Authentic Community (The Next Chapter Series)

So this is week three. Week three of this next chapter sermon series that we have been in, where of course we've been getting ready for the next chapter that the Lord is going to be writing through us as His church, and that next next chapter, of course, is all about Him leading us into experiencing being one church, worshiping together in one service, and uniting us together on one mission to go and to make disciples. And there, of course, as we have been saying, are some things that are going to be changing. Some things that are just going to be different. The time of the service is going to be different for some. The order of doing worship and then Sunday school will be different. There will be some stylistic changes when we blend the styles of worship together. But what we are reminding ourselves of during this series is what's not going to change. At the very core of who we are as a church, we have core values that will not be changing, and so we were reminding ourselves of who we are and who we will continue to be as we even enter into this time of transition. And the two things that we've talked about so far over the first two weeks is that we are a church first and foremost all about life in Christ. We do not draw life from a time that we do worship at. We do not draw life from a style of worship. We don't draw life from the order of worship, we draw life from the one who is life, who is Jesus Christ. And as we, as His church, His body, and Him being the head, continue to keep our eyes fixed on Him in this transition, we will be continuing to draw that life and experience abundant life in Him as He leads us into this next chapter, we value unity because the Lord unites us all together through the work of the Spirit when He comes to dwell in us. And since He's united us together, we want to live in that unity. We want to experience that unity and and make sure that our preferences are not getting in the way of the primary mission that He has called us to. This week, as we get into our third core value, we're going to be talking about the value of authentic community. Authentic, of course, meaning that it's real community, it's genuine community. It's not that that fake kind of hide behind a mask, pretend everything is okay kind of community. It's a deep community. It's not a surface level. I don't really care about you kind of a community. It's not the type of community where we're just a bunch of individuals who who happen to be gathered in the same room together, but we're really just here to experience our own individual relationship with God during worship. It's not that at all. What it is is a kind of community who truly loves each other, the kind of community who values getting to know one another-the kind of community where we're real, honestly real about the problems and the issues that are going on in our lives-and one where we feel it's okay to make people aware of those things and actually ask for help. Authentic community is the type of community where we value all different generations being together, and the messiness that sometimes comes with all the generations being together. It's also the kind of community who welcomes all people in, who values all people, no matter where they've been, no matter who they are, no matter what it is that they've done, we recognize that all people are created in the image of God and valuable to Him, and therefore they are valuable to us. And the reason that this is one of our core values and that we talk about authentic community so much is not because it's something that we value in and of ourselves, but because of what we see in Scripture, it is the way that Jesus leads His church. He works in and through us after uniting us together to actually then do life together to live in the unity that we have.

It's part of the outworking of the gospel, the good news of Jesus is not is not just about us getting a ticket to heaven or or being in an individual relationship with God, and we we've seen this in Scripture recently. If you were here when we did our sermon series on the Book of Acts, all. Way back at the beginning, at the sending of the Spirit, we begin to see the outworking, practical applications of the Spirit uniting us together. Right after Peter and the disciples received the Holy Spirit, he stands up and he shares the good news with the crowd that is there, and we see that a lot of people respond in that moment by putting their faith and trust in Jesus. They were baptized to show that their sins had been forgiven and that they were no longer who they once were. They were now part of God's family. They were part of His church. They were united together as brothers and sisters in Christ. And look briefly with me at the outworking of the gospel in their lives. In verse 44 of chapter two of Acts, it says all the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together, with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. And so the Holy Spirit unites them together in this unity as families, as sons and daughters of Him, and now as brothers and sisters in Christ, and then we begin to see again the practical outworkings of how they actually lived life together. Every day, they continued to meet together. They ate together over and over again. The outworking of the Holy Spirit coming and dwelling in them is the way that He works through us to do life together. It's what we saw in the early church. Part of the early church was genuine, real, authentic community, and it's no different today. The Holy Spirit still unites us and will lead us into that genuine, real, authentic community as we keep our eyes fixed on Him as our head and to lead us as the church. I truly believe that this is one of the main reasons that the Lord is leading us into making this transition, because Jesus leads His church into genuine, real, authentic, loving relationships who who worship Him together and glorify His name together, and that's just hard to do when we're not even gathered in the same room together at the same time, when we're in two completely different environments, and so I think this is what he's going, or one of the main reasons that he is leading us to make this change. But I truly believe that that is really just the start. I mean, I think he's up to something so much more than just gathering us together in a room for worship, because honestly, he wants to move us into deeper and deeper genuine, authentic relationships where we're again doing life together much the same way that we see here in Acts chapter two, and it's really not just the book of Acts that we see this in. We see it play out throughout the New Testament. This is when the Holy Spirit first enters the scene, and the church is all there in Jerusalem, and they're together. But even when we saw the persecution come in Acts, and they were they were scattered and moved into different communities, we saw that different churches were planted, and that they began to do life together in those areas.

