Lets open the Word of God this morning to the Book of Hebrews 2. We are in the 40 Days of Purpose, and this is what is going on, our services and our small groups. In Hebrews 2:11 (page 1185 of pew Bibles), Both the One who makes men holy… Who is that? Who is the one who makes men holy? God. …and those who are made holy… Who is that? Us. …are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Were of the same family. Thats our purpose this morning. You were formed for Gods family. Purpose number two: were going to talk about fellowship and what it is and is not. Im going to talk about four types of people or four groups of people, and were going to see if you find yourself in any of these groups. The first thing were going to talk about are the outsiders. These are the people who dont feel like theyre part of Gods family. They dont feel connected to the church. Theyre just not a part. Maybe its because they feel like theyre different; they dont fit in; or maybe its because of a low self-esteem, …maybe something I have done in my past that has, in my opinion, disqualified me from being a part of Gods family. I saw a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen about a year or so ago. In the movie, they had a little boy that just didnt fit in, didnt look like the rest, didnt act like the rest, so they nicknamed him FedEx, meaning you arrived by FedEx; youre not one of us. Were going to watch that short clip right now, and were going to talk about it. Probably all of us have felt like a spiritual FedEx at one time or another. Were going to look at one this morning in the Gospel of Luke, the 19th chapter. The first verse (page 1039), we find a man by the name of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an outsider. He was ostracized by his community; he felt like he didnt fit in, which is astounding because he had a job that everybody loved. He was a tax collector, so youd think everybody would just automatically love him, but that wasnt the case. One day, Jesus is passing by, and hes heard of Jesus. He doesnt know who Jesus is, but he just wants to catch a glimpse and wants to listen and find out what all the ruckus is about. So, he joins the line of people waiting for the procession to come through, but he cant see because hes short in stature, the Bible says. Because hes not very well liked, because hes an outsider and doesnt fit in, nobodys going to let him through. Nobody will make room for him, so he is forced to climb a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. While Jesus, this important figure, this VIP, is passing his way, Zacchaeus is in the tree above him. Hes looking and there He is! and people are shouting out to Jesus. There are all kinds of distractions and noise. All of the sudden, the Lord stops dead in his tracks, and he looks up at this man He has never physically met and calls him by his name. He says, Zacchaeus, I need you to come down. I need to stay in your house. Isnt that amazing? Isnt it wonderful when somebody important knows your name? Some of us here could name-drop today and say, You know, I know so-and-so, and they know who I am. The Lord knows who you are. He knows your name. He says, Zacchaeus, in My book, youre not an outcast. Youre not an outsider. Youre going to become a part of Gods family today, Zacchaeus. Thats what youre formed for. Thats what youre made for. Zacchaeus comes down, and its not well-received by the endearing throng of people. They say in Verse 7 [of Luke 19, page 1039], All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to the guest of a sinner. FedEx: doesnt fit in. He doesnt belong; hes not like us, but Jesus says, Youre not an outsider, Zacchaeus. You matter to me. I love you. If youre here today, and you hear my voice, God doesnt want you to be an outsider. He wants you to know that He loves you and wants you to be a part of His family. Between Verse 7 & 8, theres a conversation. Its in the home of Zacchaeus, and were not privileged to hear all that was said. That conversation [that] the Lord chose to keep private, between He and Zacchaeus, we do see the outcome or the fruit of that conversation. Zacchaeus stood up, and he said to the Lord, Look, Lord! By the way, its interesting: the first time he sees Jesus, he doesnt really know who He is. He just wants to see this Jesus everybody is talking about. By the time they are through, he knows who Jesus is, and he calls Him Lord. He says, Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. That meant a man of the faith. He has the same faith as Abraham had. …for the Son of Man… And you want a purpose statement? Remember when we talked about the importance of purpose statements? Heres the Lords purpose statement, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. He says, This is why I am here. Its about people. Its about relationships. Its about reaching those who are outside the family and saying, You are a part. Youre not a FedEx. You fit in. You have a purpose. Thats why Im here, and thats what happened that day. Notice the first thing that happens to Zacchaeus: as soon as he enters into a right relationship with God, his desire was what? Community. His desire was to enter into a right relationship with his fellow men. I remember when I was 17 years old, and I gave my life to Christ and got serious about God. Do you know what the first thing the Holy Spirit prompted me to do? Make things right with everybody. [To] anybody I had a grudge against or anybody I had wronged, I wrote letters; I made phone calls; I made visits, and all of this love started coming out of me from nowhere. I was like, Where did that come from? [I said], Im sorry for disrespecting you, Mom. Im sorry for what I said, Dad. I appreciate your friendship… and Im writing to people who I never thought Id write to. Sorry for the jerk Ive been. Thats the fruit of the spirit. When the spirit comes in our life, and we make reconciliation with God, He wants us to make reconciliation with our fellow man. Zacchaeus says, I want to fit in. I want to be a part. I dont want to be an outsider anymore. I want to be a part of Gods family. The Book of Revelations 3:20 (page 1218), Jesus says, Here I am. Here I am. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Stand at the door of your heart, and I knock. Im not going to barge in. Im going to knock. If any man, if any person, opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him. Thats Gods promise. God says, I know you. Not only do I know you, but Im knocking at your hearts door. If youll just open up, Ill come in. You dont have to feel like an outsider anymore. You can know that you belong. You can know that youre a part of Gods purpose, Gods plan, and Gods eternal family. The second group I want to talk about briefly is the outcasts-those who have been a part of a family but usually because of sin have been put out of that family. There are instances, and they are extreme, where somebody becomes, maybe, harmful to somebody in the family or is just so out of control with their life, they have to leave a family. That happens. There are times when society will take a person out of the home setting because its a harmful situation. The same thing happens in the church. It doesnt happen too often, but there have been a couple of times in the history of our church. Weve had two times, exactly. Once [it was] a man, and once a woman. They were like wolves in sheeps clothing. They were just starting to cause havoc and disruption in the body. I had to talk to them and say, Youre not welcome here. Youre named in the name of Christ, but youre sure not acting like a son or daughter of God. Your behavior is out of control, and its causing problems in this body. Until you get your life right with the Lord, youre not welcome here. This happened two times in 15 years. It doesnt happen much. It certainly is your last resort, but sometimes that happens, and thats biblical. One of the most misunderstood Scriptures is, Were not to judge one another. So people tend to think you can do anything you want to do because we cant judge. The Word says we cant judge the thoughts and retentions of one anothers hearts. Only God can do that. But if somebody is shaking their fist at God and living openly in sin and defiance of God and the church, the Apostle, Paul, says, You dont just ignore that. You dont just turn and walk away from that. In the Book of 1 Corinthians 5, there is a man who is living in gross immorality. The church is just allowing it to exist. What Paul is basically saying is by allowing it to exist, you become arrogant and youre condoning that behavior. He says, The yeast gets in and it spreads. If you allow this man to live an open rebellion against God, its going to contaminate your whole church. Its going to contaminate your whole congregation. Paul says, Its time to get rid of this man. Its time to remove him from the body, so he can be saved and so hell learn the consequences of his behavior, of his immorality. In Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 5 (page 1131), Paul writes, What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are we not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you. This man is living in blatant, open sin, and he says, We cannot tolerate that. Its going to take down the whole church. For the good of the church, for the honor of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and for his own good, he needs to be removed. Thats what happens. Most scholars believe [that], what were going to find in 2 Corinthians 2 is Pauls response. He writes the church in Corinth about the situation. They act; they remove the rebellious family member. He becomes an outcast from the church. In 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 (page 1143), Paul speaks about him being reinstated. He says, The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. The man had repented. The man had said, Im following God. Im seeking to live a righteous life. Im sorry for what Ive done. Paul says the responsibility of the church is to receive him with open arms, forgive him, and restore him. If youre living in sin, and youve removed yourself or somebody removed you from the church-or excommunicated you-this is a rare thing. Theres probably not a person here who has experienced that. Hopefully, you never will, but its happened. We have to talk about this because we have to realize that our ministry goes far beyond our four walls. We have a website thats getting about 100 hits a day, and I dont believe those are all from Wisconsin. I believe that somebody in Australia or somewhere else could be downloading messages of cross-training, Sunday morning services, and becoming a part of our congregation. Maybe this is not for you today, but it needs to be said. If you are living in rebellion against the Lord, God doesnt want you to be an outcast. If you repent and return to Him, the church will welcome you and receive you back into