The Ins and Outs of Small Groups | The Search | Brian Squires

All right.

Well, in case you haven't figured it out, this is small group Sunday.

Right?

So it is the Sunday that we set aside to emphasize being in a small group.

And I think it would go without saying that Silverdale Baptist Church considers small groups to be a very important thing.

Right?

We set aside a Sunday.

I got a t-shirt.

Must be important.

Right?

So in the message this morning, I want to make a case.

There's a couple of purposes for this message.

The first purpose would be to make a case for all of you who are not currently in a small group to find a small group and join a small group.

And now there may be some folks here, and you'll may hear me say this again, that you try a small group and it's like, ugh, it just didn't work out.

Well, okay, that's cool.

Try again.

Try again.

Find a different group.

It's okay.

You know, people come in my small group sometimes, they're like, ooh, whoo, eh.

Hey, you know, I'm thrilled.

If you land somewhere in a small group, I am super thrilled for that.

So if you if you tried it, it didn't work out, try it again in a different place or a different time.

So the other purpose of this thing would be uh to challenge those people who are in a small group to uh to see if there's not some places that you might be able to improve your small group and improve your ministry.

So there's two purposes to this thing.

And and uh, you know, I was talking to my wife about, you know, well, it's a small group Sunday, and she said, Oh, we're gonna lay a guilt trip on everybody.

There she goes.

No, I'm not gonna lay a guilt.

This isn't about a guilt trip.

I don't want to put a guilt trip on you.

I really don't.

I don't want you to go to a small group because you know the pastor made me feel terrible, right?

Like, you know, like I remember when I was went off to college and my mom says, you know, I know there's gonna be weekends where you're gonna want to stay down at school.

And so, you know, a few weeks go by, and then I get I get to that weekend, and I call her up on about Thursday.

I'm like, okay, I'm not coming home this weekend.

Well, now you just need to come on home.

I said, Well, what happened to?

I know there's gonna be weekends, and she said, Well, that was before you went away.

So sometimes you get the guilt trip.

I still stayed at school, by the way.

Um, sometimes you get the guilt trip, but I'm not doing that.

What really what I want to try to do this morning is uh I want to try to make a compelling case for you, if you're not in a small group, that you you would see the merit and the benefit to being in a small group.

And if you're in a small group, that you might see the merit and benefit to maybe up in your game a little bit.

So that's that's kind of where I'm at this morning.

And as I looked at this, uh as I looked at this topic and this topic of small groups, the thing that I that came to me was that there's a couple of components to a small group.

There's there's this uh the component of what I get out of it, right?

There, you know, I go to a small group uh because um because there's things that I get out of it.

But there's also things that should be coming out of the small group, right?

So there's inward things and there should be outward things.

And so that's what I've titled the sermon, the ins and outs of small groups.

I want to look at both of those things.

What what do I get out of it, but what should come out of it, right?

Does that make sense?

Okay.

I have a couple people nod, so we'll preach to them.

Um so the first stop that I want to make is the ends.

I want to look at the ends of small groups.

And I I've kind of summarized that in the word community.

Community.

So the so the inward thing, the thing that I get most out of small groups is what we're gonna call community.

And uh if you go on the church's website, because I did this, if you go on the website and you go under ministries and pull that down and go to small groups and then scroll to the bottom, there's a video.

It's about two and a half minutes long, and I think that the title of it is like why I love my small group.

And it's several people talking about why they love their small group.

And if you watch that video, what you're gonna get out of that is I love my small group because it's a community.

I get community out of it.

And so I want to I want to unpack that for us.

Uh I want to look at what it means to get community.

So here's the deal.

We this is a big church.

I mean, even in this room, there's a lot of people in this room, and we're a pretty small service on the scheme of things.

But when you're in a big church, it's like, well, how do I how do I shrink that down to a place where people can feel a part of a community?

Now you might feel some community by coming in this room, and I certainly hope that you do.

