1. “Refocusing Your Priorities in 2011” Part 3: Reaffirming Your Commitment to the Church

2. Intro: Everybody Loves Raymond “Prodigal Son” episode

3. Ray believed in God, but found all kinds of excuses to avoid church involvement. Do you know anyone like Ray?

4. What is the Church? Is it a place or a building? Is it an organization? No! The Bible describes the Church as the Body of Christ! It is the living, breathing representation of Jesus on the earth. The Body of Christ is people.

5. What is the Church? 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27 “The body is a unit, though it is made of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. … Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

6. What is the Church? Romans 12:4-5 “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

8. Who is the Head? Colossians 1:18a (Referring to Jesus) “And he is the head of the body, the church… ”

9. A Unique Valentine’s Day Card

10. Believers who want nothing to do with the Church are saying to Jesus, “I love you… but I hate Your Body.” How would you receive that if you were Him?

11. Missing Body Parts 1 Corinthians 12: 15-16 “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

12. Missing Body Parts 1 Corinthians 12: 21-22 “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…”

13. Missing Body Parts Did you read Andrea Jeremiah’s article in our church newsletter?

14. Missing Body Parts You miss out on so many of the blessings of being a Christian when you choose to exclude yourself from church involvement.

15. Missing Body Parts You also rob others of the fullness of the presence of Christ when you are absent from the Body.

16. Missing Body Parts Romans 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the Law.”

17. Life Application: The Lord’s Supper Communion is more than ritual! It is a regular reaffirmation of your commitment to Christ AND His Body, the Church.

18. Warning! 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”