Developing Supernatural Community

Because I'm I'm going to change it up a little bit. Maybe I won't, I don't know. We'll decide as the spirit leads, But we're going to be in Ephesians, chapter 2. And I'm super excited about the message. We are closing off our series on Christlike community.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

We, We want to live in community the way that Christ calls us to. The first week we had a guest speaker, amazing guest speaker, a good friend. I thought he did an amazing job bringing you guys into the topic of what Christ centered or Christlike community looks like. Last week we talked about kind of the intensity with which Jesus embraced community in his time And I- I posed to you guys a question or encouraged you to ponder what it would look like for you to live in radical community, A, a type of community that is so frequent- not not frivolous, but frequent- that you almost get tired once in a while. I, I, I know it sounds crazy because we're already tired from work- Why would I get now tired with my friends and family members and church family?

Why would I get tired? The reason is, and I was reading a book yesterday and what they said in the book was this: It said: "There's something unique and supernatural about God's word through somebody else to me. He has built us so that we must have Christlike community with one another. In fact, if you don't, there's a word from God that you're missing out on". And it's a crazy thing to say, but I found it to be true in my own life.

Some of the best results that I've seen in my spiritual walk they did. They came from the Bible, in a private time. But also some of the most amazing and difficult, uncomfortable moments that helped me take a leap in the direction of my calling were through the, through the mouth of somebody else who loved me and loved God. And you've got to have that in your life, Otherwise you're going to be missing some really crucial components. And, like I said, we'll be in Ephesians, chapter 2, today.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And in Ephesians, what Paul's doing is he's doing a theological treatise. If you will, It's a very short, six chapter theological treatise to the church at Ephesus. Ephesus was a pretty big city, at least in terms of the ancient world. You would have considered it cosmopolitan if you grew up 2,000 years ago. And so there were people very similar to you and me, Yes, radically different things that they were dealing with U, but at the most fundamental level.

They had the same needs that you have, They had the same desires that you have and they struggled with the same things that you struggle with. And so the people at Ephesus receive this message from Paul. And in chapter 2, what Paul's trying to help them understand is that the Gospel- now, if you don't know the Gospel, the Gospel is the good news. That's literally what it means. Yung Leon Gospel, good news.

The good news of Jesus is that God came down to earth, dwelt among men, died on a cross and rose from the grave. That's the Gospel. That's it. It's that simple. The fact that Jesus didn't stay dead mean stay dead meant that the new covenant is established, We're forgiven of our sin And we have a basis, a supernatural basis, on which to practically walk through our lives.

And Paul's trying to help the people in Ephesus understand: hey, this is practical. This isn't just theology, though he gives a lot of good theology in Ephesians He says: but this is practical. Everything that he was speaking to them was meant to be lived out. And in chapter 2, he's talking about the, the practicality of the Gospel when it comes to our relationships with God and with one another, Christian community. He's talking about a supernatural style of community, one that's radically different than the world would have, And I want to communicate to you guys today that there is a supernatural style of community because we live in probably the most connected society or generation in human history, Don't you?

I mean, I think you have to agree with that- Did none of us before 2000 have an iPhone? It's crazy, right, like, like I, I, I, I have a hard time thinking. Pre iPhone, I, I don't even know what I did with my time. To be honest with you, It was. It was those weird days.

I was in middle school, pre iPhone and a little bit of high school. I'm aging myself, but I, I, I remember when they had the phone on the wall and you had like one or two phones in the house, and it wasn't attached. I wasn't that old It. It wasn't attached to the wall, just the little base that you would plug the phone into and then you could take the phone anywhere in your house and, people would call your house if they had a crush on you, or you would call their house if you had a crush on them, and your parents would answer at first and then you would go talk to them in the back room and maybe they'd be listening in. Maybe they wouldn't.

I still got to experience some of that life. It was a different life pre iPhone. We are so connected now. I remember the first time that I sent a text message. I was 15 years old.

I know young people in the room are like "Wow, was not even born". You were. You just don't remember, . I sent a text message on a Qualcomm phone. You remember those Qualcomm?

