LIVING IN COMMUNITY (2)

LIVING IN COMMUNITY

GOD INTENDED FOR US TO DO LIFE TOGETHER…

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The best shot that you and I have of following Jesus…

The best shot you have of making it through the storms of life…

Is that we do life together…

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TENSIONS…

We are the more connected now than ever before in history…

Notifications every hour;half-hour… directly to phones…

Latest news;weather;sports…

What friends are doing… Pictures they’ve posted

Information at our finger tips… We are still disconnected…

We know things about a lot of people…

Yet we have very few DEEP relationships…

The reality… We ALL have something that blocks us from…

Community… Going Deeper… Going Beyond the Surface…

Today I want us to explore the examples of the early church…

Examples of Community… And what God says about community…

Why does God love community

But first lets look at some of the barriers…

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1) BUSYNESS

I don’t have time to get into deeper relationships because… (this is where you fill in the blanks)

I have work… I have school… I have kids… I have special hobbies… I have special projects I’m always working on… (you fill in the blank)…

Whatever it is you fill in the blank… I don’t have time for deeper relationships because of this…

But here’s another just as true reality… We make time for what we deem important…

In just a few days we are going to be celebrating the conclusion of one of the biggest seasons of the year… And I can guarantee you… A few people we know declined to do things because they had to watch their game…

That’s right… I’m talking about football season…

It used to be just one night… Monday… Now it not only has but it has Thursday and Sunday as well…

You know it’s powerful when it took on the Lords day and some aspects won…

In these instances we’ve filled our lives with so much stuff… We don’t have time to go deep… We don’t have time to build community…

2) APATHY

Now before I jump into this one… Let me remind you all that we are still in church so we can’t lie…

How many of us have not went deep because we simply didn’t want to?

I’m not really interested in coming to a Life Group… I don’t really want to go to dinner with them… I don’t see the benefit of opening up to others… I’m not sure how much I really care about the whole community thing…

Come on… Am I the only one who has thought one of these things…?

I believe in these instances what it comes down to is we just don’t value community… We believe we can get by without it…

3) SCARED TO BE VULNERABLE

A lot of have questions that go something like…

Is this really a safe place… If I tell them who I really am, will they still like me…? If I tell them what I’m struggling with, they’ll probably kick me out… I can’t show them the real me…

Some of you feel this way because you were hurt in the past when you showed them the real you… Some of you are just ready to be that vulnerable…

Some form of this section probably describes most of us in this room…

We keep our relationships surface level, because it’s safe… Keep’em at arms length, so if it starts to feel shaky I can shake…

The problem is… Life changing community can’t happen when we’re being safe… It can’t happen when we don’t let people in our lives…

The reality is… The direction you choose for your life will determine the target you hit…

Here’s what I mean… If you choose a busy life… A safe life… If we never put effort into building deeper community… We will never be more than surface level saints…

Because you never get anywhere in life by accident… It takes hard work and intentionality… If you don’t intentionally choose to build deeper community you’re not going to end up there…

Think about it this way…

Gun range target… Aim at the target… Breathe… Pull the hammer…

If your aim is right your going to hit it… even if you don’t hit the bullseye your going to get close because you’re aiming at it…

Same thing… But imagine the person that’s aiming decides for some reason, they no longer want to aim at the target… a bird flew by their scared they might shot the bird… They decide to aim at a flower 30ft away… They still miss…

Now they didn’t hit the target that was set up for them… Why?

Because they weren’t aiming for it… Nobody is wondering why they didn’t hit it…

The fact is… we all knew he wasn’t going to hit because there was a barrier that he was not willing to cross…

This is true for your life… The direction you choose for life will determine the target that you hit…

If you do not intentionally choose community for your life… You will not miraculously have deep relationships… You have to aim your life at community… Which also means you have to overcome some barriers…

I get it… Life is tough… But the best shot we’ve got at following Jesus.. The best shot we’ve got of surviving the storms of life… Is not in trying to make it alone…

IT’S IN OUR DOING LIFE TOGETHER…

HERE’S THE PICTURE OF THE EARLY CHURCH…

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This is the very first church… There was no one else… Understand that this is not “church” as we know it… They didn’t have the fancy chairs… They didn’t have all the wonderful sound equipment… They didn’t have the coffee and tea…They didn’t even have the bible as we know it today…

And if that’s not enough… many of them lost family and were kicked out of communities because of this “church” thing… From the very beginning, they recognized that the only way they were going to make it was by doing life together…

I personally believe that sometimes we get distracted by what church has become… Don’t get me wrong, I love coming to church… but sometimes I wonder if we have allowed the fan fare to determine whether or not it was a good service or not… Was the music right… Was the light show right… did they not talk about money… did they not make me “FEEL” uncomfortable…

The beauty of the church is not in the stuff… It’s not in the service… The beauty of the church is in the community… The early church didn’t have stuff and they grew daily… what they did have was each other… And I believe that is the model we should be going after…

1. THEY LISTENED TO THE APOSTLES TEACH…

This is the Sunday morning sermon… From the beginning it was important to learn together… Not just get information… But get direction… be encouraged… be challenged… together

2. THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP…

Now this is where the challenge comes in… Because I believe the word “Fellowship” is misunderstood… This is how we should think about this word… Think about your very best friend… think about the things you do with them… the things you talk about… the things you share with them… think about the arguments that you have had… think about how you have encouraged one another… think about the times you’ve been there for one another… think about the secrets you’ve shared with one another… the times you’ve cried with one another… I could go on, but I want… The fact is… What you are feeling right now about that person is true “Fellowship”

A disagreement isn’t going to break that up… some of you have friends you haven’t spoken to in years and the moment you connect it’ like you never left…

That’s a lot to pack into one word but that’s what we as a church are supposed to have… and you don’t get that aiming at flower…

3. THEY BROKE BREAD…

This has two implications… One was if you remember the last time that Jesus was with them he broke the bread and said whenever you do this you’re remembering what I did for you… it’s not a coincidence that Luke the physician who was there when this happened was using the same words that Jesus did…

The second is that community is somehow made stronger by sitting around and sharing a meal together… Not the way we do now, with our phones out or at a restaurant watching a game but sitting around sharing with one another, sometimes laughing… sometimes crying… but always together..

I can’t explain it… But there is something powerful about sitting and sharing a meal together…

4. THEY PRAYED…

Today we often see prayer as something we do alone… right before a meal… before we go to bed… or something that a pastor has to do when in public spaces and places…

And although all this is true… For the early church prayer was something that they did together… They prayed for each other and with each other…

Notice that all of these things have something in common…

they were done together…

One of the biggest traps laid by the enemy today is making us think that we don’t need each other…That we can make it on our own…

Despite the advancements in technology… None of them can replace the value of community…

The early church realized that they needed each other in order survive… The call of the Christian is not to come to church… but to be in community with one another… to do life together…

My goal isn’t to get you to check the I come to church every Sunday box… But rather to move you to see how you can be a better community member… You can come to church every Sunday and not do community… And that defeats the purpose…

You can listen to thousands of sermons on your devices… You can download even more songs… But if that’s all your getting out of it then you’ve missed it… Because it’s bigger than that…

The point of church is to know that we are not doing this alone… it’s realizing that we are doing life together… that we are weathering this storm together…

Church provides you with a community… One that will celebrate the good times with you and hold you up during the bad times… one that won’t chase you away because your messy and one that will push you to be better… A community that will encourage you when you want to give up and love you no matter what… That’s the true purpose of the church…

APPLICATION

I believe you need community… I know I do… That’s the model that the early church set up and throughout the bible… we see how community works…

So maybe it’s time to breakdown some of the walls that are holding us back from doing real community… I don’t know what it is for you… Maybe it’s fear… Maybe your to busy… Maybe you don’t recognize the importance of it…

My challenge to you it to take a chance… Reach out to someone… take a risk… Say no to something that’s not as important and say yes to community… Give it shot…

I’m not sure what your barriers are… I don’t know what’s keeping you from community… But I know you will benefit from having it… I know that it’s worth overcoming whatever is holding you back… So I want to give you a few things you can do to grow your community…

FIND YOUR PEOPLE

The way we do this is through Life Groups… The women meet every 1st and 3rd Saturday and the men meet every Thursday… The men do discussions based off the sermons and the women are in a study guide right now…

But the point of each group is to connect you with people that will love you, except, challenge and push you to grow closer to Jesus…

This is the closest example of the early church…

They met in homes, they ate, prayed, talked about life and the latest teachings of the apostles…

5 LIFE GROUPS BY THE END OF THIS YEAR…

Mens Group

Womens Group

Married Couples Group*

Young Adult Group*

Youth Group*

SHARE WITH YOUR PEOPLE

Once you find where you fit… Tell them all about you… Tell them what you need from them… Now I don’t expect this to happen on day one… But you have to start somewhere…

Some of our best conversations have come from.. “I don’t think that I really believe that…”

It’s not about always agreeing… It’s about understanding that we all want to get there…

INVITE OTHERS TO BE YOUR PEOPLE

Community is meant to be shared… Don’t let your group become a closed group because you like it and don’t want someone else to come ruin it…

If living in community has changed your life… Tell someone else so there’s can be changed to…

CONCLUSION

The best shot we have of following Jesus… The best shot we have of weathering the storms of life is by doing life together…

Your life is the result of where you pointed it years ago… Where do you want to be in 5yrs… 10yrs…

If you want to be part of something deeper than just another Sunday morning worship service then you are going to have to start aiming at it now…

You are not going to stumble into community…You have to intentionally choose it…

2yrs ago we didn’t have a building, but we trusted and followed God and look at us now… But the truth is… I pray that this is NOT what Abundant Life PDX is known for… I hope that we are known for being the place where people grow because they love each other… the place where the people support each other… the place where everyone is invited to be part of the larger community… Whether we have a building or not… I want us to be a community…

Wouldn’t you rather be known for what you do versus where you are located…

I pray that you would commit to helping us build our community this year… If you haven’t already ask about a Life Group… Show up to that Life Group… Share at that Life Group and Group in that Life Group…

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.