Sermon 1 - One Anothering - Relationships God's Way Series

A. The story is told of a farm boy who accidentally overturned his wagonload of hay on the road.

1. A neighbor came over to give him a hand.

2. “Hey, Willis,” the neighbor said, “It’s dinner time, forget your troubles for a while and come and have dinner with us. Then we can come back and I’ll help you turn your wagon back upright and put the hay back on it.”

3. “That’s nice of you,” Willis answered, “but I don’t think Dad would want me to.”

4. “Aw, come on, son!” the neighbor insisted.

5. “Well, okay,” the boy finally agreed, “but Dad won’t like it.”

6. After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked the host, and said, “I feel a lot better now, but I know my dad is going to be very upset.”

7. “Don’t be silly!” said the neighbor. “And by the way, where is your dad?”

8. The boy replied, “Dad is under the overturned wagon and hay!”

B. This story illustrates a sense of community that we don’t see as much as we used to.

1. In times past, neighbors used to know each other more than they do today, and neighbors used to spend more time helping each other more than they do today.

2. Neighbors used to share meals and entertain each other, before the days of television.

C. Times, society and culture have changed and therefore, community is much harder to find today.

1. And on top of that, the covid 19 pandemic has also created even more isolation.

2. That’s true in big cities and small towns and in neighborhoods.

3. And sadly, that’s often true even in churches.

D. If we decided to hire an observer to come to our congregation and make a careful analysis of our congregation’s life and our sense of community and relationships, what would that person find?

1. What would that person observe about the way we relate to each other?

2. What would they observe about the way we interact with each other when we are together and when we are away from our regular church gatherings?

3. Would the person notice any “cliqueiness”?

4. Would they notice a willingness or an unwillingness to support each other in time of need?

E. Well, a number of years ago some churches allowed themselves to be analyzed in just that way.

1. And what they learned was very disturbing.

2. In a series of interviews the members were asked things like: “How many of those present in the worship service do you know personally?”

3. The great majority of church members had to admit that they knew a very small percentage of the people in their congregation.

4. Those who gathered for worship on Sunday were, for the most part, an anonymous group of worshipers.

5. However, the most disturbing thing of all was the fact that many of those who were questioned expressed little interest in becoming more involved in the lives of other members.

6. They thought that such relationships had very little to do with the Christian life.

F. But those people couldn’t be any more wrong – relationships in the church are absolutely indispensable.

1. The Bible reveals that Christianity was never meant to be lived alone and in isolation.

2. The apostle John wrote: We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 Jn. 1:3-7)

3. Experiencing the salvation of the Lord involves having fellowship with the Father, and the Son, and each other.

4. This is something that the early church understood and experienced.

5. Our Scripture reading showed the early Christians making a commitment to the fellowship.

6. The earliest Christians could never have imagined a Christianity that consisted only in a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ – which is something we hear a lot about today.

7. They would have considered any personal relationship with God apart from a vital relationship with the church, the body of Christ, as a counterfeit to real Christianity.

G. But what is real fellowship?

1. Is fellowship visiting in the foyer?

2. Is fellowship a Bible class?

3. Is fellowship a potluck dinner?