BELONG - Authentic Community & Grace & Truth Dealers NOTES

An Alone person is an Emergency & 

A First Time Guest is your Best Friend.

Church isn't just a place we go, it’s who we are…

BELONG

Its the feeling of a sense of acceptance. To feel happy and fitted in with a group of people.

Belong is a verb that means to be in a proper place, to be owned by someone, or to feel comfortable as a member of a group.

TO be in the right or suitable place.(suitable for what?)

Core questions:

Do people actually know the real me?

Do I love people enough to tell them the truth?

Well who are the only 2 people who know the real you?

So whose responsibility is it to let others know what going on in your head, heart, and with your hands?

My goal for this church is to LIVE WHOLE HEARTEDLY in CHRIST, UNIFIED TO BECOMING MORE AND AND MORE LIKE JESUS in everyway.

John 17:20-23

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

1. Authentic Community is based in humility

1 John 3:1-3

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

V2 “What we will be has not yet been revealed”  

I can only think that this is telling us - none of us have arrived, we’re all a work in progress, and we are all on this adventure.

We will be like Him because we will see Him as He is…” 

V3 - Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. 

Humility Question:

When was the last time you were truly honest with who you are as a disciple of Christ?

No one is or will be in love with the fake version of you or what you want people to perceive you as. 

2. Being a Grace & Truth Dealer connects us more and more

1 John 3:11-18

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

Did you know that there are 59 specific "one another" commands (exhortations on how believers should act toward each other) found across 100 total occurrences in the Bible? 

“BLIND SPOT”  

A blind spot can mean a personal bias, an area of weakness in your judgment, or a subject that you find very difficult to understand or remain objective about. 

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

We APPROACH with Grace and Truth, 

we DELIVER with Grace and Truth, and 

we WALK ALONGSIDE with Grace and Truth. 

DONT LIVE, REACT, OR FOCUS ON THE FLESH, BUT STAY GROUNDED IN THE SPIRIT by exercising the fruits of the spirit - LJPPKGGFS.

FINAL THOUGHT

Church isn't just a place we go, it’s where we belong. We don't get to define it, Jesus already did.  

CORE QUESTIONS:

Do people actually know the real me?

Do I love people enough to tell them the truth?