Today on InSight for Living.

Galatians 3 says there is neither male nor female significance in the body.

God doesn't take you according to the priority of your gender or of your color or of your financial status.

It's true in this organism and it's probably true in no other honor.

You get a number of human beings together, you're going to have prejudice, you're going to have favoritism and status, but not in the body of Christ.

When it comes to the role of the church in our culture, Chuckswendall has said there's a lot of fuzzy thinking.

We tend to have preconceived notions about God's design for this institution based entirely on our personal experience growing up in a church.

Today on InSight for Living we'll attempt to gain a fresh and realistic perspective by going directly to the scriptures.

Today Chucks defines the vital signs of a healthy church as demonstrated by the church in the first century.

Chucks titled his message, God's Body Building Program.

Since the beginning of the church, our Lord has been reaching down into the ranks of humanity, selecting, choosing, calling, drawing to Himself, people, men, women, boys, girls, teenagers, older folks, all different sizes, all different kinds.

He continues to call them out from among, and He places them where? He places them in His family.

The only way you become a member of this body is to believe in Jesus Christ.

Sincereity won't get you in, church going won't get you in, paying your bills won't get you in.

Being a good leader in your community won't get you in. This group is reserved for believers in Christ.

If you're a believer, you're in. If you're not, you're out. It's exclusive. It's ever growing, ever increasing.

Let me show you the growth. Acts chapter 2, verse 41, this is the day of Pentecost. His spirit has come, He has ignited that small body of people in that upper room, and they've come pouring down into the streets of Jerusalem, and they've Peter has become their spokesman.

And this is the result, verse 41, so then those who had received His Word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls.

That's the first little body of people, 3000 souls.

Here they were out in the street of Jerusalem. I love the thought of this. They have no church building, they have no pastor, they had no direction, they had no understanding of what the future hell for them, they had Christ.

They had the enthusiasm of Christ's presence in their lives. He was now bringing their inner beings to a boil as they heard the message of Christ's love and forgiveness, and His resurrection following the cross, they believed, and they're baptized.

Yet again in chapter 11, verse 19, it now spreads beyond Jerusalem, because of persecution, 11, 19, then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen, made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

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