Joy in Christian Community | The Search | Ben Schoening

Good morning.

It is great to see you.

My name is Ben Schoning.

I serve on the team here at Silver to Opposition.

I'm so glad that you are here on this beautiful, cool, crisp Sunday morning here in the summer.

Man, I love air conditioning.

You know, as you heard from Taylor and Julie Hasty, they're kind of their short testimony on small groups ministry.

That's gonna be a focus of our uh our time together this morning.

Every fall, we as a church at all of our campuses, we we go into a church-wide study.

For the next eight weeks, starting next week, we're gonna go into a series on relationships.

And then in our small groups, we are all gonna be pressing into this topic together.

And so every year, we take a Sunday to really emphasize this particular ministry of our church in small groups.

So this morning, as we consider Christian community, and the idea, the topic of Christian community, I don't really want to spend a ton of time talking about why it's so important.

My hope is that if you've been at Silverdale any length of time, then you know this is something we we talk about a lot, we emphasize a lot, and so I'm not gonna spend too much time talking about the why it's so important because I think in some ways we inherently get that community is important.

We understand that that being around people, being in community, not necessarily being hermits and isolates, is a good thing.

What we struggle with more is the concept of developing and cultivating and sustaining Christian community.

Now, generally speaking, we're fairly good at like hanging out with people.

I mean, we'll we'll get together with people, we'll go over to a house, we'll eat dinner, we'll go to a restaurant, we'll go to an event together.

We're generally good at hanging out with people, but that's not really what Christian community is, at least the way that, not the way that it's described in Acts.

In Acts chapter 2, it says, they, meaning all of the believers, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayer.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to one another who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes, they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.

Right now, there's a lot to say.

There's a lot to say in terms of what this, the implications are here in terms of Christian community.

Studying God's word together and praying together, giving to one another, worshiping together.

We we miss out on those things, though, when our only agenda is to just simply get together and hang out.

I've shared this before, but when we moved here in 2013, we knew the hardest part about moving away from home was going to be leaving these lifelong friendships that we had developed.

Right?

We had about seven other couples and young families that we would hang out with all the time, and and these were lifelong friends.

We moved here and we left them.

We just assumed we're never going to have that ever again.

We moved here, though, we got plugged into a small group, and and what was what was shocking and somewhat disheartening was how quickly I realized our friendships back home were really shallow.

I mean, again, we we hung out all the time together.

We would we would eat together, we'd play games together, we had a lot of fun together, but then we we joined a small group here, and every week we were meeting with these people and we were praying together.

We were doing a Bible study together.

There was there was worship that was happening together.

I couldn't believe how quickly we got to the depths of these places with people we had just met.

And it was it was really sad that all of these friends that we had had forever, that they all love the Lord, but we weren't getting together and doing those things like praying and Bible study and sharing our testimonies of what God's doing in our lives.

We were missing out on the best parts of who we all were.

I mean, we we were designed for community.

When we go back to the creation story that we read about in Genesis, we read about how so many things that God did was good, all the things that God made was good, right?

Light, good, land and seas, good, vegetation and fruit and sun and moon and stars, and good, good, good, good, right?

Animals, good, man, very good.

But then God said for the first time something wasn't good.

Right?

He said for the first time something wasn't good.

It wasn't good for man to be alone.

Now, obviously, we talk about this in the context of marriage as God created a bride for Adam, but but there's there's much more to understand with this designed incompleteness that God had.

We were made for community.

Ecclesiastes says two are better than one because they have good return for their labor.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

All of this is to say that what we are talking about today is important.

It's really, really important, important for us as a church to talk as much about small group ministry as we do.

Because we believe that this is one way that we are honoring the Lord and obeying the instructions that he's given us by creating this ministry of small groups ministry.

So that's kind of all I'm gonna say about the why, why small group, why Christian community is so important.

I really want to press us to press into the how.

How do we do this?

How do we accomplish what are the things that are required for us in Christian community?

So my hope is you got to worship God as you came in.

You'll follow along in this.

We're gonna be in a particular book of the Bible that is not necessarily the book we would normally think of when we think of learning how to cultivate Christian community.

We're gonna be in the book of Job.

Right?

Book of Job, it's kind of, as I've heard it said before, it's the one book of the Bible many Christians wish just didn't exist.

Um but we're gonna learn some do's and don'ts when it comes to cultivating Christian community here from Job and his buddies.

