People who were formed for the family of God will love other believers like they are family.  Many of you know John 3:16, God so loved the world, but how about First John 3:16? We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.  This is the deepest level of fellowship; sacrificing for each other. It's the kind of love Jesus Christ had for you.

          Last Sunday we had quite an experience here.  It was during the 9:00 service, and the smells of breakfast were finding their way up into the sanctuary. After a while, though, there was a different smell.  Somebody came up and told me that the smell was coming from downstairs, but they had looked everywhere, and they couldn’t figure out the source. We turned out the lights in case it was an electrical problem.  By the end of the service, the smell was still there, and nobody could  tell  where  it  was  coming  from.     I   called   the    fire

department.  I told them, “We’ve got this smell here; there’s a lot of people in the building, could you just send somebody over to check it out?”  In a minute there were two big hook and ladder trucks and an ambulance blocking Vernon Road and a dozen firemen running in carrying big, metal 6–foot axes.   And members of the church went up to them and said, “Don’t you be messing with our new church building!”  They were serious. They shook their fists at the firemen, and said, “Be careful what you do in here!”  Fortunately it didn’t turn out to be a big problem, but I was interested in how our members stepped up to the defense of our church building.  We need to come to the same defense of our church -- meaning our church members – we need to come to the defense of our church in the same way. To stand beside others who are having problems. To do our part in caring for one another.  To love the other members of the family.  To shake our fists at evil, and say, “Don’t you be messing with my brothers and sisters!” That’s what it means to be a part of a family, and we were put here to be a part of a family.

    Loving God, that's called “Worship,” and loving each other, that's called “Fellowship.” It wasn't too long after Jesus left this earth that  Christians began to get into trouble.  The Romans weren't very hospitable to Christians.  They were putting them up on stakes and burning them and they were crucifying them and throwing them to lions in the coliseums.  And in that period of time, one of the most famous secular historians, not a Christian, wrote this about Christians, he said: “Behold, how they love each other."  You see, what we want Reformation Church to be known for is not our size, not our sermons, not our singing, not our strategy, not our building, but our love.  We want people to say, “That's the place where they love each other,” because that's what Christianity is all about, loving God and loving each other.  I'm often been asked, "Why did Reformation Church grow so much over the years?"  And I usually say something like, “When people find a church, a community, where there is genuine love, you have to lock the doors to keep people away, because people are not looking for religion, they are looking for a family.  They are not looking just for a doctrine; they are looking for love.

     This is part of our purpose in life.  We were formed for God’s family.  We were put here to be in fellowship with one another, to love each other.  This is our purpose.  And this is Good News!  Thanks be to God!

[Return to Top]