It is time for Genuine Love and Community

Our Theme for 2021 is “Redeeming the Time.”

We are living in troubling times.

However, I believe, as has been prophesied, that there is going to be an opportunity for a great harvest of souls for the Kingdom.

I want us to position ourselves to be ready to participate in the revival that God is sending.

Let’s review what we have said thus far:

We started by talking about the Kingdom; recognizing God’s rule and authority.

Then we talked about the importance of obedience; actually doing what God would have us to do.

We learned that we are all reporters and that sharing our testimony is the best way to spread the truth about Jesus.

As we do, we will not only add to the church but we will multiply the influence of the Kingdom when those people we reach begin to reach other people.

We want renewal in the church that leads to revival in our society.

So what happens when people become believers and become part of the Kingdom?

Say a revival happens and thousands of people get saved; where do they go to take their first steps in faith? Church?

Which church? Our church or another church?

What if they’re not like us? Does that matter?

Has it ever occurred to you that all those lost people whom you wish would have an encounter with Jesus, if that happens, they become your brothers and sisters in Christ!

And they are not going to clean up overnight...

How can you love Jesus, and not love His body, the church?

Let’s go back to the early church and see again what it looked like:

Acts 2:41–47 ESV

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 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.

Did you notice how many times this passage uses words like “fellowship”, “together” and “in common?”

The church exploded in numbers, but something became the glue that held everything and everyone together.

That glue is genuine love and it forms something we call community.

Community means that we share a bond with God and with each other.

When we practice community intentionally, that is called fellowship.

Genuine love- the glue that holds us together.

Genuine love is the evidence of true faith.

1 John 4:7–8 TPT

7 Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. 8 The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.

God is love and we are made in His image with the capacity to love.

Sin distorts that image, making love a selfish thing.

Human love is selfish; we love whom or what makes us happy.

If left unchecked, it becomes lust, which is more of a demand.

We become like an addict searching for a fix.

Whether it’s through sexual addiction or codependency; our search for love betrays our brokenness.

But God’s love is not like that.

God loved us before we did anything for Him.

God’s love is not contingent on our response.

However, when we respond to God’s love we begin to know God and to know what love really is.

When we begin to love like God loves, unconditionally and unselfishly, that is a good indication that our love is flowing from our connection with God.

Genuine love is a product of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5 ESV

5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

You can’t love like God loves without God.

Have you ever tried to love someone just because you know you should.

You can’t make yourself love.

You can tolerate them.

You can try to find some good things about them to offset the bad.

But when you do that, you are still trying to talk yourself into thinking that that person makes you happy so that you can love them.

What if it’s not about how that person makes you feel?

What if it has more to do with how God feels about them?

God wants to love people through you.

That means God gives you the love that you need.

It’s poured out in your heart by his Holy Spirit.

I believe that God wants to give you hope this morning for a difficult relationship.

He is going to love that person through you.

You just need to let Him love them like He loves you.

Genuine love unites us with God and with each other.

Romans 12:9–10 ESV

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

God is love because God is good.

God’s goodness existed before sin.

Sin and evil are part of the rebellion against God.

Love calls us back to focusing on what is good.

If you are going too love someone, you have to believe the best about that person.

It doesn’t mean ignoring or denying that person’s faults.

I just means recognizing that a person’s faults are not who they really are.

A person is not their sin - your sin doesn’t define you!

A person is who God created them to be, that is their true self.

God loved you and made a way for you too be connected to Him; He makes the way for us to be connected to each other in love.

Community - a bond we share together.

Community is a great word - people want to be part of a community.

I was asked to be part of a focus group when my local bank merged with another local bank. “Community” emerged as the word that everyone wanted to see in the new name. So many other banks had been bought out by large holding corporations. The group liked the idea that their money was in the care of local people who they could know personally and who had a vested interest in their wellbeing.

Community is defined by what we have in common.

Acts 4:32 ESV

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

We are all doing this thing called life together.

