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Review: ● The Bible reminds us early and often that the church is an all-too human institution. Yet, God chooses to meet us here…right in the middle of this mess. ● Peter reminds us (2 Peter 1:3-4) that we’re not “only human”; we have a divine nature As a church (a gathered people) an essential component of our gathering is to give attention to those things and call out those Godly urges in people. ● We all enter life spiritually and relationally handicapped! The fall drove us in the wrong direction; away from life…away from God and away from each other. ● We need God and one another. * So, we concluded that people are “fallen” and “alone”; the worst possible scenario—disconnected from God and each other. ►Only God can deal with our “fallenness”, but only healing relationships can remove our “aloneness”. * The issue I think we most often overlook is the profound impact that the “fall” has had on our world. Adam and Eve’s choice to pursue an alternative lifestyle has been handed down to us all (it’s in our DNA). The gospel (the announcement that Jesus is King!) demonstrates that: we’re more flawed than we care to admit but more lavishly loved than we could ever imagine! * People are alone and having companionship takes much of the fear out of life. It’s why we talk out loud when we are walking in dark, secluded areas. It’s why we have invisible friends. We don’t want to “feel” alone. I can be alone, I just don’t want to feel alone. I can be myself, I just don’t want to feel that I am left to myself.
►If our message addresses people’s spiritual needs without addressing their relational needs, it’s not good news! * In my life, I have been exposed to the really “ugly” things that Christians do to each other; I’ve also experienced some of the most amazingly loving and self-sacrificial things. ►The church, in order to be successful in introducing people to Christ in this culture must excel in (2) things: 1. Compassion- to minister to people’s fallenness. 2. Community- to minister to people’s aloneness. * So, we all live with the tension and frustration of knowing that simply “being together” has not resulted in “togetherness”. But, isolating ourselves has not proven effective in satisfying our needs either. Ephesians 3:17-19 “And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience (know) the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” ►God’s love is so incomprehensible that it cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. John 17:3 “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. John 8:31-32 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." * In the church, our approach to such life has usually taken 1 of 2 forms: the key to life is “believing the right things”, or “doing the right things”. THINKING THE RIGHT THINGS… This approach to God is predominantly intellectual. It’s interesting, in James 1:22-25, we are told not just to be hearers of the word, but doers. Our emphasis on right thinking operates on the assumption that what I cram into my head will eventually end up in my heart and bring the life change I envisioned. Interestingly, the word James uses for “hearer” comes from the Greek word which refers to someone auditing a course. They attend class, take notes, benefit from the shared information, but they don’t have to pass the tests! Danger: It leaves us correcting and condemning people. DOING THE RIGHT THINGS… All of human religion seems to grow out of a desire to behave in such a way that God will “accept” us. It’s predominantly external in its focus. If we are not careful, we end up using religious expression to disguise a disordered soul. Danger: It leaves us inspecting people and searching for flaws in their performance. EXPERIENCING… Interacting with grace and grace-filled people. In order for it to become reality, it is something that must be experienced. ►You can’t be whole if you won’t be real! (authentic)
►In order to experience love, our hearts have to be engaged and our lives must intersect.
(in one circle, write “me” and in one circle, write “others”) * We often limit healing to something instantaneous and supernatural. We pray and ask God to heal our brokenness and woundedness. But most often, his purpose is for us to become a healing community- an agent of his healing life and love to others. Example: 2 Corinthians 1:2-5… We are broken and wounded and in need of compassion (mercy in action) and comfort (to come alongside). “What if God’s plan to restore you involved another human being, created in his image? If healing came as a result of living in a grace-filled community, would it be any less supernatural?” ►There is certainly a measure of comfort that only God can give, but he also desires to give it to others through us! When people are hurting and need comfort, if we simply point them back to God, we have assured them that their fallenness has been resolved, but we leave them alone! * We “experience” the truth of comfort only when we are comforted by one of God’s representatives (2 Corinthians 5:20… “as if God were making his appeal…”). This is when the ‘word becomes flesh’. Another example: How many of you feel that fear is a legitimate need that people have? Fear of being abandoned or rejected. 1 John 4:18 “Perfect love (love which has realized its purpose) drives out fear”.) We find freedom from fear by being in a secure relationship. Fear is diminished when someone lives out a commitment to me which says, “I am committed to be here for you; I will not leave you alone”. 1 John 3:18 “Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth”. ►I have discovered that that wounded people wound others, but they are also in the best possible position to help facilitate healing. ►The church is to be identified as a people who love well. We don’t have to be the best, or the brightest, or even the majority; we just need to recognize and admit that we are all broken people on our way to being “whole” and we keep coming together because we know we can’t make it alone. * The story of the Bible is basically that God has taken action and provided a means by which we may “be with” him and “be with” others It’s a type of “being with” each other that only God makes possible (by removing any obstacles that could exist). We are drawn together because of what Christ has done for all of us. * Admittedly, it is frustrating, because we’ve heard about it, and are convinced it’s possible, but have never lived in it; or, we’ve visited it on occasion, but just long enough to be disappointed that we couldn’t stay! My experiences of church caused me to reach some of these early life-conclusions:
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