DeColores...

This is a talk that I gave at a men's weekend last Spring. The topic was Total Security, or Christian Community. Enjoy!

Total Security

K-97

Geary Lutz

· Good afternoon, gentlemen! How is your weekend going?

· Let’s open to page 5 of the Martyr’s guide, and say the prayer found there.

· Lord, you have told us to be your witnesses to the ends of the earth. We have gathered here that one whom you have called might share his witness with us. May this one whom you have called be your instrument and may we be receptive to the words which he speaks, that these words would indeed work in our lives for the benefit of Your kingdom.

· Amen! Gentlemen, my topic today is Total Security.

· And when I first thought about this topic, there were two things that came to my mind.

· First, when I realized that I have the Sunday after-lunch talk, I thought, “Great! I get the nap-time talk. These men are running on little sleep, and lots of food. Sounds like an ideal time to sit down and listen to someone speak for an hour and a half (oh, sorry, half an hour. Somebody’s dreaming already!)

· Secondly, when I realized it was a talk on the necessity of brotherhood and community, it led me to think “How did I get this talk?”

· I mean, I’m the last guy to give a talk on the necessity of fellowship.

· Asking me to do this talk is like giving a talk on Business ethics to Bernie Madoff—it just doesn’t seem to fit.

· This talk is the last talk that I should feel fit to speak on.

· I’m 24, and I grew up in generation X-box.

· If you want to give me a talk on how to play video games for 12 hours without blinking—sure, I’ll do that.

· But not a talk on fellowship.

· Don’t ask me to think about others—this is generation “self-esteem.” Notice the emphasis—self-esteem.

· And don’t even think about correcting me—you might hurt my self-esteem and send me into years of clinical counseling. (Hey, you guys are the ones that raised us—most of you…)

· So, what I’m saying is, I’m not exactly the most experienced man in the area of brotherhood—or so I thought.

· But they say around here that the guys don’t pick the talks, but that God picks the guys.

· So, once I realized that, I thought about how I was going to be able to speak about this topic.

· Like I said, the talk is on the necessity of Christian brotherhood, and it truly is necessary.

· So, I figured I’d look where I do know there is good information on the brotherhood—The Bible.

· And, as I studied the Bible, I have come to the realization that there is a lot of benefit from brotherhood and fellowship.

· Particularly, I’ve found two good reasons why we each need fellowship.

· The first, is because we are all sheep.

· The second is because we are members of a body.

· Ok, first, we’re all sheep.

· Now this might not sound very flattering at first, and let me assure you—it isn’t.

· It’s not a flattering notion to be called a sheep, or to be known as a sheep.

· Why? Well, sheep aren’t known to be the most intelligent creatures in God’s creation.

· In fact, I heard one story of a sheep who was about to be slaughtered, and while the man had his knife raised to chop this sheep (or whatever they use, that’s not important now…), the sheep turns his head, and licks the man’s hand.

· That’s not exactly a show of intelligence. The thing doesn’t even know it’s about to be killed!

· Yet, when God looks through the animal kingdom to compare us to an animal, this is the one that He picks most consistently.

· What does that say about us? Quite a bit.

· Sheep are not intelligent, and sheep will travel in herds, following one sheep at the head wherever he goes—even if that wherever is off of a cliff.

· Now, I don’t know if I appreciate that comparison personally, though.

· I mean, if I were there, I think I would have picked a better animal—a stallion, perhaps.

· I’m strong, fast, and I will go wherever I want to go.

· Yet, God says, “No. You’re not a stallion, you’re a sheep.”

· You would follow the guy in front of you off of a cliff, maybe in a nice sports car, but right off the cliff, because that’s where he’s going.

· And that’s not too hard to imagine, is it? We will chase after cars, work, toys, and all for what?

· To follow the other guy off the cliff, but when I go off, I’ll go off with a better 401k. Why? I don’t know, but he has it, so I have to have more than he has. Baaaa.

· John 10, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd. Why? Because we are sheep.

· Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like (what?) sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”

· Even the ever-popular, and ever-comforting 23^rd Psalm refers to the Lord as our what?

· Come on, don’t make me have you turn to your neighbor. What is He?

· He’s our Shepherd, and He’s the Good Shepherd.

· He’s the Good Shepherd, and we are all sheep.

· Well, now that we have established that fact, and everyone’s self-esteem is boosted, what’s the point?

· What’s it mean that I’m a sheep? How does that fit in with Christian brotherhood and fellowship?

· Well, ultimately, it means that I need to follow the Good Shepherd.

· There are plenty of false shepherds out there who will attempt to lead us astray—we need to be sure that we are following the Good Shepherd.

· There are shepherds out there who will speak the words our ears want to hear—heaping up “around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear,” as Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 4:3.

· They will itch our ears with what we want to hear—but as Paul explained in 2 Timothy 3, just before this description of false shepherds, the Word of God tells us what we need to hear.

· The way that this fits in with Security is that as we surround ourselves with other sheep that are following the right Shepherd, we will find it easier to hear and discern the Shepherd’s voice.

· We will be surrounded by those who are following down the path that the Good Shepherd is leading us on—the path of life.

· And if we start to wander from the Shepherd, one of our fellow Sheep can then help us to get back on the right path.

· It stops us from being like Proverbs 18:1 says, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”

· There are voices of many shepherds calling out—as we grow in Christ we will be more able to discern, but we need to stay with the flock of the True Shepherd.

· I’ve found this personally true.

· Last year, I got to share at the men’s retreat for our church, and with that I got to share a bit of my testimony.

· While I was doing that, I got to share with the men that I had struggled for most of my adult life with pornography.

· I also got to share with them the freedom that I’ve found in Christ from the bondage to that sin.

· However, as I’m sure you all must know, even when Christ frees you from sin, that doesn’t mean the temptation flees from you.

· I still struggle to maintain control of my sexual desires—and keep them purely for my wife.

· For the most part, my wife has been my main accountability with regards to temptation.

· But I’ve come to realize the difficulties that come along with confiding in my wife in this particular area.

· I mean, telling her about temptations I’ve had to say nasty things to someone else? Sure.

· Telling her about temptations I’ve had to leave my kids in a box in the metro parks? Sure.

· But this is a completely different matter—this is something far more personally.

· This is me saying to her, “Honey, I know I’ve committed myself to loving you completely and purely. I know I’ve promised that I would be faithful to you until the day I die. But that was before I’ve saw this woman over here. Now I’m almost willing to throw everything away over this woman, and my body is telling me I should go for it, and my sinful heart is telling me I should go for it too. What do you think I should do?”

· I mean, to a point it’s silly to even say that—duh, you should’ve had a V-8.

· Should I stay faithful, and be a man, and maintain my pure love for my wife—or should I throw it all away and pursue a woman I barely know just because of her skimpy clothes?

· Hmm, wonder which one will work out better?

· But when the shepherd of my actions is my flesh, my sinful flesh, then where do you think it will lead me.

· I need another sheep to help me to get back on the straight path—to get me back to clear thinking based on God’s word.

· Which leads us to the second reason why we all need Christian fellowship: we are a body.

· If the sheep is one of the most commonly used metaphors to describe the individual, the body is the one of the most common metaphors used for the church as a whole.

· Now, just as Christ is the Good Shepherd of the sheep, He is also called the head of the body.

· But we are called the body of Christ!

· In I Corinthians 12, Paul lays out the concept of the church as the body of Christ in full detail.

· He says in Verse 15, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.”

· This speaks of the diversity of the body—and the blessing that this is.

· Guys, just because you don’t have a particular gift that you think is important, that does not mean that you are not useful in the body.

· He points this out in verse 17, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”

· This is where I wish that he would’ve asked about if the whole body were a big nose, because anyone who has seen those nasal spray commercials would have an instant visual here—you know the ones I’m talking about.

