Scripture:

Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Big Idea: Community is Built, Not Found.

Not long ago, I was talking with a couple from church who were frustrated that they had not been able to find a good community to belong to. They saw the depth of relationship that we had in our Small Group (we call it our Gospel Community) and wanted to join. Of course, I invited them and welcomed them in, but I already knew they would not find what they were looking for.

Why? Because community is built, not found.

Every time I encounter someone on a quest to find community, either in a church body or in a small group, I know they will be disappointed. Community, that sense of belonging and being known and loved, requires time and investment to develop. It requires inviting people into your life, accepting invitations into the lives of others, and being intentional and consistent in showing up again and again.

Just like a retirement account grows with regular deposits and compounding interest, a community only grows with regular deposits of time, trust, and transparency. This is why the writer of Hebrews tells Christians to keep meeting together - to not give up! It is easy to give up when our schedules get busy instead of adjusting our priorities. It is easy to give up when we’re asked to trust others with our true story instead of presenting our carefully crafted image. It is easy to give safe, nondescript answers when we’re asked deeper questions about our heart than we are comfortable answering. But as long as we hold back our time, hide behind an image of ourselves, and only give safe answers we’ll never be truly known or truly loved. The “imposter” that we’ve created, the image we’re trying to maintain, is the only thing that actually receives any love. And we’ll continue to feel alone... because our true self isn’t being allowed to belong to the community.

The God of the universe knows everything (Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”) That means God is not fooled by the “imposter” we’ve crafted as our image. He knows us fully, completely, and knows the truth about our hearts. And He loves us right there. Not as we “should” be - He loves us as we are. But He doesn’t leave us there. He sent Jesus to redeem our brokenness and pay the ransom to buy us back from sin. And He sent His Spirit to live in us and the Spirit teaches us to live authentic lives that grow to match His design for us. The transformation doesn’t happen immediately, but it does happen more and more as we live moment-by-moment trusting Him to lead us (Titus 2:11-14).

All of this has me thinking, if the God of the universe can handle knowing the whole truth about you and still love you deeply enough that He sacrificed His son, is it possible that you could allow others in His family to get to know you too? Are you willing to do the work - to invest the time, trust, and transparency it will take - to build a community with other people in the family of God? It will take regular deposits, and grow slower than you’d like at first. But as those deposits compound you will suddenly look up and realize the community you were searching for has been built through those faithful deposits and you’ll find yourself enjoying the wealth of the meaningful relationships which have been built.

Discussion: Who is one of the most authentic people you know? What makes them seem so authentic? Who is someone in your life who seems trapped behind the image of an “imposter” (maybe even you)? What can you do to invite them to trust God and trust others with who they really are?

Prayer Focus: Pray that God would help you to see yourself the way He sees you; that you would better understand and accept the gift of the new identity He has decided belongs to you. Pray that God would give you the courage to invest regular deposits to build a community that is fully known and fully loved.

Watch/Listen to this Sunday's message on Community, from the series: The Greatest Story Ever Re-Told.

This week Michael and Aaron sit down with Donald to discuss The Greatest Story Ever Retold, week 1: Community:

Questions Discussed: 

- Aaron’s goal for this new series.
- What deeper understanding of community can we learn?
- Family and Gospel Community. Irrational commitments.
- We need to be known in order to belong – why don’t we want to be known?
- How can Element be better at being a place for the lonely?

Watch This Week's Livestream Here

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching a lot more TV and movies this year. After all, what else is there to do during a global pandemic when you are stuck at home and have exhausted all other options (have you reached the end of Netflix yet)? Most of us, when out in the real world, would love the chance to meet someone from our favorite TV show or movie (or band). Maybe we’d even be fortunate enough to get a photo with them and raise our “wow” factor among our peers.

Today we have a word in our vocabulary we use called “celebrity.” Celebrity is of middle English origin and meant to celebrate something. Think of the word “celebration” in regard to some achievement (like...we made it through 2020 and get to gather together for Christmas Eve or when someone has a milestone birthday or anniversary). In earlier times, celebrity would refer to someone who was celebrated because of an accomplishment or achievement.

