October 5, 2007

• God's Plan for Community?

   

  God’s Provision for Lifting Human Community

  out of the Morass of Human Dysfunctionality

   

  God is in the business of creating healthy community where it does not exist.  He does so by calling people out of the unhealthy communities where they reside, redeeming them, and then building them into the kind of people who can form true community.

   

  As God lifts this new community out of the morass of dysfunctional ones, He gives Christians three “safety nets” to protect the health of this new community, that is, to keep the community from falling back into the patterns of the world’s communities.  Each of these safety nets is a function of truly loving one another as God in Christ loves us:

   

   

  1.      Do not sin against one another

  Jesus modeled this when He came to live sinlessly among us.

  We model this as we actively struggle to love more faithfully, and as we struggle to sin less and less against one another.

  2.      Do not respond sinfully when sinned against

  Jesus modeled this as He lovingly dealt with men and their sin against Him.

  We model this as we bear with one another, practice patience with one another, and forgive one another.

  3.      Helping each other not fall through the first two nets

  Jesus modeled this by correcting His disciples, the Jewish leaders, and even the crowds.

  We model this as we speak truth in love, build each other up, and as we leaders preach, correct, rebuke, and encourage.

  God calls His people, both leaders and followers, to edify one another, helping one another grow into this lifestyle as we teach, encourage, and counsel each other.  All of us will be tempted to sin.  We are all to help one another not do so.  All of us will be tempted at times to respond sinfully when sinned against.  We are all to help one another not do so.  All of us might be invited into someone’s sinful handling of another’s sin.  We are all to help heal such breaks in our community in a godly, loving manner.

   

  This mindset cannot simply be written into a bylaw or a sermon series.  It must be prayerfully adopted by a leadership team then nurtured into a congregation by those leaders through sermons, classes, corrective efforts, and counseling situations.  Every sinful situation, conflict, or disagreement that arises becomes a teachable moment for all involved, if leaders and participants will attempt to make it such.

   

  • 12:54 am
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