Sunday Morning Service | September 26th, 2021

let's pray one more time and then we're gonna get get into god's word together this morning and so let's invite jesus to teach us about being members of his body does that sound good sound like something we should do ask him for direction on that yeah all right well lord jesus we thank you that um that your plan for us is to live within your community god it's your plan is for us to come into right relationship to be adopted into a family as sons and daughters of our heavenly father and jesus your heart for us is that we learn and grow and experience the life you intend for us by being connected with you and connected with each other and so lord would you would you teach us things maybe we don't know as we go through this series lord would you remind us of things that we have forgotten or neglected along the way lord would you give us strength god equip us to be who you've called us to be and to live how you've called us to live and lord we we know we acknowledge up front being in relationship is difficult god there's hurt there's divisions like it's risky to be in relationship with each other but god would you remind us that it's worth it that there is great joy and life and strength and a deepening of love that we experience when we participate in the family you've invited us into so god would you be our guide and would you be our strength as we walk this out it's in jesus name we pray amen so when when i was a kid the church i grew up in it was it was a relatively like the building itself was kind of kind of more more modern a more modern church building um but we dressed up a little bit but we went to church back in my day dad was in a suit and tie mom was wearing a dress you know i could probably get away with like khakis and a button-up shirt but like we dressed kind of nice for church on sunday mornings anybody come from like an experience or a tradition like that right like we dress up for church and then i never grew up in a church like this but you know then there's these churches that are have like these incredible buildings some of them maybe even ancient at this point right they've been around for a long time and they're they're huge and they're beautiful and you know amy and i had the privilege several years back of going to italy um to celebrate our anniversary and we spent some time there and we got to tour a couple of churches that were just like kind of mind-boggling honestly especially when we were going from you know a gym in knoxville to like these big church buildings that been around forever and there's something just awe-inspiring about it like kind of majestic you know big columns and huge ceilings and the artwork's incredible and like the stained glass windows and you know there's something behind all of that there's something behind you know dressing in our fancy clothes or going into a building that just it's meant to communicate that something sacred is happening here something different something holy now my next sentence isn't that we're pivoting to suits next week but there you go amen but i think sometimes it's worthwhile for us to slow down and go what what is behind the reasoning of that and see what what i believe originally was behind the reasoning of that is a couple things number one it's to acknowledge how incredible god is he is sacred he is holy he it should be awe inspiring to us to be in the presence of god like y'all that that meant something there's some incredible freedom that we have in jesus where we're we're told we can boldly come before the throne of grace and i'm grateful for that but like there were people who weren't allowed to go into certain rooms and touch certain items or there was certain death there is a holiness associated with almighty god and and so some of those those behaviors in our past in our history and even still today that many people walk it's meant to communicate that and that's important the other thing that it's meant to communicate is that church itself that the gathering of the people of god his family is a word that's used throughout scripture his body like that means something jesus body we're called his family we're called his body that there is something sacred and special and holy about that and what's interesting to me about these church buildings and this mode of dressing and this this state of existence is not only is it sacred and holy and set apart for like that special place on that special day but it's it's a part of the everyday rhythms of life that throughout a week of normal everyday often mundane living that there is a regular consistent encounter with something sacred and holy and special now the problem is as as we often do when something becomes a ritual or routine we lose sight of the purpose at the beginning and one of the things that has happened to us as followers of jesus is that we have stopped associating church with the gathered people of god and we associate it with all kinds of other things a building um a group of of people like church means i'm gonna hear that guy get up and talk i'm gonna listen to those guys get up and sing i'm gonna be at this place at this time of day and and while church like those those things are a part of church they aren't church like i'm even guilty of this i just say heading to church sunday morning right or sunday morning church or see y'all at church sunday that's not right we are the church the people of god are the church and so the the goal here my hope both this morning but also as we go along in this series is that is that the lord would help us to hold these two things together at once just kind of that the awe-inspiring sacred holy thing that we get to be a part