TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE: 15/11/15
Ps. Emmanuel beautifully summed up one of the main principles of Realife this week during his sermon (click here for the download) when he declared, ‘If you are truly serving God, you’re serving people.’ Very true. The Christian faith is all about welcoming in anyone who needs looking after, physically or emotionally, and giving them whatever they need. This is family, and we stick by each other.
The essence of the message - which was once again sandwiched between remarkable worship, fellowship, friendship, discipleship and all the other life-changing ships - was that two are better than one.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 was drawn upon to emphasise the importance of unity. According to the Bible, two are better than one because true faith is lived in community. When you’re getting stuff done, when you’ve fallen down and are downtrodden, when you are left in the cold or find yourself in any kind of battle, it always helps (and is essential to faith) to have a family member to assist and unite with you.
Through personal observation, I can genuinely say that Realife is the epitome of this kind of unity. In everything, the coffee shop and catering teams, the brilliant design team who make everything in the building look its best, the worship team, the cleaners… All are considered important and loved and are built up by each other.
Then, after church, we were given the opportunity to action these values in our first ever community barbeque!
Our building adjoins parkland and tennis courts, so we’ve taken advantage of this to invite local residents to eat and be merry with us. This week was the debut, and it went swimmingly! Children were playing, people were laughing, and the smells of the classic Aussie barbie tantalised even the tiniest of tastebuds. There was no Bible-bashing, just simple community spirit. We all united to put on something that the whole area could thoroughly enjoy.
Thank you so, so much to all who were involved in making this sunshiny day as beautiful as it could ever be. You can click here to view images of the day.
The message and the barbeque reminded us of the poignant phrase: ‘A chord of three strands is not easily broken.’
What better way to live our lives than with the knowledge that someone is on our side? At church, this is a constant.
All are welcomed, all are cherished, and all are able to reach out to their brothers and sisters for the kind of support Ecclesiastes talks about.
We look forward to seeing you again for the next instalment of inspiration at Realife!
God bless,
Emma W