1. "For most of my life and for many of us who've grown up in the United States, we've had a life of excess. We've never really had to ask ourselves what is essential or what is non-essential, at least not on this scale."

2. "Paul says that if you wanna live the transformed life that Christ has called you to, you gotta be a church member, which feels counter-cultural, right? He gives this great imperative, I wanna run this race, okay, Paul's giving me the charge, now what do I do? You become a church member."

3. "Baptism is the boundary line between who is in and who is out in the church. That wasn't just an inflatable pool, that was the entryway into the visible church."

4. "When we take people into membership, we are saying that we have our name upon them and their name is upon us and that they represent us and they bear the name of Jesus Christ."

5. "The thing about what a church is, is you really can't separate it from what a church does. Those things are tied together. Being a church means you actually have to physically gather together."

6. "There is no coexisting in Christ until Christ returns. There is no cohabitation in Christ until Christ returns. We are not just passengers who've gotten on a train and we're tolerating one another until we get to our final destination."

7. "We're more like pilgrims who've set out on a journey to make it to the celestial city and we work together, we walk together, we suffer together, we rejoice together until we all make it safely home."

8. "You and I, we need each other. I need your gifts in my life, I need you speaking truth in my life. Your sanctification and my sanctification are tied together."

9. "We are in such a contentious time that Satan would love nothing more than for us to believe that we're not one, to latch our identity onto something that is temporary. But we need to let our eternal reality that you and I are one shape and transform how we view the contemporary things in this life."

10. "The church is not an amenity when things are going well, but a necessity for our sanctification and our holiness together."

Observation Questions

1. In Romans 12:3, what does Paul warn believers not to do, and what does he instruct them to do instead regarding how they think of themselves?

2. According to Romans 12:4-5, what analogy does Paul use to describe the relationship between individual believers and the church, and what key phrase defines who belongs to this group?

3. In Romans 12:6-8, Paul lists several gifts that differ according to grace. What specific gifts does he mention, and what instructions does he give about how each gift should be exercised?

4. Looking at Romans 12:5, how does Paul describe the relationship believers have with one another as members of the body?

5. In Romans 12:3, Paul says God has assigned to each person "the measure of faith." What does this assignment imply about the source of our gifts and abilities?

6. According to the passage, what is the expected outcome when believers use their differing gifts—do they function independently or interdependently within the body?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul transition immediately from calling believers to live transformed lives (Romans 12:1-2) to discussing their role as members of one body? What does this connection suggest about how transformation actually happens in the Christian life?

2. The sermon emphasized that baptism serves as "the boundary line" into the visible church. How does this understanding of baptism relate to Paul's teaching that believers are "one body in Christ" and "individually members one of another"?

3. Paul warns against thinking of oneself "more highly than he ought to think." How does self-reliance or spiritual independence contradict the nature of the church as Paul describes it in this passage?

4. The sermon described believers not as "passengers tolerating one another" but as "pilgrims journeying together." How does the diversity of gifts described in Romans 12:6-8 support this vision of the church as an interdependent community?

5. How does Jesus' prayer in John 17:11 ("that they may be one as we are one") deepen our understanding of what Paul means when he says we are "one body in Christ"?

Application Questions

1. Paul calls believers to "think with sober judgment" about themselves. In what specific area of your life are you tempted toward self-reliance or believing you don't need the church? What would it look like to humbly acknowledge your need for other believers this week?

2. The sermon highlighted that simply attending a service is not the same as being an active member of the body. What is one concrete way you could move from passive attendance to actively serving or caring for someone in your church community?

3. Considering that your presence at gatherings is itself a service to other members, how might you prioritize physical attendance at church gatherings differently, even when it feels inconvenient or when online options are available?

4. The sermon asked whether you have said or done anything that might cause division in the church. Is there a relationship within your church family where you need to seek reconciliation, apologize, or repent of divisive words or attitudes? What step will you take this week?

