Community in Common | Fierce Pathways

Hey, what up?

It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

How many of you, when I say Simon and Garfunkel, know who I'm talking about?

Hi, okay, alright, so you might know the songs.

Cecilia, you're Breaking my Heart, okay, or maybe Like a Bridge Over Troubled Waters, okay.

So Simon and Garfunkel you probably know some of them, and even if you've seen the movie Trolls recently, there's a couple of their songs in there.

So Simon and Garfunkel are awesome.

I love them a lot.

That was kind of the songs of my high school, which is weird because I'm not really that old, but I'm an old soul.

So I love Simon and Garfunkel.

But before there was Simon and Garfunkel, what you may not know is there was Greenberg and Garfunkel.

You're going, erica, I'm looking that up on Spotify.

I do not see Greenberg and Garfunkel.

Well, you're right, because they're not a band.

They were buddies.

So in university, these two that's Art Garfunkel, and I always remember his name because his hair's a little funky.

So this is Art Garfunkel and then that's Sandy Greenberg.

While they were at university together they became really good buddies.

They did all different things together and all of a sudden Sandy's eyesight.

It started to deteriorate.

He started to have trouble seeing and as time went by he actually began to go blind.

He had this kind of sudden, on-site, on-set blindness.

And it was crazy.

And Sandy, in the upset, and in the terror and the afraidness and the worry and the loneliness, he just was like I can't do this anymore.

He gave up.

He secluded himself, he went and lived with his parents in Buffalo and he just gave up.

Well, one day his buddy, art, was determined to not let him go through life alone.

And so Art shows up at Sandy's parents' house and says, buddy, come on, you've got to come back to school, there's more for you.

You can't just stay here in your house.

It doesn't matter if you're blind, you can do a lot of things still.

And so, by Art's encouragement, sandy and Art go back to school and Art says, like Sandy, come with me, I'm going to be your hands and your feet, I'm going to be your eyes, walk with me.

And he started to refer to himself.

Art did as darkness as an opportunity to be, show empathy with Sandy and what he was going through.

And he would say darkness is going to read to you now, come with me.

And so one day Art's like you're ready, let's go.

We're going to take the train, we're going to go from Grand Central Station to 116th.

Come with me, sandy, let's do it.

So Sandy, begrudgingly, is like dude, I'm blind.

Subway, that's difficult.

But he goes with him.

And at one moment they get down ready to get onto the train and Art goes.

Oh, I'm so sorry, dude, I totally forgot.

I'm going to go Leave Sandy stranded.

See here, sandy.

He doesn't know how to navigate the subway system by himself.

He's blind.

How does he do this?

He fumbles around.

He actually trips and gashes his knee.

He's left alone and then eventually he finds himself.

He actually gets on the train he's supposed to get to.

He gets to the station he's supposed to get to and he's starting to get a little more confidence.

He bumps into somebody and he hears the familiar voice.

It's Art.

He was there the whole time but he stood back because he wanted Sandy to have an opportunity to gain some confidence, to realize that, even though your circumstances are really hard, there's life on the other side.

Sandy said that moment was the spark that caused me to live a completely different life, without fear, without doubt.

For that I am tremendously grateful to my friend.

How many of you have been in seasons and maybe you're in one right now where life threw you a curveball, something you did not expect.

Like Carla mentioned, this young woman who passed away suddenly.

Maybe it's something like that.

It's the loss of someone dear to you.

Maybe it's the loss of a friendship.

Maybe you were at work and your boss got a new job and all of a sudden you're like, okay, my whole company's going to look different.

I'm not sure about this.

Maybe your friend group shifted and you're just not sure what's next.

Maybe there's just all kinds of hard that has been happening and you could be one of two people.

You could either walk away and seclude yourself, like Sandy, and just I don't know.

I'm going to retreat from the world.

I can't do this anymore.

This is too hard.

I don't even know how to take my next step.

Like I can't even breathe, let alone eat, let alone live and move.

Have you ever been there?

Or you could take the other paths and you could lean in to the heart.

You could lean in and maybe get some people around you, just like Art did for Sandy.

He came alongside him and was like let's go together.

I know that you can't do this alone, so let's do it together.

What's your tendency?

If you would stop and think about it for a second.

When the stink hits the fan, do you run away or do you lean in?

I'm going to take a group of my gals and I am going through the best more study on Philippians right now, and she talks about fellowship.

