Community

I want to talk today about a subject that maybe you'll file under just something to think about. It's something that's been on my mind for several weeks and several months. As I go around and I talk to people and I listen to people, some that are newer in the church, some that have been in the church a long time, a common theme in both churches keeps coming up with people. I want to talk about that a little bit today. Let me ask you a question that maybe we can think about here for a moment.

What is it that God wants from us? What does he want us to do? We know that God wants us to be in His kingdom. That's why He's called us. He's opened our minds to the truth and He wants us to come to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. We pray, and the sample prayer that Jesus Christ gave us was we would pray for His kingdom to come. That His kingdom and will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When we stop and think with the pictures that we have of what goes on in heaven, we see a beautiful setting where everyone works together and everyone is in concert with one another. God wants that same atmosphere that's in heaven, where there's joy and where there's peace and where there's harmony, to be part of His body here on earth today.

We know that He wants us to know the truth. We know that He commissions the church to preach the truth, to preach the gospel around the world. His church does that. There's one church, not just the United Church of God, but the Church of God that has the truth of the Bible that goes out that talks about what Jesus Christ, to teach the world what Jesus Christ spoke of, to speak of the coming kingdom of God, to speak of the plan of God for mankind, to speak of the resurrections.

The things that the world churches just have no idea about. God's Church does that. We've all learned that. We continue to do that, and we see God's Church doing that. Is that all He wanted us to do, though? Is that all He wanted us to do is just to know the truth and to preach the truth and to sound the message of the world and take care of disciples, you know, as we do? I think there's more that God is looking for in the church, and I think over the years, you know, maybe we've gotten away from it.

Those of you who have been in the church for a number of years may think back to a time when things were just a little different. Things were a little different than they are today, you know, and I think about it. And again, as I listen to people, I think, yeah, that's not the way it used to be. It used to be different. The church is preaching the same gospel. We're still saying the same things. We still have to yield to God. We still have to be led by His Holy Spirit.

We need to do all those things. But you know Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, in His parting words, as He was preparing to be crucified, He said this. He didn't in John 13, 35. You know, it was expected that the church would preach the gospel, that we would teach all things that He commanded, that He would open our minds. We would be led by His Holy Spirit.

That as I was talking to the disciples after that last Passover, in verse 34, He says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. That, of course, is the word agape, that you agape one another. As I have agape you, you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples. Not just that you keep the Sabbath day, not just that you know the plan of salvation, not just that you keep the Holy Days, and you do the things in the Bible, and you do those things individually.

By this, all will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. Isn't that interesting? That of all the things He could have said, that's the thing He said that will mark His Church. And when people see His Church, His body, they will see the love of the people. And they will know that they have reached a place, they have reached a place that God is working.

You know, when Christ was on earth, He was always with other people. You know, you read through, for three and a half years He was just walking with those disciples.

Day in and day out, they had the opportunity to hear Him, talk to Him, ask questions, hear His explanations. There were things that they said that were out of line, and He corrected them. They didn't run away, they didn't get mad, they listened to what He said, they grew. And then as He left and talked about the Holy Spirit, as they came to understand that, they continued in that way. The word that's been on my mind so much over the last few months is the word community. And I've mentioned it to some of you here and some of you in Orlando, that we may be missing that sense of community that God wants His people to have. We preach the truth, and if I ever say something that isn't in the Bible or that you don't understand, I hope you always feel free to come back and ask a question about it. That's what we're here for, to preach the truth of the gospel that everyone would understand. There's not a question that will make me mad or that will make me upset. Well, we'll make me upset if people keep it to themselves and don't come back and whatever because they just have this idea in their head. Ask! That's what we're all here for. As you read through some of the things that the disciples did with Jesus Christ, they were like, whoa, he would tell them, that's not the right attitude. They didn't get mad, they learned. That's what we're all here to do, to learn God's way. But we need each other, and we need to be part of a community. Jesus Christ was part of a community. When you read in Revelation about what goes on in heaven, you hear all the people are in concert. There's a community up there. There's this unity. There's this harmony. They're all on the same page. They all know each other. When the angels praise God, the 24 elders praise God. Everyone does the same thing, led by God's Holy Spirit. His church should reflect that as we grow in time and as we learn these things. Let's go back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 2. Again, another very familiar verse to all of us. 1 Peter 2. And verse 9, when God called us out of the world.

You know, He was creating a people, a people who weren't a people before. Verse 9 of 1 Peter 2, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who calls you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Who were once not a people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. A people, a group of people, bond together. God calls us His children. God calls us His family. We call each other brothers and sisters. We talk about brethren. There's a family atmosphere that God wanted to create and that Jesus Christ said will mark His church. When people see that, they will know that the truth is preached there because today we don't have anything hidden. Everything is out there on the internet. Anyone, anywhere in the world can hear what we're preaching. And there are people who listen, and then they develop the strength to come to church. And they are excited to come because this is the truth. This is what they've been open their minds to. What do they get when they get here? Are they seeing what Jesus Christ said He wanted His church to do?