· But that’s not what he said, so we’ll move on.

· This verse points out the necessity of each of the different parts of the body—they all serve different functions.

· In fact, not only should we not think we don’t belong to the body if we don’t have a particular gift, but we need to realize who built the body.

· Verse 18, “But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

· Well, that may answer why I don’t have that particular gift that I think I should have—I didn’t get to pick which body part I am—I was assigned a gift by God Himself.

· Ok, so we are a part of the body, but do we really need the body?

· Well, verse 19 and following give us the answer to that question, and for the sake of time—I’ve only got an hour left—I’ll just sum it up for you: we need the body.

· Guys, I want you to perform an experiment when you get home from here.

· I want you to take out a knife, and hack off one of your fingers.

· Then, while you’re standing there, just watch how long it takes for that finger to die on the counter by itself. (I would have you do the experiment here, but I don’t think we have enough band-aids on hand for all of you guys to do it. Maybe I should pass out a waiver form at the end of the talk.)

· I don’t think it will last very long, do you? And why not? Because it is disconnected from the body.

· That’s the picture here, of one Christian saying to the body of Christ, “I don’t need you.”

· Now, admittedly, a Christian can survive with just the Bible and prayer, but in order to grow—in order to thrive—God has orchestrated that His people would rely on the gifts each one possesses in order that each one may grow to his full potential.

· This is the way in which the Lord has allowed for each one of the members of His body will grow as much as possible—through constant connection with the other members of the body.

· You are cutting yourself off from the body if you don’t maintain connection with other members of the body.

· We need each other in order to survive—we cannot be Cowboy Christians.

· We can most certainly be Christian Cowboys, as Royce and Joe, and a whole host of other Godly cowboys will attest.

· But we cannot be Cowboy Christians—no Lone Rangers wandering about, just looking out for himself and “ain’t concerned with nobody.”

· We aren’t those who fly solo—if you fly solo, you will crash hard!

· We need brothers and sisters in Christ in order to be the most effective body-part we can be.

· Some of us will be more visible body parts—some of us will be a pancreas.

· However, we are all members of the body—and we need to keep ourselves attached to the body in order to be healthy.

· Ecclesiastes speaks about the truth of this fact.

· Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says this, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. (I’m not exactly advocating this one for you guys)But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

· So, we see that the importance of fellowship simply for the fact that one man can help another one up when he falls.

· You guys, we will all fall at times, but it is important that we have someone there to help us up, otherwise we will struggle to get out of the mire.

· I have found this to be particularly helpful. When I am hanging out in regular fellowship with other men who love Christ—it’s as if there’s a purifying effect on me.

· We can keep each other accountable, and I don’t want to disappoint these guys by telling them I’m failing in an area because I’m being lazy.

· But when I am falling into sin, they are the guys there to pick me up, and help me get back on the path of obedience to the Word of God.

· Fellowship in the fight is essential.

· Even in creation, in Genesis 2, we see the necessity for human fellowship.

· In Genesis 1-2, we see the creation of the entire universe by the hand of God.

· And throughout the process, you might remember that there is a certain phrase repeated over and over during each day of creation.

· That phrase is something of the variation, “And God saw that it was good.”

· But when we get to the middle of Chapter 2, we see something completely different.

· Chapter 2 focuses in on Day 6 and the creation of man.

· And you may remember that the first man that he creates is Adam.

· However, God only makes Adam at first—by himself.

· And in Chapter 2, verse 18, God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

· God says, “Day 1, Good. Day 2, Good. Day 3, Good. Day 4, Good. Day 5, Good. Day 6, Hmm. This boy’s going to have some problems by himself. He was supposed to meet me by the maple tree 3 hours ago. He named the thing, I don’t know why he can’t find it. Oh, great, he’s been watching America’s Funniest Home Videos instead. That’s great. I better make this boy someone else to help him, otherwise this race is doomed.” That’s the Geary Lutz paraphrase of verse 18.

