What should your attitude be about the local church? It should be to humbly acknowledge that you’re just one part of the body of Christ, and that you’re dependent on the other parts to function well. Consider the fact that there are 200 different types of cells in the human body—and all need each other, working together, for the body to thrive. So it is with the church. Even the weakest member is necessary. So rather than approach local church life causally, we should bring passion, purpose, and urgency to exercise our gifts to benefit the whole church body, remembering that we’re many members, but one body in Christ (Rom. 12:3-5). 

Sermon: https://churchandfamilylife.com/sermons/6824321f981d11c30de4c400

Attitude be about a local church? How should you think about yourself? Well, you are a member of the body of Christ. The premier illustration or metaphor of the church is right here in this passage that the church is the body of Christ. The illustration is really important because it portrays the interdependence of the parts of the body of Christ, illustrated by the human body.

There are billions of cells in the human body, 200 different types of cells, nerve cells, muscle cells, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, immune cells, stem cells, T cells that go and kill pathogens. So the body works together, Every member of the body works together. The cells of the body are communicating with one another and communicating with the brain and operating the heart and the lungs and the digestive system and the thyroid and everything like that because the church is like a body where every member is necessary and what you have here is really a picture of the indispensability of even the weakest and even the most invisible member of the body of Christ. And the problem is in our current environment, People often come to church very casually. They come with very little intentionality, very little anticipation, very little passion for the work of the church, a very casual attitude toward the reading of scripture, the preaching, very little urgency with very little appetite for the fellowship of the Saints.

What's critical is that we need to recognize we are all part of a body, all are necessary. You know, are you aware of who's missing in the body? Are you missing in the body? Have you lost your sense of anticipation and the beauty of your part in the body and other parts of the body in your life as well? We are members of one body in Jesus Christ and that has tremendous implications and that means that we are all indispensable and that the other members of the body need us.

And that means we should be prioritizing our times together as a local church and to not enter it into casually but to come and exercise the gifts that God has given us for the benefit of the whole body. We are the body of Christ. We are many members, but one body. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.