The Security of Belonging - Levi Baer

Bring you Christian greetings this morning, and welcome as well. There's some few

visitors here. I hope you can feel at home here as we worshiped together

at this point in the service, where we look into God's word a little

bit more extended here in an extended way, and see what He has for

us. Stand before you, just somewhat heavy hearted this morning with some news

that I received with a phone call a few days ago, a couple of

days. I'm sure some of you've heard at least my cousin that lives in

Wyoming. Her name is Rachel. She was a bear. She's married to

Jim Newswanger, I believe it is, and their seventeen year old daughter was

killed suddenly in an accident. I believe it was. I can't remember if

it was Wednesday or Thursday there in the Carpenter, Wyoming area. This girl

was a twin, had a twin sister, and I hadn't seen them in

quite a few years and just happened to visit them about six months ago.

I was over at another cousin's house and she would have been a sister to

her, and they came over for the evening, and these girls would have

been there, and my girls would have met them there and spent the evening

together with them, So it does feel a little bit more heartbreaking in some

ways. I guess Shalom was her name, and she had left for an

appointment in a nearby town there, and when she didn't come home when her

mom thought she should, they were trying to call her. There was no

answer, text or nothing, and I guess soon after that they heard that

there was a semi burning nearby, just a couple of miles from home,

and so her dad, Jim, and her twin sister they went to where

the semi was burning and drove up there, and sheriff I think, met

him there, and they soon realized as they got close enough that the car

involved that was partly under the tractor, between the tractor and the trailer of

the green hopper bottom grain trailer and a semi was her car, and that

it was engulfed in flames. And they were told that there was a fatality

and there really wasn't much left to her body at all. I heard that

there's a little scrap of material that they identified as her dress and a few

things. I'm not sure what all, but you know, it's hard for

us to imagine, or at least for me, there's very few people sitting

here this morning that have experienced that kind of grief. Let's just be honest

about it. It's it doesn't happen to nearly everyone, although it's you know,

worldwide, it's it's very common people die all the time in tragic accidents.

But just think about what that family is facing today without this. The

seventeen year old girl was especially known, and I don't I don't understand how

it works like this so often, But besides the mercy of God being extended

to those that aren't ready, this girl had a very very clear testimony for

God in her life. I was texting her uncle should be my cousin as

well about it, and he said she just had such a character of true

Christianity. That's what she left behind. And it made me wonder, like,

what would we leave behind if we were if a sami would pull across

the crossroads in front of us without warning and we would t bone that thing

and and be instantly killed. What do we leave What do we leave for

a testimony? But on the other hand, it makes it more bearable that

and that's what was expressed by the family to know that she was spared living

in this old, wicked world, even though in the coming day, aids

it's obviously obviously going to be very very hard to not have her in their

home. Very talented girl that loved loved adventure, loved our loved horses,

and just loved lived life to the fullest. So I say that that you

could remember that family in prayer this morning with me. In fact, I

would just like if we would bow our heads in silent prayer here for a

bit for the gym and Rachel news swing or family and our clothes. Let's

prayer our Father in Heaven as we bow before you this morning, as we

come in your presence, realizing that you are a God that knows everything,

and that you care about each one of us, even though you bring things

into our lives that we don't understand. Help us to trust in you,

help us to realize that you know the big picture and we do not always.

Pray a special blessing on Jim and Rachel and their family, their remaining

family, and all the loved ones that that affects as they are faced with

not only now with grief, but much more to come in the coming days.

I pray that you would give them the strength to walk that journey,

help them to use this as a time to draw closer to you and not

away from you. Pray that you would just be with them today and be

with us here as we worship you. That your spirit would be alive and

work through our hearts. Pray this to your name, Amen. So the

message I would like to look at here this morning is I'll title it the

security of belonging. The security of belonging. Obviously, if we feel like

we belong to someone or something there is there will be a security that comes

along with that. And along with that, we don't have to look far

around us until we will find people in life that are not secure. We

would call them insecure for whatever reason that might be. It may be from

a less than ideal family situation, whatever it may be. There's a lot

of reasons for insecurities, and those kind of people are not They don't live

with themselves very well, let alone others. But I would just like to

look at two main aspects of belonging this morning, one of belonging to Christ

and the other one of belonging to His body. Because I believe that the

two can't be separated. I just looked up the word belong belonging in a

Webster's dictionary. One of them is to be a member of something. That's

what we are most of us here today, to have the proper qualifications to

be a member of a group and to be the property of as another one.

