What We Need To Remember From 2020 Part 1

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Lord, this all started with you speaking.

The earth was void and formless, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And then the Lord said, and all this came to be.

Everything that we see.

So, Lord, we place high value on you speaking, which is why we open the Bible and we try to plow deep every Sunday, not to overwhelm, but to invite.

To invite people into what they were created for, to know this creator, and to live and function as created beings who are made by God in the image of God.

The Amago Dei.

We bear the image of our creator.

And we have a moral and spiritual responsibility to the God that created us.

We can't sever that.

So we find comfort in that, we find identity in that.

We find worth in human life, in all life, from the womb all the way to the very end, because it was created by God in the image of God, and we bear that beautiful responsibility.

And so, Lord, speak today.

Speak a shaping, sustaining, sharp word into our dull hearts today.

Lord, we've dulled ourselves with, it's easy to dull ourselves with consumption and consumerism this time of year.

So, Holy Spirit, just kind of come and with the surgeon's precision, uh use the word and the spirit to kind of peel back and to say something today that has our name on it.

We trust you.

We open ourselves up to you and we say, speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

We pray and we listen in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You could have a seat.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Hebrews chapter 10, and I'll get there in about 15 minutes.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Amen.

I want to do something a little different.

I want to, I won't get through the this will be a two-part, maybe a three-part sermon, but I want to talk to you today about what we need to remember from 2020.

What we need to remember from 2020.

I think it's tempting uh uh to get to a year like this and just think, man, can we just turn the page to get to 2021?

Uh yes, that it'll happen in a few days.

But before we do, I think there's some things we need to look back and remember.

Uh, and while you're finding Hebrews, if you're looking for Hebrews, just go past the Gospels, kind of towards the back of the New Testament.

If you see maps, you've gone too far, turn back, okay?

Uh, if you're joining us online, I want to say thank you for your presence.

Uh, you are part of us.

We love that you're part of us.

We can't wait till you can feel comfortable joining us.

Uh, but join us where you are in your pajamas.

Open your Bible if you would.

Like I said, I'll get there in a few minutes.

Uh I talk about remembering what we need to remember from 2020.

Uh, I want to begin with a story that happened on March 11th, 1983.

Uh, some of you were not even born on March 11, 1983, but back then there was a coach, uh, it was the ACC basketball tournament that was going on, and Virginia was playing a key a team called Duke.

Duke had a coach named Coach Mike Sheshewski.

He was in his third year as a coach, and things were not going well.

Matter of fact, they were going so bad, the the booster club at Duke called the Iron Dukes.

That's not intimidating, is it?

The Iron Dukes, people that give money to the school, did not like Coach Kay, and they had a petition go in to get him fired.

It did not help it that year.

They finished 11 and 17, okay?

That was their record.

And in the first round of the ACC tournament, they got the brakes beat off of them by Virginia.

They got beat by 43 points.

Uh they went back to the hotel, got all the players checked in, had a little team meeting, got the players in bed for curfew.

And then the coaching staff went out to the only thing that was open, a Denny's.

It was almost three in the morning by this point.

And at three in the morning, one of the assistant coaches raised up a glass of water in the Denny's and said, Here's to forgetting tonight.

And they all hear, here.

And Coach Shoshevsky sat there with his little eagle gaze in his little nose, and he raised his glass up and he said, Here's to never forgetting tonight.

Now, if you would go back, by the way, his coaching career kind of turned around after that.

As a matter of fact, no one calls him Coach Shoshevsky anymore.

They just call him Coach K.

If you say Coach K anywhere in North Carolina and some places anywhere in the world, they're like, oh yeah, we know who that is.

But Coach K would tell you that that was the turning point of Duke basketball.

The next year he had the top recruiting class in the country.

And that's when things turned around for them.

Three years later, that I think it was they won their first national championship.

But it all started because in a terrible moment, he raised his glass and said, Let's do not forget this.

Matter of fact, the next season at the first practice, the players came into Cameron Indoor uh uh arena, and on the scoreboard was the score Virginia Duke.

And he said, Never forget that boys.

Now, 2020, there's some things that you're tempted just to speed forward and get out of it, but I want to say, let's look back and remember, okay?

