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Community

Community

Jul 22, 2018

Passage: Hebrews 10:19-25

Preacher: Michael Grigsby

Series: I Love My Church

Category: Love, Church

Detail:

I Love My Church

Title:Community

Text:Hebrews 10:19-25 NLT

Theme:Help people identify the important role community plays, and the subtle ways we sabotage it.

 

            I want to talk about fences this morning. Fences come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Some are short, tall, and transparent; others are walls of fortress. In every case, what is a fence designed to do? Keep something in or keep something out, right?

 

            My good friend Frank was talking to me about the importance of a fence around your house when it hit me that his story was a perfect example for this morning’s message. He said, “When I was growing up, we had a fence that went around the perimeter of our backyard. The front yard was always kept really nice—grass always neatly cut and Mom had flowers out. It looked like the cover of a real estate brochure or home and garden magazine. That was the front yard.

 

            On the other side of the fence though, slightly different. The grass was cut, but not as often as the front yard. All of our toys and bikes were in the back as well as our swing set. My parents preferred us playing back there so they knew where we were. The grill was in the back with our picnic table, so we’d have meals back there sometimes. We had a dog, and try as hard as we could, you still had to watch where you stepped. That was the backyard.  The fence was the separation between the two spaces. It was the barrier between the front, which everyone was allowed to see, and the back, which is where we lived.”

 

            We are continuing our series I Love My Church, and this concept is going to play a big part in what we’ll see today as one of God’s plans for the church: that we would live connected lives.God wants us to live connected with Him, and connected with one another. God wants us to know true community. What do fences have to do with that? That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.

 

OPENING PRAYER

 

            Let’s look at Hebrews 10:19-25, “19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” NLT.

 

            Before I unpack this, let’s go back to our fence. Let’s picture our lives as a yard. If a lot of us were honest, we’d admit that we like a good fence. What we are comfortable showing people and letting people know about us is our front yard, and we try keeping a pristine front lawn. Nicely manicured. Beautiful grass, and a nice welcome mat at the front door for decorative purposes only. The front yard is what we show people.

 

            But the backyard ... now that’s different. That’s the real us, and getting in there is by invite only. In fact, I’m going to build a fence because I’m not sure I want you to know what’s going on with the real me. I don’t want you to see the parts of my life that aren’t so pristine. I don’t want you to step in the dog piles. I’m not sure if we can have a meal together. The backyard is private, the backyard is the real me.

 

            Everything in the front of the house is perfectly presented, but the back of the house ... behind this fence ... is where the true us resides. This is the yard of our lives.

 

            Here’s the deal about fences: God isn’t a big fan of them. Okay, He doesn’t have a problem with us having a literal fence around our house. Please don’t leave here today and tear down your actual fence. But as far as being in relationship with Him and being in community with each other, God wants us to rethink our fences.

 

            If we intend to love our church the way God wants us to, then we have to: Know that Jesus crashed the fence.

 

            Before we even talk about the fence that we put between us and people, we have to realize the barrier that exists between God and us. The first part of our Hebrews passage tells us: Hebrews 10:19-22, “19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” NLT.

 

            The author is talking about the fact that because of Jesus we now have a way to come back to God. ***Explain the Old Testament imagery here of the priests and the Holy of Holies, of the high priest only being able to enter in, and that Jesus is now our High Priest.***

 

            Because Jesus is our Chief Priest and has crashed the fence of sin, which is the veil separating us from God, we are able to confidently draw near to Him. Crashing the fence is as easy as admitting we need Him, because we can’t live life on our own. We’ll never make it into His presence with a fence separating us. The letter to the church in Rome gives us more of the details behind our Hebrews passage:

  • Romans 3:23, “23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” NLT.Paul makes it clear that we all have a giant fence. 

  • Romans 6:23, “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” NLT. Because of that fence, we’ll never get to God. 

  • Romans 5:8, “8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” NLT. God knew we’d have a big fence before we even had a yard! 

  • Romans 10:9-10, “9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” NLT. If we just admit we have a fence and we need it torn down, Jesus 
crashes the fence for us.
  • Romans 10:13, “13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” NLT. He never denies a fence-crashing job, ever. 


 

            We’re born building fences, walls, structures designed to hide, protect, or confine who we really are in order to keep us separated from God. Why, because God reveals in us the things we like to keep hidden in the backyard.

 

            It’s only when we admit our failing, realize and accept that Jesus on the cross has crashed the fence of sin, and only because of that can we have relationship with God. Then and only then can we truly be in community with Him. 


 

            Have you ever drawn near to God? Have you ever acknowledged what Jesus has done on the cross and allowed Him into your life—all of it, the front and back? No. Then you need to realize that the barrier between you and Jesus has been crashed by Him on the cross. Surrender your life to Him, drawing near to Him in relationship, close to Him in community. 


 

            If we intend to love our church the way God wants us to, then we have to: Allow others into our yard. 


 

            We come to this building, and we sing songs and we play games with children, and sometimes we eat and we smile and say good morning, but we do it all from behind the fence. I like to call it the “Sunday Morning Mask.” 


 

            You might be thinking, “But I thought you said Jesus broke down the fence?” He did. For every single one of us Jesus has broken down the fence, and made a way possible for us to be with God. How does that impact us as a community?

 

            So, when I draw near to God to become His follower, there’s not a fence anymore, and when you draw near to God to become His follower, there’s not a fence anymore. Which means there’s no fence in existence in the community of God! There shouldn’t be, but what we do is we start taking wood and building up a fence between others and ourselves.

