Every Member Belonging

Every Member Belonging Romans 12:1-5 INTRODUCTION: My dad was unable to join the military during WWII because of a medical condition, but both of his brothers went that way – one in the Army and one in the Navy. My father-in-law served under General Patton. My brother-in-law served as a tank commander during Desert Storm, and his son, my nephew, was wounded in Afghanistan when his armored vehicle was destroyed by an IED. One of his men was killed and others were seriously wounded as well. If you can get a veteran to talk about his service in the military, which many are so reluctant to do, they will probably not talk so much about themselves as they will about others. They will more than not talk about the men and women they served with. They will talk about the unbreakable bond of lives melded together as one – a unit, a band of brothers, and comrades at arms who would sacrifice their lives – not just for their country, but also for each other. There is an undeniable kinship among soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that is as strong as family and serves to remind us that God created us for relationships, and we are at our best when we belong to something greater than ourselves and are united by a common purpose and a common cause. This is nowhere more true than when it is expressed in the body of Christ – the church. This is what the Bible calls FELLOWSHIP or COMMUNION. It is the union of lives, united together in the bond of love in the family of God and called to the common cause of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel to the world. So for the last several weeks we have been looking at the biblical idea of The Every Member Church – the Way it Ought to Be, and we’ve been looking at this idea of an every member church as an ideal we ought to be striving for in which every member is involved, instructed, included, and invested in the life and mission of the church. We have been looking at this ideal of an every member church by looking at the five basic functions of the church, and this morning we’re going to look at the topic of Every Member Belonging, which is the idea of Fellowship. So let me say this: I think we’re sometimes guilty of thinking of fellowship in very shallow terms. I think we fail to grasp the full meaning and enormous significance of fellowship as a function of a healthy New Testament church. If we look back again at how the Scripture describes the first church in Jerusalem immediately after the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost it says, “All the believers (every member of the church) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching (that’s discipleship) and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper) and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42 NLT) So fellowship was something really significant in the early church, and every member was devoted to it. It’s the Greek word koinonia, which is the spiritual oneness, the supernatural community created by God that binds believers together in a relationship of love. It is that tie that bonds us together as brothers and sisters in the family of God. Listen to this now: Fellowship is what gives us a sense of belonging to a place, to a people, and to one another. Think of it this way: Fellowship is God’s way of providing for one of our most basic human needs – I. THE NEED TO BELONG: If we go back to the Genesis account of creation when God created the first man, the Scripture quotes God as saying this: “It is not good for man to be alone.” Think about this. The first man, Adam, had all these creatures he was to give names to and be responsible for. He was surrounded by wildlife, all creatures great and small, but he was alone. So what did God do? He made another human being, as God said, “a helper that is just right for him.” So why did God say it was not good for man to be alone? The simple answer is that God knows everything, right? But I think there’s more to it than that. He does know everything, that’s for sure. But God created man in his own image, so that man would have the capacity of relationship with his Maker. And remember this as well – God is One God in Three Persons and lived in perfect unity and fellowship as God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For me, this is the most profound argument for the existence of a Triune God that God said of Adam, “It is not good for man to be alone.” If God created us in his image, he created us for mutual, loving, caring, pleasing, purposeful, and fulfilling relationships with others. It’s the reason we have this profound need of belonging. So God, who supplies all our needs, gave to man the means to fulfill his need of belonging in four ways: • Marriage • Family • The Old Covenant Community of Israel – His Chosen People • The New Covenant Community of the Church – the family of God, and, ultimately, the Bride of Christ united with him in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that if we belong to God by receiving Christ and believing in him for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, we belong to each other. Now let’s look at our main text. READ ROMANS 12:1-13. This is a passage in which we see what it’s like to live in fellowship together as brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the body of Christ. And the key verses for us this morning are verses 4 and 5. Look at these verses again. READ ROMANS 12:4-5 and comment. Christian fellowship is living out our faith in loving ways with one another, which