5. Paul instructs those with gifts to use them—whether in serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, or showing mercy. What gift has God given you, and how can you more intentionally and cheerfully use it for the common good of your church this coming month?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 — This passage expands on the body metaphor, emphasizing that every member is necessary and that suffering and honor are shared among all parts of the body.

2. Ephesians 4:1-16 — Paul describes how Christ gave gifts to the church for building up the body in unity and maturity, reinforcing the sermon's theme of interdependence and service.

3. Hebrews 10:19-25 — This passage contains the command to gather together and stir one another to love and good works, directly supporting the sermon's emphasis on the necessity of physical gathering.

4. John 17:20-26 — Jesus' high priestly prayer for the unity of all believers provides the theological foundation for the sermon's call to live as one body in Christ.

5. Acts 2:37-47 — The early church's response to Peter's sermon, including baptism, teaching, fellowship, and sharing, illustrates what the church is and what the church does in its earliest form.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of What Is Essential During the Pandemic

II. What a Church Is: Those Who Are in Christ (Romans 12:5)

III. What a Church Does: Gathering, Walking in Humility, Serving, and Living as One (Romans 12:3-8)

IV. The Church Is Essential Because of What Christ Has Done

Detailed Sermon Outline

• Walking in personal holiness
• Attending gatherings
• Praying for pastors and the congregation
• Supporting the ministry financially

• Sound team setting up weekly for worship
• Parking team providing organization
• Elder board caring for and praying over every member
• Members voting responsibly on membership matters
• Individuals meeting practical needs of others (groceries, home repairs, childcare)

What is essential? That has been the question of the past six months as governing officials and citizens have tried to figure out what is essential to us and our community and in our nation as we live in the midst of a pandemic. Really, the question and the issue revolves around what a business or an organization is and what it actually does. To be considered essential? Now, maybe for many of us, this seems like an easy question, but it's far more difficult than many of us had imagined originally.

And to be fair, none of us have lived through a moment like this. None of us have really had to live through a season where we've had to discern between the essential and the non-essentials. For most of my life and for many of us who've grown up in the United States, We've had a life of excess. We've never really had to ask ourselves what is essential or what is non-essential, at least not on this scale. And I would be curious if we were to do a survey of the district, if we sent out a survey to everybody in the district and we asked them to list the top 10 things that they believe is essential during a time like this.

I'm curious what the responses might be and how varying they might be or how surprising some of the answers might be.

But my question is, would the church show up on that list? And I guess it depends on what people think a church is and what a church does. For many, the church is just like this building behind us. This is what a church is. It's a brick and mortar facility that people go to.

So yeah, maybe a church is essential. They can go in and members can go in under a certain number and be socially distanced and wear a mask and do what they need to do in this house of worship. For others, a church is a service. It's the singing, the prayers, the preaching. So since a church is a service, we can just do all that online.

Members can stay at home, there's no risk in that. But what I fear in this conversation about trying to discern if a church is essential or not, is rarely are we asking the question, what does the Bible say?

Because that is the crux of it all is what does the Bible say and what is Jesus spoken about in his word, about his church and his expectations for his church? And so tonight, my hope is to walk through two things. This is my outline. What a church is and what a church does. Because I think if we can understand what a church is and what a church does, it transformed not only our lives and our community, but our life together as a church.

It changes how we view our everyday life and what is essential versus non-essential. So if you have your Bible, I invite you to go ahead and grab them and turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Our primary verse is Romans 12:5, but for our time together this evening, I'm gonna read Romans 12:3-8. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy and the proportion of our faith to our faith, if service and our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Now, Paul here in Romans 12 is making a transition.

For the first 11 chapters or so, Paul is essentially just walking through how we are justified before a holy God. How has God worked from eternity past to save a people for himself? And how they're justified and what it means to be justified and what it entails to be justified. And here in Romans 12, he's beginning an argument for the next three chapters where he will Let us know how the justified are supposed to live among one another. And in verses one and two of Romans 12, we see this great exhortation where Paul says, look, don't be transformed or don't be conformed to this life, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice unto God. He's saying, live a fully devoted life unto God. Because of this great salvation that Christ has accomplished, live your life in such a way that it is your spiritual act of worship that everything Everything you say and everything you do is dedicated to God. It's a beautiful exhortation on the Christian life and what it's supposed to look like. But then he transitions and he does something else.

