I LOVE MY CHURCH
WEEK 2- Community
Key Passage: Hebrews 10:19-25
Before the Message: Obtain a small section of fencing. Wooden plank fencing would probably work better, but go with chain link if that’s all you can find. If you can’t find fencing, use an image of a wooden fence. Once fencing is on the stage, spend as much time speaking near it as possible.
***Would be good to have pictures of different fences being scrolled through here.****
Fences.
They come in all shapes, sizes, and styles.
Let’s look at a few this morning- (have James scroll through)
Stop before you get to the last 2
Some are short, small, and transparent; others are walls of fortress. In every case, what is a fence designed to do?
Keep something in or keep something out, right?
***Tell a similar personal story to what follows.***
When I was growing up, my parents were among the first to move into a new neighborhood on the west side of Kenosha. After my mom died, I was looking through some old pictures that showed that the road was dirt for a few years before they finally paved it- we pretty much lived in a big muddy field. Because we our house was one of the first, my dad had the idea of building a fence around the entire property. The front yard was a fairly open fence like the one we see here. I remember when they put the sidewalks in, I used this fence to balance on trying to learn to ride a bike.
*Switch slides*
The back yard was different, more private, and served as a good barrier to keep me and the pets in the yard while keeping back things outside the yard. My dad always kept the front yard pretty nice. Grass always neatly cut and Mom had flowers out. A couple of pine trees and an oak tree were out there, and it was well kept.
The back yard was a bit different-
The grass was cut, but not as often as the front yard. All of our toys and bikes were in the back as well as our swing set. My mom preferred us playing back there so they knew where we were. My dad build a brick grill and had some lawn furniture out. We’d eat our meals back there sometimes. We had a dog- my beagle Snoopy so you had to watch where you stepped.
All of this was kept behind a fence- it served to separate us from the outside world.
The fence was the separation between the two spaces.
It was the barrier between the front, which everyone was allowed to see, and the back, which is where we lived.
This morning we are continuing our series I Love My Church and this concept of fences is going to play a big part in what we’ll see today as one of God’s plans for the church: that we would live connected lives. God wants us to live connected with Him and connected with one another.
God wants us to know true community. What do fences have to do with that? That’s what we’re going to talk about.
Turn in your bibles this morning to Hebrews
Let’s look at Hebrews 10:19-25:
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Prayer
Before I unpack this, let’s go back to our fence.
Key concept- Let’s picture our lives as a yard.
If a lot of us were honest, we’d admit that we like a good fence.
What we are comfortable showing people and letting people know about in our lives is our front lawn— we keep our front lawn neat, manicured, great grass with no weeds showing. We even have a welcome mat at our front door, but if we are honest- it’s for decorative purposes only.
The front yard of our lives is what we show people.
But the backyard … that’s different. That’s the real us, and getting in there is by invite only.
This is where most of us build a fence. We build these fences because I’m not sure I want you to know what’s going on with the real me. I don’t want you to see the parts of my life that aren’t so pristine. I don’t want you to step in the dog piles. I don’t want you to see the weeds, or the mess back there. The backyard is private, because the backyard is me- who I really am.
This is the yard of our lives.
Here’s the deal about fences: God isn’t a big fan of them in our spiritual lives and the way we relate to each other and to the world.
Okay, He doesn’t have a problem with us having a literal fence around our literal house. Please don’t leave here today and tear down your actual fence. But as far as being in relationship with Him and being in community with each other, God wants us to rethink our fences.
If we intend to love our church the way God wants us to, then we have to 3 things:
The first thing is
1. Know that Jesus crashed the fence.
Before we even talk about the fence that we put between us and people, we have to realize the barrier that exists between God and us.
The first part of our Hebrews passage tells us:
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (verses 19-22)
The author of Hebrews is talking about the fact that because of Jesus we now have a way to come back to God.
To really understand this scripture, you have to realize that this book of Hebrews was written to speak to the Jewish mindset of separation.
Their whole religion dealt with separation.
They existed in separate families within separate tribes.
Every time they went to church, they saw degrees of separation-
If you were not a full-blooded Hebrew, you could walk to this part, but no farther. That was the court of the Gentiles
If you were a full blooded Hebrew woman, you could walk a little farther, but then a wall of separation stopped you. That was the court of the Women.