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

You know what? That puts the onus on me and that puts the onus on all of us.

And I'm speaking as much to myself today as I am to anyone else more to myself than anyone else.

Because as I look and examine, I think, you know what? There's things that are different than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. And things that need to be corrected and things that need to be rectified. And we need to be more of a family. We need to be together on that. God will make it available. He puts His Spirit in us. We all have the same Spirit that leads and guides us.

But we have to make effort into it. We have to do it. And God is going to hold us accountable to it. We talked about accountability not too long ago. He holds us accountable. What He wants His church to be, He makes it crystal clear. I could read you, and it's just coincidental that someone this week, because I was putting the sermon together over the last few weeks, sent me something from a Facebook page, the United Church of God Facebook page. I'll get to that in a little bit. I'm not going to read much of it. But I went online because I thought, I want to hear what people say.

You know, hear people come to our church because they know the truths. Or their eyes have been opened to the truth and looking to come to someplace that preaches the same thing that they've come to see. People in the world, their churches aren't teaching what the Bible teaches, but they're looking to belong. And I came across this story from a young man who had moved to an area, and he wanted to go to church. Not a Sabbath-keeping church, but a church. And the reason he picked the church, he said, is because he heard it was friendly, and he wanted a place that he felt like he could belong to. He went to that church, and I'm going to write, you know, he wrote in his blog this. I thought, could happen right here in Armist. He was talking about after church was over. He goes, everyone started moving and talking and shaking hands and laughing, but they didn't come in my direction. I sat there like a lump as people walked past me to the coffee kiosk in the back. One older lady smiled briefly at me and then hurried on. I felt crushed. Sometimes I wonder if the sense of community in many churches has fallen into the same trap that so many other things have. We talk more about it than we actually practice it. Sermons, Bible studies, books, podcasts, tweets, Facebook rants. They've addressed community at some point. Home groups sit around and talk to each other about how great their community is when they may have someone sitting on the sofa right next to them who feels wildly disconnected from everyone else. We love the idea of community. Everyone engaged and involved and connected, but how many people show up like I did at the back of that church just longing for someone to reach out to them, shake their hand, and have more than a two-second conversation? Isn't that sad? And you know what? Some of us may have had exactly the same experience. I know exactly what that young man is talking about. I've been in situations, even in church, but in other places where you just kind of feel all alone, and you feel so conspicuous, and you just feel, so I just want to get out of here. It's not at all a belonging feeling at all. And sometimes I look around after services, you know, and I see people standing by themselves, and I think, can someone just go up and talk to them? Can someone just go up so they're not standing there just by themselves feeling so conspicuous, so alone, just like this young man did? We all have the responsibility of that. God has called us all, and He says, not just the group that you know, not just the people that you're comfortable with. Everyone I bring into your family is family. We need to engage each other. We need to know each other better. We need to be the love that God says should define His church. And when people walk into it, they see that. Let me read just a brief thing from this Facebook page, and this is from someone who, you know, according to his, I have no idea who the person is, never met him, it's not from this area or whatever, but he goes to four different churches of God. And he makes this comment. He goes, you know, and he's talking specifically about the bigger churches, not the little groups. He goes, the couples, the couples keep to themselves after services, and there is no socializing in those groups outside of a 20-minute coffee and snacks after services.

You know, sometimes that's exactly what happens here, right? 15, 20 minutes, everyone's, everyone's gone. We say hi, we go home, we think, oh, you know, we've done our job, we've spent 15 or 20 minutes, you know, patting each other on the back. And he says, that is what, in my opinion, is alienating brethren from one another. It's an interesting observation, and there were other comments that were in this thing that someone sent me. And what he's feeling is not connected.

He's not feeling part of the body. Jesus Christ said what he wanted us to be, and we just need to, and I need to, and we need to look at ourselves and say, you know, are we doing what he wants? We know the truth, we preach the truth in our lives, when we find the weaknesses that God opens our minds to, we're overcoming those. Are we doing the rest? Are we doing the rest that people, you know, could look at and say when they come and visit us or when a new person comes in and says, they're just not, it's just not, I just didn't feel, I just didn't feel it there.

