Dr. Ron Sumners
October 10, 2004
We're continuing in our series on 40 Days of Purpose. Recently Adelina Dominguez died in San Diego. What made her life noteworthy is that according to the Guinness Book of World Records, she was the oldest living American. At 114 years of age, she outlived all her children and some of her grandchildren. When she was asked the secret of her longevity, she gave all the credit to God and to His plan and purpose for her life. She said, "I knew God had a purpose for my life."
We are now three weeks into this 40-days series on God's purpose for your life. Last week we looked at His first purpose, which is to know Him and to love Him. The Bible calls this worship because you were planned for God's pleasure. Today we are going to look at the second purpose, which is that you were planned for God's Family.
Hebrews 2: 10 tells us, "God is the one who made all things, and all things are for His glory. He wanted to have many children to share His glory." God wanted a family. That is why we are here! He wanted children. God planned everything in the universe so we could be born, so we could share in His glory and be a part of His family. The next verse says, "His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ." The entire Bible is the story of God building a family. It is an eternal family because we were made to last forever.
Once you understand and get started on God's first purpose for your life, which is to know and love God, you must move on to the second. 1 Peter 2: 17 says, "Love your spiritual family." That's what God wants you to do. That is the second purpose for your life. God tells us to love the people in our family. Why? There are several reasons. First, your physical family is going to fall apart eventually. In fact, many of them fall apart here on earth. Your spiritual family is going to last forever. Therefore, God wants you to love them.
Why does God want you to love them?
First, it makes us more like God because God is love.
Second, He wants His children to learn to get along with each other.
And number three, it is practice for eternity. One of the things that you are going to do in eternity is love and serve God. The other thing you are going to do is love the other believers that are there. It is going to be a place of love. So, we need to practice loving each other here!
The second purpose in our lives is Fellowship! That is the word that the Bible uses to describe loving each other. This word is often misunderstood. If l were to go out in the street and ask people on the street, "What does fellowship mean?" I would get answers from casual conversation to going to church.
Fellowship is loving God's Family! 1 John 4:21 tells us, "The person who loves God must also love other believers." How do we love each other? Fortunately, the Bible gives us clear instructions. Paul tells us that this family of God is the church. It is not a building; it is not an institution; it is not an organization; it is not a club. It is a family. Many people say, "I am going to church," as they head toward worship, as if church is a place you go to. The truth is, in God's family there are four levels of fellowship. We are going to look at them in detail. You were not meant to be here on earth alone. The fact is that we need each other.
Of the four levels of fellowship, the first level is Membership. Membership is choosing to belong. That is the basic level. That means that you find a church family and you choose to be connected to it. Ephesians 2:19 says, "You are members of God's very own family, and you belong in God's household with every other Christian." You belong! The Christian life is not just a matter of believing. It is a matter of belonging, and you and I must choose to belong.
Fellowship begins with belonging, with making a choice. God wants you to identify with a particular spiritual family. When you were born, you automatically became a part of the human race. But you must choose to belong to the family of God!
You hear people say, ''I'm a Christian, but I don't want to belong to any church." That doesn't make sense. The church is where you live out what it means to be a Christian. Imagine a football player saying, "I want to play football, but I don't want to be a part of a team." Imagine a tuba player saying, "I'm a tuba player, but I don't want to be part of an orchestra." A tuba player without an orchestra sounds pretty funny. That's like a bee without a hive or a soldier without an army. A Christian without a church family is an orphan. God meant for us to be part of a family.
Romans 12:5, "In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." In this decision that we make, we choose to belong to every other Christian. We are members together. I know the word "membership" is a funny word for some of us. Did you realize that it is a uniquely Christian word? Today we talk about being a member of various clubs and organizations, but originally, the term meant a member of the Body of Christ. Just as your hand is a member of your body, that's how tightly we are tied together. This isn't about a silly club, wearing silly hats. Church Fellowship is about belonging to each other and making a choice to belong to a family.
It is only in America that we have what I call floating believers. These are people who go from church to church. They flit from church to church and never become involved or a member of any Fellowship.
If you want to grow, if you want to see God at work in your life, you have to join a body. If you are floating from church to church, you are of about as much use to the Fellowship as a human liver unattached to the body. The liver would die. The same thing happens to the Christian who has no fellowship. We need to attach ourselves to a body of believers. Jesus loves the church.
