The Connected Life: Week 3

Well, good morning, we'll do that again. Good morning.

I am from Middletown, Ohio, and I didn't leave there

until I was twenty eight. So here's a question I

asked last service. It was so fascinating, So anyone twenty

and younger, don't answer this.

There's a lot in other services that young.

But how many of you were born in Indianapolis or

Hamilton County and you've never moved away? Raise your hand,

look at that, And that's about the same as last service.

And I was thinking about, like, look how God brings.

A community together from all over the place, from all

over the state or multiple states. Look at how God

brings us together for a purpose and for a mission.

God brought you from wherever you came from to this

church of this community so that we could be the

hands and feet of Christ in our region.

It's a beautiful thing.

Today is our last week of our series Connected Life.

I hope this has been helpful for you in the

Roberts household.

It has been awesome because one it opened up the.

Conversation about our addiction to screens, and we were a

scrolling family, be very honest, and so a couple of

things it used to be only when Caitlyn yelled at

us at dinner that we put our phones up. But

when Caitlyn wasn't around, Gene and I had the phone out, okay,

And it's so interesting. I didn't even know she so

we put our phones away. Now at dinner, I didn't

even know she changed her hair color of months ago.

It's it's it's been great to get to know my

wife again. And you know, and and and even when

we're in the living room as a family hanging out,

like I have been intentional about putting my phone to

the side until I'm alone again. And so it's really

been helpful to get reconnected, to dive a little bit

deeper into community. And I pray that you are continuing

to take some of those good steps about breaking our

addiction to screens. Let's pray and ask God to speak

to us this last week of this series. God, we

give you praise today, and we thank you for your goodness,

for your grace, and for your mercy. Help us to

conform our life, to shape our life to your will

in Jesus' name.

Amen, have you ever been.

Just sitting alone at your house or at work or whatever,

and you feel your phone ring vibrate and you reach

into your pocket and you realize.

There's no phone there.

Yeah, a lot of you.

Know what that's actually called.

It's a big thing now.

It's called phantom vibration, and it's basically brain damage.

But our brains have actually.

Been rewired to expect that, Hey, you haven't had your

phone in your hand for a while, you better grab

a hold of your phone. So our brains are actually

rewiring because of our phone addictions.

And something's off.

Something's off big time.

And Caitlin and I were hanging out this weekend, and

you know, one of the things we're realizing is that,

you know, we're so sensitive to digital connection. Why are

we so numb to real connection? Why do we notice

a buzz in our pocket but missed a person sitting

right there in front of us?

Something is off? And so this week I.

Gave Kaitlyn a call on the way home from work Monday.

It was raining out and she had been house sitting

for that last week, and so I hadn't talked to

her for a couple of days, and so we realized

that we were only a couple miles away from each

other on ninety sixth Street, and I said, oh, we're

by by each other. Do you want to go to Starbucks?

And she goes, yeah, So it's raining out. We get

to Starbucks, it's packed, and.

Let me tell you something. We got our little table,

our little.

Drinks, and we had a fabulous conversation. We talked about

everything from Henry Day Save It Thorough to Babe Roof

to the culture of the early nineteen hundreds to the

millennial's fascination with an everything nineties culture.

Very fascinating conversation.

In the middle of us having this conversation, I said

to Katelin, I said.

Hey, hey, look around, look around.

Starbucks was packed around five o'clock.

And every person, every person in that room had their

phone right here, every one of us on the screen.

Here's what the crazy thing was. They were about two

feet apart from the person in front of them. And

I will say something else too. There wasn't a one

teenager there. I think maybe one college person. Most of

them were about my age, which is some would say

middle age, not to my face, but some would say

middle age. A few of them were in their seventies,

sitting this far from each other on the phone, and

we were talking like right there. We're like, something's off,

this is not good, and we're.

People were missing out on what's really important. What's really important.

The person right in front of us, that's what's really important.

Now, think about going to waiting rooms fifteen or twenty

years ago, if you can remember, do you remember back

in the day, we would go to the you know, mechanic,

or we would go to the dentist's office or the

doctor's office, and we're in a waiting room.

