Main Thing Podcast
This podcast encourages others to love God and people by leading them to know and follow Jesus’ truth.
Main Thing Podcast
Loving People
Community lies at the heart of Christian faith, providing essential support, encouragement, and accountability needed for spiritual growth and discipleship.
• The church was designed from inception to be a community dedicated to supporting and encouraging one another
• Jesus established the standard for love when He commanded us to love others as He loved us
• People who engage in church community are much more likely to remain committed to their faith journey
• Small groups or covenant groups become your spiritual family
• Coming to Christ puts us on a growth track where we move from being ministered to becoming ministers
• Unhealthy church environments develop when people expect to be served without serving others
Covenant Church Houma
Thank you for reminder for us to recall in today's divisive and dark culture, From foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture. Allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey.
Speaker 2:All right, well, welcome back to the Main Thing Podcast. So glad you are listening with us today. On the last episode, chet and Pastor Steve talked about our mission statement here at Covenant love God, love people and lead others to do the same, and so I know last week they talked a lot about what it meant to love God, but today we're going to talk a lot about what it means to love people and to be in a community and why that is so important in our Christian lives. So, steve, welcome, thank you so much for talking with us today. If you would just so much for talking with us today, just if you would just kind of start off with us. What, what does community look like? Why?
Speaker 3:why is that something that's so important to us here at covenant? Well, from its inception, the church was created to be a community, um, and a community in the in the new Testament that was totally dedicated to one another, supporting one another, encouraging one another, helping one another in difficult times and we like to believe. We're a New Testament church, so we want to teach our people, we want them to understand that you need the community, the church. God created it for you, and so without it, you're in real danger of slipping away, coming ineffective in your walk. The church provides so much that's vital, I think, to the everyday life of a believer, and it's because God created it to be that, and so that's why we encourage our people to be in community.
Speaker 2:Let's start off today. I'm going to read John 13, 34, and 35, a verse I think most of us would be familiar with, but it says it's a new command I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you, Love one another. By this, all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. And obviously that was Jesus speaking, In fact, the night of the Last Supper. So my question is how, as a church, do we love people? Well, how do we need to love people, I guess.
Speaker 3:Well, we have to understand the standard. See, what we do as human beings is we want to create our own standards. But what Jesus is doing right there, I think he's establishing the fact that he's the standard. And we look at the life of Christ. He had people he disagreed with.
Speaker 3:He had people who hated him, he had people who crucified him, but he still loved them and, boy, that's a kind of love that's hard for the average person to comprehend, for the average person to comprehend, but that's the goal, that's the standard that he sets for us, and so people are always the most important thing above rules, above policies. You know, as a society, we love to make rules, we love to make policies, we love to say yes or no to whatever situation. But I believe what Jesus is teaching us there is that he created human beings. He didn't create rules, and so the human being is his greatest creation and his most important creation, his most important creation. And so we come together as the body of Christ, in community, not only to support one another, encourage one another, help one another, but we're also to celebrate who he is as a community when we come together.
Speaker 2:So if I could ask, what do you think are specific things? A church that's healthy? What are some specific things they do to love others? Oh, my goodness, yes. I mean we could probably go on and on with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can go on and on with it, but in its simplest form it is a natural support system. You know, I have seen this in my ministry over the years so many times. You have an individual that joins a church and they slip in on the second song on Sunday morning and they leave during the invitation and they have a car wreck and one of us goes to the hospital, have a car wreck and one of us goes to the hospital and there may be one or two family members there and we're there and we're happy to be there. Another person that actually becomes a part of the life of the church. They get in Bible study groups, covenant groups, they come to the fellowships, they get involved in ministry in one form or another according to their spiritual gifts.
Speaker 3:They have a car wreck, one of us gets to the hospital. There's 20 people in the waiting room and it's because they have invested in the community and now the community is there to love on them. That's just one way. For example, people going through difficult times, you know, whether it's a health issue, a divorce issue, a loss of a job, the church is here to encourage and shore up when that happens to people. And so there's literally dozens and dozens and dozens of ways. A lot of times, just one mature believer sitting with a less mature believer, encouraging them through a difficult patch. So yeah, there are many ways that that happens.
