"Better Together"

6 November 2005

U.S. Army Chaplain (MAJ) Ken Harris

CP Walker Multicultural Gospel Service

Taegue, South Korea

BIG IDEA: A Christian is spiritually stronger and more powerful in prayer when he has someone (such as an accountability partner) to hold him accountable for his actions and behaviors.

REFERENCES: Amos 3:3 KJV (Can two walk together, except they be agreed?); James 5:19-20 MSG (My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back

20 and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God); Acts 3:1-8 KJV (A Lame Man is Healed); Acts 4:1-22 (Peter and John trial in front of the Jewish Council); Ecclesiastes 4:9-10-KJV (Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up);1 Corinthians 1:10-KJV (Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment); I Thessalonians 5:11-KJV(Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do); Matthew 18:19-20 KJV (Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them); Luke 24:12 GW (But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down to look inside and saw only the strips of linen. Then he went away, wondering what had happened ); Luke 5:10 GW(James and John, who were Zebedee’s sons and Simon’s partners, were also amazed. Jesus told Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will catch people instead of fish.”); Galatians 2:9 GW (James, Cephas, and John (who were recognized as the most important people) acknowledged that God had given me this special gift. So they shook hands with Barnabas and me, agreeing to be our partners. It was understood that we would work among the people who are not Jewish and they would work among Jewish people);

I. ANNOUNCE THE PERICOPE: Acts 3:1-8 (KJV)

II. READ THE PERICOPE: Acts 3:1-8

III. READ THE TEXT: ACTS 3:1,4 KJV (Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us).

IV. PURPOSE: To encourage the hearers to become spiritually stronger and more powerful in prayer by choosing an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER to hold them accountable for their actions and behaviors.

V. Sermonic Theme: “Better TOGETHER”

VI: Introduction:

… The Bible promotes fellowship. At the very beginning (in Genesis 2:18 GW), during the Creation of Man and Woman, God say that it is NOT Good for Man to be ALONE. In other words, it’s not good for Mankind to live isolated and separate. Instead, it’s GOOD FOR Mankind to live in fellowship.

And obviously we can’t fellowship by ourselves. For it takes at least two people. At the same time, I contend this morning that one CAN WORSHIP with a CROWD; but one can’t TRULY fellowship with a crowd. Because True Fellowship happens in a small group of people.

That’s why Jesus had a small group of twelve disciples. Jesus’ ministry modeled fellowship with Tsemed – Sem-med - (a Hebrew Word which means: a yoke or team of at least two people).

*********************TAKE 5 BEATS********************

MOVE 1: In the Bible, the Greek word for fellowship is “koin-o-nia”.

a. It means to be as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ.

b. For real fellowship takes us beyond simply socializing, or studying together, into deeper levels of serving together, and, at times, even suffering together.

c. All of which, I believe is the antidote to the pervasive loneliness, un-answered prayers, and spiritual weakness that haunts so many Believers in the Church.

*******************TAKE 5 BEATS ********************

MOVE 2: In contrast, my brothers and sisters, several years ago God gave us the ministry of Deacon-In-Training (D.I.T.s).

a. At the time, we had no idea that others in our civilian community - around the world – had also been given something similar.

b. The objective of the Deacon In Training Ministry (as we understood it) was simply to immediately incorporate would-be servers, Ordain Deacons, Ministers, and Elders under one umbrella for training, and accountability purposes to the body of Christ; and one to another.