Belong & Contribute | Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 3:12-14

Senior Pastor Damein Schitter finishes our Belong & Contribute series, preaching from Acts 2:42-47 and Hebrews 3:12-14.

Chapters

• 0:03 Exploring Devotion and Community in Scripture
• 8:36 Power of Stories and Devotion
• 12:05 Devotion to a Contrast Story
• 19:43 Christianity in Contrast Society
• 28:03 Contrasting Narratives and Societies
• 41:09 Rooting in a Contrast Story

Transcript

Drew: 0:20

This morning's scripture reading is from two passages, the first being Acts 2.

Drew: 0:27

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. And from Hebrews, chapter 3, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. This is God's word, maybe seated.

Damein: 1:44

Thank you, drew. Well, good morning. My name is Damian, I'm a pastor and I'm grateful to get to conclude our series on community here at New City this fall. It was called belong and contribute. The way that we've explored this idea of community is that community is where you truly belong somewhere, but knowing that you don't truly belong somewhere unless you also contribute. And to contribute somewhere, not belong, is not desirable. But to belong somewhere, not contribute, is also not desirable. And so we've been looking at various passages, trying to explore what community, how our community, would be shaped by the scriptures. And so today we're looking at two different passages one in Acts 2, a very well-known passage, and then that small section of Hebrews that for some of us is familiar, but certainly not as familiar as that Acts 2 passage. In other words, when you do a sermon series on community and you don't preach on Acts 2, 42 through 47, people get nervous. So we had to throw that one in there at the end. But I hope that we explore in a way that might be a little illuminating in a new way for us this morning.

Damein: 2:56

I know it was for me as I was preparing for this morning. Something happened last week and it was the volunteer appreciation night, which was fantastic. So all New City volunteers yes, I guess we'll appreciate them now again. So we did it at the at SAC Comedy Lab, which was amazing and apparently freaked some of you out, which I don't understand. Some of you didn't come, I think, because you were nervous about SAC Comedy Lab. And it was amazing. It made me want to take improv lessons. Just the reality of what it would be like to be able to be so present but also connected with a larger story was fascinating. Now, I'd never been there, but they tailored it to us, our church, community and they.

Damein: 3:44

In one hour there were three people on stage and they would do different segments. And one of my favorite segments was they asked us to give them a scene. So the scene was happening in a sanctuary and they asked us to give to them, shouting from the crowd, what were some of our favorite movie lines or second favorite movie lines, because when you say favorite movie lines, it's a little too much pressure. You say a second favorite movie line and then you get all these garbage movie lines. So that's what happened. So people would. So they were up there writing them down and they'd fold these pieces of paper and then, before the scene started, they dumped out these pieces of paper that were folded and scattered them all over the stage, and so they took a few cues and begin this scene and then periodically they would go over and pick up one of the pieces of paper and then open it and just have to say it.

Damein: 4:32

It's not like they opened it and read it and tried to somehow work it in and they just built up to whatever the line was. So an example would be something like there was a woman and there were two men in conflict and she was trying to mediate the conflict and she said I have something really important to say to both of you. And she had just picked up a piece of paper and she opened it and she looked at them and she said you're a wizard, harry, all right, so that's what made it funny. But then they weaved it in in a way where it kind of made sense. And so we understand that those lines from our movies, our favorite movies, they mean something in that story. But as soon as you take them out and put them in another story, things begin to shift, things begin to change, sometimes changing both stories, other times making one story incoherent but hilarious all at the same time. So we understand that our favorite lines from movies get their meaning because of the overarching story of that movie, and of course we think of something like Harry Potter. We understand that it's over several books and sort of several years of a person's life.

Damein: 5:40

That phrase takes on something different the more comprehensive we understand the story, and this is just how stories work. This is how stories work, which is why that bit works in improv. And I'm wondering have you ever noticed how those types of stories, stories that have shaped you, your favorite movies, your favorite lines, how they have a unique place in your life, how you may experience a hardship and think of certain characters from some of your favorite movies or books, you may think of how do I engage this particular relationship and then get an idea from even a fictional character? Right, stories are comprehensive and stories are how we make meaning in the world. That's how we've been designed.