the family. The third group I want to talk about this morning is the orphans. Those are people with no family. Theyre not connected to the church body; [theyre called] spiritual orphans. God doesnt want spiritual orphans either. Usually, if youre a spiritual orphan, its because of one of two things. One is because there is a spirit of independence. Ive heard this said, and youve heard this said, I dont need the church to be a Christian. I can worship God in the park. I dont need to go to church. Its kind of a spirit of haughtiness, of rebellion. Some of you have probably sung that tune at one time in your life. But, when you become a part of Gods family, you realize the error in that thinking. You can kind of sing that tune that Simon and Garfunkel-Im dating myself here-used to sing, I am a Rock. I am an Island. A rock feels no pain, and an island never cries. I dont need anybody; Im independent. Im a rock; I can do it myself. That kind of independence goes full-face contrary to what Gods Word said. God says the phrase one another so many times in the New Testament. It says, Were to bear one anothers burdens. Were to be compassionate to one another, to love one another, to serve one another, to encourage one another, to honor one another, accept one another, forgive one another, be devoted to one another, and on and on it goes. [It says] Gods family is meant to be lived in community. Hebrews 10:25 (page 1191) says, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Do you know what the word church means? Ecclesia, the assembled ones? Hebrews 10:25 says, Dont stop going to church as some do. Dont have that independent streak. Why? The writer says because its not about you. When you come together, encourage one another, support one another to do good deeds. Thats an important consideration. Its not just about you. Its not only what you need to receive; its what you have to give thats so vitally important for you to become a part of Gods family. Its a two-way street. Its a reciprocal thing. I receive and I give. Im ministered, and I minister to. I serve, and I am served. A relationship thats only one way is dysfunctional; its co-dependent and not healthy. Thats a haughty attitude, and it doesnt line up with Gods Word. If you want to say youre a Christian, one of the definitions of a Christian is you obey what God said. God has said, Dont stop going to church. Dont be a rock; dont be an island. You werent created for that. You were created for community. You were formed to be a part of a family. The second reason that happens sometimes, again, has to do with a little bit of an independent, stubborn streak. That is because people become spiritual orphans and arent connected to Gods family because they transfer churches so much. Thats a phenomenon that happens in almost every community. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to leave a church. Im not saying there arent. Most of the time when people leave, theyre not for legitimate reasons; theyre for rather frivolous reasons. If you take an apple tree and you plant it, and then you dig that up in a year or two and replant it; and then you dig that up in six months and replant it; then you dig it up after another year and replant it, how much fruit is that apple tree going to bear? How productive of an apple tree is that really going to be? Not too good, why? Because it never grows roots. It never settles in so it can produce a crop. Its always being uprooted and moved. Thats what happens in a Christians life. I look around our church, and I see some stable believers. When somebody comes in here and tells me theyve been to six churches in seven years, I usually think to myself, Well, youre not going to be here very long because as soon as they find something wrong, theyre out the door. Thats not how its supposed to work. There is no church thats perfect. If there were such a thing as a perfect church, the moment you joined it, it would cease to be a perfect church because youre not perfect. How many of you belong to part of a family? How many of you who belong to a family have perfect families? Nothing ever goes wrong. Nothing is ever said or done. Just one person? We all congratulate that person. Do you leave your family because its not perfect? No. You work through your difficulties together the best you can. How many of you today who are listening to me have a physical body? Okay, most of you. Thats good. How many of those bodies are perfect? Theres nothing youd change. Just one again? It is a different person. Theres nothing youd change in your face or your body; everythings perfect? No. All of us would say, No, Ill change that. Do you cut it off or remove it because its not perfect? No, that which you can change, you work on, right? Those things you cannot change, you accept. You say, You know what? My body isnt perfect, but its the best that I have. Its all I have. The same thing is true in the church. Theres no church thats perfect. This church certainly is not perfect. When things happen and things arent right, we work through them together. Some people say, I hate to bring this to you, Pastor, but I have a problem with this or that. Do you know what I say? I appreciate that. One thousand times over, I would rather you come to my face and say, Heres a problem that I have than talk about me behind my back. Dont you prefer that too? Come to my face. Thats the mature, biblical way to deal with it. Dont gossip and spread it around. Im not