Building a bridge to tomorrow means laying down the planks of community today. Almost every person alive has a desire for community. They even know how they want that community to be shaped…listen to this…
(play theme from Cheers)
Many of you could sing the theme, and most of you would like to be living it right now. In Cheers, it is a bar they migrate to, seeking to be on an equal level, and for a time, they seemingly are there. That is until 2 am when the lights go out and they wander from their journey of misplaced hopes back into the reality of life.
Life is not perfect as we all know. We could take a lifetime just talking of the scars and the injustices we have all experienced. When they sing Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got, we know far too well just how true that statement is. Some of you deal with the miscarriage of justice at the workplace, where honesty and being upright is twisted. You are just trying to make it through life and someone rains on your parade. I have been working with someone through this very thing just this week.
Cheers, the neighborhood bar is not the solution for our problems of disconnection. In fact, for some it has been the beginning of greater heartache. Where can one from the answer. It should be the church. Yet, we know that is not always the case. Just being honest. In fact, a lack of love, acceptance and forgiveness has driven people from the church to the bars, and that is something to be ashamed.
If we lived the lifestyle of Jesus, the Cheers theme could be ours for the church more truly represents the song than anything else found this side of heaven.
In Acts 2:42 they sang the song before television. It says They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal and the prayer. (The Message).
How can we build a bridge of community. I have a few thoughts. We build a bridge through…
Habitation.
We could even call habitation another word for commitment. It is the staying power, not the leaving power. Habitation is that place where everyone knows your name.
It says in Hebrews 10:25: Do not stop going to church meetings. Some people do stop. But help each other to be strong.
At New Hope we are making a move toward small groups. We have taught in our life development series, you grow larger by growing smaller through small groups. We have several members who have indicated an interested in leading. We have a vision for a network of small groups meeting throughout the region where people can get to know each other, to minister and be ministered to. Community is developed through this kind of interaction. In our busy society, we are encouraging you to be involved here on Sunday morning and in a small group during the week. In a month we will be phasing out Sunday nights except for leadership training once a month, and that will be more than likely in the afternoon. So for people to know your name, and for a biblical concept of church, you need to be rooted in a community of believers, not just a nameless face in the journey of life.
To have community we also need to have
Enthusiasm
Paul writes the letters to the various churches and we read such things as God’s amazing grace be with you! God’s robust peace! to the Thessalonians. Or I asked Him (God) to clear the way for me to come and see you. The longer this wait goes on, the deeper the ache. I so much want to be there to deliver God’s gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes! Paul wrote in greeting the Christians at Rome.
Do you catch the enthusiasm he has? Do you share that same enthusiasm with others. Are you looking forward to getting with people in community on Sunday and soon to be gathering together in community in small groups?
This week someone called and asked if they could come by for coffee. I was excited for the opportunity to spend time in community. Laura thinks its because I love to talk. I love community and I am excited about Jesus, and I love to help people build a bridge to tomorrow.
We started a small group which meets here at the church Tuesday nights called Celebrate Recovery. We are practicing the disciplines of community and singing the song God’s way as we are getting to know each other, sharing our hearts, working through our habits and hang-ups and enthusiastically looking forward to each new day.
Here is what it takes if you are going to have community. You have to be
Alterable
That means you are going to have to change. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 I tell you the truth. If your hearts do not change and become like hearts of children, you will never go into the kingdom of heaven
Who likes to change? Our human nature bristles against change. Yet, without alteration, we won’t fit in, and not just at church, but anywhere.
The community of New Hope invites seekers to investigate the truth of Jesus. People who don’t know Him cannot act like Him, but once one encounters Jesus, a life altering experience occurs. It is not overnight, some alterations take a lifetime to be tailored into our character. Community is always a growing changing experience. Not only that, for community to work, you need to be
Loving
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13, at the end of the chapter, These three things will remain for ever. They are faith, hope, and love. And love is the greatest of them. Eugene Peterson writes in the Message But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
In the song we heard, they sang, and I won’t, but I will read this line they sang, You want to go where people know people are all the same. When you take away the trappings of life, and boil it down to the essence, we all have two desires, to love and be loved. Community should provide that. We are all the same…at different stages in the life journey, but all the same none the less. All looking to be loved, not for who someone wants us to be, but for who we are. Accepted for that stage of our life because we have been forgiven by God for things we have wrongly done in life, things the Bible calls sin, if we truly ask.
Community is a place where someone can wrap their arm around you, share in your hurts, and lift you above defeat. Community does not mean we condone the wrong, we love the person and hate the wrong, the sin. If we want to build a bridge of community, we need to build a bridge of love, and I am going to expand on this another day.
Building a bridge of community also requires us to be
Teachable.
The passage in Acts said they continued daily in the apostles teachings. They were learning what we now have as the Scripture. They had the audio book, the apostles themselves. Community happens when we share from what we have. Last Wednesday, in our small group here at the church going through a series of the life of Jesus, we watched a video filmed in Israel where Jesus had gone across the water to where the demon possessed man was, and brought deliverance to him. In our small group discussion afterwards, everyone shared from their personal experience, bondages of life. We learned together, and had the opportunity to share in ministry together for some in the group and some who called for prayer. Teaching opportunities, learning opportunities happen more often than not, when people gather together in community. We all should be lifelong learners. We all need a teachable spirit. I have not learned it all, and if any of you have, your entrance to heaven must be just around the corner.
To have community we also need to…
Hear.
We need to hear each other, and we need to hear from God. We hear each other by being open to listening, actively to the conversation, and responding. We hear from God by having an active prayer life.
Community does not happen when one person dominates the conversation, but when everyone is open and freely sharing life.
To make it all happen we need…
You.
Community takes people, people like you and me, who will commit to something bigger than ourselves, and work toward being difference makers, in seeing solutions not problems, in working toward everyone being welcome, ministering and being ministered to. Saying I will be part of community because I am needed and I have needs.
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name
And their always glad you came
You want to be where you can feel troubles are all the same
You want to be where everybody knows your name
You want to go where people know people are all the same
You want to go where everyone knows your name.
And that place should be the church. It is the place we want New Hope to be as we build a community of believers who know Jesus Christ. A place where we live by faith, are known by love and are a voice of hope.
And when we are actively working in building a bridge of community, you can take the first letter of each statement H E A L T H and we will have the ingredients for a healthy community.
As the worship team comes, I want to talk to each of you about a couple of decisions. The first deals with relationship. Your relationship to Jesus.
Challenge to embrace Christianity
The second also deals with relationship. Your relationship to each other.
Challenge to embrace Community
Close in Song