And here's the only thing I'm gonna get through today, just one point in the sermon, and it's simply this.

I want us to remember that we were created for community.

We were created for community, okay?

If I said, what do you remember about 2020?

You would say things like masks, you would say uh online schooling.

That's what somebody said in the first service, online schooling.

I said, Yes, it's not very encouraging that we have a generation of kids that are being educated by day drinkers.

That's not going to go well in the future.

But anyway, uh good luck getting into college, kids.

Glad you're here.

Uh, but uh uh a lot of things, you know, uh anxiety, fear, uh lockdowns, a bunch of different answers.

No one said this, no one said isolation.

Uh and and I want to speak to that and just by saying, look at 2020 and be reminded, remember that we were created for community.

I just want to read one verse and it's not from Hebrews 10.

We'll get there in just a moment.

Uh, this is from Genesis chapter 2, actually, in the very beginning, when God spoke everything into existence, it existed, and then God looked down and said this in Genesis 2.18.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.

Let me say it again.

It is not good.

Then the Lord God said, He looked down and said, It is not good that man should be alone.

Now Adam was in paradise and he was in charge.

Every man's fantasy, he's in paradise and he's in charge.

There's not a woman, the Eve does not exist yet.

No one to question him.

What are you doing?

Why are you doing that?

Have you thought about this?

He's in paradise and he's in charge, men.

And God looked down and said, It is not good that man should be alone.

Now, ever since then, I think ever since that day, I think humanity has been trying to create some technological social utopia that disproves this simple statement by God.

And we continue to fail, and we will always fail because technology can never create for us what God created for us in the very beginning.

Now, God is a God that not only the Bible talks about community, but God dwells in community.

The Trinity is a beautiful picture of community.

God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Okay?

And so when I say what we're created for, uh, what we're created for is community.

And if you don't realize this, I mean I'm not against technology.

A lot of people think I am.

I'm not.

I just don't think it's gonna satisfy and meet all of our problems.

It's not gonna satisfy all our needs, and it's not gonna solve all our problems.

Do you realize this?

That we live in a country where I think that in the name of convenience, you're being isolated to death.

And you don't even realize that you can get groceries delivered to your house, you can get your prescription delivered to your house, you can get, I mean, my my drugstore is right there at that red light, right up the road there, okay?

And they text me and say, Hey, we can deliver your prescription to your house.

And I'm like, I live a minute down the road, okay?

I need to get out and see the sun, but you can get groceries into your house, your doctor will give you a virtual visit, your pediatrician will check your kids out online, everything.

You don't have to look, you don't have to leave your house.

But what you need to realize is that you are being convenienced to death because you're being pushed further and further inward in isolation, while the people in charge just say, Hey, you stay home, we'll figure it out and tell you what to do next.

And a lot of people are going, yes, Jen, thank you very much.

I'm here.

Where's my stimulus check?

That's not community, that is dependence and isolation, and it's not community.

We were created for community.

Uh, this was really, really driven home to me.

I'm I'm finishing reading a book right now by a guy named David Brooks.

And the name of the book is The Second Mountain.

The Second Mountain.

And in the book, basically Brooks, it happened to him.

He says that people climb their first mountain.

It's about self and self-actualization and their goals and conquering and making money.

He said, But I got up on top of that mountain and I looked around and I thought, this is miserable.

And he says, so I climbed down and now I'm climbing my second mountain, and my life's a part of something bigger than myself.

But in the book, you see, he he makes a great point that instead of community, what we settled for is what he calls, and I didn't he didn't coin the phrase, but it's referred to as hyper-individualism.

Hyper-individualism, where there's just a focus on the individual.

And so I want to nerd out for about the next six minutes and just read you the characteristics.

And I want you to, you're like, are you really doing that?

Yeah, I got my kids in here.

Here's the thing, boys and girls, you were created to have significant and meaningful friendships.

People in your class are not just competitors, they're friends.

And outside of the context of community, everybody's a competitor.

Everybody, my kids both went to high school right across the street, and it was beat into them.

Look around.

These people are not your friends, they're your competitors.

Step on them to get ahead.

A teacher told my oldest that.

And I just said, that's not true.

