Practice #2: Do Life In Community, Part 1

Practice number one is coming before God daily.

Practice number two is doing life in community.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

It's the personal application, first by developing a mindset of a servant, where you go through life each moment of each day, and it will take practice, where you're looking for the needs of other people and asking, "Oh God, Holy Spirit living in me, which needs do You want me to meet?" It's a sensitivity that's very outwardly focused.

Second it’s participating in vulnerable, in depth relationships with fellow believers through mutual support and accountability that builds up the body of Christ.

And then for those that are pastors and leaders, I would just remind you that our goal, our desire is to create a church culture where people are serving in love, where they find themselves in authentic groups that not only are growing but multiplying and inviting other people in, so that people feel loved and connected. A program doesn't do that. Sitting in a service with a few hundred people or a few thousand people, you can't experience authentic community apart from the container of some kind of a small group.

Well, let's look at the core of authentic community theologically, understanding the problem. Are you ready for this? This goes all the way back to the garden.

Humanity was made in the image of a relational God. Think of that. “Let us make man in our image.” The Trinity - one essence, three persons - by definition is relational. We're made in His image. We desperately need to be connected to other people as well as God.

Second, even in the best environment, in a perfect environment, it's not good to be alone.

You know, Adam was in perfect relationship with God. There was no sin. It was a perfect environment, and what did He say? "It's not good for man to be alone." And so, there was a corresponding partner, a connection, someone who was like him and for him, and the human mankind of male and female coming together in a connection with vulnerability and no shame.

And third, sin broke our relationship with God and then with one another.

You know, once sin entered in, once disobedience came, once the rebellion started, it was very interesting. They're hiding from God, and then when God comes and asks a few questions, what does Adam do? This love of his life, "It's not me, it's her." And then, He asks her, “It's not me.” It’s, “Who created this place and this serpent?"

What I want you to understand is that sin breaks down community and we all struggle with that, but we're made for a relationship.

So, let's talk about what do we mean by community? What is biblical community?

Maybe the most concise definition I could give you: Biblical community is shared life with God and each other. That key word is “shared.” Koinonia, it's a Greek word that means sharing life together.

In Acts 2, when they had all things in common and the believers were living out their faith together, they talked about this koinonia, this shared life, shared heart, shared resources. It's accomplished first and foremost by Christ. We need to understand that this connection and this unity isn't just something we pull out of the air.

The apostle Paul is teaching who we are in Christ, in the book of Ephesians. [He] talks about where we were in chapter two and we were lost and alien and enemies of God.

And then by verse 11 through the end of chapter two, he talks about, "Christ has now divided or broken down the wall," and he's speaking to that group of the wall between Jew and Gentile.

There was the court of the Gentiles and the Gentiles couldn't come into this inner place to worship God, and Jesus tore down that wall.

And now in the body of Christ, the apostle Paul would go on to say, "There's not Jew or Gentile. There's not slave or free. There's not male or female. There's humanity." And there is this new supernatural community that's not based on nationalities or your race or your gender. There is this family of God, this community that God has opened the door and the day will come, every tribe, every nation, every tongue, people with all kind of backgrounds, all kind of cultures, all kind of languages, we're going to have connection from the heart. Jesus accomplished that for us and then He enabled it.

First Corinthians chapter 12 says that when you receive Jesus as your Savior, when I receive Christ as my savior, the Holy Spirit took us not just out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light, but He baptized us, He dipped us, He placed us in a new family, the body of Christ. And then we experience that with one another as we do life the way Jesus did life, with one another.

What I want you to understand is that this koinonia, this sharing, this community, it's the most attractive thing in the world because your heart and my heart have this one cry. Who will accept me? Who will love me just for me? And God longs for us to have that. But unfortunately, even as followers of Jesus, we can talk about community, we can believe in community, but we don't practice the very thing that Jesus practiced.

Here's the implication of biblical community. Biblical community goes beyond social connection to - are you ready? - a family commitment.

You're actually a member of the family.

Listen to what - Romans chapter 8. It says, "We have been adopted by God whereby our spirit now cries Abba Father." We haven't received a spirit of slavery but a spirit of an adoption. It's just like a adopting a child and now we're part of a brand new family, and we have family connection and family responsibility.

And this addresses two of our greatest needs.

It addresses our fear of rejection. There's a place that you really belong.

You see, we are now children of God because the Spirit of God dwells inside of us. It addresses our fear of rejection, and it also addresses our insecurity.

You know, the hard part about relationships is that everybody seems like they fit except you. And what the scripture says is that just as our human bodies have many parts and all the parts don't have the same function, so we who are many individually belong to one another. That's Romans 12:4 and 5.

And then he goes on to talk about God has given us different gifts that as we exercise those gifts, we have inadequacies and struggles and insecurities, and other people's gifts fit into ours. And so not only do we belong, but are you ready for this? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are needed. The body can't be without you. You bring a personality, a set of gifts, a family life background. You see, biblical community is like a supernatural family, that we're committed to one another at a level even beyond blood relationship.

Well, Jesus wanted the disciples to understand that if you're going to follow Me, remember what He said? "Follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men, I want you to not only hear My teaching, I want you to not only be with Me but become like Me; I want you to do what I actually did."

And so, He's going to model for them, here's how you do life in community.

First and foremost, Jesus invited people into His personal world.

If you read His life carefully, it seems like He's eating a meal with someone, He's going to eat a meal with someone or He is coming back from eating a meal with someone. He just invited people into His life in the regular flow.

People mattered. What they thought mattered. Their life mattered. He was curious. He wanted to get to know them. He opened His life and He invited them into His.

