Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
Good morning Casey Church, Happy Sabbath.
It is so good to see so many of your faces!
Without masks!
I’m enjoying so much getting to know you slowly.
If I haven’t meet you yet, I’m sorry, come and say hello at the back after the sermon!
Last time I preached, I shared a bit of my story and my struggle with Identity.
Today we are going to talk more about identity but as a collective.
The identity of the church and why it is so important to know who we are as a church, not just here as Casey Church but in Victoria, Australia, the worldwide church.
Before we start lets pray together.
Why is Identity important?
I was reading an article last week written by Stan Grant (is the Vice Chancellor's Chair of Australian/Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University.
One of Australia’s most respected journalists.)
In it he was talking about the tragedy that is happening in Ukraine at the moment.
Talking about Vladimir Putin he suggests that as the “west” we will never be able to understand what Putin is doing because our culture is so different.
We live in a liberal democracy, and it promotes individualism be who you want to be, be you, don’t try to be anyone else.
While all of these things are good the questions that Stan Grant asks is, “What binds us?”
His answer is this,
“We appear ever rootless, not rooted.
Not everyone, of course.
Roots matter to some, but liberal democracy can leave us unmoored: it hollows out our communities, mocks tradition, banishes faith from the public square.”
He continues with this sentence and this is the kicker.
“Liberalism elevates the individual to the point of alienation.”
Patrick Deneen
Alright so there is a lot of big words in all of that.
So I want to stop for a second.
For Putin invading Russia is not just about gaining more land, it is about his Russian Identity and rebuilding Russian empire and pride.
He looks at the west and sees individualism as a weakness.
And this war is an issue about his identity as a Russian.
Now I don’t want to talk about anymore politics, but I want to ask that while I can condemn the war happening right now enough and can’t say how much it breaks my heart to see the suffering that is happening.
I want to ask if there is maybe just a small amount of truth to the criticisms that have been put forward.
How often do we hear of stories of people who are lonely because they lack community, how often do we hear of stories of people who are mocked because of their faith or because of how they follow a tradition.
People who are on the outer of society because they don’t feel like they have a place to fit in.
Maybe that is you today, maybe you are lonely, feel alienated, and like there isn’t a place for you.
This is why identity is so important.
Not just as an individual but why as a community Identity really truly matters.
Because it is a place where you can be apart of something that is more than just ones self.
When we are together knowing what our collective identity is, being able to answer the question, Who are we? is so important because it creates the basis of what we are going to be able to do.
Whether we are a community that participates, engages and loves or one that sits idly waiting for someone else to do it.
Working out what our idenitty is as a community is so important because it can either be so powerful in deciding what our actions are.
What is our identity?
Are we as a church rooted or anchored.
I think however, to understand who we are we need to go back to when the church was formed.
So come with me in your Bibles to Acts 2:42-47
Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
I believe that this passage has everything to give us a good base in what our identity of the church should be.
Because it gives us an insight to what the early church felt their identity was.
Devoted to the apostles teachings
It doesn’t say they devoted themselves to the apostles, it says to they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings.
The word devote interests me because while I know it, I didn’t really fully understand what it means to be devoted, It is a word that is often said at weddings and its kind of important but what does it actually mean?
The greek word προσκαρτερέω (proskartereo) means to attach oneself to or busy oneself with.
The first believers in the early church attached themselves to the teachings of the apostles, they made themselves busy with it.
When I think of attaching to something or making myself busy with something, it’s an action, it is not passive.
The early church lived out the teachings of the apostles, which are the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
So the first part of our identity is that our faith should not be passive but rather lived out in action.
Fellowship and eating together
Church I know Casey Church understand this one, Fellowship with food!
Amen.
This is obviously important for the early church because Luke the author of Acts mentions it twice.
Food is such an important part of the culture of the early christians.
Eating together was an important part of their lives.
True bonding happened over food, and that is still true today.
When you have someone come into your home, your castle, or when you enter someone else's to break bread together, you are opening a very special part of yourself to someone else.
When you sit around a table and get to know someone else it is hard to say they are anything other than a friend.
Think of the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6.
The king of Syria gets upset and frightened of the prophet of God when word gets to him that things that he is saying in private Elisha is telling the Israelites while not having ever met.
So gives the order to go to the city where Elisha is to capture him.
As the Syrian army came close Elisha prayed that God strike them with Blindness.
All of a sudden this army start stagering around aimlessly.
So Elisha goes down to the army that have been tasked with his capture and says, No no you are walking the wrong way, follow me and I will lead you to the city and the person you are after.”
Once the whole army are in the city, Elisha prays for their eyes to be opened so they can see where they are.
They are in the middle of Samaria the capital of Israel.
Surrounded by chariots and archers.
Imagine the fear of these poor soldiers.
First they are given the task of going to simply capture a single man, if they had to, destroy a town.
But all of a sudden they go blind, out of nowhere, and then when they, out of nowhere again, regain their sight they are surrounded by people ready to kill them.
However, this is how Elisha dealt with the situation.
Read with me in 2 Kings 6:21-23
They sat and fellowshipped and ate together, in the culture of the time, if you sat and ate with someone it was the equivalent to a peace treaty.
Israel didn’t hear from them again.
So the second part of the identity of the early church and what I believe we should adopt is that, A church that eats together stays together.
Praying together
The early church members prayed together.
Prayer is such a vital part of the spiritual health of a church.
Why?
That is when we communicate with our God, Ephs 6:18 says,
Supplication is another word that I don’t really understand but means to pray with urgency, for God to meet a need.
Coming from a place of humility that God will address the prayer you have bought to him.
And church I tell you right now we are so blessed to live in this time.
Before Jesus came to earth to connect with God, to ask for forgiveness of sins, to pray to God it had to be done for you by a priest.
Today because of the Holy Spirit and the act of Jesus dying on the Christ we have direct access to heaven.
For the majority of human history that has not been possible for the average human.
We are so blessed to be able to prayer to our father in heaven.
The early church did this and understood this.
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