Chisamba | The Heart of Community - Erik Black

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it is going to be a fearful thing to face God one day. But at the same time, I had this overwhelming sense that being at the feet of God, there is no safer place to be than at the feet of God Almighty. Hey. So today is going to be a little bit different. I just have a short little message, encouragement to share with you. And then I've asked for people to share, and I also want to open up the floor to for you if you feel like you would like to share something on community groups, something somehow that you've been encouraged, something you've experienced within the life of a community group, that you would come up and share it with us, please. There's something so powerful about testimonies, okay? So please don't be scared. And if you are, take courage. Because remember, when you come up here and you share, man, you're going to give encouragement to all of those out there. And these things do take courage. They just do. So, community groups, what community groups are all about. So basically, our community groups are basically an extension of our church life. And as we meet together in our homes, which we are told as showed how in Acts chapter two, we gather in our homes, it's not only just about Bible study. It can definitely be Bible study, but it's not only about Bible study. It's so much more than just that. What we are doing when we are gathering together in our community groups is we are intentionally building family. You know what it's like here at church. There's a lot of people on a Sunday. It's busy. You can't really go deep. But. And which is why we have something like community groups is because we want to deepen relationships. We want to get to know each other more and more, be in each other's lives and do life together. And we want to live God's word out practically in reality, okay? And we are all together walking as disciples of Jesus. And we need to do that in a real, real way. And we, as a community of believers, are supposed to be a light to the world. And I've always thought what we are supposed to display to everyone is a place and a group of people where when outsiders look in, they say, oh, man, that is beautiful. I want some of that. We are supposed to be attractive to the outside world, okay? And yes, we can do it on Sunday. But Sunday, Sunday, it's one day and so we extend that out into community groups, and we do this life together. And we are that light to everybody around us. And we are supposed to reflect the kingdom of God. And for me, I might be going ahead of my notes here, but I want people to be able to look at us and say, look how these people love each other. Look how they care after each other. This is what we want. This is what I want. I have gone ahead in my notes. I'll come back to that thought. But within our community groups, there must be and there is. This is one of the results of a community group as we strive for it is a true sense of belonging. Okay? And I'm going to go over each of these points in a minute. So we have belonging, we have accountability, and we have spiritual growth. And it's important to say that when we're describing what community groups are all about, it's also important to see say what they are not about. And community groups are not for our own end, okay? They're not for ourselves. They are for the kingdom of God and for our brothers and sisters. So we. When. When I lived in Joburg, Coles and I, just for a year or two, we were part of a community group there, which was. Which is amazing. If you would have looked at us, you would have thought and said, there is no ways outside of church that these people would have been friends with each other. That group was so different and so diverse in every single way. Age, race, culture, everything. It was so different. It was crazy. But the single thing that brought us together was the Lord Jesus. And it was. I mean, I still love that group. We're not in touch anymore, but I love that group. I will never forget it as long as I live. And so, again, that's something which is maybe different. The kingdom of God is all of us, every one of us. And we come together and we. We have something in common through Jesus Christ. That's what brings us together. That's the glue. And this. As I was thinking about this, it may seem like I'm going a little bit off topic here, but I just felt really that I needed to share this. And we were talking about, God has placed you in the body. God has purposefully and mindfully placed you in a body. And the thought that I've been meditating on for some time now is, are you content with where God has placed you? And not just where God has placed you, but how God has placed you? You know, Corinthians goes into. Paul in Corinthians goes into great lengths and telling us how important every single member is. And you may feel like my little space is not even worth it, but he says it's actually far more important than you would ever imagine. And so if God has placed you in, I want to use the word position, but in a place within the body where you feel like it's not important. Just think