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Big Idea:
Growing in Christ requires Christ-centered community
Intro:
Hey Church Online - thanks for joining us today!
We’re continuing in our “Growing in Christ” series, believing that for 2023, God is calling our church to spiritually grow up so we can fulfill our 2023 Vision of “Moving on up.”
Last week we discussed growing in God’s truth in order to grow in Christ.
Spiritually mature people are people committed to the Scriptures; that is, the Bible.
And part of properly understanding the Bible is learning the entire story.
The apostle Paul discussed this with the Ephesian Christians.
He told them...
And for us, the “whole counsel of God” involves understanding how both OT and NT, from Genesis to Revelation, is important.
As Paul also wrote...
Today, I want to practice declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
I want to start by sharing a story from the beginning, the first part of this book, from the book of Genesis...
… But let me set it up first:
In the beginning, God created everything, including Adam and Eve, the first humans (Genesis 1).
But they chose to rebel against God and that sin broke the world (Genesis 3).
Nevertheless, God promises to one day save the world; but humans continue to reject God, despite His goodness and love.
Things get so bad that God decides to judge the rebellious world through a flood (Genesis 6); yet, there was one man who loved God - Noah.
And God saves His family.
They build an ark and are spared from judgement.
Eventually, Noah’s family repopulates the earth and a man named Abraham is born.
God chooses Abraham to be the father of the nation who will bring forth the Savior.
Abraham believes God’s promise and therefore becomes the father of our faith too (Genesis 12).
But Abraham has problems… one being… he can let his fear override his faith.
And when he does, he makes poor (and even sinful) decisions.
Can anyone relate?
… One of these moments is in Genesis 20.
Abraham is traveling with his wife Sarah and they arrive in Gerar, which is near the southern border of Palestine.
Here’s the thing: Sarah is beautiful.
And Abraham is AFRAID that the people will kill him to steal his wife.
So, his plan was to tell everyone, “She’s my sister.”
Wasn’t a great plan because while it preserved Abraham’s life… he still lost his wife!
However, God chose Abraham and Sarah to bring forth the Savior, not Abimelech and Sarah… and so God intervenes...
[Say, “God ain’t playin.”]
But verse 4 says...
And while there’s much more to this story… I’m gonna stop here for the purpose of our message today.
If you’re interested in hearing how this ends, let me encourage you, go read it for yourself!
[And for those who have a One-Year Bible, you likely have already read this story!]
But look at what Abimelech says, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?”
God said, “Bro - you’re a dead man.”
But Abimelech interprets that as “All of ya’ll about to die up in here.”
Furthermore, look at what happens when Abimelech confronts Abraham...
Again, notice, “me and my kingdom.”
Why does Abimelech keep bringing other people into his business?
Because if I lived in Gerar, I would’ve been like, “Don’t bring me into this!”
But that’s because, by default, I interpret the world thru a Western, modern filter… one that elevates INDIVIDUALITY!
But this happened thousands of years ago, in the Ancient Near East (not the West).
And in their culture, community superceded the individual.
And that’s what we see here.
The sin of one man impacted the many.
The judgment of one affected the entire community.
And while it IS biblical to appreciate our individuality, we must also learn (or remember) the value of community, because it’s an important topic in Scripture - that we often miss!
Today, I’d like to discuss the truth that:
Growing in Christ... requires biblical community.
We cannot grow in Christ in isolation.
We need community because that’s the way God designed it.
And that’s also why “community” is part of vision statement (our purpose statement) here at The River Church.
Again… if you haven’t memorized it (and you should if this is your home church)… our church’s vision statement is...
Loving Jesus as we build community and bring joy.
This is who we are.
This is what God has called us to.
God has called us to emphasize community - to build community… to highly prioritize relationships.
And here’s why this is important for us today… we live in a culture that teaches the opposite.
In addition to overvaluing individualism, we live in a cancel culture.
If you don’t like someone (for whatever reason) you can cancel or ghost them (disappear on them like they don’t exist).
If Abimelech was a modern king, we might cancel him.
He did something wrong.
We don’t want to be associated with him.
Cut him off!
But there’s a problem with that… that’s not the way God created the world to work.
We’re not just a bunch of random, unconnected individuals occupying this physical space called earth.
We are people made in the image of God, called to a purpose, and created to live in community.
Therefore, and especially in the church, if or when we embrace a “cancel culture” mentality, we damage our growth in Christ.
Because the cutting off of one person doesn’t just impact the individual, it affects the entire community… just as we see in Genesis 20.
Actually, we see this principle directly referred to among God’s people (the Israelites) as God gives Moses instructions about how His people should live and think...
In the Kingdom of God, specifically, in the church - the body of Christ, we’re all connected.
That’s why, if we want to grow in Christ, we must grow together.
And that’s why Paul, in Ephesians 4 (which is in the NT - teaching the whole counsel of God) as he’s teaching us to grow in Christ, he teaches on community… check it out...
Let’s do a little Bible study for these six verses...
Exegesis:
Okay, Bible Study 101… when you see a “therefore,” you should ask, “What is it there-for?”
And the “therefore” of verse 1 refers back to the first 3 chapters, where Paul taught on our new identity in Christ.
When we put our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, everything changed.
The Bible actually says we became a brand new person!
And because Christ has given us a new identity, we should live in a new way.
And that’s what Paul is calling us to… starting in verse 1 but continuing for the next 3 chapters.
He’s saying, “Let me teach you how to grow in Christ.”
He will discuss a lot of things (a lot of things we will study over the next year), but to start, he says...
One of the first things Paul says we should learn about our new identity is, “We should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
In other words, “Be committed to biblical community!”
Isn’t that crazy?
Out of all the things he could start with, Paul chooses COMMUNITY.
He could have started with:
Study the Scriptures because God’s word is extremely important.
Stop living in sin because that’s extremely important.
Do good works that glorify Your Father in Heaven - extremely important!
But... he starts with community… Why?
I’d like to suggest, based on my study of the passage (and really the whole counsel of Scripture)… that...
Our new identity in Christ REQUIRES LIVING IN COMMUNITY.
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