“You Were Made For God’s Family: Fellowship"

 Sermon three in the 40 Days of Purpose programme Rev. Dr Robert Iles  
at Golden Grove Uniting Church, S Australia.
31.10.04 

Well I am glad to see so many of you managed to make

The transition to Daylight Saving. I would have welcomed it a month earlier

            But I am glad it is here, unlike one pastor.

On Sunday, the first day of daylight-saving time, a sleepy eyed congregation watched the young preacher ascend the pulpit. Not looking too wide-awake himself, he began, "As you all know, we lost an hour last night because of daylight-saving time.  I don't know which hour you lost, but I lost the hour in which I usually write my sermon."  He returned to the altar and continued the service.

            Well that does not apply to this pulpit.

Starting two Sundays ago we began to ask ourselves the most

Important of all questions.

            We asked together “What am I here for? What is the purpose of my life?”   It was a question that confronted us.

We’re so busy living life and doing everything required of us,

We scarcely have the time to sit around and ask ourselves about the purpose of life? But we read our 40 Days book. And you humoured me by listening to a sermon

On that topic. Though you may have been like the elderly Christian who said to some friends, ‘Do you know I have never heard a sermon

From which I didn’t learn something”. In the stunned silence he added, “Mind you there have been some pretty close shaves.”

We concluded from that Sunday that Scripture teaches the purpose in life is firstly to love God. And last weeks memory verse reminded us of this. Let’s say it.

“Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength” Mk 12:30

We exist because of the love of the Lord, to then love the Lord.

His love is seen in our existing at all. As Ephesians 2:10 reminded us: We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared

In advance for us to do”. He is the master craftsman who does not make junk.

            You are his workmanship. 

He proudly places his trademark on what he has made and says: made in my image.

            Most of the things we buy today say, concerningly, “Made in China”.

On you is the stamp that says: Made by God, in His image. Sponsored by Jesus Christ.

Our purpose for living is found in our Maker, for we are His workmanship.

This purpose is then expressed in five ways.

Firstly we are made for his pleasure and that means our first purpose is to worship him.

                        He wants our worship. Worship is loving God, publicly and privately, corporately and individually.            Today we look at the second purpose God has for us in life.

You are made for God’s family. To believe is to belong.

   You are made for fellowship. 

            But a little Greek first. This might all sound like Greek to you but fellowship comes from a special word in the New Testament: koinonia.

You hear it said many Sundays: Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.(2 Cor.1314)

            It is the word the New Testament uses for Communion or the Lord's Supper.

It is a word with deep valleys of meaning. It is what the Trinity has at the heart of its life, the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit .

 It is what God offers us. It is what we offer each other

And that has been happening in groups over this past week. Sharing, self-disclosure,

Supporting each other in love and prayer. And it is what God has planned you for, fellowship in Christ.

  Fellowship without one another is not possible, though one church is trying, and don’t get any ideas.

Heartland Community Church in Rockland, Illinios uses a library of videos from a number of prominent teachers from around the country. The church has grown from 100 to 3,000 in six years. People gather at video venues.

However only where there is fellowship are you missed when you are away.

So let’s go a bit deeper in this fellowship focus.

As I entered my church office here Tuesday morning I was thinking about this morning.

                        And a surprising picture came to me.

There were a number of bees in the room.

And they were in a bad way. Many lay dead on the windowsill.

Some clung to the curtain with their last gasp if life.

            A couple could still fly. And the Lord seemed to say: There’s your illustration

                        These bees were cut off from the hive. They were away from nutrition.

They had nothing to do. The result of all this is that they died or were dying.

                        Without the hive they had no life, no future, and no purpose.

They were a fellowship of death when outside, pouring into the wall vent

Was a fellowship of life. When we last had a hive here we called an apiarist,

Wanting to preserve the bees. He masked himself and within seconds

Sprayed into the vent and killed the lot. The same happened again Friday.