She talks about the Greek word ecolosia, and it's the coming together of the body of Christ to build each other up.

And she says fellowship is no mere luxury to the body of Christ.

It is vital to each community of faith and to each believer's individual growth and the faith that we share.

Really, christians were by no means insuquested and closeted communities, no, but they were members who were closely knitted together like bones and sinews of a body.

Beth Moore knows it and I think we all know it when we're in our healthiest state, we're among other people who are going to encourage us, who are going to spur us on, who are going to push us forward into the things that we need to do.

Y'all, we need each other as much as especially Americans were like nope, I'm on my own, bro, I know what I'm doing, you do you, boo, and I'm going to keep going here.

We instead need to stop trying to be islands and we need to be working together, ecolosia, working together, the fellowship in community.

Did you know, in the creation story, after God created everything, after every day, he was like that's good, I like that, that's good.

Oh, yeah, let's keep going.

Oh, that's good.

And then he creates Adam and he thinks Adam's good.

But then you know what he says this is not good for man to be alone and he created a help meet for him, a helper, somebody to come alongside of him to encourage him, to push him forward, to be a helper and a friend to him.

Y'all we need each other.

So our bottom line today is the way to a healthy future is by running toward community.

You cannot do it on your own.

Oh, I messed up that slide y'all.

It says through community, don't run through community, run to it, get toward it.

All right, all right.

So here we go.

We're going to take a little case study today on two women.

Okay, we're going to look at what happened in their lives and how these seemingly disconnected people ended up really coming together to create super deep community.

So let's take a drink of water, okay, first.

First people we're gonna jump into Luke one and I could read you all of that, but then we'd be here for a really long time.

So I'm just gonna summarize.

I think most of you know this story because generally people read Luke at, you know, at Christmas, so Luke one, we've got this man named Zechariah.

Zechariah is a priest and he's been serving the Lord faithfully and loving the Lord faithfully and not having children.

And it says he's well along in years now and so he's probably around 70 and he goes to work that day and by lot.

He's supposed to go into the Holy of Holies, which is the very inner parts of the sanctuary, and he's supposed to offer incense, which is supposed to be like the prayers of the saints.

And so he's in there and y'all listen, the, the priests would go in there and they were the only one.

You had to go through all his rituals to be able to get into the Holy of Holies, but it was always like Empty.

I mean, god's presence resided there but like you were the only body in there, except this time Zechariah goes in and there's somebody else Like whoa, no one's supposed to be in here.

I'm the only one I did the purification rituals.

Nobody else is supposed to be here except it's an angel and the angel Gabriel talks to Zechariah and he's like, hey, I know you've been looking forward to this, you're gonna have a baby.

And Zechariah is like how?

And the angels like, well, bro, since you doubted me, because come on now, like I'm an angel, I'm nobody else is in here, I'm an angel.

If God says we're gonna do it, like, don't be doubting this, I'm gonna close your mouth.

It's no.

Zechariah is actually made mute, but he's supposed to have a baby and he comes out of this thing and he can't talk, he can't communicate.

Well then the Bible says he goes home and he talks to his wife and in Luke 1, 24, it says after this, his wife, elizabeth, became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

Hey, look, god knows what he's doing.

Elizabeth became pregnant y'all again.

She's probably 60, she's probably well past the time of age of birthing children.

But here she is, unexpected favor, unexpected blessing, but also, um, I'm like 60 something.

How can I have a baby?

Is my body gonna hold up like this?

Am I gonna be able to birth this baby and live?

Is everybody around me gonna think maybe it's not?

Zechariah's like what in the world?

I mean, could you imagine all of the questions that she's having, all of the doubts that she's having, it kind of makes sense that she wanted to go into seclusion, because she's like this isn't normal, but she goes into seclusion.

But then here's what she says the Lord has done this for me in these days.

He's shown his favor and taken away my disgrace from among the people.

So Elizabeth knows, okay, god must have done this, because there's no other way that this could have happened.

But she's here, seemingly Crazy circumstances.

Right, then let me move forward and we get this other woman.

Except now the angel comes directly to the bedroom of Probably about a 14 year old girl.

And now can you imagine you're in your room and all of a sudden, this like shining Beautiful thing is in front of you.

Again, the angel Gabriel tells her you're gonna have a baby, it's gonna come.

God on high is going to come and go over you and you're going to become pregnant.

