I Love My Church – 2

I Love My Church – 2

Subject – Being Inviting into God’s Community

by Rick Welborne

Genesis 2:18 (NKJV) 

18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." 

Matthew 18:19 22 (NKJV) 

19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 

20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." 

21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 

22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 

–Today I want to speak about the community of God and His invitation for all of us to be a part of it.

–The small elementary book The All Better Book in which elementary children are asked to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. 

1. “With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely. What do you suggest?”

Kalani (age 8) - People should find lonely people and ask their name and address.  Then ask people who aren’t lonely their name and address.  When you have an even amount of each, assign lonely and not lonely people together in the newspaper. (Administrative gift)

Max (age 9) - Make food that talks to you when you eat. For instance, it would say, “How are you doing?” or “What happened to you today?”

Matt (age 8) - We could get people a pet or a husband or a wife and take them places. (Makes you wonder about his understanding of marriage).

Brian (age 8) - Sing a song. Stomp your feet. Read a book. Sometimes I think no one loves me so I do one of these. 

“With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely.”

–This thing of being lonely is why we attend churches, join hunting clubs, have girls shopping days out.... why so many are joining on line...Find Me Somebody.com.

Martin Luther King - "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!".

–He articulated the need we have as humans for community.

2. There is no pain like the pain of loneliness.

–We would be shocked to know those around us who are so lonely or maybe we would not be surprised because we are. Home makers to CEOs are lonely and hurting...Why do I feel so lonely? So hard to make good friends.

John Ortberg - If loneliness is common for women, it is epidemic among men. One survey indicated that 90% of the male population in America lack a true friend. “No one wants to admit they are lonely, “writes psychiatrist Jacqueline Olds. “Loneliness is something we associate with losers.” Loneliness has such a sting, in fact, that people will admit to being lonely in anonymous polls, but when asked to give their names they will say they are independent and self-sufficient. 

Mother Teresa - Loneliness is the leprosy of modern society.  And no one wants anybody to know they’re a leper.

“With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely.”

–We do everything we can to try to avoid being lonely...we stay busy, we marry someone less than our standard, we join gangs, we do things that are crazy to not be alone. Loneliness hurts.

–Anyone who had great success in life and accomplished great things but never had friends died with bitter regrets. Every one of them.

–Other side, I have never known of anyone who succeeded at relationships–who cultivated good friendships, who was devoted to their families, who mastered the art of giving and receiving love–yet had a bad life.

–We learn that what really matters to us is not how high on the totem pole we get; it is people who matter the most. This beautiful idea of community and oneness. 

3. We were made of oneness. 

Genesis 2:18 (NKJV) 

18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." 

–Man needed someone to be one with...not a monkey, dog, cat, horse...someone made in His image.

Matthew 19:5-6 (NKJV) 

5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 

6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate." 

–We were made to know oneness. That is why loneliness is so painful. In v.18 it says man was alone and God said, “not good”.

“With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely.”

This oneness leads us into life giving relationships which makes us whole.

Alameda County Study - A Harvard study of 7000 people over a 9-year period called the Alameda County Study found that the most isolated people were 3 times more likely to die than those with strong relational connections.

Alameda County Study - People who had bad health habits (such as smoking, poor eating habits, obesity, or alcohol use) but strong social ties lived significantly longer than people who had great health habits but were isolated. In other words, it is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone. Harvard researcher Robert Putnam notes that if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, “you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half.”

–What is this saying...we were meant for oneness in the framework of community...we desperately need each other. We need each other, Life Church!

–There has been a steady decline in our American society of what sociologist call “social capital”– a sense of connectedness and community.

Robert Putnam - Book - Bowling Alone says: The level of community in America is at its lowest point in our lifetimes, and this loss of social capital results in lower educational performance, more teen pregnancy, greater depression, and higher crime rates.

4. The Answer: The Divine Community.

“With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely.”

Someone did. That system is called community.  

Ortberg - I believe that if you had to sum up in a single word what God is up to, what His goal is in creating the universe and the persons who inhabit it, that word would be community.

Dallas Willard - God’s aim in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.

–To show how important community was to God we can go back further than when man existed and see what life was like for Him. This is the doctrine of the Trinity.

–People use analogies...like an egg...the shell, the white, or the yoke. Like water... steam, liquid, or ice.

 –The early attempts of the church do not talk about eggs or water but talks about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God—perfect Oneness—yet three Persons.

Key - The Trinity turns out to be vitally important because it tells us that God Himself has been experiencing community throughout eternity. Community is rooted in the being of God.

5. Life within the Trinity - The Great Invitation!

–Frederick Bruner in an essay on the Trinity begins with discussing the Holy Spirit.

Bruner - One of the most surprising discoveries in my own study of the doctrine and experience of the Spirit in the New Testament is what I call the shyness of the Spirit...What I mean here is not the shyness of timidity but the shyness of deference, the shyness of a concentrated attention on another; it is not the shyness (which we often experience) of self-centeredness; but the shyness of an other-centeredness.

–It is not a shyness of timidity but it is a shyness of love...it is where Holy Spirit is constantly drawing attention not to Himself but to Jesus. The Spirit comes in the Son’s Name, bears witness to the Son, and glorifies the Son.

–Illustration - White Board - Stick figure of Jesus - Stand behind the board as Holy Spirit and point at Jesus and say: Look at Him, listen to Him, learn from Him, follow Him, worship Him, be devoted to Him, serve Him, love Him, be preoccupied with Him.

–Jesus has this shyness too...He didn’t go around promoting Himself as the greatest...If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. He didn’t come to be served but to serve.

–Jesus submitted to the Spirit and was led in the wilderness to be tempted.

–The Father has this shyness...this otherness as He says at Jesus baptism and His transfiguration...This is My Son in Whom I am well pleased...Listen to Him.

–The whole Trinity has this shyness...they point faithfully and selflessly to each other.

Dallas Willard - The Trinity is a self-sufficing community of unspeakably magnificent personal beings of boundless love, knowledge, and power.

–So what about this great invitation? Three stick figures in the circle - Trinity. Figure out of the circle...invited to come into the circle. That would be us! Listen to Jesus explain this:

John 17:20 23 (NLT) 

20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 

21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. 

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 

23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  

 –We have been invited into this fellowship of love...this community of love.  Why Jesus says:

Matthew 18:19 20 (NKJV) 

19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 

20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." 

Ortberg - At enormous cost to every member of the Trinity, you and I have been welcomed to the eternal circle, to be held in the heart of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Therefore, to fail to prize community; to tolerate disunity with the people God loves–particularly disunity in the body of Christ; or to do things that could lead to disunity is unthinkable.