7 C's For Home Groups II

And I asked the Lord about an illustration of this kind of thing. And when you think of community in Acts, what do you always think of? Acts, chapter two, right? Where they. You know, the Bible says they were all together in one place and then they shared all things in common. But here in Acts 20, we see sort of a roundabout, unintentional description of what God brought to pass between Paul and the Ephesian Church. Let's start reading. Why don't I just read for those who don't have a Bible? That way you can hear it and follow along on your own, if you would. Verse 17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you all the time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. What a prophetic word that was, huh? But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. And if you want to know the secret of Paul's power, there it was. If only I may accomplish my course. And the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. And I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance of among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me, and all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak. Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him to the ship. Now, I don't want for a moment to give you the idea that this experience that Paul outlines here in ephesians or Acts 20 at Ephesus is some sort of a manufactured home group experience. And nor do I trust, by the way, that this is going to be. Some people say, well, the only kind of home groups that really work are ones that just happen. And I believe that God wants to organically bring things to pass. I believe that. But what we have here, I think, is a beautiful description of the life and of the quality and of the dynamic that was present amidst these people. We have a rare insight into what was happening when they were together. And I think it captures the dynamic that we yearn to see in our home groups. Turn that sheet over that I put on your table, if you would. There's one per couple, and if you don't have one, I have several extra up here. There's not enough to go around. You didn't get any yet? Okay. I've got more here. Does anyone need one? Okay, Now, what we're going to describe here, and I hope you'll see the bridge between this and the Bible study is your commitment to the home group. If you walk out here tonight and you say, I don't really know what they expect of me, then somehow I didn't communicate very well at this point. This is what we hope you will bring to the home group. This is what's expected of you. This is what's going to make your home group come together. Let's look at it, and let's see how the scripture illustrates these seven principles. The first thing that absolutely has to be part of a home group is your willingness to covenant to the people there. In other words, your willingness to say to the people, I am available to you. If you're not available, you won't have a valid home group experience. There won't be community if you're not available. Paul was available. Look at verse 18. You yourselves know how I lived among you can't be too much more available than living with somebody right there. He was available to all of their needs, making himself part of their everyday life. And Paul's commitment to them was that he would stay there and look all the way over. In verse 34. Part of his covenant with them was that he would even supply his own needs, his own hands ministering to his necessities. So you see, he made a commitment with the people and he was there to see them through your commitment and your home group. And let's assume that many of you will be in new groups. You'll determine in your first meeting just how far you want to go with your commitment. Some groups will go to a weekly commitment with prayer partners and possibly a phone chain and a couple other different vehicles whereby the 8 or 10 or 12 or so of you in the group can really get to know each other on a very personal basis in a regular way. Others of you may decide that, you know, really it's very difficult for our group to enter into anything more than the once a week commitment. And consequently our covenant with each other will be just to meet once a week. But we're going to meet for two and a half hours instead of an hour and a half or whatever it might be. So your group will determine that first night what your commitment will be and then it's up to you to follow through with that. Alright? That's an important factor. If you don't have that, then you can't be counted on. And accountability, brothers and sisters, is such an important thing. You've got to be able to be counted on. The second thing that you've got to have is commitment. And these are the disciplines which the group is willing to adopt in order to accomplish its purpose. Now this is similar to the covenant, but the difference is that this spells out in detail exactly what you're going to be doing, your part of giving to the group. Look at verse 31 and 32. Paul's commitment to the group was. Look at verse 32. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. That's commitment. He didn't cease night or day. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. You see, he gave himself and now he says, when I'm Leaving? I'm just turning you over to the grace of God. He committed himself to meet their needs. You see, there's a price to pay. Your home group won't go anywhere if all of you in the group don't pay the price. What do I mean by that? Simply, it means that you're going to have to sacrifice. You're going to have to be available. You're going to have to be willing to say on a night that you don't feel like it, honey, we've got to go tonight. You're going to have to be willing to say to the people in your group that what they have agreed upon together is more important than what you feel on a given night. And that's not easy. But how many of you have found it's really a joyful thing to do to give yourself to a group of people? It's an exciting thing and it really stretches us confidentiality. That's another commitment that you make in your group, that you'll not take whatever happens in that group outside of that group and broadcast it. There's nothing more damaging than somebody who comes and pours their heart out and two weeks later at the barber shop finds out that the barber knows already the thing that he's been bleeding over besides his back of his neck or whatever. So you've got to be really sensitive not to break confidence in these home groups. Another thing that you make a commitment to do is to listen to people. The Lord, I believe, had a tremendous way of listening to people. You ever notice how many times Jesus asked questions of people and then just listened to them? What do you want me to do for you? He said to one over and over again. He wanted to know what was on people's hearts, and when they spoke it, he listened. These home groups are not to give you my advice about how to live a Christian life. They're to learn how to care and to develop, support and to learn how to listen to the hearts of one another. So that's another commitment that you make. Third thing is caring, the quality of life together in which members learn how to love each other and develop caring in all parts of their life. Look at verse 20. Paul cared by not shrinking from declaring anything that was profitable. Verse 19. He served the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials. There's care built right into it. Look at verse 28. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. There it is to care for the church of God right At the end of verse 28, what does it mean to care? That's a big Care is kind of like deer hunting, isn't it? The more you try to purposely do it, the less success that you have, in a sense, when you're taking a walk through the woods and it's the middle of April, you see deer every place. But when it's November or whatever, deer huntings, well, care is kind of that way. If you strain and struggle at trying to take care of somebody, it makes it stiff and hard to receive. But God gives us grace to care for one another just by being available and being open. We've had some beautiful illustrations of that in our group. Does anyone have a testimony of how they were cared for by someone else in their home group over the last few months, where you find one of your needs being met in a personal kind of way by someone else in the home group? And you didn't really solicit that help, but it was offered kind of real quickly off the cuff. Anybody have an experience like that where you find your need being met by somebody's sensitivity to care for you? Scott. This isn't answering exactly your question today, but this is. Karen I thought it was a pretty neat illustration. I got home from work, incidentally, at the end of that passage in my Bible, it says, shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I came home from work tonight. My mom was there, and she said, hey, how would you like to go home and change your clothes and come help me take care of one of the sheep? My dad has some sheep that he's raising. And I looked at her and I thought, oh, my gosh, I don't really want to do that. You know, I'm going out tonight and we got to have dinner, and we're having friends over in between and so on and so forth. But anyway, I went home and changed my clothes and ran over to the barn, and one of the sheep was limping, and I had my sporty little duds on, you know, I thought I looked pretty good. And she said, well, go catch that one over there, the one with the blue on the ear. And there's these 14 sheep running around, you know, all over the place. It was a rather dirty stable, and so I had to go dive at one of these little sheep and missed it a few times. And finally I grabbed it and I had to tackle it and banged up against the wall, put it on its back so that she could tend to the foot of the sheep. The sheep didn't ask to be helped. Mom was willing because she loved that sheep. It was part of her flock. And I wasn't exactly excited about it, but I, even in that small illustration, could see the Lord's hand at work. Someone caring for someone that they were responsible for, that they were committed to. If they didn't do it, nobody else would. The sheep didn't ask. It had a need. Thank you. Okay, Any other sheep that have a testimony? Chuck? Okay. All right. But there are some. I want something specifically out of the home groups. Okay. Where. Tell you what, let's do it this way. How many had something happen? Just put your hand up real quick. I won't call on you. Promise. Some people are going like this. Okay, I got. There's a few. Well, good. Here's something the Lord is really teaching us that we need to do then, right? If that's all. I've had really caring experiences. Ah, alright, Gayle, you want to. Go ahead. You want to tell one? Just one. I mean, it's not only been through the community in my home group, but individuals. And some of them are anonymous to me, but it's just that they know that I had the need and they've met it. And of course, my home group was the leader in it, but it just came from everyone in Northway individually and all together. There's too many to mention. That's all. Praise the Lord. All right, I have one that's coming. We're at a place in our house where little things are starting to go like plumbing and stuff. And the upstairs toilet in our house has developed a very serious problem. And our kids are doing great in terms of all their responsibilities, but the toilet's not cooperating. And that's a nice way of saying we're getting into some serious messes there. And one of the brothers in my home group said that he would come and give up at least a morning to take that thing off, whatever it's on and fix it. And we're just having a problem coordinating. Actually, I'm having. You know, there's more than one guy that would like to help. I have a lot to do on Saturdays, but if we could get two or three guys over there, I'll be happy to take that load off. You know what's neat about it is that this brother, this is Jack Mase, he said he went up one night after a meeting and spent close to an hour diagnosing it. We. We went through about 400 gallons of water on testing, but he's. He's going to be available. And I, you know, that's, it's, it's neat because it'll be a time for us to just to, to share good fellowship around the toilet. Speak. My brother in law and my sister aren't here tonight so I'm going to give a testimony for them concerning our home group. They were moving from one house to another house and it was pretty much the home group plus Butch Ulrich who's always available to any home group. Thank you, Butch the rover. This is a rover servant over here. But anyway, our home group prepared, the women prepared a lunch and the men moved the furniture. And it was pouring down rain, I mean just an amazing rain. And we moved that in spite of that and had a good time in the Lord and it was just strictly a project to the home group. And we really didn't have to solicit outside the home group because there was plenty of volunteers. Okay, any other testimonies that, that brings out? One thing for sure, that caring is something we want to do in action as well as in word. You can care over the telephone or you can care by visiting, but it also means a lot to be able to care by an action. Paul over and over again was displaying that. Look at verse 35 in all things. I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak. There in supplying his own needs through his own labors, he was able to divert some of the money that would have been rightfully his to the