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Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 7 of “Compelled – Living the Value of Authentic Community”  (LISTEN HERE).

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Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?

Which of these descriptions best describes your church?

We’d all like to say we always remember Paul’s words to the Ephesians and cringe to think we would ever have issues like the Corinthians.

But here’s the truth.  The reason Paul had to write what he did to the Ephesians is that they too struggled with disunity in their community.  The reason Paul wrote what he did to the Corinthians was because there were visible divisions in their community.

The reason the Spirit of God preserved both is because he knew every church would struggle to overcome disunity and find genuine community as a body of believers.  That means, no matter what your church is, you will need to be reminded of these words.

We can get fixated on people: “I like Pastor Mark.  I like Pastor John.  I wish our Pastor could be like the past pastor.  I like Frank leading worship.  I always go to Larry’s small group.”  People, while a blessing to the church can be the focus of one’s participation in the church.

We can get fixated on programs: “I’m an early service person.  I’m a traditional person.  I’m contemporary.  I’m for Kid’s Church.  I promote kids being in the worship throughout the service.  I’m the ‘need coffee in worship’ people.  I’m modern instruments.  I’m for the organ. …” The list of programs and preferences that have divided a body of believers is greater than we would care to admit.

If we look to a personality or program other than Christ and his Word, we will never experience unity in the community of believers.  Yet we work hard to build unity around externals only to find the unity is superficial and falls apart when the external crumbles.  

The heart of authentic community is always…always…Christ.

We don’t worship people.  We don’t worship programs.  We worship Christ.

We can be blessed by many different people because they point us to Christ.

We can enjoy many different programs and ways of doing things as they point us to Christ.

My preference ought never get in the way of connecting to Christ.  When my preference is not preferred, I realize the important thing is our focus on “one Lord, one faith, one baptism…” etc.

There will never be a community of believers that always agrees on every aspect of external realities of people, programs, or preferences.  So the focus the Spirit of God gives us (and he should know) is that we always go to the source of unity, Christ himself.  From this perspective we view people and evaluate programs.  But from this starting point most importantly we look at our brother and sister in Christ.  Even if they have differences in style, preferences, or people, we know we can find authentic community with them because their faith is also grounded in Jesus Christ.

Christ is the heart of genuine, authentic community.

Apply: What large or small divisions are brewing/happening in your church?  What do you think would happen if that division evaluated the difference based on Ephesians 4:4-6?  How might you help get or keep your church focused on “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, etc.”?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I get focused on externals and forget our unity is found in you and you alone.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 7 of “Compelled – Living the Value of Authentic Community”  (LISTEN HERE).

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It stinks to be alone.

It stinks to be with people.

Ok, not always.

Sometimes we need our alone time, especially if your personality is more introverted than extroverted.

We need to be with people because we don’t like being alone all the time, but being with people can be really challenging.

Oh the struggle.

I want community.  But I don’t want disunity.

Truth: I don’t like the drama and friction and challenges of relationships.  It’s hard.  It’s wearisome at times.  It’s work.

Truth: I have a tendency to want to distance myself from that relationship rather than put in the work to restore the relationship.

Are you the same?

Stuck between not wanting to be alone, but not wanting to work at relationships?

At some point in our lives, I believe we all go through this.

We want community – God designed us to desire it.

We don’t want disunity, friction, and drama of relationships.

So why is community often disunity?

One word: Sin.

Sin ruined the unity that God brought together in the Garden of Eden.  Once sin was in the world, humanity would have a desire for community but sin in their own hearts and the hearts of others would create disunity.

Just look at the response of Adam to God when God sought him out after they ate from the forbidden tree:

Genesis 3:9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

What had sin done?

Created disunity between Adam and God.  Adam was never afraid of God before.  Now he was.  Adam was never ashamed of his nakedness.  Now he was.  Adam had never experienced guilt before.  Now he had.  The result?  Adam did not want to be around God.  He hid.  The relationship was strained because of sin.

Not only was the relationship with God strained, sin also strained the relationship of Adam and Eve.  Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit.  Eve was no longer the blessing he praised when the Lord presented her to him on day 6.  Eve was now the reason that Adam was a sinner.  Eve was the reason the relationship was broken.

