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REACH, GATHER, GROW

Why Do We Gather?

Elijah Edwards · Sunday, 14 September 2025 · Romans 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 · 27:15 · 4,261 words

Romans S21 · 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 Lake Orion

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Through the Romans Road, the speaker explores why believers gather together. He points out that every person has sinned and needs a Savior, so the church is a community where all are on the same level and can support one another. Gathering is presented as an opportunity to do life together, serve each other, break bread, and encourage growth in faith. The sermon challenges listeners to ask themselves why they attend and to welcome others as part of the one body of Christ.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

together 50 gather 29 stop 17 college 7 body 17 road 9 room 9 idea 11 reach 9 member 7 rejoice 7 roman 23

Topics

The Body of Christ 4 Sin 3 Prayer 3 Salvation 3

Scripture referenced 11

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 12:4-5 1:46 Romans 3:23 7:53 Romans 5:8 9:22 Romans 6:23 10:27 Romans 10:9 13:07 Romans 10:13 14:19 Romans 12 16:10 Romans 12:4 16:13 Romans 15 17:45 Acts 2:42 21:08 1 Corinthians 12:12 22:58

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 8 lines, 0:43. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Well, good morning again, everybody. How are we doing this morning?

Good seeing you all again. I know I was just up here a couple seconds ago,

but I'm going to play as if I wasn't.

As you can see, my name tag officially just fully fell off.

I'm too sweaty in this thing, and I am refusing to take it off because it holds the microphone too well.

So I'm not going to take it off.

If I start to sweat and pass out, just keep praising, just keep going.

I'll be fine in a minute.

But...

Like I said, for those who don't know me, my name is Elijah Edwards,

and again, I'm the family director here at the river in Lake Orion.

And usually, my crowd consists of much younger children,

but I know as adults, we can just be as crazy as children.

But if one of you could just continue to ask me to go to the bathroom every five seconds,

I'll feel more at home with that one.

But that being said, again, I'm so grateful to be up here this morning.

I'm very thankful to Pastor Josh Yates for allowing me to be up here

and to take the pulpit with you this morning.

And all I just pray is that...

I'm able to just glorify the Lord with what I do this morning.

So if you have your Bibles, we are going to be in the book of Romans,

and we're going to be starting in the book of Romans, chapter 12, verses 4 through 5.

Now, you don't have to turn there fully yet,

as we are going to be in the book of Romans completely.

But I wanted to start us off with reading this passage.

And it reads,

So we, though many, are one body in Christ,

individually members of one another.

And before I go into that,

the reason I wanted to start there

is because of what we are talking about this morning.

To recap what we've been going through,

is we've been in the book of Romans for quite a while now,

and we're in this series now called Reach, Gather, and Grow.

And if you've been out in the lobby,

you've probably seen those glass,

I want to say posters, but I know that's not a poster.

I don't know why my brain just goes,

poster, posters are now glass now.

But those glass things out there that say reach, gather, and grow,

that is the vision of what the Bible is about.

And that's what the River Church goes for.

It's the idea of reaching the world,

gathering with the saints,

and growing in the Word.

And last week, Pastor Josh took us through the idea of reach,

but took us through what's called Romans Road.

Now, Romans Road is not just a name of all the roads in ancient Rome,

but Romans Road, when it comes to the Bible,

is an explanation through the book of Romans

about how we are saved through Jesus,

and how we achieve that salvation,

and what Jesus did for us.

What Pastor Josh went through is that he went through the idea

that we are meant to reach the world

because through what Romans Road teaches us,

that we are meant to go out there and tell others

about the good news of what Jesus has done for us.

But today, we're in this idea of gather.

And when I was doing research and study on this idea,

my brain was like, yeah, gathering together,

Sunday mornings, here we go, this one's going to be easy.

And I'm telling you right now, this was the hardest study,

the most difficult study I've done,

because every time I was reading through these,

there was always this question,

this question of why, why are we doing this?

And reach is easy, why are we doing this?

Because we've been commanded to, we've been called

to let people know the good news about Jesus.

And with grow, it's like, yeah, we're meant to grow in the word.

We have to go closer with God.

We have to grow and know him more.

I mean, that's something we do in Awana.

We want to memorize God's words in our heart,

that way we know it and are closer with God.

But when it came to gather, I just kept thinking about,

and I know for those of you who are parents,

and I'm soon to be a parent myself,

my wife and I are going to be parents ourselves,

this question of why, why continuously comes up all the time.

Believe me, with working with kids, I get called, asked why,

there's so many different things that eventually I'm like,

I don't know, we got to just do the lesson, man.

Okay, sit down.

But when the question of why comes up,

it's important to know why we gather.

So for all of us this morning, I wanted to pose a question.