In our culture today celebrity simply means that someone is famous. We have people today who are famous for only being famous and yet we still call them celebrities. Many of these people have no accomplishments that stand out as noteworthy. Who can be a celebrity today? Piano-playing cats, surfboard-riding dogs, people who eat food on YouTube, kids who make up new dances, and little girls who cry about the environment. If you went back just a few centuries, however, before the internet or TV, there were very few celebrities: only monarchs, kings, and certain playwrights and artists. Celebrity tended to be rare, because it was not broadcast with photos or media; it was only broadcast with words.

Amidst the myriad of temptations our culture faces, there is a cult of celebrity. People seek fame by trying to do something that will get them noticed—whether it’s by millions of Instagram likes, Tik-Tok followers, or YouTube views. But, think about this...on Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus—a child born out of wedlock, who became a penniless preacher, who lived a simple life and died a criminal’s death in a backwater Roman colony.

Jesus didn’t seek fame. As a matter of fact, when He performed miracles, He told people not to go about proclaiming it (see Mark 5:43, for example). Now, 2000 years later, Christmas (for all of its faults of consumerism) is the most celebrated holiday in many parts of the world—a celebration of Jesus coming into the world. We sing songs of celebration that almost everyone knows by heart!

Why?

Because Jesus wasn’t just a penniless preacher. He wasn’t just the bastard child of a woman named Mary. He was God’s own son, God in the flesh. For millennia, God’s prophets promised a day they couldn’t even fully comprehend, when the savior of the world would be born. This savior eventually lived the life we should have lived and eventually died the death we deserved to die. By doing so, He exchanges His innocent life for our deserved death—all to bring a rebellious humanity back into relationship with God.

What we celebrate at Christmas is not only the birth of Jesus, but also the work He did to rescue us and restore us to relationship with God and one another. We call this the Good News, and one of the reasons Element loves celebrating Christmas is that we are reminded how the magic and mystery of God’s grace extends beyond this night. As wonderful as Christmas is, it’s not the holiday itself that needs to be celebrated around the globe, but the salvation and life given to us by God. Joy to the world, peace on earth, the reconciliation of humankind; what child is this? He is the only hope we have ever had...Christmas has come for us.

If we are going to give something celebrity status in our lives, something we get giddy and excited for, let it be the Good News of what Christmas represents. Let us make great the name of Jesus.

Last year we did the holiday Christmas store for the students of Delta High School. With Covid that is something we cannot do this year...BUT…we have an alternative! We are working to provide gift baskets filled with the most popular items from the store last year. The students loved the basics like blankets, towels, and toiletries. We are asking Element to jump in and help us provide 100 gift baskets!  You can put a gift basket together (or more than one…I know one family who made 20!) and drop it off at Element by Sunday, December 6th. 

Please provide a bin of some kind and put these items inside:  a blanket, a towel, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, a toothbrush, and toothpaste.  Please also include an encouraging Christmas note.  You are also welcome to donate money for us to put more baskets together. Please let us know if you are able to help so we can get a count.  Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

When I was a kid, there was one thing you had to have in order to be accepted by all the other kids…the right clothes. I don’t know whoever thought up the stupid ritual where kids gravitate toward fashion (while having no fashion sense) and then judge others based on some arbitrary standard. Case in point, when I was in elementary school and junior high, my mom swore by the jeans, made by the Sears Roebuck Company, called Toughskins (you can look at an ad for them here - if you are so inclined). They were the poor man’s Levis…and we were poor so they were my Levis. 

Granted, Toughskins had an ambitious marketing campaign--there is even one ad featuring the unstoppable Chuck Norris doing a high karate kick. If Chuck Norris can’t sell Toughskins to the masses, then no one can. Toughskins had large X’s sewn on the back pockets to proudly display the cancellation of dirt, grime, and holes that young boys so often got into. Unfortunately, the X’s also signaled the cancellation of “cool” status when other kids saw them. As a matter of fact, the X actually signaled an invitation to be made fun of…which happened to me on occasion. 