Those are your friends, enjoy those friendships.

Don't hold on to them like they're gonna be friends for life.

They're not.

Because they bought into the competitive mantra of public education.

But but but Brooks makes a great diagnosis of our current culture.

Just let me read some of these characteristics of hyper-individualism, and you tell me if it sounds familiar.

Here's the first one hyper-individualism is self-focused, is a self-focused worldview where the self is exalted above society, and with that comes a loss of connection.

It's a self-focused worldview where the self, the individual, is exalted above society, and with that comes a loss of connection.

Secondly, hyper-individualism is a system of morals, feelings, ideas, and practices based on the idea that the journey through life is an individual journey.

And the goals of life are individual happiness, authenticity, self-actualization, and self-sufficiency.

Hyperindividualism puts the same question on everybody's lips: What can I do to make myself happy?

Thirdly, hyperindividualism rests upon an emancipation story.

The heroic self breaks free from the stifling chains of society.

The self stands on its own two feet, determines its own destiny, secures its own individual rights.

Hyperindividualism defines freedom as absence from restraint.

Hear that first part again.

Hyperindividualism rests upon an emancipation story.

The heroic self breaks free from the stifling chains of society.

Have you heard any activists talk lately?

And they talk like they stormed the beaches at D-Day, and all they did is come out as gay or LGBT or whatever, and it's like, you're not a hero.

Stop talking.

Why should we listen to you?

This is it all rests upon this emancipation story.

Society was trying to keep me down, but I broke free and now I'm really free and sad and lonely and abusing substances because I can't get to sleep at night.

Here's the next characteristic.

Hyperindividualism gradually undermines any connection, not based on individual choice, the connections to family, neighborhood, culture, nations, and the common good.

Hyperindividualism erodes our obligations and responsibilities to others and our kind.

This is a great time to look around and realize have you noticed how awkward it can be when you get together with extended family these days?

Some people, this is not a great time of the year.

It is a very difficult time of year because it's kind of like, oh, he's coming, okay?

It's just difficult.

It keeps going.

Next characteristic the central problems of our day flow from this erosion: social isolation, distrust, polarization, the breakdown of family, the loss of community, tribalism, rising suicide rates, rising mental health problems, a spiritual crisis caused by a loss of common purpose, the loss, or the loss in nation after nation.

This is not endemic to America.

This is all over the country.

I know it's easy to pile on America right now because America's terrible.

We're imperialistic dogs and blah, blah, blah.

If we're so bad, why does everybody want to come here?

I don't believe that, okay?

I'm not saying it's perfect.

I don't worship America, but I don't apologize for it either.

It's nation after nation.

There's this loss of a common purpose, of any sense of common solidarity that binds people across differences.

The next characteristic, the core flaw of hyper-individualism, is that it leads to a degradation and a pulverization of the human person.

Have you been on Facebook lately?

There's a radio station here in town that I listen to, it's a country station, and they have Facebook fights every morning where they they reenact fights on Facebook because we kind of we just when you when you degrade human beings and they no longer have value, then it doesn't matter what you say to them or how you treat them.

The core flaw of hyper-individualism is that it leads to degradation and the pulverization of the human person.

Eventually, hyper-individ individualism creates isolated, self-interested, dissatisfied people who sense that something is missing in their lives, but they cannot even name what it is.

Next, the hyper-individualist finds themselves enmeshed in a network of conditional love.

I am worthy of being loved only when I have achieved the status or success the world expects of me.

I am worthy of love only when I can offer the other person something in return.

I am what the world says about me.

Hyperindividualism obliterates emotional and spiritual security by making everything conditional.

It makes people extremely sensitive to the judgment of others and quick to take offense when they feel slighted.

Have you heard the phrase cancel culture?

This is what it is.

They're extremely sensitive to judgment of others and quick to take offense.

Everyone's offended these days.

No one's convicted.

No one says, Oh, you know what?

I want to be defensive right now, but I'm just convicted.

Thank you.

That's so good.

Keep talking.

Can we get another round of drinks here?

This is good.

Nobody says that's like, oh, how dare you?

I'm leaving.

Wait, to go home and be alone?

Yeah, of course.