And that question is, why are we here?

And it's not just about the building.

We are blessed with a beautiful building for us

to be able to gather in, but why are we here all together?

See, every single one of us in this room

is together worshiping, but also call this room for a reason.

And when it comes to gather, we have

to know why we do it in the first place.

So before I go into further, I need to pray for us.

We need to give this to the Lord.

So let's bow our heads.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we love you so much.

And I cannot thank you enough for the absolute gorgeous day

you've given us.

And I cannot thank you enough for the people,

all the people that are in here with us this morning.

And I just pray for each of us that we

are able to hear your word, heed it as true,

and see the goodness in it because you are so good.

And Lord, I pray that the words of my mouth

and meditations of my heart are acceptable in your sight.

If you're my strength, my redeemer.

All right, so again,

being on Romans Road, as we are going through,

we are going through this idea of reach, gather,

grow with Romans Road.

And I almost got this idea and thinking like,

we're actually going to go down a road.

So everybody pretend to put on a seatbelt.

No, you don't have to do that if you don't want to.

We're going to put on our seatbelts.

We're actually going to drive down this Romans Road.

And we're going to explain why we gather

as we go down these different stops.

And our first stop, okay, nevermind.

Sorry, I'm going to stop playing into that.

Our first stop is this idea of an even playing field.

Now, when I was younger,

when I was going into college at 18,

which is 10 years ago, goodness,

I was really, really excited about college.

I was excited to meet new friends.

I was excited to get a wife.

That didn't happen until like 10 years later,

but I was very excited to get a wife.

I wanted to be with people who knew God's word

and be together.

And I heard about other colleges and secular colleges.

I was like, you know what?

I'm going to, I want to go to Christian college

because I want to learn.

I want to, I want to do this for a living.

But when I got there,

what I ran into was these hierarchies of people

that if you didn't know enough about the Bible,

you got put down.

If you had sinned too much that week,

you got put down.

There was no love in what was going on.

It was just showing, hey,

I'm going to be a better pastor

or I'm going to be a better minister than you

because I know this, this, and this.

To the point where my best friend,

who I thought was my best friend,

and as I was going through a difficult,

depressing time in my life,

looked at me and said,

Elijah, pastors don't act like this.

Stop it.

It destroyed me.

But as we're going through this first stop,

it's important to know that there is no hierarchy

in the house of the Lord.

Our first stop on this,

even playing field,

in our first verse,

we're going to be looking at Romans 3.23,

which states,

for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God.

Everybody raise your hand.

You fall short of the glory of God.

There you go.

All of us have sinned.

And those of you who didn't raise your hand,

you're lying.

You just sinned right there.

We all have sinned.

In this first stop,

this first verse immediately puts us all

in the same playing field

that every single one of us

falls short of God's glory.

Every single one of us,

our wretched sinners who need a Savior.

And that's not this idea of,

oh, you know what?

Then I'm just,

if we're all just so bad,

I'm going to just keep sinning, keep sinning.

No, that's not what this is going after.

What this is showing

is that everyone in this room,

as we gather together as people,

as people who believe in Christ,

we need to realize that all of us,

we need to realize that all of us need a Savior.

See, the funny thing is,

the same thing happened in college.

We can just get locked into,

you know what?

I've sinned, but not as bad as that person.

That's not what gathering is about.

We don't,

we don't look at people's sin and go,

you know what?

I'm better than you.

This sin.

No, we look at people's sin and go,

you know what?

I'm going to help you through this

because I know the struggles this sin brings.

And the same thing in Romans 5, 8,

which says,

but God shows his love for us

that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

I want us to look at the language of these verses.

Christ didn't just die for just me,

just those of us who believe in Jesus.

Christ didn't just die for those

who read their Bible every day.

He died for everybody.

Sacrificed himself because of our sin

for every single person.

So when we're sitting in this room,

when we are gathering together at all,

we rejoice in the fact that

though our sin keeps us from God,

Christ still died for it.

Christ still died for all of us.

And that should,

that should change the mindset

if we look at people.

That should change the mindset

of how we see people in this room.

We see people as we're together.

And then the last verse of the stop,

Romans 6, 23,

which reads,

I want us to just sit on that for a minute

because I know for a lot of us

who have been to church a lot,

we've heard this over and over and over again.

But if you're out here today

and you're hearing this for the first time,

I want you to know that this message of hope

of what Jesus did for us is for everybody.

The believer, the non-believer,

the follower of Christ,

the one that's not following Christ.

It's for everybody

because if we are ever getting sick

of hearing what Jesus did for us,

we really need to check our hearts

because what Jesus did for us,

he did for all people

because we've all sinned.

We all fall short.

