Intentional Community

Well, it's great to see everybody at Church of the Grove this morning.

My name is Russ.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you, I want to say welcome to Church of the Grove.

I want to say a special welcome to those of you that are watching online.

As a matter of fact, would you join me in the room and welcoming those that are watching online and thank them.

We're so thankful for Kevin and his ministry as he pastors everybody in our online campus and for the just the blessing that's been, especially in this season.

Excited about what God did in our 915 service and excited about today as we continue this series on Finding Freedom About Community.

I was thinking back this past week to how horrifying it was for me the first time that I walked into Stockbridge Junior High School as a seventh grader.

Back then they had junior high school.

So I went to six years of elementary school, and then we went to junior high for a couple of years, and then we went on to high school.

But I remember walking into Stockbridge Junior High School for the first time.

It was a brand new school, brand new community, new friends, new fears, and it was it was absolutely terrifying.

Now it's hard enough just being a middle schooler, right?

It's hard enough being a young person.

But then you go into a new school and you think about am I gonna fit in?

Am I gonna have friends?

Just think about how awful it is to walk into a new school for the first time and then to walk into a lunchroom and think about where you're gonna sit.

It's awful because you're already in this transition from being a child to moving into adolescence and all the changes that that brings with it itself.

And then you've got to worry about whether or not you're going to be accepted, whether you're gonna have friends and where you're gonna sit and whether they're gonna like me, and who am I gonna identify with?

And so you walk into the school for the first time and you walk into the lunchroom and you are horrified as you scan it, and you think about where am I going to sit?

Am I gonna sit with what people think are the cool kids?

Or am I gonna sit with the intellectual nerds over on this side of the lunchroom?

Am I gonna, you know, in today's culture, we didn't have golf and and and all the different uh groups back then, but but you had you have jocks and you have cheerleaders and and and whatever whatever category you can think of.

Where am I gonna sit?

Where am I gonna identify with?

Where am I gonna gonna be accepted?

And here's something I taught all of my students as a youth pastor, and I think this applies to us, regardless of what our age is.

We don't really ever choose our friends, we just gravitate to where we're accepted the most.

And so those those that first day, those first few days, that first week, who you sit with, who you identify with, who you connect with, it literally has the possibility of shaping the entire trajectory of your life.

It really does.

Because it's likely that you're gonna, you know, whoever, whoever likes you, whoever welcomes you into their group, that's that's the group you're going to connect with.

And so last week we talked about the fact that you, the people that you surround you yourself with, they will shape your life.

And here's here's something I thought about this week.

We really are, we're the average, who we are, we're the average of the five closest relationships that we allow in our life.

And so you want to know who you are gonna be as a young person or maybe a young adult, then you look at the five closest relationships that you allow in your life, and you pretty much will see what you're gonna look like in the next 10, 15, or 20 years.

And so, and so that's why community is so important.

That's why it's so vital that we are intentional about who we choose to connect with, that we're intentional about the relationships that we have in our life, who we surround ourselves, who we hang out with, who you're gonna be.

Proverbs 13, 20 says, He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

And so if you want to be intelligent, if you want to be smart, then you hang out around with smart, intelligent people.

If you want to be relational and you want to be friendly, then you hang around relational, friendly people.

If you want to be an idiot, then you hang out with a group of idiots.

That sounds harsh, but it's the truth.

It's the truth.

It's something I've I've that's a verse that I've taught my kids.

And so last week we said this when the right people gather together for the right reasons, God is there and he does the right things.

When the right people gather together for the right reasons, God is there and he does the right things.

And so today's big idea in following up last week is it's it's real simple.

Biblical community must be intentional.

Biblical community must be intentional.

Remember, we don't we don't choose our relationships.

We tend to gravitate to where we're accepted, so we've got to give it some thought.

You've got to raise your kids to be thoughtful and intentional about their friendships and relationships.

You as an adult, it's the same for us.

You've got to be intentional.

You've got to fight for community, biblical community.

Here's something I've learned during the COVID season is that COVID has become a very convenient excuse basically to avoid what we already wanted to avoid.