This phenomenon is an odd thing, the need to mock and belittle someone who you deem as less fortunate than you are. Why is it that we naturally pick on the most vulnerable instead of defending the most vulnerable? I was talking to a schoolteacher friend of mine this week, and she spoke about this young boy (3^rd grade) who was living in the homeless shelter with his family. If you don’t already know this, the homeless shelter doesn’t have the best internet. As a result, this young man’s internet feed was glitching while trying to do class work with other children…and instantly, he started to be made fun of for having slow internet. “What’s wrong, your parents can’t get better internet?” The answer to that is “NO, I LIVE IN THE HOMELESS SHELTER.” These are nine and ten year-old kids we’re talking about, and they are able to hone in on a difference and exploit it. 

When Jesus speaks to people who think they are very religious, but really live very self-centered lives, He calls them out on it. We see Jesus say in Matthew 25:44-45 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. We tend to think the ‘least of these’ are people we have never encountered; they certainly are not those we would make fun of--and yet we all have. 

There is a hypocrisy, deep within our bones, that stems from unrealized and unacknowledged sin. No one is exempt--no one. Today if you watch the riots that break out over racial and societal injustice, oftentimes the crowd’s rage will turn against the vulnerable and not their oppressors. There are videos of singled-out shopkeepers, lone people walking down the street, and random people in cars who are attacked for no reason other than they are vulnerable and can’t stand against the mob. A protest that came together for justice can easily become a force for injustice, because human hearts are in the mix.

Yet on the other side, there are many who watch this hypocrisy and do not see it in themselves when they ignore the cry of the why behind the protests in the first place. Too many look at the incongruous actions of the protestors and use that as an excuse to write off everything that the movement is proclaiming. Our deep-rooted sin that makes us seek our own comfort, naturally wants to turn down the volume of what we perceive as Toughskins and not Levis, so to speak. Our sin nature makes us want to see people who either don’t agree with us, or don’t look like us, as the “other.”

And quite honestly, left to our own devices, this would never end. 

Some people have seen many of the problems in an honest way--not using the division for power or politics--and have come to a place of despair. Vox had a recent article detailing the 12 things most likely to destroy humanity, and most of them were brought about by humanity. Harvard scientist Abraham Avi’ Loeb believes that humanity will destroy itself long before the sun burns out. Dan Wells writes, “Humanity will destroy itself, body and soul, before it will learn a simple lesson.” If I could be so bold, I would say humanity already has destroyed itself in what we refer to in the Scriptures as “the Fall.” The greater question becomes then, “Why are we still here?”

And the answer is grace.  

Too often we think the answer to the human dilemma is our Levis (or our faster internet)--some sort of homogenous mass where everyone looks and likes the same thing. We are told that if we all just agreed that the problem is privilege, climate change, or something else, we would all get along, but that is untrue. Humanity, in its fallen state, will always find ways to make some people less than others. This is why we should stop solely advocating our favorite authors or causes without speaking the truth of the Gospel. So many dismiss our human condition while sitting in a pool of it, and that just makes no sense to me. The bad news is that humanity is destroying itself; the good news is that God has come to rescue us. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 the Apostle Paul (who once killed those who disagreed with him before coming to trust Jesus with his life) says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Paul doesn’t say, “God made Jesus sinful,” he says, “God made him sin…” What that means is on the cross, God laid all of humanity’s sin on Jesus, and Jesus willingly took that upon Himself to rescue us. For us, the beauty of God’s good news is that all of the evil within us was poured onto Jesus…and that becomes the beginning of our story. Paul says that message of grace was what changed him; it is this same message that offers us any possibility of meaningful, lasting change. 

The only way we will ever be able to look at others through a lens that sets our own Levi’s aside is to see the world as God does…and that only comes through a life surrendered to Jesus Himself. The answer is not humanity; humanity is the problem, but by the grace of God, we can truly become one people. The process is mysterious in that it is both instantaneous and slow. In trusting Jesus, we are immediately saved from ourselves and the wrath we deserve. At the same time, God also does His long work of molding and changing us to better reflect Him to the world. There’s a Greek proverb that says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” It’s a beautiful image that speaks to a love that can only come from God, a love compassionate enough to care for those whom we would never meet—and some we would surely disagree with. We must plant trees of the Gospel that grow beyond ourselves, slowly but surely, if we are to live the diversity that is Toughskins and Levis…noticeably different, but cut from the same cloth.

