God’s Perfect Balance

Greeting

Find someone around you and tell them, “We are better together!”

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In Matt. 16, Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” HE will build. And our text shows how He is building it, still today:

Text

Acts 2:42–47 KJV 1900

42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Acts 5:42 KJV 1900

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

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What We Are Doing

You have a handout. This is something I put together months ago in study. I want you to see the highlighted areas. I’m not giving you this so you can simply admire what I’ve found. I want you to open your Bible at home and study the areas pointed out.

We need this burden to sink into our collective spirit.

Put that aside, for awhile, though…

Testimonies to the Small Group Format

“One of the biggest challenges of growth in a church is maintaining the ‘family’ feel as the church begins to expand. Increasing church attendance makes it more difficult for the pastoral staff to individually touch each life coming through the church doors. In a report titled ‘Megachurch 2020: The Changing Reality in America’s Largest Churches,’ Hartford Institute for Religion Research and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) state, ‘Our latest survey shows that small-group practice continues to increase dramatically, but also that the spiritual-health impact of the use of small groups is profound. When asked if small groups are central to their strategy of Christian nurture and spiritual formation, an astounding 90% of megachurches said yes.’ With this in mind, we need to look at the potential of implementing a small group structure into the fabric of our church program.”

Rev. Darin Sargent, Forward magazine, Winter 2022

“[Small groups] provide a place to connect people with other people in the church. Sunday services connect them to the message. My personal experience within our church, TrueVine, has shown that people in small groups speed up their connectivity to the church by two years, compared to just attending Sunday worship service. The friends and support they receive are invaluable to their long-term membership and growth. We have done small groups for nine years, and our church has grown 230 percent in those nine years. Perhaps you would ask, ‘How do I know it was groups that produced the growth?’ It’s because that’s all we changed in those nine years. Our preaching is the same; music is the same; location is the same.”

Pastor Tom Durrance, Forward magazine, Winter 2022

“Here’s What We Are Doing...”

Now I’m going to read to you directly from our official ministry document describing LifeGroups at New Life Rector:

“We believe LifeGroups groups are an exciting way to ‘be’ the Church, beyond the doors of our Sunday Service location. We recognize that the apostles continued meeting in ‘the temple’ as well as ‘breaking bread from house to house’ (Acts 2:42-47, Acts 5:42). We also believe that the Church is far more than a building we meet in on Sunday; it is ‘a house not made with hands’ (2 Corinthians 5:1). It is a body of believers – and we are that body, Monday through Sunday!”

LifeGroup Ministry Purpose + Structure, New Life Rector

Every last Wednesday of the month will be small groups. We have three groups for now. Your name will be in one of them.

You will be meeting those nights at your LifeGroup Leaders home. We’ll have the address available.

You’ll get there and eat together and talk, and once everyone is done there, we’ll go into a time of prayer and study of the Word. Each time it will be a different topic to study and talk about together. It will be conversational.

It will be a fantastic opportunity to grow with one another.

More importantly, it will be a great opportunity to get someone there and reach them. This is the evangelistic part I spoke of last week!

We are setting a reasonable goal of having at least one new member in each of these groups before the end of the semester in May. And our goal in that is to eventually have to start a fourth group!

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God’s Perfect Balance

Earth is Balanced in Just the Right Spot for Life

Government Has Checks and Balances

A Good Ball Team Has Offense AND Defense

His Ability to Balance is Under-appreciated

It seems that God shows His perfect balance that has long been known, even in the beginnings of His Church.

We've known of His beautiful balance of such great concepts as:

Justice and mercy

Compassion and rebuke

Encouragement and correction.

Balance: Prophet + Teacher

There’s another I find interesting… that of the prophet and the teacher.

There is a frequent linking of the two in the New Tetament.

Acts 13:1 KJV 1900

1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

1 Corinthians 12:28 KJV 1900

28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:6 KJV 1900

6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

Ephesians 4:11 KJV 1900

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

They are forever connected, the teacher and the prophet.

A pastor is required to be a teacher. And teachers are so very necessary. You probably are quite thankful for much of your knowledge of Scripture that came from teaching.

But I can tell you this, it is an incredible blessing to have a prophetic voice in your life.