of that verse [00:07:41] Speaker B: that I [00:07:42] Speaker A: read in the beginning, Psalm 84:10. Better to be one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. So I just want to encourage you, please, to. If you ever have that thought, if you ever have that feeling that you're not important or, you know what you're doing is so feeble. It is not. It is more precious to be in the house of the God than to be. To live eternity elsewhere. I can imagine the tents of the wicked must have been something grand and beautiful. And what. But if you really, truly know God, being one day with him, being a doorkeeper in his kingdom is worth infinitely more. So I want to encourage you with that and also to say, are you satisfied with what God has given you, where God has placed you? Bearing in mind that God is the. He is the. What's the word? The reward. God is the reward, not anything else. He Himself. Another thing I want to touch on, because community groups really address this is when we bring our struggles and life's problems. It's a place where we can really go deep with one another. We can really share and we can really carry each other's burdens and we can pray for each other. And I want to say that life is not comfortable. Life is not easy. But I think that comfort actually is a dangerous thing. And so obviously I've been thinking about this often, and maybe you're like me, and you always think, if I can only have that, or if I could only get that job or that much money, whatever, if I can only have that, then I'll be happy. But that's not the truth. And we're always going to be in a place where we're striving to be more comfortable or what. But just know that it's in those difficult times where God meets you. It's in those difficult times where God grows you, where you grow in the Lord. And it's an opportunity for us to rally around each other and carry each other, because that's community. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the community of God was always the community of God, James 1, 2, 4 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. And that verse has been a huge encouragement to me that actually when we face trials of any kind, we can consider it pure joy. The Lord says, consider it pure joy because you know that it's going to produce perseverance in your faith. So I want to come back to the three points of belonging, accountability, and spiritual growth. Just very briefly, just to mention what are they? And remember that Jesus himself had 12 men that did life with him for three years. Just 12, not hundreds, not thousands. Yes, he was part of those groups, but the people who lived with him were 12 men. So belonging. And again, these are just things that I would like you to ponder on and meditate on. What does it mean to belong? How would you explain what belonging means to someone else who wants to know? Well, I think the best example for me is a family unit. And yes, they're family units which don't represent it. But think of an ideal perfect family unit where it doesn't matter how you perform, it doesn't matter how you wrong each other, you will always have a place in that family. It's not conditional. It is because you are part of that family and you always will be. That's what it means to belong somewhere. Accountability. This is a big one. We all need accountability so much. I know I do, man. Some of you out there know I do. And so what does it mean to be accountable to someone? I think in my. If I were to explain this to someone, I would say that being accountable to someone is allowing someone that you know and you trust speak into your life. And that means it's not the easy stuff. It's easy to say easy stuff to people, but being accountable to someone is being able to receive the hard stuff. When you are making a wrong step or a wrong decision or you've done something which does not reflect Jesus well, will you allow someone to speak into that and to say, I don't think that was very good. I think you need to repent of that. So that is what accountability looks like. And it is a beautiful thing. I think it is one of the most loving things that you can do is allow someone to speak into your life and point these things out. So that because we are blind to our own things, right, we can so easily get stuck in our ways and not Even know it. And so when people are there to help you and encourage you, there's a blessing. And they do it out of love. Spiritual growth. How do you grow without being challenged? You don't grow without resistance. It's like, I think of sportsmen and bodybuilders and stuff. They spend their lives training. And I think most of us here probably don't know what training means. They live their lives. I know that the top swimmers will swim six hours a day. Six hours a day. How much effort and time do they put into becoming the best? And so it takes training. It does not just come. Spiritual growth will not just come. It takes training. It takes discipline. And the greatest growth happens in the valleys. When we were having a little struggle a little while ago, our dear Sean sent us a message which says, mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys. Isn't