It's become a convenient excuse.

It's kind of like when you when you get the phone call and you're invited to go hang out with that couple, that you really, it's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be an awkward couple hours.

And you're thankful you have a child who's on a sleep schedule, and you have a convenient excuse to turn down that invitation, right?

Well, that's what that's what a lot of us will use COVID as an excuse not to engage in biblical community.

And I'm telling you that you've got to be willing to fight for community.

You've got to be willing, whether it's digital right now or whether it's in person or whatever it is, you've got to be willing to fight for it.

And here's the common response I get from people all the time.

When we talk about church and we talk about gathering together, and we talk about community, I uh and I share my faith sometimes with people, and they'll say, Russ, I love God.

I love, I even believe in Jesus and that he died on the cross for me.

But I can worship God from my deer stand, I can worship God from the comfort of my den, and I can watch, you know, so and so preach.

I mean, everybody's a televangelist now, right?

Everybody has an you know is uh is broadcasting their sermons, so I can watch anybody now, and so I can do that from the comfort of my home.

And here's what I always want to do, but I'm I I usually compose myself, but here's why here's how I want to respond to that.

That's how I want to respond to that.

And in the Greek, that means that's a bunch of garbage.

It is.

Here's the reality.

It's not biblical, it's not what the word of God tells us, it's not what the Bible says, it's not how God speaks to us and leads us.

He says, we are made for community and we must be willing to fight for biblical community.

Biblical community must be intentional.

And so the apostle Paul writes the letter to the Romans, the church in Rome, he he he gets to chapter 12.

We're gonna be in chapter 12 with just a few verses five through eight.

If you want to follow along with me, um he he he lays this foundation in the first 11 chapters of Rome before he gets to chapter 12.

And as a matter of fact, if you just divided the whole book of Romans, you could divide it into two separate sections, where the first 11 chapters, Paul lays the foundation, this theological foundation of what Christ does in his atoning work and his life and death and resurrection, his work on the cross that provides for us to be reconciled with our heavenly Father, he goes into great detail to lay the theological foundation for what happens with us in our relationship with God.

In the early chapter in Romans 1 and 2, Paul says that all people on the planet are left without excuse.

He says, we can walk outside of our doors.

Even if you live in a country or a section on this planet and you've never had anybody bring you a message from the Bible.

People that have never heard a sermon, never had the word of God in their hands, never had a Bible in their hands, and they just walk outside the door of their house or their dwelling.

Paul says, you can look at creation and see that there is a creator.

You can see that the design of all creation, that there is a mind that is behind that, there is a being that is behind that, and you are left without excuse.

And he talks about the the grip of sin and how how everyone will be held accountable, and and even those sometimes that God will turn over and he will give them up to the sinful habits and patterns in their life.

He mentions the faith of Abraham and begins to talk about faith and and and how we can have faith and God can provide for our freedom and forgiveness.

Romans 3.23, one of those verses that many of us as believers have memorized.

He says, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And in Romans 6.23, he says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so he he walks through Romans 6 and 7.

He talks about how the enemy of our flesh will pull us, but we have victory in Christ even over the enemy of our flesh and our sinful nature.

And so he finishes his theological argument in Romans 11.

And I would sum up the whole first 11 chapters of the book of Romans with one word: justification.

We are justified in Christ.

And here's what, Russ, what does justified mean?

What does it mean?

What does justification mean?

Well, it's as simple as this: that if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, it is just as if I've never sinned.

When God looks at you and you are in Christ, He looks at you as having the righteousness of Christ upon you, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, and it's just as if you've never sinned.

It's like a judge in a courtroom that drops the gavel and he says, You are free, and the whatever your wrongdoing is, it will never be held against you.

You walk out of here just as if you've never done anything wrong.

You are free to go.

And so that's the foundation that Paul lays for us in the first 11 chapters of the book of Rome.

He says, He says, You, if you are in Christ, you are justified.

You are forgiven, you're made one with your heavenly Father, you you are accepted, you are loved, and he sees us just as he sees his son Jesus Christ.

