Your church needs you to …
1. Be Humble
If you want to learn humility, you need to act humble.
There is no character quality more important than humility. While
humility does not come naturally to any of us, it can be learned,
because here’s the thing: Humility isn’t a feeling or an attitude—it’s
action. If you want to learn humility, you need to act humble. Here are three quick tips on becoming humble:
a. Find mature Christians who exemplify humility and spend time around them. Learn from them and learn to be like them.
b. Volunteer for the lowliest of tasks. Don’t ask to be in the public
eye when you serve, but be content to stay in the back. Find joy in
doing the lowliest jobs and do them when and where only Jesus will see.
c. Get to know Jesus. It was Jesus who said, “Whoever exalts himself
will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew
23:12). And it was Jesus who humbled himself the deepest and was exalted
the highest.
2. Prioritize Church
Every church has people who make the public gatherings of the church a
low priority. These are the people who only come to church when it is
convenient and who use any excuse to miss a day or miss a service. Every
church desperately needs people who will make the public gatherings a
top priority. Today is the day to begin elevating the importance of
church in your life.
Let me give you two reasons:
a. First, you need your church. God made you part of your church for
your good. You cannot do life on your own. You aren’t strong enough, you
aren’t wise enough, you aren’t mature enough, you aren’t godly enough.
Without the beautifully ordinary means of grace you encounter in the
church, you won’t make it. Without the support of your brothers and
sisters, you won’t make it.
b. Second, your church needs you. God made you part of your church
for the good of others. 1 Peter 4 says, “As each has received a gift,
use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
God has gifted you to be part of your church, and those gifts are to be
used for the good of other people. So prioritize church as an expression
of generosity toward others.
3. Consider Giving God a Day
Why don’t you consider setting aside an entire day of the week and
dedicating it to the Lord in a special way? We believe that the Old
Testament law has been fulfilled in Christ, though there is some
disagreement among Christians about the implications. But even if you
believe that the Sabbath command is no longer binding on us, there is
still value in learning from it.
It completely changes Sunday when you give the entire day to the Lord
and his people. Now you’re not having to decide whether to take that
class or join that club that meets Sunday afternoon. You’re not skipping
church during exam time because you’ve got studying to do. You’re not
leaving early to get home before the football game starts. Instead,
you’re leaving behind all the cares of life, and even many of the joys
of life, and dedicating an entire day to worship, to fellowship and to
serving others.
4. Live Like a Christian All Week Long
It is easy enough to be a Christian at church, but then you get home.
But then you go to work. But then you go to school. And then you’re
surrounded by people acting ungodly, and even worse, you’re left along
with your own thoughts and your own desires. Yet your church needs you
to live like a Christian all week long.
Make your devotional life something you do not just for the good of yourself, but for the good of others.
Each of us faces different challenges and different temptations. But
one key to living like a Christian all week long is spending time in
Word and prayer every day. Make this a priority no matter how busy you
are and no matter how crazy life seems. Make this something you do no
matter how badly you’ve sinned and how little you feel like doing it.
Pray day-by-day not only for yourself, but for your church. Take that
membership directory and pray through it from A to Z, and then start
over. Make your devotional life something you do not just for the good of yourself, but for the good of others.
5. Get to Know People Not Like You
Churches are involuntary communities—we don’t get to pick who comes
to them, God does. So what we have to do is learn to live with these
people and learn to love these people, even when they are very different
from us. “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do
not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in
Christ, and individually members one of another.” If your church is
divided so that all the young adults hang out together and all the older
folk hang out together, or if all the people with accents hang out
together and all the people without accents hang out together, that
makes a statement about the gospel—that the gospel is not big enough and
powerful enough to really make people love one another even though they
are different.
So commit to get to know people not like you. There is no reason you
shouldn’t be able to say that some of your best and closest
relationships are with people who are very different from you.
6. Learn Generosity
Few things reveal the heart better than money. Money has an amazing
way of displaying what you really believe and what you really value. No
matter who you are and what stage of life you are in, there is no better
time than now to learn to be generous with your money. Here’s what the
Bible says: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” You
must give, and you must learn to do it cheerfully.
Here are just two quick tips:
a. Remember that it’s not your money. The money belongs to God—he
just gives it to you to manage it. And he means for you to manage it
well and to his glory.
b. Give to the Lord first. I know people who say they can’t give to
the church, and yet they’ve got a new cell phone and are carrying a cup
of Starbucks into church every week. That doesn’t compute. Learn to give
the first and best of your money to the Lord. The harder that seems,
the more you need to do it.
7. Be a Great Church Member
Make yourself invaluable to your church, and do this by serving other
people. I love reading about Dorcas, the woman Peter raised from the
dead who was described as being “full of good works and acts of charity”
(see Acts 9). “When Peter arrived, they took him to the upper room. All
the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other
garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.” Dorcas was a great
church member. She loved people so much, and did so much good to them,
that the whole community mourned when she died.
Would that be you? Would the people of your church weep as they
remember you for all the good you did to others? Find the place you can
serve your church, and serve there without fail, without excuse, without
requiring praise and accolades. Do it for the good of others and the
glory of God.
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