Choose Community: 3 Ways to Connect

Choose Community: 3 Ways to Connect
“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” –John 17:16-18

 In the final sermon from our series “Choose Connection” at Christ Presbyterian, we looked at the Bible’s radical teaching on community in Daniel 1. There is a tension in the life of the believer as he relates to his community. Jesus summarizes that tension well in John 17 where he declares that his followers are “not of the world” and yet have been “sent into the world” by him. How can we live in this tension?

Here are three choices you can make to connect to your community this week:

1) I will accept the community God has placed me in. In Daniel 1, God’s people are taken into exile by the Babylonians. Their community is drastically changed overnight. It’s tempting to see the Babylonians as the villains in this story – and to some extent they are. But there’s an uncomfortable truth in Daniel 1:2: “The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into [the hand of the king of Babylon].” The drastic change in Daniel’s community was ultimately God’s doing. Daniel could have fought against that change and rejected it. But he chose to accept his new community as God’s will for his life. Are you fighting against the community God has placed you in or are you accepting it as a gift from his hand?

2) I will embrace the unique life God has called me to. Daniel’s community changed, but Daniel’s values did not. Even in the foreign land of Babylon, Daniel chose to follow God. Daniel 1:8 says, “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or the wine that he drank.” We’re not obligated to follow the same food laws that Daniel does, but God does call us to live a unique life that sets us apart from our culture in many ways. That uniqueness extends from how we spend our time on Sunday morning to what kind of entertainment we imbibe. Will you choose to embrace the unique life God has called you to in the midst of a community who believes and behaves otherwise?

3) I will invite others to test God’s call alongside me. Daniel has such faith in following the diet God prescribed that he puts it to a public test against the culture of his day. Daniel 1:15 says, “At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the kings food.” God’s way was the better way – and Daniel demonstrated that publicly. Don’t be afraid to put God’s way to a public test in your community. He’ll win every time.

Daniel chose to embrace his new community. That choice blessed his new community in Babylon and brought glory to God. Let’s follow in his footsteps and choose to connect to our community right here in Daphne.

Your Pastor and Friend,
John Knox Foster