Do you consider yourself the property of anything or anyone today? You know

that can be somewhat of a not the nicest thought. When we think about

are we the property of someone you know? Or mine? Immediately goes to

slaves. But I believe that we are the property of Christ. This morning,

it says, the scriptures say that we are bought with a price,

and that we're not our own. We are bought with a price. And

there is a security in belonging to Christ that I would like us to embrace

and think about today as an encouragement, a security in that relationship with Him

and his body. Along with this thing of belonging. We can't help but

think about who we identify with. When someone asks, if I would just

ask you, any one of you, who do you identify with? What's

the first thing that comes to your mind? Weigh down deep, not the

surface, correct dancer, but really, what is the first thing that you

would you would like people secretly to think of you as such and such?

And it could be any number one of things that chanan all wrong in themselves.

Maybe we really would like the idea. One of the things that we

strive for in life is to be a successful business owner. And so when

people said, yeah, do you know that guy? Yeah, we know

him, what would you like to be said about you? It's that you

know, he has his finances together and you know, he don't let the

grass grow under his feet. He gets it done and he does it right.

I think we would most of us would feel pretty good about hearing that

about ourselves. But think about think about Jesus Christ feels when we secretly want

to be admired or identified with by things that we're we'll all be gone someday.

Things that don't last. I mean, we could be there's other many

things that we could be identified with. Maybe we maybe on the lady's side

that you know, we're just known for really really good cooking, and there's

nothing wrong with that, But what is our first what is our first thing

that we would like to be identified with? Because we rubbed shoulders with the

world day by day, they are somewhat identifying us with someone. It's just

a challenge I would throw out there for myself and all of us. Who

do we identify with? Is it clear to people around us that we identify

with a group of Christians that belonged to Christ. There's a verse in John

fifteen, couple verses verse fifteen and sixteen. If you care, you can

turn to that. And I just, I just love the idea that John

gives here. It's actually Jesus his own words written here by John recorded John

John, chapter fifteen, verse fifteen. Jesus said, henceforth, I call

you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But

I have called you friends. For all things that I've heard of my Father

I have made known unto you. You have not chosen me, But I

have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit,

and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you should ask of the Father

in my name, he may give it to you. I just I really

like the thought of Jesus calling us friends. Who who else would we rather

be a friend to than Jesus. And he also mentions in verse sixteen that

he's chosen us. Every one of us has chosen, which is why we

belong to him. So first of all he calls his friends, he chooses

us. But something else he does here It says at the end of verse

fifth, it says that I've heard of my father, I have made known

unto you. And what that tells me this morning is that we have all

the tools that we need to go out as belonging to christ believers and sharing

that with other people. He's made known, and he's made it known,

and to all of us, there's no excuse. We all know it as

his friends, as as people that belong to him. In John one eleven,

it says he came unto his own, but his own received him.

Not his own received him, not you know, and that it sounds terrible

to think about how could Jesus, how could people come hear about Jesus and

reject him and not receive him, which is exactly what happened in his day,

but not so unlike what many times what you and I how we live

our lives. We choose to receive him, not in our actions many times

does anyone here know what the largest unclaimed lottery ticket in American history is today?

