I’ve had the privilege of helping two teenagers learn to drive. Both of our oldest sons had the same habit. They loved to drive waaay right. As a passenger, you thought, “If he swerves to the right just a little, I’m going to be wearing a mailbox.” I’d say things like, “Whatever you do, don’t veer right because if you do, we’ll crash and burn!” And they would say, “Believe me, dad, I don’t want to swerve and hit a mailbox.”
I know something about you. You don’t want to swerve and crash and burn with your life. Not as a friend, an athlete, a student, a parent, a spouse. Not on the job. Not in your faith –something that impacts everything else.
Some of you are brand new to the faith. Last month, 60 people were baptized here. And you might not say it out loud, but you wonder, “Can I really live this life I’ve been called to live? Do I have what it takes to really follow Christ? Will I swerve, crash, and burn?”
Some of you have followed Christ far a few years now. But you have had your troubles in keeping in step with Him over the years. You’re back on track now. But down inside, you wonder, “What if I can’t keep it up? I’ve failed before. Will I swerve, crash, and burn again?”
Unshakable – no swerving, no wavering, no veering
Last week, we sent a team of three men, Joe Sanson, Jim Winar, and Kasey Rosendahl to find a place for us to serve. These are pictures from their trip. Our church will help the 1st Baptist Church serve their community in Slidell, Louisiana. It’s just across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. We’re sending a team down today to clean-up, clear property, give away clothes and supplies, and share the love of Christ. You have been very generous in donating clothes and supplies. If you want to support the work our church is doing, look at the insert in the worship guide. You can write a check to CVC and in the memo section, write “disaster relief.” And locally, if it’s needed, we have secured an apartment to sponsor a displaced family.
New series: Finale. Heaven. Hell. Death. Second coming.
Today, we are going to consider what it takes to live an unshakable life. And right now, I’m going to cut to the chase. I’ll say it right up front. Life change happens best in a community group. It’s the best thing you can get involved in to have an unshakable walk with God.
What’s a community group? It’s a group of 10-12 people who meet in a home in your community. In your program is a Community Group card. Take a look. You open God’s word together. Lives enriched. People transformed. Ministry happens.
You have this great private thing going with God? Is God the most important part of your life? Why don’t you let anyone know about it? Why won’t you let anyone help you? Please hear this: The Bible is clear. Even though your relationship with God is personal, it’s never intended to be private.
Why? God knows we need each other so we won’t swerve, crash, and burn. God’s word talks about just how important this is in Hebrews 10.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV)
Don’t neglect to meet together. God knows that we grow best and we grow most in groups. We impress people from a distance, but we impact them up close. Up close and personal. That’s where we learn how to be unshakable.
You don’t want to drive off the road with your career, your friendships, your family, or your walk with God.
These verses tell us how to be consistent – how to be unswerving, how to finish well. In other versions, verse 23 reads…
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess… (NIV)
Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have… (NLT)
If you want to be then you’ve got to get hooked up relationally with a group of people who will encourage you and help you and challenge you. The Christian life is a team sport. It’s a group effort.
Show me a Christ-follower you would call unshakable and 9 out of 10 times, I’ll show you a person who is engaged regularly in meaningful relationships with a small group of believers.
Show me a person who believes all the right stuff, who has prayed the prayer to receive Christ, but who struggles and struggles in the faith on the job and in the home, and I’ll show you someone who is not yet connected.
I see five truths for an unshakable life…
We won’t waver when we…
… count on Christ.
I’m glad that it’s not all up to me to stay on God’s highway. It’s not sheer self-effort. This life we’ve been called to live is a God-thing. Look at the last part of v. 23…
“He who promised is faithful.”
Whatever the Lord promises, He will perform. So, we say, “Lord, without You, I would swerve off the road. I would wreck my marriage, my job, my family, my faith without You. But you have the wheel of my life. You’ll keep me on the road. I’m thankful that Jesus has saved me, is saving me, and will save me.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ… will sustain you to the end… God is faithful.
I Corinthians 1:7b-9a (ESV)
You can live an unshakable life because it’s not all up to you. You have a Rock you can depend on. His name is Jesus. So, you pray to Him. You trust in Him. You worship Him.
We won’t waver when we count on Christ.
