THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
by Bobby Sullivan
Quote of the week “You can’t be the best you by yourself, you need community to reveal that” Rick Boyes Senior Pastor Gateway Church, London, Ontario
RECAP FROM LAST WEEK
Psalm 57 (NKJV) – Prayer for Safety from Enemies – To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” A Michtam (a psalm as precious as stamped gold) of David when he fled from Saul into the cave.
Psalm 57:1 “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.”
David is not being chased by an enemy but by his spiritual father and mentor. He doesn’t want to have a meeting of the minds to discuss a disagreement. Saul wants to utterly destroy David!!
Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Refuge and Fortress- He who dwells in the shadow of the fortress of God are those you can count on, trust in those walls for protection. Waiting on God is not inactivity; in many cases it is eager anticipation of the angelic to be activated on your behalf. Way too many unemployed angels!
David felt a tremendous amount of injustice and betrayal. Rather than defending himself and starting a war of words he retreated to the refuge of Gods wings. It was in this place of refuge that David was renewed.
It was from this place of refuge that David was rewarded. Why? He trusted in the Lord’s methods more than his.
The dwelling place is the same as the secret place. This is the private place where He provides provision for the weary soul. It may be your retreat center. It may be time to make a reservation so you can be restored!
We are not called to use the carnal weapons of this world. These weapons can’t operate and function properly in this battle. I’m convinced many in the church are not trained in how to use heavenly weaponry and that is why they are beat up, broken and spiritually destroyed. They surrender ground that has already been given to them. WHY would you do that?
A Famous Pastor in Bridgewater once said,
Surrender is sitting back in silence!!! Those who find solitude in silence have willfully surrendered the potential salvation of a city.
Not criticizing shy people. In many cases, sitting back doesn’t always mean you are not moving forward. It just means that God is moving before you to make the rough places smoother for your advancement!!!
The danger is when the sitting back becomes sitting down and stationary place becomes the place of silence.
In a time of trouble David went and made God his refuge and dwelling place here in Adullam, justice of the people. Everyone who needed Justice followed David.
David has been cut off from community by his family, his friends and his followers. He is in a place that prevents fellowship with others. David was brought to the place where he had nothing and no one but the Lord God. That cave was a place of separation!
We often find ourselves in the caves as well, don’t we? God will bring us to the place where we are alone with Him and shut off from the rest of the world.
We fear those times, but they often precede the times of God’s greatest blessings in our lives! David alone in the cave; Jacob was alone in his tent; Elijah alone by the brook; Job alone surrounded by his friends; Moses alone on the backside of that mountain; Jesus alone in the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary.
Each of these experienced their greatest triumph after that time of being shut up and shut off by the Lord. You see, there are lessons that are learned in the dark that cannot be learned in the light.
He escaped to something he was trapped in. Now we see why he was complaining! He is a king confined to a cave.
David is not surprised by the enemies that surrounded him. He is surprised by the friends who didn’t.
How many of you know there is a difference in being surrounded and being supported?
David was surrounded by family but not supported……
Everyone in the cave needed something from David!!!
David rose to the challenge and the truth of his character was revealed in what he did during those times.
He took measures to care for his elderly parents and he rose up and led his men. In other words, instead of breaking under the pressures of the moment, David’s heart was revealed. The leader rose to the challenge and led! But, it took pain and problems to squeeze that out of him!
It was from the cave that David’s Character was created
CHARACTER is GREATER THAN CHARISMA!
Character is a description of a person’s attributes, traits or abilities.
Charisma is a special personal quality or power of an individual making him capable of influencing or inspiring large numbers of people.
Charisma is a gifting: Just because someone is gifted with influence, wealth and personality does not mean that person pleases God. Charisma is what you already have.
Character comes from within you, not what’s on the outside of you!
It is time for us to cross the line of inadequacy and the lines drawn in the sand by the giants of our present day failures and ghosts of your past.
Failure is an event, not a person! We all fail sometimes.
Failure is not final!
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” Winston Churchill
“Success builds Character. Failure reveals it” “Try and fail, but don’t fail to try”
It was through David’s failures that his character was revealed.
1 Chronicles 12:22 “For at that time they came to David day by day to help him, until it was a great army, like the army of God.”
During this time of constant conflict David grew strong community. The Community grew strong!!!
Something was happening in the cave of conversion; Transforming lives to Impact their world. People in this province are looking for purpose. They will find it from those who are planted, poised and ready to proceed! Move out and Move forward!
Community was created!
This is the benefits of community; when no one cares who gets the credit. Is there anything we can’t do when we lock arms?
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be … the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
The reason HE comforts you with all comfort is so you can comfort others with the same comfort that you have been comforted with.
There is a plaque on the Statue of Liberty with a poem The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, addressed to those who arrive in America from foreign lands. In part it reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
“The compassion element of the Great Commission is continuant on our definition of community”
FROM OCCUPATION TO EXPANSION
by Bill Johnson
One of the warriors of old made this statement: “The purpose of war is victory, and the purpose of victory is occupation.”
In the Kingdom, we add one more step to the process: The purpose of occupation is expansion.
The Lord would not give the Promised Land to Israel all at once because they did not have the ability to occupy all of the territory. By only giving them the amount of land they could occupy, He positioned them for expansion. Expansion is vital to advancing the Kingdom of Heaven. The man who was given the one talent and buried it simply occupied and protected that accomplishment but suffered tremendously because he did not take what he had and position it for increase (Matthew 25:15-28).
It’s important that we view life with the perspective of expansion and forward motion. When we think this way, we are positioning ourselves for increase and promotion. It’s not healthy to simply find a place you want to stay in and occupy. The moment you have found a leveling-off place is the moment you begin backsliding.
When your passion begins to decline, you already start to die. You were born to burn. For Battle not the bottle!
Elisha came to the king and said, “Please strike the ground with these arrows.” And he struck the ground three times. The prophet became furious at the king and said, “If only you had struck the ground five or six times you would have annihilated the enemy, but now you’re only going to have three temporary victories.” Because the king did not live out of passion, he couldn’t carry the anointing that God wanted to give him, and it cost the nation. When leaders don’t have passion, it costs everyone who follows.
Passion and the anointing run in parallel courses. A person with passion will take risks. Everything you want in the realm of the Kingdom is found through this veil of difficulty by stepping into the realm of inconvenience. You don’t get it by coasting on yesterday’s breakthrough. You were born for expansion.
Your Neighbors will have a hard time thinking you want them in heaven if you don’t want them in your living room!
WE NEED TO BE FOCUSED ON THE CONNECTION aspect of Community
When is the last time we step out of the isolated incubator of the Christian social club and interacted with a sinner?
How many Muslim friends, Hindu friends, Gay or Lesbian friends?
Practice cultural accommodation as much as possible, without compromising biblical absolutes.
Why? Because cultural issues are an important part of communicating to the community. People can “hear” the message of Christ better when it comes from someone who accommodates the hearer culturally.
Cultural dissonance is “noise” which makes it more difficult to hear the message.
It is a musical term that relates to disharmony in a chord.
I don’t play the piano, but I know when I hear something that isn’t right.
One of the most dangerous viruses’ that has infected the church is that it has to be generationally homogenous to be successful, that everyone in church has to be from the same generation to be successful and happy.
Just because everyone is in agreement doesn’t mean everyone is on the same page. Just because on the surface we might appear to be in one accord doesn’t mean we are in community.
Some maybe nodding in affirmation on the outside but shaking your head on the inside. Some maybe standing on the outside is solidarity but sitting down on the inside in rebellion
It is our job to create a broad-based coalition of believers that knows how to connect in the community regardless of ethnicity and cultural constraints. It is through the connection that community is created
“Churches should be prophetic breading grounds for generational synergy.” Rev Kevin Wallace
GENERATIONAL SYNERGY: Is the condition where distinct generations run together in a cooperative kingdom arrangement in such a way that the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects produced by each generation.
When we are homogenous and everyone is born in the same generation, we tend to suffer from what leadership experts call, “group think”
Group Think-When everyone in the group thinks the same, acts the same, looks the same, talks the same, dresses the same and no one in the group can see outside the thinking of those in the group.
It is our calling to create a multi generation church that functions off of the synergy and collective ideas of each other. One that supernaturally embraces the collision of heaven and earth. One where community is more than a fashion statement but a way of life.
Corporation are spending millions of dollars teaching, training and demonstrating how each generation is a value asset that can bring a wealth of info to the table.
Young are collaborating with the old to form a melting pot of wisdom that will set them apart from the status quo. Never before has there been in many cases 4 generations functioning under one roof in the labor force.
Tells me there are 4 generations of people trying to get into the church!!! I’m going to figure out how to make that happen.
The devil has exploited and magnified our differences to the point that the church cannot connect to a community and so we become culturally irreleavent.
But in 2021 God is bringing generational synergy to the church to leverage the unique attributes that each generation has to offer. This is how the Family of God will function. We have to learn how to leverage differences not let them divide us.
We all have idiosyncrasies that are different in our generations but that’s what makes a culture different yet attractive at the same time. It is what helps us diversify. We must work diligently to diversify the generational blend of our church and create a community that embraces multi ethnic cultures.
Young people might know technology, but they don’t have a testimony like the seasoned saints.
Young people need to sit under Jean Ann and let her pour into you.
Don’t be one infatuated with your history that your void of a destiny because you prefer an outhouse over a penthouse!
How We can create community without compromising the culture of Christ.
Acts 17:16-34 In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So, you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council.34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
We must replace our eyes with Gods eyes to see man’s dilemma vs 16 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
We must recommend and be convinced of the solution vs 17 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
We must recall or prepare to explain and bring meaning 18-21
We must realize people are searching for answers. Vs. 22 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
We must respond to peoples understanding vs 23
We must reason with people in a non-confrontational manner 24-25
We must address the very real spiritual needs of people vs 27
We must relate or learn to speak in a language people can understand vs 28
We must be relevant; we must not compromise 30-31
We must remember that not all will respond in favor of our testimony 32-34
We must never regret that which we stand for
We must be receptive of other people’s beliefs.
We must radiate the glory of God within us