We even saw it after the Apostle Paul had his Damascus Road conversion and experience that he began to plant churches and disciple churches and do life together with those churches, sometimes if you're like me, when we think of the Apostle Paul, we think of him writing all of this content, all of the New Testament letters, the the Scripture that we have in our Bibles, and I think it's easy to think of the Apostle Paul as just teaching, like he's he's just kind of writing and speaking and delivering sermons and teaching Sunday school lessons and it's like he's just constantly shoving content biblical content the truth into their minds but that is not true it is true he did do that and the Holy Spirit did use him to deliver truth but Paul himself was involved in authentic community, and they grew in grace together. And we see this in a number of the letters that he wrote to those different churches. One of the places that we see it is in First Thessalonians chapter two, verses seven and eight. He's writing. To them, after a time he had been with him, looking back on it, and look at what he says here. Look at the language that Paul uses in these two verses. Just as a nursing mother, as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Paul was not in the business of just sharing the gospel with his words and teaching content, he was involved relationally, genuine, authentic relationships where he cared for them, and he was delighted to share his life, to do life with them together. This is an overflow of the gospel in his life, and in the life of the church at Thessalonica, guys, the Church of Jesus is a group of people who love each other so much that we share our lives together. We don't just show up and gather in a room together and sit by ourselves and barely talk to anyone and sing the songs and listen to the sermon and then turn around and run and get in our cars and leave. That's not what the church is. It's not what we're doing here. Each time we gather on Sundays, we're a group of people that the Holy Spirit will lead to love each other so much that we will share our very lives together with each other as we get deeper into this community that the apostle Paul was involved in with the early church. Many times we even see more details about it. One of the details that emerges is that it was an intergenerational authentic community in Acts chapter 21 verse five. They're gathered on the beach to pray entire before they're continuing on their missionary journey, and he says all of them, all of those who are at involved in the church, all of the men, including the wives and the children accompanying us out to the city, and there they all knelt, or we knelt to pray. So you you've got intergenerational, multi generations gathered together around Paul: husbands, wives, little kids, possibly teenagers, those who were parents of the husbands and wives-you've got all of them together in this intergenerational community. Another place that we see it is when he's writing to Timothy, young Timothy, and we even see where he says, "I'm reminded of your sincere faith, Timothy, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and now I'm persuaded now lives in you. Three generations right there: grandmother, mom, and young Timothy, a son, a grandson, part of the church together. And when we make this transition on October the 11th and enter into one service, that's going to be true of some of you. Some of you are already grandparents who have adult children who are part of this church as well, and maybe worship in the other service. And now we're going to be together, and their grandkids, your grandkids, are going to be sitting on the same row as you, and they're going to be watching you and learning about the way that you worship, the way that you sing songs when we sing to the Lord.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

They're going to be watching you and how you take notes when we are when when we're involved in the sermon, and how it's important to you to learn and to write it down and to see that this is the way that we engage with the truth of God's word. The way that you're opening up your Bible and paying attention to the things that are going on. Sometimes that may not necessarily be immediate family. We see in Second Timothy. This is Second Timothy one five. A little bit later in chapter five, Paul specifically addresses older men. He he gives application. He says this is for the older men, and he says this. Then he addresses the younger men and says something to them. And remember, he's writing to people in the church, and then he writes to older women, and then younger women, and addresses widows and kids and grandkids. Well, he wouldn't be addressing and mentioning all of those things if they weren't involved in the church in some way. Genuine, authentic, biblical church communities are intergenerational, and that is what Jesus. Is leading us into beginning on October the 11th. I saw a post on social media this week where another pastor captured some of what we were talking about, and I copied it and saved it, and wanted to just read part of it because I just thought the wording of it really applies to what he's even doing in and through us in this next chapter. He says, "As a pastor of an intergenerational church, I have learned that some of the things that make the church frustrating are also the things that make it beautiful. Babies cry in the middle of the sermon. An older saint needs the music turned down a little. Teenagers fill a row and whisper to one another. Young parents are doing everything they can just to be there. A little boy drops something during a prayer and crawls underneath the seats looking for it. A