Don’t Be a “Pew-sitter”

As we go through our series on “I am Saved…Now what to do?”, we will discuss the importance of being involved in your local church.  Probably one of the first things to do after you accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life is to find a good church, one that teaches the Bible with no compromise, one that disciples new believers, one who has a community of believers to help each other grow and encourage one another, one who is a praying church.  Check out their mission statement, tenets of faith and what they offer.  I am a strong believer in small groups.  This is where people really get to know each other as they study God’s word.  I also am a strong believer that everyone has a ministry that God has appointed them to do.  We all need to be an active member of our church, participating in Bible studies, small groups, Sunday school, and ministries.  Seek what the Lord has called you to do.  Help where help is needed.  That is a good way to discover your gifts and your calling.  Don’t wait for it to come to you…but also know when to say no.  God will lead you.  Too many people come to Sunday services and think that is enough.  I call them “pew-sitters.”  Getting fed through the music and sermons is great, but there is more to it than that.  How do you help to “feed” others?  I believe this is what God meant when He says, “I know the plans that I have for you…to give you a future and a hope.”  (See Jeremiah 29:11)

Romans 12:1-13

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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

There is a lot in this scripture on how we are to conduct ourselves as members of the body.  Each of us have a gift, talent skill or something to contribute to God’s kingdom.  The church body needs all its members functioning to be healthy.

1 Corinthians 12:12-28

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.

If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 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.

This is how we love one another.  Helping each other as we are in need, supporting and praying for one another, knowing one another so that we know their needs.  It is also how we serve God.  Use our gifts in ministry.  Our goal is to love God and love others.  and, it is to show others the ways of the Lord and His grace that He offers to all, so that they may believe and be saved.  This can’t be done be just sitting in a pew.  We need to get out there, even if it means leaving our comfort zone.

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

 James 2:14-19

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

  James 4:17

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

How we live and what we do is not what saves us, but it is evidence that we are saved.  What we do is how we show love to others.  God commands us to love.  All of His commandments stems from love.  So let us do His work and follow His will.  He will be there to guide us and He will do great things through us if we obey Him.

Isaiah 6:8

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,

And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”