So some of you know that that within a singular moment, Job's life takes this really, really hard turn for the worse.

I mean, he he loses his possessions, his livelihood, and then worst of all, all of his kids.

I mean, just back to back to back.

Then he's covered with sores and boils and blisters and a rash from head to toe.

His wife becomes bitter and resentful towards he and the Lord, right?

In fact, the the uh the renowned theologian Tim Hawkins has something to say uh about this part of Job's life.

I just got blessed with a good wife.

Not every guy has a good wife.

Sorry.

I mean, think about Job in the Old Testament.

Think about Job's wife.

She must have been a real piece of work.

I mean, the devil took everything from Job, man, killed his kids, killed his servants, killed his life, covered Job in boils and sores.

His wife.

Job has a rough, that's kind of more of a topic for another day, but all that's to say, Job has this really, really rough, rough day.

And and and and then he goes into a really, really dark season of depression.

And initially he's comforted by by his three friends.

And so the the majority of the book of Job, from from about chapter two to about chapter 37, is this ongoing dialogue and argument that Job has with his three buddies, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

And so I want us to look at these three friendships.

We're gonna look at some do's, some things that require.

We'll also learn some don'ts from them.

But first of all, we need to recognize that Christian communities are gonna require vulnerability.

Christian communities are gonna require vulnerability.

I've talked about this before, I'm gonna talk about it again.

And when we consider Job, Job was a man of great stature.

He was a very prominent man, he was a very prominent figure in his community, he was very, very wealthy, he was very well respected.

And yet Job allows himself for others to see how broken and hurting he is.

It says this in Job 2.

Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

I mean, you you can almost you can almost get a visual of how pitiful this scene would have been as Job is sitting in the ashes of complete devastation and complete loss and and total physical brokenness.

But but notice how vulnerable he's being.

Now we might say, well, of course, like what's he left with?

I mean, the the he would have no self-respect at this point.

Like he he's lost everything, right?

But but the reality is, and I think most of you or many of you can can relate to this, we're prideful people.

We don't want other people to know when we're hurting.

I mean, I I can think of a couple times where I've like taken like a hard fall in public, but then I jump off right away right away, right?

I kind of brush myself off, even though I might be hurting, like I don't want other people to have seen it.

I I want to save myself a little bit of a little bit of embarrassment.

I don't I don't want I don't want people to perceive me as weak.

I I love so much different stories, a few stories I've read of our 26th president Teddy Roosevelt.

You know, he was known as kind of the toughest president we've ever had.

He was this real man's man, he was an avid hiker and swimmer and hunter, and he was a professional boxer, he served in the military.

But my favorite story of Teddy Roosevelt, it came on October 14th, 1912.

He was campaigning for another presidential term, and as he gets up on the stage and he takes the podium, there's a gunshot that rings out.

Fortunately, his eyeglasses case and his folded-up manuscript was in his jacket pocket and it slowed the bullet down, but the bullet was lodged into his chest.

And Teddy Roosevelt said this.

He said, Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible.

I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.

The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.

He then spoke for 84 minutes.

By the time he's done, there's like a small pool of blood at his feet.

Obviously, his shirt has his blood stain on it that's that's in his museum now.

Right?

He he he just he just kept going on.

By the time he got to the to the hospital, they they realized the bullet barely missed his lung, and it was gonna be more problematic for them to try to dislodge that bullet.

So he lived with this bullet lodging his chest for the rest of his life.

I want to be like that, right?

I I want to be that strong, that tough.

I just want to be able to roll with the punches and just take it.

I mean, listen, many of you were asked, I mean, I was asked, I'm asked it today hundreds of times, how are you?

And oftentimes we respond with great, fine, fantastic.

And listen, sometimes, my hope is many times we are great, fine, and fantastic.

But sometimes we're not.

Who do we have in our life that we can be vulnerable with?

Right?

Who are those people that we have in our life?

You know, is it we know, we know we can't just air it to everybody, right?

But who is it that we have in our life that we can be vulnerable with?

On those days that we're not great, fine, or fantastic.

Notice what Job does here.

Um, Job chapter 2, when they, meaning Job's friends, uh Elifaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who I'm going to refer to as Eli, Bill, and Zoe, just to make it easier.

Job 2 · chapter mention

It says, when they, Job's friends, saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him.

And they sat on the ground with him.