He begins to talk about what this transformed life looks like. And my question to you this evening is how does this transformation, how do we live this transformed life that we're no longer living for our former passions of the flesh, but we're setting our eyes on Christ, how does that take place in our lives? Imagine that you're doing a Bible study with a new Christian and you're reading through Romans together and you come to Romans 12:1-2 and they ask you the question, How do I live this transformed life? I imagine that if I went around our gathering today and asked that question, we'd get a lot of good answers. You need to read the Bible.

You need to pray. You need to repent of sin. You need to find good accountability and all those things are clearly important things we need to be doing, but it's not what Paul is getting at. Paul says that if you wanna live the transformed life that Christ has called you to, you gotta be a church member, which feels counter-cultural, right? He gives this great imperative, I wanna run this race, okay, Paul's giving me the charge, now what do I do?

You become a church member. Look what he does, he goes in our passage, and he begins to walk through, he transitions from this focus of an individual to a people. If you're gonna live this life fully devoted to Jesus, you have to be a part of the church. Now again, it goes back to the initial question of what is a church, which I'm glad that you asked. My first point tonight is what a church is.

My first point I want to see tonight is what a church is.

And so Paul gives us the answer here in verse five. He says this, so we, though many, are one body in Christ. So if you have a pen, I want you to go ahead and I just want you to circle that word in Christ, that phrase in Christ. So what is a church? Those who are in Christ.

Those who have been born again. Those who have heard the good news that Jesus came down, took on flesh, lived the life that we could not live, and died the death that we should have died to reconcile us to God. It is those who have heard that good message and repented of their sin and placed their faith in Jesus Christ. It is the redeemed, the people and family of God, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. That is who the church is.

It's those who've been saved by the blood of Jesus. Now the question is this, this is good news. We now know who the church is, but how do we know, how can we distinguish between who's in the world and who's in Christ? Right, seems like a difficult question, how do we know? And it reminds me of last summer, Megan and I where I was serving on church staff in North Dallas, we volunteered to serve at Vacation Bible School 'cause there was a lot of needs for volunteers.

And they put us in the four-year-old room. And there was like three or four four-year-old rooms. And there were four adults and 30 four-year-olds in our room. I repeat, there were four adults and 30 four-year-olds in our room. And I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until we went to recess with all the other four-year-olds.

And they were all running around chaotically in a field, and my anxiety began to rise. And never have I prayed for a pre-trib rapture until that moment. Like, Lord, just take us now. Like, I just don't know what's gonna happen. How am I gonna survive?

It was chaos. How do we know who is ours? I'm responsible for these children. How can I tell who's mine or who's theirs? And how do I make sure they're back in our room for their parents to pick them up?

There was a sense of great anxiety. And can you imagine the anxiety that we would have as Christians or even as pastors of how to discern who is in and who's out if Jesus didn't give us those instructions. But praise be to God that Jesus is given all that we need to be a faithful church. He's given us what we need so we can know who is in and who is out. So what is the instructions?

Well Jesus gives us this in Matthew 28, the Great Commission. What he tells his disciples is, hey, go everywhere, make disciples, and what? Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So how do we know who is in and who's out? Sue baptism.

Baptism is the boundary line between who is in and who is out in the church. So a few weeks ago we had two baptisms here. We had an inflatable pool with water in it. It was great to see. And Anna and Gustavo got baptized.

What was happening in that moment, that wasn't just an inflatable pool, that was the entryway into the visible church. So if you were to go back to the statement of faith, the article that says this, we believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation, meaning an assembly of baptized believers. And so in that moment, what was happening is the church was speaking on behalf of Christ because he's entrusted that authority to us as a body to say who is in and who is out. We find this in Matthew 16 and in Matthew 18. So in that moment a few weeks ago, maybe you didn't even realize it, but we as a membership were saying, based on their confession of who Christ is, and their life and how they live according to that confession, we believe that they are Christ's.

