Mike Livermore - Class 2

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Thanks, TJ. Community is a powerful thing. We've all heard the phrase strength in numbers, and we're all aware of the overwhelming power that a group can have versus an individual. This is the way that God has made us and created our minds. He knows us. And so God has used the power of group for humans for good.

2. 0:38

   The classic case in the Bible is in the reforms of Hezekiah. When Hezekiah reinstituted the Passover and reformed a nation, the classic verse we always go to at Bible schools is in 2 Chronicles 30, verses 22 through 23, which says, And so in this wonderful time of spiritual reformation, the power of the group and the community gathering together led to this wonderful reform that was only possible when the people got together in this manner.

3. 1:32

   And so we know that groups and community have a powerful effect on our lives and are a part of how we live every single day. When I look back at my own life, just anecdotally, and I look back to the events and moments that were most powerful in helping build my own faith and shipping me into a responsible adult, which I may or may not still be today, I look back and I think about times at Manitouan Youth Conference, at times at Hanover, at Shippensburg, at the Football Challenge, at study days like this, and it's the gathering together of believers that really helps us stay on the straight and narrow path, helps us focus on God's kingdom, and build up our faith and commitment to what's coming in the future.

4. 2:19

   That's why God put in the Old Testament things like the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover. But this power, which should be used for good, even in the Bible, was also used for bad. Come with me, please, to 1 Kings chapter 12.

5. 2:40

   1 Kings chapter 12 and verses 25 through 31. The story of Jeroboam. It says, So this is Jeremiah having just rebelled from Rehoboam earlier in the chapter, is now establishing his rule in the north. Verse 26, And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their Lord, Rehoboam, king of Judah.

6. 3:21

   And they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of Golan, said to the people, It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

7. 3:41

   Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi. So this story, first and foremost, is a shame on Jeroboam. He knew the power of community, and he used it for evil.

8. 4:04

   He established idolatrous worship in the land, rival events, rival gatherings, rival communities. And that's why throughout history, other bad kings were called, you know what, they weren't quite as bad as Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. But beyond Jeroboam, though, if we look back at verse 30, we can often scapegoat him. But what about the rest of everyone else?

9. 4:29

   All of the responsible adults, the parents, the leaders of that community? They willingly chose, when this rival gathering was going on, a rival community was forming, they chose to join that group and not continue with worship in Jerusalem. The people, the adults, the mature ones like us, they were carried away into apostasy, despite knowing better, because the power of the group and the power of community pulled them away for evil.

10. 5:02

    And there was an external threat to the community and gathering in Jerusalem. There's also an internal struggle that these events and this worship goes through. Come with me, please, to Malachi chapter 1.

11. 5:19

    It's one thing for a rival event, a rival community, to pull away and to externally tempt the gathering of believers in Jerusalem. But that gathering can also be threatened internally. In Malachi chapter 1, amidst all of the back and forth of the people saying, well, yet you say, and there's this stream of condemnation from God to the bad practices in Malachi's day.

12. 5:47

    In Malachi chapter 1, verses 11 through 13, we'll read, For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. In every place incense shall be offered to my name in a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

13. 6:06

    But you profane it, in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled and its fruit, its food is contemptible. You also say, oh, what a weariness. And you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring the stolen, the lame, the sick. Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hand, says the Lord?

14. 6:28

    And so internally, these group events, the gathering of the community, was also threatened because the people viewed these events as a weariness. And they brought a second-rate effort. They just brought the leftovers and the lame and the sick as offerings for these various feasts and the gatherings. And so there's a real threat that the Bible presents to us that these powerful and wonderful gatherings of believers can be challenged both externally through the power of other apostate communities and can also be challenged internally if we don't bring our best and bring our best effort and if we're not making these things a priority.

15. 7:13

    And so here's two examples in the Bible for us of how the community of believers, the ecclesia, can erode. In the case of Jeroboam's idols, it was external pressure. And it reminds us of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, who when he saw all the bright flashing lights, he said, I want my inheritance and I want to go spend it on prodigal living.

16. 7:35

    And the external temptation pulled him out of the father's house. There was pressure to leave. But in the case of Malachi's time, it was the internal weariness where people weren't trying hard and they viewed the gatherings as a burden and as an obligation and they were just sort of filling seats. It was internal mediocrity weakening the gathering of believers.

17. 7:59

    And it reminds us of the older son in Luke chapter 15, the prodigal son's older brother, who despite staying in the house when he was talking to the father, he said, you know what, I could have gotten my inheritance and I could have gone and made merry with my friends, but I chose to stay here despite wanting to be out there.

18. 8:17

    And so oftentimes these external temptations weary us and can fatigue inside a community of believers to the point where our participation now is just, we're just kind of going through the motions, going through the rituals. There's pressure to stagnate and it can hurt the gathering of believers together. And this should not be so because what God wants from our ecclesia is laid out for us in Hebrews chapter 10.