I know you don't. It was to a girl in middle school- no, high school- And, I was like "Check this out". She's literally texting me back And I'm like "Isn't this texting super cool". It was not new to her at all, but to me it was new. Internally, It's so cool.

And she didn't talk to me after that. It's really weird. My point is: we are in the most connected society of human history, Yet studies actually tell us that we feel more disconnected than ever in human history. I know you've heard this before. This isn't new information.

I got new information later in my sermon. But many of you probably have more friends and acquaintances than you've ever had, but you feel less close to anybody than you ever have as well. You have less deep relationships than maybe you've ever had. Maybe some of you came to church and now you're starting to embrace deep relationships for the first time, And so maybe for you it's, you're on the up and up, But for many of us it's very difficult to find close relationships. Research from the survey center of American life shows that Americans who report having zero close friends has quadrupled since 1990.

And sociologists tend to summarize this with one little phrase. They say: our relationships in the west- this is, Europe and the United States- have become increasingly thin, Increasingly thin. In other words, we in our relationships have diminished in our capacity to form depth in our conversations and activities with other people. We have relationships, but those relationships are extremely superficial and that's not what God wants for us.

But when you look at the data, it shows that superficial relationships kind of manifest themselves in three main ways or three main attributes of these communities. Superficial communities are: first, they're consumer-driven. Consumer driven, meaning people stay as long as the experience of that friendship or community meets their desires and preferences. The second aspect is they're low accountability, meaning when conflict arises in that community or, you know, there's, there's a desire or a cost to that community. People bail.

And then the third thing is these groups are identity neutral, meaning they're just groups rooted in something small or non-important that has a low cost to entry and a low barrier to exiting those groups. If you would picture the Western world like a Facebook group, think of your interaction in a Facebook group. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not saying that I'm any better on a Facebook group, but think of your interaction on a Facebook group. It's very low cost to enter. If, if they're really trying to form some sort of solid community, they'll ask you a couple questions as you join that group.

I've learned and- and I love the people who started this group and I think it's great and there are a lot of beneficial things that happen on it- The barrier to entry to the Buckeye community group on Facebook really low. I'm. I'm not saying you shouldn't be in it, I'm just saying you can tell. It's a very superficial community. I, I, I can tell- I'm not going to say anything else about that yet-, and I want to ask you a question to ponder: Is your community Now?

Hopefully, if you have community at this church, it's more than this, but I, I wouldn't put it past even our church-, is your community superficial? Is your community with friends and family members superficial? Maybe your text thread with all the boys is that superficial? Is it really substantial? Is it supernatural?

Is it? Is it rooted in something that's greater than you? Is it superficial in your life? And I, I hope to prove to you today, as if I have to prove it, I'm going to give very practical examples of how this is true. I hope to prove to you today that, for the most part, any group outside of a group built on Christ Jesus, your group, is completely superficial.

And I can promise you with 100%? U confidence that if you build your life on any of those groups that aren't rooted in Christ Jesus, you will leave this life without it. And so my sermon title today is developing supernatural community rather than, as opposed to, superficial community. Like I said, keep your Bibles open to Ephesians 2. I'm going to be jumping through it, from verse 13 all the way to verse 22.

And I'm going to hop around a little bit, because there's something I hope to communicate to you today: that Paul deeply understood, that he tried to communicate to the early church and that I desperately- and I don't say desperately as a communicating, a communication point to sound a little bit more articulate up here- I say it as truth from my soul to you- I am so desperately seeking our community at Orbit Church to be supernatural, not superficial, And you know the difference in your bones. But I'm going to give you some, some ways to identify whether it's superficial or not. First off, supernatural community is rooted in a person, not a personality. Supernatural community is rooted in a person, not a personality.

And just because I like community to be-, you know, engaging, I'm going to ask you a question, and I expect you, I hope, I want you. I can't expect this of you, I don't know you that well. I want you to answer, if you can, though: What person are we rooting our community on? In supernatural community, . I said half the room with light confidence.