For you know, a half hour or so.

They're late, and so we're hanging out, and what did

you do with the other people.

In the room.

You started to talk, You started to talk to people.

Some of the most fascinating conversations I've ever had was

talking to somebody and saying, what are you not? Not

at the doctor's office, but maybe at the mechanic, what

are you here for? And by the end of the

conversation you realize you both know five of the same people,

and it's a great conversation.

Now here's what's interesting.

A couple weeks ago, I was at a doctor's office

and there was about six or seven of us in

his room, and guess whateverybody was doing?

Not even looking around on the phone. I've thought about this.

I thought fifteen or twenty years ago, if I would

have been in a room with seven eight people, especially

if someone just sitting a couple of chairs away from me,

if I did not at least say hide to them

and talked to them, that would have been considered what rude. Now,

if I try to talk to somebody who's on their screen,

that would be considered rude.

Think about how we have.

Switched things up just in the last fifteen years. We've

switched around what's rude. Something is deeply off in.

Our culture, and it's a cultural drift.

We've not lost frocks, we've lost presents, we've not lost time,

We've lost interaction. And by the way, this is not

only a cultural drift, but is it's a part of

our spiritual formation. This is impacting the church and those

who follow Christ in significant ways.

Scripture warns us.

It tells us, do not fall into the patterns of

this world. Let's look at what Paul says here in Romans.

Paul says, do not conform to the pattern of this world,

but be what transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So don't be conformed by the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Growing up,

my family had a ceramic business. Let me tell you

about this ceramic business.

Each mold that we have, go ahead, throw up this

picture of molds. We had hundreds of molds.

Each mold on the inside had a specific design. If

you wanted a Christmas tree, you found the Christmas tree

mold or liquid clay into it, and guess what came

out a few days later after it dried a Christmas tree.

If you wanted a Santa on top.

Of the roof, you poured it into that mold, and

guess what a few days later you have Santa.

All right.

If you wanted a haunted house or a Dickens village,

you poured it into that specific mold. A few days later,

guess what you had that specific design. Now, when you

opened up the mold, you didn't just get something random. No, No,

you got exactly what the mold was designed to produce.

And this is the picture that Paul's given us when

he says do not conform. In the Greek, it literally

means to be pressed into a pattern, to be shaped

from the outside, to be molded from the outside.

And if you're not intentional, your life.

Is gonna be molded to the design of this world.

And this world.

Wants to mold you the way you think, the way

you treat people, the way you think success looks like,

what's to mold you? The way you handle stress, conflict, relationships.

Paul says, hey, don't conform. Don't let the world mold

you into its patterns. Instead, be transformed.

Now, this word transform means something completely different. It means

to change from the inside out, not shape from the

pressure from the outside, but renewed by the power of

God from the inside.

So here's the truth.

There's only two directions your life can go. You're either

being formed, molded or pressed into by the world, or

you're being transformed by Christ. There's no neutral. Here's the

thing Church. If you don't choose what shapes you or

mold you, the world's gonna choose for you. And when

it comes to relationships, connection, community, the world has shaping

us into its own direction, not toward deeper relationshis, but isolation,

not towards the presence, but distraction, towards real conversations, but

towards screens.

So with that in mind. Here's what we're gonna do today.

Here's the big, big idea for the rest of the

time we have today. You need to understand this church.

You were not created to do life alone. You were

created for.

A God honoring community.

I want to say that again. You were not created

to do life alone. You were created for God honoring community.

Here's what we're gonna do at Church of the Crossing.

We're gonna draw a line in the sand and we're

gonna say, you know what, We're not gonna be like

the rest of this world. We're gonna do life differently.

We're gonna do community differently, and we're not gonna drift

like our culture. We're gonna be shaped, transformed by Jesus Christ.

And that means that we're gonna do relationships around here differently.

At Church of the Crossing again, we're not gonna drift

by culture. Are gonna be shaped by Christ. Here's what

we do every week. We open up God's Word and we.

Talk about it honestly.

