Grounded in Community

Dannah Gresh: I am here this weekend—it’s kind of like a reunion when I come to a Revive Our Hearts event, because I get to see Nancy and Mary and all these sweet friends that I love at Revive Our Hearts. But this year I’ve brought the biggest bunch of friends from my ministry and my church and my family. I have to make them stand up: my daughter-in-law Aleya (she’s so mad at me right now), my mom, Kay, and my lovely daughter Autumn. There are about ten others from my church and my ministry.

I’m wondering who you brought, and I really would like you to tell me. So at the count of three shout it out. Who came with you? One, two, three! Awesome! That’s great. I don’t know what you said, but that’s awesome.

Do you know how significant they are to how you receive from the Lord this weekend? As you spend time with them, as you process what you’re hearing from God through His Word, as you share your burdens and your hurts and you pray for each other, you are bringing one another closer to Jesus. You’re very, very important to one another.

I’ve believed that for a long time. Since I was a little girl, I have read the second chapter of Acts and longed for that to be alive and well in our church. That’s why I love the ministry of Revive Our Hearts, because my heart beats to see big things happen in the body of Christ—big things, important things, revival, so that we look exactly as God intended for us to look, according to the Scriptures.

So, I was very excited when Nancy assigned me the task of talking about being grounded in community. I began meditating right away, reading books—lots of different books—and reading the Scriptures. I came to this little passage in a book called Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that stopped me in my tracks and changed the way I approached this message. I want to share it with you. He writes this:

Are you thankful for the body? In the Christian community, thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things. If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and [get this] difficulty. If, on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and the riches which are there for us all in Christ Jesus.

Then it went on for leaders. It says a pastor, but I’m going to replace it with a women’s ministry director, a pastor’s wife, a children’s ministry director,

. . . should not complain about [her] congregation, certainly never to other people but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to you in order that you should become its accuser before God and men. 

Ouch. I began right then and there to ask the Lord to not only convict my heart—I was already convicted—but further convict my heart and give me very specific repentance work to do, so that I would be found faithfully thankful. Since I yearn for big things in the body of Christ, I want to participate in those big things, and I felt like God was saying, “Thankfulness is where you begin.”

I found myself, as I allowed the Lord to cleanse my heart, coming up with a list, some of them old sins, some of them current sins, things that were the opposite of thankful. I wonder if any of these sound familiar to you. I’m going to read the list God had me writing over the last few months. I’m not going to fall on my sword all by myself. I’m going to ask if any of these things have been true in your life, if you’ll enter humbly before the presence of God. After I read this list, will you stand if any of these things reflect your behavior? Uh-oh. Getting real. [Laughter]

• Have you recently or in the past intentionally gone five minutes late to church on Sunday so you don’t have to deal with people?

Oh, they’re already standing. I was going to let you stand at the end so you didn’t have to be embarrassed. (laughter) So maybe just wait, and we’ll do it all at once.

• Have you ever, recently or in the past, extended your vacation by an extra day simply so you had an excuse not to attend church on Sunday?
• Have you ever grumbled because your husband, friend, or pastor wanted you to host a church gathering at your house and it stressed you out incredibly?
• Have you determined that you’re not really a complainer, you have a spiritual gift of discernment?
• Have you truly enjoyed the pandemic because you can just watch church in your jammies online?
• Have you decided to just keep watching church online?
• Have you convinced yourself that you are, in fact, the exception to Hebrews 10:25, which says, “Do not neglect meeting together”?

Please stand if one or more of these has been true of your life at any time. Okay. No, no, stay standing! I’m going to pray over us. I’m going to ask the Lord to change our hearts.

Father, You’ve convicted my heart that these are the antithesis of a thankful, grateful heart, and rather, they are a grumbling spirit in me. You’ve been cleansing me. I think You’re still in process. We’re standing here saying, “Lord, help us. Help us to be thankful for the body of Christ in all of its imperfection. Help us to understand how we can participate in revival, how we can participate in the big things you desire to do in us, and how we can participate in looking more like what we read in the second chapter of Acts. In the name of Jesus, amen.”

Okay, open your Bibles to the second chapter of Acts. Are you surprised about that? I want to read to you how the church is described. This is a passage that’s been really special to me for many years, and I have just soaked in it. I saw some different things, as I was soaking over these last few weeks, that I wanted to share. But let me read Acts 2:42–47.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship and 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.

I want that. Do you want that?

