Fresh Start - Real Community

Colossians 1:15–18 (NKJV)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Because Jesus is the head of the body of Christ - If you love Christ, then a love of the church is natural.

Our understanding of biblical community is shaped by the book of Acts:

What does Biblical Christian Community look like?

• Community Prays together... and sees results

  • I love what we see in the Acts 12 when Peter was put in prison:

    • Acts 12:5 (NKJV) 5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

• Acts 12:11–12 (NKJV) 11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.” 12 So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.

Our Micro-Churches are full of stories of praying together and God moving on that behalf!

• Jobs because a micro-church prayed

• Healing because a micro-church prayed

• Salvations because a micro-church prayed

• Community Grows in their Biblical understanding together.... and sees it applied to life

Biblical truth that doesn't make a difference in your life is just religious knowledge

• It makes you more like a pharisee than makes you more like Jesus

Here's why you need community surrounding you as you learn biblical truth -

• You can't see your blind spots

Galatians 2:11–13 (NKJV)

11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

Sometimes your people have to call you out!

• You need to give somebody permission to get in your business

• Do you love the person next to you enough to GIVE them permission?

• Community Serves together.... Because cities are changed by GROUPS not INDIVIDUALS

  • Acts 17:5–6 (NKJV) 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

• I love that everything that was happening there was always referenced to Jason's Micro-Church!

  • Your Micro-Church was never meant to be a group that meets together in private to be good little disciples

    • Your MC is a place where Mission begins

    • Your MC is a place where strategies form

      • Strategies to reach your community

      • Strategies to reach your workplace

      • It is where the kingdom expansion starts!

• Community Worships together..... And heaven is replicated on earth!

Look what happens when Paul and Silas on their missionary journey:

• Acts 16:24–26 (NKJV) 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

When we worship together - chains fall off

• That's awesome for us!

  • Imagine being in that moment, you are bound by chains in the darkest of the jails!

    • In a moment of boldness worship happens

  • You begin feeling the peace of God and then a:

    • TANGIBLE change happens!?

    • (Did you know that tangible change might be waiting for your moment to worship?)