Speaker 2:So, when we love others as a church or as individuals, how does that reflect the way we love God? Because you know, last week y'all talked about this is how we love God. So how does the way we love others reflect that? Yeah, well, the.
Speaker 3:Apostle John was clear we're only able to love because God first loved us. He is our example, he showed us how to do it. And I think, secondly this is so important Billy Graham was asked one time if he could only preach one sermon, what would he preach and where would he preach it? And he said I'd preach a salvation message in the church, because he was fully convinced that the church was full of people who were not regenerated, were not saved born again.
Speaker 3:And so, in able to be able to love, you've got to first be regenerated. A lot of people, I think, in the Christian world, have not been regenerated. They're doing religion and they're trying to emulate Christ, but the power of the Holy Spirit's not in them. They can't do it, and you can clearly see the difference in people's lives. Okay, what did Jesus tell us? He said that people will know you belong to me by your love, your ability to love one another. And so when we love one another, the way we're designed to love one another, it's a screaming testament to anyone around us. Well, that's what's different about them. You know, to use a common phrase I've heard for the last few decades someone's going through something and someone will say, well, that's not me, or that's not about me. In other words, that's not me, or that's not about me. In other words, that's not my problem. Well, in the Christian community, that's not the way we view things.
Speaker 2:We're invested in each other, we're part of the same family, and so, yeah, yeah, you know, if I go back to August of 2021, aftermath of Hurricane Ida, yes, you know, I think one of the beautiful pictures that came out of that was not just us but the sheer amount of churches that were doing so much for our community after that.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean I know obviously all the things we did here. You know the food distribution, the supplies, the hot meals. But you know, living Word was doing that Cross Church was tarping houses all over the place. There were just so many churches that we could point people to to show that it was not about us because, as you had mentioned at the time, so many of our church members that were up here had houses that were wrecked, that were waiting on help too, but they were up loving others. And so I remember, I remember you said a guy called and said man, what's the church doing? What's the church doing? Well, people know church is supposed to be doing something. So yeah, and those, is there a difference? And I say all that to say is there a difference between loving those in our church and loving those outside the church? Like, what's the difference there? Why do we do both?
Speaker 3:Yeah well, you love those inside the church because they're your family, your spiritual family. When you came to Christ and confessed Christ as your Savior, you entered into an exclusive club, if you will, a family of Christ. And so, just like you would love your earthly family, you love your spiritual family. We love those outside the church, those who've not confessed Christ, because, number one, it should naturally be in us to do so by the power of the Holy Spirit, but, number two, we consciously do it so that they will see the love of Christ hopefully coming through us, and that that will open up a dialogue in their own mind that maybe there's something to this, a dialogue in their own mind that maybe?
Speaker 3:there's something to this and that, as a result of our loving on them, they too will reach a point. They'll confess Christ and become a part of the family of God. Yes.
Speaker 2:So if we could pivot just a little bit, I want to read another couple of scriptures and then move into talking about a little bit different, of loving people. But Acts 2.42, describing the early church, it says and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. And then Hebrews 3.13, it says but exhort or encourage one another every day, as long as it's called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Kind of keeping those two verses in mind about what the early church was like and what was expected or what is expected of us as Christians. Where does this idea of community and community groups come in to this whole idea of loving one another and loving people?
Speaker 3:Well, in light of that scripture, your group, your covenant group in our case it becomes your family, your support system. You know we come in here on Sunday as 1,000-plus people in here worshiping, although it can be a very sweet personal time and it can be intimate at times, but as a general rule that's not. You need that closer fellowship with fellow believers and they in effect become your church. You know there's statistics Barna's done it says it doesn't matter the size of the church you attend. If you attend a church with 100 people coming, you'll know 62 people by name. If you attend a church with 10,000, you'll know 62 people by name.
