Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Being the Body of Christ (part two) Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA January 16, 2005 Main Scripture text: Acts 2:42-47. In Christ, God has offered to live in a covenant relationship with us. Our responsibility under this covenant is to be faithful to God, which includes being faithful to each other. Each person who joins this church makes four pledges regarding that faithfulness. We pledge to participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service. In last week's sermon we covered prayers -- today: presence, gifts, and service. How do we participate by our presence? It means more than just being physically present. Here is how the Apostle Paul instructed the early believers to do church: When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. (1 Cor. 14:26) What really makes church alive and life-changing is when it is obvious that God is present with us and is speaking to us. Presence is more than just showing up. It is showing up prepared to be used by God through gifts to the church that will arise out of your own devotional life. Next, gifts. The primary focus here is financial or material giving. The United Methodist Discipline, our denominational guidebook, says tithing -- or giving ten percent of one's income -- should be our "minimum goal of giving." Scripture teaches that tithing isn't just a personal decision. It is a covenant responsibility that affects the whole community of faith. But the New Testament teaches that our responsibility doesn't at end ten percent. As the hymn writer so poignantly put it: "All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give." This is Christian stewardship. Finally, we pledge our service, because Christ has sent us to be His ambassadors in this world. We do that by building bridges of relationship through which we gain the right and privilege of telling others about Jesus. The ministries we engage in are ways we live out our covenant with God through the church. To be the Body of Christ we must be a covenant-keeping people. That mean supporting Christ's church through "our prayers, presence, gifts and service, so that in everything God may be glorified." Supporting texts: 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 | Leviticus 27:30-32 | Malachi 3:8-10 | 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 | Ephesians 4:11-13 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (35:00). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 050116a: Being the Body of Christ-2. © 2005 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us