that beautiful? So spiritual growth will come through training and testing. So what do we do in com groups and what is the heart of our community groups? This is something maybe a little bit more practical. One thing that we can always fall back on is we can always refer back to the Sunday sermon, because I always believe that the Sunday sermon, whoever shares, is a message from God. And so. And it's for the body. So it is an opportunity to really dig in deeper, because I'm sure they're not always easy to hear, or maybe you don't agree with something. And in a church setting, it's a bit difficult to go deeper. But in community groups, man, you can. You can go deeper, you can explore, you can have robust arguments. That's good. It's good to challenge each other, [00:16:51] Speaker C: But [00:16:55] Speaker A: sorry. All right. So the next thing is to uplift one another, and then thirdly, to be a family. That is what the heart of community group is all about. And so coming back to the Sunday sermon, what we could do is we could, yes, we can have the discussions, the robust discussions. We can read scriptures together. And what an opportunity it is to really pray. Pray about all things, pray about each other, pray about the message. When we having robust conversations, remember to do everything out of love. Other things that we can do in our community groups, which we always do, and I think most of you do do, is bring a meal and share. We share a meal together. That's such an awesome way to just be together. Another idea is that we can combine community groups from time to time and see who else, what other people are doing. We can have testimony nights where we share what God is doing in our Lives and in our hearts, we can have prayer and worship nights because I definitely feel in church, somehow we're constrained. But maybe in the community group, when we're. We know each other a little bit better and we feel a bit more free with each other, we can just worship more easily and more freely. So we can have those. So I encourage you, encourage you with that one. Fun nights. We can have nights of fun, have a games night, have a movie night, get a Christian movie and then discuss the movie afterwards. And then, of course, bible study nights. 100%. I know that it may seem to you that I'm against. I'm not against it. I'm just trying to include everything. I love Bible study. I love it. And if that's what you decide or what we decide to do for a few weeks, then awesome, Beautiful. Let's do that. Testimonies. Why are they important? When I think of testimonies, I think of Revelation 12, 11. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. It's that powerful. So your testimony is powerful. Please have courage to share. So in closing, if I could have one thing from however long the Lord keeps us here, or if I would have the outside world say one thing about us as a church, I would say, look how those people love each other. That for me would be, we've won. We've done our job, all of us. We can get so much wrong, and we always do get lots wrong. But one thing we can always do and we can always get right is we can love each other. 1 Peter 4, 8 says, above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. And John 13, 34 and 35, Jesus says a new command, I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. So we're about to get into the testimonies. I've asked a few people to share, and if you feel like you would want to share something briefly, please do feel free. And I just want to encourage you after the service to really make an effort to reach out and speak to people. Maybe go meet someone new that you don't know well, just to get to know them. And then those people you do know well, why don't you ask them a very important question, like, how's your prayer life going? How's your relationship with God going? Something very direct but very important. So just want to encourage you to try and be intentional. Okay. I Mean, I fail at this badly, but I know it's the right thing. Let's be intentional, let's challenge each other, let's ask, and let's pray for each other. So with that, one of our community groups, the vowels group, Mbangas, Sean, Pete and Claire, they did something amazing. They went away for a weekend down to the Lo Azam and I've been a little bit margielous but driven to, to try and do the same thing as well. But I think it is absolutely awesome, guys. Well done. And we just definitely want to ask them to share something about the experience and anything, anything on how community group has just, you know, changed your life. [00:22:42] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll go first so that way I can steal everything they have to say and. No, I'm just kidding. No, we, we had the opportunity as a comm group come up where all of our schedules kind of aligned. And last minute, I'd say it was like two weeks of planning. Not even we made it happen. [00:23:04] Speaker C: So [00:23:06] Speaker D: first off, I want to say thank you to the, to the Van Eedens for opening up their place to us. It was a very special time for us and thank you. It meant a lot. [00:23:16] Speaker E: We, [00:23:18] Speaker D: I think for us, some of the special moments was even just the leading up to it, the anticipation of my family, my kids just excited about this time to go and spend with, with their friends and Uncle Pete and Auntie Claire and it just this, this excitement that surrounded in the beginning and, and, and yeah. So to be able to come together and spend that time, we really learned a lot about each other, but not just about one another as a person, but as a group, how we come together as a team. And that's something that's just been on my mind, Matt. You know, you talking about the battles and the light, you know, on Sunday morning and the fight that we have in life and it's like, keeps coming back. I think I got a new name for our comm group and we're going to call IT Comm Group 6 or something, you know, because it's like we got Seal Team 6, you know, and you hear about the, the, the military and the terms used and it's like that's what we as a calm group are to one another. We are a force that has each other's six. Okay, you've heard of, you know, I've got your six, I've got your back. You know, the enemy doesn't come at us from the sides. He doesn't come at us from face. He's going to come up from behind. He's going to be looking to take you down when you least expect it. And knowing that I've got brothers in Christ who got my six, who, you know, families that have our six is really important to me also. You know, for example, one, one example is on the way home. We just finished this entire week together. It's supposed to be like a five or six hour, five or six hour trip. And on the way home, I think, what was it, like 11? Like, it was insane. We hit traffic, there was a down Zesco line. Now we're going through. I guess Lusaka had just had some rains. It was in like insane puddles that were not puddles, lakes that we were driving through. And I just remember just having. Because we were kind of following each other and it's like just having people that are going through this town together, it's like my temper could have been out the window. I could have been yelling at every car on the road, which, I mean, Kim can tell you, sometimes I can do. But this moment was knowing that you've got people that you're doing this with changed the entire attitude. My kid, our kids are on walkie talkies playing games from car to car. You know, we're making jokes back and forth and it's like the entire attitude changed, My attitude changed. And to know that I can go through life with people that are going through it with me and who we've got, this team, basically all bringing our own gifts and our own skills, just, yeah. Changes the way you look at life, changes the way that you go about it. And. And that's something that I'm really grateful. [00:26:25] Speaker A: You can just hold it if you want. [00:26:29] Speaker B: So have you ever been to a thin place? A thin place is something that God used throughout scripture where he initiated these adventures. A thin place is where the distance between God and man seems to compress, it seems where there's direct access where you speak, you listen, and there's this whisper where God is able to speak to the depths of your souls. We experienced a thin space. And so thank you so much again to the Vanedans for that, the use of that incredible place where literally we felt like we were walking in the. In the wild, rugged majesty of Africa where God was speaking to us moment by moment, day by day. Throughout that experience, I felt this sense of access through that, that thin space that I could just speak directly to God and hear from him and get that restoration, that guidance, that kind of instruction that I needed for this next stage in our lives. God, throughout Scripture, you'll find that over a hundred times, God initiates that adventure or leads people into that thin place where he says, leave your family, leave the comfort of your home or whatever it is, and come with me into the wilderness, into the mountains or beside a river. And so we had all three of those. We were in a beautiful camp beside a powerful river, the mighty Zambezi, in the wilderness with mountains kind of behind us, just this incredible place of redemption and restoration. And we were able to share that. To be seen to belong and to know that we were loved was just an amazing experience. And then, of course, as Brendan said, coming back and kind of hitting that Lusaka traffic, just. It was like a gut punch. It was just this, you know, kind of welcome back to reality sort of thing. But keeping with the Navy SEAL kind of thing, we'd been playing that we were using Navy SEAL signals on the radios. And so Brendan was Bravo Tango, which is big techs. And so we were kind of, hey, Bravo Tango, is there an ice cream place anywhere around here? My Whiskey and Charlie's wife and children are ready for some ice cream. And so, just to have those kind of inside jokes, you know, that we now carry, that we now all have, those kind of relationships are built through trial and celebration, through shared experiences. So we're just so thankful to have had that shared experience, shared time and space, to be able