And it gives her all these other beautiful saying Promises and he's gonna be the son of the most high.

And Mary's like, oh, okay, how will this be?

And her, where she's coming from, is a humble heart, ready to listen to what God's asks saying to her.

And so he speaks over her.

Luke 1 30 forces.

How will this be?

Mary, asks the angel, since I'm a virgin.

Well, the angel answers the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you, so the Holy one to be born will be called the son of God.

Hey, listen up.

Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age and she, who is said to be barren, is now in her sixth month.

For nothing is impossible with God.

Let us say that again.

For nothing is impossible with God.

So then she replies well, I am the Lord servant.

May it be to me as you have said.

Then the angel left her, so you've got Mary now.

Now imagine again You're a 14 year old, you're betrothed to somebody.

You really shouldn't be pregnant and we don't know exactly.

She's 14, but she's, she's young.

Y'all.

They got married really young there, okay, in this Bible time.

So she's okay, I'm gonna be pregnant.

Hold up, are they gonna think that I, what?

What are people gonna think?

And and, and?

How am I gonna tell Joseph and and is the marriage can be over?

And, oh my gosh, if the marriage is over, like and they find out, are they gonna think that I was unfaithful and I could be stoned and I could be set out and I could be disgraced and ha, mary's freaking out a little bit, I would be freaking out a little bit.

But you know what?

These two different women, two completely different stages of life right, we've got someone in their 60s plus and we've got someone in their teens God brought them together and gave them each other and while that's great ultimately because we know the end of the story both of these women are in these unforeseen circumstances that could cause all kinds of freaking out, right, let's be honest, all kinds of freaking out.

There's an author who I absolutely adore.

Her name is Sophie Hudson.

She has this book called Giddy Up, eunice and women.

It's specifically for women, so if you want it, it's one of my favorite all time books.

But she pulls out these three groups of women and how God brought them together, and in this she talks about Mary and Elizabeth specifically.

She says look at how the Lord lined up they're seemingly different paths and see that, despite the fact that they were on drastically different seasons of life, they were both on the verge of callings that would alter the course of human history.

God gave these two women each other and it was only by the insight of God that they knew they had each other.

Did you remember that the angel actually highlighted Elizabeth to Mary?

These women are both now responding to life changing news, so let's dive in and see how they respond.

Pick it up in Luke 1.39 through 43.

At that time, mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill called Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

Okay, so this girl, god gave her the understanding.

Okay, elizabeth is pregnant.

I should go to Elizabeth.

Like I need help.

I don't know what to do.

I should go to somebody who knows better.

And so she hurries right Now.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped within her womb.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and, in a loud voice, exclaimed bless her, you alone, women, and bless this child.

You will bear.

But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed is she.

That who believed.

What the Lord has said to her will be accomplished Right off the bat.

These two women, their paths converge and they go and walk together through life.

So we're gonna look together at two different people in community, two different backgrounds coming together, and we're gonna look at Mary, who is someone who wants to lean into learning, and then we're gonna look at Elizabeth, and she's someone who shares her sages.

Now, I already told you that I'm an old soul and so words like sages are probably very foreign to most people, but you know what it means really, if you're a sage like you know what you're talking about.

Right, you've been through some things.

You can share what you've learned.

So sages, wisdom, insight, experience, learning that's what that is.

We're gonna look at these two different groups of people and see what we can learn from and how we can be leaning into learning or sharing our sages Number one.

So these two people Mary, leaning into learning, she runs to help.

She knows where her help is gonna be.

She knows that Elizabeth's gotta know some things.

I mean she's in her sixth month like she knows what she's doing right, so Mary runs toward her.

I love, again, that God highlights to Mary that Elizabeth's pregnant too.

If we would slow down, I believe the Lord would highlight to us people that are maybe down the road a little bit, who we could go to and ask for insight and help.

God gave her someone who she'd already had and established relationship with.

Elizabeth was her cousin.

She just had to show up, right?

God gave her somebody who was in a similar situation, even if they weren't in the similar life stage.

I mean, I don't know about you, but maybe you put a 70-year-old and a 15-year-old in the same room, they could maybe talk about some things, but those are very different life stages.

Right, it would take a lot of intentionality to speak to each other, but I believe y'all we need that exact thing and I believe that the Lord models for us.

We need to be doing that for each other.