You and I need to love the church in the same way. Jesus calls the church "His Body." What if l said to you, "I love you, I just can't stand your body?" How would you feel about that? The church is Jesus' Body. He loves the church. The church is the Bride of Christ. What if I said to you, "I love you, but I can't stand your wife?" How would you like that?
The church is the Bride of Christ. Because Jesus loves the church, we choose to love the church and belong. The symbol of that choice is called "Baptism." Baptism is the picture that states that we belong to the Fellowship.
1 Corinthians 12: 13 says, "This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized. Each of us is now a part of His resurrection Body." Baptism is a public way of saying, "I am part of a group of believers, and I am excited to belong to this group of believers."
Romans 6:3 says, "That's what baptism into the life of Jesus Christ means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus." So, baptism is a public way of saying together that we have died to something, and we now live for something. We have died to an old way of life, and we are now living a new way of life.
One of the best pictures I can give you is that baptism is the wedding ring of the Christian life. This wedding ring I am wearing doesn't make me married. But my wife gave it to me on the day we were married so I could wear it from that day forward as a visible symbol of the commitment of my heart. That's what baptism is. It is a visible symbol of the commitment of a person's heart, saying, "I am not ashamed to tell the world that I believe in Jesus Christ!"
I'll never forget the day I was baptized. As I was submerged in the cold, April water of Logan's Creek, I was saying, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." A little girl once said to her pastor, "Preacher, when can I be hypnotized?"
The first level was choosing to belong. The second level is a bit deeper. It is learning to share. This is the "Friendship" level. You were created in God's image. So, you were made for relationships. Acts 2:44 says, "All the believers bet together constantly, and shared everything with each other."
Notice two things: one, you can't develop friendships without meeting together, and two; you can't develop friendships without sharing. The more frequently you meet together, the closer you are going to get. Do you ever see some people that have friendships that have lasted 20, 30 or 40 years? You might say, "How lucky they are to have a friend like that!" It is not luck at all. It is a choice. You choose to develop friendships by making time for them.
Do you know why so many people are lonely? They have never made time for friendship. They are too busy achieving; they are too busy working; they are too busy doing other things. They are not willing to put time into it. Until you are willing to invest time and make friendship a priority in your life, you are not going to develop many deep friendships. They do not happen by accident. They happen when you choose to make time for them. It is not luck. It is a choice.
Children must be taught to share. It is not a natural, human response. In the family of God, we must learn to share with other Christians. The Bible is full of instructions on things that we are to share with other believers.
The Bible says that we are to share our experiences. We learn from each other just as "iron sharpens iron." Experience is a great teacher. That is true even when it is the experience of another person. I don't have time to make all the mistakes. I have made many, but even I haven't made all of them. Maybe I could learn from you, and you could learn from me. Maybe we could save each other from hurt and pain! We are all ignorant, just about different things. You know a lot of things that I don't know, and I may even know some things that you don't know. The person sitting next to you may know something that neither of us knows. We are to share our experience with each other. Think of all the wealth of knowledge sitting right here in this service, and how much we could learn from each other if we just spend time together.
Secondly, we are to share our homes. 1 Peter 4:9 says, "Open up your homes to each. other." It does not say to open up your home only if it is really nice! It simply says we need to open our homes to each other. Why? Because, you cannot have close fellowship in a crowd. You can only fellowship in a small group. We will not do any real fellowshipping here today. There are too many of us. We can celebrate together. We can learn together. But no fellowship will take place during the service. You are going to exit in a little bit, not knowing anyone here any better than you did when you entered, beyond possibly learning their name. Fellowship takes place only in a small group. That is why, if you can only give God an hour a Sunday - make it the Sunday School hour. There you can develop fellowship.
That is why the Bible tells us to open our homes to each other. That is where you really get to know people. For the first 300 years of Christianity, there were no church buildings? All church meetings were held in homes.
We live in communities where people live next door to each other for years and never know them. I read an article that said the culprit is the automatic garage door opener. We don't even have to get out of our car until we are inside the house!
I hope you are a part of a small group in this 40 Days of Purpose endeavor. It's not just a good idea. You will not receive all there is to receive if you do not participate in a small group.
