People to live with
Essentials for Life – People to Live With; nv 5/22/05 am
OS: 1 At the end of March there were almost 900,000,000 people connected to the internet. Companies are spending billions of dollars to lay cable and put satellites in space in order to connect everybody in the world. In 2000, 28 million miles of fiber optics were laid around the world. Under the ocean, enough cable was installed to circle the entire globe five times. In the air there are now well over fifteen hundred satellites dedicated to communications.
I. In our culture we continue to grow less and less connected.
A. In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putman says the following statistics are indicators of the decline in community life in America over the past 25 years:
1. Attending club meetings: down 58%
Family dinners: down 33%
Having friends over: down 45%
B. Though we have a basic need of people to live with our cultural value of individualism attempts to tear us apart.
1. Individualism is a value/belief in the primary importance of the individual, self-reliance and personal independence. It states that the interests of the individual should take precedence over the interests of the state or social group.
2. The American Value of individualism is like the two shipwrecked men in a lifeboat. From their end of the boat, the pair watched as those at the other end bailed frantically to keep the boat afloat.
The one said to the other, “Thank heaven, the hole is not on our end of the boat.”
3. If our teachers did the same…men… (I’d be leading singing.)
4. 2 Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone”
C. You were made for relationships. You were created for connections. Psychologists call this a universal need to belong. Even Jesus needed friends. The Bible has a very important word about connecting people at the deepest level. That spiritual connection is called fellowship.
1. Fellowship is not just hanging out with people, having a party, or being with friends.
2. Fellowship is more than socializing, networking, or making contacts with contacts.
3. Fellowship in its truest sense is sharing on a spiritual level. Most people in our society today never have that privilege.
II. Why is it essential to connect with others?
A. I know of no “authority” that doesn’t agree that a sense of belonging, connectedness is essential to physical and emotional health.
B. Bolling Alone: “After reviewing dozens of scientific studies, sociologist James House and his colleagues have concluded that the positive contributions to health made by social integration and social support rival in strength the detrimental contributions of well-established biomedical risk factors like cigarette smoking, obesity, elevated blood pressure, and physical inactivity. Statistically speaking, the evidence for the health consequences of social connectedness is as strong today as was the evidence for the health consequences of smoking at the time of the first surgeon general’s report on smoking. If the trends in social disconnection are as pervasive as I argued in section II, then “bowling alone” represents on of the nation’s most serious public health challenges.”
TS] What does it mean to be spiritually connected? What's it like? The Bible gives us four word pictures or metaphors that says, "Being spiritually connected is like this..." Church is not a place to attend. Church is a group to be connected to. So I want to explain to you the benefits of why you've got to get connected. It's one of the essentials for life. You need people to live with.
PQ: Why? What is it like to be spiritually connected?
I. 3 It’s like being a brick in a building.
A. 4 Ephesians 2 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
B. New Building – watching it go up.
1. The key to making a building is all of the parts have to fit together. If they don’t fit together, you don’t have a building.
2. As you walk around you can see parts laying here and there on the floor. – not connected, and not part of the building until they are connected. They are in the building, but not part of the building.
C. Why do you think God chose a building to illustrate the church?
1. 5 Because in a building all the connected parts support each other.
2. Beams support other beams, walls support other walls, and the roof holds the walls together, and the walls hold the roof up.
3. One of the deepest needs you have in life is support. You need emotional support, physical support, spiritual support, and where are you going to get it if you’re not connected? (Support Groups)
TS] What does it mean to be spiritually connected? What's it like? The Bible gives us four word pictures or metaphors that says, "Being spiritually connected is like this..." Church is not a place to attend. Church is a group to be connected to. You need people to live with.
PQ: Why? What is it like to be spiritually connected?
II. 6 It’s like being a part of a body.
A. 7 Romans 12 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
1. We are all different.
2. We all have different roles to play (functions) What if every part of your physical body decided to digest food?
3. We all are needed to make the body complete.
4. We all belong to one another.
5. We all must be connected to one another. What good is any member of the body when separated from the body? (hand, foot, eye, etc.)
B. Apart from the body there is no growth – if you cut your finger off when you were a child, froze it, and then tried to get it sown back on after you were grown what would be the problem?
1. You cannot be all God wants you to be and you cannot grow to be what God wants you to be without being attached to a body, a church, a church home.
2. :Colossians 2 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
a. Sinew – muscle part of your body that holds it all together.
b. Notice that growth is the result of being held together (collectively) being nourished by God.
3. One can acquire everything in solitude--except character.
C. 8 In a body, the connected parts support each other.
TS] What does it mean to be spiritually connected? What's it like? The Bible gives us four word pictures or metaphors that says, "Being spiritually connected is like this..." Church is not a place to attend. Church is a group to be connected to. You need people to live with.
PQ: Why? What is it like to be spiritually connected? Brick in Building/part of a body.
III. 9 It’s like being a sheep in a flock.
A. 2 Passages:
1. 10 Psalm 100 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
2. :John 10 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
3. A sheep in a flock! Wow! That sounds really kind of smelly! In Psalm 23 it says "Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need." When you get in God's flock, the great shepherd, Jesus Christ, takes care of the needs in your life.
B. Why did God choose the flock as an image of what it means to be spiritually connected? 11 Because in a flock the sheep are protected and cared for. That's one of the functions of a church.
1. You need that in your life. When you're getting beat up in the business world, when your marriage and family are being strained to the limit, when you're facing a personal overwhelming crisis, you need people who will step up to bat for you.
2. You need people that when everybody else walks out of your life, they walk into it. They assume responsibility and they protect you and they care for you. Like a shepherd does sheep.
TS] What does it mean to be spiritually connected? What's it like? The Bible gives us four word pictures or metaphors that says, "Being spiritually connected is like this..." Church is not a place to attend. Church is a group to be connected to. You need people to live with.
PQ: Why? What is it like to be spiritually connected? Brick in Building/part of a body/ Sheep in the flock
IV. 12 It’s like being a member of a family.
A. 13 1 Timothy 3 14 Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, 15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
1. We are family! That means brothers and sisters! That means we have a heavenly Father!
B. We really are related to each other in the family of God.
1. The phrase "one another" is used 58 times in the New Testament.
2. The Bible says we are to love one another, care for one another, encourage one another, support one another, give to one another, help one another, on and on.
3. It is the mutual ministry that we have in the family of God. That's what it means to be a member of a family.
4. You're not just a spectator in a church. You're a participator in a church. You're not on the outside looking at the family. You're on the inside as a family member.
C. Remember the words of the theme song of "Cheers". "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 they're always glad you came. You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same. You want to be where everybody knows your name."
1. That’s a description of the family of God not a bar or some TV show.
D. Why family – 14 Because in a family the members love each other.
TS] Essentials of life – 15 Power to live on, People to live with – What is it like: Brick in a building, a part of the body, a sheep of the flock, a member of a family.
Church is not a place to attend. Church is a group to be connected to. You need people to live with.
CS: I want to close with just one question. Why should you stay disconnected? Give me one good reason. When a church like this has so much to offer you, why should you stay disconnected? Why should you remain a spectator instead of a participator? God has designed the church to meet all of your basic needs through this spiritual connection.