Take a few moments to discuss the following question with a few people around you:
What hinders you in having relationships with God, other members of our congregation and the Christian Community and the wider community?
As we look at Christian communities there are two key ingredients to being a healthy church.
Good teaching and having good relationships.
Some once viewed it this way
When the church community is only focussed on good teaching or good relationships we are like a bird with one wing…
we don’t go far
we simply go around in circles
In our vision statement: Frequently engaging with God, with each other and the wider community, we are focussing on having good relationships that are grounded and shaped by good teaching from God.
Over the last number of years social networking has become extremely popular.
Do you know there are people employed solely to manage the social networking of their organisation?
Facebook one of the most prominent social networking sites is reported to have over 500 million users.
Twitter over 190 million users.
This year’s Olympics was called the Social Media Olympics
So what does this incredible growth in social media tell us?
It is a simple reminder that the way we are wired means we desire relationships.
Relationships are part of our DNA.
And when relationships are not fulfilling or not complete then we will continue seeking out relationships.
This should not be surprising to us as Christians.
In Genesis chapter 2 verse 18 God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
God has created us to be people who relate to Him and to others.
And this is supported by the fact that organisations such as Beyondblue,
who help people with depression,
encourage people to develop and maintain relationships as part of being healed when it comes to depression.
Also the National Church Life Survey highlights that having a healthy relationship with God,
with other members of the congregation
and with the wider community means we are being the church God calls us to be.
We will be healthy and growing.
Now the key relationship for each of us is our relationship with God.
Our relationship with God will shape, influence and guide all our other relationships in a positive and healthy way.
But not only that, our relationship with God will help us see and understand that we are truly loved and how much God desires us and others to be part of His family.
We won’t get this understanding anywhere else.
The first commandment highlights how important it is for our relationship to God to be foundational in our life when it says,
From Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 4 to 5 we hear “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me.”
and Jesus reinforces this when he says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind as we heard in Luke chapter 11 verse 27.
Seeing our relationship with God as foundational and important will bring about many blessings.
It will give us a correct, healthy and good perspective of life.
And the more time we spend with God, the more we see how loyal God is to us and how much God loves us.
We will discover about God and why He does certain things.
We will also get to appreciate God’s mystery.
We will fully get to understand that our relationship with God depends on Him, and that without the actions of Christ we would have a very different relationship.
Unfortunately though whilst we live on this earth developing and maintaining a relationship with God will not always be easy, nor will it necessarily be comfortable or attractive.
There will be times that we will feel let down by God….
This is nothing new…
However a question to think about has God really let us down?
or Is God up to something else?
Some of the Psalms are about people conversing with God who feel alone and let down….
They are asking God why, how come, where are you??
When this happens the temptation is to feel God has nothing to say on the matter or even worse to think He doesn’t care or doesn’t exist.
Yet the scriptures also remind us that even amongst the troubles and difficulties of our lives that God is at work, sometimes slower than we like, sometimes faster than we expect and sometimes in different ways than we anticipate.
Be still and know that I am God from Psalm 46 verse 10 is a verse many people know from the bible
The context of this verse is not go and find a nice comfortable quiet place and be still and then you will know that I am God
The context is amongst all the problems, all the chaos and fighting of life that God is saying, “Hey take notice of how I am being God, that I am still in control, I am still at work, and up to something. “
So contrary to how some people think,
the Gospel is not necessarily about life being easier, more comfortable and more attractive as we live on this earth.
The Gospel is about what Jesus has done for us to fix up our relationship with God.
That means having our hearts and eyes not focussed on what we are up to on earth as being the main thing,
but having them focussed on heaven and allowing this focus to affect our lives on earth and how we see everything else about our lives.
Now the challenge for each of us is to intentionally place ourselves in situations where we are frequently in engaging with God.
Part of engaging is turning up.
Turning up to devotion time
Turning up to worship
Turning up to life groups
Turning up to other activities that help us engage with God
Turning up is the start
But it is more than just turning up
Engaging is also turning on
Turning on is about listening and responding
Have you ever experienced a conversation with someone who is not really listening??
Or with someone who doesn’t give you a chance to respond??
Or with someone who seems to have their mind and heart elsewhere??
They may have turned up to the conversation, but they are not really there
They are not turned on
Turned on means
Listening intently
And when we turn on to our relationship with God
it is about, what is God saying to me here?
What questions do I need to explore deeper with God?
And the reality is as we have a relationship with God
God not only encourages us but calls us to have relationships with other people
Now our reason for these relationships are not to earn our way into heaven,
but because God wants us to share what He has already secured for us with others.