Damein: 6:26

We're storied people and the stories that we believe the deepest actually direct our lives in many ways. They direct our time, they direct our energy, they direct our motivation. They even direct our devotion, and that's what we see in this famous passage in Acts 2, is that they devote themselves to the apostles teaching and to other things, but it starts with the apostles teaching, and the apostles teaching is rooted in one unique and comprehensive story of all things. And so, as they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, they begin to inherit and participate in a very particular story, and in fact, this story was a contrast story to all of the other stories around them. And so what we see in our passage today is that their devotion to the apostles teaching directed their lives very specifically upward toward God, inward toward themselves and outward toward the world. Now, while that, at some point this week, was going to be my sermon outline, I kept thinking and I actually have a different outline, although that's true, their devotion to the apostles teaching directed their lives upward, inward and outward, but I actually thought there was another layer that I wanted to point out, and so the outline this morning, how I want to explore these passages, are their devotion directed them to a contrast story, which then produced a contrast society, which then in turn produced a contrast solidarity. So those are the three things a contrast story, a contrast society and a contrast solidarity. So look with me again in Acts, chapter two, at verse 42, and they devoted themselves.

Damein: 8:05

That word devoted I'm putting a lot of weight on. Think about the word devoted. It takes time, it takes energy. You have to shape your life around those things that you have devoted to. Or it could be said the other way the things you're devoted to are the things that shape your life. And so they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and this led to the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers and so on. And so you see, this teaching of the apostles shaped them into a people of God's, one story.

Damein: 8:36

And, as I already said, stories are meaning-making. Stories are how we make sense of everything, from our day to the cosmic reality of the meaning of existence. In other words, if I ask you how was your day and you say it was good, there are lots of reasons why that is unsatisfying, right, unless I really don't care, and then it's perfectly satisfactory. But if I ask you how was your day, in order to give me a meaningful answer, you would have to tell me some type of story. There would be a beginning, there would be a middle and there would be an end, and if it was missing any one of those things, it wouldn't quite be coherent, right? So that's why, kids, whenever your parents ask you how was your day, I know it can seem like a lot, but what we're really asking for is choose something uniquely good or not good, and just tell us about that thing and tell us the story. Say, well, today this happened, and then that happened, and then, in the end, this is how I felt. That's amazing, that's a story, and it helps us understand how you made meaning out of that experience by the story that you told. And it helps us help you make meaning because that's how stories work. And so the particular reality of this story is that not only is it meaningful, but it's also cosmic, and so that is to say, it has something to say about everything, about all things. And this is how coherent stories ought to work. They ought to include everything and they ought to invite participation, because good stories invite you to participate in them, and, in fact, what we learn is this story doesn't just invite participation, but it demands participation.

Damein: 10:17

You see, for these early Christians, this story that the apostles told them, which is the story of Jesus, it centers on Jesus, it was a call to unique and exclusive devotion, and while this seems normal to us when we talk about Christianity that you would be exclusively devoted. That would have been new in the first century. Maybe the Jews would have understood that at some point, but they would have been viewed as almost like an ethnic peculiarity. The fact that Christianity was multi-ethnic and began to quickly invite and involve people, breaking down barriers of ethnicity and class and so on, that was something different and for the first time, this idea of an exclusive devotion in your religious identity was new. In his book Destroyer of the Gods, scholar Larry Hurtado explored the dynamics of early Christianity in relationship to the context of other religious identities in the first century, and one of the things that he says, summarizing him, is that what was clear is that Christians had to make their Christian commitment the exclusive basis of their religious identity, and this was different because early Christianity was the only new religious movement. Listen to this. He said it was the only new religious movement of the Roman era that demanded this exclusive loyalty to one deity, and the reason this was tricky is because by exclusive loyalty it then made all other cults rivals okay, and so that means all other religious identity at this time would have been viewed as an augmentation or an add-on to your religious identity, and in no way did it comprise a fundamental change in how you understood your religious identity. Okay, let me unpack this for us, what that might mean.

