Devoted to Fellowship

Introduction

My name is Andrew McClure and I’ll be serving as the Lead Pastor here at CBC Richmond Hill.

Thanks for coming out. The purpose of these informal gatherings is to make CBC RH a little more known to our community and surrounding areas. So our hope is to meet you, share a few details about the church, but also give you a peek into who we are and what wwe stand for as a church.

This is our second gathering together and if you weren’t able to make it to our first on January 30th do not be dismayed. We talked about our first distinctive, and first core value… a high view of Scripture. In summary, we believe that this is God’s Word, its true, and is the ultimate authority in our individual lives and the collective lives of this church.

So you’ll hear exposition… books of the Bible. Not topical expressions of my own opinion.

That’s for 2 really good reasons.

Practically I don’t have to select a new topic each week, we just pick up where we left off.

Secondly, as we looked at Acts 2:42… the early church was formed and devoted themsleves to the apostles teaching.

Today we are going to pick back up in Acts 2:42 and discuss another core value… Community.

Read Acts 2:42-47

Devoted to the fellowship.

Hiked the Himalaya. Got up to 15,500 feet at the summit. But summit day was sketchy to say the least.

Woke up before the sun.

Tied to ropes.

Using Ice Picks to dig foot holes.

Hands freezing.

At one point we walked this incredibly narrow ledge and I was tied to a buddy who weighs about 2 and a quarter and as I look over this edge I think… if he falls, and i’m roped next to him.. we gone.

After 15 hours of climbing… we made it.

The truth is though… if some in our party would have known how perilous that journey would have been I don’t know if they would have agreed to take steps in the summits direction.

Similarly, as we devote ourselves to God’s word we will be made abundantly aware of the fact that this journey… the life of faith is hard.

Life in general is hard. We face the consequneces of a fallen world and the sin of humanity often. Death, disease, anxiety, depression, worry, exhaustion, interpersonal relationships…

But then you try to navigate all that as a Christian. An exile in a foreign world. Its not for the faint of heart. Truly the way is narrow and hard that leads to life (Matthew 7:13)

God’s Word will teach us, reprove us, correct us, and train us. It will challenge us, convict us, and encourage us. It will demand a response and the flat out truth is that the journey that response requires will be too daunting to walk alone.

We need to be roped in with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

We need to devote ourselves to the fellowship.

That word in the greek is koinoonia.

By definition it conveys a sense of commonality and solidarity.

Let’s break this idea of fellowship down using those two descriptors.

Commonality

First, we derive our commonality from our fellowship with Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9, “God is faithful; you were caled by him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

1 John 1:3, “What we have seen and heard we also declare to you (the apostles teaching), so that you may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Regardless of your skin color, salary, career, stage of life, kids, no kids, married, divorced, languages you speak, political affiliations, sports team fandom (go dawgs), region of the country you’re from. Wheter you say yous guys, or yall. Soda, Pop, or coke. Whether you’ve been in church your whole life, or this is the first gathering that resembles church in your life… at the most core. At the deepest leve. We share commonality. We possess koinoonia, fellowship. Because we have all been saved by His Grace, in the provision of His Son, not by our own works but His alone.

We share commonality.

That commonality is on display in our gathering. It’s on display in our participation in the Lord’s Supper or Communion that we plan to do together once a month.

Because of this commonality… we have a high value for community.

Solidarity

But we also want to commit to one another in community because we share many other things in common…

A propensity to sin. To live above the Word of God and not below it.

A life of suffering. Everyone at some time is going through something. We never know what’s going on behind the scenes. The assumption though is that its always something. We all share that in common.

For those reasons, because we share in common a struggle walking this journey and a struggle with suffering in this life… we value koinoonia because we need solidarity.

Others who are aware of the struggles, praises, and challenges in our lives that can empathize, support, pray, encourage, and hold accountable.

Just as that rope held us together, we need that as the Body of Christ.

The early church, verse 44, “had all things in common.” and a result of that commonality was “they were selling their possessions and belongints and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

They were a) aware of the needs.

B) Meeting them together.

They were gathering in homes and sharing ameal together.

The christian life is not an individualistic affair, but communal.

At CBC Richmond Hill we want to practice Koinoonia, fellowship, community. We want to find commonality, and commit to solidarity.

I’ll land the plane, but let me summarize by stating this:

Summary

Many of us have lots of experience with church, and when we think about church and what we want from church we tend to gravitate towards various ministries that have rightfully touched and shaped our lives. We want a church that has a great worship ministry, good sunday school, high on missions, provides awanas, cares for the poor, engages in missions, children’s ministry is great, etc. etc.

But we can’t first and foremost think of church as what church does.

When we consider church planting, we must also not think franchise!

CBC RH is not a franchise of CBC Svannah, nor Savannah a franchise of CBC Beaufort. A place we expect to show up with the same menu and same feel.

Why? Because...

In its simplest form, church is people, not a place or a product.

A people who recognize that we need His word to direct our lives, and just like the first church in Acts 2… who devote themselves to koinoonia. Fellowship.

A people who may have very little in common traditionally, but who come together under the banner of Christ’s reconciling and redeeming love. Who share at their core, an awareness of their sin and desparate need of God’s grace.

Conclusion

Our deep prayer for this church is that it would be a place of genuine fellowship. That it is experienced every Sunday gathering, but another primary way we do this is through community groups.

Let me pray for us, and then I have a few announcements:

We’d love to meet you. Come introduce yourself to me, or any of the other leaders wearing a lanyard.

We’d love to connect with you.

Facebook Page

Website

We have a building

August 7th.

Women’s Event on the 19th.