Reaching In

Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 23 September 2007 08:31

Vision

Sermon Notes

• At Gateway we are in the business of connecting people to God and connecting people to people.
• Making spiritual connections depends on dynamic balanced 3-dimensional growth. We have to grow IN, OUT and UP.

Acts 2:42–47

In surveying years ago, I asked the question: ?what is the greatest need in this area?? How would you answer that question?

No doubt our area has great needs.

Deep physical needs:

• Sickness, etc.
• 3rd longest commute

Emotional needs:

• Larger percentage of us are depressed than ever
• More of us than ever are engaged in sex outside of marriage or at least more of us are willing to admit it, but, in record numbers, we are not satisfied with it.
• 60% of us are overweight; almost 25% of us believe we are controlled by some addiction; and over 15% of us take prescription medication to help us deal with our anxiety.

Relational needs:

• Fewer of us feel like we have meaningful connections than ever.
• And our marriages are still failing almost by half.
• For our teenagers: their deepest desire at least according to a recent MTV survey, is family stability and yet very few of them feel like they have it.

So what do you think God?s answer is to all these problems?

Jesus? Yes, but this is not the complete answer. The complete answer is us, the church. Specifically Jesus in us!

We are the ones who go and tell the story. We are the ones who get empowered to be his witnesses. We are the ones who live out and reveal the wisdom of God. We are the ones who embody the power and presence of Christ. We are the billboard that reads, ?This is what connection with God looks like. This is the place for meaning and community. Come join us and run free.?

Limerick: ?here?s the church ??

This messy mix of human strength and weakness represents God?s hope for the world. This ungainly gathering of the counterfeit and the clueless is God?s answer for the emotional, physical and relational neediness that surrounds us. THE CHURCH IS GOD?S ANSWER.

So how do we be that? How do we be God?s hope for the world? And, it turns out that the breathtaking snapshot of the first gathering of Christians recorded for us in Acts 2 gives us some profound help toward becoming God?s answer.

1. THEY DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO SOME KEY PRINCIPLES

They devoted themselves to the apostle?s teaching which represents commitment to right beliefs about God. They devoted themselves to fellowship which represents right connections with other believers. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread which probably represents Christ-honoring worship where his death is remembered. And they devoted themselves to prayer which represents right relatedness to God. They devoted themselves to these things. In other words, this list seems to represent their highest priorities.

Have you noticed how often in the church of America we get this wrong? Even in our best churches we can get this wrong. We don?t usually get it wrong by pursuing its opposite. We get it wrong by allowing good principles and priorities to replace essential ones.

In many settings, we believe the church should devote itself to:

• Best business practices (operate by)
• Right leadership principles (employ)
• High caliber professionalism and excellence (exhibit)
• Effective outreach systems and programs (develop)

So we hire pastors and leaders who can help us...

In other settings, even our best churches have devoted themselves to:

• Denominational clean-up
• Organizational clarity
• Finding ways to make the traditional relevant

In other settings, we believe the church should devote itself to:

• Identifying the right audience
• Clear communication to that audience
• A dynamic high energy children and youth program

But these are second tier concerns and if they become first order priorities for us, they will diminish our commitment to the key principles, and they will prevent us from becoming God?s answer.

If we are going to be God?s answer then we must be devoted to the teaching of the Apostles.

A. TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES

When we say the apostle?s teaching, we are talking about the stories and letters as we have them passed down to us. This is the Bible ? the teaching which the church has committed herself to for 20 centuries.

One of our core values at Gateway: ?the Bible is the primary and final authority concerning life and faith.? In some settings, this is assumed. For some of you, you?re thinking, ?really?? Yes! Christians have always been people of the book.

B. FELLOWSHIP

We must also devote ourselves to fellowship. When we say fellowship, we mean something close to our word community. And to experience community requires devotion!

• Young guy I surveyed. Wanted what his grandparents had, but didn?t? have time for it. It takes time and it takes devotion, but it?s worth it.

C. BREAKING OF BREAD

If we?re going to be God?s answer we?ve got to devote ourselves to the breaking of bread. Some have taken this phrase to mean that they were committed simply to a regular practice of sharing meals together, but it?s almost certain that this is a reference to the worship practice of breaking bread in order to remember Christ?s death. In fact, this same phrase is used later in the NT as a reference to communion. In other words, they devoted themselves to Christ-honoring worship that kept the remembrance of his death front and center.