We all deserve death

and eternal separation from God

because of that sin.

But Jesus took the punishment for us.

That is for everybody.

And it doesn't just mean

that we look out in here.

We sit in these rooms

and we see people going,

hey, you know what?

I see that person hasn't been here for a while.

Instead of just thinking,

hey, you know what?

I'm going to just judge them in this moment

because they haven't been here

for a while.

Rejoicing in the fact

that they have come back to gather

and they've come back to the Father.

That's the collection there.

And again, as we continue to hear

these verses and read them,

I want us to, again,

concentrate on that question

of why are we here?

Because I want us to see

what Romans is getting at

as we gather together.

Now we're on our second stop.

Sorry, it's really hard

not to just like want to do the car motion.

But our second stop is salvation.

Okay, so now, you know,

you're probably just telling me,

I know, I get it,

we're all sinners.

We all deserve the punishment of death.

We all deserve eternal separation from God.

But Jesus took it for us.

But what does that have to do with gathering?

You know, I'm sitting here

and I'm saying, you know,

I can know this and read about this

by just being home with my Bible.

I can look up a sermon on YouTube

and go, you know what?

These teachings are the exact same thing.

I don't need to gather with all these people.

I can do it myself.

Let's continue reading.

Romans 10, 9.

It's because if you confess with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

Going with what Romans was telling us before

in 3.23, 5.8, and 6.23,

it is now a moment of

when a person gets to this point

of realizing they're a sinner,

realizing they need Jesus,

and going, you know what?

I want to give my life to Jesus

because I can't do this by myself

and my sin is destroying me

and I need salvation.

The Passion of Romans tells us

that if you confess with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

Because not only did Jesus

Christ die for our sins,

but three days later

he rose again,

defeating death,

as we just sang about that,

meaning death and sin

no longer have any sting

or have to have any sting

over our lives

if we give our life to Jesus.

And Romans 10, 13

says the same thing.

For everyone who calls

in the name of the Lord

That terminology again.

Everyone and anyone

who puts their own plan of their life

their own things that they want to do

lays it down,

lays all their wants down

and their selfishness down

and puts their faith in Jesus

Again, what you're probably thinking,

okay, then that's great news,

but what does that have to do

with us gathering together for that?

I'm saved.

Okay, great.

I'm going to go about my life

being saved.

But this language is being used.

Those are words used of togetherness.

It's really hard

and sounds really silly

to say you have one M&M

and go like,

I have all the M&Ms.

That's one.

That's not all of them.

The point is that

everyone together in this

that we all need a Savior,

we all have sinned,

we all fall short.

Anyone and everyone

who calls upon the name of the Lord

and we're going to be spending

a lot of time here

at this last stop.

Because all the things before

and these other stops

are great news of understanding

who we are

and why we are the way we are

and what we need in Jesus.

But this last stop,

we're going to stop at.

This last stop is called

One Body and One Voice.

Remember what we read about

in Romans 12,

3-5.

For as in one body

we have many members

and the members do not all

have the same function,

so we though many

are one body in Christ

and individually members

one of another.

And the reason why

I wanted us to begin with that

because this passage

what gathering is supposed to be.

Every single one of us,

all the believers

are coming together

as one.

As if many members

all as one

is the same function.

I remember when I was

in this young adult group,

we used the passage

about like-minded individuals.

We actually called them

all ourselves that

because that was the whole point

of we were getting together

all like-minded.

Now we were different.

You know,

some of us were correct.

Some of us were great.

Some of us were wrong.

Some of us were Ohio State fans.

Very wrong.

But again,

go blue.

But again,

we were all together.

And the like-mindedness

wasn't always that we agreed

on things,

but the like-mindedness was

we all agreed

that Jesus is Lord

and we are going to

and support each other

in that truth.

Every follower of Christ,

every person who calls

upon the name of the Lord

and now belongs

to one body,

a body that has

many different parts,

but is still one body,

all working together

for his kingdom.

five through six reads,

may the God of endurance

and encouragement

grant you to live

in such harmony

with one another

in accord with Jesus Christ

you may with one voice

glorify the God

and the Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ

one voice together.

You see,

the reason why gathering

is so important,

the reason why we need

to come together

is because

when we want to reach,

when we want to grow,

when we want to do

these other things

that we have,

yes, we can do them alone,

but it is much better

to do them together.

As the Bible tells us,

iron sharpening iron,

but also as a gathering

together as believers,

we are encouraging each other.

We are keeping each other

We are working together

and that's what Jesus

had called us to do

because like a body

of his kingdom,

we all have a place on it.

And going back again

to the even playing field,

even if you're a pinky toe,

you still are important.

You still are important

to the body of Christ.

If you ever tried to walk

without a pinky toe,

it's not a great time.