Who are we rooting our community on? Come on, somebody. Jesus, . It's Jesus.

He's the author and perfector of our faith. He's the person that we build everything on. The text I'm about to give you says he's the chief cornerstone of our faith. When we look to our community in the future, we actually have to look back at Jesus to understand what we're building our community on. Many of us want to look forward to a personality type or someone who's cooler than us or someone who's just farther ahead of us, And I'm not saying any of that is inherently wrong.

But I'm saying if you don't look back to Jesus first, your community will be shallow and superficial. It's not going to sustain you. It is fleeting and fading, just like the grass that fades out in different seasons. And you don't want superficial community when you find yourself in a very deep and difficult situation.

It's not going to get you through it. But God has ordained, he has built it this way, that we would live together in community rooted on a person, and that person is Christ Jesus, not a personality. But I struggle because even when we started this church, it-, every church tends to take on the personality of the leader who leads it or the, the team who starts it. This is just organizational, scientific stuff here. It's just normal.

This is what happens. A church takes on a personality, But, pastor, you just told us supernatural community is rooted in a person. Yeah, I know, That's the difficulty of this entire escapade that we call church is. We've got imperfect people trying to root their entire lives on a person who died 2,000 years ago and lives in us, but it's still lightly intangible unless we put ourselves in positions to see it frequently. It's so difficult to build supernatural community rooted in Jesus when we are so accustomed to building community based on something like a personality.

We make it so difficult on you guys. I, I, I feel bad for all of us. To be honest with you. I mean, back in the day, the Catholic Church was all there was. I mean, I mean back before Martin Luther and the, the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation.

It was a Catholic church And, that was the only option they had at every Catholic church. They had the same mass, they had the same studies, they had the same Scriptures, they had the same stuff every single week. If you got frustrated about it, you didn't get to go down the street to the other church, You just got excommunicated or you kept going. It was one of the two. Now, the Catholic Church back then and even currently, I think there are a lot of theological issues that that we war with them on.

So I'm not promoting that, but we have done you guys a disservice because there's a church on every street these days And- and I'm telling you- find supernatural community rooted in the person and work of Jesus, not based on a personality. Then you're like, okay, there are a lot of churches that have Jesus at the center. So what do I choose based on? I know the struggle And there's always going to be some level where you're making decisions. But if personality and vibe of the person is your basis for choosing your community, you've got a problem.

It has got to be first and foremost the person and work of Christ Jesus. Paul says in Ephesians, chapter 2, 19, . He says "Consequently"- this is in response to the Gospel- "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. You're built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone". So supernatural community focuses in the past on the person and work of Jesus as he's expressed in the Scriptures.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

You have got to start there. If you don't start there in any of your relationships any, look at your neighbor, tell them what I just said. Any It was that it was so simple, guys, Any of your relationships. You are in trouble, Not just church. I want to find a church that's Bible believing and f preaches the word, which half the time is, is actually a preference- mass to something that sounds spiritual.

Anyways, I'm just just being honest with you U because they have a specific way that they want the word preached. The other church is doing it, but they're like I don't really vibe with it because you know something, something, something. They want to go to a different place, Anyways. So, if you're not rooting it truly on who Christ Jesus is, you're in trouble. Not just your church, but in your relationship with your spouse or significant other.

If you don't base that community on the personal work of Jesus, you're in trouble. And some of you are sitting here like "Oh, I'm in trouble" And some of you are like "Oh, I'm married and in trouble". Too late, You're in that relationship And now what you have to do is you have to focus on the person and work of Jesus in order to develop a community that maybe your spouse isn't quite ready for, but you're going to do it patiently. Like First Peter says: "I'm going to do it. I'm going to submit to this relationship knowing that, as I continue to follow Jesus, he's going to draw them near to himself.

And, just like Jesus sacrificed, I'm going to sacrifice for this community with this person that maybe I shouldn't have gotten with because I wasn't focused on Jesus. But now I'm with them and I'm going to focus on Jesus and he's going to perform miracle after miracle in my life. That's your spouse. That's your spouse. But then, when it comes to your friends, oh, this person is just so vibrant and they're fun to be around and they've got woo and I feel good every time I'm around them.

