[To download the sermon, right-click on this link and select "Save As": Believing, Belonging, and the Body of Christ]

Our membership process sounds like a marriage ceremony
And in reality it is. It is a “wedding”, a membering of many into one
So we have a covenant, a relationship of promise, that we vow to live in a certain way with one another, just as in a marriage you have a marriage covenant, vows, that you tell the other person how you intend to live with them

Covenant language is actually pretty common in our culture. I was reminded of this recently at an HOA meeting...

If you live in a neighborhood, you probably have “covenant restrictions” that speak to what you can and cannot do

how you will LIVE in that community.

Follow up:

What binds us together in our neighborhood, what gives you belonging,
is that we have a lot

But what binds us together as a body of Christ, what gives us belonging
is more than a lot … a lot more than a lot!
We are brought together, we belong together, because of who we are in Jesus Christ, by faith in Jesus, by our belief

There’s a dyamic relationship between Believing and Belonging

Believing creates belonging

To become a member of Coquina, you need to have a credible profession of faith
Your story about Jesus’ in your life as your Lord

Do you know Jesus?
Son of God, implications of the gospel, awareness of personal need

12:1-4 Spirit of God works in you to the point of bringing you to belief, bringing you to declare 12:4 Jesus is Lord!

Made one by the same Spirit

Believing compels belonging

You can hear the gospel on radio or TV
You can go to an online worship

But to live the gospel, that takes more than you
It takes the body

This is why we have a Member Covenant
A Statement of Faith, which speaks to what we believe
Commitment to belief

A Covenant of Members, which speaks to how we live what we believe
Commitment to life

We commit to one another in realization of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians

READ 1 Cor 12:19-20

Or else you’d be, as Paul says, a dismembered foot, ear or eye

There’s a rash of “universal Christians” in the world that have a cheapened sense of belonging b/c of a belief that they really DON’T NEED to belong

That they really can get along well without “life in the body”
That it’s OK to be a dis-membered foot, or and ear or an eye

But the Lord calls us to the joyous and often tumultuous life of belonging…
… IF we believe.

>>>>>>>>>>

There’s also a belonging that leads to believing

It will strengthen your believing
I better understand the grace of God in Christ BECAUSE OF the body
Each of you is Christ to me

I know of God’s grace and forgiveness thru His word and Spirit,
but He incarnates them in you

The body is essential to the incarnation of the gospel … living out grace

In fact, think about these chapters of Scripture
What is 1 Cor 13 most famous for? When do you hear it the most?
Weddings

But these chapters are not directed at husbands and wives, but at members of the body of Christ
Gifts in ch 12
Order in worship in ch 14
Love in ch 13

It speaks to the demonstrable working of God in our lives together, as a body

So we grow in our understanding by belonging

Belonging can cause you to believe

that very incarnation of the gospel is the best proclamation of the gospel

There’s a way to be in the community of Christ, in the company of Christ,
that leads to believing

We want that to be the case as we worship
If the gifts and grace of God are at work within a body as they should be,

READ 1 Cor 14:24-25

But also we want people to realize that “living is believing”

Where as once you may have been dead set against the gospel
To see it lived, up close and personal, it becomes plausible that Jesus might just make good on His word to work in and on and thru me

You see the gospel in a way you never have b/c you experience it in the everyday rhythm of life.

George Hunter (book: the Celtic Way of Evangelism)
Looks at how Ireland, in the 4th Century, was basically covered in Christianity within 2-3 generations from the work of St. Patrick and those he led to Christ

Celtic Christians took two simultaneous approaches
1.Going Out:They would send out teams to penetrate the numerous, small rural clans and tribes with the gospel and seek to establish a community of Christ there along the beaten path.

2.Bringing in: Then, those communities would invite refugees, outcasts, strangers, seekers as guests to live out life in common with the community of Christ

There was no higher call than hospitality…philozenos, love of strangers
It was cause for the abbot or priest to break their fast

They basically operated off of a creed that “whoever welcomes a stranger in my name, welcomes Jesus” (speaking of how to receive a little child in Mt 18, Mk 9, Lk 9)

It was in the context of community, of life in common, that guests
Strangers, sojourners, unbelievers
would enter into dialogue, serve side by side, see and experience worship

Let me ask: is your acceptance of others conditioned on their acceptance of Christ?

In a setting where belonging can lead to believing, evangelism becomes helping people belong (to the extent that they can) AND believe

It’s helping people understand that following Jesus (being a disciple) is (as Bill Hull says)
NOT so much about information, as it is about formation
(remember the sermon, in and for the city)

being crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20) so that the life you live is no longer in your own strength, but by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself up for you.

Being informed and formed by life in common

How inviting are we? How warm and winsome, how engaging …
How are we at helping people in their belonging so that they might believe?

Coquina is only as hospitable, inviting, warm and winsome, as engaging as you ARE!

Augustine: believe that I might understand
“belong that I might believe”

>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you’re here today and you are not a follower of Jesus, we’re thankful you’re here
Our hope is that you feel a certain sense of belonging with us

And yes, our hope is that this Belonging will lead to believing,
which leads to the ultimate form of belonging

Read 1 John 1:1-3, 4

Belonging not just to the community of Christ, but Christ, to Jesus

Yes …to His church, His household, His body as a member

But because you belong to God, as a child, as a son or daughter

Communion:

Calls us to profess our belief

READ 1 Cor 11:26
You proclaim Christ, his death and rez

YOU plural!
Which calls us to belonging!

READ 1 Cor 11:33
come together and wait for … Share with … one another

Together believing, together belonging, as the body of Christ.