I mean, you you you get this image of when Job sees his buddies, he doesn't like jump up and try to like brush himself off and do his hair and clean off the dirt.

No, he just he just sits there in the dirt.

And and his buddies come and they sit there on the ground with him.

He was demonstrating vulnerability.

Jesus demonstrated vulnerability.

Jesus did.

When Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before he's about to be arrested, he says this to his disciples.

He says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch watch with me.

I mean, this is Jesus we're talking about.

This is God's son.

This is God, the Son.

And yet he's modeling vulnerability to us.

Again, there are gonna be days that are really, really hard.

There are gonna be days that are a grind, there are gonna be days where there are frustrating, there are gonna be days where you have hurt and you have pain.

There are gonna be times where you need to be prayed over, you need to ask for some wisdom or some insight.

Here's some really, really practical ways to accomplish this.

Really pray the next time you're in your small group, right?

Or the first time you're in your small group, have a prayer time.

And everyone just go around and share something you can pray about or that you can have prayed over.

Right?

I'm not saying you have to pray out loud, just something like it can be as informal, it can be as impersonal as, hey, would you pray for my week at work this week?

Right?

Or or just my my family, whatever.

I mean, who doesn't need something that they can have prayed over this week?

It could just be as simple as that.

Right?

We we have to Christian community requires us to be vulnerable with one another.

But then also, Christian community requires presence.

I have to be present.

I gotta be there.

Christian community requires me to be present, it requires me to be there.

Job 2.11.

When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar the Nemethite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon Job.

They set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.

Now listen, where these guys are from is key.

It's key.

There's a reason why where they are from is listed here, right?

Where Eli is from is associated with northern northern Edom area.

Where uh Bill is from is from the Euphrates area or kind of Middle Arabia area.

And then you have Zoe who would have been from the Canaan area.

Here's the point.

All of them would have had to travel in order to get to Job hundreds of miles.

And so in order to coordinate all of that, in order to figure out how all it was gonna work together, how they were all gonna get to Job together, would have taken would have taken some time, some planning, some effort.

Right?

They knew they were gonna have to take significant time away from their responsibilities, from their families, to go and be a friend to Job who was desperate for it.

And when you read the rest of the book, you can see this is this ongoing dialogue.

It's not like these three guys showed up one night and then said, like, hey, we'll have dinner with you tonight, but we're all on the next morning flight out of here.

They're gonna spend a significant amount of time with Job.

We have a hard time giving a couple hours a week.

We we find that to be a struggle.

I I remember when I was youth pastoring, um you know, a student wouldn't come for a couple few weeks.

Well, then, and then she would show up, she would start complaining about, you know, it's it's too clickish and people are leaving me out of things.

What she didn't seem to understand is no, you you chose not to be here for a couple or few weeks.

Right?

You you you missed out on on some of the things, some of the stories that were happening.

They're not purposely excluding you, you've kind of done that to yourself.

Consider Thomas, the disciple.

We read in John 20 about the the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and and then Jesus appears to his disciples the evening of the day that he's resurrected.

He appears to him, he comforts them, he encourages them, and then he does something that is life-changing, world-changing, really.

It says this John chapter 20, verse 22.

John 20:22

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them.

Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

In that moment, Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit.

In that moment, those ten disciples in the room are in the presence of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine just for a moment what it would have been like to be in that room?

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine the power, the peace that can you imagine what it would have been like to be in that room?

Let me ask that a different way.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to have the opportunity to have been in that room and yet you chose not to be there?

I mean that that was kind of Thomas.

Right?

Thomas wasn't there.

Now I don't want to spend a ton of time bashing Thomas because we don't really know why he wasn't there, but we do know that the other ten made an effort to tell Thomas about this good news, and he refused to believe it.

His response to it was, I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wounds in his side.

Thomas had missed out on seeing and receiving what the others had because he wasn't present.

It wouldn't be until a week later when Thomas joined the others and he saw for himself the resurrected Christ.

But he missed out on it because he wasn't in community.

I mean, listen, I have to be honest, I hate missing our small group.

I really do.

There's been a few times where I can't make it.

And I miss out on what God's doing.

We have a guy in our small group who just a few years ago, he would have told you that in his mind, Christianity, I mean, all of this, was really just for like weak-minded people, just generally weak people.

Well, now that same guy is leading Bible studies each week for men.

We have another couple in our small group.

God is doing this amazing work of restoration in their life.