You know, a question we can ask is, could our love, could our love become cold? You know, back in Matthew, Matthew 12, in the Olivet prophecy, Jesus Christ makes a statement. I'm sorry, not Matthew 12, Matthew 24, verse 12. He says, because lawlessness, because lawlessness will abound, and I think as we look around our society today, we see lawlessness becoming more and more the norm of society, even, even commonplace morality and common sense just goes out the window, there, it's just become a society. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. And we look at that verse and, you know, we say, well, the love of the truth will grow cold. And it certainly can happen. I think the verse means that, you know, in one sense. If we become enamored with what's going on around us and whatever, we can kind of let the truth wane and, you know, we're getting caught up in this, in this activity and this what we're doing and everything else that's going on in life. And we can kind of let the truth, kind of the truth just become there. But with the love, the word that's translated love there is agape. And it actually means that brotherly love, that love we should have for one another, that engagement, the love of many, the agape of many will grow cold. Could Christ be talking about something that goes on in the church that there's just not the binding, there's just not the family atmosphere, there's just not the unity, there's just not the, the what he was talking about in John 1335 anymore, because we get so involved in the things of the world. We've got so much, you know, we've got social media that can keep us busy day and night, right? We've got things that come up, we've got busy lives, we've got things that we need to take care of, and we don't have time. We don't have time for each other, you know? Sometimes, you know, like the people, they don't even have time on the Sabbath to come, you know, and socialize and be with one another as God says.

Could he be talking about that? That in the end time, one of the marks of the church is people are just no longer the family that they should be. You know, when I was growing up, and many of you, you know, been around as long as, you know, I remember every Sabbath, every Sabbath, it seemed like we were with someone after services, we were going to someone's house, having someone over to the house, whatever it was. We didn't leave, you know, we were there early, we stayed late, and it was just that everyone knew each other. Every child, every teenager knew the other teens in church. May not be all your favorite people, but everyone knew each other, and there were people doing the same thing. It was a family, and if someone wasn't there that Sabbath, you knew, oh wow, they're sick or they're out of town. It was a rare occasion that someone wasn't there.

I don't sense. I don't sense, and I hold myself accountable for that. I don't sense this the same way today. Let's go back to Acts 2. You know, God gives us a picture of what he wanted his church to be back in Acts 2. As the Holy Spirit came upon the people that were gathered that day of Pentecost, and they went out and preached the gospel with strength and with boldness, and people were convicted. You remember 3,000 souls were added to the church in that one day. But back in Acts 2, we get a picture of what the church was like as they began, as the New Testament church began, the church that Jesus Christ began. Let's pick up in Acts 2.

Those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day 3,000 souls were added to them.

And then in verse 42, he gives us five points of what that church was like, a church that God very much appreciated, and he put his blessing on. Verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bed and in prayers.

So five things in that verse. They continued steadfastly. They were learning the Apostle's doctrine. We've talked about what doctrine is. They had fellowship. They were having meals together, and they were praying for one another. Five elements, five elements that are there.

Let me tell you what those two words that are translated, continued steadfastly, comes from the Hebrew, or I'm sorry, the Greek word, proscotario. What it means is that it is that continued steadfastly, they were constantly diligent. They attended assiduously to all the exercises. Constantly diligent, attended assiduously to all the exercises. They were always on.

They knew that their job, part of their calling, was to continue steadfastly, doing the things that they were called to do, and that included learning the doctrine, going to the Bible, making sure that they understood what the Bible said, and that they were taught, just as Jesus Christ's Church would do today, and fellowship. A common word in the world today, here we meet in a fellowship hall here at the church that we meet in here. Let me give you the definition of fellowship from Webster's dictionary. The first one is companionship company associate. Here's the second one. Here's the second one. It's a community of interest, activity, or experience that is a unified body of people of equal rank, sharing common interests, goals, and characteristics.

Well, that defines us, doesn't it? We should be a unified people. We share common interests. What more common interests can we have than the calling of God, of working toward the kingdom, of understanding, preparing, and working with each other? Because unlike your regular or your family members that aren't part of the church, they don't have the same interests that you do. They many times don't even want to hear about what you believe, but that is us. God's Spirit is in us. There is nothing that should bind us together more than the fact that we have God's Spirit, and that is a common bond that we all have. God's Spirit is a binding and a unifying spirit.

We have that in common with each other, whether we've been here one day or whether we've been here 50, 60 years. We have common goals. Our goal should be the kingdom of God. The goal is a God set for us. Now we have common characteristics. We know what the traits of the Christian is that we're all working toward. Some of us are farther along. Others are new. But you know what? It's a body. It's a body that's all focused on the same things. Learning the truth, but also remembering part of our responsibility is we are family in the way God defines family. And when we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for us, that needs to be happening now. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And what we do in our lives. So we have five things here. We've got fellowship. They got together for meals. Oftentimes, you know, socializing and fellowshiping after Sabbath services is great, but it isn't all that we should do. We can't get to know each other. In the few little time we have after Sabbath services, there needs to be the time that we spend with one another. And some of you are very good at it. You know, have people over to your houses and whatever. And that's a good thing. We should all be looking for those opportunities to grow in unity and togetherness. Not shying away from them, but looking for those opportunities. And in prayers. And those would include the prayers that we pray for each other as we, you know, have situations in our lives, whether they be health or other things, that we can pray for as part of showing a love to one another. And you know when you pray for someone, you've heard it many times. I remember hearing it many times as I grew up. When you pray for someone, you feel closer to that person. And so those are a very important part of our lives. Let's drop down to verse 44 here. You know, that's what that church is. And verse 44 says, now all who believed, all those people were together. They were together. You know, they were scattered at one time. You know, back then they lived much closer together than we do. No, all who believed were together and they had all things in common.