That's great, That's a gift from heaven if that person is that cool, But if it's not rooted in Christ Jesus, you're still in trouble. You can hang out with the most dynamic individual, You can go to the most dynamic churches, but if those churches and those individuals are not preaching the Gospel of Jesus, who died on the cross, after bearing his cross, rose from the grave three days later and asks of us our entire life-, right, - in service of him as a reasonable act of service, right, - Then you're in trouble. Yeah, It's got to be rooted in the person and work of Christ Jesus. When I talk about this supernatural community, it is a group of people who are different personality types.

I remember showing up to my small group- No offense if you're in my small group, I started this small group. I remember showing up at my small group and it wasn't like this is a real thought that I don't ever live in. But you walk into the room and you look around and in your flesh you tend to size people up and down depending on what they look like, act like, sound like, talk like or all the other things. And what you're doing is you're looking for personality. But God is conditioning me to not look at a personality but to look at the person.

And I'm looking at the person of Christ before I ever see the person in that group. I'm looking at the person of Christ before I see that person down the street that's coming toward me And I'm not sure if I want to say hey, hate to them, but they're smiling at me and I don't feel like talking to them. But I'm going to talk back to them. Why? Because I saw Jesus first.

I'm looking at the person and work of Jesus. When you look at somebody who annoys you, you got to look at Jesus first And they might still annoy you, but at least you're going to align to Jesus before you say something to them. And when you go into a small group- this is so crucial for you- You're going to look around and be like, say, you're in a young adults group. I've been helping lead the young adults group recently. I'm sure there are plenty of singles who walk in like "My man's not here today" And then the dudes are like, "Look at all these ladies".

In either case that you're looking for a personality, But you got to look at the person. The person of Christ is going to enable you to see in somebody what, what you're not physically seeing, And you have to live in that world. That's how biblical community is supposed to be. It is rooted not in something superficial but in something supernatural, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. With Christ.

Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Supernatural community is stable, not fragile. Stable, not fragile. Jesus himself tells us: build on the rock, not the sand. You knew it.

You read your Bible, sweetie. I know you do. I live with you. You're so good at reading your Bible. You're better at reading your Bible than me.

See, I looked at Jesus before. I said that to you, So I complimented you, just in case I didn't do all that I should have done on Valentine's Day and stuff. I love my wife. She reads the Bible better than you guys, Anyways, so just just kidding, But it's stable And you know what's so interesting. So someone just shout out an attribute that you would look at in a man or a woman who you would call stable, Just random attribute.

This is hard, It might be hard. Just say: you can say rich if you want. Huh, Honest, Honest, That's good. What's another one?.

Loyal, Consistent, A man of his word, . Man of his word. She's looking. I can tell I'm kidding with you. I don't know you, I don't know you.

All right, Let's do one more, Come on, Come on. Employed, . You said mental stability.

Employed's good. All right, dude, This is perfect. It was a thought experiment that I didn't do in the first service, but it's perfectly working out. All of those attributes are boring, Aren't they? They're boring.

None of y'all said hot. Humor, Hum, But none of y'all said funny. None of None of y'all said all of those things that you're looking for in a personality. Consistency is boring. It's waking up at 4:30 in the morning Reading your Bible, even when you're in Leviticus, .

It's getting your kids up, It's getting them ready every day. It's showing up at the same time, It's having the same day that you do some of the same stuff and you say you're looking for it. But if you're looking for a personality, I can promise you that's not what you're gravitating toward And this is what we do in our walk with God. We're looking for interesting rather than stable, . But I'm telling you, if you root it in personality, that is fleeting, It is fading and it is fragile, .

Look at your friendships. Are they stable? Or if you say the wrong thing politically, that day, they go be. I learned something over COVID I need you to know. Here's my view in preaching when it comes to politics.