I can confidently say that Bugs Bunny cartoons did not adequately prepare me for my deployment to the Middle East.  According to Looney Toons, the most reliable feature of any desert is the presence of a mirage followed closely by an abundance of magic lamps.  The cartoon bit was always the same.  Dying of thirst, dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, Bugs Bunny or Yosemite Sam would spot a palm-lined oasis in the distance, only to find their hopes dashed by a pesky mirage.  I have been here since May, in the heat of the summer, and I have yet to see a single mirage (or lamp for that matter).  It is worth noting that the defining characteristic of a mirage is that it promises something that it can’t deliver.  

The expectations I set for ministry prior to my deployment and the things I would accomplish for God’s Kingdom were in many ways like a mirage.  When I arrived at what I thought was a palm-lined oasis, I quickly realized it was something completely different.  Maybe you have had this experience.  You resolve to do something for God.  Before you can realize this great vision, reality smacks you in the face.

I prepared and prayed for my deployment, but had no idea of what God would do through me in this place. I had no expectation of what ministry might be in this place.  I’m not gonna lie though, I imagined I would be preaching and leading Bible studies, and if I could get my hands on a guitar… well you get it.  So far, that vision of a ‘Middle East Billy Graham’ has been more mirage than reality.  Often we imagine how God may answer our prayers before we pray them.  Usually while we wait on God’s answer to prayer, our hope is that God will give us exactly what we asked for.  Our sin nature causes us to want to lead God to the outcomes we most desire, even in prayer, but is that how it ought to be? 

Psalm 25 teaches that God leads and we are to follow: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5) The problem I have experienced is, instead of marching toward a goal, I end up wandering in a desert (quite literally) toward a mirage of my own creation.  Meanwhile, I miss the gentle leading of the Lord, which is the very answer to prayer that I am seeking.  The solution to this problem starts when we stop looking for an oasis that meets all the desires of our prayer and start looking at Jesus.  Jesus was very clear about one thing in His ministry, we only harvest where He has sown the seed. 

John chapter 4 tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Because of the first century prejudice that existed between Jews and Samaritans, this interaction nearly scandalized Jesus’ disciples.  Jesus promised this woman (and us) living water.  This unexpected encounter (to the disciples), was actually a divine appointment that resulted in a multitude coming to salvation.  Jesus taught his disciples a very important lesson, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:37-38).  Meaning, when we have success for God’s Kingdom, it is only because God prepared the way before we arrived.   

The Apostle Paul put this another way, “Paul planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase.” (1 Cor 3:6).  God always reaps a harvest where he has sown.  Should we pray for God to lead us? Absolutely.  Should you have an idea or expectation of how God might answer that prayer?  You would not be a human if you did not.  The wisdom comes from discerning God’s answers to your prayer.  

So what am I to do?  The mirage has faded and there is only sand as far as I can see.  Satan has whispered in my ear more than once that I have failed.  I think it is time to look around and see the ministry that God has led me to.  It does not include a podium, a microphone, or a guitar.  I have already annoyed everyone at the Base Chaplain’s Bible study with my long theological rants.  So where does that leave me?  The answer is with the fruitful harvest that God has led me to.  I can’t wait to report to you what that is, once I have figured it out.  I remain willing as ever to obey God’s leading, but more than ever, I am also ready to get out of His way.

One last thought.  Between 1947 and 2005, Billy Graham led 417 Crusades, in 185 countries, on every continent except Antarctica. You and I may never evangelize to the untold millions to whom Billy Graham gave the Gospel, but as great an evangelist as Billy Graham was, somebody first shared the gospel with him.  Whether you are Billy Graham, preaching to millions, or the person who witnessed to Billy Graham, in both cases God sowed the seed, and God reaped the harvest. 

God probably won’t send you or me into the mission field we expect, but the mission field He sends us to is always the right one.  Learn from me; don’t keep wandering toward the mirage.  Look around you at the oasis God as already led you to and share the living water with anyone who will drink.