Together: Being in Christ Centered Community

Introduction

What’s up guys.

I know you guys have not known me a super long time, even though we are coming up on close to a year.

But I love the outdoors.

I have always hunted, fished, all the things, and told myself I would never live in a city… but never tell God never.

But in all of my times outdoors, I could live without ants.

They come out everywhere, they get in your homes, they are just annoying.

But we can learn a thing or two from ants.

Because one ant would not bother me, just a little squish and its gone.

It is that where there are, there are always hundreds or thousands of them things.

Have anyone watched them drag something before. That is cool to watch.

They will get together and move things 100 times their body weight.

But they can only do that in a group.

Just like us, as Christians, we need community.

So we are going to dive into the early church and look at community.

Look at Godly friends,

and see that we all play a role.

so lets pray then jump right in. 

Christians Need to be United Together

Acts 2:41–47 CSB

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Just some background on this text.

This is after Jesus had risen.

He went and told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came on them.

Then in Acts 2 we see Pentacost.

The Holy Spirit came on them, Peter gets up, preaches a sermon, then we see here that thousands come to Christ.

This is the event that starts the Church.

so people start gathering.

The “Christians” form.

Just a side note if you did not know, Christians did not come up with the term Christians.

It was outside people who were using that term to make fun of people who followed Christ, so then they just took the name and ran with it.

But they did not get together and just hang out, starting in verse 42 it tells us how they functioned.

and it was all around the things of God.

Christian Community is Devoted to what Matters Most.

Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”

Your community should be people who push you closer to Christ.

and these for things will.

It says they were devoted to the Apostles teachings.

This was not long after Jesus.

They did not have the New Testament, it was not a thing yet.

The letters had not been written, but they had the people who spent time with Jesus and the people who were going to write those letters.

So imagine if it was all new to you.

You knew nothing about the Bible, Jesus, nothing. But you get to be with the people who lived with Jesus for 3 years.

They would have been a sponge.

And this is the type of community that you want, you need to be with people you can learn more about the Bible from.

Your friends are going to make a difference on your life.

I pray that you pick friends that are going to push you closer to the Word.

Then it talks about fellowship and breaking bread.

The early church spent time with each other.

Community is more than just Sundays.

It says later in the passage that they went to the temple everyday.

and while they were doing this, they broke bread.

This is both the Lord’s supper and just eating food.

So it shows how us baptist and how we love our food is Biblical.

This should encourage you to show up next week for friends giving.

Lastly, it says they were devoted to prayer.

I have already spent an entire sermon just a few weeks ago on prayer, so I won’t go into it a ton.

But you need friends that are praying for you, and you need to be praying for your friends.

because the early church had community.

Christians grow rapidly when they truly do life together.

Just look at this passage!

They held all things in common.

Look at this.

They were selling their possession and property and giving it to people who needed it.

They were showing sacrificial love.

They loved the body, they loved their community so much they were willing to give everything.

People talk about tithing all the time.

How much are we told to tithe in the Bible, or what is the common amount?

10%

Do you know how many times thats in the New Testament?

None.

Every time is says to be a gracious giver, or to give with generosity.

This isnt a message about tithing, but what I want you to know.

Be there for your friends.

Show them the love of Christ.

I understand you might have no money to give.

But love your friends in a way that they know its from God.

and find friends that will love you back like that.

because when they were doing this, verse 47 says that they were adding to the number of Christians daily.

This love of Christ draws people to Christ.

So we are called to be united together just like these Christians were.

because there is great power and influence in your friends.

which leads me to my next point…

The Power of Friends

Mark 2:1–5 CSB

When he entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the word to them. They came to him bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

So Jesus’ ministry hub where his home base was, was at Capernaum.

He was obviously a popular guy because look at him, the house that he was in was full, there was no room for anyone else.

People wanted to come and see Jesus in person.

The man who is healing people.

The one who is making the blind see, the lame walk, like if you had something wrong with you…

Yall Jesus was the only chance.

but what if this was you?

