Are We A Community?

5th Annual Neighborhood BBQ after church

Good morning!

Today my message is entitled “Are We A Community?”

Right after the service, we are holding our 5th Annual Neighborhood BBQ outside. We started this to let our neighborhood and community know this church is alive and active. Over the 5 years, the numbers that come have grown and this church is definitely known in the community now.

So “Are We a Community?” What is a community?

The New Webster’s Lexicon Dictionary gives this definition of Community:
“A body of people living near one another and in a social relationship, a village community.
A body of people with a faith, profession or a way of life in common.”

Neighborhood: “A district, the people in a district, an area of a town planned as a unit with its own shops, services, amenities in the neighborhood.”

So, are we “A body of people with a faith, profession or a way of life in common.”? Let’s see what God’s Word has to say about how we are to be a community.

Gal 6: 9,10 NIV
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Are we doing good to all people, especially this family of believers?

Dale Carnegie, in his book “How to win friends and influence people,” states:
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

Rom 15:1,2 NIV
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
2 Each of us should please his neighbors for his good, to build him up.

Are we good, strong neighbors? Do we support the weak and build them up?

Anonymous quote: “A real friend is a guy who walks in when everybody else walks out.”

An expert in the law was talking to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus asked him what was written in the Law of Moses.

Luke 10:27-29 NIV
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[Deut. 6:5]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[Lev. 19:18] 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Our neighbor/community is all the people who live in this local area called Tremblay. It is also all the people in the city of Dawson Creek and surrounding regional district. It is our family, friends, workmates and casual acquaintances.

How do we love our neighbor? How do we show them we care and God cares?

Norman Vincent Peale, in his book “The Power of Positive Thinking,” gives us Ten Rules to becoming the kind of person whom others enjoy being around. I want to point out three of his rules.

Rule 2: “Be a very comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you – be an old-shoe, old-hat kind of individual. Be homey.”

Rule 7: “Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest Christian basis, every misunderstanding you have had and now have. Drain off your grievances.”

Rule 10: “Get a deep spiritual experience so that you have something to give people that will help them to be stronger and meet life more effectively. Give strength to people and they will give affection to you.”

These are not bad thoughts to live by. You will build a community around you if you love others like God loves you. If you work at getting to know them, show them you care and they can trust you, you will be a community.

Are We a Community? Yes, I believe we are!

Let’s pray!