And by the way, at the very beginning of that, the hyper-individualist finds themselves a mess in a network of conditional love.

I am worthy of being loved only when I've achieved the status or success the world expects of me.

Students?

You can make a B or a C, and God's never gonna change his mind about you.

George Bush was president and he was a C student.

Keep hope of lying, baby.

I tell my kids all the time, I don't care what you make, I don't care what you're gonna just do your best.

As long as you do your best, that's all I care about.

And the friends are like, You really don't care?

I don't, I could care less.

Some of the most uninteresting persons I know, people I know went to Harvard and Yale, and they got all these degrees, and they they can't even hold a thought in their mind.

They're so open-minded.

They're just not interesting people.

And I just tell them, hey, just because you grew up in California doesn't make you interesting.

Go back and smoke pot.

I think one day God's gonna take a saw and just saw it off, and it's gonna drift out into the ocean.

And they look at me like, oh, what?

And I'm like, I don't hate California.

I just you and Jeff Bezos don't get to tell me what to think.

He's an immoral pagan with a lot of money.

It's so you sell your soul, you go, oh, I don't care.

More good news, kids.

Hyper individualism directs people towards false and unsatisfying lives.

Listen to this.

Hyperindividualism directs people towards false and unsatisfying lives.

They get to a taste, a series of experiences which may be pleasant, but which don't accumulate into anything because they're not serving a larger cause.

No amount of achievement gives them the love they crave and they become insecure overachievers.

Have you noticed that vacations aren't as satisfying as they used to be?

And I'm all for vacation.

I want you to vacate.

I'm the guy that wrote you yesterday and said, hey, if you need a trickle charge on your soul battery, stay home in your pajamas and drink coffee all day.

Someone wrote me, Well, Pastor, what are you gonna do if people stay home?

Preach to less people.

Yeah.

But see, here's the thing.

This is the way I would boil down.

Brooks is a lot smarter than me, but I'd boil it down like this.

We have begun to look for in our experiences what can only be found in our relationships.

We have begun to look for in our experiences.

And so everything, I mean, that's why Instagram is full of, oh my gosh, look at this lunch I'm having.

This is awesome.

Okay.

Really?

You need to get cable, my man.

No, so that's where we are.

I mean, it's it's like who can have the most exotic vacation?

Who can go here and who can go there?

And again, go on vacation.

But you are never gonna find in your experiences what God created you to find in relationships.

That means you should go to lunch men with other men who, right when you sit down, the other guy goes, Okay, here's the two things I want to make sure we talk about before we're done here.

Here's my two.

What are your non-negotiables for this?

Because we're gonna we're gonna do small talk, chit-chat, complain about our wives, whatever, but we're gonna get down to the get down, and I'm gonna get in your chili on number two.

Yeah, you were created for that.

Now you may be thinking that sounds terrible.

No, no, no.

There's a part of you that just sets up and go, Oh, please, not another boring business lunch.

Oh, let me expense that.

I'll get that hell, let me get that ticket there.

I can write this off.

Really?

Is your greatest joy of that encounter writing it off on your taxes?

Here's the last one.

Hyperindividualism leads to tribalism.

People eventually rebel against the isolation and the meaninglessness of hyper-individualism by joining a partisan tribe where the tribalist mentality is based on mutual distrust.

It's always us versus them, friend or enemy, destroy or be destroyed.

Tribalism is the dark twin of community.

The tragic paradox of hyper-individuals is that what began as an ecstatic liberation ends up as a war of tribe against tribe that crushes the individuals it sought to free, which is where we currently find ourselves politically, spiritually, and socially in America.

Here's what it sounds like Trumpers, never Trumpers, LGBTQ, conservative, liberal, riding with Biden, waiting for Trump to take it to the Supreme Court.

Masks.

No masks.

Why do you make us wear masks?

I think we should all take our mask off.

I'm not coming back into it's it's everybody gets in their tribe.

And you get in your tribe and you get reinforcement from being in your tribe.

But here's the problem is it is that you what began is this, yes, this statement of I'm taking a stand, it really ends with this sad sense of isolation because it doesn't belonging to the tribe doesn't meet the need that you thought it was going to meet the longer you're in the tribe.