If you were a Hebrew male, you could go a little farther, but if you were not ceremonially pure, a wall stopped you again. Outer portico
If you were a Hebrew, male, ceremonially pure, you could go further in, but if you were not a descendant of Levi, another wall stopped you. That was the Court of the Men
If you were a Hebrew male, ceremonially pure, and a descendant of Levi you could go further into the temple, but if you were not the right family, another wall or gate stopped you. That was the outer courts.
Finally, if you were a Hebrew male, ceremonially pure, descendant of Levi, belonging to the right family, you could go the furthest into the temple, but then were stopped by the final barrier- the curtain separating you from the room called the Holy of Holies- where God’s manifest presence resided. To enter there was a death sentence delivered immediately by Almighty God unless you met all the previous criteria,
and
you were the high priest entering at the right time (Yom Kippur, day of atonement) and in the right way- carrying right blood of sacrifice to atone for the sins of the nation.
Then Jesus came, and destroyed the walls and fences
***One thing you could do here is get a large sledgehammer and actually smash the fence on stage, speaking of Jesus obliterating the fence between God and us. Later in talking about community you could then take the fence pieces and say, “Even though God destroyed the fence between Him and us, we still attempt to build fences between ourselves and others.***
Because Jesus is our Great High Priest and has crashed the fence, the walls, the veil or curtain that separated us from God, we are able to confidently draw near to Him. Crashing the fence is as easy as admitting we need Him—we can’t live life on our own—we’ll never make it into His presence with a fence separating us.
In the bible, the book of Romans gives us more of the details behind our Hebrews passage:
• Romans 3:23—“For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God-“ We all have created a giant fence that separates us from God.
• Romans 6:23— “For the wages (or penalty) of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a]Christ Jesus our Lord”. Because of that fence, we’ll never get to God.
• Romans 5:8— “But God demonstrates His own love toward us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” In other words, God knew we’d have a big fence before we even had a yard!
• Romans 10:9-10— 9 For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells others of his faith, confirming his salvation.[a]
If we just admit we have a fence and we need it torn down, Jesus crashes the fence for us.
And finally
• Romans 10:13— 13 Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus never denies a fence-crashing job … ever.
You and I, we are born building fences—walls, structures designed to hide, protect, or confine who we really are—to keep us separated from God.
We’re born into sin—our first fence—
That fence keeps us from true community with Him and it’s only when we admit our failing, realize and accept that Jesus on the cross has smashed and crashed the fence of sin that we can have relationship with God and come into true community with HIM.
Have you ever drawn near to God? Have you ever acknowledged what Jesus has done on the cross and allowed Him into your life—all of it, the front and back?
***Gospel presentation here.***
Realize that the barrier between you and Jesus has been crashed by Him on the cross. Surrender your life to Him, drawing near to Him in relationship, close to Him in community.
The second way God wants us to Love our church in community is
2. Allow others into your yard.
We come to this building, and we sing songs, listen to bible teaching, give offerings and share meals. We smile and say good morning … but we do it all from behind the fence.
You might be thinking, “But I thought you said Jesus broke down the fence?” He did.
For every single one of us Jesus has broken down the fence and made a way possible for us to be with God.
But- How does that impact us as people … people meaning us plural, as a community?
Imagine all of mankind standing before a fence of sin and it just comes tumbling down when Jesus died on the cross. So, when I draw near to God to become His follower, there’s not a fence anymore, and when you draw near to God to become His follower, there’s not a fence anymore … which means there’s no fence in existence in the community of God!
There shouldn’t be … but what we do is we start taking wood and building up a fence between others and ourselves.
***If you broke apart the fence in the previous point, you can take the pieces and start mimicking building them back up. Maybe have some duct tape on hand.***
Even though Jesus has crashed our fence, we still want people to see only the pretty parts of our yard.
So we keep building those walls. We are very careful to only allow people to see the parts of our yard we feel safe for them to see, and we do so by building fences.
We are so good at building fences.
That is not loving our church. If we intentionally love our church, that means loving each other. And loving each other is impossible to do from behind a fence.
So what do we do?
With the fences all of us have erected, myself included, it’s hard to truly know how to love each other. Thanks be to God, He gives us the perfect prescription!
Do not forsake assembling together.
It’s the passage preachers have used for years to guilt their congregants into coming to church every Sunday.
But, in reality, the author was talking about something bigger. Sunday, yes, but also something more than Sunday.
He’s talking about sharing life together. He’s talking about living in community. Community means we don’t build fences. Community means give each other permission to enter all parts of our personal spaces.