Damein: 12:05

Two quick things. One a long time ago, when Mike Allen was preaching, he gave this really great, helpful illustration about what worship in a polytheistic world would have been, where it would have been normal to worship different gods and there's sort of a pantheon where they come together, and the image he gave was think about our power and our water. For some of us it's different. I pay my utilities to Duke for Electric and then I pay Orange County because I'm an unincorporated Orange County for my water, and so whatever utilities I have, I just sort of divvy money out there, divvy money out there, and that's how gods were viewed. Essentially, whatever I needed, I would give enough devotion to this God to get what I needed and enough devotion to this God to get what I needed, and so on, and so it wasn't a big deal if you added something on, okay. So here's my addition to that.

Damein: 12:55

So think about streaming services, right, I remember when Netflix was a streaming service, it was sort of the thing, and then I sort of me and a lot of other people sort of laughed at other companies, and especially new ones, trying to think they could compete with Netflix. Well then, all of a sudden, now we have a proliferation of streaming services. And so what do we do? Well, we get offered a particular TV show on this one, and so we're like, okay, yeah, yeah, I'll pay for that one. And then we have, all of a sudden, 10 streaming services right Now. Wouldn't it be weird? That's not? I mean, as annoying as that might be, it's not strange to have different streaming services. But what if I told you no, you need one streaming service. Peacock is the only one, right? Or Disney Plus is the only one, but you can't just keep augmenting all of these streaming services, right? So the Roman view was yeah, sure, you can add Peacock and Disney and HBO or whatever you want to do, you just keep augmenting. It doesn't fundamentally change anything.

Damein: 13:57

But Christianity said no, there has to be an exclusive devotion to this one story, to Jesus. Now, if you're like me, you're thinking well, what about Jews? What weren't the Jewish people like that? Weren't they known that way? They only worship one God. But Larry goes on to say that not even Jews were such a threat. Not even Jews were a threat, he says. Although there were Jewish texts of the time that expressed disdain for the pagan gods, there is no indication that Roman-era Jews actually attempted seriously to persuade the non-Jews population to abandon their deities. That Jews themselves typically abstained from worshiping the gods was viewed by pagans as an ethnic peculiarity.

Damein: 14:37

But early Christianity, because it was programmatically trans-ethnic in its appeal and more aggressive in attacking what it called idolatry, was a new and more serious danger. You see, the devotion to the apostles teaching rooted them in a contrast story that began to have serious side effects. They had to understand and embody now their identity amid a different cultural story. So if we think about the way that devotion and devotion to a story works, we could ask ourselves how would contrast stories then produce contrast communities? Because last week Ben talked about contrast communities. So I'm saying that fundamentally, early Christians in Acts two here, were devoted to the apostles teaching, which was rooted in a very particular story, and that it produced a particular community. So what are some examples of that?

Damein: 15:26

Well, think about this in contrast to the Roman time, if your story is one in which those with power are wise to use it for themselves, then you get the rampant immorality of the world. But if your story is one where the most powerful one in it uses his power to save the weak, you get the exemplary moral lives of ordinary Christians which you can read countless stories of in the first century especially Now. If you live in a story of scarcity and chance, you get despair, anxiety and uncertainty, which we know and experience. But if you embody a story of a loving, sovereign and just God, it produces hope, joy and confidence which shines brightly in the midst of darkness. If you live in a story with room only for us, versus them, you get a world of endless fragmentation and tribalism. But contrast that with the story of God's kingdom, in which we get unity and diversity, all under Christ's lordship. You see those are two completely different stories to be rooted in that produce two different types of communities. And so, of course, the question that Christians always have to ask themselves are what stories are shaping us? What stories are we devoted to? What teachers are we devoting ourselves to?

