Life Together, 1st John 4:7-20

1. Read 1 John 4:7-21. What does John say gives us confidence that God abides in us? What are some ways this looks in practice?
2. What is one particular way John tells us in this passage that we experience God's presence even though we don't see God? And how have you experienced God's presence in this way?
3. Look at the one another passages of Scripture on the slide below. How committed have you been to loving one another at the level Scripture calls us to?
4. Consider the analogy of the smooth rocks in the river compared to the sharp rocks that never rub up against any others. Even when you've struggled with relational conflict in community with others, have you ever considered that the relational friction could be shaping you in positive ways for your sanctification? Can you think of an example when this might have been true?
5. If you're not a partner (member) at Hillside or another local church, what is keeping you from committing to a local body in this way? Where have you felt challenged through this series to be more committed to community?

Practice: If you're not in a community or partnering with a local church, what is holding you back? If you're already in community, how have you been challenged to go deeper in community? What are you planning on doing differently as a result of this series? How are you going to commit to deeper community going forward?

We’ll have time at the end of the service today to focus on partnership. This week and next week will conclude our series on the church. It’s culminating in this invitation to become a partner at Hillside. It’s a mechanism that calls us and helps us fulfill the picture the New Testament presents to be in community together.

If you choose to partner with us, you’re committing to three rhythms: Worship Together, Life Together, and Serve Together. These come out of the New Testament.

Last week we looked at Worship Together. I shared a few things we mean by worshipping together. It’s coming together for corporate worship on Sunday mornings. From the time you get in the car and choose to be a public witness of the Lord’s Day, resurrection day. He’s Lord of my life and I’m coming to be with those who feel the same way. It’s a statement of Christ’s rule in my life.

Then we’re sent out to be a light in the world. That’s what it means to come together corporately.

We talked about generosity. It’s part of what we want as a community when we gather to be a well-resourced church––not a rich church, but well-resourced. I talked to you about how giving works and how we have a building fund, general fund, etc. Right now things are tight. If you call Hillside your home, help us with that. We also have tech issues we have to solve. We’ll talk about that in the new year.

Today we want to talk about the second rhythm, Life Together. This is another practice or rhythm in your life that recognizes the need for corporate relationships. We gather here in this room, but there are many in here who don’t have close Christian community in your life. And that is critical.

It could very well be that you don’t have that community that stirs you up to love and good works. There’s a kind of growth that happens in close relationship with one another. This is a distinct kind of community. I guarantee there are hurting people in here, and people who are beginning to doubt their faith. Or maybe you’re confused or maybe you’re failing or becoming a little more self-righteous or self-centered or weary spiritually. You may have walked in here saying I’m losing my faith and need someone to encourage me.

One of the things we’ve been learning is that you can’t take your faith for granted. You can’t make it to the end without help. People all over are losing their faith in our culture. How do you keep it? You have to be stirred up or your faith will weaken.

When I’m talking about community, I’m talking about distinctly Christian community. I hope what I show you today will overcome the hurdles you have towards that.

I’ll take you to John 17. This is Jesus’ prayer for his disciples before he leaves the world.

The picture of community Jesus is about to create flows out of what Jesus experiences with the Father and Holy Spirit. He wants us in on that community.

The Trinity is communicating here how they’ve opened up this spiritual reality between them and invited us into it.

Love drives the community. Jesus has this transcendent vision of community that’s only possible with a communal God. Imagine if God was not a Trinity. He would have to create out of a need for relationships. But our Triune God creates out of relationship. He’s calling you into something he already possesses, not something he needs. That’s why Scripture says God is love.

All of reality is based on relationship and love.

I want to give you a picture of how the Trinity operates.

God opens up this flow of love for us to come in. This flow generates this perfect, sacrificial kind of love and service.

Frank Biola says that when we gather, we gather in a way that matches the love of the Triune God.

They’re outdoing themselves in service to one another. And when they let us in, they’re calling us into what they already have.

Jesus’ prayer is that we would be brought into that relationship.

It won’t do for anyone individually to say that they want in on this relationship by themselves without the community.

You cannot have a “foursome” with yourself and the Trinity apart from community. You can’t come in and have this personal relationship with God by yourself. We’re all connected together.

What does it look like down here on earth when we live this out? There’s not a better place to see this than 1 John.

Loving one another is John’s language for community. The distinctive of this community is that they love each other sacrificially.

How do you know you know God? You love others. It’s the first clue that what you have is real.

There’s no intimate knowledge of God if that’s not true.

What kind of love God has is a self-sacrificing love, so that we might live. It’s why we call it life together. There’s no life outside that loving community.