I see a lot of you every week, and I'm thrilled that you're here.

It's always amazing to me that you keep coming back, especially, you know, I had somebody this morning said, Oh, you're preaching this morning.

I said, Yeah, it's not too late.

You can go to just gotta walk across the parking lot.

They said, No, no, we'll stay.

But if you're gonna have community in a group the size of our church, you've got to shrink it down somehow.

And in small groups, is the way we do that.

And uh, and so uh Paul talks about it like this in Romans chapter 12, uh, verses four and five.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

He says, This just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

And you say, Well, now how does that how does that describe community?

Well, you know what he's saying is he's saying, look, we all bring different stuff to the table.

We all got different skills, we got different talents, we got different likes, and all these things.

We all are different, but when we come together, look what he says there at the end.

Each member belongs to all the others.

Well, we can belong to each other in a room this size, that's okay.

But doesn't it make sense if we're gonna belong to each other that we would belong to each other in a smaller group where we can actually know each other and where we can actually do life together with each other, where we can experience community, right?

So that's why we have small groups is to try to distill this thing down to a place where we can have community.

And so I want to look at some aspects of community and what community looks like.

And the first thing that we get from community that I want to look at is we get encouragement in Christ.

Encouragement in Christ.

And uh there's many different ways that we can receive encouragement in Christ through community.

I just want to look at a couple of those.

I want to look at two ways this morning.

The first one comes out of Romans chapter 1, verse 12.

Romans 1:12

It says this that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

Look at what Paul says there.

He says, look, we get together, we're together in community, and what happens when we're together in community?

We are mutually encouraged.

Mutually encouraged.

Now, what does that mean?

And how does that happen in a small group setting?

And why does it need to be in a small group setting in order to happen?

Well, so you could come into this room with all of these people, or you could go across the way there to the bigger room with more people, and you might know one or two of those people that sit around you because we're all Baptists and we all sit in the same seat every Sunday.

And hey, I'm glad that you do because now I know it's like all these people who normally sit here, I'm putting them on the backslider list.

So please sit in the same chair, then I know when you're not here.

I know to pray for you.

So what does it mean to be mutually encouraged?

Well, when you come together in a small group, you know each other.

You get to know each other like family.

And the more we know each other, the more we know people's struggles, and the more we know their successes, and the more we know, the more we see their faith.

We see how they live out their faith in their life, and we're encouraged by that.

So when you come together in a small group, you encourage each other just in living out your faith in that setting.

And we we draw strength from each other.

Well, the next way that we find encouragement in Christ in a small group comes out of Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13.

Hebrews 3:13

It says this, but encourage one another daily, as long as it's called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

So, what is the writer of Hebrews, what's he admonishing us to do in this?

Well, it's the other side of the coin, isn't it?

So there's sometimes when we go and we see somebody and we see their faith and we draw strength from that and we draw encouragement from that, but there's sometimes when we come alongside each other and we put our arm around each other and we say, brother, I want you to know I'm here with you.

I see what you're going through.

I see your struggle.

And I'm I'm on your side.

I'm walking with this, I'm walking with you in this thing.

Right?

We encourage one another daily.

Why?

So that you don't fall into the trap, so that you're not seduced away by the evil one.

So we we receive encouragement by seeing other people's faith, but we also receive encouragement when people encourage us.

And when we encourage them.

So the next element that we see in a small group is this.

We are praying for one another.

Praying for one another.

In James 5.16, James says this.

Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Um, yeah, so my small group, we all we always confess our sins to each other.

No, we don't really do that.

That might make for an interesting small group, though, right?

It's like the Mississippi squirrel thing.

Um, what is you know, what does James say?

He says, look, pray for each other.

Pray for each other.

And you know, I would say that this is a big element in any small group.

If you're a member of a small group, your small group probably does this.

You probably have some sort of prayer list.

You may even have uh some sort of an electronic uh uh list where you can send out a text or you or you have an app that you use, like group me or something, where you can you can blast out there, hey, I need prayer.