It was Eve.  It was Adam.  It was sin and falling for the lies of Satan that strained the once perfect relationship.

This is why relationships can be challenging today.  We sin against each other.  We get selfish.  We blame.  We have guilt over things we did or didn’t do.  We…you fill in the blank.  As a result, relationships, as much as we desire them and are blessed by them, can be challenging, chaotic and full of drama at times.

Yet God is still interested in us enjoying relationship and restoring relationships.  So he did two things:

First he sent Jesus to restore unity and community with Him.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 

And second, he formed the Church to bring community to each other.

1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.

In Christ, true community with our heavenly Father is secure.  In his Church, we are invited to make every effort to establish and maintain authentic community.  We will explore this more the rest of the week!

Apply: What relationship recently has been strained?  As you evaluate it, what sin is involved…by you, the other person…or both?  How can Christ’s grace and forgiveness be applied to unify what is disunified?

Prayer: Lord God, we praise you for the unity you have established between us and you through Jesus.  This was impossible for us to do, but in your grace you did it for you.  Let this gift of unity be used by us to create and maintain genuine community in your Church.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 7 of “Compelled – Living the Value of Authentic Community”  (LISTEN HERE).

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“Did you hear what happened?”

The host pastor greeted us as we entered the church in Winston-Salem, NC.  It was our monthly pastor study club…the second Tuesday of the month.

The radio was silent on the drive from Cary to Winston Salem and conversation with a brother pastor filled the time.

But the day quickly changed.

One plane.

A second plane.

A strike on the Pentagon

Collapse…one tower…a second tower.

There was no better way to start the tragic day with brothers in the ministry to try to make sense of what was going on, but also spend time in prayer and Scripture.

Like many we were confused and in disbelief.  However, we quickly realized the study club we had scheduled was of less importance to getting back to our congregations and providing words of comfort and promise amidst the terror and tragedy of the day.

I don’t remember what happened every moment of September 11, 2001, but like many others I was trying to understand and comprehend what was happening.

But here’s one thing I remember.

I was glad to be with others…with my family and my church family.  To have neighbors and friends.

In tragedy, we need each other.  In tragedy, communities come together.

We did.

That night we had a special worship at the hotel in which we were worshipping at the time.  I don’t remember how many showed up, and honestly I don’t remember what Scripture I shared, but here’s what I remember.

We were in community with the Lord and with each other.

We had the promises and peace of the Lord from his Word and the presence and support of brothers and sisters in Christ.

I pray a tragedy like this never happens again to our country, but what I do pray happens regularly and often is the sharing of community with the Lord and with each other.  The Lord has designed us for community, not isolation.  He has designed us uniformly as humans, but uniquely as individuals.  He desires that we come together, we carry each other’s burdens, we comfort each other, we encourage one another, we pray for one another, we just be with one another.

We need each other because God created us to be with each other.

The unity after 9/11 lasted for a while, but faded all too quickly.  I pray that as the week begins with a reminder of the events of 9/11, the desire, the effort, and the blessing of genuine community is something we find and work to build in our homes, but especially in our churches.  For the next tragedy or the next celebration, we want to be there for each other as God has put us here to be together.

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Apply: What has been your most recent experience of genuine/authentic community?  What made it a blessing to you and others.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for bringing us together under your love and grace.  Lead each of us to make every effort to build and maintain a community which brings the reality of relationship with you to bear as we build relationships with others.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 6 of “Compelled – Living the Value of Culturally Relevant”  (LISTEN HERE).

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Culture will continue to challenge us and challenge the proclamation of the Gospel.

Don’t give up.  Keep working at it.

To wrap up the week, I’d like to share just a few reminders about the Gospel to encourage us that working to bring the unchanging Gospel to an ever changing culture is always worth it.

First, remember the Gospel transcends culture.

Every culture of ever time of every country of every people need the Gospel.

How do we know?  Here’s three passages of Scripture that remind us the universal need and universal application of the Gospel:

Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations…”

The whole purpose of the Gospel is to affect every person of every culture with a transformation from sinner to saint and from hell to heaven.  The Gospel above any other influence has changed hearts in every culture.

Which is the second truth: The Gospel will transform a culture.