Let's start down to verse 46. So continuing daily, not just once a week, so continuing daily with one accord in the temple, you know, the building that God was, they were going to a physical building. God is building a temple here among us. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. They were just glad to be together with one another. Didn't have to be some fancy feast they put on. Didn't have to worry about all those things. They just, the simple thing, just let's get together. Let's get together and talk. And you know, when you spend some time with your brother and you find the joy, come back. You find the inspiration. You know, sometimes I'll look at my schedule and think, no, I don't have time. I think, no, every time I go out and visit with one of you, I come back, unless it's a really serious situation, just to talk, I come back inspired. And I feel good. I feel good about it. We all would do that. If we could all do that and make the time. Look what they did. They praised God and they had favor with all the people.

They had favor with all the people. All the people. Even the people who were looking on the outside, who weren't called. Look at that group of people. Look how nice they are. John 1335. Hey, that group of people is different. They believe maybe something, but look at them. Look how together they are. Look how they enjoy each other's company. It wasn't me that they never had a disagreement, never that they had a crossword said between them, but they were learning God's way.

They were doing things His way. They were focused and realized we all have those wrinkles and spots that we have to have washed away from us. Sometimes we can't do that on our own. We need other people to say, you know, that's a wrinkle. That's a wrinkle that could be straightened out. We can all help each other in that way. Now, you see that in that environment, in that environment, with those five things as part of it, look what God did.

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

In that environment, in that environment, He would add to the church. They were preaching the same thing we preach, teaching the same things we teach.

They were a little different than we were that we are in some other ways. And in that environment, God would add to the church. You know, sometimes we go to the home office and we talk about it. What are we doing? What are we doing that God isn't adding to the church? Well, maybe part of it is what you and I are doing or not doing. God says, not in that environment. I call these people. I want them to come and I want them to be part of it, but we have our responsibility as well. Let's look at this word fellowship for a minute. It comes from the Greek word koinonia. Here's what Vincent's word studies of the Bible says about koinonia. It says koinonia when we read it. You might see it as communion in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 11, you might see it as fellowship. You'll even see it in other places where it just talks about communicating. There are various forms of the word koinonia. It says it's a relation between individuals and involves a common interest and a mutual active participation in that interest and in each other. So when you read that word fellowship, today it might just be a word associated with churches. A relation between individuals which involves a common interest and a mutual active participation in that interest and in each other. It can also signify cooperation in the widest sense. Participation in sympathy, suffering, and labor.

Ah, probably reminds us of Galatians 6.2, right? Bear with one another. Bear one another's burdens.

Families bear one another's burdens. If we have children and they are going through a hardship, we bear their burdens. Children may bear their parents' burdens. God says in the church, bear one another's burdens. Bear one another's burdens. I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, but I'll preface the next part of the sermon with this one. How could you learn to bear one another's burdens if you're not in a body and if you're not, if you don't know the people?

You can't know it, right? You can't do it. We can't bear one another's burdens if we don't even know what one another's burdens are. You can't bear one another's burdens if we don't talk to each other or if we don't think about it, if we only see each other on Sabbath and wonder what's going on.

You know, there's people who have devastating things going on in their lives, health circumstances that are tough. You know, in our land that we went through a very tough experience here in the in the last few days. I have to wonder sometimes, does anyone call people when we send these prayer requests out? Does anyone follow up with them? Do we have people that are in the hospital? Do people visit? Do they call? You know, sometimes I'll ask it. Anyone find by to visit you? Whatever. And you know, I mean, in Matthew 25, Christ says how He's going to separate the sheep from the ghosts, right? He doesn't say because you kept the Sabbath and you didn't. He says because you visited me in the hospital. You visited me when I was sick. You clothed me when I was naked. You fed me when I was hungry. You gave me water when I was thirsty. You visited me in present. You became a people who loved one another and who looked out for one another while you were keeping the Sabbath, doing the holidays, keeping the Ten Commandments, allowing God to develop those things in your personal life. But you became a people that loved and reflected the love of God and the love and the unity that is in heaven that He wants on earth. And you and I were called to develop that so that in the kingdom we can demonstrate that. And today, today that we can be developing that and people would see it. That's Koinonia. That's Koinonia. If we're not developing Koinonia when you read through the Bible, we're simply not doing God's will. We're doing part of it, but we're not doing all of it. And as a church, and again, I'm speaking to myself, are we doing what God wants? Are we doing all of what He wants? Are we who He wants us to be? I think we all have a responsibility in that. And I know the world is full of distractions. We've got so many distractions in our life right now that I marvel at them. And you know what some of those distractions are?