Going through this, or or my son or my daughter or my whatever, my grandson.

There, I need prayer for this.

And and and so that's a big part of a small group.

It's that we pray for each other.

Now, you can you can get prayed for in this room.

If you come down front and you ask me to pray for you, I am absolutely gonna pray for you.

But it's a pretty big place, it's a pretty big room, right?

Wouldn't it be so much better if you had a smaller group of people that you knew that you shared life with, and that you said, hey, I've got this thing going on in my life, and I need you to pray for that.

And you knew that this group of people had you on their list and they were going to pray for you.

You know, I can't tell you how many times that I visited somebody in the hospital, or I may go to like a funeral visitation and talk with the family, and they'll say something like this.

They'll say, Man, I just know that my small group has been praying for me.

I feel the prayers.

I feel it.

Now, I mean, I don't know about you, but uh I kind of want I kind of want that.

Don't you want that?

Don't you want that kind of support?

People who are on your side, people who are lifting you up.

Wouldn't you want to know that there's a group of people who are interceding on your behalf with the God of the universe?

Man.

That's pretty awesome.

So part of a small group, part of a community, being in community in a small group, is praying for each other.

So the next element of community in a small group is what I'm calling Bible study and discipleship.

Bible study and discipleship.

And we see this uh in John chapter 8, uh, verse 31 and 32.

John 8 · chapter mention

It says this.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Let's look at that for just a second.

Let's see what, let's see what that is and how that works in a small group.

I I kind of unpack this into a progression because I have kind of I'm an engineer.

And engineers love progressions.

I just love things that go from here to here to here to here to here to here.

So I'm going to share this with you.

So what does it say?

Well, the first thing we see, he says, if you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciple.

So what?

Holding to Jesus' teaching is evidence, evidence of being his disciple.

Right?

Hey, are you Jesus' disciple?

Yes, I am.

How do I know that?

Because I hold to his teachings.

Right?

But now, where do we find his teachings?

We find his teachings in scripture, don't we?

In this book right here.

That's where we find Jesus' teachings.

In the Bible.

So, in order to hold to his teachings, we have to study his teachings, don't we?

We have to open this book and we have to read what he's teaching us.

And we have to we have to apply them to our lives.

Right?

We take his teachings, we apply them to our lives.

And look what he says.

He says, look, when you take my teachings and you integrate those teachings into your life, look what?

You'll know the truth.

You'll know the truth.

We'll be enlightened.

When we open his word and we study his teachings and we make application of those teachings into our life, then we become enlightened.

And we know the truth.

And then once we know the truth and we've integrated his teachings into our lives, that truth is going to change you.

It is.

If you're not changing, you're not discipling.

I didn't make that up.

That's God.

When we know the truth, we bring the truth into our lives.

The truth will change us.

How does it change us?

It sets us free.

Free.

Free from the power of sin.

It sets you free.

It sets you free to minister.

It sets you free to give.

It sets you free to pour out the spirit, the fruit of the spirit in your life.

When we hold to his teaching, which is in this book, we know the truth.

And the truth transforms us and it sets us free.

And when it sets us free, it sets us free to minister and do other things.

Do you see how that progression works?

And you know what?

That's one of the things that should happen in a small group.

Why should you go to a small group?

Why should you be involved in a small group?

Now you can I understand.

You can say, well, hey, I listen to Pastor Tony.

He preaches the truth, and he absolutely does.

Always has, always will.

And he does it really well.

And you'll get him next week.

Got that to look forward to.

But you can't raise your hand and ask him a question, can you?

You can't chase that thing down.

You can't say, wait, wait, wait, hold on a minute.

What you said there?

I get that, but I'm I don't I don't help me understand how to apply that to my life.

You can't do that in this room.

I mean, you could, but I think at some point people will be like, man, come on.

Let him preach.

But you know when you can do that?

You can do that in a small group.

Your small group can talk about the word.