And so you add to that the advent of social media, anxiety and depression has reached epidemic levels in our kids.

Kids are being diagnosed with this earlier and earlier and earlier because they're not they're online, but they're they're they're connecting, but they're not connecting, they're not in community.

Uh, there's no real, and I'm talking to, if you're nine years old, I mean you should have some friends because our kids are paranoid of other people.

And this is free, mom and dad.

Fearful parents raise fearful children.

I didn't tell a lady that in H E B right up here at the Grand Parkway the other day.

Her son was standing there and just stared at me, and I said, What's up, little man?

He goes, Nothing.

What's your name?

And I said, My name's Santa Claus, and I'm skipping your house.

And he said, But I've been good.

And I said, That's not what the record indicates.

And he goes, No, you got it.

And we're just having a conversation.

His mom rounds the corner.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, what are you doing?

I said, I'm talking to your son.

She goes, What?

I said, Because he was staring at me.

And we're just chatting it up here.

And she's like, Well, come on.

And I said, Hey, by the way, don't raise your kid to be so afraid.

Well, ha ha, I don't know who you are.

It doesn't matter.

Fearful parents like you raise him to be fearful.

The world isn't all bad.

Okay.

And he's like, Well, you coming to my house, aren't you?

Yeah, I'm coming to your house.

Your mom's getting cold because she's a fearmonger, but I'm coming to your house.

And as she goes around the corner, I hear her mumbling, What did I tell you about talking to strangers?

I'm just like, see, in this Melu, the task where there's uh what this hyper individualism, the task is to be somebody rather than being yourself.

And you can we continue to produce students who inwardly feel unprepared for life because their foundation is based on comparison, not understanding.

The price of admission into this acceptance club is to forfeit anything close to a biblical morality or a biblical worldview.

If your kids want to fit in, they got to check their morality at the door and just give in to get along.

In a Christian worldview, in a biology class, are you kidding me?

And so we've got to be, you say, why this dude is family?

Yeah, yeah, you got to be preparing your kids for this.

So when the time comes, they're like, I like these odds.

One against 32?

Yeah, bring it, boys and girls.

The phrase got coined this year, lockdown loneliness, because people were cut off from not just community, but just the random social interactions in the grocery store at the gas station, wherever.

Sounds bad.

But when you think about it, you got to ask yourself so what do we do in response to this?

Make sure we're in the right tribe?

No.

We demonstrate, we practice, we model, and we invite people into what the Bible calls community.

Okay?

What do you mean?

Community is this we're created to be in these intentional, formative, mutual, reciprocal, God-honoring, you changing, me changing relationships.

That's what we call community here at Grand Parkway.

And this is where the Bible talks about it.

In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10:24

I'm just gonna read two verses and I'm gonna give you five characteristics of community, and we'll be done today.

You still with me?

Now, by the way, let me ask this question.

When I read all that stuff, did you get encouraged or did you feel sad?

If you felt encouraged, say amen.

If you felt sad, say amen.

It's kind of like, man, why that's kind of a bummer.

I mean, it's the last Sunday of the year, and you kind of.

Hello, boys and girls.

It's Debbie Downer's preaching today.

Here's what I want to say to you.

Look at me.

Against that bleak backdrop, biblical community shines like a spotlight, my man.

It stands out.

It is just like, oh my gosh.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've been having lunch with somebody in our church typically.

Um, and a waiter or waitress will come over and kind of go, What are you guys talking about?

And I say the same thing every time, none of your business, get away from us.

Just bring more unsweetened tea.

No, no, no, seriously, because I heard you say earlier, this happened not long ago.

A guy said, I heard you say earlier that you want to choke him out.

I said, Yes, I did, I said that.

And I do, because he's just goofy and he's just saying crazy stuff.

Like what?

Like he's thinking about divorcing his wife because she doesn't make him happy.

And he's like, Well, I mean, who are you to judge him?

I'm not judging him, okay?

Don't be such a moral coward that has no categories for anything.

Because, dude, you don't know me.

I'm not judging you either.

Don't be such a baby, stay engaged.

But see, here's the basic marriage is not based on, oh, you make me happy, you don't make me happy.

Because here's the reality.

There's a lot of days my wife doesn't make me happy.