They are one of us. We're gonna take account for them. They are now in our membership. We're gonna watch over their life and we're gonna care for them as one of us. And in that moment they were declaring as well that this union with Christ, that they have been saved and redeemed and they were saying, I am one of you.

I'm gonna watch over you and I'm gonna care for you and I'm gonna take account for you. That was what was happening in that moment. Baptism is that initiating line, the doorway into the church and the Lord's Supper is the continuation of that line. So we know who is in and who is out. It's a beautiful thing that Christ has given us.

That's why Peter in Acts two, after this first sermon that he preaches, when the men were cut to the quick as it says, they said, what shall we do? He says, Repent and be baptized. Identify yourself with Christ and the triune God, and that is the way in which we will know that you are one of us. That's why we're serious about protecting these ordinances, because Christ's reputation is at stake in our community because of it. When we take people into membership, we are saying that they will, that we have our name upon them and their name is upon us and that they represent us and they bear the name of Jesus Christ.

So when we take seriously protecting who gets in those waters and who takes the Lord's Supper, And as I thought about this, I just was so encouraged by seeing those baptisms a few weeks ago. I just want to encourage us, would you begin to pray that through this pandemic, that God would begin to stir souls into himself so that our baptism waters would continue to be filled in the days ahead? Would you pray that God would save people, that when we get back in that building each and every week, we're having to fill the waters, not because we're trying to make some list, but it's because we enjoy and rejoice in identifying those who've been redeemed by Christ. Let us pray to that end. Let us seek to that end, seeing people come to faith in Christ and being discipled and identifying themselves a part of the body of Jesus Christ.

So that is what a church is. It is those who have heard the word of Christ and responded to it, and those who've identified themselves through baptism and the Lord's Supper and the membership of the body. That is what a church is. It's a people of God who've identified themselves by responding to the gospel. Well, the next thing I want us to see not only is what a church is, what a church does.

Paul gives us some clarity here. And this by no means is going to be an exhaustive list of what a church does. I'm just gonna walk us through what I see here in this passage. The first thing I want you to see is in verse three, he says this, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone which he's saying, by the apostolic authority entrusted to me, speak on behalf of God. Through the inspiration of his spirit, I say to everyone among you, Paul is assuming that this is going to be a read amongst a gathering.

So what does a church do or what a church does is we gather. It's the first thing we do. We gather together. Why? So we can hear the word, so we can sing great songs to our God, so we can take the ordinances so that we can take in members and take out members so we can be the church.

The thing about what a church is, is you really can't separate it from what a church does. Those things are tied together. Being a church means you actually have to physically gather together. I mean, imagine a couple, single couple who meets online, and they date online, and they get married, and they say, well, you know what? Let's just continue to be married online.

Is that a marriage? I don't think so. You have to be together. You have to be one. You have to consummate the marriage.

You have to be one together. And in that same way for us to continue to be to church, We have to physically gather together all throughout the New Testament. As the apostles wrote these letters, they're assuming, this is the expectation, because Christ commanded it. Hebrews 10:24-25, to gather together. So a church gathers.

It's what we do. Not only that, the next thing I want you to see is a church walks in humility. A church walks in humility. Look what he says next. Now say this to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

Paul is, he's calling out Christians who think that they can live this Christian life in isolation, who think they can go rogue and they don't need the church, they've got all that they need, and they can just live this Christian life on their own. Paul is saying, you need people. You need the body of Christ to be sanctified, to persevere in this life. There is no one in this congregation this evening that doesn't need this body. We are a gift to you and you are a gift to us.

