Core Value 4 - A Supporting Community Series

Message

Acts 2:42-47

“A Supporting Community”

My mother has a large property and there is a path that leads from the front to the back. It is completely surrounded by trees.

At night it is a very scary place. There are patches where it is very dark even when the moon is shining. When you go down that path by yourself sometimes you just start running because you give yourself a scare.

It doesn’t help that every now and then someone would hide along the driveway in the dark and deliberately scare you.

If ever we are a family together at night at Mum’s house – no-one walks down the path on their own.

You get support.

It is so important isn’t it. To have support in the journey of life that can at times create fear, bring isolation, cause doubts and make us feel vulnerable.

The Bible has recognised this truth for over 2,700 years

Two are better than one, if either of them falls down, one can help the other up.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

You see there? The biblical antidote for falling, isolation, fear and vulnerability is a supporting community. If a three strand cord is not quickly broken

- then how unbreakable is a family unit?

- and how unbreakable is a 6-10 person fellowship group?

- what about the unbreakable community in a 15-20 person woman’s camp?

- or a 60-70 person church?

Right from the beginning of our church the eleven of us who started the church knew this.

It has been a defining Core Value which we described it this way:-

A SUPPORTING COMMUNITY

To provide a caring environment of unity, love and fellowship.

We did this because we knew that the growing reality of our world is that we are actually becoming less and less known and more and more isolated.

Social Media ironically has made many people more antisocial.

Online Shopping means we go out less.

Blogging enables you to have all sorts of stimulating and obnoxious conversations, without leaving the house.

Church on the web can give you everything you need spiritually without leaving your armchair.

Now I recognize some positives

… it is convenient

… it helps keep contact

… it is a blessing for those who are shut in

… we get access to a wider audience

BUT

My question through all of this is - do these activities give you an environment of unity love and fellowship?

Do they give you what the Bible calls koinonia?

In the Bible koinonia looks like this.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

Galatians 2:9

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Hebrews 13:15-16

Koinonia … blogs, social media and online church just can’t give that to you.

It only comes when we you are a part of an active supporting community. For here is the reality.

• For all the weaknesses.

• For all the failings.

• For all the occasions when she has not functioned as she should.

For all of this Jesus established the church, and only the church, as His supporting community where people from different backgrounds, social classes and standards, are made into one body.

Open up your Bible to Acts 2:42-47 (read)

The word “devoted” is a key word. To be devoted means "to attach oneself", or "to hold firm", or "to spend much time in". As a church we are meant to be involved together … we are meant to be strong together.

Let’s think about it in terms of a laminated beam for a moment.

A laminated beam is not one huge piece of wood. It is made up of many pieces of wood which have been joined together.

Individually none of the pieces on their own have anywhere near enough strength to hold the weight being put on them.

Together it has strength.

However, even when it is together, and then you take away a few layers, then the strength of the beam also diminishes.

That is what are called to do – all the pieces are together doing their part.

The strength of the supporting community is directly related to the caring environment of unity, love and fellowship.

This verse shows how such an environment is achieved.