We Need Each Other - 3

We Need Each Other - 3

Subject – The Community of the Mat

By Rick Welborne

Hebrews 10:25 (NCV) ²⁵ You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming. 

Luke 5:18-26 (NLT2)
¹⁸  Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus,
¹⁹  but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
²⁰  Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”
²¹  But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
²²  Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts?
²³  Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’?
²⁴  So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
²⁵  And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God.
²⁶  Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!” 

--Today we continue our series…We Need Each Other. I hope we are all getting a better understanding of how valuable it is to be in community. We truly need each other and we need you to be here.

--One of the great stories in the Bible about community involves a paralyzed man and his friends who brought him to Jesus. We all need friends.

Yogi Berra – If you don’t go to someone’s funeral, they won’t go to yours.

--It is so difficult for us to imagine how difficult life was for this paralyzed man, especially being a paralytic in the ancient world. His whole life was lived on a mat 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.

--Someone had to feed him, carry him, clothe him, roll him over so he wouldn’t get bed sores, clean him when he soiled himself. He never knew (up to this point) the sense of independence we prize so much.

--Nothing can be done for him medically—no surgeries, no rehab programs, no treatment centers. No way of contributing to society…he will be a beggar laid beside the road depending on mercy of others.

--Can you imagine how he would dream of having a healthy body. He walks, he runs, does good work, gets married, and plays with his children.

--He wakes up still staring at the ceiling he has seen a thousand times, in a room he can never walk out of, and looks at his broken body that holds him prisoner. His mat is his world.

--He has no money, no job, no influence, no family we know of, and seemly not much of a future. His “as is” tag is three feet wide and six feet long. So what does he have going for himself?

--He has friends…he has amazing friends. This is the killer small group of all time. This whole story takes place because of his friends. 

--Without his friends he never makes it to Jesus, never gets healed, and never gets forgiven. All this happened because years ago he decided to have friends. Choosing to be in community.

--Even today people with disabilities wrestle with attitudes of so called ‘normal people’ who do not know how to respond, who are maybe unkind, and may even look away to avoid any connection.

--The ancient world could be even harsher. The Greeks regularly disposed of newborn infants with physical abnormalities. In Rome during the fifth century there was a law on the books. Quickly kill a deformed child.

Aristotle – Let there be a law that no deformed child shall be raised. 

--Even in Israel there was a belief that people who were in these situations brought it upon themselves. John 9, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Very judgmental. 

--Today I want us to look at the community of the mat…this paralyzed man and his friends:

1. They Chose to Become Friends.

--Here we see a little band of men who refuse to let any obstacle stop them from accomplishing their goal. It was no accident these guys were friends. 

--In the face of obstacles---social stigma, inconvenience, financial pressure, a high cost of time and energy---they chose to become friends. People rarely drift into deep community.

Psychologist Alan McGinnis – Assign top priority to your relationships. Ironically, we tend to devote massive amounts of time to making money, running errands, and succeeding at our jobs, but we neglect giving our most valued possession ---time---to the experience we were created for: community. 

--Amazing NT statement. They met together daily. They worshiped together, they ate together, they talked together, they prayed together---every day. No wonder they drew so close together in community. 

--We try to create 1^st Century community on a 21^st century timetable and it does not work. Maybe the biggest barrier to truly connecting is the pace of our lives. 

--How often do we hear from people…Let’s get together when everything slows down. Let’s do lunch in a few weeks when I am not so busy. In two weeks we are just as busy as we are now.

John Ortberg – The requirement for true community is chunks of unhurried time. If you think you can fit deep community into the cracks of an overloaded schedule---think again. Wise people do not try to micro-wave friendship, parenting, or marriage. You can’t do community in a hurry. 

--You cannot listen in a hurry, you can’t mourn in a hurry, or rejoice in a hurry. People lack friends because they have never made pursuing community a high priority. You can’t carry someone’s mat in a hurry. 

--Yes, it takes time to clean the house, it takes time to go to church, it takes time to make the effort to worship together instead of figuring out how we can pull apart. 

