Series: “Bringing Back the Bands”
“Working Together”
Ephesians 3:16-19
A sermon for 2/07/21
Ephesians 3 “16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
On June 17, 1998, Robert Kupferschmid – at the age of 81 – boarded his friend’s Cessna 172 single engine plane for a two-hour trip. During the flight, his friend, Wesley Sickle, collapsed and the plane began descending rapidly. Robert grabbed the controls but he did not know how to fly a plane.
His urgent pleas for help on the radio were received by two other pilots in the area. They gave Robert a steady stream of instructions to guide him toward a local airport. They even circled the airprort talking him through the landing procedure. Of course, emergency vehicles and first responders were waiting… all expecting a disaster. Witnesses on the ground reported that the front wheels of the plane bounced so hard that the tail actually touched the runway. The plane ended up in a grassy field next to the runway. Robert was not injured and they were able to get his friend to the hospital.
That man listened to and followed those directions as if his life depended on it – because it truly did. (Sermon Central, Sermon illustrations, 10/1/2010)
Today, the instructions I am going to share on the nuts and bolts of Discipleship Bands may sound like – “Hey, you have to fly this plane!!!!” Just relax… this is NOT life or death, but Jesus did promise us that Abundant Life is possible in John 10:10. Last week I was teaching on the Holy Discontent that shows up when we are living on bread and water in this Christian Journey. There is so much more that seems to be just out of our reach. It’s close enough to see, but too far away to grasp – if only we had instructions.
“A Discipleship Band is a group of 3-5 people who read together, pray together, and meet together to become the love of God for one another and the world.” In that definition – there are 3 “together”s. I want to talk about all of those today.
In the scripture from Ephesians 3 we find the basis for our opening prayer in the band meeting. It grounds all we do in the Discipleship Bands in God’s Holy Word. Reading, praying and meeting are not the goal – they are a means to attain what we find in Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus:
• We want to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in our inner being.
• We want Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith.
• We want to be rooted and established in love.
• We want to have power together to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
• We want to know this love in a way that surpasses knowledge.
• We want to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
(Field guide – pg. 13)
That’s why we are going where we are going and why we are doing what we are doing. It is a work that is IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish as a Lone Ranger Christian. So, let’s get to the instructions.
1 – Bands Read Together
Psalm 119 “9 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O Lord!
Teach me Your statutes.”
There is an old saying – if all the Bibles in all the homes of all the Christians were picked up and dusted off all at the same time, there would be a dust storm of Biblical proportions. Kind of funny to picture that, but let’s agree that we could all spend more time reading our Bibles, reading books that help us grow as Disciples of Jesus Christ or even a more in-depth devotion than the Upper Room or Daily Bread. Please hear me loud and clear – there’s nothing wrong with those small devotional books, but that is not nearly enough to sustain the Christian in these turbulent times, and it is far to little for the Christian that seeks to grow and grow up in Christ Jesus. It’s a good place to start… not to stay.
In the letters that Paul wrote to the early Christian groups – groups that were meeting in homes as it would be more than 200 years after Paul lives that buildings were used like we have today – of all those letters he seemed the most frustrated or put-out with Corinth. He wants them to grow up and start receiving more from God – 1 Corinthians 3 “1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;”
When I first started talking about introducing Discipleship Bands, the most common question was “What book will they study?” I had to explain then, as now, the band meeting is not a time to cover the reading material with everyone sharing their opinions and moving on. Nope. The third question in the meeting for each person to answer is “How might the Spirit and Scriptures be speaking in your life?” There - each person may speak about a different reading the group did that week or even some other reading he or she was doing.
In my Discipleship Band, we started with the readings for the Seedbed Class were all taking at the time. Then we switched over to the Daily Text email that comes from Seedbed every morning. This is very convenient. If you are using the Discipleship Band app on your phone, you can have the Daily Text or many other resources delivered in the app each day for free. If your whole band is using the app, you can comment on the reading or ask a question and it will be seen in the app by your band members. One of the common themes in my band meetings is wanting to go deeper in our prayer lives – yes – preachers can grow and need to grow! After Easter we are going to start reading together the Workbook on Living Prayer by Maxie Dunnam written back in 1994. We figured out that we had all learned from that in the past and decided to go through it again, together.