Wherever our lives, interests and experiences overlap, we have something in common.

For this group of people in Acts, the thing that they had in common was their encounter with the Holy Spirit and their realization of the reality of who Jesus was and is.

They were mostly, or perhaps all Jews, though they were from many different places.

Some of them were probably more observant than others.

But they were all there for the feast, so they were all practicing.

They shared the hope of Messiah from the Scriptures.

They would all be aware of recent events; the death, burial and perhaps even the reported resurrection of Jesus.

What brought them together initially, was the spectacle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.

These people came to Jerusalem for a religious pilgrimage and they had a supernatural encounter.

Last week I talked a bit about the revival (or renewal) that I experienced in Bible School. There were some truly remarkable experiences that we experienced together. We had “Toronto style” meetings four years before it happened in Toronto. Before that, we also had times of repentance that necessitated cancelling classes because we were weeping and repenting of our sin.

The point that I want to make here is that it developed such a bond among the students and faculty and those who were present to experience these things. We could try to explain it to others, but they just didn’t understand. You had to be there...

The church was born out of a common experience, a common encounter with the Holy Spirit.

I’m sure that to the other Jews in Jerusalem, they looked like a cult.

In fact, they were named a sect, called “the way.”

Some people still think the church should be it’s own exclusive community apart from society.

Some have tried living together on the same property and sharing a bank account. (From the stories I’ve heard, sometimes that goes well for a while, but eventually it gets messy.)

Some people say that this passage describes communism; that if we had all things in common there would be no more poverty.

Remember, communism is an ideal - it works in theory, but has never worked in reality because someone has to run the system, giving too much power to a few.

The biggest difference between the early church and modern communism was that it was their choice to share.

They had a life changing experience and they were not going back to the way that things were.

Things that were important, like money or land, were no longer so.

Many people where literally “selling out” for God.

In Biblical community, the sharing is voluntary.

Acts 4:34–35 ESV

34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

This was not a new political system, this was a move of the Spirit.

It was a movement of spontaneous generosity.

The apostles were distributing the wealth, but they were not taking up a collection.

In verse 32, the text says that no one claimed their possessions to be their own.

They were not relinquishing ownership as much as recognizing stewardship.

When Ananias and Saphira, in the next chapter, sold property and gave the money to the Apostles, the property was theirs to sell and the money was theirs to give.

The problem was that they lied about it, pretending to give all when they were really giving some.

Why do I spend time on this point?

Because it comes back to love and the value of the individual.

God loves you and values you to be who you are.

Communism erases the lines of individuality and demands uniformity.

It’s much easier to control people if you want them to conform.

God would rather love, even if that means some will not love Him back.

You cannot force people to love; you have to inspire them.

A community is united around a common purpose.

Acts 1:13–14 ESV

13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

What inspires people?

A vision of a preferred future.

A goal and the means to get there.

A glorious ideal. A utopia, the perfect society.

All of those things captivate our imagination, but nothing inspires like seeing someone actually doing what you would only otherwise imagine.

For the disciples, that is what they experienced with Jesus.

They were with Him when He healed the sick, raised the dead and refuted the Pharisees.

Now they were all together just doing what Jesus said to do…waiting.

This Scripture says they were “in one accord.” (not a Honda)

What it means it that they had the same emotion; the same driving passion.

They had the same purpose, to do what Jesus did.

Everything that Jesus had modeled for them, the love, the mutual serving, the constant prayer became their method.

They were in renewal mode and revival was about to break out.

Do you have anyone that you know so well that you find yourselves thinking the same thing at the same time? And you know when it’s happening without either of you even saying it? It is said that married couples sometimes finish one another’s sentences. But how many times have you had a conversation without saying anything?

I think that is what it was like in the upper room.

They were becoming of one heart and mind.

When the Holy Spirit fell, no one needed to give instructions they each knew what to.