of and yet the sense that it was supposed to be a part of our everyday life the rhythm of my life involves regular encounter with this sacred holy beautiful thing called the people of god we're meant to be linked we're meant to be joined so i have two main points this morning and then we're going to take communion at the end of service okay so two main points this morning my first point is really the introduction to the whole series and my second point is kind of our one point for this morning sermon all right so point number one a little vision for the series i wanna i wanna bring us into three passages that there's a very good chance are very familiar to us and my hope is that we can do what i was just describing we can move out of i know that check the box move on that we can go lord what's what's behind this what's the depth of this what's the thing you want me to sink my teeth into and not miss and so i want to start by giving us two passages that describe jesus vision for his people and some direction some instructions right he gives a sense of what this is going to look like and then how we can go about it so here we go there are two kind of key moments that he shared with his people before he ascended into heaven one of them is found in matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. you most likely know this as the great commission i just want to highlight one or two things from this that jesus has to say and so jesus comes to his disciples and others there's most likely about 120 people at this gathering whether they are all 120 were at this moment that's about how many folks had kind of rallied around jesus after the resurrection and so matthew 28 verse 18 jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me there's awe there's the sacred that should produce a sense of wonder right all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me that is a huge statement and in light of of this glorious power that jesus holds he then says in light of that go therefore and make disciples not go build buildings not go be influencers not go rally a bunch of crowds in light of the sacred holy powerful person of jesus he says go make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit so you you're inviting everyone there's going to be diversity amongst my disciples that's a good thing there's meant to be diversity among my disciples and they're being brought into they're being brought not out of but they come from all nations all languages and they're being invited into a united family under the banner of father son and holy spirit baptized identified with in that family verse 20 what do you do with these disciples teach them to observe all that i have commanded you and behold i'm with you always to the end of the age i want you to pass on everything that you've learned the life you have received from me over these last three plus years everything i've lived taught that you've experienced pass that on to others so there's kind of our first our first little vision and instruction from jesus but there was another encounter another conversation that took place it involved a very specific instruction we find it at the opening of acts so matthew wrote this luke wrote the book of luke and and the kind of part two to that letter um the book of acts and so he records i'm just gonna read a little bit of this dialogue here with jesus and his followers i'm gonna read uh chapter one verses four and five and then also verse 8. and while staying with them this is jesus he ordered them not to depart from jerusalem so yes you're going to go therefore but don't don't start yet wait here for a minute why wait for the promise of the father which jesus said you heard from me see i've been talking to you about this this promise from the father for john baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now and you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and all judea and samaria and to the end of the earth so the very way you're going to be able to carry this forward and invite others into this family is by being empowered by the presence of the holy spirit friends here is the reality the church was born through discipled people who were filled with the holy spirit we gotta stop over complicating this life's complicated jesus calls us into something simple simple doesn't mean easy life with jesus and life in community is difficult but what we've been invited into is it's simple guys discipled people filled with the spirit of god think about this the spirit god's presence made the word that had been poured into the disciples lives the spirit god's presence made that word come alive in the disciples it came alive in them and they embodied the life of christ see jesus was the original word made manifest jesus was the word made flesh he was filled with the spirit he was the living word and so they they watched him they interacted with him they had relationship with him but jesus left all of this with the disciples he he poured this life this word this stuff into them but he said just being around me and hearing it all isn't enough you need the empowering presence of god to enable you to live this out to live this out so what happens peter who knew all of this stuff had been like slicing people's ears off and then running and hiding and like he's been a mess and we kind of pick on peter but he's just kind of a reflection of where all of them were at like they were all a mess right around jesus death and burial and even after his resurrection like the scripture tells us there were still people doubting and grappling and wrestling with what they had seen but when the holy spirit showed up and touched the lives of people who who knew about jesus