A GOD-LIVED LIFE: Mutual Consolation of the Fellowship

             We are in a series of sermons with a Stewardship emphasis. Stewardship, ultimately, is about our entire life. We use what God gives us to his glory and for the good of our neighbor. Over the next few months, we will consider the various ways we use the gifts God gives us as is God-pleasing.

          Each week, I will be sending out an email to further encourage what we pondered on the first Sunday of that month. In this way, the thoughts do not perish by that Sunday evening, but each one can give intentional consideration how he or she may put into practice what was proclaimed as a God-pleasing way to serve him.

          We continue to consider what it means to have A Life of Being a Disciple.

A GOD-LIVED LIFE: A LIFE OF BEING A DISCIPLE

Week #5      Mutual Consolation of the Fellowship

          I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
          Jerusalem is a well-built city that is firmly joined together, a city to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as a testimony to Israel, to give praise to the name of the Lord. That is where the thrones for judgment sit, the thrones of the house of David.
          Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper. May there be peace within your fortifications, prosperity within your citadels.”
          For the sake of my brothers and my friends, now I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek good for you. (Psalm 122)

             King David does not merely rejoice to go to the house of the Lord.  He rejoices to go with his fellow believers.  They join together in worship—to receive good things from God together, and to praise God and confess the faith together.  Worship was never intended to be a solo event.  Even in hard times—especially in hard times!—God’s people are urged to gather together.  “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

            God gathers us together as a family of believers.  God unites us with his word.  This is for our mutual benefit.  Scripture assumes that this will be the normal practice of God’s people, and it encourages the benefits we derive from following this practice.  Consider several verses. 

            Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

             Be filled with the Spirit by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord), by always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

             Brothers, if a person is caught in some trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of humility, carefully watching yourself so that you are not also tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

             1 Corinthians 12—the entire chapter, but especially verses 25-26: He (joined us together) so that there might not be any division in the body, but that the members might all have the same concern for one another.  So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

             As a family serves for the good of one another, so it is in the Church.  God puts us together for our mutual benefit.  We rejoice together, mourn together, study together, and grow together.   We love one another, pray for one another, admonish one another, console one another, and forgive one another.  This cannot be done apart from one another.

            A God-lived life as the Lord’s disciples means that we commit to each other as fellow redeemed.  A dismembered body is never a good thing.  But a body joined together and kept united by God’s word and sacraments is always a blessing.  And it is a blessing for each part of that body.