He considered others as more important than Himself. In relationships, He had that servant mindset. The Son of Man didn't come to what? Be served but to serve. We often think of that as either like a waiter, or yes, He had this great theological calling, but I think when Jesus sat down and had a meal with someone, the focus wasn't on Him. The focus was on, "What's going on in your life? How are you doing? How's your marriage going? I noticed you have a small child. Tell me a little bit about him." That's the kind of way that Jesus was and He wanted to model for the disciples and for us. That's how community starts, with the mindset of servanthood.

He chose 12. When He was going to get really serious - they wanted to be with Him - and there were lots of disciples and everyone raising their hand, "I'm going to be Your disciple." You find someone who can raise people from the dead and feed 5,000, lots of people, "Oh Jesus, Jesus, I want to be on Your team!"

And He prayed all night and He says that they might be - are you ready? - it's the “with-Him” principle. What He knew is what's also true of us. We become like the people we hang out with.

Solomon wrote it in Proverbs 13:20. "He who dwells with wise men will be wise, but the companion of a fool will suffer harm." He knew the only way for them to really catch His values, catch His heart, become servants and have the kind of community, it couldn't just be when things were going well. Community happens when you're tired, when you're disappointed, when you're sad, when you're struggling, when you're angry. That's when we need the kind of loving, genuine, authentic support that we both give and that we receive.

And then Jesus did what we all long for. He loved, He forgave, He inspired, He affirmed. He prayed with them and He prayed for them, and He rebuked them. "Peter, get behind Me." He shot it straight, and then He did something often we don't think about. He shared His heart. He shared His dreams. He was fully human.

The scripture says in Hebrews that in the days of His flesh, He cried out to God with loud cries and tears. Jesus wasn't superman. He wasn't like God in a man-suit. He was fully human with all the emotions and all the temptations and all the needs that all of us have, so He by the power of the Holy Spirit could model for you and model for me, "This is what it looks like to live. Surrendered to the Father."

And then what He modeled is none of us can do it alone. Remember, even when He was going to the cross, He said, after the Lord's Supper, “I desire to eat this meal with you." And then He said, "I need you all. Would you pray with Me?" If Jesus needed people to pray with Him and stand with Him and encourage Him in His toughest times, how much more do you and how much more do I?

But He didn't just model it. He served, developed a small group. He became a true friend, I mean a real friend through thick and thin to those disciples and to many others. And then He taught very specifically about biblical community, and He taught some of the most outrageous, radical things that are so counterintuitive - are you ready?

When Jesus taught about community, He taught greatness is achieved by humility and servanthood, not power and prestige. Now, think of that. You want real community. For most of us, "Well, people will like me if I'm powerful or if I'm rich or if I have a lot of likes or if I'm this on social media, or if I get to the top of my game or I'm a great this or a great that." And Jesus said, "Disciples, greatness comes when you consider others more important than yourself." Humility. Greatness comes. You want to be first? Be the servant of all.

And this conversation isn't like in the early days. I'm quoting out of Luke chapter 22. They're on their way to the last supper and Jesus is walking a bit behind them and they're arguing about something, and He comes and asks them, "Hey, what's the deal?" And they were arguing about who's the greatest. And what I love is He didn't reprove them. He didn't say, "You should never have thoughts of doing something great with your life." He just changed the paradigm. He said, "Do you want to be great? Be the servant. You want to be number one? You be the last."

What He was telling them is: I want you to understand that having dreams and ambitions and drive, that's not a bad thing, but what you need to do is you need to measure success the right way. And in community, what makes community great is when there's servanthood, when there's other-centeredness. And this counterintuitive thing happens, and you've experienced it. I've experienced it. When we give our life away, that's when we receive and have the deepest connections with people.

He also taught that God's blessing and favor come when we put the needs of others first. Later that very same night, He would wash their feet, and Peter would say, you know the story, right? "Not me, Lord." And Jesus would say, "If I don't do this, you don't have any part in Me." And when He gets completely done, He gave them a theological lesson. He said, "I am your Master and Lord," and they all nodded, "Yeah, sure." "If I, your Master and Lord, do this for you, serve you, blessed are you if you do this for one another."

The very last lesson, the visual that burned into their mind, and they all came in by the way, the context is they were all too proud to wash anybody's feet, and the reason that everybody's feet was dirty sitting around a low table where you would eat like this and your feet were near someone's face was because everyone thought they were above that role. And I think they felt humiliated when Jesus came in and He took the role, not just of a servant but the lowest servant in a household who would wash people's feet.

And see, what's made the faith, what's made Christianity, what's changed the world is this counterintuitive, other-centered, loving focus toward other people that makes no sense in our flesh. I mean, I'm like you. I want me, I want mine. I want to be in control. I want to be first. I don't like to wait in line. I don't like to wait in the grocery store. I don't like to wait to get on a plane, and when I get on the plane, I don't want to be last to get my food. That's who we are.

But when by the power of the Holy Spirit, because we're practicing coming before God and we rub up and we see Him more and more for who He is, and then we grasp that we're His child and that we're loved and forgiven, we're accepted, and out of that can flow and other-centered focus on others. It's just an amazing, beautiful thing that begins to happen in relationships, and that's how community gets built.

Jesus said: Love is measured by sacrifice, not by words or not by emotions. You know, we're all caught up with how do I feel and I feel this way about that and I think they think that about me, and Jesus said: Here's what you need to understand. Community at the core of it, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Father loves the Holy Spirit. In the Trinity, there's this mutuality, there's this other-centered focus."

And He said: What I want you all to share in your relationships as my new adopted family in Christ is what we share in the Godhead. And what He said is that love is costly. There's real sacrifice. I can love people in superficial ways, I can love people in ways that appear that I really care, and then I can love people where, "Wow, Lord, I don't want to do this. I want that for me, not for them, but by Your grace, I'm going to choose to put their needs first."

And when we do, biblical community is one of the most powerful witnesses on the face of the earth.