Next Sunday we will begin day one of the 40 Days of Community, it’s our kickoff Sunday (six week series called "What on Earth Are We Here For?"). We aren’t doing this just for something to do this fall, giving us one more thing to keep ourselves busy with church. Our leadership has chosen to do this campaign because we believe it will help all of us experience God’s work in our life, in our church, and in our community in fresh new ways. In other words we are expecting to have a God visit. We don�t want this to be business as usual we want to experience a God in a fresh way. We believe God will help us grow closer to him and closer to one another.
Before we experience a God visit, we need to be prepared. God said to Moses when he was about to personally visit the people of Israel, go to the people and prepare them for my visit, purify them (Exodus 19:10, NLT). The verse which has became, for our leadership team, the focal point for a God visit is 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God says, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Last Sunday we began that preparation with a day of prayer and fasting. We had a 24 hour prayer vigil, a day set aside to humble ourselves, pray and seek God�s face, and ask God to anoint the 40 Days. We pray we would experience God, our church would experience God, and even our community would experience God�s presence through us. Our prayers have already begun to pave the way. We ask that you would continue to pray and remember the 40 Days in your personal devotion time (we have some prayer focuses handouts available on the 40 Days information table).
Last week we also began looking at what else it takes (besides prayer and fasting) for us to prepare for a God visit. We looked at the story of the small, wealthy man named Zacchaeus and how he prepared himself. When he heard Jesus was in his town coming down the street, he climbed the sycamore tree looking with expectation to see Jesus. He was looking for a God visit. We won�t experience a God visit, if we are not expecting to see it, and make no effort on our part to see it happen. If we expect the same old, same old, guess what we will get? The same old, same old. This is the element of faith. Because of Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus, he was the only person of the entire crowd that day Jesus went to visit with. Do we look with anticipation, with faith that God is going to do something.
Once Jesus confronted Zacchaeus, he realized he needed to do a spiritual inventory of his life if he was going to experience God�s work. He got honest with himself and looked critically at the direction his life was taking and he realized he was way off track with God. He wasn�t doing what God wanted him to do. He had spent his life in the pursuit of wealth by swindling his own people. In order to get back on track he needed to repent or turn from his sin. Zacchaeus made it right, giving half his possessions to the poor, and repaying anyone 4 times what he had cheated anyone as a tax collector. Zacchaeus tuned from his sin to make room for God in his life. He was restored into right relationship with God and with God’s people that day. He became part of community again that day.
We spent some time doing a spiritual inventory of our own lives. What if Jesus were to walk into our house unannounced? What if he looked in our calendar, our blackberries? What if he looked in our checkbook to see where we spend our money? Would we be embarrassed or ashamed of what he sees? Like Zacchaeus we need to get honest with ourselves and own up to our sin, to those places where we�ve wandered away from God, and then repent or turn and ask forgiveness if we want to experience a God visit in our life and our church. As 2 Chr. 7:14 reminds us if we "turn from our wicked ways," God will "hear from heaven," he will forgive our sin and will heal." That’s the first and most important step.
These are necessary beginning steps, but if we are going to prepare ourselves for a sustained God visit, it will require a commitment to living out God’s purposes. When we choose to do what God asks us to do, that is when we experience a God visit. If you want God’s blessing in your life and in our church, then do what God blesses. We are going back to the book of Acts asking ourselves how did the early Christians experience the sustained, or the ongoing presence and power of God’s Spirit? And in this passage we see that the early Christians committed themselves to at least four things: 1) They made a commitment to worshipping together, 2) growing spiritually together (going deeper in my relationship with God), 3) being in relationship with each other, and 4) serving one another.
Notice everything the believers did in this passage was not just an individual effort, they did it together. During the next seven weeks you are going to hear over and over again, we experience the ongoing presence of God when we are fulfilling God�s purposes together. God designed it so we need each other to accomplish what he has placed us on this earth to do. If we try to do it on our own, we will fall short, and wonder why God seems distant. Why? It’s because you aren’t doing them in Christian community. We aren’t really doing it in the way God designed it.