Your small group can talk about how the word applies to our lives.

Your small group can unpack that stuff.

That's why you study the Bible in a small group.

Bible study should be done for a purpose.

And that purpose is to change your life.

That's why we study the scriptures.

I am not advocating that you get in a small group and your small group holes up like a bunch of monks and just, oh, I just love talking about all the little details of things and that, and I just love getting educated.

It's okay to get educated.

Education is good.

You know, I had a I had a boss one time, and uh he said, Man, I just love going to school.

And he was actually in, he was actually in uh a remote program at the time from Auburn, which I don't know why.

Um but he said, I just love studying, I love going to school, I love all this, I would just do that all the time.

That's what he told me.

I would do that all the time, I would just study all the time.

And I looked at him, and I know this, I know he was my boss, but you know me.

And I looked at him and I said, you know, and that would make you like the most useless person on the planet.

And he said, What?

And I said, Look, man, if you don't take what you're learning and put it into practice at some point, then you're just useless.

You're like the Dead Sea, right?

Everything flows in, nothing flows out.

And so, Bible study is an important component of small group life.

It is.

It's kind of a centerpiece of what a small group should do, but it's not Bible study so that you can become more educated and wise and pontificate on whatever.

It's Bible study with a purpose, and its purpose is to grow in your faith and to turn that faith into action.

It's about life change.

That's what Bible study should do.

It should change our lives as we become more like Christ.

And I think the best place and the best environment to do that kind of Bible study is in a small group.

So we've seen uh we've seen some things.

I want to I want to look at the next the next element of community in a small group, and uh and I think we'll all like this one.

I know I like this one, and that is fellowship.

Fellowship.

Now we we see this, uh I'll go back.

We always usually, I gotta trot this verse out.

If it's a small group sermon, you've got to use this verse out of Acts 2.42.

And it says this they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

And so what I want to look at in this verse is I want to look at the fellowship and the breaking of bread, because we've already talked about the teaching and we've talked about the prayer.

So let's look at the fellowship and the breaking of bread.

So uh apparently when the early church got together, they had this, uh they had kind of this oneness and this closeness, and and they were they were all one spirit, and they would get together and they would share meals, and they would have fellowship with each other.

And so I think one of the best elements of a small group is the fellowship.

And I do like an occasional meal.

I mean, look at me.

I don't miss many meals.

And so why is that important?

You know, you can come together as a group and you can come together and you can study the Bible and all those things, but the times you really get to know each other, isn't it, is around the table.

When you're just having a conversation, when you're just talking about life, and you're talking about what's going on, what's going on with you.

Well, I didn't know that.

I never I didn't have any idea you used to do that.

That's amazing.

And so the fellowship is very important.

And I think what it looks like on a practical level, we see in Paul's writing in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 2 and 3, Paul tells us this: he says, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:2

Fellowship carries with it the idea that this is a place where love lives.

This is a place where people will care for you.

This is a place where people will walk with you and help carry your burdens.

This is a place where we're all pull the rope in the same direction.

We're unified.

What are we unified on?

We're unified through the blood of Jesus Christ.

We are brothers and sisters, we're part of the body.

So we have fellowship.

And in that fellowship, we bear with one another.

We laugh when they laugh, and we cry when they cry.

Wouldn't you want to be a part of a group like that?

Wouldn't you?

Let me ask you this.

If you're in a group, are you helping it be like this?

Are you helping it be this way?

So that's the the ends, the inward-facing things.

Uh it's it's great, it's a great thing to be encouraged and prayed for and to study the Bible and experience fellowship.

Those are all really good things, and I'm not saying that shouldn't happen.

I'm saying it absolutely should happen.

And that's that's my pitch to you, man.

You go to a small group, you should get those things.

That's the inward-facing thing.

So what let's look at the outs for a second.

I call this the outs of small groups, and I have summarized this in one word called service.

Service.

Now, this first point under this, I don't really have uh I don't really have scripture for.

