Sermon Tone Analysis

How many of you like to be a part of something?

I believe that most people like to be a part of a group.

Whether it is a social group or religious group or an online community, we do better as people when we are a part of a group.

We like being with people that have the same interests that we do.

When I was in Junior High I knew that I like football.

I had never played before other than backyard football with my friends so I decided that I wanted to try it.

I learned real quick that I was never going to be a football player.

I needed to stick to watching it.

I liked music and playing instruments so I became a part of the band.

When I got to college I became a part of Chi Alpha, a Christian organization on campus.

My point is all of us like to be a part of something.

The same thing goes for our church community.

As we grow we understand that we grow better together than separately.

If you have your Bibles go with me to the book of Ecclesiastes.

I want to read from chapter 4. If you are wondering where Ecclesiastes is go to Psalms, then Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is the next book.

I want to read 4 verses from chapter 4, beginning at verse 9.

Here is a thought I want you to think about today.

Write this down...

We’ll Only Advance as far as the Community We’re a Part Of.

God never meant for us to be alone.

God’s plan from the very beginning was for all of us to work together in unity and harmony.

Companionship has many advantages.

God wants us to develop relationships.

Everyone of us needs the love and support that we can get from friends and family.

We need each other.

As we learn to follow Jesus building a community with one another is important.

We can not do this life without each other.

Here are some things to think about when building a faith community with one another.

Why do we need each other?

Loneliness is a plague that is cured in community

Confusion is a state that’s steadied by community

Fear is a spirit that gets ejected in community

Obstacles are destroyed and removed in community

Purpose is uncovered and fulfilled in community

Discouragement is turned to strength in Community

My failure is turned to triumph when surrounded by community

Lies are silenced in the collective truth of community

Our world, the bubble we place ourself in, will reflect the company we keep and the community we walk with.

That is why it is important that we get connected and planted into the family of God.

Who are you walking with this year?

Do you want to advance?

Then it will be together.

Let me encourage you and I say it every week.

If you do not attend our Wednesday night Bible study, you need to start.

Don’t think of Wednesday nights as just another church service.

We are building a Bible community there.

We are studying the word of God and we are praying for one another and building one another up.

We have something on Wednesday nights for your children and grand children.

In November we will start having small groups on Sunday morning.

We will take you through different steps in your christian walk.

You need to plan on being a part of these groups.

You Need the Church Community as Much As They Need You.

The church community is essential for your healing and your advancement.

We’re better together is true, but it’s even more important than that, we are essential to each other.

We’re designed for dependence on God and interdependence on each other.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12.

Many times we hurry and skip over this passage.

We may think, “Oh, this is a very poetic way to view the church and how each person has a job or a ministry to do.”

And it is that but it is so much more than that.

When Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church he was trying to get them to understand the power and importance of the church, so when he calls you a body then he means it.

You are essential to me and I’m essential to you.

Write that down...

You are essential to me and I’m essential to you.

Can I give you kind of a morbid visual this morning?

If a part of your physical body is separated or severed from your body, initially that part of you will look normal, but soon it would be disturbing to look at and will have lost its function and no longer be able to fulfill its purpose.

That is the same for you and me individually, we’re designed for each other and thrive and advance in our connection to the community, not separate from it.

Some people try to make excuses for coming to church by saying, “I don’t need the church to be a Christian or go to heaven.”

And while that is true, you will make it into heaven, but chances are high that your life won’t feel the same when you try to do your Christian walk alone.

So, for the next few moments, I want to give you 5 Ways the church community has advanced our lives.

As a church, the best example we are given from scripture on how to be the church is from Acts 2.

This is the image that we, as a church, strive for.

When this is working and we are being the church that God wants us to be, we begin to see 5 ways the church community has advanced our lives.

The first one is...

1. Provides Purpose

Too many times when we look at the church, we look at a small view of the church.

We tend to not look at the big picture.

We tend to not look at the purpose that God has placed before us in our everyday lives.

In order to be whom God called me to be does not mean that I have to quit my job and join the church.

We are not a cult asking you to give up everything.

What we are telling you is you have a purpose where God has planted you.

Verse 45 says they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

That means that the early church had lives outside the church.

They earned an income that benefitted the church.

Verse 46 says they broke bread in their homes, they ate together, they enjoyed community with one another away from the temple.

And because the people had a life outside the church, verse 47 says, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The community you have here at church gives you purpose to go outside these walls and be the church that God has called you to be.

This church community has advanced our lives, it...

2. Calls Me Beyond Where I Am

Do you ever feel like you don’t feel like it?

Our natural tendency as humans is to stall and settle or slip backward into old ways of living and habits, but when you’re connected into the family of God, you’ll find your life continuing to progress even when you’re not feeling like it.

Does anyone watch the old westerns that come on TV? Like all the old TV shows and movies about cowboys.

Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Bonanza.

What about Eastwood movies like, Outlaw Josie Wells, The good the bad and the ugly, or Pale Rider.

Anybody a John Wayne fan, True Grit, Rio Bravo and the Alamo.

In just about everyone of those movies you are going to see a stagecoach at some point or another.

Think of those stagecoaches for a moment, they have a team of horses tied together to pull the stagecoach.

If you are a horse and you’re tied to other horses then whether you’re feeling like running that day or not, you better run or get drug on the ground.

And while that won’t happen in the church, there’s a powerful principle that we need to grab onto.

If you want to advance, keep yourself serving and connected on teams and to the church family, because you want to keep your life in that space where there’s a level of demand put on your time and energy so that it forces you to keep moving forward on the days you don’t feel like running.

But it’s not just about you running when you don’t want to.