We are a community
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A call to small togetherness.
Here at Flushing Alliance we are good at some really important things.
W are good at some really important things.
We care about the lost around the world. Through giving and focusing on foreign missions. We Go (send)
We like other people-we are friendly and we like to get together. Tonight for example, and we built the Family Life Center to host us in big groups. We gather.
We worship together- we come and praise Jesus and here the Bible taught and explained We grow
In one area I as your pastor and our board would like us to concentrate upon: we would like to see us as a church experience being Christians together in a context that allows us more interaction.
Small groups were how the very first church (and every church after) were started.
It is entirely possible to absolutely alone in a church our size.
No one should face life with all it’s triumphs and troubles alone.
No one should face life with all it’s triumphs and troubles alone,
We are a community.
(togetherness)The church was designed for the followers of Christ to “do Christianity” together.
We have to get small, in order to carry our what the bible instructs us to do.
We have to get small, in order to carry our what the bible instructs us to do.
But the main thing I want to do this morning is provide a biblical basis for why we believe it is very important for you all to be involved in some form of spiritually sensitive small groups.
We are issuing a "call to small togetherness," and we are very eager for you to agree it is a call from God and not from men.
Therefore, I want us to look at several passages from God's Word which I think have moved Christians again and again throughout the centuries to seek small forms of togetherness, as well as larger forms.
Every christian is a minister to one another.
Every christian is a minister to one another.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
God's pattern for producing people with powerful faith and genuine love is not to have the pastor-teachers do all the work of the ministry. They are to equip the saints to do the ministry.
And the saints are not a class of Christians. They are you, all of you, who have set yourselves apart for God through faith in Christ.
According to God's pattern, the “upbuilding” of the body in faith and love is the result of the ministry of the lay people (you), not the ministry of the clergy.
The New Testament calls for a kind of personal ministry among the saints that cannot be fulfilled in larger forms of togetherness.
But what we are convinced of is that the New Testament calls for a kind of personal ministry among the saints that cannot be fulfilled in these larger forms of togetherness.
Therefore, we want to issue a "call to small groups."
We believe that only in such smaller groupings will you, the saints, really be free to do the work of the ministry.
Encourage and exhort one another.
Encourage and exhort one another.
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
The passage does not say “See to it, pastors, to encourage your people daily."
The passage does not say “Take care, pastors, to exhort your people daily."
It says, "See to it brothers and sisters, . . . encourage one another daily."
Christ gives pastors to the church, pastors equip the saints for ministry, and you, the saints, minister to each other; that is, you exhort one another every day and thus become God's instruments for the preservation of each other's faith.
We need people who know us and feel our particular need, so that their words of encouragement are shaped to our special situations.
And you can't know people significantly if you only see them in church a couple of hours a week.
We believe it is essential that all of us seek the kind of regular smaller togetherness where the ministry of the saints is free to happen.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Notice, again, it does not say, "Meet together so the pastor can stir you up to love and good works, and encourage you."
It says, "Consider how to stir up each other . . . Encourage one another."
When we have asked what forms of togetherness will allow the saints of Flushing Alliance to fulfill this ministry, the repeated answer has been: the emergence of many small support groups.
History has shown that God's way of stirring up his people to great acts of love and mission has often been to draw together a small praying band who lay themselves open to him and get a vision for service.
Where will the new works of mission and charity come from in our church, if not from holy brain-storming in small groups of zealous people?
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Experience and endure with one another.
Experience and endure with one another.
Not only does vision for love get stirred up by such fellowship, but also strength to see it through to reality.
Love and good works are not easy to sustain over the long haul. There has to be much lifting up of the downcast.
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
We have to be together to help one another stand up when we fall. In a group that is small enough to be effective.
Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
Not only does vision for love get stirred up by such fellowship, but also strength to see it through to reality. Love and good works are not easy to sustain over the long haul. There has to be much lifting up of the downcast.
that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
How can we encourage one another if we are not close enough to observe one another’s faith’s?
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 thess 5
The church in Thessalonica met in homes and in small groups. Here Paul is encouraging them to continue to do so.
Experience and endure with one another.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
One of the burdens of life that we should not try to bear alone, which often makes us physically ill, and which hinders love and good works, is hidden sin.
One of the burdens of life that we should not try to bear alone, which often makes us physically ill, and which hinders love and good works, is hidden sin.
Therefore, Jesus commands us: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed"
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Jame
In what sort of setting can we be free to confess our sins to each other?
In what sort of setting can we be free to confess our sins to each other?
The answer is surely in a small group of believers who have won our trust, who know us and love us, and have committed themselves to care for us.
And what about praying for each other?
The bigger the group, the more impersonal the prayers will be.
The greatest needs are often the most personal.
Yet the greatest needs are often the most personal.
Shall we then pray for each other alone at home?
If we only do that, something very precious and very powerful will be missing.
Jesus said,
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Do we need any further incentive to gather in a small group for the upbuilding of our faith, the stirring up of love to the glory of our Lord's name, than this?
Do we need any further incentive to gather in a small group for the upbuilding of our faith, the stirring up of love to the glory of our Lord's name, than this?
He will be there!
And I assume that would be a pointless observation if it did not mean that he would be there more obviously and more powerfully than if we were to remain alone.
Is it any wonder that Jesus sent out his disciples two by two (; ), and that Paul always traveled with his Barnabas or Silas or Timothy or Luke, and that even within the twelve Jesus built that deep core of affection with Peter, James, and John?
Take this with you..
Take this with you..
In summary, the biblical basis for developing smaller forms of togetherness in our church is that God intends you, the saints, to do the work of the ministry as you are equipped and encouraged by the pastor-teachers.
The aim of this ministry is to build up each other's faith and love.
God's design is for us to rely on each other to sustain our faith and to lighten our burdens.
This kind of mutually caring ministry does not happen in big groups between casual acquaintances.
Therefore, to fulfill our calling we must see the emergence of many smaller support groups among our numbers.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
If you are getting excited by this concept, it is possible that God is calling you to be a small group leader.
If you are getting excited by this concept, it is possible that God is calling you to be a small group leader.