SIGNS OF A SPIRIT FILLED CHURCH
Years ago, Leslie Flynn penned a book called, Great Church Fights. In it he chronicled the way people in different churches would go after each other – all in the name of Jesus Christ.
A young father heard a commotion out in his backyard; he looked outside and saw his daughter and several playmates in a heated quarrel.
When he intervened, his daughter called back, “Dad, we’re just playing church!”
There is a great desire today to be what most people call a NT church. Exciting, dynamic, Life-changing!
Q – How would you describe what would be found in a church like that?
Is it even possible? I think that it is more than even possible, it is supposed to be the norm.
God is not withholding His blessing to the highest bidder
We have to interrupt the flow of His will and keep Him from touching our lives in a powerful way.
As a church, what should be seen, what is necessary to allow the Holy Spirit to minister among us in a dynamic way?
1. A church that is alive(presence if Blood is life, Holy Spirit in Church) will have certain characteristics.
a. I sat in a church service and God did what He usually does when I find myself in church. He spoke to me, but this time it was apart from the sermon.
b. What are some ground rules that I believe will make us the kind of church than can effect this community in a powerful way?
(1) LOVING FELLOWSHIP – Heb. 10:24-25 And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
I heard about the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. When the festivities were over, the woman turned to her husband and said,
"We’ve been miserable for 50 years. We’ve fought every day. We’ve disagreed on nearly everything, and I am convinced that we can’t keep going like this. I have made a commitment to pray that God will help us solve this problem. I’m praying that he will take one of us home. And when he answers my prayer, I’m going to live with my sister in Grand Rapids."
1. Genuine fellowship is a missing ingredient in the church. First John was written to try and fix the concern John had for the lack of koinonia in the church. A true loving fellowship lived out through the life of Christ in us.
In April of 1940, German tanks rumbled across the borders of yet another peaceful European country - Denmark. Already possessing control of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the powerful Nazi invaders encountered little resistance from the small northern nation.
Soon other countries fell to the Germans as well: Norway, Holland, Belgium and France - their people bullied, bloodied and beaten down.
As part of their systematic method of intimidation and oppression, the Germans announced that every Dane of Jewish descent would be required to wear a yellow Star of David.
They had done the same thing in Germany. Any Jew who failed to comply would be put to death. The Star of David, a proud symbol of their Jewish faith and culture, would be used to mark them as undesirable members of society - to rob them of their possessions, their dignity, and even their lives.
The Danish government and its people were in no position to do battle against the powerful German army. But their leader, King Christian the 10th, made a bold move to prevent the Nazis from persecuting the Jewish people among them, one that risked his own life.
After the proclamation was made by the occupying army, the Danish monarch called for all of his country’s citizens to wear the Star of David, for every Danish household to stand as partners with their Jewish neighbors.
Tremendous fear must have gripped the hearts of those 1st Gentile citizens to venture from their homes the morning after the King’s announcement. Would they be the only ones who had heeded the call? Would they be singled out? Would they be scooped up along with the Jews and executed?
What they saw was nothing short of a miracle. There were Stars of David everywhere. The Jews among them wept when they saw the people’s love and support. And because the people stood together, the Nazis’ full plan of persecution against the Jews was never carried out in that country.
2. Fellowship is not sitting in the same pew, attending pot lucks together, shaking hands but it is the investing of our lives in each other.
Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart had a pledge he made all his employees say. From this day forward if a costumer comes with in 10 feet of me regardless of what I’m doing in this place I’m going to look them in the eye I’m going to smile, I’m going to greet them with a good morning, or good afternoon or what can I do for you so help me Sam.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in this church would make a good Samaritan pledge? From this day forward every person who comes within 10 feet of me regardless of what I’m doing in this church I’m going to look them in the eye I’m going to smile, I’m going to greet them with a good morning, or good afternoon, or what can I go for you so help me God.
I heard of some people in a church who said they have a 5-minute rule. After church for the first five-minutes they don’t gravitate to each other. They spend the first five minutes meeting new people and saying hello to others.
a. Let us be concerned about one another – Check the local supermarket and find a sign of our time by looking at names of todays magazines. At one time the most popular magazine had the name LIFE. Then in the 70’s it became PEOPLE. Then it was US. Now you find titles like ME or SELF.
1) You can tell a lot about a people by what it takes to sell them somethings. Popular slogans today are You deserve a break today…Haven’t you earned it…This one’s for you…It’s your time now!
2) Loving fellowship, considers the other person, their needs, their hurts, their future.
Tom Gibson says:- In 1994 I was jogging and fell down the stairs of an underpass leading to East Coast Park (in Singapore). I tripped at the top and fell headfirst down the stairs, cracking my forehead on the side of one of the concrete steps as I came down. I was knocked unconsious and fell to the bottom.