So, y'all people who are 50-something-plus and feeling like I don't know where I fit, you fit we need you.

As someone who's in their mid to late 30s, I need you, please, please, pour into that extra generation.

And y'all teens, young adults you need the people who have gone a little ways, run toward learning.

Notice what Mary didn't do.

Mary didn't, when she was talking to the angel, ask for a full roadmap.

Okay, what's next?

And I need this and this and this and this.

And okay, so here's my life plan.

How do I need to rearrange this?

Like that's not what I planned and I thought I was gonna go to school first and I thought I was gonna do this first and I thought I was gonna, you know, like, at least be married for two years before we had a baby.

Like what in the world?

She didn't pour a bottle of wine.

She didn't go out to the bar.

She didn't escape through technology or a book or just running away.

No, mary, instead she leaned in.

It's sometimes really easy to want to just escape right when we are going through something hard or tempted to just nope, don't wanna think about that, don't wanna process that, I don't wanna go through that right now.

So I'm just gonna, just gonna not think about it.

Maybe I'm gonna work 60 hour weeks so that I just don't even have time to think about it.

Maybe I'm gonna just keep myself busy and cleaning every nook and cranny like Monica from Friends.

Maybe I'm going to drink and drink and drink.

But our souls are wanting closeness with the Lord and when we try to escape, we're never gonna grow.

So lean in, go forward, run to help.

And I love how Elizabeth meets her in this and she points out the Lord, did you see that?

Mary shows up and Elizabeth, like the Holy Spirit comes over her and she's like, oh my goodness, you're gonna have the Messiah.

There's a baby in your belly and my baby just jumped because he heard your voice, like I see the Lord is doing something in you and bless you.

She starts to pour out blessing over Mary because she knows like this is a hard situation you're coming into, but God is good and you're blessed if you believe what the Lord says and it will be accomplished if you just trust Him.

She instantly starts to speak who God is over her young cousin and reminds her this is not the end.

You can keep going.

This is actually a good thing, y'all.

We need to jump in a little bit more with praise and with calling out the thing that God's going to do.

We need to absolutely.

We'll get to this next, but we absolutely need to be leaning in and speaking out who God is over these people, over the people in our lives.

I love because Elizabeth has had a relationship with God.

She's the priest's wife.

She's got to know some things about who God is and how faithful he's been.

She calls out who God is and she honors God, and so when she sees and notices the presence of God and somebody else.

She speaks it out loud how are you doing?

And noticing the gifts and the joys and the abilities of other people and then calling it out?

We need to be people who are bold and speaking out blessing and encouragement over each other.

Now also notice what Elizabeth didn't do.

Mary spill the tea.

What is Joseph going to do?

No, you can't come in.

My house is a mess, it's not ready for guests.

No, you can't be in here.

You think you've got it bad?

Well, look at me I'm 60 and pregnant.

Who do you think you are?

You're some young thing, you'll figure it out.

She also didn't begrudge Mary for being pregnant, when it was the very thing that she'd longed for for decades.

Elizabeth met her right where she was at, and she poured out praise.

Let's be people who do that too.

Let's keep going, all right.

So, those who are in a Mary season, you need to run to help.

Those who are in Elizabeth season, you need to point out the Lord.

And then next, mary she's got to ponder and praise and Elizabeth gets to share her experience.

Now, mary is overcome with praise in this, so she just absorbs what Elizabeth just said.

Blessed are you who believes that which the Lord has spoken.

And Mary, she has this moment and I can't read the whole thing, but it's called the Magnificat and it's just like Out of her mouth just pours out praise.

She says things like my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices.

And God, my savior.

He's been mindful of the humble, he knows me, he knows what I've been going through.

The mighty one has done great things.

He's filled the hungry with good things.

Out of Mary's mouth pours praise.

Y'all we need to praise, we need to lift our eyes.

When you're in the middle of the hard thing, it is really, really hard.

I know, listen, I am in every circumstance, really, really tempted to just God.

What are you doing?

And I think there's place for that and I think we absolutely need to do that.

But don't get stuck in the trap of just the oh, this is so hard, what are you doing?

Turn your mouth to praise, because God is good, he is magnificent, he has done great things for you.

We need to turn to praise, just like when Elizabeth pointed out the Lord in her.

It caused her praise to rise up.

Can I tell you the inverse is also true when we speak death into other people or when we just join them in their pity party, it causes more spiraling Y'all.