19. 8:45

    It says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he you promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the dig approaching.

20. 9:07

    And the ecclesia needs to be an essential place for us to gather. These big events in the community needs to be something that we do not forsake. It needs to be the priority and the goal of believers in that community to keep it strong and thriving. And we shouldn't just sit back as so often took place in Bible times and wait for our problem to be too late.

21. 9:31

    We should be proactive in encouraging and strengthening our community. There's a verse in Revelation on this where the message of Christ to the ecclesia was be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die. Don't wait for the thing to die. Don't wait till someone has left. Don't wait until there's this huge hole or a problem in our ecclesia or event.

22. 9:54

    Let's proactively support our community and our gatherings together to prevent the problems from beginning in the first place. And so now we come to 2019 and this is actually going to be a picture from the year 2018. I got to preface this though. When I took this picture I was very emotional. I was so moved and inspired by what I was seeing that I actually had to go and take a picture of it.

23. 10:25

    This was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen in a really long time. And confession, a few of you are going to be in this picture. And this was a picture of the teen devotions at Trine last year where the first few years at Trine we struggled to find a good spot for the teens to get together at night for the devotion and hymn sing.

24. 10:46

    But this, last year we found this perfect spot and there had not really been a hymn sing and a gathering for devotions like this since we had moved to Trine. And when I walked into the lobby and saw this I was blown away and I was so happy to see that the glory days, if you will, of teen devotions were back at Trine.

25. 11:06

    And so this wonderful community event that was powerful and helpful for our young people it was so great to see and I had to take a picture of it. But then an hour or a half hour went by or it would be the next day in the afternoon and I won't show pictures of this but in this exact same location what you would see was the teenagers scattered and sitting on the same chairs and couches here but as we discussed in our last class on their phones and they were off connected to other places and what was happening here had stopped.

26. 11:45

    And what happened instead was our event together our gathering together had been weakened through both external pressure which then led to an internal mediocrity. And as a little bit of a background to the point I'm about to make some of you may recognize what this is a map of courtesy of Google Images.

27. 12:06

    For those that don't know this is a picture of the campus of Hanover College a place that I'll never be able to forget the rest of my life and we've got Donner here and Crow here and the Campus Center here and the Fine Arts Building here and Wiley's here and the Sports Center is here and this is a wonderful place for so many of us and back when I was a kid your world for one week was entirely within this little red sort of box this red shape here and for a week all the people you talked to all the communication you had everything you did was contained in this little community as powerful as it was for a week in Indiana.

28. 12:44

    I remember as a kid you would come home from Bible school and you wouldn't know what was happening in the world. You would check the news on Sunday afternoon like what's happened the past week? One year there was a big plane crash during Hanover I had no idea it was taking place but nowadays we're at a new location in Trine and recognize this map of the Trine campus here and yes we're there for a week and we're there 200, 300 whatever the numbers may be but the world that we're in when we're at Bible school now or really anywhere isn't just this small little red shape it's really the entire world isn't it?

29. 13:23

    That wherever we are now 24-7 in our ecclesia at Bible school on Manitoulin Shippensburg we're at a study day wherever we are we are now perpetually always pulled away and tempted to be connected to other parts of the world. The power of community now is no longer simply a monopoly that religious groups have there is now a complete worldwide online community which is always pulling us away and it's weakening our community of believers in 2019.

30. 14:00

    Here at our study day even now at the Livonia Hall we have access to everything via technology our devices and the web and I'm one of many probably all of you that has checked their phone since arriving here at the study day. over half the world this is the entire population of the world now uses the internet if anyone here does not you are now in the minority and in the developed world over 80% of the population are now active internet users and online communities exist I'm just going to briefly show this one I'm going to make it a commercial but on YouTube now there are 23 million channels and every one of them now has a community tab so this is just you know Marvel Entertainment and they offer a place where you can gather and meet and discuss and share things like this with other fans of the Marvel world online communities and I'm just going to take that off the slide now are now an inextricable part of our lives and they're everywhere they come with us wherever we are if we have an online device I want to briefly tell another story if you will it's just sort of anecdotal from my own life I remember when I was a child so go back to the 80s if you will and on those those rare moments when you would be sort of sick on a Sunday and you had to stay home from going to meeting there really was not much to do I remember the one thing I liked back then was this show called American Gladiators which in hindsight