I mean, really, he's doing something new in their life and their family's life.

It's absolutely beautiful.

God's doing this incredible work in this community, and I'd miss out on it if I wasn't there.

I don't like missing out on these incredible things.

And I know, and I'll talk about this at the end.

There are some common, I'll call them excuses.

That might sound heavy-handed, but there are some common reasons as to why we haven't considered being more involved in Christian community.

The number one reason that people, and not just at Silverdale Baptist Church, the number one reason why people don't engage in Christian community is because they don't have enough what?

Time.

They don't have enough time.

Meaning it's not convenient with the other things that I feel like are more priority.

Let me say it like this: growth and convenience are really two different things.

In almost every aspect of life, whether I'm talking about physically, relationally, socially, spiritually, growth is not always going to mean convenience.

I have to be willing to sacrifice some things.

I have to be willing to grow in my understanding of who Jesus is and a love for his word.

We have to be present.

Christian community requires our presence.

And then Christian community requires understanding.

Christian community requires some understanding.

This is where we learn some don'ts from Eli, Bill, and Zoe.

This is where we learn some what not to do when it comes to understanding.

Now, initially, they were.

Initially, these three guys were very understanding to Job.

But then they move into this place of j of judgment, of frustration.

I mean, really just kind of this lack of empathy.

You know, generally speaking, do you know what the problem with people is?

They're people.

Right?

That's the problem with people.

Some of you can identify with this perspective here, right?

Is I've tried to like people, I really have, but then they start talking and breathing and stuff, and I don't like that.

That's a few of you in the room.

Um But I don't think I don't think these three guys were necessarily that bad.

Uh now Job initially has a he has a positive response, right?

He has it, he has a worshipful response to this loss.

He says, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, but blessed be his name.

But then after that, he goes into this deep depression, and understandably so.

I mean, Job says things like this in Job 3.

He says, May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, a boy is conceived.

I mean, he's saying, I wish I would never have been born.

I mean, the next time my birthday comes around, like, just give me a plate of hot dirt and let me eat it.

That's what my life is good for right now.

And he continues kind of in this narrative.

And so Eli hears this, and he doesn't like hearing his buddy talk like this, and so he moves into this place of, I'm gonna go fix Job.

So here's Eli's response, Job 4.

Think of how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands, your words have supported those who stumble, you have strengthened faltering knees, but now trouble comes to you and you're discouraged.

It strikes you and you're dismayed.

I mean, what he's saying to Job here is, hey, you're you're kind of being hypocritical here, big guy.

I mean, you're you're the guy that's normally encouraging others and helping them like kind of dig themselves out of the rut that they've created, but now you're making a bed in your own.

This doesn't help Job.

He he remains discouraged.

He says things like this.

Job 6, if only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales, it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas.

Later on, he says, What strength do I have that I should still even hope?

I mean, of course he's hopeless.

What else is he supposed to do?

In Job 7, he can't sleep.

He just lays in bed at night.

It says, When I lie down, I think, how long before I get up?

The night drags on.

I toss and I turn until dawn.

A few verses later, he says, I despise my life.

I wouldn't live forever.

Let me alone.

My days have no meaning.

We can see the the or try to begin to understand the depth of anguish and angst that Job is in.

Now listen to the way that Bill, his buddy Bill, responds.

Says this in Job 8.

This is Bill Dad talking to Job.

How long will you say such things?

Your words are a blustering wind.

When your children sinned against God, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

Did you catch what he just said to Job?

After Job has just lost all of his children, what this guy just said to Job is God killed your kids because of their sin.

Now listen, if there's any in this room that lack empathy or just kind of an inability to read social situations, let me just advise you, don't do this.

Right?

This is not advisable.

But but this is this is the advice that now his friends have moved, they haven't gone in, they're not listening anymore with the intent to understand.

I reference this verse a lot because it's something that I have to continually work on.

It's James 1.19, where it says, each of you should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

And the idea here, the concept here with this quick to listen is this intent to understand.

You're listening with the intent to understand.

You're not listening for just a break to when you can interrupt or how you can solve it or fix it.

No, you're you're listening with this intent to understand.

I mean, let's consider this.

Let's just pretend for a moment.

Let's just pretend for a moment that this row, front row, they're all in a small group together.

Okay?

They don't know each other that well, but they're all in a small group together.

And they're sitting in the living room one night, and one of them has a 15-year-old boy.