If you can’t figure out what to start with – just contact me and I can make suggestions for your band. The first four weeks you can use the Field Guide. Remember – it’s a free download @ discipleshipbands.com or you can order it for a few dollars or I can make a copy for you in the church office. It’s the easiest way to start. Now for the 2nd “together” -
2 – Bands Pray Together
Colossians 4:2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;”
In the band meeting, after a person has 10-15 minutes to share, another person in the band prays for him or her. Ok – I know I just lost some of you. I can hear the thoughts running through your heads – “I don’t pray out loud. I don’t pray in front of others.” Guess what? That’s what we did at the dinner table when we were growing up. That’s what we did when our kids were little – at the table and at bedtime. It’s the same thing!
Now, on occasion, I have somebody mention that Jesus condemned the Pharisees that prayed out loud and instructed His followers to pray in secret. I found a really good explanation of this online:
“In Ephesians 5:20, Paul instructs the church to "give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Communal prayer is one way a local church worships God and encourages one another. What Jesus condemns is arrogance and hypocrisy. For someone who is clearly disobedient to God to lead a public prayer as though he or she had much to brag about is the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus denounced. To use public prayer as a means of showing off or impressing others is wrong. But sincere prayer from a humble heart is always welcomed by God and can be an encouragement to those who hear it (Psalm 51:17).” https://www.gotquestions.org/praying-out-loud.html
When folks in my band are sharing, without anyone interrupting, I always make little notes. This helps me pray for them during the week and it REALLY helps me when I pray for that person. Let me give you an example of a simple prayer – “Lord, I give you thanks for Joe. I am so glad we are in this band together. I give thanks with him for the prayers that were answered with good test results from the Dr. this week. Lord, Joe shared this us today that he’s having some trouble at work and he wants there to be peace with a coworker. I pray for that peace to be in Joe and flow out of Joe at work. He also wants You Lord to lead him as he prepares to teach a class for his Sunday School. Lord, speak to Joe and give him everything he needs to teach that class. Protect Joe and his family this week. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Was that too hard? Really? Just talk to God – it does not need to be fancy. It can feel just like when you knelt by the bed and prayed for Mommy and Daddy. Praying for one another – praying together – helps us grow in our love for those in our band. The more you pray during the week, the easier it gets to pray in the band meeting.
3 – Bands Meet Together
Hebrews 10 “24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We most often use this verse to encourage attendance at worship on Sunday morning but I believe the band meeting is a much better setting to “stir up love and good works” and lifting each other up – what this scripture calls “exhorting one another.” This needs to be a priority for those who take up the old Methodist practice of banding together.
Listen to this encouragement from the Field Guide – “A discipleship band has not banded together until it is regularly meeting together. Meeting together is the most critical component of the discipleship band experience. In this distracted and over busy age, finding a time when everyone can consistently meet together can be challenging. In our experience, a consistent time each week works best.. From time to time something will come up and one of the band members will be unable to attend. As a rule, if half or more of the band cannot make a meeting, the meeting should be cancelled. Do not worry about rescheduling. Meet again at the set time the following week. Life happens.” (p. 19-20)
The layout of the meeting is on the cards you received this morning or can be found in the Field Guide – it consists of a common prayer to open, individuals sharing and praying for one another, and a common prayer to close. Right now, with so many restrictions due to covid, you may want to meet virtually or even just a conference call. My band meets on Zoom because we are spread out all over VA and MD. If you have been praying and God is laying names on your heart, start reaching out to one or two folks. You can go ahead and start talking about the best way to meet and even start discussing a time. If you need to find a band – call me and I’ll help.
I want to be sure you realize this one thing – I know that you have never done this before. Well, for that matter, until a few months ago – neither had I. Yet I know, for a fact, that generations and generations of people who called themselves “Methodists” used the band meeting as a way to grow up in Christ – just like Paul wanted for the Ephesian believers. I want to close with the opening prayer for the band meeting - “Heavenly Father, we pray that out of your glorious riches you would strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And we pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.”
