SERIES: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It
(freely adapted from Craig Groeschel’s It: How Churches and Leader Can Get it and Keep it)
“WE EXPERIENCE IT TOGETHER”
ACTS 2:42-47
OPEN
We’re in our third message in our series, “IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It.” The first message was called, “What Is It?” We defined it this way – “It is what God does through a rare combination of certain qualities found in his people.” Those qualities are: 1. A passion for his presence 2. A deep craving to reach the lost 3. Sincere integrity 4. Spirit-filled faith 5. Down-to-earth humility 6. Brokenness.
Last week we started to investigate the traits that marked churches that had it and see how we can develop those traits in our congregation The first quality was a God-given, God-breathed vision and we said that “You Can See It Clearly.” This morning we’re going to look at becoming a tightly-knit team because “We Experience It Together.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower – “It is better to have one person with you than three people working for you.” Churches that have it enjoy it together. They have an unmistakable camaraderie. Anyone close to them can see it. They can feel it. There is affinity, community, fraternity, and sincerity. It is Christianity at its best. The people love being together.
Pollster George Barna conducted an interesting study which revealed that 92 pecent of Americans claim to be independent. For many people, independence is a goal. They want to be financially independent – I don’t need to depend on anyone for money. They want to be professionally independent – I don’t want to report to anyone. And they want to be relationally independent – I don’t need anyone or answer to anyone.
A business man or woman wants to believe they’re a self-made man or a self-made woman. Many athletes are more concerned with their own performance than with the results of their teams. Even in marriages, people are often more concerned with what they can get instead of what they can give.
Relational scars contribute to the desire to function alone. Maybe you’ve opened yourself up to someone and you’ve been hurt in exchange. You’ve shared your personal hurt but have had others belittle your pain. You gave your heart to someone who walked away and rejected you. So you’ve decided to be independent, not needing anyone. Like Simon and Garfunkel, you sing the classic folk song: “I have no need for friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain. I am a rock. I am an island.” After being burned, now you live like so many others as a rock or an island.
As long as you’re afraid of intimacy and spiritual partnership, you won’t likely experience it. To have it, you have to share it with each other. Just as there’s no I in team, there is no it in independence. Craig Groeschel said, “When it walks alone, vultures circle and obituaries are written.”
This morning, I invite you to look with me at the early church. They had it in Jerusalem. Acts 2:42-47 – “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the
believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to
anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in
their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
WE PREPARE TOGETHER
One of the first things you see in the early church is the deep commitment to studying God’s Word together. It was a commitment to know and understand what God wanted to do through them both corporately and individually.
Studying God’s Word together and spending time together in fellowship brings us closer to God and closer to each other. But more importantly it helps us determine and define our vision and our purpose in being the body of Christ in our community.
Imagine putting together a ten-thousand piece puzzle. If your role is to put ten pieces together in the corner, buy you have no idea what difference your part makes, you!’’ quickly grow bored or frustrated. You’ll want to know what you’re contributing to. What will the completed puzzle look like?
When a person understands and embraces the mission, they’ll enjoy and appreciate the camaraderie of sacrificing together. They willingly give up some things they love for something they love even more – reaching people for Christ. Mother Theresa said, “None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
WE PLAY TOGETHER
What I mean is that we have to have fun together. We have to enjoy being together. We have to laugh together. We have to be together because missing an opportunity to be with each other means missing out on a blessing.
There is a book called Refrigerator Rights written by Will Miller and Glenn Sparks. The book deals with why so few people today have these rights in each other’s lives.
What are “refrigerator rights”? Someone who has “refrigerator rights” is a person who is so trusted that they can walk into your home, open your refrigerator, and help themselves to a sandwich and a drink. They don’t have to ask. They just grab the bread, the bologna, the cheese, and the mayonnaise.
If you’re like most people, I bet that very few people have “refrigerator rights” in your home. Most people are too busy to really get to know each other. You might have friends at work or at whatever club you belong to but very few people do life together in their homes.
By contrast, in churches that have it are so connected and committed to each other, they almost always have “refrigerator rights” with each other. And when someone else observes it, they look on with envy. They want it. They need it. In the early church, they spent time together – both at church and in their homes.
WE PRAY TOGETHER
Our greatest ministry is prayer. The early church was a praying church. They were committed to the ministry of prayer.
We should pray as we seek God’s direction for our congregation. We should pray that we are tuned to what God is doing and get on board. We should pray fervently for one another.
I never feel stronger than when I know people are praying for me. I have never felt closer to God and to others than when I am praying for them. The church with it loves each other. They do life together. It is more than friendship. It is something that God gives. It’s a partnership of people with a deep love for each other committed to a single mission.
WE PRAISE TOGETHER
Corporate worship is important. Jesus promised that when two or three gather in his name, he would be there. So when opportunities come to join together with other Christians in praise to our Lord and Savior, don’t be anxious to find something else to do. Find reasons to praise together.
It helps you. It helps those you join together with. It helps those who are looking for something real. And they should be able to the real it with a group of praising people.
The movie Jerry Maguire features Tom Cruise in the title role. His character helps manage the careers of professional athletes. Toward the end of the movie, after one of those rare emotional guy moments, Jerry embraces his client and friend Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) Another athlete observes the embrace with envy and disappointment. He asks his agent, “Why don’t we hug like that?” The agent is a money-grabbing jerk. He hesitates and then – you can almost see him thinking, The things I do for a buck – he reaches for a hug. The two men stop midhug and pull apart awkwardly. It wasn’t working.
You can’t fake it. It is genuine and real. Nothing passes for it. When God’s people join together in real praise, things begin to happen. People begin to see it and feel it. And then they want it for themselves.
WE PRODUCE TOGETHER
The apostle Paul used the body as a metaphor for the church. 1 Cor. 12:12 – “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
Everyone has their role. One person’s role is to be the mouthpiece – communicating the vision. Another has the role of the hands – executing the work daily. Another fulfills the role of the feet – carrying the work and ministry outward. Yet another lives out the role of the spleen – okay, I have no idea what a spleen does, but you get the point.
The body needs all of the parts functioning together. A mouth or hand or foot or spleen lying on the ground by itself is not an “independent body part.” It serves no purpose. And it’s g-r-o-s-s! Outside of the body, seeking to function on its own, a body part will cease to function. And it’s the same in the church. It needs others with it to flourish.
Babe Ruth said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You can have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
The it-free or it-lite church might be called a team but they are really just a group of individuals doing their own thing. You might have a group that thinks about kids’ ministry and another group that focuses on what kind of music is appropriate for church. There might be some really interested in church dinners and socials. There might be some who are really interested in the Sunday school program or work projects around the church building. These groups are most passionate about they are doing, forgetting how their role should fit into the overall mission of the church.
That brings about competition. When two parties compete, one loses. That’s why in churches who have it, they don’t compete with one another. They work to complete one another. They love the mission so much they’re willing to give and take. They’re eager to work hard and play hard. When they win, they win as a team. When they lose, they learn as a team. Someone said, “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
CLOSE
You can’t experience it alone. God wants you to share it. And yet for so many, the goal is to be independent. These well-intentioned people fail to realize that to be independent is to be distinctly non-Christian. Henry Ford: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping it together is progress. Working together is success.”
Many people pursue a goal that is opposed to God’s plan. God designed you to be interdependent. He wants you depending on him and on his people. If you want it, you’ll experience it best when you live in authentic community with God’s people.
Pursuing a goal opposed to God’s plan is called sin. One thing we should certainly recognize is that we’re all guilty of doing it. Rom. 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