“...preachers may help anybody and hurt nobody; but prophets will stir everybody and madden somebody. The preacher may go with the crowd; the prophet goes against it. A man freed, fired, and filled with God will be branded unpatriotic because he speaks against his nation’s sins; unkind because his tongue is a two-edged sword; unbalanced because the weight of preaching opinion is against him. The preacher will be heralded; the prophet hounded.”

Leonard Ravenhill

Initially when you hear that, there might be some resistance rise in you.

But if you will use Scripture as your assessment of those statements, and look at prophets throughout the Bible, it was very often that they would speak of God directly to the masses, many of whom would become riled.

But here’s what’s interesting…

The teacher reiterates and conserves the forever settled Word and explains it. The prophet is CREATIVE, in that they give a NEW Word. And the creative role of prophecy is balanced by the conserving role of the teacher!

Isn’t that awesome!

Balance: Temple Courts + House to House

Acts 2:46 KJV 1900

46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Acts 5:42 KJV 1900

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

I’m finding in Scripture that there was yet another balance God used in the New Testament church, it seems!

There was meeting at the temple courts, but there was also meeting house-to-house!

I am convinced that, as much as God wishes to live inside of us, He also wishes to be welcome in our homes!

I think that you are going to feel a special blessing come over you when you sit around a dining table with people you know and people you don’t, and you open your Bible!!!

TOUCH MY HOME, GOD!

When Common Places Turn Holy

Here’s something we need to think about…

It’s always the common places that become suddenly holy, isn’t it?

A burning bush - in that same familiar field where Moses punched the clock every day for forty years.

The sitting room - where Esther presented her request to the king.

The upstairs windowsill - where Daniel rested his elbows while he prayed defiantly against the royal law.

The run-down barn - owned by a poor farmer on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

The beach - that Peter had docked at every week since he was just a boy.

How about this… the duplex on a street in Jerusalem, where suddenly… the wind started blowing inside…

Malachi 3:1 KJV 1900

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

Acts 2:1–2 KJV 1900

1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Notice that: one scripture speaks of the temple, the other a house… but in both cases, the presence of God SUDDENLY came in!

It only takes a moment to turn an every-day place into holy ground.

If I may, tonight - God would like to take your common and blow your mind by making it UNcommon!

It’s not something out of the ordinary for Him! He is a God that operates with a swift hand!

Think of these two scriptures for a moment… “SUDDENLY!”

One moment drought; the next, DELIVERANCE!

Think about this… ten minutes before John the Baptist arrived, no one even knew that he was there! And then, suddenly, after year of time alone with God in the wilderness… BOOM! Out from the thickets comes one who Jesus described as the greatest prophet to-date! Suddenly!

I could take time right here for a while and talk about how God can balance your life with the ministry of loneliness, and the ministry of corporate worship. Don’t despise the times alone - the blessings that come in public are the result of the time in the prayer closet!

Suddenly, one who was already present has become a threat to both the religious tradition of the world and hell itself!

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And as it was then… so I am sure it will be…

God will get some man or woman’s ear and heart and will! Men and women, who have walked with God in patience and in humility, are going to begin to get under the unction of the Holy Ghost! And under the Spirit’s strength, they are going to speak what the Lord has said! And do what the Lord has said for them to do!

I have had lengthy conversation with saints in this church in the last week, who have testified that they are growing because there is a DEPTH of the Word of God that is here! And a deepening of spiritual sensitivity!

And I know that it functions, because the Spirit is doing the work, to draw people toward this.

I am reminded of just how powerful of a thing this is that we are a part of! There is something incredible that God is working in this local assembly! And I’m so thrilled to be here!

And I am in one of those seasons this year, where God is helping me to become even further sold-out and fully-invested than I’ve ever been. It’s consecration. I’m ready for all He has coming!

Isaiah 54:1–3 KJV 1900

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. 2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, And let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, And make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Paul took these scriptures and applied them to the Church...

Galatians 4:27–28 KJV 1900

27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

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Conclusion

To conclude the matter this Wednesday… where we stand tonight is an UNcommon place! We see the UNcommon and the SUPERnatural happen when we gather here, all the time! It’s amazing!

But because He’s a BALANCED God, and He gets it right in what He does… He wants to take the common places in our lives and MAKE THEM UNCOMMON, TOO!!!