to grow together in love with each other and with the Lord in that thin space. Thank you. [00:29:11] Speaker A: We want to play the videos. You want to play the videos now? Yeah. Okay, let's quickly do that. You have to go on to proclaim. There we go. That's fine. Now you can just press play. The sound was just there. That's ridiculous. You can close it. [00:31:13] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Maybe there's a picture up there. Who's next? [00:32:30] Speaker E: Yeah. So just as one of the kids in the car, as my dad and Uncle Brendan said, with the walkie talkies, that trip, if it was just my family, there would have been crying and fighting, and it would have been terrible. But it wasn't so bad knowing that there was three other kids in another car going through the exact same thing with the walkie talkies. And I'm very grateful that we were able to do that with you guys. That was probably, well, not the best part, but it was definitely a highlight of the whole trip, which is kind of weird because it normally wouldn't be. Yeah. And I'm just very grateful that we have that community and group, that we can just live life together. And that's like I think that trip was the perfect picture of what life is because that would have been terrible by ourselves, but having people with us was. It was. It made it a lot easier. Yeah. And, yeah, I love you guys and I'm very grateful for that. [00:33:31] Speaker F: Kim? [00:33:33] Speaker C: No. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Anybody else? It's not. It's not just for that con group, although they definitely led the way for us. I just want to know what was Pete's score song? Old Madonna, Papa yankee, Big text. All right, is there anybody else who would like to share? Anything? Anybody? [00:34:16] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:34:16] Speaker D: So [00:34:19] Speaker F: we've got our little com group. We meet at Miguel's house within faithfully every week. Never repeated a menu provides a meal for us. But I'm just amazed how with. You know, what I see in that group is how you can be culturally diverse, you can be in different walks of life, and how God just knits you together. And I've just seen an incredible growth in everybody's walk with the Lord, but also in just their, like how they see community. And so, yeah, it's from my side of it. We are so encouraged by what we see. And it doesn't matter. You know, this thing about trying to go where you fit in. I don't think that applies. I think God wants us like we've seen with that same memory verse. He puts us in a place and we have it all. And it's so wonderful when you see those different people that don't say much. You see them in community groups starting to speak, and it's a joy. [00:35:34] Speaker A: I think I share the same with our group. We've had Maclean's join us quite recently and. And yeah, we've got Brian and Kath there and Greg and Mark and Van Eedens and. Oh, man, just. I just love to see what God is doing. And I also. I just. If I were to sum it up in a word, I would say encouraged. So, so encouraged. And we love you guys. We love all of you. And yeah, get plugged in. If you're not plugged in, get plugged in. [00:36:10] Speaker C: Last chance. [00:36:10] Speaker A: Anyone else [00:36:13] Speaker C: appreciate loud voice? [00:36:17] Speaker A: But it's for the. It's for the. [00:36:19] Speaker C: Oh, right. Our com group. It's not a comm. Group from this church, actually. We. We are so diverse. We've got Basil and Vilma, that's from here. The rest are people that. And. And it's. Sometimes it feels a bit chaotic. It's like we, like for the last couple of weeks, we've pretty much met every second week. And it's. Sometimes you feel it a little bit discouraged, like, what's the program here? But what's really great is, especially with what we're doing at the moment, we just took a piece of text and we're discussing it, and people come and they prepared and you don't get a word in sideways. And it's so encouraging to see that people who are not regularly in church and actually are getting really excited about the word of God and, And, yeah, the camaraderie and everything is definitely a bonus and a plus. And it's. It's really just great. And if. If. Even if you get together with your neighbors who's not really coming to church, I think there's a great opportunity there. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Thank you. All right, should we end in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this beautiful community of ours, this beautiful body of yours. We just want to commit everything to you, Lord. Just convict us in our lives of where we aren't putting you first, Lord. We just want to live our lives. This life is short. Just want to live our lives for you, bring you glory and then be with you forever, Lord. Show us how to do that and be our guide in every way. And yeah, we just. Just want to pray a blessing over everybody here as they go out into the new week, and they are ambassadors for you wherever they go. Thank you, Lord. We praise you and we glorify you in Jesus name. [00:38:17] Speaker C: Amen. [00:38:19] Speaker A: Right.