· Now, ultimately God made a woman for Adam, and we can thank God for that as well—if it weren’t for our wives, we’d be hopeless, gentlemen.

· But I think it’s really saying something that the first need that is ever mentioned about man, is his need to be in fellowship with another human being—the need to not be alone.

· And yet, we make all sorts of barriers, and build all sorts of walls to keep ourselves blocked off from any true fellowship.

· Sure, I know a lot of guys generally, but how many know the deepest stuff that I’m dealing with?

· How many guys know about the deepest things that I’m struggling with right now?

· How many guys know the struggles I have with learning how to be a man—a Godly man who leads his house rightly?

· How many guys know the victories that I’ve been having over the sins that once used to dominate me—in order to multiply the praises sung to God?

· Guys, these things hit home like nothing else to me right now. I’m not talking on stuff that I have an infinite supply of success stories on.

· I can’t give you “14 ways that you can build deeper connections with other guys.”

· But I do know that as we build relationships with other guys—guys in particular, because we know each other’s struggles more specifically—it will grow in us the areas where each of us is lacking.

· I’ve been able to see this in my own life when I have been involved in men’s ministry or in the small group fellowship that our church offers.

· Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

· As we sharpen each other, we are able to better withstand the attacks of Satan, because we will be backed by other guys who are in the battle with us.

· We need to pick up our swords, and we need to hold them high together.

· We need to do battle together, because our souls are at stake.

· Christ calls us to be soldiers together for His Kingdom.

· Pick up your swords with me brothers and let us fight together.

· Now, you might be thinking, “But how? I want to be linked up, but how? It’s so easy to come up with excuses and so hard to do the heavy lifting of actually hooking up with other guys to live life in fellowship with one another.”

· Well, ultimately, we would love to see you guys hooked up with a local body—a church.

· If you are not in a church right now, find one. This is the easiest spot to find men who love the Lord and who will be willing to fight together on common ground.

· If your church has a men’s ministry, look at what times they meet together.

· See if you can work it into your schedule.

· I’m not trying to weigh you guys down with obligations, but I know that this is important, and I know that it will be beneficial to all of you guys, if you are hooked up with a good group of Godly men.

· However, while you guys are searching out these options—or if you’re a guys like me who needs a good kick in the butt in order to get going—there is something that Koinonia offers you which will help you guys build relationships with the guys you’ve met this weekend.

· You guys have had a special opportunity to bond this weekend, and we want to further encourage these connections that you’ve made.

· The way that we can help keep each other in the battle is through what’s known as community groups, or K-groups.

· K-groups are groups of 3-5 people that meet each week after we leave from here to help sharpen each other and keep each other in the battle.

· The point of these groups is to build around ourselves a group of guys that we can be transparent with—these guys will get to know the real you.

· These guys should be the guys that you share your weekly struggles with, your weekly victories with, and your overall concerns with.

· Building relationships with other Godly men is essential—this is an opportunity to do just that—and without all the heavy lifting.

· You might be saying, “Oh, man. Every week? For how long? I’m not sure I can meet with these guys for the rest of my life.”

· Well, initially, we’re asking you to commit to 6 weeks with the same group of guys—after that, your group can decide if it wants to continue meeting together, maybe change nights—the details are up to your group.

· Our hope is that over the 6 weeks your group will begin to bond and that you guys will see the group for the value that it has, and you will continue meeting together far beyond the 6 weeks.

· There are groups still meeting from Koinonia weekends in the Ice Ages (ok, maybe not that far back, but you get my point.)

· These guys have found great encouragement and strength from meeting with the same group of guys, and building a strong bond on the common ground of Jesus Christ.

· They have committed to fighting together against Satan and his attacks.

· They’ve committed to putting each one of these areas we’ve talked about this weekend in action together—working as laity, toward piety, through study, being active leaders in every environment. We are a Christian community in action—like Dave said; let’s make sure we are not becoming Christian community “inaction”.

· We are united in Christ, brothers, and we need to continue in the fight together.

· DeColores!