perfect. I have to apologize all the time for oversights and things I neglect or dont do right. Im sure you do too. Theres no perfect pastor. You have to love me the way I am. Im doing the best job I can up here-this is what you get. None of us are perfect, but were a family and we stick together and work things through. I had a brother… One time, one of the members of our family was disappointed because things didnt go the way she wanted them to, so she said, Im just going to leave. He said, You cant leave. Were a family. Families stay together. She left anyway. Not long after that, something happened he didnt like, so he left. I was like, Hey, hey, hey, hey. What was that speech you gave? Were a family. Sometimes people just get up and walk for the most frivolous reasons. They sever themselves from the body. The word the Bible uses for the church family is member. Member implies an intimacy, an attachment, a belonging, a connectedness. You dont just sever. Just think, if you severed parts of your body just because they dont work right or theyre sore or irritable, youd be a mess. You dont sever relationships because something doesnt go perfect. You work through those Biblically; you talk to one another; you love one another; you forgive one another, and you grow together. Theres a fourth group we want to talk about this morning, and thats offspring. Thats what God wants. God doesnt want us to be outcasts, orphans, or outsiders. God wants us to be His offspring. God doesnt have grandchildren, somebody once said. [He has] only children, no grandchildren. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants you to be His offspring. Enter into a relationship with Him as your Heavenly Father. One of the groups weve adopted in our church is a group called Alethea, and theyve been here several times. Theyre three young ladies from the hills of Tennessee. They wrote a song called My Family. Were going to see some images that have to do with our earthly families, but bear in mind as she writes these words, she wrote these words to talk about not her earthly family, but her heavenly family-the church. Lets watch and listen to this song, and then well come back and talk about it. Yesterday, we had the privilege of being with my wifes family as her niece was married. In a family-even a close family-sometimes youre closer to some members of the family than others. Its just simply the way it is. The same thing is true in the church. Were a part of Gods family. We know each other. We love each other. Sometimes we enter into closer relationship with some than others because, lets be honest, you can only have so many intimate relationships in your life. True? You can only sustain so many close friendships in your life because of the time, the resources, and the energies that such friendships take. We believe that its about relationships, and thats one of the reasons why we are encouraging small groups and meeting during the week for the 40 Days of Purpose we are on. Right now, there are 450 of us that meet during the week. Pastor Sean says were on pace to be at 500 people meeting during the week to discuss these questions and these concerns. Thats tremendous! Its a tremendous part of our body that is meeting together and forming relationships. Some of those are friends you can greet and say hi to, but there are going to be a few of those friendships that are going to go much deeper than that. Youre going to go into Biblical community where you would lay down your lives for each other. Youre going to go into a point where you have deep love for one another in a healthy, Biblical way. Just like in a family, we might love our family, but were closer to some than others. The same thing was true with Jesus and the Disciples. In the Book of Matthew 26… Though Jesus loved all of His Disciples, there were three He had entered into an even closer relationship with: Peter, James, and John. When His time had come to go to the cross, He went to the garden to pray. He brought the 11 with Him. Judas had already betrayed. They came to the Garden of Gethsemane for Jesus to pray. He said to them (Matthew 26:36, page 985), Sit here while I go over there to pray. So they sat, but then He took three of them, Peter, James, and John, to separate from the rest of the Disciples. He was going to confide in them in a much deeper way, a much more significant kind of way. It said He took Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled… Prior to that, He was not. Prior to that, they did not know the depth of the sorrow. Matthew and the others, they didnt know the depth of what He was going through. They knew He was hurting, they knew they needed to pray, but they didnt understand the depth of His sorrow and His suffering. Jesus was going to let those three into His suffering. He was going to invite them in. If you want to enter into deep community with somebody in your spiritual family, step number one is you have to invite them in. You cant barge in. You cant go up to somebody and say, Hey, Im going to be your close personal friend, whether you like it or not. It doesnt work that way. You invite them in, and they invite you in. Its a reciprocal thing, but when that happens and people say, You know what? I need somebody in my life I can be accountable to and somebody I can share with, and Id like you to be that person. Were going to take our friendship to another level, and that takes time and trust. Thats what Jesus had here with James, John, and