Community of Believers
Romans 12:3-8
Hebrews 10:24-25
Introduction-
We have for several weeks been looking at the “Acts of the Apostles” The 40 days after Jesus resurrection and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that came at Pentecost which enabled them to live the lives that God intended for them.
“Yet to all who receive him, to those that believe in His name, he gave the right to become the children of God.”
Being able to live out your faith does not come by accident.
To be able to act like a child of God and not the nature you inherited at birth by sin is not by chance, it has to be intentional.
You have to make a choice and that choice will determine your eternity.
I have said before that you cannot live a Godly life without God. That is impossible! Just like standing in a garage does not make you a car. We are by nature sinners that are on a path of destruction without God.
We need God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and that is save us from the wrath of the punishment of our sins and equip us to live lives that are productive of the kingdom of God.
Jesus says “follow me” and we have people in the world and in the church that set out by choice to see how far away from Him they can safely go and still avoid Hell but do their own thing.
God has instituted the church to be a place that we can come and get the help and encouragement that we need.
Some treat the church universal as a punishment instead of a blessing from God.
Some never get past the fact that God did not build the church and create community to take the fun away from people but offer them a place where they can grow and have fun.
A community made up of people who need God and want God in their life.
I said last week;
What would this community look like if 5 people out of this congregation would get serious about God and follow Him and do what He has asked us to do.
We would turn this community upside down for Jesus and we would see people with changed lives.
If this church caught on fire and worked this community showing God’s love, we would turn this whole area on its heels.
God would be glorified and evil would be horrified. All because God’s people would wait when Jesus says wait, go when Jesus says go and do what God says to do.
Romans 12:1 is talking to believers-
“Therefore, I urge you brothers and sister, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Being a living sacrifice- He doesn’t want a dead offering.
Be transformed not conform to this world.
By renewing your mind- you will not think like the world, because you are allowing God to transform you into a person of God.
Too many dead offering being sacrificed to God in the name of being one of his disciples.
No transformation because you are so close to the world, the world cannot tell that you are a disciple of God.
He tells his followers to love God and others wholeheartedly. “Do what is good and be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
We have a hard time loving God.
We have a hard time loving others.
BUT WE LOVE OURSELVES GREATLY AND WANT ONLY THE BEST FOR US!
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
Love in action!
Don’t get me started about helping people in need because most have our own holy huddle of influence and we don’t look outside of that realm of people.
We are so afraid that the church would ask for money that we miss the blessing God has for us if we would become a part and invest in something that is bigger and better that what we could ever invent.
We walk into church with the wrong idea of what the church is and what the church people of God should be doing and accomplishing for the kingdom of God.
We believe that the only one who has to go out and reach this community of people is the leaders and paid staff and that the rest of us must just live lives that are better than our neighbors yet not as holy as “those people.”
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’
That is what God’s word says to us about being a living sacrifice.
Being different than the world.
How in the world do we do these things and still function in this world?
We certainly cannot do that without God’s help. He tells us that as believers we are to get together and be the body of Christ in this dying world.
We cannot do that by avoiding the things of God and we cannot do that by not being in God’s house and being instructed and encouraged by each other.
Don’t believe me! Look at this world.
Road rage and anger has gotten out of hand.
Countries hating each other and daring to go to war.
Total disregard for life- in the womb of the unborn and walking down the street where a life taken is not even main news anymore.
Pregnancy high and love for mankind at an all time low.
The world convincing itself that they don’t need God.
That God’s word is irrelevant.
If they believe there is a God, He must be a loving and forgiving God, do what you want, He will understand. Have you read the Bible! There is a loving God, one that gave His life for you, but He is not one to be mocked and made fun of.
He is a righteous God and He desires for His people to be doing what they have been commanded to do.
So what is the church, the community of believers? It is a body of believers made up of different people with different gifts that are in unity to be more Christ like and to accomplish the things that God has set out and said are good. Amen.
Here is our text for this morning-
Romans 12:3-8
Apostle Paul records for us what a functioning body of believers would look like.
