1. Hats: A University had a policy that if the professor was 10 minutes late for class...it was cancelled. But one day a professor put his hat on his desk and then went to the faculty room. He apparently lost track of time and when he arrived back at the class he was 10 minutes late and found it room empty. He was furious. When the class next met, he informed his students "When my hat is here, I'm here!" His class learned their lesson well. The following day, the professor arrived at 9 a.m. and he was met by the sight of 25 hats on the desks -- but no students. They were "sort of there" but not fully committed.
2. It is very unfortunate that we live in an age where someone can be recognized as a respectable church member without being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. It is similar to my Weight Watchers experience. At the end of each meeting our leader tells us that we have lost a particular combined amount of total weight. However, too many times none of that weight was mine -- personally.
a. We can keep our name on the church roll; criticize its short-comings; and even boast in its achievements
b. But we can fail to become personally committed to its mission and ministry
3. There is something significant, even supernatural in our meeting together as a body of believers -- Acts 2.42-47; Hebrews 10.25
Pirkei Avot 2.4 -- Hillel would say: Do not separate yourself from the community.
4. In our meeting together and greeting one another we:
I. Meet God's Expectation
When the Cleveland Browns announced that they were moving to Baltimore after 30 years in Cleveland people were devastated. Among the many Browns fans interviewed, one man sat in his pickup truck and wept as he said, "Now me and my family will have no place to go on Sunday." -- He obviously got something out of attending those football games.
A. God Wants his people to meet
1. The Three Feasts
2. The reading of Torah -- Ezra
3. More than a legalistic exercise
B. God Knows our need for community
1. Origin of Family -- Genesis -- not good
2. A witnessing community -- Edah -- Matthew 16.18
Isaiah 43.10-13
10 "You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," says the LORD. 13 "I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?"
In What's So Amazing about Grace?, Philip Yancey recounts this story about C. S. Lewis: During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith.
They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.
The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the conferees had to agree.
The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law--each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.
II. Encounter God
A. In Worship that Honors Him -- Acts 2.43, 47
1. Who He is
2. What He has done
B. In Worship that Humbles Us -- Isaiah 6.1
1. If not careful, we treat worship as if it was merely Christianized entertainment
2. We are praising the King of the Universe -- "Melek HaOlam"
Job 38.1-7
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
III. Encourage One Another -- 2.42; 45-46
A. Vulnerability without Others
1. Cooling Down: Keep Your Fire Hot
An elder went to visit a man who had been absent from church for some time. When the elder arrived at the house of his wayward parishioner he found him sitting by a fire of glowing coals. The man fully expected his elder to rebuke him for his tardy attendance at services. But instead the elder drew up a chair alongside the fireplace where the man was sitting just peering into the fire. With the tongs the elder reached into the fire & took one of the red hot glowing coals and placed it by itself out on the hearth. Within no time at all the coal began to lose its glow until in a few minutes it was black. The man looked up into the face of his elder, who hadn't said a word, and he said "I'll be there next Sunday."
2. Distorted Perceptions
a. "Loneliness is the first thing which God's eye named not good." -- John Milton
b. Elijah -- 1 Kings 19.9-18
B. Encourage One Another Through the Word -- Isaiah 55.11; Acts 6.4
C. \Encourage One Another With Well-Placed Words and Actions
1. THE Prayers
2. Personal Encouragement to Others
A great hero in history was William Wilberforce, the man who worked so hard trying to get Parliament to abolish English support of slavery. Twice he was defeated in his efforts. Discouraged, he was about to give up.
Then his old friend, John Wesley, heard of his discouragement, & even though Wesley was on his deathbed he pulled himself up & asked for pen & paper. With trembling hand Wesley wrote these words to Wilberforce:
"Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men & devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? Oh be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God & in the power of His might..."
Wesley died 6 days after writing those words, & Wilberforce, with renewed dedication, continued on. Then in 1833, just 3 days before his own death, it was brought to a vote once more, & Parliament finally abolished slavery in Britain. What if John Wesley hadn't encouraged him?
3. Fellowship and Meals --
4. Just showing up -- you encouraged someone today by being here.
IV. Evangelize the Lost -- 2.41, 47
The year 1983 marked the five-hundredth anniversary of the German reformer, Martin Luther. Found by his deathbed, scrawled in German and Latin, was this declaration: "We are beggars: That is true."
This statement may have inspired D. T. Niles to say, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he can find a piece of bread." Not a sweet roll and a cup of coffee, but a bite of the staff of life--bread!
The church is a fellowship of beggars, receiving and offering love, support, and hope. Committed Christians acknowledge their dependence upon God and their interdependence on one another. They are always in the bread line, if not receiving, then giving.
A. The world should see the church as a different place -- "I want what they have."
1. An Oasis
2. A Hospital
3. A Lifeboat . . .
B. The world should see the church as a place of God's power
1. The Word -- Romans 10.17
2. The prayers
3. The incarnate love
1. Meeting together is important as a congregation
2. It is not an end in itself
SUVCW and SCV -- very little activity but want more members in order to meet together
3. Meeting together is a proactive approach to honoring God and helping one another