weak. Thus caring through actions. Okay, quickly the last four things. Content. You're responsible as part of a home group to share and growing in the content. Now take a look at what Paul taught in verse 20. The content that they had was that he did not shrink from declaring to them anything that was profitable and teaching them in public and from house to house. And then verse 31 again tells us that he did not cease night or day, to admonish them, everyone with tears. He taught the word of God. He taught them how to live as believers. Now in our new groups, we have eight weeks of Bible study that we have carefully thought through and worked out together. And you will get the week before your group meets the first week's Bible study. Actually, the first week you'll just be meeting and getting to know each other. Then you'll get for the next week's study, you'll get an outline that you'll be able to study in your own time and then dialog over. And the leader of the group won't be literally teaching it. He'll just be Kind of directing the flow. And we kind of teach one another from the Scriptures and that way we benefit from the input that we have gained over our study time ourselves. And then the groups that are continuing on have to discern their own directions in terms of study. But you're responsible for the content. Alright, communication. Communication takes form all different ways. But I just want to mention one way that we communicate. Look at verse 36. And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. There's no better communication that we have than prayer. How many of you would testify just by putting up your hand that your group really began to come together when you started to pray together? Alright, praise the Lord. There's something that happens and that something as the Holy Spirit begins to knit your hearts together. So we'll communicate verbally, we'll communicate over the phone, we'll communicate by helping out, but we're going to communicate through prayer together. Then number six, the basic function of learning how to identify with one another's feelings. Now I'll tell you, anyone who thinks that by revealing themselves and their real feelings about things that they're going to get blown away or stomped upon may be right. But the risk that you take is that you're willing to do that out of trust for the people in that group. And Paul certainly did it with these people. Look at the emotion with which they loved him. Verse 30, beginning in 37, after they prayed and they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him. Brothers and sisters, this is a tremendous expression of love. Here's a man who poured out his life for three years and when he had to leave, they literally showered him with affection, demonstrated affection to him, and they sorrowed because they would not see his face anymore. And I trust that we'll learn how to share emotion with one another. The good and the bad, the joyful and the sorrowful. That's part of being a home group. Finally, the center of every group is Jesus Christ. I guess that really doesn't need to be said over again. Except. But I do want to say this about a home group. It's possible that you could get into a home group and think that this is the neatest thing that's ever happened. And there's a fine line, beloved, between community becoming your God and community becoming a vehicle to your God. There's a fine line there where people, and I've seen situations, and maybe you have too, where people have gotten so wrapped up in their home group or so wrapped up in their community, or so wrapped up in Their church that if you sit down and talk to them, that's all they'll talk about. How great my church is, how great my home group is, how great my friends are who love the Lord. But somehow you don't really sense how great Jesus is. And the word that's on their lips isn't of glory and praise and honor to him, but it's kind of glorifying and praising the thing, the creation, rather than the Creator. Do you know what I'm saying? It's an important difference. And so Jesus is the Lord of these groups and he's the focal point of our time together now. Seven responsibilities that you have as a part of the group. Any questions at all about these things? Seven principles of life. Anyone want to add anything? Any other insights that I'm sure some of you have before we conclude? Praise the lord. One thing that we manifestly do not want to see take place is that the home groups are somehow identified as a program of this church. In my heart I see really that this church are the people who are in covenant relationship and those who come on Sunday morning to share in our worship and our teaching and our love and our manifestations of the Holy Spirit and all the rest. Praise the Lord for that. But the church folks are the ones who are relating one to another in a committed fashion. If you agree. Do you understand that that is really important? And so this isn't some little thing that we're trying to recruit you for. This is life. This is where it's found. And I'm excited about it. It's a heavy thing for many of us. And yet does anyone else want to share why it's so important? Anyone here that's finding their life really changed by their home group that wants to share that it's your last chance. I'm not going to ask you yet. Why is the home group important just for the sake of those who maybe have never been in a group? What's happening in you because of it? Just give you another minute or two to share that. Some of you are finding yourselves being really changed by the home group. Anybody. I know? Praise the Lord. I could name names here. I'm. How about just an icy stare at some of you people who I know are seeing things happen in your life. Wives. Keep kicking them. They'll stand up. Just keep kicking them. Praise the Lord. Well, all right, Doug. How good your group goes, how much you're learning, how. I experienced something the other night that. Was. My own group was able to minister to me. It was a real blessing. It was a real blessing just to. Feel it come back and really touch my life. Jack. Go ahead, start over again. Especially for this morning as one of the brothers was praying, the Lord really laid on my heart. And I really knew that I had to bring it in the open. I was there and these men that are gathered there, those few mornings are really amazing to me and it had to do with my job. I just want to thank all of you guys and especially d wrek. Okay? We are growing together and I trust that if we have another one of these in six months for the other new people that the Lord brings in that you'll have an opportunity to share and we won't be able to stop it up. I know it's happening and I want to do this. In conclusion, I want you to pray at your tables for the home groups that are coming together.