My view in preaching when it comes to politics is: I'm going to try to stay not in the middle, because there's no way to stay in the middle of this stuff anymore. I'm going to try to stay above it. Not that I'm better than every single other person, but if God is on high, then I'm going to try to step up above the cut and look at both sides equally, to try to understand between the spirit and the spirit of the age, which is worldly and sinful, And I can tell you this honestly as a pastor. It is both sides that have sin involved in every bit of what they're doing.

It's both sides. That's right, But I'm I'm not in the middle, because there's some really bad things on both sides and they're not the same things. So I'm not in the middle, I'm trying to be above it, And that that's my view of politics And I don't like to speak on it too much because when you speak on it someone gets mad. But what I learned in CO is that if you have a view on either side- and that's kind of what you rooted your interaction or community on- it's so fragile.

That's right. Had someone tell me one time: yeah, if you vote for this person, once I'll forgive you If you don't vote for this per, if you vote for this person a second time, we can't be friends anymore. [sighs]. And then on the other side I've seen: if you can vote for this, then there's no way you're a Christian and there's no way that I can be friends with you.

And I'm telling you that that is not godly. That's right. That is worldly style of community, And it's funny because they build really, really deep-nit communities, don't they?

But they're so fragile. If your eyes open to the other side at all, you're done. They don't like it, You don't like it at all. That is fragile.

But if you start doing what Paul says here- he says in verse 20, I'm going to repeat it for you: It's built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Paul is giving you a formula for how to start building community that is deeply rooted and longlasting. Start with Jesus. Look at the apostles and prophets who wrote the vast majority of the New Testament Scriptures, That that it's like: if Jesus is the footing or the cornerstone, then then the, the, the apostles and prophets are the, the brick and mortar that start building this thing, And then we're incorporated into this building that God is building up. And what he's saying is: this is stable ground.

Everything else is shifting and sinking sand. One stands on the solid rock of Christ Jesus, but superficial community, man it. It sits on shifting sand and it's fleeting and it's dead the moment you have a shift Supernatural. Community is based on purpose, not preference.

It's based on purpose, not preference. Let me read the Scripture for you, Verses 15 and 16. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, Thus making peace. This is between Jew and Gentile- And I can tell you they have way more differences than we have- And in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. So supernatural community builds around worship of God and the mission he sets us on.

Superficial community builds around some form of preference. Those are radically different. One is sustaining and will give you life. The other one is so, so frustrating. I already talked about the politics, but I'm going to bring it up one more time.

Just because it's fun for me today. Is that cool? I'm going to bring it up one more time that I don't care which Super Bowl halftime show you liked, I just don't care. You're like: "You're important in the eyes of God, but you're not important to me. On Facebook, You're just not.

I don't, I don't, I don't want to hear about it". Because here's what happened: I, I, I, I thought about posting that I don't care about halftime, And I did for about 15 minutes and it started to get a lot of likes. But then I was like, "This is not that important and it makes me hypocritical, So I'm going to delete this thing, cuz no one cares what I think either. I don't care if you like Bad Bunny and I don't care if you like the TPUSA thing with Kid Rock or whoever did it. I didn't watch either of them, so I can say it from on high.

I guess I don't know. I, I don't care, But the people who thought this was a big moment, it's like you are just funneling yourself into your homogeneous silo and you- 5 million, 6 million, 20 million, I don't even care- over here with TPUSA, You're sheltering yourself from the rest of the world. And I'm not saying you're bad for watching it. I'm glad you liked it. But if you're going to post about someone else who's going to watch the Bad Bunny one over here, which had like 105 million people and probably wasn't appropriate, I didn't know what he was saying, So half of y'all did.

You can tell me later. I just don't speak Spanish And so I'm looking at this and I'm like I JUST DON'T CARE. AN ARGUMENT ABOUT THIS, when we're rooted on the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, just doesn't seem that big of a deal. I serve God, who died 2,000 years ago on a cross. I'm not stressed out about a 2026 Super Bowl.

There are bigger things that can divide you in the community, . And again, don't hear me talking mess. Some of y'all like classic rock, Some of y'all like mumble rap. I don't know the difference. I kind of vibe with it.