Damein: 16:52

Remember at the beginning, when I said it was strange to have these lines from these movies recited in a completely different story. Right, there are ways in which the church in the modern world recites the same things, but is living out a different story, and they just clash. The stories contrast with one another, and so, in other words, one of the things we've been trying to slightly correct in this series isn't what I would call the biggest threat or danger to the church in America, but it is an insidious one, and that is this idea that the role of the church is to produce community for you to find. So you actually go into the church to find your community, and what we suggested is that's not actually how it works. It doesn't actually work that way. But the church is an environment, it's a container, it's a place, it's a people when you can begin to build community. You don't find it, but you can begin to build it for several reasons, and you see, the difference is, finding community is a phrase that's probably informed more by consumerism, like we're a place that offers religious goods and services. That's a little different than the other place over here, and so we want to compel you and convince you that you can find what you need in this place.

Damein: 18:12

Now, there are ways that that gets embodied that is actually just fine and there are ways that it, over time, gets twisted. But this would be a place in which even our language, whenever we take on the stories in our culture, it contrasts with what that same language might mean as we embody and devote ourselves to the story that's actually in the Bible and to the view that it gives us of our time, of our resources, how we use our power and what we expect from other people and what we offer other people, as one example. So of course, we always need to keep asking ourselves how is the broader cultural narratives, how is it malforming our understanding of what it means to be devoted to Jesus and what it means to be devoted to one another? So I give countless examples.

Damein: 18:59

Ben gave a lot of really good contrast statements last week, so I'm gonna leave that there for now and move on to the contrast society, because this contrast story produces a contrast society, and in Acts two we quickly see what resembles a contrast society. Okay so, verse 43, all came upon, every soul. Verse 44, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. Verse 45, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. Verse 46, day by day, attending the temple together. So there's together, there's day by day. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

Damein: 19:43

We'll come back to verse 47 at the end, but we begin to see a picture of a contrast society, because the society they were in, in a way that even United States isn't, was a dog eat dog, social Darwinian culture. Now, that's reading back in sort of concepts, but we understand it was a vicious place to be. It was a vicious place to be if you had no power. It was a vicious place to live and be if you were a woman. I mean all types of things. Right, it's different even for us.

Damein: 20:16

So with that contrast, the contrast would have been even starker, maybe, than we can possibly imagine unless we've experienced some of those places in the world. It wasn't a zero sum dog eat dog world. All of a sudden, it was something more akin to a new type of family, a specific type of family, and when people had need and other people had extra, those with extra would liquidate some of their assets in order to provide for those with need. Okay, that's what was happening. There was no compulsion. We see throughout the New Testament that people still had private property. So what was beautiful about this was that, for those again who had extra, they would see those in the community who had need and they would go find things that they had. They would liquidate those certain parts of their assets in order to give money, to give things to those in need. It was a beautiful picture of a contrast society, the beginning of looking out and being your brother's keeper. Okay, so let's keep going. Why would this have been so contrasted?

Damein: 21:17

Well, again, larry, in his book Destroyer of the Gods it seems strange to call him Larry, but never I call him Doctor Hurtado. That's what I call him because then it sounds more official. So he quotes several pagans, ranging from Pliny the Younger to Marcus Aurelius, speaking to their frustration and what they thought was the danger of this growing Christian society in the midst of their world, in the midst of their society. So all of them were speaking against Christians. I just pulled some words out Like critiques were wide ranging. Here are some labels Christians are silly, they're stupid, they're irrational, they're simple, they're wicked. All of a sudden we're getting darker. They're anti-social and here's the key they are dangerous. That last word is key. Why? Well, christians were viewed as dangerous?

Damein: 22:08

Because these Christians were refusing to live by a split story. They were refusing to augment their fundamental identity with a little bit of Jesus here, while I have a little bit of their gods over here. Right, a little bit of Caesar is Lord, a little bit of Jesus is Lord. No, it was one thing Jesus is Lord. They would not live a split story. And in their devotion to one story, god's story, centering on Jesus of Nazareth as God, as the Messiah, it created a unique trans-ethnic society.

