Family Values: Living In Community

Community

Good afternoon, I am so glad that you are here with us this morning.

We are in the middle of a series on the Family Values of Sunrise Church

Family Values:

Transparency

Honor god

Live in Community

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This is an important part of who we are, it can also be one of the most challenging.

So important that we will be starting a Sermon Series called The Art of Neighboring on August 16th

We will also start a 6 week small group study around the same time.

Lets look at community from its simplest form:

The dictionary defines community as:

Community: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

We are going to look today at 2 aspects of community, the churches role in community and our role as members of God’s church in community.

The church’s role in community

3 groups of community for SunRise Church

1. Community of members of the church

That would be our lives together as a church, this is normally characterized by the fact that we are united in a common sense of good, a common desire to see lives changed, to see them restored.

3 Groups

Church Members

2. Community of those who live around you, this is often times the hardest group for us to be in community with, we don’t always have shared values with this group, we may come from completely different worlds and have completely different world views. This is where the church needs to be most active.

3 Groups

Church Members

Neighbors

3. Community of the marginalized, this group is made up of the incarcerated, the institutionalized and the homeless that live in and around our community.

3 Groups

Church Members

Neighbors

Marginalized

So what does the Bible say about the churches role in Community:

This is one of my favorite examples of community in the Bible, here we see a call to all 3 of the Groups we talked about, we see, the members, we see the neighbor, we see the marginalized.

Hebrews 13:1–3 CSB

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.

Lets look in the book of Acts

Acts 2:41–47 CSB

41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

These passages show us what can happen when we remain good stewards of what God has entrusted us with. Lets look at our context here, we all moved over 1,000 miles to a place that was foreign to us, to share. We moved because we wanted to see lives changed. God placed us right here, right now, in the middle of the Already and the not yet, not where we thought we would be, but right where he wanted us and needed us to be. We wanted not only to see the the Son of Gad rise over this valley, but we wanted to to see God’s people here in this city become familiar with the Hope that can only be found through a life centered and dependent on Jesus.

We want SunRise to be an integral part of our community, something that if it we as a Church disappeared tomorrow we would be missed.

So how does this effect us individually, how can we take a bigger part of this individually?

Life giving parts of the Community

Lets look at ourselves, lets take a minute to reflect, is it easy being new in a town new in a neighborhood, new at a school, especially in a town where people tend to stay to themselves. I can say it has taken me just shy of a year to be able to see all of my neighbors and that doesn’t even mean having a conversation.

Many time in church we hear lets start this and people will come to it, not only does that not work in the “old” normal it definitely doesn’t work in the new normal

Lets look at John 17 20-26

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 17

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

What is Jesus doing here?

Jesus prays for the unity of all believers. When we become one, people who don’t know Jesus are drawn towards Him

Relationships always trump programs.

Here are some interesting facts about what happens when you know your neighbors

-People who have close bonds with their neighbors live longer

-Where people know the names of their neighbors crime is 60% lower

-When natural disasters strike your neighbors are your first responders

-There is no visible difference between Christian and non-Christian neighbors

Here is what that process might look like-

Stranger---->Acquaintance--->Relationship

Jesus was a genius. He gives the most strategic and greatest commandment that would change the world if believers actually followed it.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 10

25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”,q

28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

Jesus tells a great story to illustrate neighboring.

So what does that look like:

-Learning your neighbor’s names is a great first step.

It moves you from “Hey man” to “Hey Mike”

-Progression from wave to hey man

to hey Mike to Hey Mike how are you doing?

to Hey Mike there is something in my garage can you help me for a quick second?

to Hey Mike I saw that your son moved back in how’s that going?

Ranger is going to hand out a sheet that we are going to call our Block Map, My challenge to you is to gradually be able to fill in this Map. We will follow up on this during our Bible study on Tuesday evenings.

Filling out the block map can help kick off this progression of moving from stranger to acquaintance to having a relationship ~~~~~~~

Sounds like a ton of stuff, may even be scary we will talk more about those when we do our short study of being a neighbor

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 17

26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us

You have been placed in your neighborhood for a specific reason.

God uses these things to not only to effect those around us but to grow us and stretch us as his sons and daughters.

What is God going to do through this group of people through relationships built in your neighborhoods?