It’s not your love for him that’s so critical or transforms you. You can be all sincere and lovey-dovey. But it’s his love for you that transforms you. That’s what makes you loving. His love shapes reality, not the other way around.

That’s why verse 19 tells us this:

The only reason you’re capable of loving in the way I’m calling you to, is because I’ve loved you that way.

It demolishes all the barriers for you loving. His love dictates, motivates, and activates love inside of us. So, when I’m serving and loving you, I’m in essence being loved by God when I’m loving you, because his love is driving that.

That’s how you overcome the fears you have for getting into smaller groups. You may be shy or skeptical or cynical. You may be awkward socially.

What does it really mean to be loved by God? He overcomes those things in you. He makes you able to risk and helps you with that insecurity.

Loving people is hard. It’s near impossible. Unless you’ve been loved.

John knows we’re here because we want to experience God, know him better, and we would really love if he would show himself to us in a significant way. John says don’t hold your breath. You’re not going to see him in the way you want. God’s presence becomes evident in and through you as you relate to others.

In some sense, John is downplaying the private, mystical experience as the high point of religion. No, the high point of religion is God’s love coming through others. Then there is proof that he is working as you give and receive love by his Spirit.

When I move toward you in loving, self-sacrificing ways, that’s how I love this God I can’t see. How do you love a God you can’t see? Find something tangible.

Many of us are talking ourselves into the idea that we love this invisible God, but John would say you don’t know what love is unless it’s being lived out in community.

How do you detect God in your life? By seeing him through the interactions with other people.

God is love and that love manifests in his Son when he dies for us, then that redemptive love comes into our lives and is perfected or complete. When is God’s love complete? When does it reach its aim? Is it just about me and God? No. The love is perfected in that we love one another. If you’re not loving one another at the level of the New Testament, then his love is not perfected in you.

That’s when I know for sure that he’s in me.

How many of us have doubts in our lives? Where do you think reassurance is going to come from?

Do you want to know, have confidence that God abides in you? This is love perfected. This is where confidence comes from. You better be in deep relationships and called to love in ways that knock you down sometimes and to be loved in ways that knock you down sometimes.

We’ve got God’s love operating inside of us and it operates in ways that we don’t even know it. Some of us are more aware of what gluten does in us than the ways God moves in us.

There are a million ways to get invited into community here. We have baby steps to get you there, because it can be hard.

When two people connect and their beings intersect, something is poured out that has healing effects. There are nutrients that are passed between you.

I’m talking about someone that challenges you spiritually and you challenge spiritually. I’m talking about distinctively Christian community.

Here’s a picture of what is passing between us.

These kinds of things happen only in close Christian community.

I got to go to Jackson Hole this summer. A few of us went on a scenic rafting trip. We saw these rocks that look like stands, like spectator rocks. They turn color in the sun and fade, but never lose their shape edges because they never rub up against each other.

But the rocks in the river look a little more like this:

There’s a saltation process going underneath the surface. It sounds like bacon when you listen. The water gets a little rough and the rocks tumble on one another and they shape each other. It’s re-texturizing all of them.

That’s exactly how it is in community. You have these spectator rocks who never want to get in community, you’re never really going to change. But then there are those who do get into community and your lives tumble over one another. It’s not always detectable. You can meet in a small group for a long time and not know how it’s shaping you.

Gail and I were leaving our small group meeting this week and we said there was some great moments in there. What’s going on in that room that’s really making the difference? You can’t always detect what’s coming at you and what you’re delivering. There was some vulnerability, laughing, tears. We were sharing hard things. When you hear people pray, you hear their real heart longings. When you hear that, you don’t even know how the sincerity of someone in the room strengthens you for the week.

G. K. Chesterton said if you live in a smaller community you live in a much larger world.

The primary thing going on is the de-centering of your self. It happens in a million ways. Maybe you wouldn’t cook what they prepared. Maybe you have to drive a long way to get there.

We all need training in finding out it’s not about me.

It’s happening in a million ways. You’ll be called to love in the way of this eternal flow of the Godhead.

When you partner with a church, whatever church, then they’re going to call you into deeper relationships. The Spirit of God is trying to keep you vulnerable to life and love, because it’s the way you experience God. Any forces that keep pushing you away from him, you’ll have to fight. You have to fight for community.

You’re not going to just wake up one day with the biggest heart in the world. You fight for it every day. Sometimes you go kicking and screaming.

There are some of you who have been in community and then you were out for a while. Gail and I were out of small group this year. We had to reconstruct it. I don’t lead it. I follow their lead.

Today you’re going to be invited to partner with us.