:

What God Did Not Plan

If Christ had only wanted us to only be a part of the universal church then we could all just drive around each Sunday and visit a different church.

We could all be well rested, never exhausted by ministry, never in a hurry to get everything done that needs to be accomplished, and just come at the posted time, take in the service, get blessed, and leave. That form of detached, uninvolved, “free as the wind” type of church going was never a part of Christ’s plan!

By the way, if being anonymous, dropping in, and staying detached has become your habit to it is a BAD habit, and an ungodly one.

If staying uninvolved with the lives of the people who are sitting around you is what you choose to do—then you do not really know or obey what God expects from your life He purchased by Christ’s own blood.

Detached, uninvolved believers are not in step with God’s Spirit, or with His plan.

An unattached believer is a disobedient, unrewarded, and unspiritual part of Christ’s church. God wants us equipping/mending others so that they can be edified/built up in God’s Word.

Hitting a Bible study during the week, or being a part of some non-local church but Bible-based ministry is NOT the same as being a partaker of Christ’s plan for His Church. Jesus sent out His apostles to start local, visible groups of believers that lived life together as Christ’s family.

God did not design the drive-in-theater type of church that has a parking lot of unconnected individuals all watching the same show. He designed Christ’s family as a group that shares life.

Let me remind you again, so that you can be sure that you have noted these twin-truths in your Bibles. This is what we are to be doing as we share life each day of each week that God gives us.

God looks to each one of us to do our part in His Church that He is building; and each of us is a unique tools in His Hands; and each of us can do something God designed only for us to do.

ALSO READ: CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER ⊗ OPEN HEAVEN ⊗ JOEL OSTEEN DEVOTIONAL⊗ ABOVE ONLY ⊗ OUR DAILY BREAD ⊗ SEEDS OF DESTINY ⊗ JOYCE MEYER DEVOTIONAL ⊗ RHAPSODY OF REALITIES ⊗ JOHN HAGEE ⊗ MFM DAILY DEVOTIONAL ⊗ DCLM DAILY MANNA ⊗ JOHN PIPER DEVOTIONAL ⊗ UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST