2 – We Have To Do This Together

A family hike is much different from a competitive marathon. If you run a marathon, you devote your full energy to completing the race as quickly as you can. You expect that there will be others who drop out of the race or who lag far behind. You won’t have the time or energy to help them. In fact, the more people you leave behind, the better you feel.
If you take a family hike, however, one of your most important commitments is finishing with everyone you started with. You can only consider the hike a success if everyone that started the hike comes home safely. If you get home and discover that you left your daughter or your little brother behind somewhere, you’re going to have to go back and find them.
We do find the New Testament using the metaphor of a “race” to describe the Christian life.
…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)
Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
These verses emphasize our need for determination and perseverance in living the Christian life. They are not meant to make us think we should run alone or leave others behind. The New Testament also clearly shows us that we need one another to love, serve, and grow. Following are 30 New Testament verses or passages that show our need to love, serve, and grow together.
LOVE
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:16)
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. (1 Corinthians 1:10)
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. (1 Peter 3:8)
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11)
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)
SERVE
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. (John 13:14)
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13)
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Peter 4:9)
GROW
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:22-26)
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, (Ephesians 5:19)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13)
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:15)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)
Look at the commands in this chapter and think about where you have the opportunity to practice them. Where do you have the opportunity to bear with someone? Who can you spur on toward love and good deeds? How many people can you encourage daily?
We won’t get the opportunity to keep these commands by merely sitting in a church once a week. We must get involved with other believers in a personal way where we have contact with them in a smaller group. Team ministry will give us the opportunity to keep these commands as we love, serve, and grow together.
On Mercy Night, we want to ask everyone in the fellowship to make a weekly habit of these three things:
1) Gather with us once a week to celebrate together, and encourage each other
2) Spend some time during the week alone with God, in prayer and Bible reading
3) Meet with your team to love, serve, and grow