If you could not walk to get to Jesus.

Like this was this man in the story.

He said there is the guy who can heal me.

but the only problem is that I cant even walk to get to him.

He couldn’t do it by himself. He needed help. He needed friends who believed that Jesus could do this for him.

What would you do?

Because this guy called on his friends.

Let me ask you, do you have friends that would pick you up like this?

Even at your lowest, find friends that will make a way for you.

Think about it!

This is the church!

This is what we saw in Acts 2. It was people selling their things for the poor.

This guy has his four friends.

And I always here this story and they talk about getting the man on the roof.

I do not know about y’all, but imagine how hard that was.

If I said hey one of you go limp and then pick 4 of your to carry the other up one of these ladders.

So he gets his friends to carry him to Jesus.

The building is full.

They climb up a ladder, if there even was a ladder.

Like they found a way to get onto the roof.

Then the roof is in the way! They have to dig through the roof.

Then there is a hole in the roof.

So they go oh great we can see Jesus, but guess what we are still on the roof.

So with the mat that he is on they have to lower him down.

Finally, making it to Jesus.

People who are willing to go to this effort are the people that you want to be in community with.

because

The man was healed because of “THEIR” faith.

It was the faith of not just the paralyzed man, but of the four friends as well.

Without these four, the paralyzed man would still be paralyzed.

Real Godly friends do not just talk about their faith.

They live out their faith.

As believers we are known by our fruits.

We have to find people in our lives who have fruit.

The people who live out their faith and will go the extra mile for them.

These are the people you want in your community.

Because we cannot do this life alone.

We need people.

We need others with Godly wisdom.

We are each given different gifts and abilities.

so I want you to know that…

Everyone in Community Matters

1 Corinthians 12:12–20 CSB

For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Everyone has different giftings.

So you might wonder why can I not do this alone?

Like I am okay with reading my Bible, not talking about it, staying in my lane, just growing in the Lord by myself.

But you cannot reach the fulness of what God’s plan is without others in community with you.

God has given you so many gifts.

Gifts that help benefit the church and the Christian community.

We are all different parts, but we are all one body.

We all have the same Holy Spirit in us.

It says if you are a Jew or a Greek.

This literally just means anyone.

No matter if you were raised a Christian.

If you came to Christ later.

If you used to be an atheist or a buddhist.

If you are now a believer you have the Holy Spirit.

It is not a JV Holy Spirit.

you have the same Holy Spirit as the disciples.

No matter if you were saved at 7 years old or yesterday.

so we have the same Spirit, but we are not all the same.

as the text says, we are not all eyes

Eye

then it says we are not all ears

Ear

We are different.

There is nothing wrong with being different. There is something wrong with being divided.

We are to be unified together.

We are all here to have this community so we do not trip and fall.

When you aren’t helping each other stand.

When you aren’t carrying your own weight.

Then, we start to have problems.

I want you all to know that unity does not mean uniformity.

We do not have to be the same.

We are not called to copy and paste the same personality on everyone because we are all Christians.

because we can find a way to be unified but different.

As I am sure you guys know, we have struggled with this as a church lately.

but we have to keep our eyes on Christ through the pain.

You cannot suffer alone.

Darkness is the enemies property. So when you are all alone in the darkness, he is going to win.

Guys we can suffer as a community.

Just because there is something hard going on doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.

It can suck, but we can all be there for each other.

I want to end with verse 26.

1 Corinthians 12:26 CSB

So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

both here at the church, and in your own communities.

Live in a way that you go through both the good and the bad together.

Guys Community is needed.

As you get older, life gets busy.

Church is a place to find great community because you see them every week.

Some of you have just a little bit of time left before you graduate, and you might be leaving behind the community that you have now.

Others of us have a while.

But when we lose the seniors, we will have some junior highers coming up to be apart of OUR community.

They are going to be different.

Probably annoying at times.

But we can be different and unified.

And to do that, we have to keep Christ at the center.

It is the only way.

If we drift from him, we drift from unity.

love yall!