            It was the end of hive life. But how different here. We are not cut off.

We are made for each other,

To be with each other, to be together in earth and in heaven.

            However some questions have been coming up concerning Rick’s book and teaching. That is how it should be.

Rick places a strong emphasis on God’s eternal plan and purposes as we saw in Eph. 2:10.                             How does that plan relate to human freedom of the will and choice? How does God’s sovereignty, His foreknowledge and free will relate to what we perceive to be our free will?

We might call this the Basis of Belonging

            Scripture teaches that God is all powerful, all-present and all knowing. He plans in advance.  God is never caught by surprise. As Geoff Bingham says: When Adam sinned God didn’t say “Oops”.  He knew what would happen. He has foreknowledge.

            But if he has foreknowledge why does he not intervene to stop pain and evil?

Well the ultimate evil is the rejection of God and he sent Jesus

To deal with that, even in the context of his own rejection.

            However there will always be pain, of a lesser kind in this life. Some of it is caused by foolish choices, the high speed car,

The drug taking; other is involuntary, the cancer,

The death, the collapse of a company. You just have to live with all that in faith until Jesus comes, but think of the alternative.

            If because you might have a car accident God stopped the vehicle starting; if you might trip on a step best not to walk; if you might swallow some salmonella,  

It would be best not to eat many things, or you might pull as muscle walking up Spring Hill so you are kept at the bottom of it,

What kind of life would that risk free life be?

If the alternatives might lead to pain, I would prefer them to the other kind of world. Better to be able to stub a toe than to be isolated from all risk and pain.

            Better to have some occasional toothache than to live on spinach.

God’s foreknowledge does not result in his eliminating risk because we can grow, learn, develop, repent, and grieve together.

 And as theologian John Hick said before he lost his recognisable faith: We are here for soul-making, not for happiness.

 For through suffering we grow deeper life in Christ.

In the same way that an athlete will not get fit only running down hills,

            So he allows us to go through tragedies and traumas but with the re-assurance that He is with us.

 But does he determine everything that happens, ever good thing and every tragedy?

            No. That’s Islamic, “inshallah” but it is not Christianity.

God cannot act in ways contrary to his perfect, loving nature.

And Scripture gives us at least three ways to show

            We have some significant freedom.

1. The fact that human behaviour can incur God’s judgement.

You cannot judge someone if they have not freely chosen a course of action, so freedom is evident in the possibility of sin, albeit a misuse of it.

But secondly we are free because of what this week’s memory verse tells us; we are able to love God.    Love is premised on the reality of freedom. You cannot love God or anyone if you are not free to make that decision. That he calls us to love shows

            We have that freedom to move, by his grace and help.

And worship too. Thirdly. Worship to be worship must be freely and joyfully offered.

            It would give God no pleasure to have automatons, spiritual robots worship him.

It would not be worship but ritual.

                        He gives the freedom to love or rebel, ignore him or worship him and yet He is sovereign, all-powerful.

Scripture then lets this paradox exist, unresolved: God is sovereign and all-powerful but we have freedom to choose.

 The gap between the two can only be lived with through faith. Faith is living with both the certainty that Jesus is Lord

And the uncertainty that not all our issues and questions are resolved in this life.

                        And consider this also as an argument against God

Pre-determining everything that happens: Jesus went about healing people and changing their eternal destiny through his ministry.  That shows

            God has not fixed and pre-determined everyone’s life and fate. Jesus healed,

He saved. Jesus assaults all that cripples people.

It is not God’s will that human life be crippled or that any should perish in unbelief.

All we need to know is that his power is guided by his love and that

            Not everything that happens is his will. He brings good out of all events,

like his son’s crucifixion, but he can never will anything contrary to his own perfect nature.

            His purposes for you are good, his plans are for you to love him and find the purpose of your life in him.

                                    So here ends the theology and philosophy lesson. Keep your questions and issues coming, even if they can’t all be answered with exactitude.