But then he gets to chapter 12 and he moves on from this vertical perspective to a horizontal perspective about how, in light of what has happened in our relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, here's how I want you to relate to one another.

Here's how I want you to relate in community, in relationship.

And you know that verse that he begins, the little passage that he begins, he said, Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

And so he gets to verse five, and we're gonna look at verses five through eight.

But verse five is the primary verse that we're really gonna dig in and look at when we're talking about biblical community.

Here's what the apostle Paul says.

And let me, before I read this, let me explain to you that normally I teach out of the English Standard Version.

And if you ever want to know why that I prefer that version over other versions, and there's nothing wrong with other translations, I will be glad to tell you and explain to you.

You email me or text me or uh tell me that let me know that's a question that you have, and I'd be glad to explain it.

But today I'm gonna really look at what's called the New Living Translation, especially for verse five, because I love how the translator uh translates that verse out of the Greek, because that sentence in the Greek is a very difficult sentence to kind of smoothly read over.

And here's what it says in verse 5: New Living Translation.

He says, so it is with Christ's body.

He says, We are many parts of one body.

And here's what you would start underline, focus on, highlight.

We all belong to each other.

We all belong to each other.

And I want to just I want you to look back up at me and I want us to say that sentence together.

We all belong to each other.

Let's say it together.

One, two, three.

We all belong to each other.

Let's say it one more time.

I want you to say it with passion, okay?

915 crowd was awake.

All right, so a little more passion.

I need some passion.

Ready?

One, two, three.

We all belong to each other.

So he says we are individually connected together, and we belong to each other.

So you can't argue for this idea that I can follow Jesus individually, isolated by myself.

There is no such thing as long rangers in the kingdom of God.

You can't do it by yourself.

It's not biblical, it's not what God says, it's not how we're designed.

And so we can't argue that.

We've got to, we've got to rest on that, we've got to lean into that.

We all belong to each other.

We are meant to be in community together.

And then he goes on in verse 6, and he says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

Let us use them.

And so it's this idea that you all you matter.

Every individual person matters.

So when you don't, when you're not connected in the body, you are missed.

You are missed.

That's been one of the most difficult parts of this COVID journey is to feel helpless as a pastor.

When, especially when people in our church are going through difficulties and just feeling so disconnected and having to fight for that community, fight for that connectedness, fight to keep up with people.

He says that you all have gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit, by the grace that comes through Christ.

All of your gifts are different, which means if you aren't connected, you are missed.

What God has given you as a gift and a measure of grace, it is missed.

Somebody else in the church, somebody else in the body, when you're not connected appropriately in the way that God has called you to be connected, they're going to miss out on what you bring to the table.

And he goes on to talk about the gifts.

We're not going to dive into each one of them.

He says, Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, in service and our serving, the one who teaches and is teaching, the one who exhorts and is exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

And so, why is it so important that we need to be intentional?

There's three reasons I think it's huge, hugely important that we're supposed to be intentional.

And it's this because intentional community helps us know we matter.

That's what Paul is saying in this verse, in these set of verses.

He says, intentional community helps us know that we matter, right?

This idea that we're all connected in community, and I believe all of us are wired.

Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, whether you like to hang out by yourself or you like big groups of people, whatever your deal is and however you're wired, I believe it's within all of us as human beings to be connected to other people.

I think we all, listen, we all want to be loved.

We want to love and be loved.

We want to know and be known.

We want to serve and be served.

We want to celebrate and be celebrated.

I think that's we're all made for that.

One of the great sitcoms of all time has a theme song, and some of you that are my age, maybe, which is old, you would remember this.

And some of you maybe have come across this sitcom, but the theme song says this, and I'm gonna I'm gonna read it instead of singing it, because that's not my gift by God's grace.

Um He says, making the song says, making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.

Let me just that what that applies to 2020, right?

I mean, making your way in the world today takes everything you got.

Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Absolutely.

I would like to get away from this sermon.

I would like to get away from the stress of life.

I would like to get away.

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.

You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same.

You want to go where everybody knows your name.

Now, the tragedy of that song and this sitcom is the setting in which it takes place.