I want to look at four qualities that describe these early believers. If we’re truly grounded in community, I think we will also reflect these qualities. They are these: the early community of Christians were devoted, they were together, they were generous, they were glad. They were devoted, together, generous, and glad.

Now, this is where I wish I had you at my farm and I could take you to my big farmhouse table and we could just sit and reflect. And Nancy, if it’s okay we might have coffee with Jesus. (laughter) We could really unpack this. But I don’t have that time, and this is the only table I have. So come close in your hearts, and let’s try to get grounded in community.

The early church was devoted to being grounded in community. They were devoted. What does that word “devoted” mean? Well, it was a Greek word that meant “to stay, to persist, to remain.” Wow. What a word for us if our church is going through any kind of difficulty right now. Stay, persist, remain! They paid persistent attention to their little community of believers.

How persistent? Well, go ahead and look there, because it tells us. In verse 46 it says, “Day by day they were gathering.” That’s persistence. 

You know, I know friends who work out day by day. They’re persistently devoted to working out, and they look like it. I don’t. I have friends who are persistently devoted to social media; they do it day by day, maybe hour by hour. What we are impassioned for we are devoted to. They were impassioned for the church, so they gathered day by day.

How did they gather? Look at verse 42. It says that they attended the temple—the larger, more formal gatherings, right? That’s what we sort of experience on Sunday mornings, if you will. But they also broke bread in their homes—smaller table gatherings.

Now, some Bible scholars say that was the Lord’s Supper, communion. Others say no, they were eating. It was bread. They ate bread. It was sustenance. And a whole lot of them say it was probably a lot of both. Either way, they were at the table, and they were gathering in these smaller, less formal gatherings.

Here’s where I learned something. They understood the symbolism of the table in the way that we didn’t. You see, for the faithful Jews, they would understand that the table meant one thing to them: the presence of God. You see, they would know that in the book of Exodus it’s written that there was a table built. It was placed in the tabernacle, and on that table once a week they would set it with twelve loaves of bread, one representing each tribe. This was called the bread of the presence. It was the table of the presence of God.

So, the early believers had an understanding of table that we didn’t. It wasn’t where they did their crafts. It wasn’t where they collected their mail. It was where they gathered to experience the presence of the living, loving God of the universe. Christians are people of the table, because there we experience the presence of God.

Now, I think this has very special implications for us as women, because this is where we get to set the tone as well as the table for Christian fellowship. Are we doing that well?

I had to confess as the Lord was convicting me that I am often, because I’m very busy and I’m an overachiever and I like my house to be absolutely just so and have a meal that everyone’s like, “That was amazing! Did you taste Dannah’s apple pie?” I mean, I want them to say that at the end! So, I tend to get stressed.

Recently my husband said, “Baby, I’m feeling like I need to tell you something. You need to let go of having a perfect home and a three-course meal every time God calls us to open our house.”

I didn’t really like it that he said that, but that week the Lord showed me a Scripture that pretty straightforwardly agreed with Bob. It’s 1 Peter 4:9; it says this, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 

We are to be showing hospitality to each other, not just passing each other on Sunday mornings in the aisle, and we’re to be doing it without grumbling. I struggle with that.

Let me say this to you. We don’t need flawless houses, we just need faithful hearts. One of the greatest table fellowship gatherings that I’ve ever had was at the home of Erin Davis, my dear friend Erin. Now, Erin has a beautifully decorated home, and at the time she had two toddler boys. They also liked decorating her home—with swords and trucks and balls! So, there was a lot of that kind of decoration around.

After she put the toddlers to bed, she tucked those toys in a basket. Then there were three ingredients in the food she prepared for me: popcorn kernels, salt, and in the blessed name of Jesus, butter. (laughter)

But I want to tell you something. In the crazy of toddler living, with only popcorn, Erin Davis and I had sweet Christian fellowship. I want to say this again: God doesn’t need flawless homes, He needs faithful hearts.

So, I’ve been trying to say, “Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to make my table a space where people experience Your presence.” I am practicing, because I still get stressed out. But I believe the Lord’s convicted me that that would not be what He has for me.

The early church was grounded in community together. Together is a really important word. Together: with or in proximity to people; in companionship.

I want you to look at verse 44. I want to read this to you. “All who were believers were together.” All who believed were together. They were with each other; they experienced true companionship. Now, this is really important. You know why? Because I believe there are a lot of lonely hearts in our churches every week, lonely hearts feeling isolated, not feeling together. We have to tend to that. We must do something about it.

The writer of Hebrews tells us something about it. Look at Hebrews 10, because some of you need to see this. So, look at Hebrews 10:24–25. In chapter 10:21 God tells us the prescription for the loneliness is drawing near to God. He alone is the one that will truly erase our loneliness. But then it goes on to say in verses 24–25 of Hebrews 10,

Let us consider how to stir one another up for love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We’re told to draw near to God, and then we’re told to draw near to each other. They’re both critical. Let me say this gently, sisters, because we all have different sensitivities and different needs. But I think during the pandemic, some of us have gotten in the habit of not meeting together. “I enjoy church online,” some of my friends tell me.

Forecasters are saying that a third of the people that have stopped going to church since the pandemic began will never return. “Do not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some.” Don’t be one of them that is in the habit of not meeting together, and if you have become in that habit, get out of that habit! Isolation in the body of Christ is the medium that Satan works in.

First Peter 5:8 reminds us that the devil “walks around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 

Years ago, my family got to go on a safari in South Africa. We were on a mission’s trip. We thought, We’ll never get back to Africa. Let’s see some lions and tigers and bears. Well, I don’t think there were bears or tigers, but you know, we’re not being ecologically accurate here.

As we got in the Range Rover thing with the ranger guy, early on we started following these four lionesses, and they were obviously hunting. You could tell they were hunting. I’d never seen a lion hunt, but I knew that’s what they were doing. They were crouching. They were talking, communicating to each other, and they were looking for something to devour.

Then, suddenly, there was a lone wildebeest, and as confident as if it was already done, he said, “They will eat that wildebeest. They will catch it, and they will eat it.”

I said, “How do you know that?” because I was rooting for the wildebeest.

He said, “Because it’s alone.”

Satan wants you to isolate yourself. He wants you to be alone. He wants to devour you with sin, with selfishness, with temptation. Roaring lions look for lone prey. Don’t be alone; be together!

Maybe you’re saying, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I am together. I am going to the formal gatherings. I’m going to the table gatherings. But I still feel lonely.”

Let me suggest that true togetherness, true community does not happen when we come together as pious, perfect people. The church is not a country club where we all behave the same. The church is a hospital. The breakthrough to true community comes, the true togetherness comes when we become humble, broken sinners who desperately need Jesus together and aren’t afraid to tell our sins one to another. The church is a hospital for those who understand they are sick and in continued recovery from a very fatal condition.

Here’s where I have to say I once was very lonely. I finally got lonely enough that at a table with four friends I told that one secret that I thought, Nobody else has ever done this. Nobody else has ever felt this. Nobody else has ever known this shame.

You know what happened when I did that? I thought I would be the leper, the one they didn’t want in the group anymore. You know, that night one of the others called me and she confessed her sin to me: an abortion. It was a secret she’d been carrying for two decades. Another was at my kitchen table one week later, sharing with me that it was not her sin but someone else’s that had her in shame. For thirty years she’d been carrying around the secret that she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and no one knew.

When we’re alone in our sin or the sins committed against us, we are utterly alone. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins one to another, and then you will be healed.” I cannot tell you how my life is a testimony to the truth of that verse. I know how terrified you are to tell your secret. I know, because I’ve been there, but I can promise you that on the other side of that is a freedom that you will not ever experience unless . . . God’s given us Him, Him alone, for confession and forgiveness of sin. BHe’s given us each other for the healing of our hearts and our souls! Tell someone, and be thankful. Be thankful that you have sisters to openly confess your deepest secrets to.

The early church was grounded in community through generosity. This is where I get really excited. I found something new as I was studying that I’d never seen before, because verse 45 reads (we’re back in Acts),

They were all selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as many as had need. They were meeting the needs of one another.

Again, faithful Jews would have known that this had special significance. It was actually something that was supposed to have been happening under the law of the Old Testament. 

I’m going to turn to the book of Deuteronomy and read to you one of the commands found in Deuteronomy 15:7–8. It says,

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. (NIV)

Doesn’t that sound like Acts 2? But here’s the thing: it wasn’t happening. They couldn’t do it. They didn’t have the power to do it, because the presence of the living God was not in them, the Spirit of the living God was not on them. So even though this was supposed to be happening through the temple, through the Jewish leaders, it was not happening, it was just a duty, a hardship. But then the Holy Spirit comes, and His presence is on them, and suddenly, they’re able to do it spontaneously and naturally!

Do you remember how Jesus said He came to fulfill the law? The presence of Christ in them was enabling them to do what they could not do previously.

You know, as the pandemic happened, I was really inspired by one specific donor to our ministry who lost his job. The husband lost his job, the wife was a stay-at-home mom; they were very generous givers to not only my ministry but many ministries. They called to say, “We’re having to sell our home; we want you to pray for us.” When they were talking to my COO, he was expecting them to say they couldn’t give anymore. They said, “We’re selling our home because we aren’t going to stop giving what we’ve been giving. We want to find a way to give more as we have less.” Second chapter of Acts; it’s possible.

I was so inspired. I was like, “Lord, let me be like that! Let me be willing to give away anything that is mine, because it’s not mine; it’s all Yours.” It’s only through the Holy Spirit. They gave all the credit to the Lord. It was only through the Holy Spirit.

Listen, we’re called to meet the needs of one another in a way that the rest of the world is not. The New Testament is full of one anothers. If you’ve heard Nancy teach, you’ve heard her teach an entire series on the one anothers of Scripture, right? You’re all nodding your heads up and down, like little bobbing dolls. You know that teaching. Forgive one another, comfort one another, serve one another, pray for one another, bear one another’s burdens.

Let’s be honest about that. It’s highly inconvenient. It’s highly inconvenient to bear one another’s burdens; it’s messy, it’s frustrating. Let me remind you that the Christian life is a cross-bearing life.

We don’t want to be burdens to each other. As girls, we don’t want to be burdens to each other. We’re like, “I don’t want to inconvenience you.” Listen. Look right here. You are a burden. It is as it should be. You are a burden so that I can receive the blessing of carrying it with you.

When we have that false pride of not asking for help, that’s one of the reasons why we’re not having our tables open enough. What if we opened our table and said, “Hey, the toddlers have decorated the living room, so could you clean that up while I cook some popcorn?” That is bearing one another’s burdens together. That’s what we’re meant to do. The Christian life is a cross-bearing life.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16.24). This could make us look so different. If we allowed the Spirit to fill us so fully, the presence of Christ to work in us so completely that we became the bearers of one another’s burdens in a way that the rest of the world didn’t understand—wow! In a world that discards inconvenient, burdensome relationships to the point of being known for cancel culture, I want to tell you that when you’re in a difficult relationship with a sister in church, you do not cancel your sister. You cancel the debt because we forgive one another. 

When you’re in a marriage that’s messy, in a world that discards relationships to the point of divorce, I want to tell you, if that’s you, sister, you are never a fool to be a part of the redemption story of Christ in a man’s life. Now, God doesn’t want you to be in a harsh, abusive relationship, but if you’re married to a sinful, messy man who leaves his socks on the living room floor—like the rest of us who are married—bear one another’s burdens, including his.

In a world that discards inconvenient, burdensome relationships to the point of calling it a woman’s right to abort a baby, I want you to know that when God forms a child inside of you, He’s inviting you to put yourself on a cross, as He did. He’s inviting you to give up living the way you want to live, the way you wish to live, the way you planned to live, and He’s bringing whole new meaning to your spirit and to your life, opportunity to receive one another, care for one another, serve one another. So, we have to be women that say, “Thank You, Lord, for the messy and very inconvenient burden of bearing the burdens of my sisters.”

The early church experienced community with glad hearts. What’s that mean? They were pleased, they were delighted. Yay! Does that mean everything was peachy, keen, and wonderful? No! Do you know these were believers who weeks earlier were hiding for their lives, who were terrified for their lives, under a terribly restrictive, oppressive persecuting government? This wasn’t easy, what they were doing, but they were glad. Christian fellowship can make sad days glad.

Sometimes just regular sad days. I really wish my job was always teaching, researching the Bible, writing teachings, and writing books. But it’s not. A lot of my job is proofing marketing copy—yay. Meeting deadlines—hoorah. Answering all the emails that Aubrey and Noli and Wade send me—yay. I don’t always have a lot of passion for those days. You have some of those things on your to-do list that you’re like, “Lord, get me through!”

I was having one of those particularly bad days where I was really kind of grumbling about the tasks at hand. Janet, who’s a part of my church, walked in. She invited Aubrey (not me) to go out for Mexican food. I intercepted the pass. “I’ll go!” I was just like, “I don’t want to work anymore!” But I can’t tell you enough how discouraged and distraught I was that day, really weighed down, like we are by the laundry, like we are by the bills that need paying, like we are by the vacuuming—that kind of weighed down.

But there, with chips and salsa, Janet and I started talking about Jesus. Is it okay if chips and salsa go with Jesus, Nancy? I want to tell you, my heart was dead when I sat down in that booth; and when I left, because we talked about Scripture, and we talked about what God was doing in our lives and what God needed to do in our lives, it was like . . . I don’t know, have you ever experienced that, where the Spirit just stirs in you?

I went back and I was like, “I get to edit marketing copy—yay!” It changed me. Christian fellowship changes us. 

As I was studying this whole glad thing, I just felt so drawn to the word “glad.” Do you ever feel like the Holy Spirit just takes a holy highlighter and He’s like, “This word.” Have you had that?

I did not know, but the Holy Spirit did, that I needed to learn a lesson of gladness concerning my church for an upcoming trial, one that I don’t want to walk through, a burden I don’t want to bear, tears I don’t want to cry. God’s done some really beautiful things in our church since the beginning of the pandemic, and it started to feel like we were headed toward Acts 2. I don’t think Satan liked that. So, we’re being faced with a test right now.

Here’s what I’m learning: gladness is not a condition of our circumstances. It’s like joy, a miraculous work of God in spite of what is going on around us.

Yesterday morning I still hadn’t figured out, “What does the Lord want me to understand about this whole gladness thing?” I got a text from my friend Collette, who’s a part of my church. Now, I don’t even know if she knows I’m at Revive, honestly. I know she didn’t know what was in my notes. But this is what she texted me yesterday morning. “Hope the Lord revives your glad.” Does that even sound like a regular sentence? (laughter)

She attached a worship song for me to soak in, and it was a song based on Psalm 92:4. So I followed the trail, and I got into Psalm 92, and it starts, “For You, O Lord, have made me glad.” 

It was the presence of Jesus in Janet over that Mexican salsa and chips that made me glad, not Janet herself (although Janet’s amazing). When we go through burdensome times, hard times, painful times, it is the presence of Jesus that helps us hold onto our glad.

Have you been hurt or disappointed by someone in the church? It’s not us that makes each other glad. We are sick, we are sinners, we are needy. No matter who we are, we will disappoint. We will at times make one another sad. That’s when the rest of us bear the burden, and we pick that one up and we carry them. They are our cross for a time. When we do that, the Spirit stirs inside of us, and He makes us glad.

Sin will try to take the glad right out of you. That’s precisely why we need the presence of Christ, because we are no match for sin. Only His Spirit, only His presence.

Look back, if you will, in Acts 2. Peter was preaching the first public message of salvation to the masses. I thought this was so interesting, in light of what we are talking about, being grounded in a world that’s shaking us. Peter, of course, is talking about Jesus. He’s sharing the gospel for the first time publicly. I get chills when I think about that. He quotes David in Acts 2:25–26.

I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh will also dwell in hope.

You know what? The world is shaking, but I will not be shaken. I will get myself into the community that allows me to experience the presence of Christ—“Where two or three are gathered, there I am.” I am going to be thankful for that community, no matter how messy it is. I am going to be thankful that the Lord, not those in fellowship, but that the Lord is the source of our gladness, no matter the circumstances.

If you need to work on your thankfulness, this is what I want you to do as Shane and Shane come. I am deeply convicted that I am not thankful enough for the body of Christ, that I do a whole lot of grumbling. I don’t think people think of me as a grumbling person. Mom, do you think of me as a grumbling person? She didn’t answer. (laughter) But the Lord wants our hearts to be holy.

Our plumbline is not the world, it’s His Word. He wants me to be glad and thankful for what’s happening in the body of Christ. That means I have to practice my devotion; that means I have to practice my generosity. That means I have to practice my gladness, and whatever else the other point was that I can’t remember right now. (laughter)

As they lead us in this song, I want you to do something, and that is this: I don’t want you to stand until you’ve talked to the Lord about this. Confess to Him where you’ve been grumbling instead of glad. Confess to Him where you’ve been grumbling instead of thankful, because oh sisters, I long to see revival, and I want it to start in me.

After you’ve talked with the Lord, then I want you to stand and sing with Shane and Shane. But talk to Him first, because He is the source of our gladness.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.