How Can I Help? - PART 4

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Giving

New

WC Meeting!

Soaking Service

I want to start this sermon off with a question:

Why are we here?

It’s healthy to ask the question ‘why’ every once in a while, about what you’re doing.

Romans 15:1–3 NIV

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Reason #1:

We’re here to look more like Christ in every area of life

Romans 8:29 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And paul touches on this idea, when he points out that Christ sought to build up others and not to please himself.

Matthew 20:28 NIV

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So reason number 1 is, look more like Christ. What’s the second one?

Romans 15:5–7 NIV

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Our second big reason for being together as a church is to

We are here to glorify God - to each other, as well as to the rest of the world

and paul says - you can’t do this without being there for each other. The last verse, paul literally says, ‘accept each other as Christ accepted you IN ORDER to bring praise to God’. God gets the glory when we’re united.

Now, I want to be clear here. It isn’t say, ‘if you’re not all in the same room, you can’t glorify God’. It’s not that kind of unity.

Matthew 18:20 NIV

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

This verse doesn’t mean, you have to be in the same place. The chapter preceding gets kicked off by the disciples arguing who was going to be the greatest one.

Jesus talks about how they should try and all compete for the lowest position. Then he talks about

how should we be welcoming children, or those people who are young in the faith,

what should we do about when a brother or sister does something wrong

what should we do if something we’re doing causes us to sin

how much God values those people who have wandered away from him?

and THEN he says, whenever people are gathered in his name, he’s there.

If some people are ‘greater’ and some people are ‘lesser’ - God isn’t going to be free to move.

STORY - Imagine you’re building a treehouse. Everyone - different ideas, different goals. But if you’re all working towards the same picture, you have different skills, doesn’t matter- you’ll get the job done.

To paul, there are three steps

God gives us encouragement and endurance

this leads us to having the same mind towards each other that Jesus had

and with this united mind and voice, THEN we can glorify God

and again - this doesn’t mean that we’re all the same in every way - Paul spends a LOT of time in the last few chapters talking about how much that isn’t the case

So paul has this two part answer to the question ‘Why’-

Here to be more like Christ - Here to glorify God

We are here to be more like Christ - and Christ worked to build others up for their own good

We are here to Glorify God - and our biggest vehicle of doing that is in the unity we maintain as the body of Christ

It’s our goal to walk with you through this journey

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.