31. 15:41

    was kind of a silly show it would just be people running around doing things like throwing balls at each other and that was the only entertainment it was other than that like just infomercials on TV and when you stayed home for a meeting you were just kind of bored and stuck and now I want us to jump ahead to 2003 and again an anecdotal story from my life there was one Sunday where I just went a little too hard at the Sunday school picnic I didn't put on sunblock and I got really sick and I woke up the next day feeling terrible I was exhausted and I was just I was in a bad place health wise but I wanted so badly to be at meeting that despite being sick and I really probably should have seen a doctor and been taking fluids I drove to the Livonia Hall and I was happy to be here and actually my dad saw me keeling over in the row and he said Mike you gotta go home you are not looking good and I actually had to go home dad told me to and it was the right decision to make because I was just really really really sick but I wanted to be here so bad what else was I gonna do but now we jump to today and now if we stay home on a Sunday we can do absolutely anything else that we could do on a Monday or a Friday or a Saturday and there are now tons of online communities there's 24-7 entertainment and now where once if you will the deck

32. 17:13

    was rigged to favor religious participation on a Sunday or these kind of community events now the deck is rigged against us and now our society is built such that we're tempted to do all sorts of millions of other potential options out there and now the power of community which can be used for good in the ecclesia and was used for good in biblical times now is used for bad against us now we are 24-7 facing a modern day Jeroboam where Dan and Bethel are with us all the time and we have to choose every day am I gonna go to Jerusalem or am I going to go to Dan and Bethel where there's a really great party going on and this is the real challenge that we as believers have in these last days now one thing we do have I don't want to paint too dark of a picture here I firmly believe that we as Christadelphians have a precious hope we have a pearl of great price which cannot be found in any other community as fun as the YouTube channels are and the Marvel entertainment and all of the external pressure that's out there what we have the promise of God's truth and his kingdom soon to come and the message of the Bible cannot be replaced by any other community out there and so if we support our community if we rally around this pearl of great price that we have and if we can make our gatherings wonderful and not just bring the second rate injured offerings not bring the sick and the lame but make our community great that's

33. 18:57

    what we need in these last days to help us avoid the temptation of other communities that are out there so I'm going to come to this slide now it really is up to each one of us that we have a very important choice to make here that Ephesians 4 lays out for us this referring to the composition of the ecclesia it says he himself gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God so to take this verse and break it out a little bit all of us have a way that we can contribute whether it's teachers evangelists pastors we don't necessarily

34. 19:52

    the skills and volunteers and gifts and talents that we need to run a community to run events like study days and Bible schools and other gatherings and do we use that opportunity to build up and to edify and to strengthen our community or are we bringing our second best is it a burden for us is it an obligation for us to get involved in the ecclesia do we have to be pulled and nudged and convinced and persuaded to support our community and to support our big events or are we proactively looking for ways to strengthen our community are we looking for ways to not make it a mediocre experience but to make it like the days of Hezekiah where they wanted to stay another seven days after it was completed this really is I would suggest a critical juncture in our community where because we have this 24 7 external temptation we have got to try our best to create something that's great and wonderful to participate in such that our young people and teenagers will choose to keep going to Bible schools and keep going to gatherings as opposed to just leaving and joining other groups and other communities so for our discussion and meditation questions for our five minute chat session we have this what can we do to improve and support essential faith building events in our community of believers and how do we resist the 24 7 external pull that the online communities of this world have on us and especially on our young people that pull us away from the body of Christ so please take five minutes and I'll

35. 21:49

    see you shortly Ich viele Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

36. 34:45

    Thank you. Do we, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. should try to take our time and communicate in a spiritually beneficial manner. Ask yourself the question, is this medium of communication going to impart grace and build up the people that hear it, or is it just going to conform with how billions of people around the world communicate in a fast paced, highly pressurized world? And number four, please, we've got to stop with the memes and the vines and the gifs. And I just want to say once again, I know how hard this is. This is asking a lot. This is how young people communicate. Facebook and Instagram and texting and chat forums are just saturated with communication in this manner, with memes and vines. And I know I'm asking a lot that this is going to be really difficult for our young people to follow because they're just so much fun.

37. 43:13

    They really are, and they express so much so quickly, but it's hurting us, and it's conforming us, and it's not building us up. Please, please, we've got to stop with the memes and the gifs and the vines. And so here again, we have to, I think, take another lesson from our second session from our first class, which is that we, the adults, the people who are above age 25, we have got to set an example.

38. 43:42

    We're not necessarily coming up in a world where this is absolutely what everyone around you does. We have the chance and a choice to choose. It's easier for us to not communicate this way. We have to set an example. And if we as uncles and parents and grandparents are communicating this way to our children and nieces and nephews and grandchildren, how can we ask them to not do the same?

39. 44:11

    And then second of all, once again, I love all the young people here. I know most of you. Two, please, please consider stopping using memes and gifs and vines. So for our discussion and meditation questions, how do we speak the truth in love in a world of digital communication and shrinking attention spans? And number two, specifically, what do you think about stopping from using memes in your communication? So let's take five minutes to discuss, and then we'll close after that.