Morning Worship

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BELIEVERS

                            -  1 Peter 5:1-9

INTRODUCTION

A person who received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour automatically became a member of God’s family but not the local Church. After the salvation experience, the person will be born again not on the physical aspect but in spiritual [John 1:12, 13]. He or she will become a member of a local church when he or she decided to submit his or herself to water baptism which is one God’s commandment and as an act of obedience of a person known to be a child of God. Baptism is the picture that depicts the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ [the Gospel].

POINTS :

1. Believers are responsible for telling the people about the Lord and Saviour.

Mostly of the religions that was established in our days requires the people to be a member of their church to be saved but it is not the design of God for the church. The Church [a group of people that was saved and baptized] was established by God to stand and to be a herald of the Lord and Saviour, which is Jesus Christ. The others maybe boasting of the things which their church may do about their salvation which makes us different for we are promoting Jesus Christ instead. Jesus as the door [John 10: 9], truth, life [John 14:6], bread of life [6:35] and many more.

Soul winning is an opportunity given to us by God to serve Him. It is God’s great commission to every believer.

2. Submission to Christ and the

Elders [Pastors]- 1 Peter 5:5

Every written word of God is in the form of a command because he knows the people He has created has an innate character that he or she wants to be followed rather he or she is the one who follow rules imposed. People wanted to be the master of his or her own life and he or she does not want to submit because he or she thinks it makes him or her inferior. The idealism of being inferior when you submit is from the world and should not be in a believers’ system because the word of God is teaching us to obey.

The Pastor is an instrument of God to feed the flocks with His words. He was given to authority to look over the flocks’ welfare especially in the spiritual aspect. God admonishes us to submit to Pastor. He gave the Pastor, as well as the apostles [ended in the times of Apostle Paul-considered by Christ as the last apostle], prophets [not present in our times because the word of God is already completely written], evangelist and teachers for the perfecting of the saints [maturation of the believers], for the works of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ-Ephesians 4:11-13.

3. Resist the Devil- be sober, be vigilant- (1 Peter 5:8 )

One of our responsibility as a member of the church is to watch over our ownselves because the adversary the devil may use us as an instrument to cause disunity or disharmony in the church. For us not to used, we must RESIST in FAITH [1 Peter 5:9] the devil that doesn’t have any good in him. The destruction he is devising may start in small things like the said "CHISMIS” or gossips. These things should not be entertained.

Conclusion:

God wants us not to expect too much what the Church could do for us but what he looks into is what we’re able to do for the Church. We should be able to do our part being a responsible member of the Church by telling the people about Christ, submitting ourselves to God and resisting the devil by being sober and vigilant.