The fear as we seek to be culturally relevant is that we will conform, water down, or change the Gospel to reach a culture.  Yes, that is a danger.  However the benefit is more exciting…that a culture is transformed by the Gospel.

Finally it is the power of the Gospel that changes a heart to conform to the words and ways of the Lord and align one’s heart with the heart of the Lord.  It enables a person with the Spirit of God to discern what is truth and God’s will and what is of Satan and his will.  The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Romans 12:1-2  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The Gospel changes our focus from conforming to the culture to conforming to Christ.

So never give up the challenge to bring Jesus to your culture.  Every person around you needs the power of the Gospel at work in their heart and life.

So here’s a few summary thoughts on what being culturally relevant looks like:

1. Dissect the culture – take time to understand it.
2. Intersect with the culture – take time to get to know it.
3. Engage the culture – communicate Christ in a real, relatable, understandable way to the culture.

The end result?  Here’s a glimpse:

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

May God bless all of us as we seek to bring him to every “nation, tribe, people and language”…ever culture.

Apply: What is one idea you can implement to connect with the culture around you?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for a message that has meaning to every culture.  Use me to bring that message to the culture around me in a real, relevant, and understandable way!  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 6 of “Compelled – Living the Value of Culturally Relevant”  (LISTEN HERE).

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Almost every week I was asked after one of my Sunday sermons, “So what?”  “Jesus died for me, so what?”

The question wasn’t asked from a lack of faith or understanding of the truth that was presented, it was a challenge to me to make the truth relevant.  WHY does this truth matter to ME TODAY?

When something is “irrelevant” it is identified as something that has no significance or important to me in the moment or situation.  Something that is “relevant” is something that IS significant and important to me in that moment or situation.

The challenge of carrying out the value of being “culturally relevant” is not just helping people understand what something SAYS, and not even just what it MEANS, but WHY it matters…to them!

How many times as a kid going through school did you ask, “Why do we have to learn this?”  In the moment the reading of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet just didn’t seem to have that much importance (I made it through the class – but other than using it for this illustration, not sure how much value Shakespeare and his writings have added to my life.)  We have all asked the question and we have all taken time to evaluate “Why something matters” when we determine if we are going to give it our time, energy and effort.

Sure, the standard answer to the students question, “Why does this matter?” is that you will need it in the future.  True…something could take on more relevance in the future than it does in the present.  However, to engage a culture, we must take time to help them understand WHY the truths of the Bible matter.  Struggle with the “so what” factor.

An example of this is the Apostle Paul in Athens.  After taking a bit of time walking around the city and observing people and their habits, he made this observation:

Acts 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god.

This short statement is profound in Paul’s ability to observe and connect with a culture around him.  Notice that he didn’t go in and try out the temple prostitution or bring an offering to the temple statue, he observed the culture and noticed what was important to it.  They were a very religious culture and honoring their gods was so important they wanted to make sure that no god was missed…even the one they didn’t know or didn’t even know they didn’t know.

So what Paul was going to share was going to answer the unknown:

Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

The “So what” factor was making known what the people didn’t know.  It filled a void in their religious habits and answered the question that was lingering in the culture, “What if there is another god?”  Not only did Paul get to answer the question, but he got to share more about the true God and all he did for the people that the many other gods didn’t.  It was a message that mattered…to the people…today!

What do you notice about the culture around you?  What questions are they asking that answers are allusive?  What situations continue to perplex people?  What holes in life are left unfilled?

Only when we understand the culture and the voids they have in life can we bring a Word of God to answer the question, give clarity to a situation or fill the void.

Here’s two examples:

To a person who has struggled with perfectionism and finding acceptance from her parents from little on, the Gospel matters because it shares boldly and clearly that God our Father loves and forgives EVEN THOUGH we are not perfect.  He accepts us through Christ as his Son or Daughter.

To a person who didn’t know why they were still alive, the truth of Scripture communicates value and purpose to each individual.

The list goes on because every individual is different.  Yet the Word of God is relevant for every individual.

Help them know what it SAYS, what it MEANS, and why it MATTERS.

Apply: Think of someone in your life who is going through a challenging season of life or asking tough spiritual questions.  What insight from Scripture answers the question they are asking in a real, understandable way?

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for your Word and the way it brings answers and hope to every aspect of our lives today.  AMEN.