He lets us know that he is not perfect and the grace and mercy that God has shown him is passed along to others that are not quite where he is at.
That really we should not think too high of ourselves because we are not that great in ourselves.
That each and every one of us that professes Jesus Christ as Lord has a job to do for the kingdom of God. Each one important. Each one needed to have the body function the way that it was intended to be by a God that has given us the jobs we have.
Teach, preach, give, serve, show mercy… whatever it is do it cheerfully and faithfully so the kingdom of God operates and works to saving and encouraging God people until we make it home.
Love in action Amen.
Christian community is more than cookies and coffee together and rushing back into an isolated and private life. It is more than just making an appearance in God’s house once in a while and signing the books so to speak. It is a God thing! It is a community of believers sharing a common life in Christ. The biblical idea of community challenges us to live for Christ and for others. It takes us past superficial and leads us to maturity in Christ.
Biblical community takes us to conversion and then to maturing and desiring to be discipled ourselves but making sure others understand what God is wanting for our lives with an urgency that keeps us growing in our relationship and hunger for others to know the God that we serve.
When I have the freedom to understand that if my brothers and sisters will accept me with my faults, I will better understand that Jesus loves me with my faults.
If I have a place to come broken and honest with my fellow believers, I will know and invite other broken people to experience the love of God.
If I can come and confess my sins and acknowledge that I am no perfect, to other people that do not proclaim to be perfect, I better understand that a perfect God is willing to forgive and offer me the mercy and grace that I need.
If I can come and pray and watch people intercede and care for me, I can see a perfect God that heals and can answer prayer.
If I can come into a service and invite Jesus into my life and a place where others are desiring God to do amazing and extraordinary things, I can build my faith to believe that the anointing of God can fall in our service and that many people that day can experience a miracle from God for more than one of us and offer hope to those that are still waiting.
We talked last week about the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in our lives. Would you want to miss the Sunday that God wanted to answer your long awaited prayer? Or miss the day that God heals or changes someone’s life forever? It happens in the house of God and in the community of believers. That Is what we can expect! That Is what community and church was created for, to make a difference in your life and the lives of others in the community of believers.
Make sure this morning that you understand what a community of believers is- it is where the hurting and the broken come to be encouraged and discipled and find what they are looking for when they are looking to God for the answers.
I am a broken and hurt person just like you with a job to do- I need to hear from God everyday just like you. We find that together in God’s house when believers come together and invite the healer into our lives.
Community is a place of worship and a place to pray
Community is a witness to the world and a place of invitation to the world.
Community is a place to serve.
Close-
Hebrews 10:24-25
“And let us consider how we may spur one another toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another-“
We need each other! It is a place where needy people come together to seek out a God that loves needy people and desires to meet them at their weaknesses and encourages and strengthens them.
Church is a place that we come to worship and acknowledge God’s goodness and Grace. Community is being together to do that and receive God’s richest blessings as we serve Him together.
Church is a place that the sick and hurting come and they experience the love of God as well as receive love and grace from God’s people.
We did not think of it- church is a God thing! Community of believers is blessed not because we are perfect but because we have come together for the common cause of Christ and His blessing is poured out as we do things in His name and for His honor and glory.
Illustration-
Allow me to further illustrate this point with flypaper. Flypaper is an amazingly simple and at the same time profoundly genius product. I did a bunch of research about flypaper. It turns out that you can even make your flypaper at home using some syrup, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and strips of brown paper bags.
You see, for flypaper to be flypaper it only needs to have two properties. It has to be sweet and it has to be sticky. The sweetness is attractive to the flies and the sticky makes them stay.
God is calling us, as a church, to be sweet and sticky like flypaper. The sweetness of the true gospel of mercy and grace is attractive and our living that out in the context of a loving community of faith… is sticky.
The true message of the gospel is sweet and we all long to be refreshed by the message that God loves us and He sees us as beautiful children of immense value and worth… if God sees us that way, then who are we to argue?