Peter. He said …and then He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Talk about being open; talk about being honest and vulnerable. He says, Guys, I have to tell you something. Right now, my soul, my heart is just breaking. I am about to bear sin. Im about to fulfill my purpose. Im inside; there is turmoil in my spirit. Im praying for strength, that the Father will give me strength to fulfill this purpose. He was going to literally carry the weight of the world upon Him. The first thing a deep community friendship does in the family of God is it invites. The second thing is it shares. It takes a risk. It makes itself vulnerable. It takes a step of faith. It opens up our lives and says, Heres what Im going through. Heres what Im thinking. Heres what Im dealing with. It goes beyond the weather. It goes beyond the ball game, and theres nothing wrong with talking about the ball game or the weather. It goes beyond where you like to eat. It goes beyond that surface stuff to the point where it says, Heres what Im dealing with in my soul. It transcends a small group; those small groups are wonderful. These folks enter into life together, and they share. Our church could be a thousand people in a couple years. Thats the pace were on. You dont get to know a thousand people. Thats not going to happen. You are going to get to know a close circle of friends. There is nothing wrong with that. Youll be able to share your soul with them. You invite them in, and you share. A third thing… for those who want to enter into deep community in Gods family do, they bear. They bear. You share, and the other person bears. It says, I invite you to pray with me. Jesus says, I need you. Im sharing this burden with you. You pray with Me. And, they did actually. Im sure they were very sincere. When they started out, they were over there praying, saying, Father, Your Son needs you today. We dont understand what all Hes going through, but, Father, Hes fulfilling Your mission, Your purpose. Father, just strengthen Him today. Strengthen Him for what Hes about to go through. At some point, they fell asleep. When they fell asleep, Jesus came back. He saw them sleeping, and He said, Hahhhh. Whats the matter, Jesus? Nothing. Nothing. No, somethings wrong. Nope, nothings wrong. Nothings wrong. Is that what He did? He said, Couldnt you wait with Me one hour? Couldnt you pray with Me? You see, their relationship was so open and honest, He didnt have to disguise His feelings. He didnt have to hide behind some relational mask. He said, You disappointed me. Thats an okay thing to do. When youre a family, you can share. You dont stuff things down inside and put on pretend masks and pretend everythings okay. You can be real and authentic. Youre my friends. Youre the ones I was counting on, and you dropped the ball. That hurts too. When that happens, then you can reconcile, and you can make things right. Friends, when you put on masks and you say everything is fine when everything is not fine, and you passively/aggressively ignore a person because theyve hurt you instead of dealing with the problem, youre just as much a part of the problem as they are. In a deep family relationship, you put the cards on the table, invite them in; you share and you bear. You bear one anothers burdens. Some of you are saying, I dont want to be a problem. I dont want to be a burden to anybody. If youve entered into deep community and friendship, youre not a burden to that person. That person loves you deeply. They want to know, and they want to share. They want to pray, and they want to help bear. If youre an isolate, an orphan, or an outsider, I encourage you this morning to get involved with community. Take some of those risks. Make some of those steps. Start to build some of those friendships. In your Christian walk, your experience will never be the same if you do. God doesnt want you to be an outcast or an outsider. He doesnt want you to be an orphan. He wants you to know youre his offspring; youre his child. He wants to enter deep community with you. Youre part of His family. He wants that relationship to extend to your brothers and sisters. He set a model for us here in Matthew 26 that He desires us to follow. Lets pray together. Wont you stand with me this morning? I hope that youre reading faithfully in your book. If you get behind a day or two, dont kick yourself. Our family was out of town yesterday, so were actually two days behind. We have to do a couple double duties here and read a couple chapters. Continue to be faithful to your small group. Maybe there is a week where you dont get much out of it. Pastor Warren wasnt that good on the video this week or the sermon was a dud this week. Be faithful. Stick it through. Follow through these 40 days. Were about halfway through now, and press on. Follow through with that commitment. Keep coming to the weekend services. Keep reading in your book; keep memorizing your Scripture; keep praying. These truths are just going to sink into your spirit to the point where they saturate your being, and they change the way you live. When you realize that youre created for Gods purpose, you learn what worship is, you truly start to offer your lives to the Lord, you learn what fellowship is, and you truly start to enter into that purpose of fellowship, your life will never be the same. It will literally never be the same. Im excited about what God is doing in our church and what Hes doing in each of your lives.