But don’t miss this: Christ has chosen to work in your life through others! Your other fellow Christ-followers are His body to you – His voice, His hands, His feet, His ears. Other people are to be “Jesus with skin on” to you. So, if we want to be unshakable, the rest of this passage tells us that we have to put ourselves in environments where Jesus helps us through others.
We won’t waver when we…
… plan for growth.
You can count on Christ to make you unshakable when you work His plan. And what’s His plan? Look at verse 24.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works…”
The “and” here means that there are others things to do to count on Christ. Look at the word “consider.” It means you’ve thought something through. “Consider how.” Have you thought much about how you will be unswerving in your faith? Do you have a plan?
Most of us don’t have a plan spiritually. Our spiritual growth happens, if it happens at all, haphazardly. Do you have a plan?
He who is noble plans noble things…
Isaiah 32:8a (ESV)
What is your plan to impact people? Just how are you going to stir others up to love better, to do more good works? “Be a good example.” “Put a fish on the back of my car.” “Honk the horn and let people know I’m going to church on Sunday.” Let’s be honest, most of us would have to say, “I don’t have a plan.”
Until you come up with a plan, do this. Participate in this plan. You know, if we really got our arms around this, we could make history together.
I thought about what might happen over next 10 years if you were part of a group of 10 people. And let’s say your group becomes two groups every 24 months because you add some new people. In ten years, that 160 people you’ve impacted.
That’s just one group. After Monday night – after our Group Connect, we’ll have about 80 groups at CVC. That’s almost 13,000 people in groups in 10 years.
Where you going to seat them, Rick?
Your elders, staff, finance team, and building team have spent literally hundreds of hours praying and working to find out God’s heart about what’s next. Members, be looking for a letter soon. It will describe how we hope to add…
More parking.
More seats.
More storage with a garage out back.
More opportunities to grow with a satellite location for 707.
We are praying about all this, not to get bigger and bigger, but because we want more and more people to experience changed lives. We want more and more people in small groups. Why? We grow best and we grow most in groups.
This was Jesus’ plan. It’s what Jesus did. He had 12. One defected. But he was replaced. Then Jesus told those remaining 12, “You do for others what I did for you.” And this one lone Carpenter changed the world with His small group.
The greatest potential for impacting our community doesn’t take place when we gather on weekends. It happens in the homes of people in community groups week after week after week.
To get in on this doesn’t take remarkable skill or talent. You just show up and watch God go to work. If you don’t have a better plan, why not plug into this one?
We won’t waver when we plan for growth. And we won’t waver when we…
… meet with friends.
You can’t divorce your internal spiritual life from your external relational life.
“… not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…”
Meet with friends. “Not straying away from our meetings.” We want you to know that this is the win for us as a church. We want you in a group at a table in a home studying God’s word. We want everyone at the kitchen table.
Explain…
Foyer.
Living room.
Kitchen.
If you’re still ripping the cellophane off your Bible, come to the kitchen table we call “Fresh Start.” It’s a small group environment we offer on Sunday mornings for new people.
And we will be offering Friendship groups for people who are just sitting down at the kitchen table for the first time and want a “dating period” with a group of new friends. You want to make sure you aren’t hanging out with “wacked out” people. You don’t know if you want to stay with these people for a long time. We’ll put you in a group for 8 weeks. And if they aren’t your people – if they are “wacked out” – just let us know. We’ll let you try another Friendship group.
Our primary group experience is something we call our “community groups.” They meet for 18-24 months. We study the word of God together. We learn what it means to live in God’s Kingdom together. We share out lives together. We pray together. Then, with the help of a coach, our community groups multiply. And we make room for more people at the kitchen table.
It’s at the kitchen table where you do life together. It’s where care is given and received. In a church this size, our staff can’t give you as much as you need. But, in a group, members can cook meals when there’s a need. This is a way for us to model ourselves after the 1st century church – small groups of believers meeting in homes.
The foyer is fun. The living room is cool. But we are going to go work hard to get people to the kitchen. The kitchen is where it learning to love happens.
Personally, I don’t go to community Group because I learn a lot of new stuff. Most of the time, I can say, “I’ve heard that before.” I don’t go to learn. And I don’t go because I love to connect. Right now, I’m relationally maxed out. I’ve told you before that on psychological profiles, I show up as an introvert. Give me a choice between a party or sitting with a book in the Metroparks, I’ll choose the book every time. I’m not naturally wired for group life.