widow stays after church because Sunday may be the most conversation she has all week. An older man tells you about how the church used to be. Again, a toddler spills crackers everywhere, and somewhere in all of that, the body of Christ is learning to love beyond age, beyond preference, beyond personality, and beyond stage of life, maybe that is part of the point. The church is one of the few places where five generations can regularly share the same room, sing the same gospel, open the same Bible, pray for one another, and call each other family. Young families need people who have already survived hard marriages, rebellious kids, grief, financial pressure, and disappointment. Older Christians need the energy, questions children, and hope of younger families. Teenagers need adults who know their names. Children need to see people who grow old without growing critical about Jesus. We do not need better programs for every generation. We need the generations to belong to one another. We need generations that share burdens, that share meals, that share stories, that share prayers, and share life together. That is one of the miracles of an ordinary Sunday. This is what the Lord is leading us into as we transition into one service. May this be the kind of genuine, authentic community that we begin to see as we walk into this next chapter. We've looked at how Jesus led the church into authentic community in Acts chapter two. So far, we've seen the way that Paul and his team shared their lives with the church at Thessalonica, and now we've even seen how the Spirit leads churches into authentic generational community. But I want to show you one more detail before we finish this up today about the type of biblical genuine community, the details that we see when the Spirit works in and through the people in the early church. This is the Apostle Paul once again writing in Second Corinthians chapter one verse eight. Look at what he writes here. Look at the language again that he uses here. He says, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we listen to this despaired of life itself, could Paul be more genuine and real and authentic about the things that were going on in his life with the church? And remember, this is the great apostle Paul. I mean, this is the apostle Paul who is bold, and we see great faith and great courage over and over and over again. And notice, you would think that when Paul writes about troubles and things that he goes through, that he would say something like, "Hey, we don't want you to be uninformed. That when troubles hit, we maintained incredible optimism and faith, and we never doubted for one second that our God would deliver us-that's what you would expect the great apostle Paul to say here. But the Holy Spirit led him to be genuine and authentic, and not hide behind a mask and pretend that they were incredibly optimistic when they. Weren't he actually shared what he was really thinking, what was really going on? It was far beyond our ability to endure. We despaired of life itself. So again, we see that the type of authentic community that the Spirit produces is not a fake hide behind a mask. Don't tell everyone how you are truly feeling and what's really going on. Kind of community. It's a different kind of community. This is one way that the Apostle Paul addresses it here. But let me just show you two others quickly. Second Corinthians. Both of these, just a few chapters in between each other. For I wrote to you out of great distress, in anguish of heart, with many tears. Again, look at the language that he is writing there. I wrote to you with great distress, anguish of heart, with many tears. Men don't admit that they cry, or maybe we should, if the Holy Spirit is leading and directing our lives to be real. Several chapters later, he says, "In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was giving a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. Also, this language. Who writes this? Who would write? You know what? I have this flesh issue where there's a lot of pride in me, and so in order to keep me from becoming conceited, this is the way it developed in my life. We don't want to tell people about that. He's being real. He's being genuine. He's being authentic. The church ought to be the safest place in the world to show up and say, "No, this is what I struggle with. This is what's really going on in my life. And so he's not holding back here. He's not holding back because the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ sets us free from having to hide behind a mask and just pretend that everything is okay. Jesus brings us into the type of community where we're new creations in Christ. We each have new identities where we're defined by being God's child and someone who is holy and righteous, and we are no longer defined by the things that we've done, whatever it is that we're struggling with in the moment, or what we're feeling and thinking in our lives, and since they do not define us, we're safe to just talk about what's really going on in our lives, and then we can support each other, and we can encourage each other, maybe even challenge each other, as the Spirit works in us and leads us to do so. Guys, this is real life discipleship. This is not just I learned a lot. I took a lot of great notes and learned a lot of great content today. I'm smarter about the Bible now that I left today. No, no, no. This is real life discipleship. This is what's going on in my life, and I need you. Can you help me, please? And so this is what we see: genuine, authentic relationship. We don't just gather in here to sing a few songs, stir up some emotions, feel a little better, become more educated, and leave.