She asked me to clean the kitchen and go for walks and things I don't want to do.

And he said, Well, why do you do it?

And I said, You're not married, are you?

No, man, I'm playing the field.

You do it because love means not always getting your way.

That's why you do it.

And he's not getting his way, and he wants to be a baby.

And so I'm here to tell him suck it up, put your big boy pants on, and stay in it.

And he just looked at me with this little pitcher of tea, and I said, You don't need to get married anytime soon.

He goes, Well, how do you know that?

I said, Because you're selfish and self-centered, and marriage is where selfishness goes to die.

And he looked at my friend, he goes, Man, you should get some other friends.

You should get some friends to begin with.

Now, get away.

Now, as I'm leaving the restaurant, he follows me to the door and says, Hey bro, we good?

I'm like, We're not dating or anything, man.

I said, By the way, that doesn't bother me.

Now, by the way, he goes, Well, I mean, how do you know that guy?

I said, I'm his pastor.

And he's like, Shut up.

And I'm like, No, you shut up.

He goes, he let you talk to him like that.

I said, It's not about permission.

We don't operate on permission in the kingdom.

We operate on authority.

And I have the moral responsibility and the divine authority to say to him, Yeah, it's hard.

Of course it's hard.

It's going to get twisted, sister.

But you don't quit.

You don't start flirting with the girl that works in sales.

What are you, 17?

So you really are a pastor.

Oh, just get away from me.

So, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10:24

Community, where you have these intentional, formative, mutual, reciprocal relationships.

The Bible says this, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Hear that again.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Here's the five characteristics of community, and we'll be done today.

Number one is consideration.

Consideration.

And let us consider.

How often do you have to consider?

Do you have to think, hey, I'm going to spend some time with my friend John, or I'm going to spend some time with my friend Susie.

And I want to just show up and just and just chit-chat about the same things, kids, kids' sporting events, our husband, our wife, our vacation.

We just got back from the next vacation we're going on, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Let us consider.

Let's give deliberate thought to why I'm in this relationship and who I should be in this relationship.

So the first characteristic of biblical community is consideration.

Secondly, it's consequence.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Consequence means this: you should become a more consequential person as a result of being in this relationship or friendship.

You should become a more loving person.

So ask yourself this question: Who do I spend time with that makes me a more loving person?

Who do I spend time with that makes me and that kind of motivates me to do good?

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

So consideration, secondly, consequence.

Thirdly, consistency.

Look at these words.

Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.

Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.

So even back in the Bible, there were people that would say, hey, yeah, I want to join that community group, or I want to be in this D group, or I want to go to this Bible study.

I want to be blah, blah, blah, blah.

And about two, two, two meetings in, that person never shows up ever again.

Now, let me just be honest and lay all my cards on the table.

If you're watching from home today, listen very carefully.

I want you to understand me.

I want you to hear what I'm saying.

Now, don't want you to hear what I'm not saying, okay?

Uh COVID, my concern is that COVID has simply baptized our selfishness and given us a good excuse for pulling back and checking out.

Now, am I saying that people that don't attend in person they're all the way?

Not at all.

Am I saying that some people is that way?

Exactly.

I am.

Yes.

Now, I'm not coming to your house to say, hey, by the way, Johnny, I was talking to you.

No.

No, you just have to police yourself and say, hey, man, people, I think I've kind of gotten comfortable just sitting on the couch.

Here's the problem with sitting on the couch.

Again, in the name of convenience, you're being slowly killed.

There's probably a better way to say it.

Just in the name of convenience, you're being just slowly isolated and slowly removed from the context of community where you know and or known.

This is what you're created for.

He says, Hey, consistently, not neglecting to meet together.

Uh, somebody asked me the other day, they said, Hey, can we get counseling with you on Zoom?

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

Because why not?

I mean, because we can just stay at our house, then stay at your house and Zoom with anybody you want.

Well, I mean, I mean, it's just so easy.

And that's the problem.

We got to be face to face.

Why gotta be face to face?

I may want to dive across the desk.

Like Superfly Jimmy Snooker from the WWE.

And the guy's like, what do you mean?

I don't do Zoom.