Some of you are saying, “Rick. I’m so with you. I’ve got enough friends. Why do you do it?” I see the cumulative value in my life when I put myself in to small group environments. I know what happens in my soul in those contexts.
We don’t do it because we are supposed to. We don’t do it because it’s a church program. We do it because it’s good for our souls.
Tuesday’s are hard for me. It’s meeting after meeting all day long. So I usually don’t drive home going, “O boy. It’s group night!” And I can’t bail because we host it.
We’re all busy. You drive over to a Community Group with a kind of bad attitude. “I’m too busy for this.” But something happens once you walk through that door. God shows up. And usually He has something for you to get from the group. Or something to give. Often, it’s both.
High school – FCA
College – FCA
Five years in minors – Baseball chapel and Bibl studies (Galatians)
FCA – coaches Bible study
Seminary – 3:7 club
Growing Strong in God’s family.
2:7
We won’t waver when we meet with friends. And we won’t waver when we…
… cheer others on.
Sometimes, as a Christian leader, I have struggles and questions, even doubts. But I have found that my community group strengthens my faith. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Look at v 25b…
“… but encouraging one another…”
This past year in our group, we prayed for a woman in our group who was seeking to help a searching friend in Canada. I was so encouraged when we learned that Lynn led her friend to Christ. I was reminded all over again that God answers prayers. Another woman in our group was looking for a ministry as a chaplain. We prayed for her. And she just found out that she was accepted as a volunteer at Parma Hospital. I was reminded all over again that god has a place for all His people. In the past year, 3 members of our group were baptized. I was reminded all over again that God changes lives. And at my low moments, when I see God at work in the hearts and lives of people our group, it just encourages me.
Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Ephesians 4:29 (NLT)
Where do you go to talk about your dreams or hopes or fears or struggles? If you can’t find a place for that, you may swerve and crash.
Jerry and Roz Baughman almost swerved, crashed and burned. But a community group kept them on the road. Let’s listen to their story.
We came to CVC after resigning from a youth pastor’s position at another church. This was a very difficult time for us because we really thought that we were where God wanted us and had planned on staying there for a long time....we were broken hearted because of the lost of this ministry and the ministry previous to going there as well. We were searching to figure out why God would ’take away’ something that we were so passionate about and were really questioning our call and purpose..........we joined in a small group after getting connected at a ministry fair. We were involved in the arts ministry some and so were all the other people in our group. If you were to ask us to put a group of people together ...we would have never chosen all the families that we are in our group with....we are all different but share in the arts ministry, so that was our binding factor. We were very skeptical at first...not necessarily wanting to open up all these wounds that we were trying to hide. Trust was a huge issue for us as we just were very cautious and didnt want to get hurt again. But as time went on....each study that we did seemed to just hit home to us. Like the Lord had specifically put us there for these people to love on us and to help us through such a difficult time. Through many meeting we just sat there and cried together with our small group. One nite in particular we were studying worship and the main thing that was being focused on was....will you still worship even when God’s plan for you is not what you expected or life’s circumstances were not going the way you want...will you still say that God is still God and worthy of my worship and still wants my worship. Well, that nite was a turning point for us as a couple. We just realized that yes...we had to think long and hard on if we were going to choose to do what God desires from us and that was to worship him in spite of the loss of ministry and the circumstances we had in our life. And after praying with Brian and Jennifer and Joe and Cindy Acquillino late into that evening...we went home thinking ...ok Lord...we will worship...even if we never get the chance to work with youth again....its ok,,,because you are still so very much God and we are so very much NOT!!!
And God is so very good and faithful...after that nite and the turning over of our plan to HIS...we were both approached about working with Dan Anthony in the youth department. We are both now leading a small group and Roz is working along side Rick Eimers as his assistant in the area of small groups as well. We know that God placed us in that small group for the specific reason of breaking us and then putting us back together. We absolutely love each and every member of our group and look forward to seeing them so very much.We are excited about what God is doing and are growing closer and closer to these very special people He has put in our lives. We would have not on our own ever thought that our miserableness had anything to do the issue of worship....but it did.....and our hearts desire was answered and it could have only come thru the love and support from our community group. They are priceless to us. "
They were almost ready to swerve, crash, and burn. But Jesus used a group to keep them unshakable. Are you in a community group? Is anyone really walking with you through this time in your life? Is anyone encouraging you? Are you encouraging someone else?