is vital to who we are as Christ followers and how we become all that God created us to be and do as those who belong to him and to each other. The bottom line is this: II. WE REALLY DO NEED EACH OTHER: 1) We need others to WALK with us in the journey of faith. This is one way the Bible describes how we journey through this life. It’s a walk. Colossians 2:6 says, “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. (KJV). Other passages tell us to walk in the light, to walk in obedience, to walk in wisdom, and to walk in love. One thing is certain. God never intended us to walk through this life alone. God always intended for us to live in healthy, loving, and growing relationships with others in Christ. Fellowship is God’s answer to loneliness. But here’s the thing. Loneliness is not overcome by being in a crowd. Loneliness is overcome by being in fellowship with others, engaged with others, involved with others, and invested in others and they in you. You can sit in a congregation of 100, 200 people, and not be in fellowship with them. The best place to experience fellowship is in a small group. If we are serious about rekindling the fire of God’s presence, we’ve got to rekindle the fire of fellowship by starting small groups in which we can grow in our love for the Lord and one another. 2) We need others to WORK with us because the work of the Kingdom is greater than any of can accomplish alone. As believers, we’re a part of the great work of the Kingdom of God, and we don’t accomplish anything of significance by working as lone rangers. Again, God designed us to live together and work together to advance his agenda in the world through the church. Somebody said that the church was God’s Plan A, and there is no Plan B. And when we join our hearts and souls together and are empowered by the Spirit of God, there’s no power on earth that can stop us from achieving our mission. John tells us, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” (I John 4:4 NLT) And Paul says this: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT) I like what Rick Warren said. He said, “Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic!” 3) We need others to WATCH out for us because we so easily lose our way. In other words, we need people in our lives who love us enough to tell us when we’re going down the wrong path, or when we we’re off base with our attitudes and actions, or as my pastor Shawn Wood says, “We need people in our lives who love us enough to tell us, ‘You don’t look good in biker shorts.’” To put it another way, “Your attitude stinks,” or “What you did was wrong.” Or “What you said to to her was hurtful.” Or, “Where is that anger coming from?” Or, “Let’s see what the Scripture says about that.” If that’s not happening in your life, then you’re missing an important aspect of Christian fellowship. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 6:1. “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” (NLT) This is what Paul meant when he said we should “speak the truth in love.” I wonder how many brothers and sisters we have lost to the world because: (1) no one knew what was going on in their lives, or (2) if people knew, no one was loving enough and courageous enough to watch out for them, or willing to warn them. 4) We need others to WAKE us up when we’re sleep walking spiritually. If walking is a metaphor for the spiritual life, some of us are sleep walking through it, and we need others in our lives who will poke us and provoke us to wake us up to the realities and the reasons for our existence here. Look at what Hebrews 10 says: “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25) That word motivate is a word that means “to provoke, or incite, to stir up.” We need each other because today I might need to be motivated, and tomorrow it might be you. We need to provoke one another, the Scripture says, to “acts of love and good works.” And we all need encouragement, right? Encouragement is one of the most powerful gifts we can both give and receive in the fellowship of faith. It is a profound part of the beauty of belonging to the Lord and to one another. RESPONSE: The HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, which was based on the book by Stephen Ambrose, follows the story of Easy Company of the 101st Airborn Division. In one episode, Easy Company is surrounded by the Germans. They are extremely cold and short on ammunition and winter gear. They are holding a crucial position near the Belgian town of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge. The thing that is holding them together amid the continuous onslaught of enemy fire is their unwavering bond – their love for one another – and their commitment to their mission. They had already endured many battles. They were battle-hardened and the strength of their brotherhood was unbreakable. Eugene Roe, one of the company medics, scurried from foxhole to foxhole, checking on the men during a lull in the fighting. The weary medic found Joe Toye sitting in his foxhole with his boots off in the freezing cold. Roe looks at Toye’s discolored , frost-bitten feet. Toye knows what the medic is thinking. He knows he could be taken off the front line to the safety of a field hospital and a warm bed. But he says to Roe with steely resolve, “I ain’t coming off the line, Doc.” Why? Because he wasn’t going to leave his fellow comrades. They needed him, but he also needed them. That’s the spirit of Christian fellowship. It’s that sense of belonging, that understanding that we really do need each other.