I LOVE MY CHURCH – “Community: I Need My Church”
1 Kings 19:1-18 Hebrews 10:19-25 11/15/2015
We are in part 2 of our series “I Love My Church.” When you hear the words New Life At Calvary, what’s the first image that comes to your mind.” One of the reasons that the church exists, is that God created us with a need inside of us for community. God lives and exists in community. That is why we have the Trinity. God is never alone and never isolated because God exists as the Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. We may not be eager to admit it, but to be spiritually healthy, requires us to be in fellowship with God and with the church.
It was Jesus who said, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Now when we hear those words the gates of hell, we often imagine Satan launching an attack with his demons against the church. But how many of you know, that Satan doesn’t go and find demons to launch an assault against the church, he simply uses us directly. When Jesus was ready to die by going to the cross, Satan launched on attack on his mission by using one of his closest disciples. It was Peter who told Jesus, “Jesus stop talking like that. You can’t die. I for one will not let that happen.” Jesus looked directly at Peter and said, “ Get behind me Satan, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Now if Satan could get into Peter to try to keep Jesus from building His church, don’t you know that He can get into some of us and do the same thing. It’s not that we don’t have good motives for what we are saying, it’s just that what we are doing is contrary to building the church. We may have good concerns, but they are human concerns and not the concerns of God. The hard thing for us is allowing the Holy Spirit to show us the difference between the two. The church is called the body of Christ, because we are mutually dependent on one another, and we live inside of a community. It’s sometimes called the kingdom of God.
The whole reason that Jesus came to earth was because God wanted us to be in community with him. Have you ever had a major argument with someone and they hurt your feelings very badly, and the next time they run into you they try to be all lovey dovey as though nothing ever happened. How does that make you feel inside? We forget that God is righteous and holy, with perfect justice. Although God is forgiving, God’s righteousness and justice demands that God be true to Himself.
We are all born with a nature that seeks to break off our relationship with God so that we can do our own thing. But once we break it, we do not have the ability to put it back together again. To come into the presence of God on our own requires a perfection that we can never obtain. That is why the word of God teaches, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. None of us can ever enter into community with God no matter how hard we try. Some people think, they can choose their own terms and conditions for entering into a relationship with God.
But simply because we could not measure up, does not mean that God no longer wants to be in community with us. Jesus Christ came into the world, to make it possible for us to enter into a right relationship with God all over again, because when we put our faith and confidence in Jesus, when God looks at us, He looks at us as having been made perfect in Christ.
God knows about our sin, but God sees the righteousness of Christ wrapped around us. We get to stand in the presence of God, not because of who we are, but because of who we are with. If you tried to go into the white house into places off limits to the public, you would find yourself arrested and being sent to jail. Why, because you have no business being there, you are breaking the law. It does not matter if you think you have a good reason, or you are sincere in believing you can go where you want to go in the white house. After all you are an American.
But if you did the same thing of going into the white house, but you were walking with President Obama, chances are you’re not going to be arrested. If the president said,” he or she’s with me, that’s enough. You don’t have to prove anything.”
When you try to enter the presence of God, you can enter because Jesus says,” He or she is with me. This one is one of mine.” You’re not in God’s presence because of how good you are, or how long you have been in the church. You are there because Jesus blood was shed, and it washes you clean from your sin. That allows you to enter into community with God. God is more interested in our walking in Christ, than he is our service for Christ.
But Jesus wanted more than for us to be in community with God. He desired for us to be in community with each other. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, by this shall all people know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” Pastor Toby gave us a devotional reading that stated, “It is easy to love Jesus, but to love the people Jesus has put into his church is not so easy.” I think we make the mistake of thinking, that if we are just friendly to guest, preach a good sermon, and sing well they will come back because they will have met Jesus. Jesus seems to be saying, the way we treat each other is more convincing of anything we do in letting people know that Jesus is with us. Are we really loving one another?