We won’t waver when we cheer others on. And we won’t waver when we…
… stay plugged in.
Too many of us are “off and on” or “hot and cold.” We plug in then we pull out. We’re like yoyos – up and down, up and down. Listen, the people who don’t waver are the ones with staying power. They stay plugged into groups. Look at how the passage ends…
“… all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
The “Day” refers to the return of Christ. The closer we get to the return of Jesus, the more we ought to be plugged into groups.
How close are we to the return of Christ? The safe answer is this: We’re one day closer today than we were yesterday. So, every day that goes by means that we are closer to “the Day.”
And that means we ought to be even more committed to assembling together than ever before. Yet some of us are less committed to gather together than we used to be.
As time goes by, we become more and more busy. For Maryanne and me, now that our kids are older, they are more involved. And our organization here has grown. So, our lives are more packed than ever. Just like you, life is more complicated for us than ever before. Wouldn’t it be wise to have our Tuesday nights back?
No. We are in this for good.
Exhort one another every day as long as it is called “today.”
Hebrews 3:13a (ESV)
We won’t waver when we stay plugged in.
I know that many of you are saying, “That’s OK for him or her, but not me, not now.” We have a built in resistance to this. I know that.
But when you took a job, you entered into brand new relationships to make a profit – to provide for yourself. When you first went to school, you entered into new relationships to get an education. If you joined a team at school, you entered into new relationships to win a championship.
You had to show up and start working with people you didn’t know. Some you like. Some you don’t. You went into new relationships that were structured for you by someone else.
If you want to live your life without wavering, then you have to apply to your spiritual life what you’ve done in your financial, educational, and recreational life.
We entered into new relationships
for this (hold up wallet),
for this (point to head),
for this (flex biceps).
Why not this? (point to heart)
Why not do it for your heart, your soul, your spirit?
A truth to take home: Life change happens best in groups.
I like it when you come to hear me talk. Life change doesn’t happen best when we sit in rows in a room and listen to a speaker talk to us. It happens best in groups.
A verse to take in: Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together. (Hebrews 10:24-25a, ESV)
A change to take on: I will hang out with the sold out.
At the end of the line for us as a church is a group – a group of people who act like family to one another and who are committed to multiply.
(Drama team… ready…)
Hard times hit everyone.
(Drama team… set…)
How will you be unshakable through the tough times? What’s your plan?
(Drama team… go!)
You just saw a three stage scenario. From the kitchen table to the foyer. That’s where we are right now. In the foyer. You want to be unswerving? You don’t want to veer and crash?
The best thing for you to do is to get to the kitchen table – to be sure you are in a group.
What is your greatest regret in life? I’m betting that your greatest regret in life could have been avoided if you had been in a group. They could have asked you, “Where you have been? What are you doing? Where are you going? Who’s that you’re hanging with?”
I know you’re busy. You don’t have several hours each week where you don’t have anything to do. But you don’t want to show up here in 3-5 years with regrets about all the swerving you’ve done. You don’t want to waver and crash in your spiritual life.
Today, join a group. You say, “I don’t know how?” Fill out this card. On Monday night, come to Group Connect. You say, “I have kids and I can’t get a sitter.” Childcare is available for Group Connect. Just check the box on the Care Card for your childcare needs. That information isn’t on the CG card. But it’s on the Care Card.
We’ll help you find a friendship group. It’s for people who are just sitting down at the kitchen table for the first time. You’ll get that “dating period” with a group of new friends.
About 160 people have expressed an interest far. You’ll have 40 groups to choose from – men’s women’s, and mixed.
Group Connect is not the same as the Small Group Fairs we have had in the past. You’ll come not in a group and leave in a Friendship Group where you can try before you buy. You do get to shop around at the GC.
If you join a group, great things can happen for you. I know you don’t have time. I know this is not urgent. But it’s important.
For some, this has been a great reminder. For others, it’s been a brand new challenge. For others, it’s time to jump in again. You say, “I tried it before.” I say, “Try it again because we are going to a whole new level with our groups.”
It’s the means God has given us so we won’t swerve, crash, and burn. It’s the way to be unshakable.
