Community Message - Mead, Degerness, Rogers
/Growing in Our Walk with Jesus
Community
May 19, 2019
Mead, Degerness, Rogers
I. Hospitality
A. Christian hospitality looks different than secular hospitality
Deuteronomy 10:19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Romans 12)
Matthew 25:34-39 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
B. Applied Hospitality
II. Fellowship
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
“One man is nobody; nor will poring upon a book in a corner accomplish a man as the reading and studying of men will. Wise and profitable discourse sharpens men's wits; and those that have ever so much knowledge may by conference have something added to them.” - Matthew Henry
A. Fellowship with one another builds us up
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
1 Corinthians 12:26
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Making and growing disciples happens in community
Acts 2:44-47
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
III. Isolation
Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Proverbs 18:1 A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.
Wise Judgement = Tuwshiyah – all wisdom, sound knowledge, or
abiding success (which is the result of wisdom)
2 Timothy 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
IV. Purpose in Community
There’s a reason why we don’t instantly make our way into heaven the minute we receive salvation. Because God has purpose for us.
Philippians 1:20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
A. For it is in giving when we receive the most.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
All we do is for the glory of God.
“He who loves his life will lose it but he who forsakes his life for my sake will find it.” – Jesus
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”