And I pray, get rid of the distractions. Let's get these things over with, and let's get back to what you put us here for. And we are working on it, and it will be. And we've learned a lot over the last several months. But you know, we all have distractions, and we can all get consumed with those things. And we can let them overtake us if we want, if we let them. We can't let them.

We can't let them. We cannot let those roadblocks be into what God has called us to. We can't let Satan, in all the goodness of our hearts, in all the goodwill that we have, in the things that we're doing, we can't let him separate us from one another. God called us to be together, not to separate us, not to do those things, to bear with one another. You know, we, you know, back in Psalm 133. Let's just turn back to Psalm 133.

We were missing not reading this in the context. And again, I'm not preaching, and I'm not chiding. I am simply food for thought today. And like I said, I'm speaking as much to myself as anyone here. Psalm 133 verse 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Those are God's words that he inspired David to write. This is what pleases me. Do all those things. Keep the commandments. Do all the things. But what pleases me is I see you doing those things because when you do those things, when the Holy Spirit is leading, you'll dwell together in unity. And then he goes on and he gives all these analogies. You know, it's like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garments. It's like the dew of herman descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there, the eternal command of the blessing, life forevermore. He blessed that New Testament church. He says, this is what makes me happy. This is what I long for you. We need to long for it as well. And it's not going to happen. Just because he makes his Holy Spirit available is only going to happen if we make the effort and we make the time and we make the commitment. And that's what we need to do.

God can't do it for us. I don't like to say God can't do anything. God can do anything he wants.

But we have to make the commitment and we have to make the time. And we have to be committed to doing his will. No matter how inconvenient it can be, no matter how we may not want to do it, and whatever. If he's called us and we want to do his will, we need to do what he wants us to. We can look at the Bible. We reread the Bible. You could come up with a list of 25, 30, 50 things that God wants us as Christians to develop in their lives. The back page of your announcement bulletin, I listed some of those things. The first one on that list is bearing one another's burdens.

And I want us to think a little bit about how would we do some of the things that the Bible tells us to do if we weren't part of a body. You know, it's one thing to do it with our individual families.

It's another thing to do it with people who aren't our individual families, our physical families.

God, you know, he knows we're going to take care of our families and our children. What will we do with each other? The people that he has made, the people. When we talked about bearing with one another, can we learn to forgive?

You know, it can be easy to forgive our children. It can be easy to forgive our family members, physical family members. How do we learn to forgive one another if we're not part of a body?

And when we say the crosswords that we might say to one another or something that someone takes offense of, and we practice Matthew 18, 15. One of the ones farther down the list is, how do you resolve conflicts? How do you learn how to resolve conflicts if it's not in the church? It's not going to work in the world. That isn't the way things do. People get mad. They don't want to hear it. They cut you off and whatever. But how do we learn to forgive if it's not in the church?

Now, we're going to say things. We're all human. We're going to do things that might offend. But you know what? We have to learn to forgive. Jesus Christ said, God will forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And if we're not willing to forgive others, why would He forgive us? We learn that in the body. And it can be difficult sometimes, but we learn we are all human. We all make mistakes. God has forgiven us much more than we'll have to forgive other people for what they do. And it has to mark us. It has to mark us. How can we learn to forgive if it's not in the body of Christ? In the family that He has put us in?

How can we learn to serve? How can we learn to serve? You know, I can serve my kids. I can serve my relatives all day long. It's a natural thing to do. We love doing it. That's good. Serving others.

How easy is that? To take your time and give the same attention to the people in the church as you would your children or others in your family. How do we learn to serve others? Are we paying attention to that? Are we looking out for the needs of others as the Bible? So let's turn to Hebrews. Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 and verse 2. Now, verse 1, the author of Hebrews here, who gives us some pretty good attributes throughout Hebrews and what God is looking at. He says, Brotherly love, continue. And don't forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Are we committed to serving? Do we have that same attitude that Christ would have? Or would we be too busy with something going on at home or something that that is there? Are we kind of like even Lot, right? In Sodom and Gomorrah, I read about Lot and how those angels came in to the city square and he said, just come spend the night at my house.