Probably not, hopefully you don't know. Well, first of all,

there's a seventy seven million dollar lottery ticket that was bought in Georgia in twenty

eleven that was never claimed and they ran through their allotted time and it has

never been claimed. As I understand, there's one worth a little over two

billion right now out of California that they have about I think until the November

to come forward, and no one has yet claimed it. And I'm not

exactly sure when that one. I think they had a year on that one,

so it's been a while, eight or nine months worth two billion,

which will make some news when time runs out. But just think about that

that someone holds a ticket to seventy seven million dollars end out of negligence or

sloppiness something. That ticket someone obviously purchased it, probably never thought it would

be them and so didn't pay a lot of attention to it. Just imagine

how that would feel a month after it expires. That you pull an old

jacket out of your pocket that you haven't worn in a year, and you

unzip the pocket and here's this little wad of paper in there with this number

on it. I think we all know that that wouldn't necessarily make us happy,

but I think we would all like to try it at least. But

if you think about so, we think we're thinking about an unclaimed lottery ticket,

it's by every right it's yours if you just come forward. And many

times that's exactly what we do with belonging to Christ, that opportunity that we

have to be a child of God. You know, whether you have never

made the decision, or you've made it and decided that there's bigger and better

things, that's kind of It's actually a lot more important than the lottery ticket.

It's a matter of life and death spiritually. In John chapter seventeen,

I'm not going to take the time to read that whole chapter, but I

would encourage any one of you here to just read those words of Jesus again.

So many precious promises that Jesus gives us, precious promises about belonging to

Him. Those of us that have claimed our ticket and found a good place

to belong. Belonging to someone or something is you know we all long to

belong. I'm sure you've heard that saying before we long to belong unlike what

some people will admit, we really do deep down inside we want to belong

to someone. The most important thing to belong to is Jesus Christ. If

you want to turn to Glacians chapter three, I would like to look at

a few things in regard to belonging to Christ before we think about the second

part here about belonging to his body. Glacians chapter three, twenty six through

twenty nine. I'll just start in twenty five. But after that faith has

come, we are no longer under a school master. For you are all

the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you

have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor

Greek. There's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female. For

you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then

are ye Abraham, Seed and heirs according to the promise. I'd like to

notice three things here that Paul is trying to get through to these Glacians after

they went through prior to this talking about how important faith was in their justification

and in their Christian life, and that it's not by works, but it's

by faith. And then in twenty five year it says, but after that

faith has come, we are no longer under a school master. And does

that mean we're free then to go and do whatever we choose. I don't

think that was the idea. I think the idea was that we're beyond the

law and it now takes faith in Christ to belong to him, faith in

Christ, not works. Can you imagine if our religion was actually a work's

only religion on how that would play out in the body of Christ. In

some ways it would be nothing but a talent show before our eyes. And

that's I'm just thankful for that this morning. This aspect of faith that it

takes to belong to Christ, which means believing in things that we cannot see.

The second one is he mentions here in verse twenty seven. It says,

for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on

Christ. Another thing is being baptized into Christ. And this literally means baptism,

but also more than that, of course, the Bible commands that we

believe and be baptized, which is our outward symbol of an inward cleansing.

But I believe here this baptizing in Christ means a cleansing of our old cell.

It means being baptized by the Holy Spirit. We cannot belong to Christ

without His Holy Spirit in our life, new life in Christ, being baptized

into Him. The third one is equality in Christ. We notice here in

verse twenty eight it says there's neither June nor Greek. There's neither bond nor

free. There's neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ

Jesus. No one is more important than the next person when it comes to

belonging to Christ. And that's that's a point I would like you to take

with you, and good for me to remember. You know, in our

human nature, we're really quick to stab people up and prioritize and respect people

over others. But Jesus says that we're all equal when we belong to Him.

We're all equal. We're all sinners saved by grace, something we all

know, not by works, lest any man should boast I mentioned earlier,

not by works. In Mark nine forty one, nine verse forty one,

it talks about giving a cup of water in my name. Maybe I should

just read it before I get ahead of myself here Mark chapter nine says,

for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name because

you belong to Christ, verily I say, and to you, he shall

not lose his reward. Think about how that says that there, if you

give a cup of water in my name because of what Christ has done for

you, you will not lose your reward. What that tells me, going

back to this work's religion, is that we can do many, many good

things. We can be on every committee and every counseling committee and everything you

can imagine, and be lifted up quite high in the name of our fellow

believers. But if it's not because we belong to Christ, if it's not

an outpouring of what He has done in our life, the opposite of this

verse would be it doesn't do us a lot of good. Back to Glacians

are in the next chapter, chapter four. We can't think of this thing

of belonging to Christ without thinking also of being adopted into his family. That's

a point. Jesus loves to use this as to get the point across as

how much he loves us, how much he's how He's chosen us into his

family and glaciers. Chapter four, verse six says, because ye are sons,

God has set forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,

crying abba Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son,

and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ. This

thing of being heirs is also goes along with being adopted. We have something

to inherit that's much better than anything we could ever inherit on this earth.