It was mumble rap. It's Spanish mumble rap. It was still mumble rap. You can tell. Sorry, y'all.

And if your community is rooted in even this conversation, that's rooted in a preference, not the purpose of Christ Jesus, who offered himself up on the cross in order to reconcile us to God. And he puts us on that same purpose. And so, if your purpose is to be what 2 Corinthians 5 tells us, our purpose is to be ambassadors. Right, Christ was in the world reconciling the world to God, And now we, as his chosen vessels, are in the world reconciling the world to God.

So how in the world are you going to take a Bad Bunny Kid Rock performance and make that more important than your job of reconciliation? It just does not make. It don't make sense to me. It's frustrating, But it doesn't just happen when it comes to politics and when it comes to Super Bowl halftime shows, It happens with preferences in terms of where you're going to live and the type of lifestyle that you're going to have. And I ain't talking about sin or not sin, I'm just talking about basic lifestyle differences.

When I moved here, it was crazy. You know, I'd heard about neighborhoods and places where you want to keep up with the Jones, And I've also heard- because I grew up there several years where I was in a trailer park, And so I've been in rich areas and I've been in super poor areas in my life. So I've experienced both And this is not a one-sided thing, It's a both sides thing. I've been in the rich spaces, where people are talking mess about people of different economic spectrum, And I've been in poor places. And you guys- I mean it's not all of you- Some of you are rich, some of you are poor, I don't know, But we talk the same way about people who are rich.

It is so frustrating to me because there are more important things to argue about, But when I moved here, I moved into Sienna Hills. You know where Sienna Hills is? Sienna Hills, If you go up north of I 10, take a left on McDow. I didn't know anything. I picked it.

There are people in here who can attest to the fact that I never saw the place before I moved into it. It's true, We just believed our realtor and she was right. And so we moved into that place, Didn't know anything about neighborhoods- Nothing, I didn't know anything. So we move in. We have one of our first launch- it was our first launch team meeting.

Someone comes into the house and, there's another house down the street that we're doing a meeting at. But when they came into my house, we were chatting about different things. I was like, I think they came from a neighborhood that was close and, they said, "Yeah, we live here". And I'm like: "Oh, that's cool, We're really close to you, guys". Is, and she said: "It's different".

And I remember for the first time, I was like "No, she didn't, She didn't say that". And then, the same week, same week, guys, Same week, I'm talking to somebody who I don't know, lives somewhere south of I 10. And, we're having a conversation about the fact that we're doing our first interest social at the Verado Grill, And this person said like: "Why are you doing it there in Verado". And I'm just like I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS STUFF. Why do you?

That is so superficial. It is rooted in something that would literally fade Like if we had earthquakes in this location. It'd all be gone if God decided he wanted an earthquake to happen. And guess what? Most of us are going to move at some point in our life.

We are not going to root our entire community based on our specific, nuanced current geography. That is not how God's called us to build. In fact, he sent Christians out. It wasn't just going to be rooted in Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem, It was going to be to the ends of the earth. And how are you going to have the ends of the earth Gospel mentality if you're struggling to hang out with people outside of your current vicinity?

It just doesn't make sense to me. That's not the Gospel. That is superficial, . And I might be frustrating somebody who who thinks something. I don't care, I'm just done with that.

It's stupid. We're all adults. When I was in fifth grade I wanted to be like another guy cuz he was wearing Jenko jeans. You remember the ones with the pockets that go down to here that cost? They cost 54 bucks.

I didn't even know pants cost 54 bucks. Back in the day I was, I was poor as all get out and I went and talked to my dad. I said "Hey, can I get some Jenos". He's like "Jeno". He saw a picture of me.

He's like ", no" And I wanted to be just like this guy, Cuz he was cool. And then I grew up And then some of us just just forgot to grow up in that specific area of our lives. But I'm telling you, the superficial community is rooted in all of these halves, halves nots. But I'm going to tell you, we all live in Buckeye.