Because it's really more about it's really more about where Silverdale Baptist Church, the organization, has positioned small groups within the ministry structure.

Do you follow that?

This is I don't have a lot of scripture for this, but this is how Silverdale Baptist Church views small groups and the role of small groups.

So I want you to understand this.

So I've called this slide, please, the foundational element of ministry.

We view small groups as a foundational element of the ministry at our church.

We would tell you that we are a church of small groups.

It means that a lot of what we do happens through the small groups.

As a matter of fact, I got in a conversation just this past week about the deacon.

We used to have a thing called the Deacon Family Ministry back in the day.

And they and they had when you know this used to be before we had membership 101, and people would come down and join the church, you know, at the end of the service.

Now we make them go through an indoctrination thing over there, and uh we find that's more helpful.

So if you want to join, you've got to go to membership 101.

That's the way it works.

But they used to have this box under the front pew, and it had uh these packets in it, and so it it and it had deacon names on those packets.

If somebody joined the church, they pull the packet out.

So, yay, you won the deacon lottery.

So this is now your family.

And that's the way that works.

Every deacon, all the families in the church were assigned to a deacon.

And what we found out at some point is that just don't scale.

When you got 7,000 people attending church on the weekend, plus all those people, you know, that's group A.

Right?

And then group B comes the next weekend.

And so when you add it all up, you got 12,000 people who are who would call themselves Cyril Dale Baptist Church uh members or attenders.

And so you look at the number of deacons and you look at the number of families, you're like, man, that's just not gonna work.

And so we went to a different model with the deacons.

So when a new family comes in the church, they are assigned to a deacon for a bit to help them get their feet on the ground.

And then we have shut-ins that are assigned to deacons, but guess what?

Guess who handles that part of the ministry that keeps people from falling through the cracks?

The small groups.

We want you to get in a small group.

That's why we want you to be in a small group, because small groups is where the ministry to you happens, and that's how you keep from falling through the cracks.

And it's it's a it's more of a practical thing, right?

It's it's it it's just the way it works.

Now, the other part of that is that a lot of our external ministries come through the small groups.

You ever heard of a thing called Serve the City?

So when we do serve the city, um most of our small, all our small groups or most of our small groups will do some sort of service project.

You know, several years ago, my small group uh did serve the city, and we we hooked up with the Bethlehem Center down in Alton Park.

And ever since then, we've kind of been partnered with the Bethlehem Center.

We've been over there, I don't know how many times and done work at the Bethlehem Center as a small group.

And that that goes on and on and on.

We got small groups that that mentor kids, we got we got small groups that work at the Jacoba Care, we got small groups that work for widows, we got small groups that do all kinds of things.

And so here's the deal there.

If you're not in a small group, you're probably missing out on an opportunity to use your skills and your talents and your abilities in service outside the church.

Okay, and if you're not in a small group, you may be just being missed altogether.

So, what are some of the other outs?

Well, I think one other one is helping others.

Helping others.

Um it's an outward-facing thing.

We get this in Galatians chapter 6, verse 2.

Galatians 6:2

Paul says, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

As believers, we're called to carry each other's burdens.

Well, how do you do that in a room this size?

Well, it's hard.

But it gets a lot easier to do that when you scale it down and you have about 12 or 14 people that meet in a small group.

And so it may look like this.

It may look like praying for somebody, it may look like preparing a meal for somebody, it may look like helping with a home project, running an errand, or just being a listening ear when somebody needs somebody to talk to.

That's an outward-facing thing.

That's a thing that comes out of your small group.

It may happen within the small group, but it is an outward-facing thing.

In another way that we help others, we find in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, he says this.

Hebrews 10:24

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.

So one of the things that you do as a small group is you encourage each other.

You encourage each other to keep pressing into God, keep walking with God.

Keep on, keeping on.

You know, there are times when we're takers, and there are times when we're givers.

And I would say that the ratio should be more on the giving side than the taking side.

