The Sycamore Church

How Do I Become a Member? Pt. 3

Pastor Eric Burton

Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026

How Do I Become a Member?

We’ve been talking the last few weeks about what it means to be a member of the church. We have come to discover it’s more than a roll call. It’s a spiritual buy-in to Jesus Christ.

We learned in week one of our series that the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:47. He added to an assembly that provided protection and community, but more importantly, this salvation:

1.      Delivers from the penalties of the Messianic judgment.

2.      Delivers from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance.

You have to be saved. But what does that mean?

Sin is not just bad behavior; it’s a trespass against God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Sin is more than bad thoughts; it’s the position of being separated from God. Regretfully, people don’t know they are separated from God.

1. It’s a change of view.

Astigmatism is when light coming into the eye is bent or fractured and blurs the vision. In the beginning, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil. Their eyes were opened, or fractured, so they saw more than one thing. Before, their eye was singular, knowing only the love of God. But sin opened their eye, or fractured their vision, to see good and evil—multiple things. We need Jesus to fix our eyes.

Matthew 6:13: Pray like this… “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

In Matthew 4, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, but He overcomes Satan. Now He is saying, when you pray, pray that you overcome like I overcame: “Don’t yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:22: The eye is the light of the body. If the eye is healthy, the whole body is full of light. But if the eye is “evil” (meaning distracted, fractured, double-minded, worried, and anxious), the whole body is filled with darkness or is unhealthy. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep is that darkness? How deep does it go?

2. It’s a change of thinking.

People don’t know what sin is until they know what is right. The apostle said it like this: “It was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, ‘You must not covet.’” (Romans 7:7)

God’s Word sheds light on my life and showed me I was wrong and there was a better way. It didn’t call for me to change my behavior; it called for me to change my thinking.

Romans 12:2: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

The best modification of behavior is not a change of action, but a change of thinking.

3. It’s a change of heart.

Nicodemus was a member of a religious group, and he believed Jesus was sent by God. Proximity and knowledge don’t save you. We need Jesus to change our thinking and our heart. You must be born again!

Romans 2:28–29: “For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit.”

Colossians 2:11: “When you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting of your sinful nature.”

Jesus isn’t coming back for a building full of people enjoying life together. He is coming back for a people that are saved—a bride that He will present as blameless and without spot because they have been washed by the Word of God.