Growing through Community
Shed Value Statement • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Have the value statement and the discipleship path passed out.
Review Shed Value Statement Series we will cover for the next 4 weeks.
Review Last weeks: Vision & Mission (The Shed’s part in THE Church), Growing with Intention, Growing through Encouragement (propel one anther)
For the next 4 weeks, I want to answer the question, “Who are we at The Shed.”
If you’re new here and still trying to figure us out, these next several weeks will be integral to your understanding of the culture that fuels everything we do here at The Shed.
We began this season three weeks ago by saying…
We are a part of something larger than this group, more expansive than this community, and with more history than any other organization to ever exist.
We are not just A church, we are part of THE church…
The Church isn’t a physical structure built by the hands of man…
The Church is the Body of Christ…
22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
We are the body of Christ on the earth..
We are His hands and feet…
The Shed is not just A church, we are a group of believers that make up a part of the Body of Christ…
That Body is all the believers globally.
That Body is not a political organization or a charity… The Body is the habitation of God on the Earth…
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
We are the Body and we are God’s dwelling in the Spirit…
Which means we are the carriers of the divine mandate…
We are to be a witness to the atoning power of the Gospel!
The mission has been the same from the time Jesus established the church:
15 …“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
The Church was not Plan B.
The Church was established by God to be a channel of His purpose by building up the body of saints…
15 …I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
If say we are basing what we are on what the scriptures say about the church, we must first define what the Church actually is…
The word here for Church is Ekklesia…
It literally means the “called out ones…”
It is sometimes translated the “assembly…”
Because In classical Greek and Hellenistic literature, it was the technical expression for a lawful or political assembly where decisions were made and discussions were had..
So the Church, the ekklesia, is the assembly of the believers..
It’s not church unless we assemble ourselves together.
It’s not church because there’s a cross on the building. It’s church because we “came together” or “assembled”.
The Church, the Ekklesia, the Assembly of Believers is God’s primary method of operating in the Earth.
Look at this interaction between Peter and Jesus after Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ and Jesus says, God revealed this to you, then he says this:
18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The Ekklesia… The Assembly of Believers… The CHURCH was always the plan of God….
Growing in Community has always been the pattern of the New Testament…
When Jesus decided to launch His ministry, He gathered men to himself…
When He decided to launch the ministry of the Apostles, he told them to gather together and wait…
After the launch of the Church in Acts 2, the assembly is described this way:
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;
They would gather in the temple and gather from house to house.
They gathered when they prayed.
They gathered when they preached.
They gathered when they worshipped.
They gathered after they were persecuted the first time.
They gathered in their generosity one for another.
They gathered to learn from the Apostles teaching.
They gathered to eat together.
They gathered to serve widows food.
They gathered to make decisions.
They gathered because it is the nature of the Church… The Ekklesia to be together in an assembly!
This is the design of the Church of God. That we be assembled together for a purpose.
So when we grow, we Grow in Community…
You ever notice how often the bible speaks of unity? Unity is only found when we gather.
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And look why he says that’s important:
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
The unity of the Church is what Jesus expected to compel the world to believe that Jesus was sent from God!
It’s no wonder the Church struggles to reach the lost today when the church is as divided today as it’s ever been!
None of these core values, nothing we do at The Shed is meant to be done alone: WE are the CHURCH.
So we Grow in Community!
Growing in Community
Growing in Community
Here’s a few more verses where Paul encourages different groups of believers to be in unity together:
10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
Notice, this is all advice for acting in the community of believers…
We need each other to be the Church!
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now there are many members, but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable,
24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
This is what it looks like to GROW IN COMMUNITY!
I could go on for the rest of the day, scripture after scripture throughout the New Testament, discussing how the Churh is supposed to operate and how we are supposed to maintain unity.
If we are to grow, this is how we do it: we grow with Intention, we grow through encouragement, and we grow in community…
Growing in Community
Growing in Community
Call Worship Team
This is why it is so important for us to build relationships with the people around us…
Before we can ever get to doing what we are called to outside these walls, we must make sure we are cultivating the community God has placed us in…
We do this well here and it will be important moving forward that we don’t lose sight of that.
When Casia and I started here, I only knew a few people already, so it was my goal to learn two names per week.
I took a directory, which was just a list at that time and I started down the list. Every week, I would come in looking for the next two names in the list.
Eventually, I was able to learn everyone’s name, but it took some work.
Here’s the point: building connections, maintaining community, being the Ekklesia takes work to maintain!
So here’s what I want us to do.
#1, I want you to get onto your church center app right now and make sure that you’re able to get on the directory. If you can get on the directory, I want you to then make sure you have a picture of yourself on your profile, so those who are newer here can learn your name a little quicker. I’m going to walk around during the song they are about to sing and if you need help, flag me down and I will help you with it.
Here’s number 2:
I told you my goal was 2 names per week when I first arrived.
You may be able to learn more, or maybe you will need to stick with one per week. Whatever your capacity, start today. Before you leave this building, learn a name. Hear a story. Build the community God has placed you in…
That’s how we grow in community…