something shifted something changed and so peter gets up and preaches a sermon filled with the spirit and filled with knowledge of who jesus is and thousands of people get saved so i want you to see now the church was born out of word and spirit all right so this new church is born and immediately after these folks come to jesus and we have the first church in jerusalem we have a description of what their community was like now i'm going to read through this i don't expect you to catch it all in one read through but we're going to be diving into this more in the coming weeks but i'm going to highlight a couple of things here as we go so acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47 unpack what this community looked like verse 42 and they devoted themselves now i just have to pause right there i'm sure maybe you'll believe me maybe you won't i didn't even realize till we were about two or three weeks into the daniel series on devoted or at least my preparation for it when i realized you know we're going to follow that up with a series on the church and our main passage is this it's like we did a series all summer on what it means to be devoted the people of god lived out what it meant to be devoted to community and so let's grab maybe some things the lord has sewn into us in these last weeks ago lord how do i apply this now into into the context of being in your family they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they receive their food with glad and generous hearts praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved just the very existence of these people drew others to say man i gotta participate in that i need to be a part of that now i want you to notice some things here number one i already kind of highlighted a second ago they were devoted to consistent spiritual practices verse 42 uses the word devoted and then two other times later it says day by day there there was disciplined rhythms of life where they devoted themselves to spiritual practices these were daily habits that embodied the life of jesus this is the word part this is the being a disciple part i i am taking hold of the life of christ and i'm doing it in community and so they were devoted to that it also says there was awe that came upon them there were things that you just couldn't explain outside of the presence of god they were in awe of what was happening in their midst there's something special there's something unique going on friends they were aware of and experiencing the sacred and the holy just by gathering with one another yeah they were at the temple sometimes they were often in each other's homes but they were they were experiencing the very sacred presence of god they were experiencing his touch you know we hear miracle we just think like well some amazing glorious thing that's mind-blowing that i could never experience listen jesus touching people's lives is miraculous being set free from sin addiction having the lord relieve you of depression and anxiety watching the miracle of being healed like god does miraculous stuff and he does it amongst his people word spirit see the same two things that came together in the lives of the disciples they then passed on to this group of people who who now their their new identity is i'm a part of this family i'm a part of this community and there was regular consistent devotion to learning the life of jesus and to experiencing the presence of god those two things coming together see all too often in the church um we've we've there's a lot of ways we've kind of separated separated into our little pockets little groups but for a lot of the church we've separated word and spirit like we'll find places that are really devoted to the word of god and faithful to it and and man you can just go and just soak up on just like man verse by verse line by line you just get really immersed into god's word and yet many of those groups will if not outright deny just don't really engage or acknowledge like the full power of the presence of god's spirit it's maybe talked about in passing you know or all too often some of our more charismatic groups filled with the spirit filled with with seeing miraculous things taking place and and in many circles not very good at being tethered faithfully to the word and have you even gotten off into some very strange weird things that that then give give kind of a wrong impression a false view of who who god is and the very thing that's meant to draw people and touch their lives can like push people away and so we tend to gravitate towards wherever we feel most comfortable or most drawn but the reality is we are meant to be people of word and spirit and we were meant to experience this together over and over and over again the word together is used fellowship all things in common like they were together in temples and in homes gathered worship and everyday life they prayed prayers and they met practical needs they embodied together in everyday life the life of jesus they experienced it together so i want to give a little practical application then we're going to move into the second point this morning as as we kind of embark on this journey in the coming weeks i just want to encourage you for i don't want this series to feel like it's a critique to something we're getting wrong i hope it's if nothing else like an inspiring reminder of what we're a part of but i do think we should be open to saying lord is there anything you want to highlight in me that i've missed that i've neglected maybe that i've never done an area i can grow in and see what he might highlight to you along the way so i would just encourage you some application we we can all continue to grow in our knowledge and