Speaker 3:And so the small group is vital. It's the lifeline. We've seen it here over the years. A person comes into our family and they make an effort to get involved and become a part of the lifeblood of the church. They're going to stick, they'll be here. But you get someone who comes and they just slip in on Sunday, sit in the back and slip out. Odds are within a year they'll be gone because they never became a part of the fabric of the family. And that becomes your front line of encouragement and support in your Christian walk.
Speaker 2:You know, I think you saying that reminds me of one of my favorite stories from a covenant group that we've had over the years. There was one I had, my wife and I had, where we had four couples, so there were eight of us and we met once a week at our home, had a meal. But over time, you know, when you're in somebody's house, when you're eating together, you tend to open up a little more. And finally, one night one of the couples was dealing with an issue that was a hard issue and they had no idea how to go about it. And so you could tell when the wife was ready to say something. But you could tell it was hard, right, she was kind of hesitant and finally it came out Well, what they didn't realize within our families. All four of the couples had dealt with that particular issue at one time or another. So all of a sudden this couple, who thought we were completely alone in this, found out they weren't.
Speaker 2:And so to me that's one of the best pictures, I think, of that idea of community and covenant groups.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I get a lot of grief for what I'm about to say, but I believe it with all my heart. A lot of people could save the money they're paying counselors if they just get involved in their church family, because Scripture teaches us that we're to be counseled to one another. And so in my own life and the people I counsel with, so many of them are dealing with these kind of I like to call them island issues. They feel like they're out there by themselves and you're not intended to have that experience. In the Christian church. There are people here for you who love you, who want to support you and help you, but if you don't become a part of the fabric of the family, you'll never know they're there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Why then, you know, before I ask the question, you know we have different phrases and different things. We talk about groups, right, we call them Sunday school, we call them Bible study, we call them small groups. We use the phrase doing life together, you know. But why is that so essential for our growth? Why can't we just read the bible on our own every day and and grow as a, as a believer? Why are those so important?
Speaker 3:you know, we we live in the age in the church of marketing, so everybody's got to have a cool name for everything. I don't care what you call it, yeah, okay. And when you confess Christ, you become a part of that family and you need to dig in and become involved in that family. For this reason, when you come to Christ, it's never intended that you should be the one being ministered to for the rest of your life. You're now on a growth track so that you can mature, you can build strength in Scripture. You can build strength in Scripture. You can build strength in your faith walk so that at some point you can begin to minister to someone else. Faith propagates faith, if you will.
Speaker 3:That's how the Christian church, that's God's model. That's why it's still here after 20 plus centuries. And so I think the hardest thing for us to teach people is that when you confess Christ, you're a newborn infant and you're now on a growth track and you need that group to begin your growth track. You need to begin to be stretched, and if you just read the Bible on your own, look, I believe in the power of Scripture. God will reveal himself to you, and you can certainly grow that way. But, boy, you can grow so much quicker and faster, and maybe even better, with those who've already walked that path, those who are more spiritually mature than you are and have some things to offer that can help you in that journey.
Speaker 2:So what do you think a healthy group looks like? I know there's times you might look at a Sunday school class where Bob's saying man, that's not a healthy group. What does a healthy one looks like? You know, I know there's times you might look at a Sunday school class where a Bible study says man, that's not a healthy group. What? Does a healthy one.
Speaker 3:Look like yeah healthy group interacts with one another. We've got a Bible study class in our church and they are a healthy group. They study together on Sunday mornings at this particular group. They get together in fellowship. They do ministry as a group from time to time. And I know all this because they've got me on their feed on their phone, so every time one of them is talking to the other one I get a copy and some days they go on all day long. I just have to mute it so I can get something done.
Speaker 3:But that's a healthy group. They're involved in each other's lives. They're growing spiritually, intellectually and scripture. They do ministry on a routine basis and a lot of times they're doing ministry nobody sees. They'll go help somebody move. They'll carry somebody to the doctor. They sometimes visit our shut-ins. They're doing some really good things and they keep up with each other. I'll get on this feed sometimes How'd your doctor's visit go today? I mean, so it's not just major things. They keep up with each other, with the routine things that's going on in their lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that brings up another question, because you know that Hebrews verse we said earlier, as long as it's today encourage one another. Yes, okay, that also, I think, by negative association with that. There's times we don't encourage one another, there's times we get unhealthy. What does unhealthy groups look like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, unhealthy is when what we would call today spectator church. They come for the worship they leave. They're never involved in the church family in any way, you know. Yet they expect to grow, they expect to worship, they expect the church to be there for them. I've even done this a few times to people when I know they're very self-centered. They'll say you know what? I was sick for two weeks and not one soul called me. I'll say I'm sorry, we want to keep up with everybody. I apologize, we didn't call you so, just out of curiosity, when you were well, who did you call that was sick?