And that 15-year-old boy comes in, just kind of burst in, really rude, and he demands something to eat.

I mean, he just interrupts everyone, he's being super rude, he's being incredibly disrespectful, right?

And what the parent says when he does that, the parent says, okay, honey, just give me a minute.

Or maybe the parent just gets up and starts making food.

We're already sitting in judgment of what really needs to happen to that 15-year-old boy, right?

We're already sitting here thinking what that parent should have done, or the beating that that 15-year-old would have.

But but did we factor in, did we consider alternative motivations?

Did we consider that there might be some mental or medical things going on?

Did we consider any any past experiences or trauma that might have led to either that 15-year-old's demands or even the parent's response?

Did we consider any of that?

Or do we just quickly go into a place of judgment?

Do we quickly go into this place of, I'm going to fix things?

Right?

This is what Job was hearing from his friends who had hit their understanding threshold limit.

They were no longer listening with this intent to understand.

They were no longer in this place of helping Job.

They were in this place of criticizing him and condescending him and ridiculing him even for it.

And Job's had it.

Job says this about his buddies in Job 16.

Job says, I've heard many things like these.

You are miserable comforters, all of you.

This is mishorable.

You're miserable.

He then says later on in Job 19, how long are you going to torment me and crush me with words?

There's several more chapters where Job is desperately calling out to his friends to be understood rather than being corrected or falsely accused.

We have to be understanding.

Christian community requires us to be understanding.

Which leads us to our final point.

Christian community requires forgiveness.

Christian community requires forgiveness.

Why is it?

Why is it that forgiving one another is so hard?

Why is it so difficult?

Why do we struggle so much with forgiveness among the body of believers?

Think about when Peter asked Jesus.

Peter asked Jesus this question Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?

Up to seven times?

Peter is being incredibly generous here.

I mean, seven?

I know some of you in this room are a one-and-done.

Right?

But I mean, he's saying seven.

Like he's giving, this is like way beyond the three strikes and you're out.

He's doubling that and adding one.

He's really, really struggling to try to understand how many times are we supposed to forgive someone?

And yet in Colossians 3, we're told, bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Ephesians says, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

Apparently, we have a hard time forgiving one another.

And this is not talking about those outside of the church.

This is among the Christian community.

We have a hard time forgiving one another in the body of Christ.

Why is that?

Why do we struggle so much with this?

Right?

Here's the truth.

Here's the reality.

Yes, it's completely biblical for us to push and talk about community in the form of small groups that we do.

Yes.

Yes, it is for our good, it is for our own good that we are in Christian community.

Yes, we grow a lot in Christian community.

And yes, there is a possibility, there is very much a possibility that there might be some struggles that you face in Christian community.

I mean, just the word community alone, it means communal, it means group, it means people.

We've already talked about the problem with people, right?

People, we are a bunch of mistake makers.

Eli, Bill, and Zoe made some huge mistakes.

I mean, they made some massive mistakes.

They were so big mistakes, in fact, that God himself called them out.

It says this in Job 42.

The Lord said to Elaphaz the Temenite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has.

You know to know one way, one way to know that you are probably in the wrong is if God Himself tells you you're wrong.

It's probably a good indicator that you're wrong.

So God gives these three guys instructions on how to go and apologize to Job.

And you know what Job's response was to him when they when they offered their apology, their sincere apology?

He prayed for them.

We read in that same chapter in 42, verses 8 through 10, we read how Job prayed for his buddies.

And then it says this in verse 10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes, gave him twice as much as he had before.

As Christians, we we must forgive one another.

It's why Jesus responds to that question that Peter asks, How many times should we forgive?

Up to seven.

Jesus says, I seventy times seven.

Seventy times a hundred, seventy times seven hundred.

You just forgive.

Forgiving is synonymous with being a Christian.

We must forgive one another.

We can't allow that to hinder us or keep us from what the Lord has for us.

In Christian community, it requires vulnerability.

We gotta be close enough.

We have to be transparent enough with one another and trust one another enough, which means I gotta be there.

I gotta be present.

I'm not gonna build uh trust with you if I'm only seeing you once every six weeks.

I gotta be present.

I need to seek to be understanding.

I have to grow in this way.

I have to realize that other people are going to have different perspectives, other people are gonna have different experiences.

And then it's gonna require forgiveness.

Listen, we we can talk a lot about excuses of why we don't engage more in Christian community.