One of Satan’s greatest tricks is to get us to believe that we can serve God by ourselves. He can get us to be full of pride thinking, we are the only one that’s truly serving God in the right way. Jesus calls us to be in community with one another. Satan does his best to isolate us from other believers, especially when times get difficult or we’re tempted to go after sin. It’s funny how the more we compromise with sin in our own life, the more critical and judgmental of the church we become.
The prophet Elijah had been used by God in a powerful way and stirred up the people to revival. Folks started turning to God and everything was cool until, he crossed the wrong person. Jezebel put out a reward for any hit man who could take Elijah out within the next 24 hours. How would you feel if God used you in a tremendous way, and it led to a price tag put on your head, wanted dead or alive, bonus if dead $50,000 payment? Elijah was scared. But instead of running to other believers, he ran into the wilderness. He left the one friend he had behind. He had a secret plan.
This great prophet was going to commit suicide. He wanted to quit, and give up because he had isolated himself. But his method of committing suicide was by sleeping under a broom brush. He said “God, I have had enough. When I fall asleep, you just take me on to heaven.” God still had work for Him to do, so God sent an angel to wake him up. The angel told him to “get up and eat.” Elijah looked around and saw some baked bread and a jar of water. He thought for sure he was on death row getting his last meal. So he got up and ate, and then laid back down again to commit suicide by sleep.
The angel of the Lord came a second time and touched him, and told him, “get up and eat because the journey is too much for you.” He got up and went in the strength of that food traveling for forty days and forty nights until he reached Mt. Horeb. He then went into a cave. And God wanted to know, “why was he there isolated from the rest of the community.” Twice Elijah explained how he was the only one really trying to do God’s will and all he got for his troubles was somebody trying to have him killed. Elijah was convinced, that he was the only one left in the country who truly loved God and that God should show a little more appreciation for him.
Elijah had a two fold problem. 1) He thought he was more important in God’s kingdom than he really was. And 2) He thought the only way God could use people was the way he thought God could use people. Both of these problems hurt the community God wants us to share in the church. There is a tendency to think, my ministry or my group is more important than any other ministry or group because its mine. We forget Jesus did not promise to build our ministry or our group, Jesus promised to build His church.
It’s easy for us to fight against Jesus, because we have over evaluated what we are doing. What we are we doing may be positive and helpful, but it’s really not all that. The church is not going to fold because of your group. I know for a fact, if I died tomorrow, you guys will have my funeral and say some nice things about me.
But you are not going to do as Elijah did and go sit under a broom tree and say, “Well Pastor Rick is gone, we might as well close the church.” You are going to thank God for what I had to give, and you’re going to say, “okay God, what’s your plan for us today.” You are not going to be at my grave trying to raise me from the dead, because the projectors are not working or the microphones went out, or to do one more sermon.
The other problem that keeps us from enjoying community is not appreciating what others have to offer to the community. Did you know why Jesus told us to love each other? Because the natural thing to do is to ignore or overlook one another. We all have prejudices that keep us from enjoying community life with each other. If a person is above or below a certain age, we don’t speak to them. If they wear a certain kind of clothing, the clothing keeps us from seeing the person Jesus wants us to speak to.
If they smell a certain way, we are not going to touch them. If they have offended us in the past, we just are going to avoid them. If they have a certain kind of job, we think they would never want to speak to us.
If they don’t measure up to our definition of handsome or gorgeous, we would not even consider going on a date with him or her. We all have some prejudices in us. Ask God to show it to you, and God will do it. There is somebody you have seen week after week, and you have never once introduced the Jesus in you to that person by telling them your name and finding out theirs.
Sunday morning is good time for us to praise and worship God together. But it is also a time of deception, because most of us look like much better Christians on Sunday morning than we really are. Most of us look as though our lives are perfect with God leading us from one happy moment to another. The reality is that even though God is giving us a day by day victory, we leave church to go back to some very painful situations.
We have family members that are a drain on us. We have relationships that are difficult. We have more bills than we have income. We have habits and addictions that keep haunting us.
