This week we’re exploring the importance of meeting regularly with other Christians, as part of a church community.
The Bible passage we’re exploring this week suggests two purposes to gathering: Encouragement and Worship. We’ll focus on worship next week, and for this week we’ll focus on the encouragement part.
Encouragement to what? Hebrews says community can encourage us to love and good works. First, what would it mean to be encouraged to love in a community? Think of the relationships that form through fun and fellowship. Our Movie Night is one example – we had a great time, and some online members met one another, and a neighbourhood. Our Wings & Trivia was the same, and our Christmas Event will be, too.
Honestly, are churches are meant to get along. I know someone who went to a church and attended a few worship services, and decided to join. But first, they wanted to attend a business meeting of a church – and he walked away saying, “these people don’t believe what they say.” They were not charitable, loving, kind or generous at all, even though they claimed to believe in a God who is.
The Church is meant to be a preview of the kingdom of God. It’s described in the Bible as a party – like we are already in heaven.
The Church is meant to love one another as themselves…even though the rest of the world may not love them the same way.
The Church is meant to care for one another with generosity of Christ, who died for his friends.
We could go on, but it all starts with spending time together, knowing each other’s needs, hopes, dreams, routine and more. Some people like to call this, “doing life together” even though it’s a bit clichéd.
Question: Go out for lunch, drinks or coffee with someone. When can you get together with your discussion group simply for fun? Or if you don’t have one yet, think of who you could share our challenges and discussion with, and start by simply inviting them to something fun.
Reminder: Last week we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.
Read the Bible in Sync Today
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions. We’ve seen from the Bible that followers of Jesus are meant to see ourselves as one with other Christians, regardless of the world’s usual boundaries.
There are a number of reasons for this in the big story of God and his universe. First, look at God the Father, who was creator of all humans. Then look at Adam, the first human, from whom all others came. We’re all meant to be part of God’s family, with many brothers and sisters, even though humanity’s sin has distorted that plan.
Then look at Christ. He gave his life for all of humanity. Finally we can look at God’s kingdom. One description in the Bible points out all nations will be gathered together there.
Overall we get a big picture where diversity within the Christian church is rather important. But is that what church looks like today?
Many church communities are very segregated – sometimes it’s just the reality of a place that only one culture dominates, but that can’t be the case in the GTA. We should look like our surrounding community, with a cross-section of ages, classes and genders.
For Redeem the Commute, becoming Redeemer Church, we need to consider how we can become a church that brings every culture, gender and class into fellowship?
It often starts with fellowship, simply enjoying a meal, talking, learning, becoming friends, based on a common heritage as Christ’s children, before it becomes more than that.
Challenge: Have a cross-cultural experience today. Eat in a restaurant, drop into a store, meet a neighbour, whatever it takes. Ask some questions – what does that mean, what’s this called, etc.
When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again?
The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate.
What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives:
Reset: Goals
Reset: Time
Reset: Money
Reset: Work
Reset: Body & Food
Reset: Sex & Marriage
Reset: Family
Reset: Compassion
Reset: Nature
Reset: Society
Reset: Death
Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.