Damein: 22:41

And here's something that is just so interesting to me they refused to worship Caesar, or any other God for that matter, and the reason that worried the Romans was because pagans couldn't even imagine how Christians could refuse to worship Caesar as Lord and yet still submit to him. They couldn't imagine a scenario in which that was true. Yet the story that these Christians were devoted to produced a society that could be fully devoted to King Jesus and only worship one God in three persons, and yet still submit to governing authority for the reasons their God gave them. Do you see that there's a way in which we can respect civil authority and not worship it, not bow down to it, not speak to it as savior? And that was so confusing, it was new and it seemed dangerous. And so Christians refused to shrink their faith to merely ideas, which we do all the time, and to merely the private areas of their lives, which we do all the time.

Damein: 23:37

And there's a long narrative of Christianity and culture. But just to summarize, one author quote from the Enlightenment onward, the church's role in Western culture has contracted steadily, contracted steadily until it functioned merely as culture's chaplain, caring for the religious needs of individuals and giving private instruction in matters of morality, but it no longer exercised cultural influence on a grand scale. And so this is the way I would summarize that and a bunch of other things that I read on that idea this week and reread is that Christianity has gone from cosmic to coffee mug. That's basically what's happened. It's gone from cosmic to coffee mug and from ultimate allegiance to optional accessory. That's really what's happening, and that's what's happened in so many ways.

Damein: 24:30

And so to talk of Christianity as a society is wild. No, it's just a group of people like me and you who have decided we believe the same things and we've decided that it's really good to meet together. And so we come together as individuals, but we're not defined by this contrast society that we're in so often, but that's a departure from the way the New Testament speaks of the body of Christ, and it's been a departure that's been forced on us and we've acquiesced. So there are a couple of things in a contrast. Society we could talk about lots of things, but a society produces a number of things and it always produces these things, and I'm just gonna pick two from the passage. Right, society produces a certain view of time and it produces a certain view of money, and both of those and others. But I'm just gonna pick up on those. Two things show up in this passage. But I wanna read one more quote to us.

Damein: 25:25

There are two elements of modern life that have come together, particularly in the West, to create a new religion, and those elements of modern life are unprecedented wealth in the West, with a radical loss of meaning. Because, see, the thing is is that when you proliferate options and you can just augment this and augment that, then it doesn't actually add meaning to your life, it dilutes meaning, right, it actually fragments you. It doesn't make you whole as a person. And so secularism, as some people have said, is often told as a subtraction story. Now that we live in a more secularized world, then belief in God is gone. That's actually not true. Just look at the world. That's not true. But what is new is that secularization is more like an addition story. It just keeps adding other possible ways to find meaning in your life, and then it creates what Charles Taylor is called this Nova effect, and Nova is like a star when it explodes.

Damein: 26:23

There are so many options, I don't know where to find meaning. I don't know how to find meaning. So the growing meaninglessness. By the way, most people are, especially young people, are not asking is God real anymore, it's asking like, does it even matter? It's a meaning question. And so, with a lack of meaning and more wealth, those two things have come together in this vacuum and created a new religion that sociologists, people who study religion and culture, would just call the religion of consumerism. And so, when a lack of meaning and wealth come together, you try to find meaning by buying stuff, by accumulating things, more and more things. And so, with that in mind, think about this Maybe the most powerful religious movement at work in the West today is consumerism. And when the church takes up the role assigned to it within a consumer culture and allows itself to be shaped by that story. It becomes merely a vendor of religious goods and services.

Damein: 27:18

So let's talk about the way in which really, just briefly, time, the word devotion is in here. Whatever you devote yourself to takes up a lot of time, it said, together to organize your schedule, to have a practice of community together, you have to spend your time in a certain way, day by day. Every week they were gathering, I mean all of these things keep lining up, putting restraints on your time and my time as we read this description of what the early church experienced as they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the way that it created a certain view and value of what was worth spending your time on. Now, this is just descriptive, it's not prescriptive, so we don't know all of the reality. Certainly this was different.