2. Everyone Has a Mat. 

--Think about what the paralyzed man has to go through in order to be friends. I am sure he wrestled with how much he had to depend on these guys for anything and for everything.

--He had to be jealous of their independence or at least he had given thought that after they had spent time together, he was the only one who could not walk home. Probably wondered am I a burden to them?

--It is a vulnerable thing to have someone carry your mat. When they carry your mat, they see you in your weakness and they might hurt you if they drop you.

Otberg – There is this gift between these friends: trusting vulnerability and dependable faithfulness. This mat, which according to society should have created a gulf between him and them, instead became an opportunity for servanthood and acceptance. This group becomes the Fellowship of the Mat. 

--Wherever human beings love and accept and serve each other in the face of weakness and need, there is the Fellowship of the Mat. Here is a truth we must all understand…we all have a mat. 

--This mat stands as a picture of human brokenness and imperfection. It is what is “not normal” about me. It is the little “as is” tag that we most desire to hide. 

--As a community…it is only when we allow others to see our mat, when we give and receive help with each other, that healing becomes possible. 

--Every effective Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is a Fellowship of the Mat but so are healthy families, connect groups, and churches because everyone has a mat.

--Anger can be your mat, fear can be your mat, inability to trust can be your mat or maybe you always need to be in control is your mat. Maybe there is a dark secret that is your mat. A sense of failure or loneliness. 

--So many Christian communities are filled with people who are really into mat management. They pretend they don’t have a mat. They appear to have it all together but they know and God knows what their mat is.

--They have the gift of identifying everyone else’s mat but never reveal their own. Their primary goal is to hide their brokenness from everyone’s eyes. You may get good at hiding your mat.

--You may be able to convince everyone else of your strength and your competence but you will never be able to live in community that way. Listen to the Apostle Paul:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NKJV)
⁷  And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
⁸  Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
⁹  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

3. You Must Allow Someone to Carry Your Mat.

--Who carries your mat sometimes? Who do you show your weakness and struggles to? Who do you ask to pray for you? Who do you let see your brokenness in this community? 

Jean Vanier – There is no ideal community. Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other. Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection. 

--If you want a deep friendship, you can’t always be the strong one. You will sometimes have to let someone else carry your mat. 

--That is what happens with this man in this Bible story. This small group of people becomes friends. They become a community. They have to be intentional to be friends.

--Because one of the men’s weakness is so obvious and so visible, they all become more honest about their mats. This community becomes the Fellowship of the Mat.

John 15:13 & 17 (NKJV)
¹³  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
¹⁷  These things I command you, that you love one another.

We Need Each Other – 2

We Need Each Other – 2

Subject – Acceptance in the Community

By Rick Welborne

John 8:1-11 (NKJV) ¹  But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
²  Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
³  Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
⁴  they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
⁵  Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
⁶  This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
⁷  So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
⁸  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
⁹  Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." 

--We have talked how we are all broken people in need of a Savior and we spoke of the illusion of finding a local church that will be everything we expect it to be. We are human.

Bonhoeffer - Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

--Jesus is the cornerstone of this community of broken, strange, weird bunch of misfits and to criticize the community is to insult the Christ Who built it.

--We talked about the idea that there is no pain like the pain of loneliness. It is so strange that with so many ways of connecting, people are lonelier now than ever. Depression and anxiety are rampant.

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.

--Finally we looked at last week how God has been experiencing this idea of community within the Trinity and He is welcoming us into that inclusive circle with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Father, make us one.

1. The Christian Community and the Humane Society.

--On Nantucket Island there is a museum dedicated to an organization formed centuries ago. Sea travel was so dangerous and because of the storms in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, many were lost.

--Because so many lives were being lost along a mile stretch or so, a group of volunteers decide to get into the lifesaving business. They banded together to form what was called the Humane Society.

--People built little huts along the shore where people were perishing and people watched the sea at all times.

They didn’t do it for money or recognition but because they prized human life. Listen to their motto:

Humane Society Motto – You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back. 

--That doesn’t sound very catchy but it was. The stories and accounts of people who would risk everything, even their lives, to save people they didn’t know. Sounds a lot like missions.