When I regained conciousness there were three types of people who came to me:
(i) Those who saw all the blood and ran by saying ’eeeee!’
(ii) A newspaper reporter came to see if someone had pushed me etc..
(iii) A man who genuinely had compassion, helped to bandage me up and call ambulance.
In the same way, when we fall or trip up in our Christian lives there will be those who want to run past and not get involved and those who will report all kinds of gossip concerning our fall. In Scripture we are urged to be the third type, the one who bears the other’s burden!
b. Promote love and good works – These two items by their definition alone demand that they be done on behalf of another person. Loving fellowship demands that we look beyond ourselves and find out how to love and serve one another.
In the movie The Lord Of The Rings (on which this series of sermons is loosely based), a group is specially chosen to take the battle to gates of the Dark Lord.
They are chosen because they represent the different races of their world and because they all able to bring unique gifts to their quest.
APPLY: In the church, each one of us has been specifically chosen by God because each of us brings special gifts and insights to the goal of taking Satan down.
EACH ONE of us is needed
EACH ONE of us has a purpose in this church
1) Not just not inhibit love but PROMOTE two things in the life of the church.
a) LOVE:
b) GOOD WORKS:
What happens when you promote something. Encourage everyone to participate at some level or another.
How can we promote these two areas:
Start with ourselves Help others on board
c. Not straying away from meetings as some habitually do
1) STRAYING is an interesting choice of words. Many people who suddenly find themselves out of the habit of being in church didn’t make a hard decision to be behave like pagans. WANDERED, REDIRECTED THEIR LIVES TO OTHER PRIORITIES, Not necessarily a well thought through decision but just look up one day and there you are.
2) Stray from meetings: Being together as the body of Christ.
a) Have you ever heard someone say that I can worship God better _______ (usually mean fishing boat, golf course, lake, sleeping in, watching NFL pre-game). IS THIS TRUE?
b) Worshipping God is not a spectator sport. The Body of Christ is meant to be interactive.
(1) Can a hand serve the body better by being amputated?
c) True worship is ministry to one another, it is edifying fellow believers, it is being ministered to by the gifts of others.
Linked at the Roots, Citation: Blair F. Rorabaugh, Uniontown, Ohio. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 2]
The article "What Good Is a Tree?" in Reader’s Digest explained that when the roots of trees touch, there is a substance present that reduces competition.
In fact, this unknown fungus helps link roots of different trees--even of dissimilar species.
A whole forest may be linked together.
If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have the means to share with one another.
Like trees in a forest, Christians in the church need and support one another.
Unknown Fungus?
MAYBERRY: Phenomena…people wanting to find it and move there. Looking for what it offered
d. Encouraging one another as the day draws near.
Claria Knall a young mother from Oklahoma writes it was one of the worst days of my life.
The washing machine broke down, the telephone wouldn’t stop ringing my head ached and the mailman brought a bill I had no money to pay.
Almost at the breaking point I lifted my one year old into the high chair, leaned my head against the tray and began to cry.
Without a word my son took his pacifier out of his mouth and stuck it into mine.
From the time were born we know people need love and need to be cared for and the church ought to be a place where the deepest love and the deepest caring for each other is real.
1) Tremendous reminder on 911 that this life is very fleeting.
a) What words are used in Scripture to describe the brevity of our lives here? Vapor, breath.
b) How many people woke up and went to work in NY and have now met God face to face.
Every ache and pain, every wrinkle, every sickness, every passing of another person is meant to be a reminder that for us there will be a day and that day draws nearer each moment.
2) That simple fact should encourage our fellowship with one another.
a) These are the people we will spend an eternity with.
b) The issues we hold in common together are the ones that really matter in the scope of eternity.
One contrast of heaven and hell tells of a man who had a dream that he was allowed to see both places. He was first taken to hell.
He was taken to a large room in the middle of which there was a large pot of stew.
The stew smelled delicious. But all around this point there were people who were starving and in desperation.
They all held spoons in their hands that had unusually long handles that reached all the way to the pot, but because the spoon handles were longer than their arms, they were unable to return the spoons filled with stew to their mouths. Their suffering was terrible and continuous.
Then the man was taken to heaven. Heaven was identical to hell; the rooms were identical, the pot of stew in the middle of the room was the same, and the spoons were the same. But, the people in this room were well-fed and joyous.
The man was perplexed when first walked into the room. But as he watched the people in this room, he learned the difference. The people had spoons that would not allow them to feed themselves, so they fed each other.
Fellowship is feeding each other as we allow God to feed us.It is a “joint feeding.”