You're going to fall over.

The reason I mention that

is because one of my pastors

when I was younger

had me do that

and it really hurt.

We all are together in this

and we cannot be separate.

We cannot just act like,

you know what,

I'm not going to go to church today

just because, you know,

I just feel like

I'm not belonging there.

Well, then in that case,

the church is filling you with that

if you're not feeling

like you belong,

but also for you,

are you putting yourself out there

to be part of that body?

This is not a place of division.

This is a place

together where we can rejoice

and glorify the Lord

in all he's done for us.

That is so good.

And God is so good

that he calls us

to come together.

And the important thing is,

what all of this is saying

is a phrase that I hear

all the time,

is that we cannot

We cannot do life alone.

You see this in the Bible.

You see this with stories

of Paul and what he's doing

with these writings.

He is rejoicing at the gathering.

that they're coming together

and he is longing

to be with them

while they're in prison

because he wants

to be with them.

Together with other

followers of Jesus.

And this morning,

if you,

if this is the first time

you're hearing this,

if you,

if this is the first time

you're hearing about

this stuff about Jesus,

going back to that question

we asked of,

why are you here?

Maybe you were invited,

maybe you were welcomed

but the important thing is,

when you're here,

when you're with other believers,

do you see that community?

Do you see the goodness

of God going through us?

Do you see

that we want to be together

and rejoice together?

And this, again,

is not just about

the building we have

as blessed as we are with it.

The early church,

sometimes they just

never even had a building.

But they still

devoted themselves.

In Acts 2.42,

it says they devoted

themselves daily

of breaking of bread,

of being together.

They made it a point,

made it a point

to be together,

to work together

because they knew

they were better together.

When they are called

to go out and to reach,

they are told

to go do that together.

We experienced that.

And I experienced that myself.

As much as my

college experience

wasn't always the best,

whether I messed that up or not,

I still had that community

with two very specific

men in my life,

my best friends,

Christian and Patrick.

Shout out if you're watching.

They showed me

what that community looks like.

And yes,

it may have been two of them,

but these were men

that I did life with.

Strengthen each other with.

Going out

and serving together.

This idea of breaking bread.

I really do think

the idea of breaking bread

comes in because

if there's anything

that brings us together,

it's food.

What's the point

of doing life together?

That is why we are all

in this room now.

It is not just about

hearing a sermon,

which is great,

but my sermons

are the most important thing here.

I'm sorry.

It's about coming together

as one group of believers.

Welcoming others

who we know

don't know him

into here

to see this community,

to see the goodness of God

through this community.

Being together.

And it says

in 1 Corinthians 12, 12,

ooh, I'm going off Romans.

Ooh, we're like

hightailing it off

for a second.

For just as the body

is one and has many members,

and all the members

of the body,

though many,

are one body,

so it is with Christ.

Do we act

as if we are

one body?

Do we act

as if we are together?

Or do we look,

take those moments

of when someone

hasn't been here

for a while,

or also if they feel ashamed

of, hey,

I haven't been here

for a while.

You know,

it's been a long time

and we've been telling him

he should come back to church,

come back to church.

Are we going to look going,

hey, who looks

who's finally here?

No.

We are so happy you're here.

I am so glad you are here

because just as it is

when we sin,

when the father

runs back to us

saying you've returned,

my son has returned

as we learn

in the story

of the prodigal son.

So true.

We also should do that

when people return here

because they are now

part of the body again.

They are with us.

So what is gathering really?

We are saved by Christ

and I projected

the sin in our life.

Gathering is coming together

with believers,

doing life together,

serving each other,

serving others together,

breaking bread,

loving each other

So as I call the band up here,

as I close out here,

I go back to that

original question

of why are we here?

And to be more pointed

at us individually,

why am I here?

Why am I here?

Why are you here?

Are you here

to just be here

because it's good

to be here on a Sunday?

That's what I've been

told to do.

Or are we here

because we want

to grow together?

We want to be together

as one body

as the Bible tells us.

We want to help each other,

encourage each other,

keep each other accountable,

grow in the word,

worship an amazing God,

gather as one.

we are so thankful

that we can be together

Just encouraged

by all the people

that are here

by the people

and by the love

that I've been shown

personally by so many

people in this room.

I just pray for us

why we gather here.

What it means

to be one body

working together,

loving together,

praising together.

Thank you for the

you don't have us

do this alone.

That you are always

here with us

and as the Bible

where two or more

gather I will also

be there.

I know that you're

in this room.

for who you are

and the opportunities

we have to gather together.

Regardless if we have

a bill there or not

I pray that we continue

to meet in each other's

homes and our schools

and do life together.

It's in your precious

name that we pray.

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