Community means authenticity—the sharing of ourselves with others—a deeper relationship than we can have sitting in our chairs in this room while I or someone else speaks to you. Community means standing in someone’s yard and allowing them to stand in mine. It means allowing people to see those things that we’d rather hide- our cluttered mess of a backyard- the one with all the weeds, toys scattered, where you have to watch your step because the dog and the shed that needs painting.
***Show a picture of Wilson, Tim’s neighbor on Home Improvement, looking over the fence.***
You may or may not remember the television show Home Improvement with Tim Allen. Tim’s family had a next-door neighbor named Wilson. Nearly the entire series, this is all we ever saw.
The Taylors lived next door to Wilson for years, yet they never saw his face. Sometimes it’s like that for church folks. We sit in the pews with people. We may even enjoy Bible study with one another, but we never see someone’s whole face. We only get a glimpse of them from behind our fences.
Maybe we see his face. Maybe we don’t.
It doesn’t matter at the end of the day; there’s still a fence between us.
I can’t embrace him in a family tragedy. He can’t really see what’s happening over here when my wife and I are having a spat.
This fence impedes our community. We have to get into the yard to fully know someone.
“Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25)
Looking around the room here, I have a question- Whose yard are you in? Who are you allowing into your yard?
Pause for reflection
It’s a challenging question, especially for those of us who are introverted.
Our personality doesn’t change this truth-
If we are truly going to experience not only the church but also life as God intended it, then we can’t live behind a fence.
To truly love your church, you have to love the people in your church.
This doesn’t mean that everyone transforms into super social extroverts. What it means is that we don’t live in isolation.
Community is standing in someone’s yard. It means you stand in someone else’s yard, and you …
3. Enjoy the company. The 3rd way to Love your church in community
Imagine being a kid going to a birthday party where the host didn’t plan anything. There might be a bag of plain potato chips on the table and some weak Kool-Aid, but that’s it. No games, no desserts, no face painting, no pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, nothing.
That would be one boring, dull party, wouldn’t it? You would leave that place thinking, “They didn’t even try.”
Hebrews says, “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (verse 24).
To “consider” is to contemplate, strategize. Think of it as planning for a successful birthday party. Living life in one another’s yards, without fences, is going to take not only intentionality but also strategy.
Community is finding ways to encourage one another to love and good deeds—beyond church programming and sermons.
It’s seeing beyond the walls and fences that have been built and maybe even offering to help.
It’s bringing a meal in times of crisis.
It’s having those “go-to” numbers in your cell phone when you break down somewhere outside of town.
It’s inviting someone over for dinner.
It’s teaming up when we have a church service project and working alongside friends. It’s enjoying one another—and helping each other to enjoy serving Jesus in the time we have left to serve … according to Hebrews.
And the thing is, these things don’t happen automatically. They happen when we consider how to make them happen.
Let me suggest some points of strategy for all of us as a church family:
• Have healthy expectations. An unhealthy expectation is that we’ll all know everyone, that every single person will be best friends with everyone in here. Even in a small church, that’s not realistic. A healthy expectation is that I can build some great connections throughout the family, great friendships with some, and deep relationships with a few. These will all take time, but we have to have a healthy goal in mind.
• Realize baby steps are okay. Let’s be clear. Living without fences doesn’t mean that you are going to let every single person into the more personal parts of your life the first day you meet everyone. That’s not the goal in any sense, it’s not wise, and can lead to harm. At first we’ll be hanging out in the front yard with people, then we’ll invite them into the living room, then for a meal in the back. It will take time and that’s okay. You won’t let everyone in, but you need to work toward letting someone in at some point.
• Take some ownership. Realize this is everyone’s job, not everyone else’s job. We all need to work at it. If you are sitting down waiting for everyone to come to you, then you are sitting in the wrong spot.
The bible says to be doers of the Word and not just hearers,
Self evaluation time-
On a scale between 1 and 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest, how much effort are you putting into connecting with others? What would you need to do to raise your number by one or two levels in the next few weeks?
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you.
As we prepare for our fellowship this morning, love your church in community.
Know Jesus has crashed the fence.
Allow someone into your yard.
Enjoy the company.
Start considering how you can be connected with others for encouragement and growth.
It might start today.
Look around and ask yourself, who do I need to get to know, and maybe sit next to at the fellowship?
Prayer for community and food