Ain't none of y'all live in Scottsdale. So chill out a little bit. You ain't that. You ain't that big of a deal. But when you focus on Christ Jesus first and you look to him, recognize what he did, and then you see the person you're talking to, You don't care if they're north of I 10, south of I 10, got a golf cart.

Don't have a golf cart. No, you don't care if they have money or don't have money. You don't care if they're on the street or in a sea suite. You don't care Why, Because it's Christ in me that helps me see them properly.

That's right, . That's what community needs to look like. I want to be a church full of black, white, Hispanic, Latino- I don't know which one I'm supposed to say, depending on the room you like: male, female, north of I 10, south of I 10, rich, poor. This is who the Gospel's for, . And so it's so crucial for us to recognize that supernatural community is based on purpose and not preference.

Some of y'all can sing, some of you can't. Well, you can all sing. You can Not all the same, though, And I don't care, because the Lord wants you to use every aspect of what he's given you in order to give honor and praise to him and be an ambassador for him in this world, And whatever your gifting is, it can be used to bring someone in reconciliation to God. Supernatural community is also costly. It's not comfortable, .

It's costly, not comfortable Here. Here's what Paul says in verse 14. And he says: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, Jew, Gentile, and has destroyed the barrier dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations, But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Jesus". What does that say? It says that there was a cost to be paid for our salvation and reconciliation.

And I want you to know that if you expect community without a cost, then it's going to be a superficial one, . No, I mean, there might be superficial costs. You might have, like a membership, due HOA fee. You might have some little costs, right, Like you go to the party and if you didn't bring your own beer, then they're looking at you like: "What are you doing? You mooching or something like that".

Which you shouldn't get drunk at a party. You shouldn't do that. You're adults. But supernatural community is different. Supernatural community, says, because it's based on the person who died on the cross.

I understand from the beginning that I'm not just called to love people who are like me, I'm called to love my enemy, . I. When you start out knowing you have to love your enemy, Picture what kind of community you build. It doesn't matter what you look like, how you act, how rude you are to me, because I serve a God who died on a cross And while he was on that cross he said: "Forgive them, They know not what they do", . That's where I start.

We start with picking up our own cross because we recognize that there was a cost necessary to draw us into eternal life. And so we mimic the work of Jesus And we say: you know what? He came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross. My y'all remember the song to pay: from the cross to the grave, From the grave to the sky, Lord. Okay, It was an old school song that we sang in church before I was a Christian.

Anyways, it was easy to remember. It's not a very great song but it is a good message in the song. And Jesus came down from heaven to earth and he showed us a new way of operating. And that new way of operating is what we would call crucififor: A life that picks up a cross, Like your presupposition, before you interact with another human being is all right, cross, Oh, now I see the person, but I see it through the lens of the cross, knowing that there is a cost necessary to reconcile others to God. So what do I do?

I step down off my high horse, step down off my pedestal, I, I, I step into spaces that I might not be comfortable with, because I know that discomfort is going to produce something great. If God's calling me to do it. I step into the life that God called me to, knowing that it is costly, but it's worth the cost. Some of the membership dues ain't worth it, but when it comes to this life with God, it is 100% worth whatever cost it takes. Supernatural community is covenantal, not carnal.

I'm [snorts] talking to those of you in the room you got blood relatives. You're thinking, "Oh, Matt's talking about friendships that are really superficial". I'm telling you, even your blood may be superficial. You know how I know this. I know this because I'm a pastor, Not in that way.

I know this because I'm a pastor who has interacted with people over the last few years. And when I've interacted with people, here's what I've seen: Someone trusts in Jesus, gives their entire life to him. They go back to their family and their family looks at them and says "You've changed". And then there's a disconnect. That is superficial community, my friends.

It's not superficial in the sense of shallow. It's superficial in the sense that you thought blood meant that it was supernatural and substantial, but it doesn't mean anything. Only Christ's blood is what can draw you into the presence of God, And if it's not rooted in his sacrifice. Your community is thin. It's thin, guys, But I want to build something more stable, more supernatural.

Paul says this: verse 19, : "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone". Check this: In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy. What, guys? Temple to the Lord, And in him, you too, Look at your neighbor, Tell them: "You too".

