The Holy Spirit has given every Christian a special ability for the purpose of helping your church grow. Can the church do without you? No. You are extremely important to the church. Comparing each Christian to a human body part, Paul says that “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be” (1 Cor 12:18). In other words, God has arranged for you to perform a particular function in church. If you have a particular gift, you should be serving in a particular area, or ministry, or one way or another. If you are not doing so, it means that you are not doing your role and hence not living according to God’s will. You are responsible to God to help the church to which you belong grow.
Some of you may say: “I’m serving God in other places. It has nothing to do with the church.” You can serve outside the church provided you are also doing your best for the church. This is according to what Paul teaches: “God has placed the parts in the body, everyone of them, just as He wanted them to be.” Your first priority goes to your local church, in this case, Tree of Life Christian Church.
As the year 2015 draws to an end, I urge you to do several things. First, ask yourself: Have your helped your church grow? If you have done your best for your church, even if no one notices, you are blessed because you can be sure that your “labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). Your private prayers for the church and those in need, your kind words to those discouraged, your faithfulness in attending worship service or prayer meeting, your holy lifestyle, your humility and exemplary Christian life, and your faithfulness in serving the Lord, these things God remembers and is pleased even if no one notices. Well done.
Second, if you think much time, or more correctly, your life, has been lost to things that have no eternal value, you need to ask the Lord for forgiveness because the Lord is not pleased. May we never have to hear what the Lord once said to the Church of Laodicea: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev 3:15-17) Many of you have served the Lord faithfully and the Lord has also used many of you. Continue to be faithful! The Lord remembers you.
We are handing out forms for you to indicate the ministry in which you would like to serve next year. The church has many needs. The Lord has loved you and given you His life to save you from eternal destruction. We must thus live for our Saviour. Please pray and ask the Lord to direct you to serve in a meaningful way. Your service could be in a particular church ministry. It could also be praying for the church in the church prayer meeting. It could be making plans to bring someone to the Lord and help that person grow in this church. Do something for the Lord.