Damein: 28:03

But I would say that when we think about time and even money, which we'll get to in a second, there are certain things that I spend my money on. That is no big deal. Like we go on a vacation, sure, a few thousand dollars, whatever, save up for this vacation. You go to this vacation, that's great. But then, all of a sudden, to think about adding a certain I've actually thought through this, adding a certain area in one of our spare closets to make it into a prayer room where I could go, and I looked into things I wanted to buy and I was like man, that would cost me about $500. Now I know I don't spend $500 to create a prayer room, but I have a certain vision in my mind and I thought no, that's a complete, that's a waste of money, I'm not going to spend $500 on that. And it just dawned on me wait a minute. So I'll spend $3,000 to go do that, or $4,000 to go do that, and $500 to construct this little prayer room in my house seems unreasonable, it seems like a waste of time, it seems like a waste of money.

Damein: 28:59

You see, whatever story we're in, whatever it produces a society, that society produces values and sometimes there are contrasting realities and I was really fine with giving my time and money for this, not so fine doing that. What is that for you? Where do these compare and contrast to you? Where what is inexpensive or expensive over here seems unreasonable over here, maybe I'll spend this many thousand dollars to go do that thing, but only a few hundred dollars to support this particular thing that I say I care about I don't know what it is for you, but devotion of time and then money. But now more fully, speak to money.

Damein: 29:33

One of the realities is that we love I was talking with Ben about this, he helped me think through this this week we love this rags to riches narrative in our culture, which is our society values and creates, and there's some really beautiful and truly inspiring things in those. So I'm not just dunking on them only, but one thing that we need to recognize is that, even though there are some remarkable, honorable stories in rags to riches narratives, the biblical story is not fundamentally a rags to riches story. It's a riches to rags story. We see this in 2 Corinthians 8. Paul says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. So it's all of a sudden these two stories, these two fundamental narratives, at some point are going to conflict and we have to recognize where this would be and we have to recognize which one's winning in our heart, and it's probably like a pendulum back and forth. And so the way that I want to finish this point of how a contrast story produced the contrast society is.

Damein: 30:40

I want to share this illustration that Ben passed on to me from an article that he read by a pastor named Kyle Childress. And so in this article he tells a story that in September 2005, hurricane Rita came through East Texas. This was about a month after Hurricane Katrina, which, of course, we remember. Rita we wouldn't have remembered unless we were there because Katrina was so big. So the population of his little town was 30,000 people, but it swelled to 45,000 with the evacuees from Houston and the other lower Texas Gulf Coast area, and so the storm didn't hit them as hard as they had feared. But their hometown was without power, which we of course understand what that's about, and that's down tree limbs and all the things.

Damein: 31:26

And so one of the places that got power back first in their whole community was their church building, kyle's church building, and so immediately they began to call people to the church and he said it naturally became a central clearing house for our church, so work crews would go out from it to saw limbs and debris, clear debris, he said we were housing several evacuee families and it wasn't long before members of the congregation moved in as well, probably 30 to 35 folks moved into the church building. Well, another 25 or so cleaned out their refrigerators and freezers and brought the food to the church for us to have share common meals. So he said, during the day some church members hosted evacuee families, some provided childcare, someone out and helped clear debris and help people with their homes. But at the end of the day, as people were there, he said, you know, he remember walking down the hallway and on this side he'd look in the rooms and he'd see some dads reading books to a bunch of young little boys and on this side of the room it was moms gathering these girls to get them ready to go to sleep, because they would be sleeping there. So they had pallets and all these things and he said so people would play games late into the night and they would have dinner together and so on.

Damein: 32:33

And so what he said was in this experience he said it was a good time of sharing life in Christ. Maybe that he hadn't witnessed before. But he also witnessed something else that week, and this is, in contrast, a contrast story that produces a contrast society. He said later, after most of the people from Houston had left town, I went down to put gas in my car. By this time the lines weren't quite as long, but I ended up getting behind a man and his wife in their one ton pickup with a dual wheel rear end and he said guns were hanging prominently in the truck as they got out and she glared at everyone and kept the door open on the truck, with the guns in easy reach, while he proceeded to fill up his 22 gallon tanks on the pickup and then fill up his mini gas cans and two 55 gallon drums in the back end. He said I watched them, I gave them a wide berth and I felt a shiver. He said I was not only looking at American society and microcosm, I was also witnessing what the church is up against.