We need to be building each other up, pointing each other's eyes toward God, who is on high and magnificent.

Later on in the story in Luke 2.19, it says but Mary treasured all of these things and pondered them in her heart.

Mary slowed down to realize, yeah, the God that I've learned about all my life is in control and I don't need to post all over social media and I don't need to, like go traipsing through the city and telling everybody, oh, god's been good to me and I can, like, I can ponder this in my own heart.

I can remember the sovereignty of God, I can remember his faithfulness.

Okay, so that's Mary.

She's overcome with praise.

She's pondering these things in her heart, she's speaking out loud who God is and Elizabeth, in that she's sharing her experiences with Mary.

Without Elizabeth's pointing out God moving in her, mary wouldn't have had probably that same amount of praise coming out.

She needed to borrow somebody else's faith.

She needed to borrow from somebody else's experience to remember oh no, my God is good.

Even if these circumstances seem really, really crazy, no, god is still on the move.

These ladies, they're in two vastly different seasons.

There's so much insight that they have that Elizabeth has that Mary just doesn't have.

Yet there's this 50 year old approximately age gap.

But together there's beauty.

There's beauty when we cross those generational lines.

There is wisdom and insight to be had.

Elizabeth was able to point out the Lord in Mary's situation because she had been walking with God all her life.

She knew who God was, she knew the stories of God's faithfulness and she knew he would not stop.

Now, years ago, there was a woman who attended our church and for a while the Lord was highlighting her, just like the angel had highlighted Elizabeth to Mary, and I just one day went up to her and I was like Can I hang out with you".

She was like I would love that Her name was Vicki Balman.

She's one of the most precious women to me and I didn't know it.

I had no idea at the time, but the Lord highlighted her to me because she had some experience that I was desperately going to need in that next season.

Vicki Balman had been a caregiver to her husband for years and she had all of this insight in how to love and honor and give dignity.

She knew all these different things about insurance.

She knew all these things about, like the special straps that you need to help get somebody in and out of a bed, like she just knew these things.

And my mom had Alzheimer's and was declining greatly.

And if it weren't for Vicki's insight from her seasons of caregiving and her seasons of watching the Lord be faithful even through this really hard, I don't know that my family would have weathered and really flourished in the hardship of our season with my mom declining from Alzheimer's.

God highlighted Vicki to me and I didn't even really know why.

I just wanted to be around her and because of these very vastly different seasons of life, God knit us together through one common thread and it was beautiful.

Listen, a little encouragement.

You don't have to be eloquent.

You don't have to have a book or a blog or a website or a million followers.

You don't have to be tech savvy.

You don't have to be cool, you don't have to be put together or fancy.

You just need to be willing to share what you know, share what you've experienced.

You don't have to even have it all figured out, but you can just say here's what I've learned so far and just your little bit of experience may like move somebody forward so far on the field because they learned from you.

First, let's be people who share life together, who bear one another's burdens, who give each other an out of way.

Hey, you keep going.

This isn't it.

Let's share our hard earned wisdom.

How many of you have some hard earned wisdom?

Yes, let's share it with each other.

We need to lend each other our faith, because there's seasons that are so dark, sometimes right, where it's really easy to give up and think God can't be in this.

There's no way God could be in this, and you need somebody else to say this may not have been exactly what God had ordained for your life, but he will be good through it, he will be moving in it and he will be faithful.

So maybe you're a Mary and you need to run to help and you need to ponder and put praise on your lips even though it's dark.

Maybe you're an Elizabethan this season and you need to point out the Lord to somebody else.

You need to share your experience with somebody else.

And then next, as a Mary, maybe you just need to wait and watch, and as an Elizabeth, maybe you just need to make space for somebody else to come in.

Mary.

It says in Luke 1.56,.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

These two women, they shared life together.

Mary didn't just show up and then leave, like she actually moved in with Elizabeth.

It's pretty sweet.

Elizabeth, then, is finishing up her last trimester while Mary's just beginning her first.

They get to have that in common.

Mary gets to see oh, this is what childbirth looks like.

I know what I'm in for now.

Okay, she probably, as she's just sitting and watching this family, she's probably learning some really practical things like cooking and cleaning.

She's probably learning how to communicate as a wife.

Anybody's young, married or has been married for a long time, you know that's very vital how to communicate with your spouse.

