The Spiritual Community of the Believer – Grand Prairie DCLC #2

Last night, I spoke about the spiritual community of the believer, seeking not to use the word church so you could better understand what this fellowship of the redeemed really is and ought to be. This is not a good age for the church of Jesus Christ. Her respectability among believers, not among the lost but among the believers, is at an all-time low, and I don’t blame her. I don’t blame people for that, for on the one hand, she is to be the consuming passion of our lives, on the other hand, the way she expresses herself is really quite boring.

I spoke to you last night about this exceptional thing that goes on throughout church history. This community of the believer: it does not reflect doctrine. Nobody can claim this community of the believers doctrinally. She has come to every movement, and she has been outside of all movements, and she is a place where people have instinctively gone, out of a deep passion to know their Lord, with other believers.

Now I described her a little bit last night. Okay. It’s not a caring community. It’s not even a community. It’s not a relationship. It begins first with Christ. These other things come out of her. She has always been known by titles that signify this relationship with one another and the Lord. I’m telling you that these are the titles the world has given her when the world has looked upon her. Consistently throughout the ages, this community of believers has been called “brethren”, “the body of Christ”, “the house of God”, throughout the ages, not just in our lifetime, “the children of the Lord” or “the children of God”, and “brothers and sisters”. All of this reflects intimacy, and it does reflect relationship, because this is what the world saw.

I gave the illustration last night for this reason: to help you understand that you cannot create this community. You cannot organize her. You cannot say we’re going to have her, and this is the way she will be. She transcends organization, doctrine, and concepts. She’s a heart thing, a passion thing. This community, the spiritual community of the believer, is noted by many things, but the most important one…was the illustration of a wagon wheel. At the very center of it is a hub. That hub is Christ. The spokes would represent you and me, and as the spokes get closer to the hub, they get closer to one another. It is impossible for me to describe to you the spiritual community of the believer, other than to say that when a people come together with one thing in their mind, and that is to corporately know the Lord Jesus Christ…corporately know Him, as they touch Him, they grow closer to one another. You cannot reverse that. You cannot say, “Let us love one another, care for one another, live with one another, and we’ll get to know the Lord.” It doesn’t work that way.

I talked a little bit about individuality and individualism. Individualism, that’s Texas. Individuality, that’s what God gave you when you came out of your mother’s womb. That’s your personality. Never forfeit that in any fellowship of believers. Don’t let people change you in your basic expression. Some of it can be toned down a little bit or jacked up a little bit. But individualism is an insistence on inordinate independence. A community cannot survive with that. All of us have to give in a little bit, and that’s really hard on the guy who’s a natural leader. Another point that I made last night, for those of you who are new here tonight: the Christian life is not for you. I’m going to go a little further now and say the Christian life cannot be lived by you. Perhaps the hallmark of every age since the first three centuries has been a message delivered to us individually. So much so, I don’t know if you can conceptualize the Christian faith any other way.

You go into a building on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m., sit down, and hear, even within the so-called, well, within the organized church, an individual message. You’re not given a “community” message; I’m trying to avoid the words “church” and “corporate”; a community message. And you and I go home, and it becomes instinctive with us. We get the very distinct impression that our relationship is God and me, and we think in those terms almost exclusively. Herein lies why the church suffers so much: we do not think in terms of wholes but in parts. I say to you, dear frustrated Christian, you are never going to be all that happy with your Christian life as an individual, and that’s simply because God never intended for you to be a wayfaring wandering pilgrim out looking for God. Our adventure, our exploration of Jesus Christ, was always intended to be community, not individual.

You know, I work with Christians a lot to help them know the Lord better, and I can sit down with people, as in this group here, and talk for a week and say, “You do this, you do that, you do this.” I have not got the foggiest idea if they’re going to do anything, but when I say, “tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m.” …that always goes over big…you and you are going to meet together, and you and you are going to meet together. Boy, everything suddenly changes. Then I say, “Now that’s going to be Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning, you and you and you and you are going to meet together, and you and you and you and you are going to meet together.” I want you to know something: by the end of the week, these people are radiant with the Lord. Then I say to them, “On Saturday night, we’re going to have a meeting, and no brothers can share. Only sisters.” And suddenly, the sisters all know they’re all going to have to talk, something they never get to do in a meeting. You know why? Because the Bible says a woman should not speak in church. Right? Right. Under any circumstances. A woman is never supposed to speak in church. There are no circumstances in which a woman is supposed to speak in church. That’s it. End of argument. Three lines down from that…and when she does speak in church, she should have her head covered. You understand? Now you’re really clear. Women must never speak in church… and when they do, they must have their heads covered.

(Sarcasm) Now then, I’ll explain what a head covering is. The head covering is a hat. That’s it. There is no other explanation. It’s a hat. End of argument. A head covering is long hair. You understand that? It is not a hat. It’s long hair. End of discussion. That’s all. No more. Now, are you clear? The head covering is her husband. You understand? It is not hair. It is not a hat. It’s her husband, end the argument. Now, are you all perfectly clear? Alright, good. And any man who would foolishly jump into those passages of scripture and try to enforce, probably one of the two most difficult passages in all the New Testament to translate, and jump in there and try to come out with a doctrine…he’s half crazy. There is no way to explain that passage and make sense out of it. I don’t care what you do, which direction you go; it’s going to fall apart. Isn’t that wonderful, sisters? So, the sisters come together, and the brothers have to be quiet. They never are, but they have to be. The sisters share, and suddenly you’re dealing with a whole different world. Now it’s no longer just talk, and you do this, and you do that. Why? Because the corporate element has been introduced to a body of believers and life is electrified, the meeting is transformed.

Now, let me put it in one clear sentence: you can never be individually what you can be corporately. You need the spiritual community of the believer. You need the spiritual community of the believer.

Alright, was there more last night? Oh, I took away the New Testament from you at this point, didn’t I? Actually, all I did was take away the Pauline epistles. You can’t have the Pauline epistles. You can have one of them; you can’t have the others. I also took Revelation away from you, right? You can keep Philemon because Philemon was written to an individual. Galatians is not for you; it was written to a church. 1 and 2 Thessalonians are not for you; they were written for a church. 1 and 2 Corinthians are not for you; they’re written for a church. Romans is not for you; it is written to a church. Ephesians is not for you; it’s written to a body of believers. Philippians is not for you; it’s written to the body of Christ. Colossians is not written to you; it’s for the ekklesia, it’s not for an individual. 1 and 2 Timothy are written to church planters, men who plant churches. Titus, same thing. That leaves you Philemon. You can have Philemon. The rest is for the corporate body. We cannot in our day seemingly even conceive in such terms.

Alright, was there anything else? Is this a question, or are you going to add something? Yes, ma’am? The spiritual community of the believer has never been enamored with movement, gifts, evangelism, or purpose. Help me a little bit. Certainly not materialism. Leaders? She’s had them, but she’s not been enamored with them, right? Alright, programs of any kind; organization, liturgy…that is, ritualistic worship; her center has always been the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently, she’s never had the enemy, the enemy, oh the enemy. When she centers on Jesus Christ and doesn’t have all these other things to hold her up, she’s very fragile. You’re really very fragile. In our day and age, when we really are so independent, so incredibly independent…I don’t like what’s going on here, so I’ll go down the street…she’s really fragile.