And then what do I do at the end of

the message. I say, once you take some time and

I want you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit

to speak to you and what we're doing is we're

asking the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.

And God's word is very clear. We were created for community.

Not isolation, not distraction, not surface level connection, and we

need to begin to recover what's been lost.

We have to push back against.

Culture, and we need to reclaim the purposes of Christ

become a church that's real, authentic. And so as we

draw the line in the sand today, here's what I'm

gonna do. I'm gonna talk about three things quickly, okay,

And the very first thing you need to know is

you dive deeper into community here.

I don't care who you are.

You can come as you are. You can come as

you are.

See, one of the biggest lives people believe is that,

you know, I gotta get my life together before I belong.

I need to fix some things first. I need to

clean up my life before I dive deep into community.

And let me just say this.

Very clearly, that is a lie from Satan, Okay, that

is not from God. And at the Church of Crossing,

we reject that you have to have it all together.

You don't have to clean yourself up here to belong.

You're welcome to come as you are. But let me

tell you something. But you're gonna walk with us as

we become more like Christ. Now, let's actually look at

how Jesus treated someone who didn't have it all together

all right.

In chapter nineteen of.

The Booklut we meet a man named Zachius, and it

says Jesus entered Jericho and he was passing through and

there was a they're a man by the name of Zachius.

He was a chief tax collector. He was wealthy. Okay.

In other words, how did you become wealthy? You're a

chief tax collector.

You you stole from people, You bully people, you extorted people,

you rob people. Because Rome has to have this amount

of money. So for you to become wealthy, you were

a thug.

Okay.

You stole from people, You intimidated people, think mob.

Okay, this guy's like mafia level. Okay.

So Jesus goes to the mafia member of that community

and this man who wanted to see who Jesus was.

But because he was sure, you cannot see over the crowd,

so he ran ahead and climb up a sycamore fig

tree to see Jesus. It was coming that way. And

so again this is a type of person that other

people void. And it says when Jesus reached the spot,

he looked up and says, that key has come down immediately,

I must stay at your house today, so that Keius

came down at once and welcome him.

Glad it out.

Now.

I'm gonna tell you something.

When I used to read this scripture as a young child,

and I know this thought that I had all the time.

It is from my own upbringing. You know how we

have our own little junk.

In our head.

My family was a type of family that if someone

was coming over, it almost become like World War three

preparation to clean the house.

It was insane.

We had to get our house into a situation so

that when you came over to our house you can

see how we never actually live.

That was a part of my upbringing. That was the

way it was. And let's be honest.

If Jesus came here today and was in our parking

lot with his disciples, and he came up to maybe

you and your spouse and said, hey, guess what, I'm

coming to your house today and.

Me and my disciples were going to hang out this afternoon.

What would you do a lot of us. I think

there's a lot of us in here.

One of the spouses would go over to the other

spouse and be like, why don't you show Jesus around

the church building for a little while, Show him the

neighborhood market, show him the haverstick, tell them what old

guys are dealing around here. Won't you ride with Jesus

so he doesn't get lost. I'm going to go ahead

and go home and get the house ready.

And all the way home, you're.

Gonna be sitting because you're speeding going through every red

light and you're cussing anybody gets in your way. Oh,

just so the house is ready for Jesus. See, for

some reason, we believe.

That we got to have ourselves clean up for Jesus.

But even not only for Jesus, but we feel like

we've got to have our act cleaned up for other people.

Let me tell you, here's what happens. When people just

show up as they are, they show up in honesty

and sincerity. They're allowing the opportunity for actual transformation to happen.

At our church, we have the ministry celebrate recovery, and

there's a lot of transformation happened let me tell you something.

The people at Celebrate Recovery, they're the bravest people in

our church. They hide nothing. They come in just as

they are, and they're saying, here's what's going on in

my life. I need help. They humble themselves. That's why

there's so much transformation happening over there. Recently, we just

baptized three people from Celebrate Recovery.

Just last week.

You heard in our baptism service one man who's not

a part of Celeburry Recovery, but just started going to our.

Church several months ago.