practice of the life of jesus see that's one of the reasons why he puts us in community together because if i'm not in community if i'm growing in knowledge i i can do that just listen to podcasts all day long i can read some books i can gain all kinds of knowledge but biblical knowledge when when the word no is used in the scripture it's it's used in a very intimate terms often right it's it's about more than just information it's it's knowledge that's getting applied into my life it's easy to read all about how much god loves us it's really difficult to then start learning to sacrificially love other people it's easy to love people that just i have nice interactions with them like i can love y'all on a sunday morning that's pretty easy like about the only thing i have to avoid is like bad coffee breath usually mine that's about the the most offensive thing i'm gonna encounter in a little greeting on a sunday morning right but you start really doing life on life that gets difficult the people i love the most are also the people that maybe i have the most challenges with if if my kiddos were really listening they would say amen dad that's what it's like living with you um no but listen that's that's reality and so we learn together as we are engaged in relationship together all right so we need to grow in that friends we need the empowering presence of the holy spirit we need his presence in our lives we will talk about that a bit along the way um but i just i want you to know like we are meant to receive the holy spirit into our lives and and we're meant to grow and recognize and cultivate that relationship you know the the title of our church is grace chapel we talk about the grace of god and often get grace gets really we focus a lot on attaching it to mercy and i think that's an aspect of grace like amazing grace saved me but but grace is about the empowering presence of god to do in us and for us and through us what we cannot do on our own and so man we're meant to experience the holy spirit's presence in our lives if that's if that's like new territory for you a new area and you're thinking man i want to grow in that we will talk about the holy spirit during the course of this series but we did a really thorough in-depth series on the holy spirit two and a half three years ago now called abide if it's not currently on the website we'll throw it back up there where it's easy to find in the sermons page but we did everything from like several weeks on just who he is then several more weeks on how to cultivate that relationship and then we finished off by talking about the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit look really beautiful and wonderful when people are filled with the fruit of the spirit are operating in them and most of the things that that scare us or make us nervous or even wounding we've experienced along the way when people who weren't operating in the fruit of the spirit their gifts kind of hit us wrong we'll talk more about that all right and then finally friends we need to learn and grow and live together that's it the word and the spirit change us personally within community okay so here's what i want to talk about now kind of in point two um i wanna encourage us to consider am i really awake to this fact am i am i living in a in a regular consistent way am i living in the reality of the fact that i am a part of a body like i am a part of a body and so i want to do this by by first looking at paul's words in first corinthians chapter 11. we're just going to hone in on a couple of verses here um but paul is talking to the corinthian church specifically about taking the lord's supper together and they did it in the context of a full meal so they would gather sit down at a table share a meal together and they would break bread and drink like real wine that that's a bible thing anyways so they gathered to do that together and so he's talking about the context of this because he's saying when we hear what we're about to read he's giving them instruction on taking the lord's supper together but he's addressing a problem he's addressing a problem and he's saying in their context they were missing each other they were missing each other there was brokenness and disunity in that body so listen to his words he he tells them here's what we do we take the bread and it represents his broken body we take the blood or the cup it represents his shed blood for the forgiveness of sins and then verse 28 he says when we do this verse 28 let a person examine himself i want to invite you into taking stock examining this morning but like kind of even going forward think about this week some examining yourself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body that's the title this morning discerning the body for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself friends this is where the sacred and the holy touches every day i want to be familiar with the broken body of christ and the shed blood of christ i want that to be a part of the rhythm of my life it's a rhythm of our church typically we take me in at least once a month on family sundays last sunday the month like today but but paul's saying guys we've got to remember this is something sacred and special we're approaching jesus his body broken for us his blood shed for us but friends i want you to consider something the bread for example the bread specifically what does it represent you can shout it out the body the bread represents the body and we we break it because jesus was broken for us right okay now i want you to consider something here jesus now calls us the body and in the context of this passage paul is not just saying you haven't discerned the broken body of