And Paul is trying to push against an issue that sprung out of the fall of man, which is self-reliance. Adam and Eve said, we don't need need to listen to God, we are self-reliant, we feel like we have enough knowledge on our own to go independent and go rogue. And that unfortunately is our tendency as humans, is to be self-reliant, self-assured, self-confident, and Paul says, you,'re wrong in that. Your attitude should be humility, to understand that you need one another. And it's not just showing up and sitting in the service, that's not what he's talking about.

There is no coexisting in Christ until Christ returns. There is no cohabitation in Christ until Christ returns. We are not just passengers who've gotten on a train and we're tolerating one another until we get to our final destination. That's not what it means to be a church. No, we're more like pilgrims who've set out on a journey to make it to the celestial city and we work together, we walk together, we suffer together, we rejoice together until we all make it safely home.

That is who we are. So part of being a church is walking in humility and understanding our great needs that we have. That we desperately need one another, that none of us have arrived, or none of us have it together on our own. Listen to what John Calvin says about this passage. He says this, Everyone desires to have so much of himself so as not to need any help from others.

But the body of mutual communication is this, that no one has sufficient for himself, but is constrained to borrow from others. I admit then that the society of the godly cannot exist except when each one is content with his own measure and imparts to others the gift which he has received and allows himself by turns to be assisted by the gifts of others. You and I, we need each other. I need your gifts in my life, I need you speaking truth in my life. Your sanctification and my sanctification are tied together.

As long as God has us as members of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, we need each other to grow in holiness and to persevere in the faith. Not only does Paul say we gather together, here we see in Romans 12 and we walk in humility, The church exists to serve the body. We serve the body. And that's really the kind of the aim of this passage. So he begins to talk in verse four about how there are, or in verse three, God has assigned to each person faith, which is assumed to be gifts, for as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one body in Christ, individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. And he begins to talk about how we can serve the body, how each person has been assigned by God with gifts to serve the body. And this list that Paul lists is not exhaustive. It's just an example talking about the diversity of gifts that God has assigned to serve the body. Each one of us have been given certain things, certain gifts and skills that God has given to us so that we can serve one another and build one another up for the common good.

And we really see that there's two ways in which we all serve. We all serve in a generic way. We all serve in a general way. It's an expectation for members to serve in a general way. So like a thing like this is a general way we serve is by walking in personal holiness.

The expectation for each member is to daily walk with Christ, to repent of sin, to read your Bible, to pray, to pray over the membership. Those are things that we need to do. It's a general that we serve. Another way that we serve this body generally is by attending. Your presence this evening is a service to the membership of this church.

It's blessing us by being here. Another way we do this is by praying for pastors and praying for the congregation. So praying through the membership directory. As you join this church, you received a letter from our pastor asking you to pray through a page of the membership directory. Another way we do this generically is we're asked to support the needs of the ministry.

So giving generously to the work of the ministry. So those are just a few general ways that we serve this church. What about some specific ways? And as I prepared this sermon, I thought about sending an email to the staff and saying, Hey, just tell me all the specific ways that you've seen this congregation serve one another in the midst of this pandemic. But I decided not to do that because I just wanna share with you as somebody that's new to this church, how I've seen this congregation serve one another.

I mean, just think specifically right now, in the midst of a difficult time where we don't have the ordinary means to meet like we normally do, think about what a blessing this sound team has been to our church. They come every week early, they stay late, they set up and they tear down all so that we can sing these hymns that greatly bless us and hear the word of God preached. They have a specific skill set, they have the time and they're willing to dedicate it and their blessing our congregation each and every week by serving us in this specific way. Think about the parking team, those guys in those masks waving at you. Normally that would be frowned upon, in this case it's a good thing.

They're giving us organization and structure on where we can park. Can you imagine a bunch of DC drivers trying to park with no instructions? It would be a nightmare. But these brothers and sisters are serving us in this way. What a gift that has been for us.

To have this parking team. Another thing that I've gotten to see that I wish more and more members got to see is our elder board. My journey on to Capitol Hill Baptist Church started last May at the Weekender and the thing that changed it for me that made my mind up that I wanted to be a part of this church was watching this elder board care for this congregation and pray over every single member. I have never I've been on church staff for the last nine years. I've never seen a group of pastors care for their membership and pray for the membership like this elder board does here.