The Result of the People’s Commitment...A God Visit (v. 43, 47)
Notice the results as they lived out God’s purposes together, it was a God visit. V. 43 "everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were being done," and v. 47 "and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." People were healed, people were saved, they experiencing God in Christian community.
1. Make a Commitment to Worshipping Together (v. 46)
"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts."
The early believers met daily for worship in the Temple. And you thought it was a challenge coming to church once a week, imagine every day. Obviously they didn�t continue this daily practice for a long time, eventually the church met weekly, first on the Sabbath day (Saturday) and then later on Sunday because it was the day of the resurrection of Jesus. Every Sunday they celebrated as a mini-resurrection day.
Worship has always been and will always be an essential means of experiencing God’s presence. When we intentionally set aside time to meet with God, to focus our attention on him he honors that. But what we see in this passage is that worshipping God is not something we are meant to do on our own. Yeah you can go out and worship God on a hike in the woods, out in the fishing boat, or in the hunting blind. But kind of worship God wants most is when his people are together. Listen to this passage from the OT.
NLT Leviticus 23:3 You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day all work must come to a complete stop. It is the LORD�s Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day to assemble for worship. It must be observed wherever you live.
For you workaholics, God gives you six days to work, but on the seventh day, God tells his people to stop working, rest, and assemble together to worship Him. The kind of worship which pleases God and what he blesses, involves the sacred assembly of his people. Are we consistently setting aside one day a week for rest and worship together?
We are asking you to commit to being here for worship over the next seven consecutive weeks during our series to worship God together. I know your lives are busy. I know you have a lot of things going on. But if we are inviting God to visit us we need to be together ready to meet with him.
2. Make a Commitment to Spiritual Growth Together (v. 42)
Worshipping together wasn’t the only thing they did. They also committed themselves to growing spiritually together. Growing spiritually, by the way, is another way of saying growing closer to God, going deeper with God. It says in v. 42, "They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching...and to prayer." They prayed together and they learned the Apostles teachings, or rather Jesus’ teachings, together. Notice they didn’t just have their own personal devotion time during the day to sit down and read the Bible and meet with God, they also met together. We grow better together. In fact you can’t even grow spiritually without others. You may learn God’s Word and quote verse after verse, you may learn doctrine, but you won’t learn how to love God more without also learning to love each another. We need other Christians to help us in our walk, and we in turn need to help them.
We need others to help us grow. What if I were to open the front door and say to Elizabeth
(our four month old daughter), there you go, you’re on your own head out into the world. First, of all she can’t even crawl yet so there’s a problem right there. But that would be ridiculous, she needs a family to help nurture her and help her grow, to learn. It�s the same way with us as God’s children. God says we need a spiritual family to help us grow, to mature in faith, to learn to love each other, only we never outgrow this stage because it’s a lifelong work.
Spiritual growth doesn’t happen on accident, we don�t just stumble closer to God. The farmer or gardener doesn�t receive a harvest without first planting seed, watering, fertilizing, and weeding. Growing closer to God requires intentional practices in our life like learning God’s word, spending time with God in prayer. I want us to realize that you are as close to God as you choose to be. You can�t blame anybody else for your spiritual condition. And you are spiritually mature as you choose to be. You may be a spiritual baby. That’s your choice. You may be a toddler. That’s your choice. You can’t blame your parents, your wife, your husband, your boyfriend, your girlfriend because it’s all up to you. Maturity is a choice. And it’s a daily choice, and it’s not automatic. What do we choose? You have to choose to get in a community, to join a church, to get in a small group. You say, I don’t have time for that. That’s your choice. You make that choice. You’re not going to grow. But I urge you today to start choosing to make time for other people in your life, other believers who can help you grow. That is the smartest choice you can ever make. It will pay eternal dividends
Which brings me to the next thing:
3. Make a Commitment to Being in Relationship Together (v. 42 & 46)
They made a commitment to being in relationship with each other. They didn’t just see each other at worship in the temple courts and say "hi, how’s it going" and then go home, they met together regularly. It says in v. 42 & 46, "They devoted themselves...to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread...They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts." They spent time with their Christian family, eating together (breaking bread), having fun together, sharing their lives with each other, as well as learning and growing together. If all we ever do with our brothers and sisters in Christ is see each other on Sunday mornings for an hour, hour and a half, we are completely missing out on an essential way in which God meets us, through each other. God tells us we need the fellowship of other Christians so that we might encourage each other, build each other up, comfort each other in tough times, and hold each other accountable. But this doesn’t happen in a large group like this on Sunday morning. It happens in smaller settings, these early Christians met from house to house.
