back to index(2/2) Berean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study 10/16/24 Part 2
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right? They don't receive any kind of honor in the church. He said the church should 00:00:03.840 |
not look like the world, right? Church, it neutralizes whatever pride, whatever 00:00:10.440 |
ambition that you had before you met Christ, you come to church and all of a 00:00:13.740 |
sudden we get reoriented to what is good and what is bad. That's what he's saying. 00:00:18.400 |
This community should not look like lunchtime in high school, right? So he 00:00:25.200 |
says we give them special honor because they need it. We bestow more abundant 00:00:29.800 |
honor. Our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas 00:00:33.680 |
our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the 00:00:38.400 |
body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be 00:00:42.400 |
no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one 00:00:46.240 |
another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one 00:00:50.040 |
member is honored, all the members rejoice, right? That we are to be one so 00:00:54.960 |
much to the point we genuinely suffer when other people suffer. When we're 00:01:00.320 |
distant, we stiff-arm everybody. We kind of, when somebody suffers, it's like, "Oh, too 00:01:04.440 |
bad. Oh, thumbs down." And that's about the degree of empathy that you show because 00:01:10.280 |
you don't have any connection with that person. When they rejoice, it's like, "Oh, 00:01:13.760 |
great, great." And that's about it. But he says, "No." He says, "Be so connected to the 00:01:20.460 |
church that when one person suffers, that we all suffer together, right?" And as the 00:01:26.080 |
church gets bigger, when we were a smaller church, this was easier because 00:01:29.520 |
there was a lot more interaction, right? But as the church gets bigger, all the 00:01:34.980 |
more why we need to be deliberate about this because it doesn't happen 00:01:37.880 |
automatically in a bigger church, right? We have to make an effort. You yourself 00:01:42.800 |
are not gonna get to know everybody in the church, but if everybody makes an 00:01:45.720 |
effort to do this, right, if everybody practices this, then the community of the 00:01:51.200 |
church will look very different, right? Where we want to be a community, whether 00:01:55.640 |
we are a thousand, whether we are ten thousand, that when somebody suffers, we 00:01:59.940 |
suffer together. When somebody rejoices, we learn to rejoice together, and we can't 00:02:03.720 |
do that if we ignore the gathering of the church, okay? Discussion question. How has 00:02:10.200 |
your current walk with God either helped or hindered your fellowship with others? 00:02:14.400 |
When was the last time you gave up your freedom for the purpose of building up 00:02:18.600 |
someone else's faith? Do you have a difficult time addressing someone else's 00:02:23.300 |
sin, right? How do you know when you are being judgmental versus being careful to 00:02:29.320 |
restore a struggling Christian? That's a very practical question, right? Like some 00:02:34.080 |
people say, "I'm speaking the truth," right? Somebody needs to speak up, but how do you 00:02:38.600 |
know when you are more of speaking truth and not love? Or you got 00:02:44.960 |
somebody else saying like, "Oh, but we need to be more gracious and loving," but you 00:02:48.540 |
never confront sin. How do you balance this where you're doing, you're speaking 00:02:53.120 |
the truth in love, right? Because true fellowship requires both. Then four, when 00:02:58.240 |
was the last time you experienced true biblical fellowship according to what 00:03:01.080 |
was taught today, right? Where it is Christ-centered, other-centered, holiness 00:03:08.880 |
producing, right? And building up the body of Christ. What can you do to facilitate 00:03:13.440 |
genuine fellowship with other members of Berean? So wherever you may be, you may be 00:03:17.800 |
sitting and saying, "Oh, Berean, oh, I'm Berean," right? Most frustrating person is when 00:03:23.560 |
their happiness is based upon other people changing. That person will be 00:03:28.040 |
frustrated all their life. Because as soon as one problem gets fixed, they're 00:03:32.280 |
gonna find someone else that needs to be fixed. So if your joy is based upon other 00:03:37.160 |
people and something outside of you changing for you to be joyful, you will 00:03:41.440 |
never be joyful, right? Application should always be with me. So if I want to see 00:03:49.920 |
biblical fellowship, don't say, "The church needs to do this, the church needs to do 00:03:53.560 |
that." What do you need to do, right? What do you need to do to affect the 00:03:58.240 |
fellowship around you? So that's question number four, okay? Let me pray for us 00:04:02.200 |
and then I'll let you get into your group. Father, we pray that your Word that you 00:04:10.000 |
taught us would bear fruit in our hearts and I pray that the discussion would 00:04:14.600 |
lead to a greater surrender of ourselves and to look out for others and consider 00:04:19.840 |
others better than ourselves, that Christ may be exalted, that the church may be 00:04:24.320 |
built according to your purpose and will. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:05:17.880 |
Hey, did you guys get the email with the slides? I heard that you couldn't see it. Is that true? The slide works but is it all in white with white background? 00:05:41.880 |
But most people are going to see it through their phones though. Okay, all right, okay.