The third level is Partnership. Partnership is doing my part. We all have contributions we can make to the Family of God. God did not bring you to Meadow Brook Baptist Church to sit and soak in a spiritual spa. He brought you here to serve. He wants to make a difference through your life. In every family there are family responsibilities. The family divides up the chores, and you do your part. This is a Christian Family, God's Family. Every one of us has a part to play; a job to do. The Bible is filled with the message that you and I are to work together in getting this job done. There are 58 times in the New Testament that we are admonished to work together. We serve one another. We love one another. We pray with one another. This is love in action. Not just words.
1 Corinthians 3:9 says, "We are partners working together for God." We are partners together with God in the greatest endeavor in the entire world - the church!
In order to be a part, you have to find your niche. You have to discover how and where you fit. God knits the body of His church together. I have a part to fill and so do you. When we cooperate together, we can do things for the Kingdom that we could never do individually.
Mother Teresa spent her life working with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. She was once asked, "How do you handle all the death and disease? How do you do the tough things in serving?" She answered, "Every person I bathe, every person I bandage, I imagine seeing the face of Jesus and I do it for Him." That is the attitude that lies behind our service and partnership with Him.
I encourage you to make this practical action step this week if you want a deeper level of fellowship. Look for a practical need, meet that need, and see what it will do for you and for your fellowship in the church.
The deepest level of fellowship in the family of God is what I call "Kinship." It is an old term. We don't use it too much anymore. We might still talk of "kinfolks," but that is about the extent of our understanding of the term. It literally means your closest relationships. It means the closest family.
That kinship is loving fellow believers like family; treating and loving believers like they are family. Romans 2:10 says, "Be devoted to each other like loving family." The Biblical word for fellowship is "Koinonia." It means to be as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. That is kinship. You are closer to me than many of my own family. You are kin! I am willing to sacrifice for you.
Many people know John 3:16, but few know 1 John 3:16, "We know what real love is because Christ gave up His life for us. And we ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters." This is the deepest level of fellowship.
The Bible talks about the fellowship of suffering. Frankly, in America, we Christians know nothing about this level of fellowship. Many overseas do because they are being persecuted. Did you realize that millions around the world lose their lives every year because they are believers? An estimated 10,000,000 die every year for their faith in Christ. Do you think that they understand kinship with Christ and other believers?
Life is all about loving God and learning to love each other. If you miss this, you have missed the purpose of your life and I pity you. Life is not about accomplishments. It is about relationships. You were put on this earth to know God and love Him, and to know His family and love them, because they are the ones we will spend eternity with.
As a pastor, I have been at the bedside of many who were dying. I have never heard one of those dying souls say, "Bring me my diplomas, I want them close to me." Not one said, "Bring me my trophies." None said, "Bring me my palm pilot." It is in those final moments that they talk about what matters the most. Do you know what they want? They want friends, family, and God!
One day you are going to figure out that what really matters in life is knowing God and having close family and friends. I hope it doesn't take until the day you lay dying to discover that. I pray that you discover it now and begin to fellowship as God intended.
Loving God we call "Worship." Loving each other is called "Fellowship." What we want to be known for at Meadow Brook Baptist Church is not our size, or our worship style, nor our sermons, or our singing, not our strategy, not our buildings - but our love. I want the people in this community to say concerning us, "Those folks at Meadow Brook Baptist really love each other and they love this community too!"
The greatest privilege you will ever be offered in life is a privilege of being a part of God's family. God's family is a laboratory for learning to love. Some of you grew up in families that didn't have a lot of love. You don't know how to love. In fact, after being a pastor for over thirty years, I have concluded that many people don't have the slightest idea how to love. The only love they know is sexual, romantic love. They don't know the other kind of love. So, we must be taught, and the family of God is where we earn to love real people, not ideal people. Nobody in this church is ideal and neither are you. We learn to love real people, and that is part of our reason for being on this earth.
Let me ask you a relevant question: at what level of fellowship are you? Have you decided to belong? Are you still floating around from place to place and never gotten committed? You need to choose a church! If you can't feel right about Meadow Brook Baptist, then go somewhere else and join! You need to be baptized and say, "I am not ashamed."
Then you need to learn to share. Be part of a small group. You will go to them in joy and in crisis. They will become your "kin."
Everyone is created by God, but not everyone is God's child. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then God is not your Father, and you are not a part of the Family. I plead with you today. Please do not leave here today without making that basic decision of membership. You can't grow in the family until you are a part of the family. Come to God through Jesus Christ today!
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