One of the greatest testimonies started coming here several months ago.

He just came as he was, got into community here.

And if you would have heard his testimony last week,

where did his journey to Christ begin with an attempted suicide?

And then he came to church not trying to put

on airs, but he came to be transformed and Christ.

Has done an amazing work in his life. Amen.

Amen, I mean again, come as you are. We are

not a country club here. Okay, We're not.

The cool church. We're never going to be the cool church.

We're just a group of people from all over the place.

Apparently that God has brought together to do something big

in our area. So come as you are, and when

you come as you are, transformation happens out of all

the people in the crowd. Jesus said to that Chius,

I'm coming to your house today, not after you fix

your life's that Chius, Not after you clean up your behavior,

but right now, and then something incredible happens.

Let's look.

Zachias stood up and said to the Lord.

Look, Lord here and now, I give.

You half of my possessions to the poor. And if

I've cheated anybody out of anything which.

He has, I will pay back four.

Times the amount of money.

For a wealthy person to give away their wealth when

their whole life has been built on gaining wealth. That,

my friend, is true transformation.

And here's what I love.

Jesus didn't demand change first, his presence produced change.

And see that's what God honoring community does.

It doesn't require perfection, it invites honesty. Now, you come

as you are, but you're not gonna stay that way.

Okay.

So as we continue to draw the line in the

sand around here and say we're gonna do things differently,

we're gonna have a different culture around here, here's what

the second the second thing I want you to know today,

and here's what I'm asking you as a community to

make a commitment to today and being very sincere, because I

believe God has called us to be a different kind

of church. So we almost make this commitment that no

one who was in our community here stands alone. No

one stands alone at the church at the crossing. See

some of you, you're you're carrying things right now that

you were never meant to carry by yourself.

Stress, fear, anxiety, pressure.

And you look like you got it all together from

the outside, but you know on the inside you're messed up.

And Scripture, by the way, speaks directly to this. And

now now listen to my friends. The person I'm not

ready to read you is a two way verse. Okay,

it's a verse for those who need help, and it's

a verse for those who can give help. And we're all,

depending on the day, on one side or the other

of that verse. Galatians sixty two says carry each other's burdens,

and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

A law of Christ is want to love one another.

If you want to love one another, you will carry

each other's burden. Now that Greek word for burden, it

actually means a weight that is too heavy for one

person to carry on their own. So we're supposed to

help people who are overwhelmed by the weight of this life.

I normally don't do object lessons like this, but I

want to invite a couple people out. This is a pastor,

Andrew and CJ. And what we got here is a

fifty pound weight. Okay, this is heavy. Okay, Andrew, show

them how heavy it is.

Lift it up over your head. That's not over your head.

You got to write here, you got the first level

hair and so, but it's heavy. Look at him switching hands,

say pay attention, keep it in one hand. When Andrew

admitted earlier that he's a little weak, he quit his

gym recently.

They didn't have enough mirrors and but but this is heavy,

right now. What if I told you that.

You I needed you to hold that just like that

all the way through my sermon, would you be able

to do it?

No? No, no, no no all right.

Now, what if CJ came along and when they sayd

CJ is gonna help this service? I looked at CJ

and I said you, and he says, you would be

surprised how strong I am. I bet I would be

now together, Could you hold this throughout my rest of

my sermon? Could you hold it out even if Andrew

was preaching and the sermon was that much longer. But

the point is that two are better than one. Andrew

couldn't carry the burden by himself, but with someone else helps,

and then if it became too much for you guys,

someone else can come along.

And that's good. Thank you, guys. Give them a big hand.

And let me tell you how this just actually happened.

A couple well, a few weeks ago, I was getting

ready to go to celebrate recovery.

They were having her one year anniversary.

And I threw my back out and I was in

severe pain for several days. And I called Andrew up

and said, I can't do anything. I need you to

do everything I was supposed to do this week. And

so between Andrew and Michael and Tim, they took all

of my responsibilities. They carried a weight when I could

not carry it.

That's fellowship, that's.