Damein: 33:36

Here was an apocalyptic moment when our society's pretense politeness and orderliness were blown aside. Clearly this couple believed they were on their own, they did not need anyone or want anyone to interfere with their individual lives and they were going to make sure they got what they wanted or needed by any means, including the use of violence. Meanwhile, down the street was a church full of people who believed that good was found in sharing a common life in Jesus Christ. You see fundamental different stories, fundamental different fears, horizons, constraints, what's possible, what's not, what's good, what's bad, and two contrasting societies. You see, so the contrast story produces a contrast society, which I want to end with a contrast solidarity. So what I mean by contrast solidarity is we've been looking at an overview of the community, but I want to zoom in on a particular element of a unique contrast to Christian community.

Damein: 34:34

In Hebrews, chapter three, we see in our other passage that we are to encourage one another daily or exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So Hebrews is probably two or three decades later from the time we see this church in Acts. What we find is that it's a church under pressure and we see many things. One, the weekly gathering is now being neglected and, more specifically, the writer of the Hebrews is raising the importance of exhortation in the Christian community daily. Okay, and we get a picture of what I'm calling contrast solidarity in our culture right now.

Damein: 35:17

To that, because what is solidarity in our culture with our friends, even Basically, it's mainly to affirm Like I don't speak against you, because that wouldn't be seen as friendly, that wouldn't be seen as loving. I don't contradict you, I don't warn you, I don't exhort you, I don't speak into something I see concerning in your life. I don't ever ask you the question hey, man, we're really good friends, right? Like really good, yeah, I mean we wouldn't trust each other with our kids and if something was wrong you'd call me right, yeah, okay, is there anything you're hiding from me? I mean anything at all. When's the last time you asked somebody that? No, I mean we can't do that, right. So solidarity has to look a certain way in our culture. But let's talk about contrast solidarity, because biblically and Proverbs, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So I think that contrast solidarity, as described in Hebrews and in the New Testament, requires at least two things. One is transparent relationships. We have to actually have relationships that are transparent, where you know even the nasty things about me.

Damein: 36:21

In his new book Made for People, justin Whitmell Early shares a story about when he and his friend were hanging out and they both got a message at the same time where one of their mutual friends had just come out for being addicted to prescription drugs and he's like this was our friend and we didn't think things like this happened to people like us. No, that actually isn't where they went. The first place they went was after they discussed a little bit. His friend said to him hey, man, is there anything that you're keeping from me? Is there anything you need to tell me? And he said no. And then he flipped it and he said what about you? Is there anything you need to tell me? And he said no.

Damein: 36:58

A couple of days later, that friend knocked on his door, about eight PM or so, after he put the kids down, and he opened the door, which he put in parentheses, by the way. It's weird for me too that people don't text before they call, much less come over to my house, right. And so he opened the door and his friend said hey, we gotta talk. And he's like, all of a sudden, that was my evening. And he walked in and he said the other night, when I said there wasn't anything I was hiding, there really was, I need to tell you. And so Monday night, they have this now phone call every Monday night and there's a script he gives in the book of the questions they ask themselves and at the end the liturgy goes, and if there's something that you haven't told me, you can. Basically, I expect you you'll tell me next week. So there's just living with no secrets, all right.

Damein: 37:36

So you might be saying what's the difference between sharing I feel like I share with people that are close to me and vulnerability? Well, he at least gives these two examples. One this might be helpful for you Vulnerability comes from a core word that means to wound, and so we know that we're truly being vulnerable when what I share with you you could wound me with. Now. That's why you gotta be really careful. Who you're vulnerable with right, transparent, with all, as one person said, vulnerable with a few right. There's a difference. We have to be careful here, but we need those people that we're vulnerable with. Here's an example he gives.

Damein: 38:08

What does sharing sound like? It sounds like I'm struggling in my marriage. Vulnerability sounds like our shouting woke up the kids last night and someone threw something. Sharing sounds like I'm really stressed at work. Vulnerability sounds like I'm taking pills to fall asleep because otherwise I just can't settle down. Sharing sounds like I'm struggling with passion in my walk with Jesus. Vulnerability sounds like man. Ever since I read that book, I'm starting to think that this whole faith thing is a fiction and not worth living. Sharing sounds like my spouse and I are going through a rough patch. Vulnerability sounds like I'm flirting with a colleague in a text chain. Do you see the difference between sharing and vulnerability? How do we live without secrets? Because that's a contrast. Solidarity, now.