The idea of adoption would be that we were chosen by choice. God chose

each one of us by choice, all right, In the second party,

or I'd just like to think about his church and belonging to his church,

his body. There's very much a security in belonging to a group of people

that know us and that we know. There's a security there any group of

people. That might be a family, it might be church, it might

be a peer group. But we like, we like to belong, we

long to belong, and I think, at least for myself, many times

we take this thing of belonging to His body for granted. I know I

do, because if we're if we think that everything is going to be up

to par with the way we would have it, the way we would do

it, we will never truly feel like we belong. And that's a definitely

an encouragement to me or a something that I need to take more seriously.

That is just not taking for granted the body of Christ, the body of

believers, or church family. Have you ever secretly thought to yourself, maybe

you even expressed that, wouldn't it be simpler if we could just serve the

Lord, be a Christian without being attached to a church. I think that

is crossed many people's minds. I think I've probably thought that at one time,

and we don't have to look real far. We actually see people living

that out where they take the individualistic approach of I am a Christian as much

as an ex person, but I don't need church. Maybe we could call

him an un church Christian, which is actually a real term. I think

we all know where where this leads to when we when we take that approach

to church life. Remember in John fifteen, there the words of Jesus when

he when he used the words like them and us, we all belong to

his family. It speaks of community, the them and us. It speaks

of saints gathered collectively. And I think I said earlier, belonging to Christ

and belonging to His body, I think go hand in hand. I don't

think you can separate the two Nephesians tube verse nineteen. It says, now

we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and

of the household of God. To me, that's very clear statement of the

body of Christ in the life of a believer. If you read through the

Book of Acts, read it over and over, and you'll get a picture

of the New Testament Church and how it was very much a fellowship of believers.

Did that mean that things always went good and that they seen eye to

eye? I don't believe it was that way at all. I think there

was many things that the apostles had to address in those times, but the

church was definitely the focus. God's Church an important aspect to remember. Remember,

and this belonging to His body is whose church it really is. Matthew

sixteen, verse eighteen. It says, Jesus said thou art Peter, and

upon this rock, I will build my church, and nothing can stop it,

not even the gates of Hell. In my own words, even though

there's many people around us that go by the term of unchurched Christians. Jesus

said that he will build his church in Romans one, verses five through seven.

I won't take the time to read that there, but I like how

Paul put it here in relation to key ingredients to build his church, and

that was that they had they came with grace and apostleship. And in my

mind, that's two key ingredients to be apostles, to be disciples, that's

us, and to come with grace and only because of the grace of God

in our life. Saying that, maybe I would just ask the question,

when you think of church as we know it body of believers, would you

feel that there's more to belonging to Christ Church, to His body than just

the worship aspect and the spiritual aspect. Be interesting to hear each of your

your answers on that the spiritual aspects of practicing the ordinances together as body,

all vital parts, counseling each other in the ways of the Lord if it's

needed. Can there be a humanistic side of church community that is a healthy

thing as well? Is it good to feel secure in community? I really

think that the heart of God would have us enjoy each other and fellowship,

and that even though the spiritual side is our core that we build His body

on, I believe that there should be an aspect and it is an integral

part of community is just to be together in normal times as well. If

the balance is right. I think what happens is if we get too high

centered on its Sunday mornings is when we see each other and that's the end

of it. I think we quickly lose our credibility with our community, and

then when we lose hospitality, I believe that we lose our effectiveness for reaching

the community around us, because it tends to feel like we're something that they

can't break into. It's just for us. John Wooden was one of the

greatest college basketball coaches of all time at the UCLA College University California, Los

Angeles, and he won ten national championships out of twelve years. Ten out

of twelve, which might not mean much to you, but it's quite a

feat. And one of the things that he said that contributed in his mind,

contributed to his team's success in those years, which should have been If

you know anything about college people come and go every two to four years.