They knew what to say and who to say it to even if they didn’t understand what they, themselves were saying.

They were each attuned to the Holy Spirit and functioned in harmony with each other.

You could say that they were taken over by another force, but that would not be quite right.

They had each yielded themselves to the work of the Holy Spirit

Fellowship - an intentional practice of love and sharing.

Fellowship is a sign of revival.

1 John 4:11–13 ESV

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Those of us who have experienced a time in our lives of supernatural awakening or revival can probably also name a number of people with whom we developed relationships during that time.

Why is that? Because renewal, revival and relationship go together.

Your encounter with God involves people whom God uses to speak into your life.

There are other people with whom you share the bond of that common experience.

You have also had the experience of hearing God together and being of one mind as you sought the Lord together.

In short, when you encountered God, you encountered love and that love found expression through specific individuals who became very dear to you.

I think God intended it to be that way.

Fellowship is love in action.

Philippians 2:1–2 TPT

1 Look at how much encouragement you’ve found in your relationship with the Anointed One! You are filled to overflowing with his comforting love. You have experienced a deepening friendship with the Holy Spirit and have felt his tender affection and mercy. 2 So I’m asking you, my friends, that you be joined together in perfect unity—with one heart, one passion, and united in one love. Walk together with one harmonious purpose and you will fill my heart with unbounded joy.

Paul encouraged his churches to be intentional about love, community and fellowship.

If this area of our lives is so close to the heart of God, then it deserves our attention.

Today is Valentine’s Day and everyone is focused on love, mostly love of a different sort.

Actually, Valentine’s Day was named after a third century Christian martyr.

The legend is that St. Valentine was a priest who believed in the sanctity of marriage.

The Emperor Claudius had forbidden marriage because he wanted the men to go to war which they were less inclined to do if married.

Valentine married Christian couples anyway. This got him in trouble with the Emperor and he was put in jail.

In prison he would witness to everyone including his jailer. He prayed for his jailer’s daughter who was blind and she was healed.

Word of the miracle reached the Emperor and the message that Valentine wished him to convert also.

Claudius ordered Valentine to renounce his faith and had him beaten, stoned and eventually beheaded.

Part of the story goes that St. Valentine sent a note in the shape of a heart to the jailer’s daughter before his death which read, “from your Valentine.”

So when you think of Valentines day, instead of celebrating emotional love how about celebrating the love and courage it takes to give you life for what truly matters.

The best demonstration of love is unity.

Ephesians 4:1–3 TPT

1 As a prisoner of the Lord, I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. 2 With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. 3 Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace,

One more thing about love and fellowship, studies show that we are most inclined to be attracted to (or to love) those who are similar to us.

That must be part of the twisting of the sinful nature.

A self-centered love wants others to be like ourselves.

Married couples often fall into this trap, complaining about the differences between them and their partner.

Eventually, we come to see and to celebrate those differences as designed by God.

Each and every person we meet is made by God and worthy of love.

Some may be believers and some are “not yet” believers, but everyone is special, unique and loved by God.

Perhaps we should pray to be able to see what God sees in each one.

Or perhaps there are believers, but of a different brand or stripe.

The church is sometimes the most divided place in the community.

If we are all following Jesus, how did we get so far from what Jesus would have us to do?

Love is truly humbling.

The way God loves,

The way Jesus loved,

The way St. Valentine loved.

Everything I have been preaching about being disciples and making disciples would happen naturally if we just learn how to love like that.

Questions for reflection:

How genuine is your love? Can you identify when you are loving in a selfish way and when you conveying God’s love? Who is someone that you are struggling to love well? Ask God to love them through you.

Who are you in community with? With whom do you share the different parts of your life? Is that a voluntary sharing? Where you you need to give up control? Ask God to make you of one mind.

Where do you practice fellowship? What relationships are you intentionally investing in? Who has God put in your life to relate to that you might not normally be drawn to? Ask God for patience, humility and unity.