She's probably learning now how to shop, how to manage a household, how to just be a woman Remember, she's only about 14.

She was likely present with Elizabeth when she delivered again and knowing how that's going to work, and she likely developed a love for God's word and an understanding for the Torah, the Old Testament, first five books of the Bible, because as a priest's home, like they would read that every night during dinner.

Mary didn't even realize it, but she got some on the ground training just by waiting and watching, just by being around somebody else.

I remember back in my young adult days I nannied for this family, and by nanny I mean really I just babysat a couple of times a week, but I was a very big part of their family.

They welcomed me in and instead of just showing up to babysit the mom, faith Walter some of you may know her she said come over a little bit earlier.

Like you can hang out with us, I'll make dinner, like we'll share dinner together.

And just by being in her house I watched how she spoke to her children.

I watched how she made some easy and quick meals.

As a mom, I watched how she cleaned.

I watched how she talked to her husband and honored him with her words and her encouragement and just for that I believe that set Brandon and I up for a better marriage.

Because I was just around her.

I was just waiting and watching.

Maybe you're in a merry situation and you need to just be around some people that you can just wait and watch.

The circumstances didn't change.

She was still pregnant, she was still growing in her pregnancy, but she had people who she could learn from along the way.

And maybe if you're in Elizabeth's season, you need to make some space for some of these young ones.

Maybe you need an opportunity to just have people over to be in your vicinity.

I was asking Brandon like, hey, how does this work for dudes?

Tell me, how do dudes talk and hang out and get to know?

He's like there's just always a pretense.

It's like hey, I got to fix my toilet, Can you come over and help?

So, hey, maybe that's it.

Maybe people, you, gentlemen who are a little bit farther down the road, your toilet's broken and you grab a young man and you say, hey, my toilet's broken, come on over and learn from me.

Ok, but that's a silly example, but maybe that's exactly what we need in this season that intergenerational working together, learning from each other.

Elizabeth, in this circumstance, she just uses what she got.

She didn't have a better homes and gardens, beautiful house.

I'm certain she didn't have a four course meal spread over the table.

I'm certain that she didn't have the cleanest house and in fact it was probably just dirt.

But she used what she had.

She had a space, she had some food, she had a little life experience here.

Mary make yourself comfortable with me, just come, just be here.

Again.

In that book, gideop Eunice Sophie says when the Holy Spirit in one woman recognizes the Holy Spirit in another woman, safe places become sacred spaces.

When we know we're in a sacred space, there's freedom to share our real lives.

Make space.

There's opportunities to make space.

I wasn't thinking about this earlier, but I'm just going to say it.

When I was working at Westlake and I had an office down on the first floor where the high schoolers had lunch every day, eventually my office became lunch room too and all these high schoolers would come in and it became really sacred space Because I just had an office, we just opened it up, we had lunch together and we had some pretty deep conversations and I pray that they made a big difference as time goes by, but it wasn't anything big.

Like I didn't have balloons, I didn't make a meal, like they just came in.

That's all it takes.

Just open up your space, make some space.

Our sacred spaces, they don't have to be fancy places, they just have to welcome people right where you're at.

Sometimes the most holy space is a living room with a cup of coffee or tea or just a glass of water Doesn't even need ice.

Sometimes the most influential moments in our lives think back for a moment.

They were probably just commonplace interactions, right?

Maybe it was with a coach on the field, Maybe it was with an aunt or an uncle, like just watching them make dinner.

Think about those influential moments in your life.

They probably weren't huge, but they were transformational because they were intentional and sacred space.

Use what you have, be faithful with whatever measure the Lord has given you.

Our hearts just need to be open to love whomever got his place before us, and our hands need to be open to give whatever the Lord has given us, and our ears need to be willing to receive and just listen.

One of the best questions you can ask when you're in an Elizabeth stage is what else?

Making the space for them to tell you what else?

What else is hard?

What else?

So we've got these two different people in the community.

Maybe you're in an Elizabeth season.

You've got some things to share.

Maybe you're in a Mary season and you need someone's encouragement right now.

And listen, you can be a Mary and an Elizabeth on the same day with different circumstances.

Right?

We know that you can have insight to share with somebody and also really need insight from somebody else.

Remember Garfield or a little bit of Greenberg and Garfunkel?

There we go.

Oh man these names Greenberg and Garfunkel.

Well, let's jump back into their story really quick, because years pass.

