Grow In Community

Key Elements

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, the Apostle Paul addressed the issue of division among the members of the church at Corinth by communicating what it means to grow in community unified for the purpose of the Gospel of Jesus.

Main idea of the message: The Church of Jesus Christ grows in community when its members pursue unity, celebrate their God-given uniqueness, and remain committed to working together as one body for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want the people of Stone Ridge Baptist Church to see the necessity of community and grow in community by serving and worshipping together using the gifts and talents God has given them.

Intro

Story about the tendency to be or eat alone. Purposefully avoiding people and our need for community. the affect AI and social media has on that.

And today, as we continue our sermon series Discover Stone Ridge talking about our vision and our mission to Make disciples of Jesus who love God passionately, grow in community, and live missionally; Growing in community is what we are going to begin to zero in on as we move to the second part of our process on our Discipleship Pathway. (show process pic) Last week, we began at the top talking about Loving God passionately and we looked at four specific disciplines that help us do that here at Stone Ridge:

We love God passionately through a lifestyle of Gospel-centered worship.

Through dedicated, personal engagement with God’s Word.

Through intimate communion with God in prayer.

Through sacrificial giving of our resources.

And for the next couple of Sundays, we are going to be looking at the second step in our process or pathway and exploring what it means as a church to emphasize community. Today, we are going to spend some time defining community and emphasizing the importance of it in all of our lives and then in a couple of weeks, we will continue talking about community by looking specifically at how we grow in community here at Stone Ridge.

So, let’s begin by defining community. Community defined is “a feeling of connection with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.” Community is a concept that comes to mind when we think about the city we live in or our neighborhood. It’s a word that may come to mind when we are at a local football game on Friday night or an event that brings our city together.

I can remember when my family and I moved from Alexander City to a larger community in metro Atlanta. And everything was busier and crazier and just bigger. In fact, our oldest son was a freshman at Benjamin Russell. And I believe at the time there were around 900 students in 9th-12th grade. When we moved, the highschool that the boys went to had 2,000 students 9th-12th grade. And I remember the first Friday night at a football game. Kristi and I were sitting there in the stands and realized we didn’t know anyone on the field. And then the Lord called us back to AC and I remember coming back here and just this sense of community being felt.

You see, community is something that runs much deeper than a social event or a concept. Community is something that, as human beings, we all desire and we all, whether we would admit it or not, need. And when it comes to the church of Jesus Christ, community has deep Biblical roots. In fact, when we look in the NT, we see the concept of community as a vital part of the church from its very beginnings. And just as community was a vital part of the church in the NT, it is just as vital in the church now.

And because the church of Jesus Christ is made up of people who thrive and live in relationship with one another, community provides the environment in which those relationships grow and thrive. Author Dave Early in his book Ministry Is gives us a great definition of the church, he says, “the church is a called-out, living assembly of baptized believers, associated by a covenant of faith, organized by New Testament principles, assembling regularly together, led by pastors, under the discipline of God’s Word and the leadership of Christ that exists for the purpose of evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved.” The Bible calls the church The Body of Christ, the Vine connected to the Branch, and the Sheep who follow the Shepherd. As the church of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to Go, Teach, Baptize, and Make Disciples. And God has commissioned us to accomplish His purposes that he has left us here to accomplish. And as Stone Ridge Baptist Church, He has given us a specific vision and mission to reach a specific community. As the church we are called to be unified in vision, mission, and process. And as we unify under the vision and the mission God has given us, it will radically transform how we think about church. It will cause us to live radically for Jesus Christ, it will cause us to seek out those who are far from God, it will cause us to be transparent with one another and authentic in our relationships, to put aside petty disputes that distract us from the mission and vision God has called us to, and refuse to be shallow and superficial.

And it will cause us to realize more and more why God has placed us here in this community. To communicate to a dying distracted world the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to offer hope that they can’t find anywhere else, to reach those that no one else will reach, and to go where no one else will go. And that only happens when we unify under the vision and mission we’ve been given. It happens as we come together seeing the necessity of community and growing in community serving and worshipping together using the gifts and talents God has given us.

So here’s our main idea for today: The Church of Jesus Christ grows in community when its members pursue unity, celebrate their God-given uniqueness, and remain committed to working together as one body for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Message

For us to be the church that God has called us to be and for us to be the Christ followers He has called us to be, dwelling in community with other followers of Jesus is not just a suggestion, it is something that is necessary. So, today we want to spend some time talking about what it means to grow in community; and the Apostle Paul helps us understand that in 1 Corinthians 12.

