Focal Passage Romans 12:3-16
When I was in middle school, I went to watch the high school team play football one night. It rained the whole game. My hometown travels well to away games, and oftentimes the home team would have to bring out extra bleachers to make room for fans. This game, it rained like never before. Yet hundreds of people traveled two hours to sit in the rain and watch football.
When it comes to church, the old joke goes that if it’s a bad weather day, attendance will be down. Why will many people go out and watch a sporting event, go shopping, hunting or whatever they like to do when weather is bad? Yet, if weather is not ideal, many people decide it’s just not good conditions to gather with the church body.
We love God, but sometimes our commitment to the church is questionable. A commitment to Christ should include a commitment to His body, the church. When looking at the lesson for this week, we see that when we come to Christ, we become one body in Christ.
Each member of the body is different because Christ has given each one a gift. This gift is to be used to build His church. When we fail to show up, the church suffers. We are called to live life together. When we try to live the Christian life alone, when hardships come, who is there to walk through that with us? As believers we are called to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We are called to commit ourselves to one another as we seek to serve Christ.