Sandy Went to school, he graduated from Columbia Like he did this successfully, and if it hadn't been for art, he probably would have never even gone to college.

And as time goes by, he graduates from Columbia.

He actually then earns graduate degrees from both Harvard and Oxford.

He's about to give up, but it because of Art's encouragement.

He kept going.

And then, while at Oxford, he gets a call from his buddy, art, and Art's like hey, friend, I've been working on this album with my buddy and we need $400.

Sandy's like $400?

Let me look at my checking account.

I have $404.

Well, art, you have been so kind to me here.

Here's the money.

He gives him the money for the album.

Simon and Garfunkel write their album, they record it, it goes out there and it flops.

It flops.

Nothing.

Waste of money, it seems.

But an entire year later, one of his songs goes number one on the charts.

Hello, darkness, my old friend.

The very phrase that Sandy used to say to Art because Art referred to himself as darkness changed the trajectory of these two men.

They came alongside each other, they helped each other when times were tough and where Art had been the Elizabeth and the mentor kind of.

In that moment he flipped and he was now the Mary.

He needed help from his friends and because they worked together and because Sandy was generous with what he had, this now very beloved group has all kinds of number one hits.

Art then said of his friendship with Sandy once I stopped in my own head and just got into his life, my real life emerged.

I became a better guy in my own eyes and began to see who I was somebody who gives to a friend.

We have an opportunity y'all to give to each other, to be a community, to be that ecclesia, the sinews and the parts, the bones that work together as a group.

And because of it we see later in Mary and Elizabeth's story y'all Elizabeth's son ends up being John the Baptist, who heralds in the coming of the Messiah, and Mary's son spoiler alert Jesus, the very Messiah that everybody was waiting for.

Because these two women came alongside each other, their lives changed the course of history.

You and I have that opportunity.

We're not going to birth the Savior, but maybe by being in community, by working together, we can bring about the presence of Christ in the lives of each other.

And as we do that, we send out the ecclesia.

We go out and we tell other people about Jesus and we bring them more confidence, just like Elizabeth speaking into Mary.

No, god's got this.

He's not done yet.

This is good.

We need each other.

We at times get to be the learner, other times get to be the sage.

Age experience, life stage coolness.

They don't limit you in sharing with someone else.

Your story of resilience and God's never-ending love could help push forward someone else into their life through a season of unsharness.

Our connections in these seasons they don't even have to have long-time proximity.

Mary and Elizabeth, they lived together for three months Now.

I'm sure they saw each other as time goes by, but sometimes in church y'all we want like will you be my mentor and you expect to meet with these people forever?

That doesn't I mean.

Sometimes that happens more often than not.

It's a season.

We get to come alongside each other and walk with each other through a hard thing, encouraging each other.

Bottom line again, the way to a healthy future is by running toward community.

Who are you today?

As we go into this next song we're going to sing I Speak Jesus over every circumstance, over everything.

That's hard, that's good, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I speak, jesus, because he is the only one who's powerful and mighty to save.

Ask the Lord, God, if I'm in a Mary season right now, highlight to me who I could speak to God.

If I'm in an Elizabeth season, show me who needs some encouragement.

Let's pray, god.

I thank you that you are so good to speak to us.

I thank you that you are so good to give us community, to give us each other, to show us we are not alone in this and there are other people who can walk with us through the beauty and through the heart, through the mountains and through the valleys.

God, would you cause us, as a people, to stand firm on your truth?

Lord, if we need to help, to seek out help, we don't want to be those people who don't have because we don't ask.

So, god, I pray that you would give some Mary's boldness today to say I need some help.

This is really hard.

I don't know how I'm going to get through this.

I need somebody else.

I need to borrow your faith.

Today I got to pray for those people who are going to be an Elizabeth.

They're going to be a sage right now, god.

I pray that they would not be afraid to step into being a voice of encouragement, lord, but that they would just be bold.

No, I've seen you move, god.

You move the mountains, and I believe we're going to do it again, and I see that God is going to do this for you too, god, I pray that we would be a people who are really leading into community, because I believe that that's where you have set us as a people and that's how You're going to move us forward.

We love you, god.

Do what only you can do.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being His witness in our generation, check out Fierce Thought Church.

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Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.

Don't give up.

Hang on to Jesus.

He won't let go of you.

Jesus loves you so much and we love you.

I hope someday we get to meet in person.

Thanks again for listening.