Speaker 3:And I don't do that with the intent to be mean, I do that with the intent to say you know you've got a part in this too, and so all you want is to be ministered to. But God didn't call you just to be ministered to. You need to minister, and so what happens is you get a culture of people that just expect the church to do for them, yet they're not doing anything for the church, the kingdom themselves, and that becomes a very unhealthy environment.
Speaker 2:It's hard to live in such a for lack of a better term a selfish way, with never serving anybody else.
Speaker 3:Exactly God did not create us to be selfish but, as I said in the last podcast, we probably live in my time on planet Earth in the most selfish period we've ever had. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Boy, that could be a whole other three-hour podcast right there. Yes, it could. Yeah, well, one of the things you know, I think one of the complaints you hear about the church is man, they're just fighting all the time. What's the relationship between this idea of encouraging people, this idea of being a community group or a C group, like you said, whatever we call it in a healthy group and then ending that kind of part of church life, the fighting, which is generally about things that don't really matter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, francis Schaeffer had a great quote where he said that doctrinal matters are very seldom the source of fights in churches and that the real problem was the way those issues were handled, as opposed to what the issues were in and of themselves. I've seen this my whole life since becoming a Christian, and what we try to do here is I try to do preemptive preaching, I try to teach our people ahead of time here's what's acceptable, here's what's not in the family of God. So I think our people know they can question something, they can have an opinion about something, but we're not going to fight. We're not going to. You want to fight, go somewhere else, cause that's not honoring to the Lord. We're not doing that here.
Speaker 3:One of the worst fights I ever saw was in college and my roommate's dad was pastoring in a local church and I went with him on a Wednesday night, had no idea it was a business meeting and there was some that wanted his dad to resign and I literally saw with my own two eyes fistfights in that church that night.
Speaker 3:And I was 19 years old and I was horrified because I'd been saved and raised in a wonderful, wonderful, solid church and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing in that moment, and so, unfortunately, we sometimes get people in the family that are imposters, sometimes get people in the family that are imposters.
Speaker 3:They've not been regenerated, they don't know the Lord and they think they have a right. Furthermore, in the American church, because of the way our government is designed and because they require us, as nonprofits, to constitute and have bylaws, you get a lot of people who tend to think that they have the same rights that they have secular rights to, and the church is different. You don't have those same rights. The church is operated by the Lord Jesus Christ. So your rights are there, but they're very limited. You have a right to vote on something simply because the state of Louisiana says you need to vote on something, but Scripture says that God has put pastors there to operate the church, to lead the people, to love the people, to equip the people, and so so many churches are handicapped by their understanding of how church is supposed to operate. It's not biblical, and we wonder why so many churches are dying and closing their doors. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, as we kind of finish up today, I want to ask the question what would be your vision, goal, dream for us as a church regarding community, regarding groups, regarding growth?
Speaker 3:in that way, we do a fair job of getting outside the walls of the church. I had my covenant group last night and we were talking about the gifts and someone said what's the difference in gifts and talents? And of course I explained that there are certain gifts God gave the church for certain purposes. But a talent isn't of itself. A gift also that God will use in your life to minister to others and to build the kingdom. And I reminded them when we think about gifts and talents, we tend to think about what somebody does at church, but your gift, your talent, may be one that is used outside the walls of the church. So if, in a perfect world, we were doing what I believe really honored the Lord, we would be outside the walls of the church even way more than we are. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much as always. Thank you all for listening today or watching wherever you find the podcast. God bless you guys. We'll see you next time.