christ he's saying you are not discerning the body that you are a part of and connected with you are missing each other and the issue that he's addressing is that some of them are flat out indifferent to one another there's almost like a i don't even know that you exist there's like a lack of awareness of even how they're impacting one another or they aren't impacting one another because they're just living in their own little world and so he's addressing that just kind of a general disconnect and he's also addressing specifically wounding brokenness like there is hurt and division within the body and so he's saying hey you come to do this and you're not even recognizing you are a part of something that's broken right now you're me you're missing it you're not even aware of your brothers and sisters you're not even aware of the impact you should be having on one each one another that's good that you aren't having or you're ignoring real issues real brokenness in relationship you've hurt each other don't come together and do this if you're not willing to address that does this make sense guys he he calls us to discern to recognize that we are a part of something and he's using the terminology of body for a reason like like a body is all one like i'm grateful for this it's important i'm grateful for these they're valuable this gets me into trouble sometimes but i get to eat cheeseburgers so it's pretty good like these are but i i don't like refer to my elbow as this separate thing one body joined together paul's saying we have to have that sense of awareness that i am connected to something am i even aware of how my body's doing do i even view that what's happening with you is happening to me we're connected so he wants to wake us up and then he says because you because they haven't been discerning the body he's telling you to examine yourselves there's some problems in the house because they haven't he then points to some issues verse 30. listen to what he says that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died we don't like reading that verse in church in fact i've often you know there's a couple of go-to places in the scripture right about that show the lord's supper like you can read some of the moments of the last supper in the gospels or you can come to paul's teaching on it here and like we rarely continue to this verse right we stop at like we're just sharing in the body and blood of jesus isn't that wonderful paul's saying like you're so missing each other that you don't realize that while you're gathering to do something sacred and holy you've already disregarded and damaged the thing that is sacred and holy to him you are mistreating and abusing image bearers of jesus or you're just completely checked out on them and doing your own thing and so he says the consequences are there's unhealth in fact there's even death so about 12 or 13 years ago i was youth pastor at grace chapel in franklin and i had a really like just painful injury like a really painful injury and you know you i'm sure we call it rachel moments where you've hurt yourself and so this particular day we were getting ready for what we called the luau and we did this like every august we did a big luau for the middle school kids and eventually it was middle school in high school together and so if you're planning a big glue out for a bunch of people you definitely make a costco run and so we had loaded up on a bunch of stuff from costco and we're unloading it now down by the barn we're gonna have and so when i say i had a can of of baked beans i ain't talking that size i'm talking costco like are you with me okay and i'm wearing flip-flops and i drop a can of baked beans directly onto my big toe you can feel it can't you you're like please stop talking about this move on you can feel it you can feel it my toenail to this day is weird as a result of this incident it was incredibly i mean it was just painful it's like that kind of pain where you want to get away from it you know what i mean it's like can i just get away from that pain see with me just you just hearing this whether you've ever done that to yourself or not just hearing it you're like there i can feel it right if you've done something like that you're remembering that moment and you're really there but if you were here in the room this morning and you did that this week and your toe is still hurting like you're really present with it we're meant to to like recognize and know and understand where the body is hurting and and guys my silly toe analogy here like the reality is there is evidence of wounding everywhere in the church like loneliness is on the rise people are lonely people are discouraged divisions have been happening for a long time but people are super divided now people are afraid to talk to each other about certain issues because they've already decided i've already lost those three friends i don't want to risk losing anymore we're lonely we're discouraged we're divided we're distrustful people are abandoning relationships and even the church community that's real now the church has dealt with that for 2000 years this isn't new but man is it happening like crazy in our country the evidence of the wounding is everywhere the solution the healing comes from jesus but the healing is meant to come in the context of leaning back in it's hard to do that see it's one thing to drop a can on your own toe it's another thing when someone else has smashed your toe that causes you to be a little a little distrustful a little cautious but friends the very thing we want to pull back from and protect ourselves from is the very place we're supposed to go to receive the healing jesus meant for us to receive his