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Last updated 9pm Sunday 25 January 2026.
Sunday 25 January 2026
Weekly Sheet
Is available to download (25/01/2026, revised) as are the sermon notes (also reproduced below).
9pm Audio Recordings available.
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Sermon Notes
Loving Your Church – Belonging
Introduction: Belong, believe, behave, or believe, behave, belong?
What does it mean to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ?
Belonging to Christ, belonging to the Church: ‘And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47).
Those who by faith believed the gospel of Jesus Christ were added to the church! Simply put, we belong to the church – universal and local - through our ‘Union with Christ.’
‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians. 5:17-21).
Belonging to the church is the work of Christ through the gospel. It is not a choice; it is not optional! Belonging to the church is a natural expression of our union with Christ. Our response is one of obedience, to commit to belonging.
Created to belong: Why is it necessary to belong to the church?
All humans are created by God with a natural desire to belong; ‘Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same, you wanna be where everybody knows our name.’ (Theme tune to the TV series Cheers.)
Why is this so? ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1:27)
Eden reveals God’s heart to and for those he created:
· Created in his image and likeness – The Triune God
· Created to belong to and with God knowing his heart for us – ‘not as a possession, knowing that the heart of him who made [us] beats lovingly toward [us] (Horatius Bonar) – demonstrated through the extravagance of creation!
As we read through Scripture we can observe a constant theme – God forming a kingdom of people for himself – ‘They will be my people, and I will be their God’ (Jeremiah 32:38).
In God’s covenant with Abraham – ‘Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”’ (Genesis 12:1-3) – there is a two-fold purpose:
1. To reveal his heart to Israel
2. That through Israel God’s heart will be revealed to the nations
However, Israel failed! The problem was sin! Sin pushes us away from God and one another. The desire to belong remains, everybody wants to belong somewhere, but because of sin we look for it in all the wrong places, pushing us further away from God.
Saved to belong: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
The solution – Jesus and his saving work on the cross dealing with sin once and for all.
Through faith in Christ, we are not just saved from our sin, we are reconciled to God, we once more belong to and with him. We are back where we belong! – ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)
We are saved to belong:
· To Christ and his church – Acts 2:47
· To one another in the church – 1 Corinthians 12-12-31 – every metaphor for the church in the NT is a picture of belonging. To Jesus and to one another
An essential fruit of genuine salvation is belonging to the church. To a church. But this belonging is not passive!
Committed to Belonging: We are to be INTENTIONAL in our commitment to the Church both universal and local.
Scripture provides clear instructions for what it means to belong to the church:
‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near’ (Hebrews 10:23-25).
These instructions are not heavy handed, rather, they are intended to enable us to know and make known the heart of God in every aspect of the life of the church.
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5 reminds us that we are ‘ambassadors for Christ’ which reflects the two-fold purpose of God’s covenant with Abraham which has been fulfilled in Christ:
1. To reveal his heart to the church
2. That through the church his heart would be revealed to the nations
This is what it means to belong to the church!
To gather as the church is essential – do ‘not neglect to meet together’ - When we gather as the church, we are reminded that we belong to something so much bigger than ourselves:
‘But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel’ (Hebrews 12:22-24)
We are individually saved into the church. But from that moment on we are not meant to be alone! We are eternally connected to:
· God in heaven – are eyes are always lifted to him
· With one another – past, present, future – it is important to ensure as we gather now (the NT ‘one another), we are connected to those who have gone before (confessions and creeds) and those who will come after us (ensuring that we pass on sound doctrine).
Belonging to the
church is a glorious gift that is both, a privilege and a responsibility and
when we commit ourselves to the church there will be great joy!
Saturday 17 January 2026
Jim Harries - Mid-January News
In Jim's latest update he gets into AI and podcasting. Details are also available as to how you can support him financially.
Heating at Church
A replacement heater for the main church has been ordered However, it will be the end of January at the earliest before it can be installed. In the meantime we will meet in the hall. Zoom will still be available - but not the same immersive experience.
Friday 28 November 2025
Family Slot Video Available
From last week:
Sunday 26 October 2025
Family Slot Video
Apologies to those on Zoom, for the technical problems this morning which meant there was no sound. Please feel free to watch and listen on line using this link.
Sunday 5 October 2025
October-December Newsletter
Is available to download.
Saturday 19 July 2025
Latest Newsletter
The August-September 2025 Newsletter is available to download (link corrected!).
Sunday 6 April 2025
Sarah Craigen Completed the London Landmarks Half Marathon
In Aid of the British Liver Trust
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| Thank you so much to those who donated whatever you can, it has really made a massive difference. |
