Community Message for Journey

Recap

As we wrap up this series, quick recap:

Week 1: Loving God and Loving Others

Week 2: Loving our Enemies and Praying for Them

Week 3: We as a Community Encourage Each Other to do Good

Week 4: How It Plays Out

Now heading into Week 4, I’m going to share some ways these things have played out in my life. I’ll start with a Scripture showing what Jesus has for us in community, and then share a story of what that’s looked like for me. The goal is that you’ll see new ways you can love those around you like Jesus tells us to.

Serving In Love

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version (Chapter 4)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is dborn of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested ain us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

I have tons of examples of people in my Christian community helping practically. Cam and Brenna have picked us up from the airport, them and Scott have helped us move, Pastor Cam’s parents made it possible for us to go to Rome last year. But there’s a deep call here when our command to love is tied to someone dying for us. I want to share an example that continues to stick with me.

Kacie with your anxiety

Scott with my moving

Encouraging Me Towards Good

Galatians 6:2 NASB 95

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, something interesting I learned here is the context. Scholar David Desilva says this:

The Letter to the Galatians (B. Practical Advice for Walking in the Spirit (6:1–10))

In the immediate context, “burdens” refers metaphorically to the moral and personal failures from which individual disciples need restoration—the weight of the struggle against falling back under the power of self-centered and self-gratifying impulses (the flesh).

I totally thought this was about taking care of each other, and don’t get me wrong, we just finished showing how important that is. But Paul wants us to help each other out of our sin.

The clearest example I have of this is with Pastor Cam. Him and I get together every Tuesday night and talk about life and what we need to grow in. One of my big sin issues is my health and gluttony, and Cam has really stepped in and bore that burden with me. We have a deal where I gotta track what I eat, and if I don’t send him a log, he has to go run a mile.

He knew I would cave some days if I had to go run the mile, I can bang that out in like 3 minutes. But he knew the shame and guilt of making him run would be what I needed to start building good habits here.

Drake said it best back in 2011 on the song Headlines, “When one of us goes in man we all go through it”. This is the sentiment we should have with our sin. I’m not just commanded to care about the sin that is infecting me, I’m meant to help my brothers and sisters deal with theirs.

Conclusion