And I've been able to see you're a joy to do that to. It's a privilege to shepherd you. I know that they would say that if they could all speak, but these men serve in this specific way and it is a significant blessing. Another way in which this is more of a general way, but I've just loved it is seeing the membership take seriously voting. Voting in members and out of members saying we account for you or we're going to send you off to another membership.

That has been a beautiful way to see our membership serve. A few other specific ways that I've seen and I hope not to embarrass anybody with this but seeing Andy Jones care for Lois Watson during the middle of the pandemic. I would call Andy and just or I would call Lois and just ask her how she was doing and she was like, well Andy brought me groceries again this week. It was my birthday and Andy made me a steak. And he saw a specific need and he met it because he's a part of this body.

Lois needs him and he needs Lois. And even in that conversation, I was so blessed and convicted to hear Lois talk about her co-workers and how she's trying to lead them to Christ. She was blessing me by sharing her passion for the lost. You only get that in church being a part of a body of Christ. Even now, Andrew Bean is serving one of our members that are far away.

He and Vince Young have gone and helped with some of the needs in their home and it's been a blessing to see. This is what the gospel does, is it unites people that normally don't have a whole lot in common, but it brings us together and it makes us one where we care for one another because we have such great need for one another, great care for one another. Those are just a few ways that I've seen. So many of you care for this intern class, these intern classes that have come through maybe by watching their children and as they make the transition to the city, which is hard, giving them date nights, what a blessing that is to so many people. I'm not saying this for us to think that we're a perfect congregation because we're not, and we won't be until Christ returns.

But I just want to say, as somebody who has been a part of church most of my life, it has been a privilege and a joy to see this church love one another and serve one another. And I pray that we would continue to do that in the days ahead. That's what we're called to do. It's part of us gathering physically so that we can love and serve one another in this way. And the last thing that I see here in this passage in Romans 12, that churches, what we're supposed to do is live as one.

Live as one. That's what Paul says here in verse 5.

He says, you, are one body in Christ. That we're many members, we are one body. Because of what Christ did on the cross through his life, his death, his resurrection, he purchased a people for himself and he gave us his spirit and he made us one. Listen to what Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer in John 17, verse 11. He says, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.

I am coming to you, Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you've given me.

That they may be one as we are one. That's a mark of who we are. It's a theological reality that you and I are one because we share the same spirit. We are one together. And I feel like we are in such a tentious time that Satan would love nothing more than for us to believe that we're not one to latch on our identity with something that is temporary.

But we need to let our eternal reality that you and I are one and we will be for all eternity to shape and to transform how we view the contemporary things in this life. We are one and we always will be because of what Christ has done. But my question for you is how are you working to maintain this unity? Are you daily praying for the unity of this church and the unity of this congregation in a time where we don't have our normal means and methods to meet to preserve our unity? How are you praying it?

How are you seeking to bring that unity? Maybe have you done anything that might cause division in these past few weeks? Is there anything that you might need to repent of or call somebody and say, I said a few things or I said something that might be hurtful, I just need to repent, I need to apologize. Because this is a mark of who the body of Christ is. We are one.

So my question initially is, is the church essential? And yes, it is essential because you cannot undo the blood of Jesus Christ. You cannot break the body of Jesus Christ. The church is not an amenity when things are going well, but a necessity for our sanctification and our holiness together. Let us pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you that you've called us out of the world to be a part of your church. And we thank you for the privilege that it is to be a member of your church, to be one with many, to care for many, to have ownership in the lives of many. And so Lord, I pray that you would help us to maintain that unity, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Christ together, to run towards him. To live a life fully devoted to him together. And so, Lord, I pray that this evening, that as we have a members meeting, that all that would take place would honor and please you, would glorify you.

Lord, we ask that you would give us wisdom, help us to hold out the gospel well to our community. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.