Friends For The Journey

I remember standing on the dock in Newport, Rhode Island at age 22 feeling totally alone and unconnected. It was an awful feeling. My girlfriend had just dumped me, my parents lived a thousand miles away, most of my friends had turned their backs on me when I stopped giving them money, and Debbie had not yet entered my life!

Although I considered myself an agnostic, I remember shooting up a prayer: “is there anyone out there who will really love me?”

A year later, I was dating Debbie and a year after that we were married. My life changed. I found my ‘north star’ … my prime directive (Star Trek). It was to put loving God and loving others before all else. I soon had a wife, children and friends. I belonged to a family of faith…a community of friendship.

Last February, Deb and I took a cruise together with some of those close friends we made in our mid-20s. After over 30 years, they are still our friends… we belong to a family of faith.

Below is the outline for Rick Warren’s study number 17, “A Place to Belong.” I will be curious if this resonates with any of you. Let me know.

A PLACE TO BELONG

You are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian (Ephesians 2:19).

God’s family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1Tim. 3:15).

You are called to belong not just believe.
We are created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for a family.

The Bible says that we are put together, joined together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, and held together and will be caught up together.

The word member was originally invented by Christians. It was used to reflect a Christian being a member of Christ’s body as a finger is a member of the human body. The church is intended to be a body, not a building. When we are disconnected and cut off from the lifeblood of a local body, our spiritual life will wither and eventually cease to exist.

Your local fellowship: most of the time, the word church is used in the New Testament it is referring to a local gathering or congregation of believers. In the original meaning of the Greek word, ecclesia, it referred to the people getting together, not the building where they meet. In the biblical metaphor, a follower of Jesus without a church is like an organ without a body, a sheep without a flock, or a child without a family. You belong in Gods household with every other Christian (Eph. 2:19).

WHY YOU NEED A SPIRITUAL FAMILY
A family of faith (spiritual community) identifies you as a genuine believer. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples (John 13:35).

A family of faith moves you out of self-centered isolation, A spiritual family is a lab for practicing how to love and how to grow to spiritual maturity just a family serves the same purpose for children.

A family of faith helps you develop spiritual strength. We will never grow to maturity in isolation or by being passive spectators.

Practicing the one another’s: Over fifty times in the New Testament the phrase one another or each other is used. We are instructed to love one another, pray for, encourage, admonish, greet, serve, teach, accept, honor, forgive each other, submit to and be devoted to each other, and bear each other’s burdens.

The community of faith needs you. God has a unique role for you to play in his family. This is called serving and God has given you unique gifts to serve others. A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church (1 Cor. 12:7).

You will share in Christ’s purpose in the world. The family of God is God’s instrument on the earth. We are not just to love one another but we are also to carry his love to the whole world.

A family of faith will help keep you from going backwards. None of us are immune to temptation. We are instructed to encourage one another daily so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness (Heb. 3:13).

IT’S ALL IN THE FAMILY.
God created the community of faith to meet your five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out and power to live on. There is no other place where you can find all five of these benefits. God’s purpose for his family are also his five purposes for you: worship helps you focus on God, fellowship helps you face life’s problems, discipleship helps fortify your faith, service helps find your talents, evangelism helps fulfill your mission.
The Christian life is more than just commitment to Christ; it is also commitment to other followers of the Jesus way. God wants you to love real people, not ideal people. You can spend a lifetime searching for the perfect church but you will not find it. You are called to love imperfect people, just as God does.

Point to Ponder: I am called to belong, not just believe.

Verse to Remember: In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:5).

Question to Consider: Does my level of involvement in my spiritual family demonstrate that I love and am committed to God’s family?