Remember the second greatest commandment Jesus says is that we are to love others as much as we love ourselves.
Now the first of these relationships is that we are to have strong and developing relationships with other believers.
So a question I have for you is how is your relationships with other members of this congregation and with the wider Christian community?
What does it mean for us to be regularly engaging with others members of our congregation and the wider Christian community?
Unfortunately I have noticed that some people believe that strong and healthy relationships in our congregation are not important, nor a priority.
Nor do some people think it is important to work together as the Body of Christ.
This is neither logical nor biblical.
The strength of the church comes from people living and working together with Christ as the focus.
Much of the New Testament is an encouragement to develop and grow stronger in our relationships with each other as Christians.
In Romans 12 verse 10 we hear Be devoted to one another in brotherly and sisterly love. Honour one another above yourselves.
and in Galatians 6 verse 10 we hear Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Now engaging with each other is not the main goal of Christianity, but it is a very important part of being church
It is something we can’t dismiss or ignore or leave it to someone else
Having relationships with others is essential in helping us fulfil God’s calling for us to be His arms and feet in the community
And as we engage with each other
We will not only learn more about each other
We will learn more about God
we will be able to support each other
we will comfort each other
we will help others see God’s guidance and love
we will gain a sense of what it means to be part of God’s family
However just like our relationship with God
being in relationship with each other is not always going to be easy.
For a start we are not all the same.
However the church community works best when instead of seeing our differences as a problem automatically
We ask questions like
What is God teaching me through someone who is different from me?
How can I work together for God’s mission with someone who is different to me?
In other words we see the differences as a blessing from God
Blessings that help us reach others
There is a saying it takes a village to raise a child
well it can also be said
it takes a congregation focussed on Christ to raise a disciple
Outreach and ministry is something we should approach together.
Recognising each other’s talents, gifts, experiences, personalities, age, interests,
and using these differences to connect others to God through our community.
But what about when problems arise between us?
Listen to Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
In other words remain focussed on Christ
Continue meeting with other believers
It is important that we don’t withdraw from our Christian relationships
Author Bernard Anderson in "Out of the Depths" speaks of the importance of maintaining and being in relationship. He says, "There are too many people who become recluse when we can’t get up. Instead of getting surrounded with people to help us, most of us try to eat the problem away or starve the problem away and stay behind closed doors. When life is toughest, we stay home from church. When we can’t pull it together, we withdraw. In is in these times we need to be surrounded by church people and celebrate God’s presence!
The truth is isolation and silence rarely help us
In fact distancing ourselves from other believers often leads to further problems and rarely solves anything
Instead spending time listening, clarifying and encouraging each other
helps us to be the disciples God has called us to be.
And having healthy and strong relationships as a church community
equips us to engage with the wider community in a more God effective way
For a start Jesus says in John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
How we relate to each other as believers is the start of our witnessing to wider community.
In our individualistic consumer society
it is easy to forget that mission and ministry
is a team sport…not an individual sport
Yes people may have individual jobs and roles
however we are always part of God’s team.
Being the body of Christ is about living out that together we are going to bring Christ to the wider community and help others engage with Christ.
In our reading we heard from Luke, Jesus broadened the love the neighbour to include both believers and non believers
And then when we explore the ministry of the church in the New Testament we see that as a community of faith, with Christ as the foundation we are called to engage others with God’s love and message of salvation
This is critical
Our engaging with the wider community is not about the wider community falling head over heals in love with us either as individuals or a community
It is about us being focussed on connecting them to God and His love
Acts 17:16 – 32 gives us a good illustration of what this means
Paul ventures out into the wider community at Mars Hill
A community that does not know God
His focus is to connect them to God and what it really means to follow God
He is not focussed on him being accepted by the people at Mars Hill
but His focus is to share with them the true salvation message
Now listen to what happens reading from verse 32
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
When we engage with the wider community
our success is not whether we are liked, in fact we should expect some resistance.
Nor should our success be whether everyone we speak to about God’s salvation message has accepted it.
Our success is have we shared that truly following God
means by ourselves we have no hope of having a good relationship with God
but by following and trusting that Jesus’ death and resurrection makes it possible to have a loving relationship with God that can last forever.
So as a community and as individuals let’s think about what it means to be frequently engaging with God, with each other and the wider community..
so that everyone we know has an opportunity to know and trust the loving God.
So let’s keep working at our relationship with God, each other and the wider community so we can be God’s church.
AMEN
