Full Service

Do not put your soul at risk by where you practice corporate worship—the faith community you choose.

What to look for and seek to advance in a church community, so that the empowering presence of Christ will make righteousness happen for you and yours…

1. Look for a place where the lifestyles of the leaders are worthy of imitating (13:7-8).

• The word of God and not the ideas of men is the prominent feature
• Outcomes of their lives that come from faith are evident
• Built into the ministry culture is intentional institutional effort to nurture the health of its leaders

2. Look for a place where the teaching is clearly sound and not “strange” or novel (9-16).

• You prefer to be strengthened by the grace of sound doctrine rather than palatable self-help therapy-- “strange teachings and ceremonial food”.
• You want to be taught to please God through a continual stream of “seamless sacrifice” (Piper) by what we sing, say and do.
• You will be encouraged not to settle down and get too comfortable – we have nothing here that lasts.

3. Look for a place where leadership makes you feel spiritually safe – find them and obey them (17).

• Your cultural addiction to “individual rights and freedoms” will have to give way to privilege, obligation, and responsibility in Christ’s leaders-led kingdom --“obey and submit”.
• Your soul will have to be placed in the protective custody of accountable leaders – let them “watch over”.
• You will need to be able to invest “joy” in the entire enterprise for your own sake as well as all the others.

Pray for us! (18)

Count on God to cause your faith to persevere! (20-21)

Grace be with you all! (25)