 

            Even though Jesus has crashed our fence, we still want people to see only the pretty parts of our yard. We don’t want them to see our laundry hanging on the clothesline in the back, clean or dirty. So we keep building fences. We keep very careful tabs on what parts of our estate people are allowed to walk. We are good at building fences. Don’t forget what we said last week: If we are going to truly experience loving our church, then that means intentionally loving the church.

 

            That is not loving our building or loving our programs. If we intentionally love our church, that means loving each other. And loving each other is impossible to do from behind a fence. 


 

            So what do we do? With the fences all of us have put up, myself included, it’s hard to truly know how to love each other. Thank goodness the author of Hebrews gives us the perfect prescription in Hebrews 10:25, “25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” NLT. 


 

            This is the passage preachers have used for years to guilt their congregants into coming to church every Sunday, but in reality the author was talking about something bigger. Sunday, yes, but also something more than Sunday. He’s talking about an every day assembling. He’s talking about life together. He’s talking about living in community. 


 

            Community means we don’t build fences. Community means we head below the surface. Community means authenticity; the sharing of our real selves with others. A deeper relationship than we can have sitting in our chairs in this large room. Community means standing in someone’s yard, and allowing them to stand in ours. Both of our dirty, stinky, unkempt yards with all the toys strewn everywhere, and weeds not pulled, and the shed that desperately needs repainting.

 

            You may or may not remember the television show Home Improvement with Tim Allen. Tim’s family had a next-door neighbor named Wilson. Nearly the entire series, this is all we ever see of Wilson (Show Wilson picture.) The Taylors lived next door to Wilson for years, yet they never saw his face.

 

            Sometimes it’s like that for church folks. We sit in rows with people. We serve on committees together. We may even enjoy Bible study with one another, but we never see someone’s whole face. We only get a glimpse of them from behind our fences. Jon Doe is standing on the other side of the fence. Maybe we see his face. Maybe we don’t. It doesn’t matter at the end of the day; there’s still a fence between us.

 

            I can’t embrace him in a family tragedy. He can’t really see what’s happening over here when my wife, and I are having a fight. This fence impedes our community. We have to get into the yard to fully know someone. Hebrews 10:25, “25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” NLT

 

            Whose yard are you in? Who are you allowing into your yard? Maybe this takes place for you through our Sunday school, small groups, or Bible study opportunities. Maybe you’re a part of our women’s groups, our student ministry, or you’ve just allowed a few people to see past your fence, and it’s not any formalized ministry of the church.

 

            If we are truly going to experience not only the church but also life as God intended it, then we can’t live behind a fence. To truly love your church, you have to love the people in your church. This doesn’t mean that everyone transforms into super social extroverts. What it means is that we don’t live in isolation. Community is standing in someone’s yard. It means you stand in someone else’s yard. Community means no one stands alone, EVER!

 

            If we intend to love our church the way God wants us to, then we have to: Enjoy the company.

 

            Imagine being a kid and going to a birthday party where the host didn’t plan anything. There might be a bag of plain potato chips on the table and some weak Kool-Aid, but that’s it. No games, no desserts, no face painting, no pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, nothing. That would be one boring party. You would leave that place thinking, “They didn’t even try.” Hebrews 10:24 says: Hebrews 10:24, “24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” NLT.

 

            To “think” or some translations say “consider” is to contemplate, strategize. Think of it as planning for a successful birthday party. Living life in one another’s yards, without fences, is going to take not only intentionality, but also strategy.

 

            Community is finding ways to encourage one another to love and to do good deeds—beyond church programming and sermons. It’s seeing beyond the walls and fences that have been built and offering to help paint the shed or pull the weeds or babysit the kids.

 

             It’s bringing a meal in times of crisis. It’s having those “go-to” numbers in your cell phone when you break down at the corner of Dewar and Foothill. It’s knowing whom to call when you want to go on a double date. It’s inviting someone over for dinner. It’s teaming up when we have a church service project, and working alongside friends. It’s enjoying one another and helping each other to enjoy serving Jesus in the time we have left to serve.

 

            The thing is, these things don’t happen automatically. They happen when we consider how to make them happen. Let me suggest some points of strategy for all of us as a church family:

  1. Have healthy expectations.An unhealthy expectation is that we will all know everyone, that every single person will be best friends with everyone. That’s not realistic. A healthy expectation is that I can build some great connections throughout the family, great friendships with some, and deep relationships with a few. These will all take time, but we have to have a healthy goal in mind.

 

  1. Realize baby steps are okay.Let’s be clear. Living without fences doesn’t mean that you are going to let every single person into the more personal parts of your life the first day you meet everyone. That’s not the goal in any sense. At first we’ll be hanging out in the front yard with people, then we’ll invite them into the living room, then for a meal in the back. It will take time and that’s okay. You won’t let everyone in, but you need to work toward letting someone in at some point.

 

  1. Take some ownership.Realize this is everyone’s job, not everyone else’s job. We all need to work at it. If you are sitting down waiting for everyone to come to you, then you are sitting in the wrong spot. On a scale between 1 and 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest, how much effort are you putting into connecting with others? What would you need to do to raise your number by one or two levels in the next few weeks? 


 

      As we leave this morning, love your church. Know Jesus has crashed the fence. Allow someone into your yard. Enjoy the company. Start considering how you can be connected with others for encouragement and growth.

 

      I want to end this morning with the best quote I could find about Christian community from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray; no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. The brother is a burden to the Christian, precisely because he is a Christian. For the pagan the other person never becomes a burden at all. He simply sidesteps every burden that others may impose upon him.” 

 

CLOSING PRAYER