Community
Notes
Transcript
Community
Community
What is our Community?
Why is Community so important?
Who is our Community?
Dictionary: A group of people living in the same place, or having a particular characteristic in common, or a sharing of particular attitudes or interests in common. A church for instance, we are a community of believers, hopefully everyone who attends a church has a sense of belonging, that sense of belonging is what connects us to the many relationships we develop throughout our lives.
Everyone wants to belong even if you can’t admit it, you want something in common with someone, you want to be in unity with people.
Being part of a community can happen in lots of different ways, you can be part of an online community, the fashion community, all sorts of communities spring up because people want to belong, online enables you to be part of a community without ever seeing some of the community or even all of them. Being part of a community isn’t always easy, take Church or our Town for instance. People coming together from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, different languages, some words having different meanings, different sense of humour, different thoughts on how people should or shouldn’t behave. how life should be or schooling or church should be how they would do it. without throwing in the mix our own craziness that are particular to us & maybe our families.
I love it, it’s beautiful when we all come together & become a community, you see it’s at that point that all the stuff that could keep us apart becomes not as important as the 1 thing that can draw us together, Love, firstly Gods love for us, our love for him & out of that love comes our love for each other & this is only possible that comes from unity when we are in real community a common unity.
The church, that’s us, is one in essence, because it is founded on one Gospel, united under one God & we are indwelt by one Spirit.
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
1 Corinthians 12
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
We will come back to that word neighbour later.
The unity of the church is under constant threat because of our own faults & our tendency to want what we want because i need, but what if we were to live in real community, common unity together.
What’s real community? well we have a great example in the Bible. God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit all working together no one trying to get one up on one another, needing each other, loving each other, fulfilling one another, our unity is built around the persons of the trinity.
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
It’s about us putting others first, loving each other, needing each other & not being afraid to admit it. Helping others to fulfill their dreams & at the same time finding fulfillment for ourselves in God.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
So often have i said this, this word community, being in community with God & through that relationship being in community with each other ignoring everything that can keep us apart & concentrating on all that puts us together, that’s Jesus. Carrying Jesus well, living lives that he calls us to.
If our lives are like this the people will see Jesus in us, we don’t do it to be seen, our motive needs to be pure not look at me, look at me see what i have done. But look at Him, look what He has done, everything must point at Him. & everything we do must come out of our relationship with Him. We must abide in him.
Otherwise we are just a nice person doing a good thing which isn’t bad but what if people don’t respond to you when you give of your time & yourself to help others what if they react in such a way & it upsets you, iv’e seen so many walk away because they are upset, angry over people taking liberties, yelling at them, swearing at them, they expected people to be thankful & respectful. In Boston one group who were feeding needy people stopped because someone reacted in a way they were not going to tolerate, so they stopped feeding everyone, but that’s what the enemy wants the church to become more like the world in our response to people. They have religion & rules more that relationship. Religion & rules above relationship = Pharisee, relationship with Jesus = being in community with him. what people do can sometimes hurt, really hurt, don’t give up, sometimes we want to react in another way step out of who we are for a minute & punch them on the nose but being in community with God enables us to have peace, to step back, find that healing balm that can help us go back again.
Show Grace you never know what people are dealing with, Grace comes to us from God & then should flow out from us to the rest of the world around us. Pray, remember who you are & what you carry, maybe talk to the person who has upset you another day, don’t walk away never to be seen again & don’t respond in anger.
Community is a group of Neighbours together but again who is your neighbour.
The lawyer misunderstood the full significance of the love we need for others, the lawyer sought to limit who his neighbour was, so he could limit who he could show love to, who he could be in community with. Jesus said he must give unselfishly & unlimited assistance to anyone in need, even someone who might hurt his reputation.
We cant be people who ask what is due to me, rather what can i do for someone else.
We have to make sure we get this, we have to be in community with God through his Son & the Holy Spirit, people in Church & out of Church.
