A Three Fold Cord 三股合成的绳
05 Oct 2019 | 8 min readsermon2019singapore | friend
Every single member should have the concept of making a few close friends in church so we can encourage one another to hold on to our faith.
Eccl 4:11-12
Two are better than one. When two lie down together, they can keep warm. If one were to face an enemy alone, he wouldn’t be in a favourable position. A threefold cord is not easily broken.
In our normal daily lives, it’s always good to have people around us to help us. Even at work, your department is responsible for only one particular area. If you’re only familiar with only one part of the work, accomplishing a task wouldn’t be so easy, because you often need the help and cooperation of other people in other departments. You may be competent, but you have your limitations too.
Why is this the case? Let’s look at the time God created Man.
Gen 2:18-19
God saw that Adam was alone. He reckoned that it wasn’t good for man to be alone, so He wanted to make a helper to the man. In the English version, it says ‘a helper COMPARABLE to him’, but the Chinese version omits the word ‘comparable’. Other English translations use the word ‘suitable’.
Why didn’t God just make one very competent human alone? In fact, Adam was reasonably competent. Let’s examine the responsibilities God assigned to him. He had to tend the garden of Eden (which isn’t so difficult in itself because when God created all the plants, the system is able to keep it going). God also assigned Adam to name all the animals. This isn’t so easy a task. If we were given 4 dogs, we’d probably still be able to name them. 24 is still manageable. But will we be able to name 2000 dogs without repeating names?
Would we be able to name all the animals without reusing any names? Would we be able to remember what we named them? Even if we were able to, how long would we take?
Adam was able to do it, which shows God had indeed made a very able person. Despite this capabilities, God wanted to make him a helper comparable with him. Why? Isn’t one good enough? We may say: “Well of course it’s because God wants offspring so a woman is needed.” But actually God can make man self-replicate. So it’s not just because of the reason of procreating.
There are certain things that can only be done if there is more than one person. For example, love. If there is no other person, how can you display your love? How can you understand what love is? Because one of the biggest forms of the display of love is sacrifice. If God hadn’t created another person, Adam wouldn’t be able to display his love because the animals wouldn’t understand his sacrifice.
Love is also a choice we make. If there was only one person, he wouldn’t be able to love. It takes two to be able to love. So when God made man, He already knew it was necessary to have another and more.
Oftentimes we find ourselves self-sufficient and independent. Especially after you’ve lived in this manner for a period of time. After you get to a certain age, you’re comfortable with it. But ultimately you still need to love. There’s hence the need to interact with other people. So the Bible never advocates for a person to go deep in the mountains like a hermit to nurture himself. If this were the case, then it would just appear that the person is good because he has never seen anything. In such an environment, will the person ever learn anything?
So when God put us together, He put us in a community. There’re some people naturally more lovable, while there’re some others that we take some time to love. Sometimes we think: “Aiya I can just handle these stuff on my own. It’s more troublesome if that person helps me.”
But remember we are in the body of Christ. This means that we must come together to forge the strength of a threefold cord. It depends on us to take the first step forward to forge such strength.
Some people come to church and keep to themselves. They sit alone. Take their meals alone. They don’t disturb and don’t want to be disturbed. Of course it’s your choice to operate in this manner. But what’s concerning is who can help you when you get into trouble. It’s impossible for a flower to bloom all the time, and a man to be in a good situation all the time.
In God’s arrangement, man goes through good and bad times. In bad times, that’s when we as brothers and sisters should help one another. Take the first step forward so others can see and help us. The speaker doesn’t suggest to just go to anybody and pour out all our sorrows. Because not everyone can help us. Some people are not too tight lipped so if you just tell anyone your problems, it may create more problems when they tell others. Speak to those you think are approachable and able to help. Under the wisdom of God, there will be such people to help you.
Many of us already have our own circle of friends. We spend time with them. Because we are so inward looking within our circle of friends, we fail to realise those outside the circle to those who need help. We need to be aware and step out of our comfort zone to help such people. Like Barnabas.
Acts 9:26-28
This passage talks about Saul/Paul who was initially not accepted by the people. By this point in time, he had believed in the Lord Jesus for a number of years - at least 3 years. The disciples were very wary of Paul not without reason; he had been a persecutor of Christians. Not everybody wanted to draw near to Paul. But they had not considered why Paul the persecutor suddenly drew near to Christ. While everyone appeared to avoid him, and while the Bible doesn’t record that the apostles shunned him, it’s also not recorded the apostles received him. Except Barnabas. Was it because Barnabas had no friends? The church in Jerusalem then was small. Today we have 300-400 people in this church and there might be a case we can’t find a friend here. But in a congregation of 3000-5000/10,000, it’s more likely to be able to find a friend.
Barnabas probably had his group of friends. Why was he so kaypoh? When he spoke to Paul, his intention was to integrate Paul into their community. As a result of this act, we can see how Paul was able to be integrated.