Did everybody know where the setting is?

It's a bar.

I mean, there's this one guy that comes in every day to the bar, and when he comes in, everybody says, Norm, you ought to be ashamed for watching that trash.

Sinful.

Which I'll like, he I don't know that I've ever seen Norm drunk, but he's constantly drinking beer for hours.

It's just, it's crazy.

And so the unfortunate thing is that happens in a bar when that song would fit appropriately for the body of Christ and the church.

So we we we've got to fight for intentional biblical community.

And so we've we've got to be intentional about it.

It's not something we gloss over.

So what's the second reason that that we must be intentional about biblical community?

Intentional community provides healing and accountability.

Intentional community provides healing and accountability.

I think all of us have freedom that we're trying to walk out of in our life.

All of us have hurts and habits and hangups.

All of us have a measure of dysfunction that we walked out of.

And if you don't think that you have dysfunction, then that's part of your dysfunction.

All of us have generational sin issues.

And it may be to a great degree or it may be to a smaller degree.

Some of your issues may be easy to hide out in public.

Some of them can't be hidden in public.

Some of them are more in private.

But we all have freedom that we're trying to find.

And here's what here's what intentional community provides.

It provides healing and it provides accountability.

First John 1.9, I referred to this verse last week.

It says, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

And it speaks to this vertical relationship that we have through Jesus Christ.

And it's what Christ did in his work and his death on the cross.

And so it provides he took upon himself the punishment that all of us deserve.

And by his stripes we are healed, Isaiah says.

And so we are justified and made right by the death and the work that Christ performed on the cross.

And so we are made right.

It's this vertical relationship that we have with Jesus.

If you will confess your sins simply to the Heavenly Father, he will forgive you and cleanse you.

But there's also this horizontal perspective.

And James refers to it in this idea that we need each other.

If we want complete, full healing, if we want to walk in freedom, then we've got to understand that God has called us to live in community.

Here's what James says.

Therefore, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it's working.

And so, yes, we've got to confess our sins to God, but we've also got to be willing to confess our sins one to another because that is what James says, is where our healing comes from.

And accountability.

It's when we're transparent enough to open ourselves up and to let somebody in and let somebody know that we're imperfect.

That's how we find healing and support.

Listen, here's what that means.

That means as a as a church, as a body, as a family, that we we don't shoot our wounded.

We don't hammer those that have stepped out and maybe acted out of that dysfunction.

No, we we wrap our arms around them and we support them and we love them.

And especially if they confess and they they're they're desiring healing.

We we love on them and we support them.

And here here's the response that I as I mentioned we keep getting pushed back.

Russ, I'm okay, I'm good, I don't need that.

There's a couple that that came to to Mine and Jill's house and they did a whole semester of community groups with us.

This is years ago.

And so they committed, and man, they hung in there the whole semester.

They came to every group meeting we had for that semester.

And so Jill and I would talk together.

We're like, man, hey, they're I think they're in.

I think they're they're they're on board with us, they're excited to be here, they're they're committed, right?

And we thought that was the case, but the very last meeting they hung around, you know, they kind of just hung around until everybody else had left, and and they said, Um, by the way, this is gonna be our last meeting, and we're not coming back to your church anymore.

We said, What?

We don't really like hearing everybody's feelings.

That's what the husband said.

He said, I don't I don't like all this.

I kind of dug a little deeper.

So what what are you looking for?

I mean, what what what is it?

I mean, is it us?

Is it is it is it me?

Is it you?

Is it is it our church?

No, that's not it.

He said he said, I just want somebody to teach me.

I want somebody just to tell me the difference between Christianity and Islam.

Tell me Tell me the difference in all the denominations.

I just want somebody to teach me and talk to me.

I don't really want to have to talk back.

We were gracious.

It's all about what what I'm getting.

Nothing about what I can do.

I don't need all of that.

I'm okay.

I heard the story.

I don't know if it's true, but I'm gonna tell you like I heard it.

Muhammad Ali is a great boxer.

You know, float like a butterfly, sing like a bee.