Are we like that? Am I like that? You know, good for Lot that he was like that. Good for Lot. And we should be looking at that as well. Let's look at another one. How do we learn to encourage each other? How do we learn to encourage each other if it's not in the body, if we don't know each other? How do we know if someone's having a hard time? Because we all have hard times. We all have trials that come our way. We all have circumstances that will hold us down. And sometimes those things, if we don't let them happen as we discussed, you know, they can, Satan can take us right out of the church because we're so down and we're so downcast. How do we learn to encourage each other if it's not in the church? Just a couple chapters back in Hebrews 10. God says, you know, that very thing, Hebrews 10, 24, a verse we talk about often, let us consider one another. Let's consider one another in order to stir up love and good works among family members, church family members, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. No, he's talking about the Sabbath day there. He's talking about other things as well. He doesn't say just not forsaking the sabbath of yourself together on the Sabbath day. But you know, we, the church, you know, we make opportunities for people to assemble at times other than Sabbath services. What do we do?

We just kind of like, eh, not necessary. You know, the profitable servant does more than what is required. Sabbath services are required. Bible studies aren't required. Socials aren't required. Potlucks aren't required. The profitable servant does more, does more. The profitable servant does more than what's required of him. And if our heart is in the church and the body that God has had, we'll take those opportunities to be together because we'll crave it. We'll want it.

We get energized by it. Not forsaking, he says, the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, encouraging one another, giving the inspiration that we need to go on in a tough life where things are going to get tougher and tougher, and we face challenges that can be overwhelming if we had to face them ourselves.

But exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching, so much the more.

Christ said, when lawlessness abounds, the love of many will grow cold.

The author here is really God, inspired by this. But exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. We need it more now than we did 50 years ago. We need it now more than we did 10 years ago as we see the day approaching. How can we ever learn it if we're just by ourselves and if we just don't become the family that God wants us to become?

You know, he commands on the Sabbath day that we're together for eight days for the Feast of Tabernacles, and last great day he commands we get out of our homes, wants us together for eight days.

He creates those requirements for us. Be together through the year, but at a minimum, and for that week in a day, you come before me and you be with one another the entire time.

At the Feast of Tabernacles, you know, we can practice some of these things that we learn in the Bible. Bear one another's burdens. We have a common interest that if everyone there, we may not know their name, may never see them again. We see someone that is standing alone. We might actually go up and talk to them and engage them and make them feel part of the body, that they have a good Feast of Tabernacles and they have a good time there and feel part. They feel that they belong.

We can't do that by ourselves. We can't do that if we're just kind of doing something you know that's different than what Christ said He wants us to do. Can we learn empathy?

Yeah, we can learn empathy when our children and our relatives go through things.

It's different to learn empathy when you hear about what someone is going through and you feel it for them. It's personal when our children have problems. It's personal when our relatives have problems and that's great, but what about the empathy that we should have for each other when we hear of a problem, a situation, not just a health problem. There are things that health problems that go on in people's lives that we should be paying attention to and that we should be showing empathy from, bearing one another's sorrows, bearing one another's pains, also rejoicing when others have occasions to rejoice. Can't learn that. Can't learn that without the church. Can't learn that without being part of the body. God put us in a body to learn these things so we become the fullness of who He wants us to be. Can we understand the concept of iron sharpening iron? Let's go back to Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27. You know, we all have a common interest. It's the Bible, and some of the most interesting and inspiring conversations you can have is when you talk about the Bible or something you've read in it, you share that with someone else, and sometimes the understanding may be off a little bit, and the other person has to say, that's not maybe what the Bible says, or maybe look at it in this way. Proverbs 27. As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Sometimes it's good to be put on the spot. Sometimes it's good to think about the Bible and what are we applying on it. You know, we do Bible studies, and I'm trying to make them more interactive so that we can sharpen each other, so that you can sharpen me and ask a question and think, I don't know that I know the answer to that. I need to go back and I need to research that. We all need that as iron sharpens iron. We can't do that if we're just by ourselves. If we just talk to ourselves, you learn that in church. You learn that in church as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Here's a way of looking at it. This is what we need to do, and then we go back to the Bible and see exactly what God says to do. I mentioned learning to resolve conflicts. You're not going to find Matthew 18 being applied in the world today.

It should be being applied in the church. And as we have conflicts among us, which are inevitable, they had them when Jesus Christ was on earth with the disciples there. They had things, but you know, they didn't get mad at each other. They listened. They learned. They applied the Bible, and that's what God's people do. None of us are perfect. We all have things that we have to learn.

We can't learn to resolve conflicts unless we're in the body. Of course, we're not going to have any conflicts if we don't know each other. If we don't talk to each other, if all we say is, hello, how you doing, how'd your week go? Well, we have to learn that. I mean, we're going to be teaching that in the millennium. How can we learn it? Or how can we teach it if we never learned it?

