Benefits of Belonging

I. The first benefit to belonging to a local church is that by being a member I’m identified as a believer in Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:19)

Paul said in Ephesians 2:19, "You are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family." There is a distinction that follows those who are disciples and believers in Jesus Christ. There are people who are not followers of Jesus Christ and there are these who are. Everyone is not a believer or a Christian. The question is how do you know who is and who is not. A person’s words and lifestyle will give you some clue but one way that is clear is by their commitment to a local group of Christians called a church.

This is especially true in the Baptist church. We believe that a person can’t be a member of the local church until they have personally confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. They are then immersed in water to express publicly and openly that they are identifying themselves as a believer in Jesus Christ. When you are a member here you are saying, "I want everyone to know I’m a follower, a believer in Jesus Christ." The primary way that the world will identify you as a believer in Him is by being a member of a local congregation. Your membership says, "I’m serious about my faith and I am not ashamed to claim Christ as my Lord."

II. A second benefit of belonging is that when I belong to a church I’m provided encouragement as I live for Christ. (Heb. 10:24-26)

The writer of Hebrews 10:24-25 says "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near." He identifies the role of a church to be a place that helps you live life daily, not in just getting by but getting as much out of it as possible. The two words translated here as encouragement mean, on the one...