The story that I heard is he gets on an airplane and he sits down, and the flight attendant comes around, and the flight attendant does, what does the flight attendant tell you to do when you are in your seat?

Put on your seatbelt.

He said, Superman don't need no seatbelt.

I mean, without any hesitation, she said, Superman don't need no plane.

Put on your seatbelt.

And and that's how we are sometimes.

I don't I don't need that.

I'm okay in my little world.

I I've I've got community with me, myself, and I.

And so we can't deny the biblical mandate and the fact that healing and accountability come from intentional community, and finally, intentional community leads to greater impact.

And let me just camp out here for a second and and say that we live in a broken world that is in need of the redeeming work of Jesus.

I mean, you look at the world that we live in, you look at 2020 by itself, you look at disease, you look at you look at um the health issues all over our world, you look at natural disasters.

We live in a world that suffers from the fallen sickness and brokenness of humanity sin.

And and so the the hope that we have is the hope that is provided through Jesus.

But the means by which God has determined to share that hope is through us, is through the church, it's through the body of Christ.

We partner with God in taking the Great Commission to a lost, broken world.

We need each other.

There is something that only we can do as a body and as a community, we can have greater impact together than we can alone.

And so there's a whole world out there that is yet to hear the gospel, that is yet to hear the love and the mercy and the grace and what God has provided, and understanding that they need to turn and repent of their sins.

There's a whole world that is yet to hear that.

We live in a community where we're where children wake up every day hungry.

We live in a world where families are broken and fragmented.

And there's something about us coming together to have a greater impact together than we can by ourselves.

If you want to go far, you go together.

Another proverb that comes from Solomon, King Solomon, Proverbs 27, 17, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Ecclesiastes 4, two are better than one because they have a good return for their work.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

We need each other, and then we need to come together and have a bigger impact.

There is no limit to what we can accomplish.

If we would understand that we can do it together.

So the Great Commission says to go make disciples of all nations.

Now that word all nations, that word all is hugely important.

And so it's not just for our people group, for our country, for our ethnicity, it's for all nations, the whole world, every rape, every tribe, every tongue, every people group, every person needs to hear the message of Jesus Christ.

And we're called to make disciples of all nations.

And the Great Commission was given to us collectively as a church.

And individually, we've got to be willing to speak out.

We've got to be willing to engage our neighbors.

We've got to be willing to share our faith.

But together, we've got support, we've got encouragement from one another.

And so we've got to be willing to come together.

We want to see our community change.

We want to see schools impacted for the gospel.

We want to see families restored.

We want to see practical needs met.

We can do more together than we can individually.

So much more.

And so God is not finished with us.

He is still working in us and through us.

One of the ministry tools that we talked a lot about recently is bless every home.

It's an online tool where you can put in your email and put in your address, and it will show you a map of the people that live around you by name.

And so I put in my email and my address.

And it shows the 40 people that live closest to us in our neighborhood.

On a map, and then and then I set it up where it could email me Monday through Friday.

So every morning at 5 a.m., I get an email in my inbox that reminds me to pray by name for those people, and it puts it in a list of five each day.

And so I walk most mornings in my neighborhood, and when I'm walking in my neighborhood, I've got that list of names.

And I can pray for my neighbors by name.

And I get that email reminder.

And I know this may sound strange, but I literally will walk sometimes and I will reach out my hand and just extend my hand toward a home and call the names of the people who dwell there out loud.

And say, God, would you would you do what it takes to reach this family?

Would you work in such a way to draw them by the power of your Holy Spirit, even beyond what anybody could could do by persuasive language?

Would you work and would you give me an opportunity to cross paths even with some of those neighbors that are the most isolated and the hardest ones to touch base with?

Would you create circumstances where we could cross paths where I could show practically that I want to be a good neighbor and I want to love them with the love of Christ and eventually share the hope that's found in Jesus Christ.

And so you might respond and say, Russ, well, I don't really know how to share my faith, or I don't know the theological terms, and I don't know how to how to present the gospel.

Well, listen, you can pray.

Everybody can pray.