grace didn't happen in a vacuum to a bunch of of perfect people who were never hurt and never wounded it showed up to our very brokenness and wounding it showed up right there jesus wants to heal us and strengthen us and restore us in the context of community relationship with each other andrew i'm just going to skip that last verse i'll save that for a later date so i want to finish with this thought and then we're going to take communion just thinking about this this week and i used the example at the opening of the service of like going into this beautiful elaborate church and the stained glass window and all the things we don't have in a gym i was thinking about a stained glass window you know what's really interesting about stained glass window if you actually look at it it's made up with a bunch of just like small little pieces that actually look broken like they're broken little pieces but when they come together it's a beautiful story a beautiful picture friends jesus was body was broken for us because we are broken people and in his brokenness we are made whole and you know what is really interesting we are called the body just like the bread represents we're never called the blood it's the blood of christ that gives life to the body and in the blood is where we receive forgiveness and healing think about that the reason why community is where we encounter this grace of jesus is because it is in community in the difficulty of relationships where we experience the very grace we need like we can never lose sight of the need to have some humility with one another to be quick to confess and to repent to choose costly forgiveness like jesus never said forgiveness was easy it is hard to forgive hurts and wounds from others but it's in the context of broken people coming together and taking jesus at his word that something sacred and miraculous is happening when we gather and when i lean into those relationships i say jesus you got to come do what i can't i need your spirit i need your blood to give me grace to forgive to give me the sense that god if you could do this for me then i could humble myself and repent before my brothers and sisters and ask forgiveness for the wrong i've done see it's in the very context of community even in our brokenness where we experience the life and grace of jesus friends that's what it means to discern the body we discern the power of him operating through each other and we discern one another even in our brokenness this makes sense friends so here's what we're gonna do this morning we're gonna we're gonna like live this out a little bit we're gonna do something different than we typically do typically elders and deacons come up and and we just kind of serve and you come up and take the elements and go back to your seat and partake as you're ready we're gonna do something completely different this morning so my caveat if you're not comfortable with this we still have some pre-packaged communion back there if you want to do that totally understand okay but what i'd like to do this morning is i would like for us to serve each other communion so here's how we're going to do this i'm going to start i'm going to come right down here i'm just going to stand up here with the elements and one like if if you're single one person at a time if you're a couple one couple at a time if your family come up as a family i'll stand up here and i will serve communion to the first family that comes up y'all take it right there together then i'm gonna hand you the elements and i'm gonna go sit down and you're gonna turn around and you're gonna serve whoever comes up next and we're just going to take our time and serve communion to one another all right parents y'all kind of work together with your kids to do that one of your kids wants to hold the juice cups up for somebody great let's serve each other communion and discern the gathered body of christ as we remember the broken body of jesus can we do that all right i'm going to pray and then and then we'll start partaking of communion together jesus thank you for your incredible love for us jesus if we were alone you're enough and so we're grateful for that we're grateful for your body that was broken for us we're grateful for your blood that was shed for us lord that we could be forgiven and made new and be welcomed into your family but jesus thank you that we aren't alone thank you that you invited us into your family as your sons and daughters and so lord this morning as we take communion jesus we want to remember you and be connected to you and the life that we have in you lord we also want to remember the connection that we have with one another and so help us to discern you and to discern the body well we pause right now to just examine ourselves lord if there's some general ways that we've been disconnected from you or from your body and we just acknowledge those right now we repent we receive your forgiveness lord if there's specific places where there's brokenness in our relationships god we can't take care of other people but we can own our part and so this morning god we just purpose to repent and humble ourselves we purpose to extend forgiveness where it's needed and jesus we thank you that this is all possible because of the life that we have in you because of the grace that's available in you and so we remember you this morning and we celebrate you this morning and we choose to embrace you and your body the body of the believers your family it's in jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Grace Chapel Knoxville

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Id: RXMNK3-h0JU

Length: 42min 10sec (2530 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021