We gather to be in such close relationships that we can actually share what is going on in our lives, and so that too may that too be what happens as we enter into this next chapter. May He lead us into these genuine, authentic intergenerational community where we not only worship together but we do life together. We really do life together. All the generations sharing our lives with each other and inviting others into the community. Come join us. It's messy in here, but you're welcome. It's beautiful mess. We kind of think about these things that we see in Scripture and what we're praying about and hoping the Spirit will do in and through us in this next chapter in regards to this. Let me let me just get really practical about some some things that will come up as we enter into one service together. Again, we're just being very real. Many of us are creatures of habit, me included, and that means that we generally sit in the exact same spot every single Sunday. And guess what? At the same time that you're sitting in this seat, a few hours from now, there are other people who come in here and gather for worship at 11 o'clock. And guess where they sit? Some of them sit in the exact same spot that you sit in every single week, and you think it's your spot, and they they think. It's their spot. So how are we going to handle that as a church who values genuine, authentic community in two weeks when we walk in together and we're both going for the same seat at the same time, or we walk in and we notice that someone is already sitting in our seat, right? I know what we'll do. We'll just walk up to them and tell them, "I'm sorry, you're in my seat. I'm going to need you to get up and move because this is where I sit every single Sunday, right? That's what we'll do. No, that's that's not what we're going to do. That's not the way that the Holy Spirit will work in and through us if we're in genuine, authentic, and real and biblical community. We learned last week in Philippians too that the Spirit will lead us to value the interest of who. Anybody listening last week? Others? Oh, there were a few of you. Yes, others not value the interest of me. So we're going to value the interest of others. Now, listen. There are certainly some reasons, valid reasons, medical reasons, and other valid reasons that you sit where you sit, and and it there's really no other way that you can work around the issues and those kind of things, and so so we're not talking about that. That's a little bit of a different story. But my hope and my prayer, because I've I've had legitimate people. Friday, we had a choir and the band come together for a dinner and just get to know each other better, and there were two different people that told two different real stories where they were in churches, and that happened to them. They sat down somewhere, and someone literally tapped them on the shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, you're sitting in my seat. That's my pew. You'll need to go sit somewhere else. May no one. My hope and prayer is that no one will ever show up at another church and say, "You know, when I went to Colonial Hills, someone actually tapped me on the shoulder and told me that that was their pew and forced me to get up and leave somewhere else. I hope someone can never say that about our church. The second thing, and again, let's be real with multiple generations and different ways that we've been used to doing worship in different styles of worship. Things are going to be different when it comes to even expressions of worship. We're not just talking about different music. Now we're talking about the way that we worship. Many of us love to stand when we worship, some of us are led to raise our hands to God when we worship. Some of us are moved by the Spirit to kneel, others to bow, sometimes to shout "Amen" during a sermon or during a time that we're singing.

But some of us are also physically unable to stand for long periods of time, and so what are we getting at? Well, I mean, as a church community that values being genuine and authentic together about our age and stage of life, then guess what? If you need to sit down, guess what? It's okay to do. Sit down, even if no one tells you to, even if someone leading the service doesn't say, "Hey, let's sit down and continue to worship, you're free to sit down and continue to worship. Because if the Spirit's moving in you to worship sitting down, it counts the same to God as if you're standing up because it's a move of the Spirit in you, and so don't let Satan convince you that you know someone didn't lead you to sit down, and you're not able to. It's against the rules, or God's going to be mad at you somehow, right? I mean, just sit. No one's going to judge freedom to worship as you feel led to worship. The last thing, being an intergenerational church who values those generations being in the room together and speaking into each other's lives means that there are going to be kids in the room, and you were a kid once, and you know how kids can be sometimes like kids, right? So, so how are we going to handle that? How does a church who values authentic, genuine community respond when kids do kid-like things? I know we'll turn around and glare at the parents and stare at them and go, "If you would do your job, your kids would be perfect. I was the perfect parent. My kids never did anything. This is church. How dare you let them act like that? That's what we'll do. I bet the Spirit will lead us to do that. No, probably not. It'll probably lead us to respond with grace. I'll close with this. There was another social media post. I don't. I don't know if it just. Happened to be during the week that this was the focus, or because I was thinking about it, I just noticed them more, and they're always out there like that. But again, there was something that was being passed and shared around social media from another church. I think it was somewhere in Maine, and at the very top of it, it said important announcement: new children's ministry policy. And you're kind of thinking, okay. I mean, this is like all the background checks and the things that you got to do, checking your kids in and out, and and that kind of thing. Well, here's here's part of what it said. If you're worried your children are distracting the people around you, please still come to church, because children do not learn how to be a part of the church by staying home until they can sit quietly. They learn by being here. They learn the singing by hearing us sing. They learn the prayers by hearing us pray. They learn to worship by watching us worship. Then they learn that church is home because we make room for them here, the wiggles, the whispers, the dropped crayons, the crying babies, and little voices are not interruptions to the life of the church. They are evidence that the church is alive. So bring the babies, bring the toddlers, bring the big kids. Come late if you have to sit in the back, sit in the front, step out when you need to, and come right back in. Just come. Children are not simply the future of the church; they are part of the church right now. And if we don't make room for the next generation in the church, we risk becoming a generation that leaves behind empty churches. The children in our pews today are the church leaders, worshippers, and servants of tomorrow. And at our church, there is a place for them here.