It's not me too, It's you too. All right, In him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. God is building us into a holy house, a holy temple, something that is stable because it's rooted in Christ Jesus. The apostles, prophets, all those who have gone before us, And now we too are being looped in to this community of people, Not based on emotion, not based on vibe, not based on personality, not based on some random worldly superficial thing, but rooted in Christ Jesus.

It, It's built on that. It is. It's so interesting because I know you're looking for the vibe. If I were to ask you about your church community. You would answer it just like you would for a significant other.

You say: "I want one that's vibrant, I want, I want one where I just feel something every single week. I want one like this, this: I want one like I want one that preaches this way, because I would like to be talked to another way. I want one that does this and does this and does this, But here's what you really want. You want one that takes this and says: "Unless it starts with this, we're not doing it".

That's kind of husband you want too, by the way, ladies. That's what you want, because the ones that, the ones that start off without this, they start out with, you know, body talk before they start with Bible talk. Those are not the ones for you. I'm just telling you: .

You got to start with the Bible, and that is how your community is going to form most effectively. So when you're searching for something, that's what you got to search for, But when you build your life on it, it is. It is filled with a life with no regrets. I was, . I'll close with this.

I was reading a book for a pastoral formation crew that I'm leading right now and Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote a book called Life Together and what he says in this book was really helpful. As I was prepping this message- because I'd already prepped the message and I was so proud of some of the points- I was like I'm so clever. And then I read what he wrote and I'm like nope, he said it 80 years ago, just a little bit differently. He was German, and then we had to translate it from German, and Germans, at least in their writing, are very smart. So I want to read you a couple things.

Instead of distinguishing between supernatural and superficial, what he did was he delineated between spiritual and emotional community. And here's what he said. You'll find some of it echoed in what I said, but I found it really helpful for myself. He says: "The basis of spiritual community is truth. The basis of emotional community is desire.

Spiritual community is the community of those who are called by Christ. Emotional community is the community of pious souls just seeking to do well. The bright love of Christian service, agape love, unconditional love, lives in the spiritual community. The dark love of the pious or impious urges, that's aeros. Where we get the word erotic, It is emotional, fleshoriented, carnal love.

That's what burns in the emotional community. In the spiritual community, the word of God alone rules. In the emotional community, along with the word of God, the individual who is equipped with exceptional powers, experience and magical or suggestive abilities rules. In one, God's word alone is binding. In other, besides the word, human beings bind others to themselves and they become loyal to one another rather than loyal to Christ.

In the one, all power, honor and rule are surrendered to the Holy Spirit. In the other, power and personal spheres of influence are sought and cultivated. In the spiritual community, the spirit rules. Okay, that was a vibe. In the emotional community, the psychological techniques and methods rule.

We. We intended that as a psychological method to throw you off for a second. Just kidding with you guys. Here's your big idea. Jesus didn't die for you to vibe together.

He died so you could be joined and built together into something that's supernatural. And this isn't rooted in a feeling, It's rooted in faith. A choice- It's crazy, It's a choice. It's just a choice to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. A choice to be in spaces where supernatural things can occur.

A choice to step forward when you want to hang back a choice, to step across the threshold into the life of faith that God called you to- And there are people in this room. You're all needing to step past the threshold, some into Christ, some into deeper community rooted in Christ, And so I want to give two action steps today, And it's a unique way that we're doing this, but I want to try to be clear for you. If you are ready to accept Christ Jesus, the Bible says all you have to do is confess and believe. But he calls you to something: to pick up your cross. And so those of you ready to take up your cross, even though you don't know what it looks like, I want to give you an opportunity to trust him.

So, if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to pray this prayer for you to accept Jesus today. Step across the threshold, pick up your cross and follow him. You might repeat after me Say: "God, I believe, . That Jesus is your son.

Jesus is your son. I believe he died on the cross. I believe you died, . To forgive me of my sin.

. I believe you raised to walk so I could have life. Father, forgive me of my sin, Help me pick up my cross, Help me follow you, and I will follow you.