Matter of fact, I'm never gonna do another Zoom meeting the rest of my life.

How's that for caring?

Here's the third, here's the fourth one.

If you're a man, put a star by this one.

The fourth characteristic of community is cheering.

You're like, you're a strange little man.

Look at it, trying the Bible.

And let us consider how to stir up one another, love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.

Cheering, but encouraging one another.

But encouraging one another.

I started back in early November.

Every time I'd have a lunch, I'd try to work this question into the conversation with the person I was having lunch with.

And the question was this hey man, who's cheering for you these days?

And especially it was I don't eat lunch with women, by the way.

It was always men, and unless their husbands there, uh, then I will, but I don't eat with like an individual woman.

That no, absolutely not.

And like Mike Pence, I don't ride in the car with a woman that's not my wife alone.

Mock it all you want.

Uh, but I asked dudes, hey man, who's cheering for you these days?

And they all do this, like, what do you mean?

Who's cheering?

Yeah, like cheerleader?

Yeah, like who puts on a skirt and says two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar, all for you.

Stand up and holler.

And they're like, hey man, don't do that.

Don't do that.

People are looking in this restaurant, okay.

This is kind of creepy.

I'm like, yeah, it is it is really creepy, but who knows you well enough?

See, people have to know you well enough to cheer for you.

Who's hanging over the railing of your balcony?

And when you're having a bad day, you look back, and that guy's just, whoa, come on, man, you got this.

You got this.

I know it's hard, but you got this.

Buck up, little soldier.

Let's go.

Who cheers for you?

Ladies, who cheers for you?

Who cheers for you?

Who knows you well enough to say, hey, hey, hey, let's put down mommy's sippy cup.

Mommy's had enough sippy cup during the pandemic.

Mommy needs to engage.

Who cheers for you?

Put it that way.

I have a friend that calls me twice a year and he's made a list.

It's the most awkward thing I experienced all year.

He's made a list of all the things he's noticed about me that he wants to compliment me on.

You go, he lives out of state.

He watches the podcast.

He's taking notes right now.

He's a creepy little friend.

And it's all, and I say, hey man, give me something I need to get better at.

Oh man, I just want to, I just want to bless you in Jesus' name.

I just want to tell you that all the ways God's using you in my life, and I'm sure in countless other people's lives.

And I'm like, it is difficult for me.

Because here's why it's difficult for us men, cheering is because we love adversity.

Prosperity feels like we're selling out.

It's like, oh, easy, easy.

And so my friend will just say, Hey, stay on the phone.

I've only got four more things.

Last time he called me, it was 11 things.

Took 45 minutes.

Because he would read them off and then tell me why he said all these things.

Okay, I get the idea.

And I'm not done, Neil.

I'm not done.

I thought this, it was so off-putting.

I just thought, can someone have a crisis and call me right now?

So I can go, oh, I gotta go.

Now, by the way, here's the thing community is not being in a group of people that you're always helping.

That's not community, that's need.

You gotta make sure that you're in the in relationship with people that they don't need your help, but they love your presence.

They're just like, oh man, when you come to community group, my heart swells because I just like, yeah, this is going to be good.

Why?

Because you're here.

Who cheers for you?

And here's the last one clarity.

Clarity.

What do you mean, clarity?

And all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Notice the word day is capitalized.

It's talking about judgment day.

When you don't get to do any of this anymore.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Hear the correlation of those two.

And all the more.

In other words, the more you understand, people are like, hey, you're going to get back in Daniel?

Yeah, in a couple sessions, we'll jump back into Daniel.

We've been reading the first six chapters, is a bunch of stories.

The last six chapters is like a science fiction movie.

It is crazy.

It is like people are like, hey, we're going to talk about the end of the world.

Yes, we're going to talk about the end of the world.

We're going to talk about the rapture?

Yes, we're going to talk about the rapture.

Is it happening right now?

Are we living in the last in the last days?

We've been living in the last days since Jesus ascended.

But to the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day, so good luck with that.

What I'm just saying is clarity.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near, all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Ask yourself today, hey, what is it that I'm afraid I'm running out of time?

I'm not going to get to do as much as I want to.

If your answer is hunting, that's a problem.

And by the way, hunt.