Unity, and we need each other and that's what that

scripture talks about, that that we're not made to carry

this weight of our burdens on our own. It's meant

to be shared by others. Now, it doesn't mean that

they're going to fix everything. No, no, no, to carry

each other's burdens. It doesn't mean you fix everything. It

means you refuse to let someone carry it alone. The

people that Paul wrote this letter to they knew all

about deep community. Matter of fact, even today, the Jewish

community understands that they have a thing called sitting shiva.

Shiva means seven for seven days. When someone's life is

blown up and they've lost someone close to them, their

friends and relatives come around and they they sit shiva

with them.

Now here's what's interesting.

When you walk into the house, you will notice that

the mirrors are all covered up. It's not because I'm

silly superstition, but it's the mirrors are covered up because

during the time that you're mourning, who cares what you

look like.

It doesn't matter. You're not there to have it all together.

Matter of fact, a lot of times people sit on

the floor because it represents the.

Heavy weight that they're bearing.

People cook food for them because a family doesn't cook.

And another interesting thing is this that they actually don't

speak until the person who is mourning speaks.

They don't rush them.

They carry the weight with them and they don't rush

people through their pain.

And I think about this, how different our culture is today.

Someone's hurting, we send the text praying for you. Then

we move on, and that's good. Please send those texts.

But we just move on.

So quickly from other people's pain, or we try to

fix people's pain with words when they really need presents.

I can't across this.

I don't know how I became friends with this person

like ten or fifteen years ago. But you know how

you become friends with somebody that you don't even know

because of a friend of a friend of a friend, and.

Somehow you got connected.

So I've been connected to this guy, don't know his

teenage son died unexpectedly a few months ago, and he's

really going through some stuff. And so he posted this

on Facebook a few days ago. He said, if you're

a guy and you're struggling right now, just remember nobody

cares and it does get worse. Top comment the very top,

make sure to seek a counselor. People started giving him advice. Really,

he needed somebody take him to the Reds game. He

needed somebody to come over.

And grow out.

He needed someone to just come over and watch some

dumb eighties movies with him. He need at presents. You see,

we've forgotten this. Sometimes the greatest active love is not

what we say to other people, but it's the fact

that we stay with other people. And we'll say it again,

the greatest active love is not that we it's not

what we say to someone, but it's that we stay

with someone. And see the people during Jesus time, when

someone was morning, they didn't show up to solve the pain,

they showed.

Up to share it.

And let me tell you, Church, it's time for us

to regain this type of love and community.

See God honor.

Community closes that gap and it moves is from this

surface level to real deep connection. When people know you

and they walk with you and they help you carry

the weight and let you.

Know you are not alone.

We gotta draw a line and say in and say

all right, no one stands alone at the Church of

the Crossing. That's the type of community that we're aiming for.

Number three, last point today, as we close down all right,

as we draw a line in the sand, and as

we dive into deep community.

For those of you who haven't jumped into deep community.

I want to give you a warning today. If you

do this, everything's going to change. See when you step

into real christ inner community, everything begins to change. Your

faith grows, your perspective shifts.

Your strength, it increases.

And this is exactly what we see happening in the

early Church. Think about this small little group that can.

Meet one home.

Now represents a billion and a half people. But it

started because of the way they lived out their faith.

Let's look at this. They devoted themselves to the apostles,

teaching and to hang it out. They dinner together, they

prayed together.

Everyone was filled because God was doing miracles among them.

All the believers were together, they had everything in common.

Some even sold their property possessions to give to anyone

who had a need.

Because people came to Christ, a lot of them lost

their jobs. See, a lot of them were involved in

the family business and they were ostracized by their family

for coming to Christ.

So they lost their income.

So the church came together and said, oh, man, just

because you're following Christ, you lost your income. We're gonna

share with you. It's a different type of community. By

the way the community around them, they noticed that they're

living differently. And it says every day they hung out,

they had church, they ate at each other's homes. They

were glad, they had joy from sincere hearts praising God,

and they were enjoying the favor of all the people.

Then, guess what it says.