We have prayers that have not received the answers we desire. We have discouragement in several areas. The problems can be overwhelming, and we begin to think, something is wrong with me and my relationship to God. I am in this thing all by myself.
This is why we need community. We need to know that others go through similar struggles. Even though Marriage Sensation offers great teachings, its strength comes in seeing that other couples have been or are going through what you’re experiencing. Here’s how they handled it in a positive way.
Sisters in the Lord, Women’s Guild, and Life-Sharing are all about building a family support group around you, to let you know you are not alone. Sure you are going to learn something about the Bible, but I think God has you there to build relationships and community as much as for learning Scriptures. I love my Pioneer group of 7-12th graders because of the community that exists there.
It is good for us to learn the deep things of Scriptures. But most of us know plenty of the Bible, that we are not already using. Jesus never said,” a new commandment I give to you, learn as much of the Scriptures as you possibly can each time you come together. ,” No, he said, Love one another as I have loved you. Let love for each other and for the church be the dominant characteristic of your group.
How can we love one another, if we don’t show up to be with each other. When the Scriptures says “do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing” it’s not merely talking about missing church though that’s a part of it.
It’s warning us against isolating ourselves from the rest of the church. The verse goes on to say, “but encourage one another.” Look everybody is going through something, and is going to need some encouragement. The natural tendency when you are discouraged is to walk away. You think nobody else is feeling what you are feeling.
God listened to Elijah keep throwing up the words, “I am the only one left.” God finally told him “look brother, I have over seven thousand people who are in the same position that you are in.” There is a bond that you share when you run into someone who is going through the same thing that you are going through.
As part of the church, we share the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We share the struggles of what it means to follow Jesus in difficult situations. When we come together for a common purpose, God moves in ways that we do not expect.
This coming Friday is going to be our prayer and healing services. One service is from 12 to 2 and one is from 6 to 8 with a time for individual prayer in between. It’s for all ages, all ministries, and all members and friends.
We still need to pray for our church and for each other, because even though God keeps leading us to the Jordan River ready to cross over, we still have some of us trying to go back to Egypt. It’s time for us all to examine our hearts, and ask the question, Lord “How am I fighting against what you’re trying to do in your church”
We need prayer for healing in our bodies. We believe that the God who healed yesterday can heal today. We want to hold God at His word.
We need prayer for the visions God is giving to some of your for the future direction of your lives and your ministries. Some of us need prayer for jobs, for college choices, and for relationships. We need prayer over addictions that have kept us in bondage for too long. We need prayer for some of the fruits of the Spirit that are missing from our lives.
We need prayer for the guests that will come for Sit With Me Sunday next week. Some of them will become a part of the 500 Campaign. Will you make the effort to come out and pray with us at some point between 12 and 8? One of the strengths of the early church was that they devoted themselves to coming together for teaching, for fellowship, for communion and for prayer.
Each of these four things involved community. Church is to be community. You need to be involved in some small group in the church where you can find love and support and where people not only know your name, they actually know you, the person behind the name.
They actually know of your struggles because you have been honest and shared them. You don’t need to know everybody’s history, but you should know about 12 and at least 12 should know you. That’s the size group that Jesus had.
When Jesus said for us to love one another, he knew that it would not be an easy task. One of the biggest hindrances is not the other people, it is ourselves when we assign motives to other people’s actions that they did not have. We can become hurt or angry not because of something somebody did, but because we assume we know why it was done.
If you’re stopped at a red light, and I run into the back of your brand new car. You may jump out of your car, yelling and screaming at me. But if you get to me, and discover I’m in the middle of having a stroke, you let go of your anger and start trying to help me. You choose to become my hero. Sometimes love involves seeking to extend grace before rushing to a judgment on another person’s actions. They just might not have intended to cause you pain.
Jesus taught us how to extend grace to those who don’t deserve it. He chose to die on their behalf. Are we willing to die to help out in helping Jesus to build His church. Are you willing to pray, “ Lord I love my church, don’t let me be a part of the gates of hell that seeks to prevail against it.”
