One Body of Believers

FORCED TOGETHERNESS

Has your mom ever made you and your siblings be together and show love for one another. Kinda a weird statement unless you actually experienced it. Where your parents could not stand for the idea that you are your sibling did not like to spend time together. So they decided that they would put you in the same room or go on a car trip and force you together.

THIS WILL BE A FAMILY

Maybe a slightly different story, but that is essentially escape rooms, that you would want to escape the room not because of the claustrophobia but rather because you did not want to spend time with your family anymore. Like “Get me out of here”.

But a escape room is that forced togetherness that we experience. You have to be together because well your stuck, it’s either be stuck together or solve the puzzles faster.

So, think of this weekend like a escape room, however this is a camp and escape is making your parent drive a ways to pick you up. Forced togetherness is what we are talking about today. There is no puzzles to leave, rather we have to exist with each-other here for this time, for this weekend, and we have to exist with each other for the next year, at-least!

There is plenty to say when it comes to our forced togetherness, but the first thing I want to say is, this is what the Church is.

Matthew 18 talks about a few different things, one of them is the dealing with Sin but however we also use this passage to define what the Church is, Matthew 18:20

Matthew 18:20 NIV

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

When we are gathered together, as long as it is in the name of Jesus that there is the Church. This is our bases for the weekend, that when we are gathered together in moments like this, in moments for the glory of Jesus for learning about God, for acknowledgement of the Spirit, that is where the Church is.

That being said off the bat lets jump into what it means that we are the Church here at this retreat and even when we leave the retreat and had back to regular youth.

When gather here or in the future we are the Church, but what does that mean?

how are we the church here?

You may feel like you are just a teenager and that is the reason that you are not the church, becuase you are too young.

You might also say that this is nothing of what a church looks like, we are at a camp and as far as I know camps are not churches.

Well I want to tell you that you are the church as it’s body and that you are called to be God’s people.

That is what the church is, it is just a gathering of God’s people. With that comes the responsibility, so lets dive in to Ephesians 4:1-6

Ephesians 4:1–6 NIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

What do you need to grow the most

What do you need from others the most

This first piece of Ephesians is that Paul states his agenda, that the Ephesians the original audience of the letter would live this way but we also want to read this and know that he calls us to live in this way as well.

lets dive into it this passage.

To live a life worth of the calling to be God’s people that means being humble in our conversations with one another.

Humbility is the idea that we do not boast what we have, that when out successes are big, we will not gloat over the ones who has failures or losses.

As a church, we especially do not want to boast our status, we have a status of being given grace and that we are followers of Jesus, that comes with a higher status but gives us greater respobility

“with great power comes great responsibility” - Ben Parker

and so because we have grace we cannot flaunt grace.

I can not go up to someone and flaunt my christianity becuase that is not humility, and even more Paul directly says you cannot do that earlier in the epsitle/letter here. Eph 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

So we cannot say boastful things, especially in our status becuase that is not what the church does, instead they are humble, just as Christ was humble and went to the cross for those he loves.

Humility is to love others as Christ loves them, that feeling of ok I would give up apart of myself that you would experience God’s love. So sit down be humble.

Humbleness also follows to gentleness, because pride and boasting comes to be a hostility and that would drive others away from us. To be gentle is to be humble, that you would put others before you put yourself, in physicallity but actually more about who you are and who they are.

Even in our gatherings I pray that you would put the person you are sitting beside before yourself. That is what the church should be at the core, that we would love our neighbor on the block and on the church pew.

Gentleness is acknowledgeing that other people come from different places and different backgrounds. Knowing that and loving them over and above the amount of love they need. Just like how your parents may show you more love then you deserve, that is gentleness. a soft love that is not hostile.

Gentlesness is nothing without humility

then we go onto patience, and oh many I need that, we all need that in a world that is so go go go.

We want the now, but a patient person is one who waits, works slowly but effectively.

I would love for rapid change

I wish that I had all the right answers for you that I could just hand it to you on a silver plater then that you guys would see the fullness of Jesus and change rapidly as Christians to get to that desired goal of a faith follower withno hesisations.

but that is not realistic.

I need to be paitent

you might feel this way with friends or even yourself,

Why is so and so not as great of a christian as me. be patient,

Why can I not keep to a regular prayer or devotional schedule, pe patient do not give up

When we live relationships with each other we cannot rush through them and get to the good parts.

We cannot not sing kumbya without breading bread with each other, and I am talking about breading bread multiple times, look I have been here a year and I am still learning new things about each of you.

be patient, it comes from gentleness which needs humility.

bear with one another in love, this one is a hard one. That we would love each other in the ups and the downs, the greatest parts of life and the worst parts of life.

Love being that we deeply care for one another, as a repersentative of God. We talked about this a few weeks ago, that we act as a emassary of God when we show love to another another.

While this is forced togetherness, we must understand that it is for the development of our faith, that we should grow in our understanding of who God is together.

How we need to be around each other

Listen to this verse that summarizes how I want you all to be to each other.

Proverbs 27:17 NIV

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

I want each of you to sharpen each other.

That means that as you contiune to be here during this retreat that you would sharpen each other instead breaking down. That you would want everyone here to have fun, be included, and succeed this weekend, in the games we play, the food we eat and most importantly in following Jesus.

That sharping eachother is supporting each other and wanting those around you to positivily grow, that is getting sharper.

What does that mean this weekend?

that you would show kindness, even when it’s hard. Remember we just talked about how we need to love eachother, well I want you to do that in the words you say or in your actions.

I want you to encourage others to follow Jesus in two different ways,

that in your small groups you would want to have effective conversations and have a desire to grow and see others grow.

If you don’t like the message, or it just is not hitting you the same as other messages have. your not for it at the momment, that is alright. I want you to bring that up, say what you didn’t like about what I said or why you did not care about it, as a small group you can talk about that.

However we cannot sharpen eachother if we refuse to let the rest of the group try to learn and grow over this weeked. So I want to encourage you to sharpen eachother this weekend but not distracting your buddies during small group or even the lessons. We want to be a community right here and right now that is dedicated to sharpening our spiritual development.

So even when you feel like you know the lesson or the lesson is a bore, I want to encourage you to instead of passing it up, that you would still take it and use it to help someone else understand it.

If we don’t intentially sharpen someone we often miss the oppertunity to help and instead could be dulling someone.

Ok ok one more thing about who we are:

Christ Loves us as a whole

Ephesians 1:22–23 NIV

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

As we embark on this theme of One we must understand that God has one Church, and in that church he loves all people. He loves his Church.

When we are gathered together here and now God loves us deeply because we are his Church.

When we recognize that God loves his church as a collective we must know that he is present when we meet together, and even more is that he love us, all of us.

This weekened would be nothing if we did not show love for eachother. We must see the person on our left and the person on our right as the people that God loves the most, becuase God’s favourite child is all of you.

The Church is his favourite child and I hope you see that God loves you just as he loves the person beside you, just as he love those not with us right now, even as he loves those who are not apart of the church.

God loves each of you as his favourite child, becuase we are the Church when we are gathered in his name.

So as we contiune on this weekend I want you to treat each other with the same love that God treats you with and treats others with.

How can we treat each other with respect this weekend?

Lets make a rule of respect this weekend - Liam will take each groups rule at breakfast.