And as a result of this, the Lord brought people

to them and transformed their lives. Daily they were together,

they shared life, they shared meals, they prayed together, they

supported one another, they did men together.

They shared each other's burdens. And as a result, what

did God do? God did amazing things among them.

When those people went deep into ministry and life together,

everyone noticed around them, Hey, God brought other people to

join them, transforming this community.

Here's the thing.

They were not just attending something, they were belonging to something.

Here's what they understood.

Because I belonged to Christ, I also belong to you.

Look around the room right now. You belong to Christ,

but you also belong to each other. But in order

for us to fulfill the calling and the picture that

Christ has called us to as this church, a lot

of those are gonna have to take a step deeper

into community, because this type of community is the type

of community that changes everything. All Right, as we close

up this series, I got three challenges for you. Okay,

to those of you who are already in some type

of group, a small group of Sunday group, I want

you to continue to help create a culture of community

in your group.

Okay, and and and and groups.

We need to have this conversation here in the next

week or two. How can we dive deeper in community

with each other? Number two, If you're not connected to

a group here, then your next step is simple.

Join a group.

You can fill out a communicator card that's right in

front of you and drop an offering basket, or you

could go out to the connect desk and see Tim

Lucas after the service.

He will help you.

And here's something to everybody, whoever you are, come as

you are, because we're going to be a genuine community.

We're not a country club or a people that God

has brought together to change his community.

Together. Now, as I close today, a lot of you

know this.

Past year.

Has been life changing for my family. Caitlet's start going

to Anderson and right before she went to Anderson.

Oh, I was so nervous.

I was afraid that, you know, she would sit alone

and she would be awkward, and.

I was just, you know, being a dad.

The first day of school at Anderson, a girl from

our church recognized her and didn't just go hi and

walk away. She invited her into her friend group, shared

her friend group with her, and then some young adults

at our church invited her to the young adult group,

made a space for her.

And here's what started to happen.

She experienced community before she experienced Christ. She was loved

by people before she loved Christ. She was surrounded before

she surrendered. And as she studied the life of Christ,

here's what she's learning all about Jesus. She was experiencing

him through his people over that community. Letter to Christ. Now,

let me tell you, I be honest. He has a pastor.

I already love this church.

But when I think about the young adult who loved

my daughter into the Kingdom, I don't have words that

are accurate they can express how deeply joyful I am. People,

you got to dive in a deeper community. Church of

the Crossing. I don't want us to be a church

full of the tenders. I want us to be a

community together.

And here's the thing. I've seen it work firsthand. Community works.

It's not a program, it's not a strategy.

It's actually God's design for you and for me, and

he knows what he's doing. Thursday, I was talking to

our youth pastor and he was saying, hey, you're ready

for tonight the first service on Thursday night, and go, yeah,

I'm actually pretty excited.

I love what we're talking about. And I said, you know,

I said, everybody I've.

Ever seen the deeply into community their life changed. I said,

I don't know anybody who dove deeply into community and

didn't come away so much more joyful. And he looked

at me and goes, are you going to say that?

And I said I am now. And so there it

is written in ink at the end of the message.

It's time to take a step over that line in

the sand and dive into deep community.

Here's what we're going to do. As we close up,

I'm going.

To ask you, as you think about the last three

weeks of this series and you think about screens, connections, relationships,

some of you today needs to be the day that you,

even though you might be an introvert, or might be

a person who feels like your life's a little too

messed up. Today, I want you to ask the Lord, Lord,

are you calling me into deeper community? And I want

you to make a commitment today in your prayer time

to take a step into deeper community.

Maybe the screen thing.

Is just an addiction for your life, and you need

to ask God to speak to you and you need

to make some commitments to Lord. Maybe some of you

are still addicted to pornography and our congregation. I know

there are people addicted to pornography and our congregation, and

we need to.

Lay that down.

That screen is destroying your life and your relationship with Christ.

And so here's the thing.

I'm not the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is here,

and let's just take a few moments now and let's

go before the Lord and say here, I am Lord.

Thinking about what we've talked about the last couple of weeks.

What do you want me to do? Let's pray

No