But even having a few Christians together at the same time and same place doesn�t mean it�s fellowship. You can be on an elevator with other, same time, same place, and same purpose, but it doesn�t mean you are in relationship together. Being in relationship together does not happen automatically, it requires openness and vulnerability, it requires honesty about where you are in your life, and this takes time. It requires an intentional commitment to being in community with other Christian believers.
During the 40 Days we are asking that everyone commit to two things related to growing together and being in relationship together: First, is to set aside time daily with God using the devotional guide, "Better Together," which we will provide to you. Each day these guides focus on a "one another" verse in the Bible (i.e. "love one another") to focus us on how we are to live in Christian community together. This way we are intentional about spending daily time with God over the 40 days.
Second, we are also asking that you make a commitment to being a part of a small group over the next six weeks. In our groups we will be learning and growing together as well as practicing what we are learning by being in relationship with each other, getting to know others beyond a "hello" on Sunday morning so we might encourage one another in our walk with the Lord. I realize this might take some of you out of your comfort zone, perhaps you are shy and don�t share very openly about yourself, but I am asking us to take a step of faith and try it for six weeks. I know some of you might be thinking, "how am I going to fit this in my already busy schedule." I believe this is part is critically important for us, so I challenge you to carve out the time, make room to meet with God and others and see what God does. We have groups meeting just about every day of the week, so you can sign up for one which is convenient for you.
Video [small group].
4. Make a Commitment to Serve Each Other and the Community (v. 44-45)
Lastly, we see that they made a commitment to serve each other. They even sacrificed for each other. "All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."
I want you to understand this, this morning. We are more than just a collection of individual Christians who happen to be together for worship at the same time on the same day. We are a community. We are a family. We are a church. We are the body of Christ as the Bible says. And Paul says in Romans 12 that each part belongs to the other, and God has blessed each of us with some contribution we can make to the entire body.
NIV 1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God�s grace in its various forms.
God gives blesses us with gifts, skills, money, resources with which we can serve one another. In this passage they focused on their financial blessings which they served one another and gave sacrificially. No one had need because they shared what they had. Since God has placed you here as part of the body, what contribution does God want you to make.
We were meant to serve together. And when we serve together there are lots of benefits. It makes us more effective. We get more done. It multiplies our time and energy. We compensate for each other�s weaknesses. We support each other when we get tired. When we get discouraged and we get burned out, there’s other people there to help us. Solomon wrote in
Eccl. 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: 10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
We don’t just serve our own church family together. God tells us we are to serve those outside the church family too. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to remind us of that. The Samaritan helped a man robbed and beaten up on the side of the road, even though he was of different religious and ethnic background. Jesus� point was that everyone is our neighbor, and we use our gifts and talents to demonstrate God’s love.
We are asking that you make a commitment to use your time, talents, perhaps even your treasure to demonstrate God’s love to the people to our church family, but especially to our community by doing a service project. If you are in a small group (host homes) you’re group will decide what project they would like to do together. If you choose not to be in a group, see Dave Patch and he can hook you up. You’ll hear me say several times through this campaign, "small things done with great love can change the world."
Conclusion:
You may have already noticed that in your bulletins this morning are these little cards that say "My Commitment Card." On this card are four boxes for each of the commitments we have asked you to consider making during these 40 days. [Read the card]. I’m going to give you a few minutes to pray and think about this while we play some music in the background. Then I want you to check the boxes you feel God wants you to commit to during these 40 days, and we will send the offering plates around to collect your response cards. If you still need time to think about it, we will be asking again next week.
Are you willing to make these commitments, to place ourselves in the stream of God’s grace? To place ourselves in a position to have a God visit and receive God’s blessing? Only you can make that choice.