So, some context for us today. The city of Corinth was a unique place. According to historians, one of the characteristics that made Corinth so unique was the “diverse nature of its society.” Corinth was positioned as a sea port on one of the busiest routes in the Mediterranean Sea. So, you have military men from Rome, you have mystics from the East, you have Jews from Palestine, and you have philosophers from Greece all coming together to make us this diverse community. So, when the Apostle Paul proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this diverse city and people began to become Christ followers, you have this church that is made up of an interesting cross section of people. And this worked while Paul was among them but as soon as Paul left, the Church at Corinth, in the process of working out their faith in Jesus Christ, began to disagree about some things. And in response to these disagreements that are happening and the division that was beginning to form, the Apostle Paul writes two letters to the Corinthian church that we have in our Bibles today. He addresses many of the issues they are facing and then he shifts his attention to life in the church and in the process of that discussion, we come to our text today in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and he says this...

So, looking at our text today in 1 Corinthians 12, let’s talk about how growing in community happens here at Stone Ridge Baptist Church:

1. Community happens when unity is our heartbeat. (vs. 12-13)

Unity is a choice we make as individuals and unity is a choice we make as a church, as the people of God. It’s something that we decide that we are going to pursue and the reason or the motivation behind that decision is the truth that we have been called and commanded by God to pursue unity. Unity is not just a decision, it has to be the heartbeat of our church. And when we begin to see unity through that lens, then it transforms the way we view church.

And I would say that the Apostle Paul had the same mindset when it came to unity in the church. Looking at our text today, we see the word “one” 5 times in the first two verses. (read) And that word “one” is unique in its meaning and use. It’s the Greek word meaning “a single unit; in contrast to the parts of which the whole is made up.” Paul is placing an emphasis on the oneness of the Body of Christ.

And as the church, called to grow in community, if we are to be one and be unified, then that oneness and unity has to be a high priority, again, it has to be the heartbeat of our church.

So, how does that happen?

a. The recognition of our dependence. (vs. 20-25)

First our dependence on God and second our dependence on other followers of Jesus. This is where it starts. We first surrender our hearts and lives to Jesus as Savior and Lord and then we go a step further and commit to live in relationship with other followers of Jesus in the local church. It’s this recognition that there is no way for us to make it on our own and that we weren’t created by God to live that way. We need each other. Look at what he says in vs. 20-21...

And in vs. 25, there’s this emphasis we are given, the Apostle Paul says that there should be “no division.” Literally, “no split or gap.” Warren Wiersbe puts it this way for us, “Each member needs the other members, and no member can afford to become independent. When a part of the human body becomes independent, you have a serious problem that could lead to sickness and even death. In a healthy human body, the various members cooperate with each other and even compensate for each other when a crisis occurs. The instant any part of the body says to any other part, “I don’t need you!” it begins to weaken and die and create problems for the whole body.”

Bringing it back to the church, the Body of Christ, one commentator says, “In the Body of Christ there should be no useless or unnecessary complaint of one member against another, no murmuring, no rebellion of one against another, no dissension, no division.” (Gill)

Instead of judging someone when they are struggling, we are called to come along side them, praying for them and helping them move in the right direction in their relationship with God. We are called to walk alongside one another through the victories and the struggles. And once we experience that community that comes through being a part of the church, we’ll wonder how we ever got along through life without it. As human beings, there is a dependence on others that naturally exists in us and community is the way we meet that need for dependence in the church.

For unity to become the heartbeat of the church, we have to recognize our dependence on one another.

Second, it’s

The realization of our dignity. (vs. 23-24)

It’s coming to the point in our thinking, that no one is more important or less important than anyone else.

And this is what the Apostle Paul points us to in vs. 23-24...

And we’ve all been in situations where we’ve been on one side or the other. We’ve all, at some point, for whatever reason, looked down on someone else and we have all, at some point, for whatever reason felt less than someone else. These attitudes show up in the business world, in the sports world, in the circle of friends we run with. It’s the age old struggle of comparison. And the church of Jesus Christ is not immune to this attitude either. In fact, it’s probably one of the most common and most dangerous ways the enemy tries to bring disunity among followers of Jesus.

2. Community happens when uniqueness is our strength. (vs. 12, 15-19)

3. Community happens mission is our shared journey. (vs. 27)

Closing