A Culture of Faithfulness

Acts 2:42-46

Introduction

As we continue throughout the year with the theme of faith, I want to take that and apply it to the collective of the local church.

How do we live out faithfulness as a group.

I talked last week about the need to root our boys in the identity of the church viewing the church as an extended family.

I want to press that point and talk about how we can look to the New Testament picture of what faithful churches looked like and see how we can continue to press toward that picture.

Truth Produces Community

Truth is the reason this community exists (Eph. 4:1-6, 15; 1 Tim. 3:15).

Truth defines this community.

It is the unmoving center of what we do here.

This automatically produced interdependent community (Acts 2:42, 44-46; Jas. 1:27).

The need arose from unique circumstances.

But it produced a beautiful interdependence that is an ideal picture.

But even in the first century the pressures waxed and waned

When that need diminished, the result was still preached (Heb. 10:32-36; 1 Cor. 12:14-27; cf. Prov. 18:1).

There are a million different ways that we have figured out how to mitigate risk reducing the need to rely on each other.

Take insurance for example. Before insurance, you invested in community and family and were assured of aid if tragedy struck.

This is the same as the family. The obvious need for God’s order has been masked by modern society and so the consequences aren’t as obvious…but consequences are still there.

We have to recognize and provide for the need that isn’t so obvious. Not wait until there are obvious needs.

This is a goal we should actively pursue (1 Pet. 4:8-11).

It is easy to think that certain things SHOULD naturally flow from other things and then when they don’t to kind of shrug our shoulders.

But when “natural” flows have been disrupted, we sometimes have to be more intentional to arrive at the desired result.

We will discuss this further later in the lesson.

At the Center

One of the products of truth is kingdom priority (Matt. 6:33).

It is easy to make church just another community responsibility we are a part of.

Instead of thinking of it as the center from which everything else flows outward.

We need make a careful evaluation of the communities we join (2 Cor. 6:14-18).

We need to do more than simply evaluate if this conflicts with worship services.

Does it stand in the way of relationship?

“Important” and “at the center” are not the same thing (Lk. 10:41-42).

You can instill a sense of strong duty to attend (good), without instilling of commitment to the community.

In other words, you can teach your children that they have to be at church, but they don’t really have to be engaged.

You will especially do this if there is no engagement when you leave these walls.

Building Community

Let us start by acknowledging much here at Pepper Road worthy of praise.

We need to have a vision of the ideal in our minds (Prov. 29:18; Lk. 10:41-42; Acts 2:44-47; cf. Prov. 31:10-31).

An ideal picture is not a checklist.

It is not the minimum.

It is what the perfected picture looks like.

It requires a great deal of patience and deference (Eph. 4:2; Rom. 12:3-5; Rom. 14:3).

This includes matters of judgment.

It does take some willingness to sometimes do more than just hope things happen organically (song list).

You can go find other groups you feel more comfortable with for a variety of reasons.

This is no excuse to neglect your family in body or spirit.

It will involve reinstating counter-cultural structures (Tit. 2:2-6).

This should play out in more clear structures of engagement (1 Cor 6:1-5).

These kinds of structures will garner accusations even from brethren.

Conclusion

There is much good that is done here at Pepper Road, most especially when special needs arise.

But we want to make sure we do not wait for demand.

We want to build an interdependence that is spiritually valuable even when not physically required.

This is not about compliance with some requirement. It is about seeing an ideal picture, and wanting to draw closer and closer to it.

Are you even part of that community? Some want the benefits without the cost but not only do you not enjoy the benefits of community, you don’t enjoy the benefits of the One who makes us into a community. That is the point of what we do.