            This excursus also reminds us of one part of last week’s memory verse. You are told to love God with your mind. You come here to think, to be stretched,

To be challenged not to relax, doze off, or be spoon-fed with

Answers not requiring thinking and engagement.

Worship is work as well as experience.

But now to another aspect of fellowship, koinonia.

            To believe is to belong, to be part of a living hive of faith.

We have looked extensively at the basis of belonging, God’s plans

For us to believe.

Now let us consider those who are beginning to belong.

 We are challenged to help those belong who are new here. Newcomers are God’s gift to us. Make them feel welcome and at home here,

Even if you are fairly new yourself.

            It takes courage to come to a church where you know no one. Welcome one another as God in Christ has welcomed you.

Of course we have grief over those who no longer belong

As well as joy over those yet to belong.

                        Reach out to people you do not know. Let the Spirit of God be stronger than your own shyness and help people belong as well as believe.

            Janis went with Julia to a youth service one Sunday evening.

            They were systematically ignored. She contacted the minister and told him and he has exhorted his people to reach out to those who are beginning to belong.

                        Benefits of belonging

Romans 12: 15  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

                        This is a family where the details of your life matter.

You go to hospital; we’ll be there for you. In grief, we will weep with you.

            You have a new job, we will rejoice with you. Going on an overseas holiday

We will miss you and probably envy you. Having a baby, your joy will be ours.

            We belong to one another. We worship together, pray together, and think about predestination together. We are made for one another.

Burdens of belonging.

In parts of the world it is not possible to belong to a Christian church.

In Saudi Arabia no churches are not allowed to exist and any Christian fellowship is kept quiet.

            We put to shame many countries around the world. We have stringent legislation to protect people and other religions against vilification

And prejudice, when the countries they come from attacks our family members.

            In China, if Christians will not join the state structured Three Ways organisation, they will be persecuted, imprisoned and or killed as that book The Heavenly Man shows.

In our frenzied race to be a trading partner with China, what has happened to

            The human rights aspect of China’s life. Is money so much of a God that human rights no longer matter? And the cheap items of Chinese commerce which threatens to engulf economies world-wide as locals can’t compete with Chinese made goods, are built on the poverty of the people and the oppression of workers.

Let us pray for Christians who suffering because they belong to Christ though they do not see that as a burden but an honour.

Bargain of belonging

                        Many of you know a bargain when you see one. You are astute in business, in shopping, in buying cars and houses.

                        But what a deal we offer. Everything is free.

Free grace, free acceptance, free love, free eternal life, and free gift of God’s spirit and gifts.

            All you have to give is yourself as you love the Lord.

The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Hon Serge Voher, has stunned the local Christian leaders.

During an official visit to the Holy Land, Mr Vohor was impacted so greatly that he dramatically changed his lifestyle to a wholesome one.  He has since ordered devotions and prayers be held in all government department offices and he has also established a section in his own office so different pastors can come and pray with him each week!

 In August 2004 in Port Vila he prayed:

 I, Serge Vohor, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, on behalf of my people

confess that we have sinned against the Almighty God, the Holy Spirit,

and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I repent of my own sin and the sins of my community today and the sins

of our forefathers of the past generations.

Lord Jesus, I and my people do not want to miss the day of your visitation.

We beg you this day, do not pass us by.

We are sinners.

We ask your forgiveness.

We invite you into our community today.

Come and change us.

Come and renew our lives.

Come and transform our families.

Come and visit our tribes.

Come and heal our land.

Jesus is Lord of Vanuatu.

May our own political leaders be similarly inspired as they discover the

Bargain of belonging, free grace, free forgiveness that thought it cost Christ a cross comes as free to us.

So there we have it: fellowship, God’s gift to you through his church. 

The basis of belonging

Beginning  belonging

The benefits of belonging

The burden of belonging

The bargain of belonging.

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