dead weight

the other night, i fell asleep on my arm, which cut off the circulation to it, making it a useless appendage that became quite dangerous when i rolled over and it flopped on top of my bride's head!  it took me a while to get the feeling back to my arm, and to make it a useful part of my body again.  it's no wonder God calls the church the "body of Christ".  there are those who are like my arm, not serving any real purpose, and really just getting in the way.  many are like a benign tumor, taking necessary nutrients away from the body, but not really causing any harm.  others are like cancer, causing harm to the body, and needing to be addressed.

with the rise of contemporary services, coupled with the maturation of the "me generation" into adulthood, we see an interesting dynamic starting to arise.  there is a paradigm shift in how people are viewing the church, and instead of adopting a biblical view of the church, they are adopting a psychological view of the church.  what i mean by this, is the church is no longer seen as the body of Christ, where each of us has a place and a function, but is rather seen as spiritual gym, where we can go and get our weekly spiritual workout in, and then go our merry way.  it is all about the experience, and "what can i get out of it?"  don't believe me?  ask a person why they are at a particular church, especially the larger, more contemporary churches.  you are likely to hear something along the lines of, "i really like the worship there," or "i really like the pastor's preaching".  you rarely hear, "i like the ministries that God has placed me in there," or "this is where God has called us".  i hear quite frequently, "i don't like that church because i don't get anything out of the worship there" and "i don't feel like i am worshipping there".  those excuses amuse me, especially when you break down the logic of what they are saying.  essentially, when a person says they are not getting anything out of worship, they are saying they are expecting to get something out of worship, and to carry that logic out to its end, it is like saying, "i bought you a gift, but i'm not really going to give it to you because i want it myself!"  because if we are only participating in worship for what we can get out of it, we are bringing God a gift that we are trying to keep for ourselves.  the other common excuse is, "i don't feel God".  this excuse is null because Scripture tells us that whenever two or more are gathered in God's name, He is there also.  so if a person doesn't "feel" God, then it's obvious that the problem is not with God, but with them.  

what's even funnier, is that many of the people that do that are the first to complain when the church doesn't live up to their standards, especially when they are in need.  they become like that tumor, owing its existence to the host, but not providing any real benefit to the host.  in science, we call that a parasite.  as members of the body of Christ, we should instead be asking what purpose we serve in the church.  instead of the "experiential" view of church, we should attend church to contribute our gifts and talents to that local body, so that the body may minister to others and be the hands and feet of Christ.  the benefit then becomes that God blesses us for being obedient, and the temporary highs that are associated with a good musical performance in a worship service are traded for life changing joy that carries over into every other aspect of our life.

this concept is nowhere stated more clearly than when Jesus says, "God is a spirit, and whoever worships Him must worship in spirit and in truth."  whenever you have worship in truth but not in spirit, you have dead orthodoxy; and whenever you worship in spirit but not in truth, the result is shallow emotionalism.  there must be a balance if we are to truly worship.  worship is not something that happens within the walls of the church  building.  worship should be the pattern of our lives, worshipping God in everything that we do.  this is what the Bible means when it says to do all things for the glory of God.  get that?  for the glory of God.  again, implying that it should be outwardly motivated towards God, and not inwardly motivated towards ourselves. remember, satan's sin was that of selfishness and pride.  that's why he was kicked out of heaven.  so we can logically infer as to what he would tempt us with to take the focus off of God:  self-glorification and satisfaction.  he tempted Jesus with the same thing in the wilderness.  he saw that Jesus was hungry and tempted Him to satisfy Himself and turn the stones into bread.  so the temptation for self-gratification must be a powerful one for satan to choose that to tempt the Saviour with.

so ask yourself, "why do i go to the church i attend?"  if the motivation is anything other than God's calling and serving Him through His church, then it just might be that you have been deceived.