But the small group is the place where you can be both of those things.

And so the next thing that I want to look at as far as an outward facing, an outward part of small groups, uh, I'm gonna call accountability to the word.

And there it is.

I used it, I used the A word.

We don't really like that word, do we?

Because it's kind of a prickly word.

Accountability.

But one of the things that comes with being in a small group and studying in discipleship is accountability.

Paul says it like this in Colossians 3 16.

He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.

And as you sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Look what he says.

He says, We're gonna teach and admonish one another.

The subtitle under admonish would be hold accountable.

We're gonna hold each other accountable when you're in a small group.

Hold accountable for what?

Well, Jesus tells us this in John 15, 16.

He says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.

Fruit that will last.

Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

What is it that we're supposed to do as called-out ones?

We bear fruit.

That's what we do.

When you claim the name of Jesus Christ, you immediately become a fruit bearer.

And when you're in a small group, you join a group of people who are fruit bearers.

And you can hold each other accountable for bearing fruit.

And that should be going on in our small groups.

Encouragement.

Encouragement.

I'm not talking about judgment.

I'm talking about encouragement.

Encourage each other.

And then the last outward element that I want us to see comes out of 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2.

2 Timothy 2:2

Paul says this.

He says, And these things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

What is Paul saying?

He says, Look, Timothy, I have I have discipled you and I have trained you and I have taught you.

Now I need for you to go out and find other people like you and do the same thing.

And so what is another outward-facing element of small groups?

It is this growing leaders.

Growing leaders.

Small groups should multiply.

So you should have people in your small group that come up and they become leaders and they go out and they start a small group.

And then you can have, you know, we have a big church.

We have a lot of people.

We have people coming and joining our church all the time, and they need to get in a small group too.

And so you can't have a place for all these people if you don't have leaders that are willing to lead groups.

And so one of the responsibilities of being in a small group, one of the outward-facing things, is to become a leader and go out and do that.

And that's hard.

Because I know a lot of small groups, you get in there, man, and it's like a big comfy couch.

Now it's like sitting, man, I like to sit in my small group.

They're awesome.

And I'm glad they are.

And you know what?

The small group that you start to lead, it can become awesome too.

And it can it can develop people, and they can go out and bear fruit.

One of the greatest examples we have of a small group is Jesus and his disciples.

They were a group of twelve guys, and they met, and he taught, and they learned.

And you know what?

They had a purpose, didn't they?

What was their purpose?

Their purpose is that they were going to take the gospel to the rest of the world.

And guess what?

It hasn't changed.

It hasn't changed.

The last thing that he told us before he left this earth was go and make disciples.

So I want to uh I want to introduce you to some folks.

I hope there are some in the room.

If you're a small group leader, would you please stand up right now?

Okay.

So you see these people, and uh most of them have lanyards on, some of them don't, but here's what we're gonna do.

When everything is over and we've sung the last song, these people are gonna hang out in this room for a little bit.

And if you've got questions about small groups or if you want to talk to them about their small group, you see where they're at.

They're gonna kind of hang out right where they are.

They didn't know this, but they do now.

That's another part of being a small group leader.

So thank you.

Y'all can sit down.

So that'll happen.

Uh that's gonna happen uh after after our uh response time.

So let me pray for us.

Our Heavenly Father God, I thank you for the people in this room.

I thank you that they give of themselves to come and to be here.

And God, I thank you that we have this thing called small groups.

God, it's a place where we can come and be loved and be loved on and to love others.

And so, God, I pray that if there's folks here this morning and they're not participating in a small group, God, that you that you would show them the value of that.

And God, that you would call them into a small group.

And God, I want to lift up our small groups to you.

And I just want to pray, God, that you would use our small groups to minister and to bear fruit and to go out and uh to be your hands and your feet to show your love and your mercy to the po folks that so desperately need to know you.

And so, God, we're gonna give you this time, and God, I pray that you would use this time for your kingdom's purposes and draw us to yourself.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.