The mega-church movement in America has done some wonderful things for the church at large. For one thing, it has kept us culturally current. And being culturally current is a good thing, but it is a second tier concern. And to the degree that we have replaced an essential devotion to Christ-honoring worship that regularly remembers his death with a relevant message that meets the emotional and relational needs of our listeners, then it?s no wonder that we have stopped being God?s answer.

D. PRAYER

They devoted themselves to prayer. To me, it feels like we often meet crises by forming a contingency plan, both in our own lives and in church ? instead of by prayer.

A few weeks ago had a building team meeting and prayed for 2 hours ? It was awesome and got a lot done.

2. THEY DEMONSTRATED GOD?S POWER

?Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.?

This was Jesus? pattern. His ministry was both word and work. He spoke God?s truth and he demonstrated God?s power. And it?s interesting to note that Jesus told the very first followers in Acts 1:8 that they would be empowered to be his witness. The way we usually approach the life of faith, we might have expected Jesus to say that they would be informed in order to be his witnesses, or that they might be enriched.

This very same theme runs through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, who told a group of Christians in Corinth, ?my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit?s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God?s power.? (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

Paul and LeeAnn testimony about Amanda?s heart and Christie Love was visiting, powerfully moved because her daughter had the same condition. Came back and eventually gave her life to the God who can heal heart conditions.

God wants to demonstrate His power. He wants to radically change marriages. He wants to heal broken emotions. He wants to restore broken bodies. He wants to cure diseases. If we?re going to be His answer for the needs around us, we?ve got to ask Him to do it.

3. THEY SHARED THEIR LIVES WITH ONE ANOTHER

?All the believers were together and had everything in common ? 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.?

This is really just a lived out expression of the devotion to community that we talked about a moment ago. They were doing life together.

Only one thing in all of creation that was not good ? man?s aloneness. We were made for community.

Surveys too numerous to cite have discovered that we all hold community as a high priority. (Survey of busters, boomers and builders ? all wanted community) If we?re going to be God?s answer we?ve got go deeper. We?ve got to move from doing church to being community. We?ve got to devote ourselves to sharing our lives with one another. We?ve got to devote ourselves to community.

All of us want to be meaningfully connected to others, but most of us want to be connected to other people who are easy and convenient for us. But people who relate with that underlying desire do not ever experience real community. People who have so filled their lives with activity that they only have energy for their immediate family and an occasional entertainment break do not ever experience real community. People who have made their material lifestyle the highest priority in their lives do not ever experience real community. People who avoid conflict do not ever experience real community. People who easily find fault do not experience community. People who love to hear themselves talk, people who always think their answer must be heard do not experience real community. And people who don?t believe they have anything to say do not experience real community.

People who experience real community have committed themselves to be the kind of people who stop talking about others and start talking to them. People who experience real community have learned to share their deepest shortcomings with others and to ask others to pray for them. They care more about being who God made them to be than they care about their reputation. People who experience real community want to know other people?s story. They have time to hear it. In fact, people who experience real community find time to spend time. Without spending time, community is not possible. People who experience real community understand that their gifts and their talents and even their experiences are gifts from God to be used in and for the lives of others. People who experience real community are generous in giving themselves away. People who experience real community have taken the time to unpack their own hurts and the lies that drive them in the deepest places. This work is hard, but community is not possible without it. People who experience community do not always believe they are right in conflict. They know how to say I?m sorry. People who experience real community know how to say I love you and they say it often. People who experience real community know how to give encouragement and they give it often.

You have to be devoted to experience real community. It doesn?t just happen. Sharing your life with someone else must be chosen!

4. THEY SHARED THEIR RESOURCES WITH ONE ANOTHER.

Verse 45: ?They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.?

• The math of community

We should make note that this is far more than tithing. This is the recognition that my resources are not really mine, but God?s. And He can use them however He sees fit to meet needs around me ? mine as well as others.

We started this church with the desire to be part of God?s answer for the needs of this area. If we?re going to do that, we have to be in the business of community. We have to devote ourselves some key principles and we have to share our lives and our resources with one another. To do this, we have to be a community of communities!

So ? by the end of this next year, we hope (1) to have 22 healthy Gateway groups. And we hope (2) to build an atmosphere of increased focus on transformation ? individually and at the group level. Join us!