Now, can we learn? Can we learn what it means to be strong for someone else?

That we can get strength from the group. Of course, our strength comes from Jesus Christ. We know that and His Holy Spirit. But sometimes the strength comes from each other as well. We're going through a difficult situation and knowing someone is there. Knowing they're praying for you or that they're just there behind you to say, keep the faith, keep looking forward, keep looking to God. That strength can be just what we need. We're not going to get it from people outside the church often. They're going to say, forget that, forget what you're doing, you know, do it this way. No! Sometimes we need that focus that comes from there. You know, let's do turn to Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 4. Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 12.

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand them.

Two can withstand them. We could be faced with something and we don't even know what to do. But boy, when we have a brother that we can talk to and say, I'm faced with this, and we feel the strength that comes from them. But one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ah, strength in the unity of the body. Strength in the unity of the body that God has put and made us part of.

Can we learn to be impartial?

Can we learn to be people that are not respecters of persons?

Do we learn that in the world? You know, one of the things that is interesting is we watch newscast and whatever of how focused the world is on impartiality, you know, and that's fine. We feel God has created us all equal. Christ didn't look down on anyone. There was no partiality in him. Whether you were rich, he treated you the same way. Whether you were the poorest person, he treated you the same way. And so in the body, we have people of all different backgrounds and ethnicities and economies and things. We learn to treat each other equally regardless. We are all children of God, all that he has called. And we watch out for one another regardless of those things. How many times in the Bible does God say, don't be a respecter of persons? Christ wasn't a respecter of persons. He respected everyone. And we learn that in the body. Here's one. How can we learn to admonish one another? Back in Colossians 3. Colossians 3 and verse 16.

You know, in my book, heading on chapter 3, in my Bible, it says, put on the new man, semi-family relationships. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another.

Look at what that, you know, teaching one another, teaching one another, richly in all wisdom, and admonishing one another. You know what admonishing is?

Admonishing is to caution, warn, or reprove gently.

He didn't say, you know, this might happen once in a rare case that you would teach, and that you would admonish one another in Psalms. Here's what the Bible says, you know, I hear you saying something. I hear, I see an attitude in what you're telling me.

Gently, not with a hammer, not, I know more than you, and whatever, and I'm going to just kind of lambash you for something that you said, admonishing each other gently in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Where can we ever learn to admonish or be admonished? Except in the church.

You know, it's one thing to give admonishment, right? Not, not easy. I don't like when I have to, you know, tell someone, I, you know, this may be something you want to look at, and it's just not easy to receive it either, is it? But we learn none of us are perfect, and if we never receive admonishment, you know, then maybe, maybe we need to ask God, am I really doing what you want? Because none of us are perfect, and from time to time, you know, we will be admonished.

If we're the ty-poo, when we receive a little admonishment, we want to run.

That's not a, that's not a trait of God. That's a trait of Satan. I'll run. I don't like what you had to say, so I run.

Now we have to receive admonishment. The Apostles received admonishment. The Corinthian Church, we went through the Bible study on Corinthian, they received a lot of admonishment from Paul.

To their credit, they listened to everything he said. They listened to what he said, and they did it. It came from the Bible. It came from God, and we need to be the same way in looking what we, in what we do, and how we receive it, and how we might give it gently, gently, and then applying Matthew 18, if we need to go further than that. Now, how can we learn, how can we learn to truly be at peace with one another? You know, sometimes the world will say, peace is just, I don't know, peace is just we don't have conflict. You know, sometimes in work settings, it can be, you know, as long, we're at peace as long as you agree with everything I say.

That's not real peace. We're at peace with one another when we're all focused on the same goals and the same truth and the same spirit that God has put in us. Let's look at Hebrews 14.

We have to learn that peace that surpasses all understanding in our personal lives, and that comes, you know, in a body when we're doing things that God, the way God would have us do.

Hebrews, where am I? Hebrews 14.

There's no Hebrews 14. So, let me, oh, it's Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 verse 14. Okay.

Hebrews 12 verse 14. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Well, pursue peace with all people, without which no one will see the Lord.

Only one place we can learn that doesn't happen overnight, doesn't happen the first time we want to say it. It happens with practice. It happens as we put effort into it. It happens as we learn one another, are part of the family, and we do the things that God says.

How would we learn spiritual gifts that we have if we weren't part of a body? You know, Paul talks about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, and God gives us those gifts. You know what they are. You've read those chapters before. How would we ever know what those gifts are if we weren't part of a body? If I was just sitting home by myself, and God said, all I want is you to do those things. How would we ever learn if we had the gift of whatever it is, and you name it?