We need more people to play the role of Barnabas in the church today. Because indeed we discover there’re some members in church who are quite lonely doing their own things. It may not be that they want this but because they find it hard to be integrated.
Sometimes out of our weakness, we fail to notice these things. We continue to spend time with our closer friends in church and go out happily to get coffee, etc.
It isn’t a very healthy environment that we’ve created in church. The church ought to be like a threefold cord not easily broken. Let us learn to be like Barnabas to step out of our comfort zone to notice those who have been neglected.
This doesn’t mean that we as an individual should reach out to all of such individuals because we have limits. But we as a collective should do this.
While Paul had been specially called by Jesus, Barnabas played a big part when Paul started out. When Paul started out, he had to go back to Tarsus for a couple of years to wait. It was only when Barnabas was sent to Antioch did he find Paul to go with him. Barnabas helped Paul fulfil his mission. Barnabas helped to form the threefold cord.
Besides taking the first step forward, we also need to understand where our strength is derived from.
Do we get strength from just attending one fellowship? Many times, the word fellowship is misused. It often points to having a good time together - eating and drinking. Of course having a meal together is a form of fellowship. But in Christian fellowships, we ought to do more. What is true fellowship?
1 John 1:3
We all come together that we may have fellowship. But who are we fellowshipping with? With the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. So our Christian fellowship today is for the purpose of being connected with God. Without that connection with God, then the getting together is just a secular fellowship. We won’t be able to receive spiritual strength. Because true fellowship is ultimately having a connection with the Lord Jesus to receive strengthening of our spiritual lives. If we want to be a threefold cord not quickly broken, then we must participate in some fellowship and such fellowship must be fellowshipping with God.
We must know who we are indeed with. That’s why Paul told Timothy to flee youthful lusts. Fleeing youthful lusts in itself is good but not sufficient. Besides fleeing, we also need to pursue all the virtues WITH those who call out to God with a pure heart (2 Tim 2:22).
If we try to nurture ourselves alone spiritually, we have to flee all the spiritual lusts. Paul then encourages a more active step to pursue all the virtues WITH those who call out to the the Lord with a pure heart. Then we can be truly strengthened.
The church organises many fellowship today for the purpose of providing a means to come together. So often our fellowships involve studying the Bible together. Some think this is Bible study and not fellowship. That’s because of the wrong understanding of what fellowship is. Fellowship is fellowshipping with Christ.
There’re many fellowships in churches. We must be diligent to join them otherwise we find we’re not that strong. Fellowships are for us to help one another.
Existing Youth Fellowship Activities:
• Who are the youths?
- age 19-40 years
- students
- working singles
- married with or without children
[Take note that even married people are youths!
The scope of youths spans across 21 years. To have activities to cater to such a wide range isn’t easy. Especially for youths in their 30s or after one gets married. That segment is the most challenging to plan for.]
• Activities
- Youth Service (Sunday 9.30 prayer, 10 begins, 11ish second session, finish by 12/1)
[There are many more youths than what you see in the picture flashed during the sermon. But many youths have decided not to join the Youth Service. The speaker encourages us to join the Youth Service to have fellowship together.]
- Uni Campus Fellowship (sub-fellowships in the wider youth fellowship)
~ NUS (Monday 6.15pm)
~ Private uni (Monday 7pm)
[Camps for the university fellowships are conducted during June as well. One of the things in the camp was to shadow a preacher - visiting, following them to their respective churches, etc.]
- Poly Campus Fellowship
[There used to be fellowships in each of the poly campuses. But now it has been consolidated to Adam Church on Monday evening. The speaker hopes parents can encourage their children to attend this.
Poly Fellowship camps are also conducted. It is currently running now.]
-
Solemn Green Fellowship
[This is for army brothers. It seems as if it’s only for eating and drinking. But there are sharings pertaining to spiritual things as well.] -
CBD Fellowship
[For members who work in the CBD. This fellowship is currently still at the stage of eating. But if more youths can join this, we can actually have a service/Bible Reading/prayer together in an price environment. The speaker hopes to reach out to youths who are working. Brothers and sisters working in CBD, please join this!] -
5th week outdoor activity
[This isn’t frequently publicised or explained well. Some youths in their 30s have more challenges because they’re much busier with their lives - work, look after families/children. So the earlier mentioned fellowships appear to be for younger youths. The 5th week is designed for older/married youths (with kids). For them to be able to bring their kids to run around. These are activities targeted to youths at that stage of their lives. The speaker hopes youths at this stage in life will come for those activities.] -
Youth Spiritual Meeting
[This is conducted once every 2 years. This is meant to cater to all youths. It’s probably harder for 30s youths to come that’s why the picture flashed during the sermon shows few 30s youths.] -
Married Youth Fellowship
[This has been in the planning for a year. But there’re many practical difficulties. The speaker hopes that youths in this stage of their lives can give suggestions on what would be best for them.]
Why are these fellowships organised? To build a threefold cord not easily broken. We want this fellowship so we can have fellowship with God.
Let us pray for this.
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1 Thess 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
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