You don't feel comfortable talking out loud, you can pray silently to your Heavenly Father.

You don't feel comfortable in a crowd, then just pray for your neighbors.

Start with that simple action step.

And at some point, God may lead you the opportunity to share the hope or maybe to share your personal story and your testimony of how you found freedom and how God led you to a community and a family, not just a church, not a building, not a location, but God led you to a family where you could feel like you're part of something.

And you were missed when you weren't there and you were valued.

And where you were, you can love and be loved, you can know and be known, you can serve and be served, you can celebrate and be celebrated, and you know that what you're contributing matters.

Now I'll give you, let me give you an out.

If you don't want to be in biblical community, that's that's up to you.

There is no way that we're gonna try to strong arm you or force you or or berase you or condemn you.

Maybe where you are in life, or maybe maybe for whatever reason, you there's there's a practical reason, but I'm gonna encourage all of you to fight for it.

It's worth it.

We have a Church of the Grove app, and so you have permission to pull out your phones in church and you download that app.

And the reason I'm telling you to do that is because we put all of our community groups, all of our groups and opportunities for you to connect.

We put them in the app.

And I they told me that this week it was updated for this fall semester.

Um we may be adding some groups.

Some of you don't know it yet, but you're gonna lead or you're gonna host.

You say, well, I I don't want any people in my home.

You could do it online, you could you can do digital groups, those are gonna be hugely valuable to us this fall as we're in this season.

But you go to the app, and and here's what I want you to do.

Here's the challenge.

You don't even plan to show up this fall.

Put your name on a list.

Put your name, sign up with a group, and you say, Russ, why would I do that if I don't even know if I want to show up?

Do it because that way your name will be lifted up in prayer by a leader.

You you you might be contacted, somebody might check on you, somebody will miss you when you're not there.

You will have your name on a list, which means that you, in some sense, will be connected, and it's better to be prayed for and not be present than to not be present and to somebody just ignore the reality that you exist.

And so sign up, put your name in a group.

Maybe your first step this morning is to confess your sins to God for the first time, and to take that first step, put your faith in Jesus Christ.

I love to say that the gospel is simple, it's not cheap, it's extremely costly, but it's it's it's simple.

You admit that you're a sinner, that you need Jesus.

You believe and trust in what Christ provided, his life and his death and his resurrection.

You repent, which means you do a U-turn and you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Maybe that's your step for the first time this morning is to trust Jesus as your Savior.

Would you bow your heads with me?

Let's pray together and ask God to work.

Father, would you speak to us?

Would you lead us and guide us as we move forward this morning, this week, this fall?

God, we want you to do a work that will transform our lives, but not only our lives, but lives of the people in our families, in our circle of relationships and friendships, in our community.

It's something that would ripple literally around the world.

So, God, would you do that work this morning?

While your eyes are closed and your heads are bowed, let me just encourage you to consider how God might be speaking to you.

Part of part of prayer is is talking to God, but part of the other part of prayer is God talking to us.

So let me give you a second.

Just ask the Holy Spirit.

Just ask Him.

What is it that you sense God speaking to you?

There's two questions we ask a lot here at Church Zero.

Number one is what does God say to you?

The second one is, what am I gonna do about it?

So, what is what do you sense, the Holy Spirit?

Because that's part of the deal is the Holy Spirit's gonna lead you and guide you always in accordance with the word.

And so He's going to lead you toward community and not away from it.

And so ask Holy Spirit what is your practical step?

What is your next step?

What am I to do with what God has said to me this morning?

He's gonna lead us to a place where we will build our lives on the gospel, build our lives in community, build our lives in such a way that people will look at us and they will see Christ.

They will see us standing in a world that is shaken from top to bottom, that we will be standing on a firm foundation, and although uh the earth may give way and the world and its brokenness will bring all of these difficult circumstances that we can have the hope and the joy and the truth and the reality that we stand upon the gospel, and it is a firm foundation that we can build our life on.

So, Father, would you work as we give you a moment to sing back to you a song that represents maybe our practical step toward community?

Father, would you build something in us that would be pleasing and presentable back to you?

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.