We learn it as more body, and we know that Christ said that everything the church needs, everything the body has, I put there so that you become a unit that can operate everything you need. I've given someone those gifts so that you work together, you perfectly fit together, and the church functions very well. And in my years as pastor, I've seen that.

Someone leaves, there's someone else to fill in. God's given that gift.

We see a hole, and all of a sudden someone pops up that we didn't know or think of, and all of a sudden they're filling that hole. God provides. We would never know that. We would never know that if we weren't together. If we weren't watching one another, learning one another, seeing what God is working with. How can we learn to comfort one another? You know, in 1 Corinthians, God says, He comforts us that we may learn to comfort one another. If we don't even know what people are going through, how would we comfort them? How would we learn what to say? It has to happen in the body, a body that loves one another and that is practicing those things that God called us to become. Now finally, I could go on and on. How do we ever develop agape if we're not part of the body?

Agape with our personal families, our individual families, that's easy, right? We all love our children. We all love our relatives. God says, agape with one another. Agape with one another, with me and you, who didn't know each other before we were in the church, before God put us in there. And that takes time. That takes effort. That takes getting to know each other. That takes the time to make the things happen. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13. Now, we read 1 Corinthians 13. It's the agape chapter, the love chapter, we would say it. And we apply it to ourselves because, you know, God wants us to develop the first list of truths of the Holy Spirit. You know, agape, love. But let's apply it to the body because as Paul is writing here in 1 Corinthians 13, he's not writing to just one person in that church in Corinth. He's writing to the entire body.

And he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I don't have agape, which you can't develop without the body of God, and of angels, if I don't have agape, I become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. I'm missing something really, really important.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, if I don't have agape, I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be gurned, if I don't have agape, it profits me nothing. How important is it that we develop agape in the venue, in the atmosphere, in the body that Christ has made us part of?

Vitally important. Just as important as the doctrines and the things that we keep and being obedient and submissive and yielded to God and yielding ourselves to Him, including this vitally important part. Go to John 17.

Christ's really final words. He gives a prayer to God before He's arrested, and in this chapter, four times, He says, My will is, God, that they, those who you have sanctified and set apart and made of people by truth, that they, who you keep in My in your name, that they will become one as we are one. That's My will for them, that they become one as we are. Let's look at verse 22.

And the glory which you gave Me, Christ says, I've given them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, you in Me, that they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me and have loved them as you have loved Me.

How would the world ever know what the love of God is if it isn't in His Church? If they don't see us loving the way that Acts 2 Church does, how does the world ever see that?

It's upon us. It's upon Me. It's upon all of us to let God work in us what He wants to work in us.

All of us. We all have a part in this. We're all part of the body. We all have that responsibility. Let me just spend a couple minutes here on what are some of the obstacles to this community, to the coinonia that we're talking about. Some of the obstacles we've talked about. Let me just, again, just food for thought as you think about this. One of the things that can hold the development of body together or a part or hinder it is clicks. CLI-Q-U-E-S. Clicks.

Not wrong to have friends that you enjoy being around, but clicks can be a detriment to unity.

I've heard people say, and I don't mean here. It's been over the years, I just can't break into that click. I just can't break into that click. Not in this church and other churches. It's like, even when we have hot lux, it's the same people that sit together all the time. You can't get to know them. Clicks can be an obstacle. Great to have friends. Jesus Christ, you know, he said, John, that's the Apostle he loved, but he didn't ignore any of the disciples.

He gave them all, and he loved them all. Now, we need to make sure that we are including new people and reaching out beyond the friends that we've had 20, 30, 40 years.

The other thing we do is forget about ourselves. You know, not every one of us has been blessed with the outgoing personality that we can just go up and instantaneously make a friend and engage people. It's a blessing, and we have those among us who can do that.

And they're very good at it. Some of us don't have that, and we have to work at it. But you know what? Forget about yourself. God will give you. Go up and talk. Go up and meet people.

Take another person with you. Just talk. Get to know one another. Forget about self. When we focus on ourselves and what we are doing and what we don't have, then we get stymied. But, you know, as you do that more and as you just go up and talk to people, you'll find it becomes more natural.

It becomes more natural for you. How to make the time and effort? We all could say, I'm too busy. I'm too busy. I've got this to do, this to do, this to do. This has to be a priority for us. We have to participate in the church activities. We have to make ourselves stick around a while on the opportunities that we have and take them seriously. If we're serious about God's calling, we'll be serious about the time and getting to know one another and realize we have a responsibility to each other and accountability to each other, as well as to our families and our jobs and things that might keep us apart or distant.

Well, you know, giving you some food for thought. It's not a preaching sermon. I'm not trying to accuse anyone. No one should take it personally. Just want us to think about those things.

Think about those things. And I pray. I pray that we can all walk with Jesus Christ. I pray that we can walk together with each other as we walk with Him.