So it's a revolving team. So he obviously had something figured out. He

had the crack formula. And one of the things that he would have said

would have contributed to that success was the meshing or that helped them mash together,

and that was that all the players felt valued. All the players felt

valued. And if you think about that, it, for some reason goes

against human nature to just lay all of our agendas down and value everyone the

same. It takes, It takes a full time commitment to do that.

All the members of the team must somehow feel wanted and needed and appreciated.

And the fact is it's kind of the leader's job to make that come around.

Like a step on my own toes, they're a little bit someone has

to lead out in helping others feel appreciated and that they belong. We're talking

about belonging to his body. Although each one of us do have a part

to play, I don't want to leave anyone off the hook. We all

play probably a more important part than you can imagine at helping those who are

around us feel like they belong. Maybe you yourself today don't don't feel like

you belong that's a very good possibility there's someone here that feels that way.

I can honestly say that there's times when I have felt like I don't belong.

You know I don't. There's probably various reasons for that, and I

think that we need to be open to following the call of God if that

means to go belong to someone else. This isn't the only church to belong

to. One thing that will very quickly erode feeling like you belong is having

a victim mentality which we can all probably be tempted with at times, that

will shred compatibility in a hurry. I would like to read something here by

a man named Kennon Callahan. Most of you might not recognize that name,

and I don't necessarily agree with everything that he said here, but I really

like the gist of the point he's making. If you can just listen here,

he said, people come to church longing for, yearning for hoping for

this sense of roots, place, belonging, sharing, and caring. People

come to a church in our time with a search for community, not committee.

We make the mistake of assuming that by putting people on a committee,

they will develop ownership for the objectives of the church. People are not looking

for ownership of objectives or for functional organization organizational institutional goals. Their search is

far more profound and desperate than that. They're looking for home, for relationships.

They're looking for the profound depths of community. I don't know if you've

caught much of that, but I think it's worth stopping and considering a little

bit of what people are looking for. First of all, we have to

offer them the way to belong to Christ is the only way. But along

with that, do they feel like they're welcome to belong in our midst We

live in a day where most people are very busy going about their lives,

and it leaves the people that are busy and the ones that are underneath that

are hurting and no one has time for Believe it or not, there's people

that are not busy that are longing to belong somewhere. Where do we fall

in that? You know, it does make me wonder sometimes, and I

might sound a bit like a victim here, but you know, we spend

a lot of Sunday evenings at home not being invited anywhere. And I'm just

I'm not saying it's a huge deal. But it does make me wonder because

that's not how it was when I was young. It just wasn't the same.

And I realize that we can invite people over as well as be invited,

and I know that there are people doing things with their cliques, which

isn't all wrong, because I think in a church this size that will happen.

There's going to be people that are friends with other people. But I

think it's at least worth thinking about why we're too busy to care about everyone

else. It's pretty easy to become oblivious to the needs of other people outside

our little group. And that's I'm talking a group inside our church. Are

we are we doing our part? I don't think we'll be very effective at

bringing people in from the community if we can't look outside a small group inside

our large group. So I would just say that, not as a reprimand

to anyone, but just as something to think about a little bit, because

I think it is important, not as much that we can't live without it,

as much as that the science what is it a sign of what is

happening behind the scenes that we see most people only on Sunday morning, in

Sunday evening so I guess the question for me and all of us, are

we doing our part in bringing others into first of all belonging to Christ,

that relationship with Christ, having that security that we enjoy. Are we sharing

it with others and His body, the Church of Jesus Christ. So hopefully

this can be not discouraging but encouraging to each of you when we think about

this thing of belonging in Christ, first of all, into His body,

and not take it for granted. May God bless you. Let's have a song