--Over time, things began to change. The US Coast Guard began to take over the task of rescue. For a while the USCG and the Humane Society worked side by side. 

--Eventually the idea that carried the day was, “Let the professionals do it. They’re better trained and they get paid to do it.” Volunteers stopped manning the huts and going out searching for those lost in the sea. 

--A strange thing happened, they could not bring themselves to disband. The life-saving society still exists today. The members get together, have a dinner, and reminisce of the good old days. They enjoy each other.

--They’re just not in life-saving business. Listen, you and I were made to be in the Life Saving business. We are not to abandon our huts when people are shipwrecked around us every day. People are hurting everywhere.

--We have the ability to offer acceptance, love, and hope to those who may be going through the trials of their lives. So many need acceptance from those of us who seem to be more mature or seem to be blessed now. 

Romans 15:5-7 (NIV) ⁵  May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
⁶  so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷  Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

--With church attendance on the decline, have you ever given consideration why you should be faithful to this community of believers? National averages say people are attending church one or two times a month.

Hebrews 10:25 (NCV) ²⁵ You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming. 

Why we should be faithful to this community of believers…this local church? What if someone comes to church hurting? It happens every service. If you were here, you could give them a hug.

Single Parent – Hi Pastor Rick, I just want to thank you for always having open arms, to give my kids a hug means the world to them. I appreciate your kindness and always giving my children a giggle, you’re not only their pastor, you’re their friend. 

--Many of the people who come on Sunday and on Wednesday nights need someone to show love. I can’t reach them all, but as a community we can. We can’t love anyone or reach them if we are not here.

--When we are faithful to God’s house, this community, we can encourage each other especially knowing Jesus’ return is so soon. 

2. Jesus, a Woman Caught in Adultery, and the Community of God.

--Question: Why do so many churches produce stone throwers? Do yourself a study about Jesus and see which sins upset Him the most…sins of the flesh or sins of the spirit. Attitudes verses acts.

--There are stories of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus feet, the Pharisee and the tax collector, the prodigal son and his older self-righteous brother. Jesus seemed to side with the sinners of the flesh.

C.S. Lewis – The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing; the pleasures of power and hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church regularly may be far nearer to hell than the prostitute.

--The Pharisees in the above stories were blind to the fact of how much they loved picking up stones to crush those who were hurting. Had no love or mercy. Story of the SS teacher and the smoker. 

--If I had my rather, I would rather have people who have been caught in their sins and are broken than to have those who are judgmental, superior in their attitudes, impatient, and bitter, leading our church.

--Questions: Who would you be in this story? The guilty caught in your sin, the judgmental picking up stones, or would you be more like Jesus? The truth is we all identify more with the adulteress. Not me, Pastor! Guilty!

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV) ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

3. Go and Sin No More.

John 8:10-11 (NKJV) ¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; 

--You see; this community should never be a place of stone throwers. People should be accepted here and they should know people care. 

--Jesus says something more to this lady which cuts her to her core but also gives her hope. Go and sin no more told her that He knew all about her sin but it also told her that someone believed in her. 

--Jesus accepting her into the community of the Trinity is not the same thing as simply tolerating any behavior that is contrary to God’s Word. She could not continue in her sin. We often miss this truth.

Ortberg – Accepting another human being does not mean we refuse to confront or challenge that in them which could harm others and damage their souls. 

--We need each other means that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be accepted but it also means that once we enter this beautiful community of God that we should, go and sin no more. 

--This woman who was caught in adultery found forgiveness and acceptance in Christ but she also found something so unbelievably great…a new beginning…a new life…a new future surrounded by family.

--Failure to confront, to speak truth in love, can ultimately be as fatal to the growth of the community as being judgmental. 

Ortberg – “Go and sin no more.” Jesus’ acceptance is free, undeserved, unmerited—but it is also demanding. For the woman to fully examine her acceptance will require entering into a new way of life. The same grace that liberates her from past sins calls her to walk free of them in the future. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

--If you have found acceptance and love here, then, know you have found that the community of God you have been looking for, live in freedom every day! LIFE!