Not against hunting.

It's just, this is what characterizes community.

It's consideration, it's consequence, it's consistency, it's cheering.

It's clear.

It's your buddy that you hunt with.

The next time you have a plan, your big next, oh, we're gonna go here and hunt the Muy Grandi and blah, blah, blah.

Glory to God.

Imagine your buddy kind of going, hey, now, can we be the husbands and fathers we need to be if we're gone this much?

You feel that?

Some of you in this room are like, you can stop talking now.

And I'm not against hunting.

I'm just, this is this is community.

This is the kind of conversation that happens in community.

And it's what you were created for.

Because, let me say this and I'm done.

You still with me?

In a day and age of hyper-individualism, and David Brooks is right, that's where we are.

But he also talks in the book about moral ecologies, and that this moral ecology of hyper-individualism is failing, it's crumbling, it's falling apart.

And so people are longing and looking for community.

And so just look around and just kind of see, hey, who who would be, who would benefit by being in an intentional relationship and invite that person into community.

This is how the church flourished in the New Testament.

It wasn't through preaching.

It wasn't.

It was through people looking around and kind of going, you know what?

I want to be the church too.

I want to invite you into community.

I want to love you.

I want to cheer for you.

I want to be the person that, man, oh, that person stirs me up.

I want to be a better person.

I want to do the right thing and not just come and ask for forgiveness for doing the wrong thing.

This beloved is community.

It's what you were created for.

Boys and girls, it's what you were created for.

Students, it's what you were created for.

Not catty smallness of Instagram just blather.

God created you to just kind of, hey, hey, can we just kind of go deeper in this friendship?

Or is this just it?

We're just going to compare ourselves to each other, our bodies, our boyfriends, our grades, our bedrooms, our car.

Is this what Jesus died for?

Then you'll figure out who's worth being in community with.

Because community is what you were created for.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax, but I can teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it.

So a voice of prayer, and then Clyde will just kind of play and just kind of ask yourself, hey, what had my name on it today?

What is the one thing that I want to think about a little bit more before I go to bed tonight?

Let me pray.

God, thanks for community that you model it, that you we see it in the Godhead, we see it in the Trinity, and we see it in the Bible, we see it in the church.

And I pray that it would just kind of awaken in us a hunger and an appetite, not just to come, but to belong, to engage, to step into a circle and say, I want to know you people, and I want you people to know me.

And this scares me to death.

But it's what I was created for.

I want you to know more than my name.

I want you to know my struggles, because this is a safe place for people to know your struggles.

Want you to know me.

So, Holy Spirit, brood over your people and speak a word.

As we just linger and listen.

God, thank you.

There was a simple statement way back in Genesis where you said, it's not good that man should be alone.

You said in emotion.

Just this reminder that we were created for community, not isolation, not individualism, community, friendship, relationship, where spiritual formation happens.

I pray for anybody in this room today that's not in community.

I pray for people that are watching online, they're not in community, that you'll just awake and in their head and in their heart, a bigger desire.

Take away the fear.

Not going to be judged, they're gonna be known, loved, told the truth, and then loved some more.

And we want to hear the truth they have to speak to us as well.

It's not community, it's not just one way, it's not a lecture, it's a dance.

And so, God, for that we're we're grateful.

So we say thank you for modeling and requiring community of us.

We say thanks in Jesus' name.

But everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest today, look at me.

I'm glad you're here.

You're always welcome here.

Uh, you don't have to know all the songs, you'd be like, ah, easy.

Uh, just we just want you to know you're welcome.

Uh hopefully you've had a chance to pull the guest card in the seat back pocket in your row.

If you haven't filled that out already, would you fill it out and just drop on those wooden boxes by the door on your way out?

It's also where we receive our offering.

So if today is the day you practice uh uh obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well.

Okay.

If you have any questions about anything you heard, we'll be available down front.

Uh when you're dismissed, we'd like to uh conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So if you would stand to your feet and hold your hand out.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son.

He also gave other people in your life and in my life.

They're there for a purpose, and that purpose is community.

Let yourself be loved, known, shaped, formed, and forgiven.

For all of these part of God's created purpose for your life.

Depart now into community and for community.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.