Damein: 38:51

The last thing is there are twin habits of exhortation, yes, but also encouragement, and we need both to go together. And I have some people in my life who are so good at this. In fact, jason Dunn is one of these people. I told him this week Jason is so good with like plentiful encouragement, like man, I see this, this is great. And then he'll regularly, in the best, most compelling, loving way, follow it with. But I want to warn you about and those of you who know Jason, some of you are shaking your head he's so good at that he didn't even know this. Right, then I mean, it's amazing, ben, and I haven't talked about this. He encouragement and then hey, but I want to warn you, so here's some way some prompts that that could sound like, because both could be strange for us.

Damein: 39:30

Exhortations could sound like, hey, I want to caution you to look out for, or hey, I've noticed you keep saying hey, be careful, friend, because you could be saying, hey, I think you're missing. Or hey, this doesn't sound like you at your best, right, these are examples from Justin's book. They're so helpful. So then encouragement could sound like I'm always so impressed that you hey, I'm inspired by the way you, man, you're so good at I see the Lord working in you here. Where is it? Hey, you did so well when right. And so what does it look like to keep these twin habits together? It could be like man, I'm so inspired, like how great of a communicator you are. Right, this is an example Justin gives. A friend said you're so good with words, both written and spoken. That's the encouragement I'm so glad.

Damein: 40:24

And here and I want to warn you, in this stage of life, with young kids, I would imagine that there's going to be a temptation to let this gift overtake this stewardship that you have right now, in this season of life. You see, we need this type of encouragement and warning, this type of encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And these two twin habits come together as a contrast solidarity. Solidarity is not simply affirming, it's both affirming and challenging. It's speaking truth and love together, keeping them together. Now listen, as the church began to do this, it became an attractive community. That's what it says at the end of Acts two.

Damein: 41:09

Now I'm back, verse 47, having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. This word for having favor with all the people could be translated graciousness, attractiveness, charm, winsomeness. But really it goes back to what Ben said last week. There's a saltiness to this community. There's a saltiness where it preserves both, affirmation which we need plenty of, I think. Wouldn't it be great if we were a community more liberal, with our praise on one another that's not normal and our warning out of love for one another and both? There would be a saltiness to that. There would be a saltiness in a beauty. And there was, and they had favor with all of these people because of this contrast story. They were rooted in this contrast society that it produced and this contrast solidarity that it produced, so much so that we see that not only do they have favor, but the Lord added to their number those who were being saved day by day.

Damein: 42:12

Listen, the reality is is that what makes up an attractive, gracious community? It isn't an us them community where we recognize hey, listen, we have superior teaching and morality. And so repentance looks like stop doing bad things and start doing good things like we do. That's not the gospel, that's not attractiveness. In fact, even as parents, how are you gonna say that to your kids, right, do they not? Say you do bad things Is, all of a sudden, discipline in following Jesus and loving Jesus. Hey, stop doing bad things and start doing good things. What about you mom? What about you dad? So if that happens with our children, how will it happen with the society around us?

Damein: 42:49

But rather, we need to invite ourselves and them to be devoted to a contrast story. And it's this story, where it is a riches to rag story, where you and I are added to the Lord's number, we don't make our way into the Lord's number, where you and I are called down, not up. We're called to surrender, not to striving. And it's this beauty of this story that produces something that contrasts the ugliness and the bitterness of darkness in the world around us. And rather it's by embracing this story that we become an attractive light, and that, of course, is our hope and our prayer for New City. Let's pray, father. We come to you asking that you would do these things here, that you would root us in a contrast story, that we would become a contrast society, seeing how we need all of you, jesus, in all of life, and that this would produce in us also a contrast solidarity, that would be a community that speaks truth and love to one another, all to your glory, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.