Rev. David Holwick ZE
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 26, 1999
Revelation 7:9-12
BUILDING COMMUNITY
I. Rootless.
A. Personal experience as an army brat.
1) Moved ten times as a kid.
2) Visited a friend at his hometown.
a) People knew him. He knew them - all about them.
b) I said, "This is great! I wish I had this."
B. Stand Up For Roxbury event.
1) Goal is to unite whole community.
2) Give attention to fringes, forestall violence.
3) Do we have anything to build upon?
II. People are not meant to be alone.
A. Loneliness is a great plague.
1) Swindoll on original isolated farm communities.
a) Farms weren't always Garden of Eden.
In the early days of America the government gave away quarter
sections of land to anyone who would homestead, in order to
encourage settlement.
People flocked west from crowded cities and villages to have
their own land at last.
Before they could farm the land they had chosen, their first job
was to build a sod hut to live in.
Most families built them right smack-dab in the middle of their
quarter section.
The reason was obvious.
People who had never owned land before had a new sense of pride
and ownership.
They wanted to feel that everything they saw belonged to them.
But that custom changed very quickly.
This chosen isolation did strange things to people.
Occasionally, photographers went out to record life on the
frontier and returned with photographs of weird men,
wild-eyed women, and haunted-looking children.
Before long most of these families learned to move their houses
to one corner of their property in order to live in
proximity with three other families who also lived on
the corners of their property.
Four families living together, sharing life and death, joy and
sorrow, abundance and want, had a good chance of making it.
#1589
2) Disintegrating of communities.
a) No one knows one another.
b) Social breakdown.
c) Littleton, etc.
B. We crave structure.
Rock star named "T-bone," who happens to be a Christian.
A Christian magazine interviewed him and asked him what he
thought of organized religion.
His response caught the reporter off guard: T-Bone said
churches and denominations are necessary, even cool.
Aren't rock stars supposed to be anti-establishment?
T-bone - I agree with C. S. Lewis: humans are designed to need
structure.
C. God's answer to our loneliness is relationships.
1) Families.
a) Adam and Eve began it all.
b) Born into it.
2) Communities.
a) By time of Cain.
b) Where you happen to live.
3) Churches.
a) Two or three worshipping together.
b) Not automatic - must join.
III. The Special Community of a Congregation.
A. Key to God's plan.
1) Most think of Bible as code of morality for individuals
so they can go to heaven.
2) Actually, he is building a new community.
a) The extension of his Son on earth. (Body of Christ)
b) The reversal of Babel - every ethnic group
will be represented in heaven. Rev 7:9
B. Features of God's community.
1) "Whosoever will" can join.
2) Special invitation to outcasts.
3) Yeast for rest of world.
IV. Building Community.
A. Give your effort.
1) Genuine community doesn't just happen. Must build it.
2) Requires time commitment.
a) An hour a week not enough.
3) Requires cooperation.
a) Two can do more than one. Three even better.
b) Wyoming community after WWII.
Young men returned to town, no jobs.
Mormons banded together, raised money, bought land.
Distributed to young men, profits shared with group.
Non-mormons never got started.
c) Roxbury may never get this sense of cooperation.
1> But we can.
B. Give your heart.
1) Learn to love those outside your family.
a) Outcasts should be welcome here.
b) Church - a place to belong, a place to become.
2) Love enough to pray for people.
3) Love them enough to hold them accountable.
a) Justice was a community affair in Old Testament.
C. Give your mind.
1) "Study to show thyself approved" - actually, it's "do your
best." But thought is still valid.
2) Understand what you believe.
a) Dig deeper.
b) Ask the hard questions, and try to answer them.
c) Celeste's high school Sunday School questions:
"I prayed for my brother who had leukemia, and he
died anyway. Where was God?"
"Why are so many Christians fakes and hypocrites?"
"Isn't the Bible just a bunch of myths?"
d) Many here have opinions on these questions.
1> But could you give a reasonable answer?
2> Support it from the Bible?
3) Abundant opportunities.
a) Sunday School, multiple classes.
b) Monday night men's study - last week unique.
1> Men open up on stuff they never would in church.
c) Thursday night Bible study especially close.
4) As we explore God's will together, we sharpen one another.
D. Give your soul.
1) Faith is key to our fellowship.
2) Not potlucks or choir but experience of Jesus.
3) Share Christ with others.
a) Online sermon: don't bring them to church so they'll
get saved - reach them outside.
b) Unsaved can't appreciate church worship.
V. Reaching our community.
A. God's plan for earth doesn't wrap up till we reach everyone.
B. Not just sharing good news, but living it.
C. When Christians gossip and backbite and complain, our glue
starts to come apart.
VI. God's ultimate community.
A. God doesn't want people divided, but together.
1) Depiction in Revelation - every ethnic group praising Jesus.
B. God's Community requires a choice.
1) Sometimes we are divisive. (Jesus and sword)
a) Forces people to choose sides.
b) Basic incompatibility with world.
2) Challenge of Texas martyrs...
Youth pastor Adam Hammond was in the sanctuary.
"When the first round was done, I heard the clip hit the
floor and he reloaded."
"The next thing I knew one of my youth stood up and said,
'Sir, I know what you need, you need Jesus Christ in your
life'."
Hammond was amazed at the bravery of the 19-year-old.
The gunman responded with a muffled comment about why the
boy was standing when the youth continued:
"I know where I'm going when I die, what about you?"
Then, a pause.
The gunman sat down on the back pew and took his own life.
#4834
C. Will you be a member?
=======================================================================
SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#1589 "Dropping Your Guard," by Charles Swindoll, page 23.
#4834 "Gunman Kills Seven At Church Prayer Rally," by Herb Hollinger,
Baptist Press (with Goshen.net) Http://www.baptistpress.org/,
September 16, 1999.
These and 4,800 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=======================================================================