Time is one of them.

That's that's the biggest one.

But but the other reason, and I won't call this one an excuse as much, I'll I'll say reason.

The other reason is I know for some of you, you you've you've been hurt.

You've been hurt in Christian community.

You've been stabbed in the back, you feel like you've been talked about, you you it hasn't been dealt with well, and I'm sorry for that, I really am.

But but it's hindering us from allowing to know God in a deeper way.

It's keeping us from seeing God doing this amazing work, and so we need to be willing to forgive.

Now it doesn't mean we're gonna jump right back in with those people, right?

This is this is where we can engage in in other uh small groups, ministry.

In fact, here's what I want you to do right now.

On the bottom of your worship guide, you see this QR code right here, bottom of the worship guide.

I know, I know, we love QR codes here.

They're fantastic.

We love them.

Okay?

There's also a QR code here behind me on the screen.

You can also tap the little sticker there on the back of your chair and it'll take you to the forum.

Here's what I want you to do.

If you are not in a small group, if you are not in a small group, then you're gonna then I'd love for you to scan this code right now.

You can even take out your phone.

I won't even think it's rude.

You can take out your phone.

You could you could start scrolling social media, I don't know, but you can take out your phone right now and start.

If you are in a small group, I'd ask you to start to pray for the people around you.

And and here's what we're gonna ask you to do.

This form, it's very, very simple.

You see it over here on the left.

We're just gonna ask you a couple questions, right?

We're gonna ask you your age, not because we're we're like selling any of this information.

We're just gonna try to match you up with the right group, right?

Tell us the days that that work best for you, the times that work best for you.

Tell us kind of what you're looking for, right?

We want to help in as much as we possibly can to get you plugged into Christian community.

Because we know that this is an incredible way that you are gonna grow in your knowledge of who Jesus is and your love for his word.

One of our core values of a church is to grow, worship, grow, and serve.

This is going to be an incredible way that you grow.

So as you're filling out that form, here's the other thing I want to do.

I'm gonna ask, I know um I'm gonna separate them here in a second, but I'm gonna ask, if you're a small group leader in the room, I want you to stand up.

Even if your group is full, I still want you to stand up.

Incredible.

Okay, so here you're gonna stay standing because here's what I want.

I want people to kind of get a get an idea of some different thoughts.

Starting next week, for the next eight weeks, we're gonna go into a churchwide study.

What I would encourage you to do is just commit to a group for the next eight weeks.

Just the next eight weeks.

That's all you gotta do.

Listen, you could even do this.

And and there might be a couple of these leaders that push back on it, but I'll override them.

Um try eight groups in eight weeks.

Right?

Like go and see who has the best food, right?

I don't now you might look around the room too, and you and you can see, like, oh man, like I I'll really connect with them.

Not so much them, but I'll really connect with them, right?

I'm picking on you hard today, Tori.

Sorry.

Uh listen, it's it's important, it's important for you to understand that this is for your good.

All right, now I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna ask, I know some of you that have the small group shirts on, right?

You guys can go ahead and go now.

I'm gonna have you go out to the living room because they're gonna be available for questions.

You you other group leaders too, if you want to go out there, you're you're totally fine to do that as well.

But but go out there, talk with them, meet them, get to know them, find out more about whether it's their small group or just small group ministry in general.

I'm gonna invite the rest of you to stand now.

And our response is a little bit different this morning.

I get it.

It's a little bit different.

Because I want us to think about, I want us to think about this whole concept of Christian community.

Like I said, it's different because we're emphasizing this one particular ministry in our church more this week than really anything else.

But but it the reason for it, the purpose of it, is because we desperately want us as a church, us collectively as a church, to grow in our love for Jesus, in our knowledge of his word, and in our understanding of who he is, and understanding of his word.

And we we do that so well.

It happens so effectively in Christian community.

And so as we sing this song, here's all I would ask of you.

All I would ask of you.

If you are not in a small group, I just want you to ask the Holy Spirit why.

Why am I not in one?

See what he says to you.

Right?

Just allow him to speak to you.

This is kind of one of those like I surrender all moments of whatever pretense you have about Christian community, allow yourself to let God do with that whatever he wants to do with it.

And and let's respond accordingly.

Like I said, when when Taylor and Julia come back out here, let's let's let's go engage.

Let's go, let's go figure out how God wants to move and grow in this.

But let's respond in that way together now.