JESUS -- DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT HIM.

ROMANS 13:11-14

MATTHEW 5:43-48

So, what do you have in your wallet? Any of those important pieces of plastic we carry around, like our health insurance cards, our ID or Driver licenses or our credit cards?

American Express believes that their credit card is so important that we shouldn't leave home without it.

However, when it comes to living out our faith through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and especially our witness, more than a piece of plastic is needed.

That's why, for those times when you need it most, there's …

THE MASTER CARD!

Jesus – Don't leave home without him!

What does it mean to belong to the Body of Christ through a local church?

If you have an American Express Card, you automatically become a member of American Express.

And American Express entices us to join because, “Membership has its privileges.”

Membership privileges and benefits are big motivators for belonging to a social club or an organization. What's in it for us? That works for the local country club or other social club, but does it for the church?

When we focus on “privileges,” that's when the ego, or the desires of the flesh as Paul put it, take over. The entire reason of being is to take care of ourselves at the exclusion of the least among us and to keep us feeling comfortable, feeling good about ourselves. We prefer to do what is comfortable, what is “safe” for us, what benefits us.

When that happens, the church becomes the church in name only and begins to decline and eventually, when the last funeral is performed, it closes. All because the members have forgotten that they were called for mission and ministry, following God's will and not their own.

As Christians and members of the Body of Christ, membership has its responsibilities. In the United Methodist Church, we look at the greatest commandment, (love God with everything you are and have and your neighbor as yourself) and the Great commission (transform the world by making disciples for Jesus Christ) and look at our responsibilities like this:

To faithfully participate in the ministry of the local church by our

prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness.

Witness – that's a tough one for a lot of people because we have so many misconceptions and horror stories of it. One of those misconceptions is that because our faith is personal, it's a private thing. We don't talk about it, sometimes not even in church.

Looking at the examples of Christ and others in the New Testament, we see that isn't so. Christ and his disciples had a two-pronged approach to witnessing – Salt and light.

Salt: demonstrating the love and power of God to people in real and meaningful ways that brought healing and wholeness.

Light: proclaiming the good news of salvation.

Our faith, though personal, was meant to be lived out in our public life and in relationships with everyone we meet. Whenever we are, 24/7, we are called to carry the light of Christ into a darkened and wounded world and bring hope, love, peace, justice and joy into the lives of others. To do otherwise, is to hide our relationship with Christ away from the world and allowing our faith to go stale and tasteless.

Galatians 3:27 says that through baptism, we put on Christ. So, are we wearing Christ in our lives like underwear, something private and rarely seen by others? Or is Jesus like our Sunday best, hanging in our closets and only worn once a week for a few hours? That's what can happen when we view our participation in the local Body of Christ as membership with privileges instead of a mission with responsibilities and a purpose.

In Romans 3:14, I feel Paul is reminding us today that belonging to the church is not about privileges. It's about the main thing, our part in the ministry and mission of Christ. It's time to put on Christ and hit the road.

Jesus – don't leave home without him!