Why You Still Need People (Even When Life Gets Busy)

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

Well, this morning I want to invite you to the table.

And I believe that within this table there's a supreme gift

from God that brings with it life and power and love and

identity and stability. But I'm finding the longer I'm

in ministry that a lot of people sit and have a microwave meal

really quickly and then live over here apart from the table.

I don't want to invite you to the table, not just to visit,

but to regularly sit yourself right here and what God has

given us in the table. You know the table connection,

belonging, hospitality, community.

During men's conference, I was running around.

Men's conference is very, very, very, very busy experience for

me. Anybody remember the men's

conference? Anyone here?

Yeah, 311 men gathering together.

It was incredible. Very busy the first night.

I'm preaching on Matthew chapter 3, where God says of Jesus, this

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

is my son, whom I love, and him, I'm well pleased.

And I went on to teach them other things.

And afterwards I run down here, my son's down here, my brothers

are down here, my dad, my dad's best friend.

I'm like, hey, hey, hey, good to see you.

And I'm like, yeah, just it's a flurry.

I'm frenetic, right? And my dad's like kind of grabs

my arm, pulls me back, takes my hand, my head, my face.

What is this thing called? My face in his hands right down

here. And he's like, wait, wait, wait,

wait, wait. You need to hear this.

You are my son. I love you.

And you. I am well pleased, right?

Special moment for me, right. I'm glad y'all are.

That's fun. But that moment of pause to

personally connect with him is a snippet of what we are invited

to at the table. When somebody invites you to a

meal, what they're inviting you to is knee to knee, face to face

interaction. It's intimate, it's personal.

There's some attentionality to this moment where I want you to

slow down with me, and me with you, so that we can look eye to

eye and share life for a moment at the table.

The invitation to the Jesus frequently used table

gatherings. It was a central part of his

ministry. This idea of sharing around a

table in the cultural context of first Judaism, 1st century

Judaism, eating together wasn't only about food.

This sharing around the table signified A deeper kind of

fellowship, acceptance, inclusion, and community.

Around the table. You were able to build trust.

You were able to experience equality.

We're all in this together and something that we don't talk

about a lot, but a covenantal relationship, it's more the mere

acquaintance. These are bonded, enduring

relationships that for Jesus and people in Jesus time happened

around the table. Get ready to write down a long

sentence if you're taking notes. If you're not, just get at your

camera and take a bunch of pictures.

But here's what happens around the table for Jesus.

Jesus intentionally leveraged the culture of the table to

proclaim 3 things #1 the Kingdom of God.

If you want to know what the Kingdom of God is like, then sit

with Jesus at the table. You'll experience it #2 to

extend grace to the marginalized, those rejected and

despised. Find healing and salvation at

the table of the Lord. Amen.

You said Amen after the first one.

You might as well say it after all #3 and finally to

demonstrate God's welcoming love.

We see this over and over in the New Testament, Matthew Chapter

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

9. Jesus is ridiculed by the

religious elite. The know it alls because he's

dining with tax collectors and sinners.

To which you may ask yourself, if Jesus was not allowed to eat

with sinners, would he ever be able to allow to eat with

anybody, not even the religious elite?

He would dine alone. Luke Chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

While Jesus is sitting reclining at the table, a sinful woman,

many believed to be a prostitute, came and washed

Jesus's feet. Profoundly precious, Jesus said,

let it be written down forever. What this lady has done.

That's why we know about her to this day.

But Simon, the homeowner was disgusted because he saw this

prostitute being allowed at the table.

Jesus welcomed her to the table. Luke chapter 19, Jesus is

Luke 19 · chapter mention

walking along, he's near Jericho.

He's on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified.

And up in a tree is a small man. And he says, Zacchaeus, come

down for I must stay at your house today.

A stay at somebody's house wouldn't be just like, hey, I

can I use a bedroom and a bathroom?

But a stay at their house means for the evening, can we sit

together? Can we dine together?

Can we share life together? And Jesus says that Zacchaeus, I

must. And he goes to his home and

they're in his home. Zacchaeus and his entire family

find salvation simply because Jesus said, let's gather you and

me, Zacchaeus. He ate with Mary and Martha.

He fed the multitudes miraculously multiple times.

He restored Peter, one of his disciples who betrayed him.

How? By having him over for

breakfast, broiled fish. He broke bread with his

traveling partners that were leaving Jerusalem, walking down

to Emmaus, who when Jesus broke the bread around their table,

they realized we're having supper with Jesus.

It's him and of course his most famous of all meals, the Lord's

Supper, the Passover table. You don't need to flip there,

but let me just read to you First Corinthians Chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

For I received from the Lord, but I also passed on to you.

The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And he said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he

took the cup, saying the cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim

the Lord's death until He comes. And good news, church, He will

come again. And when He does come again,

guess what He does? He invites us to eternal

community, where? At the table, Revelation chapter

Revelation 19:9

19 verse 9, the Neander said to me, write this, blessed are

those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

And he added, these are the true words of God from the Last

Supper to the forever stuff. Supper makes me realize I need

to rephrase my initial statement where I say I want to invite you

to the table to this. Jesus has already invited you to

the table by his words, by his actions, his life while he was

on the earth, his words that still go forth, the invitation

that still lasts to this day, communion and everlasting

reunion. This is the table of the Lord.

So I want to show you today the table you're invited to knowing

as we go through these things that the table is meant to

display to the world, the Kingdom of God.

This is what it's like. The table is meant to give hope

to the marginalized, those on the outskirts, those that aren't

good enough, which is all of us. And it's certainly meant to be a

welcome to the world, a visible display.

Come join. You are welcome at the table.

I want to introduce you to what I'm calling today, the Table of

Gathering now, right to read Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

And I realize I haven't asked if you have your Bible yet.

If you have your Bible, please take it out.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

We'll give one to you. I also need to refer you to the

church app because there there's a tab, a button that says

community series resources and on.

There's a ton of stuff for now, but also later.

This is a new resource that we've developed.

So hear me please. When you go to lunch today at

Olive Garden, you're about to get your bread comatose, right?

There is a resource in there. You can say, hey, talk about

this over lunch. And there's all sorts of helps

in their scripture, things to memorize, things that you can do

as a family to take the message beyond one hour on Sunday.

Amen. All right, you're going to be in

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. And in this we'll see two

Hebrews 10:19

gatherings that God is calling us to.

Are you ready to say yes? Verse 19 Therefore, brothers and

sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most

holy place, how by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way

opened for us through the curtain that is His body.

Here is the body and blood again.

And since we have a great high priest over the House of God,

let us gather, draw near to God with a sincere heart and with

full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts

sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having

our bodies washed with pure water.

Verse 23. The second gathering, let us

hold unswarmingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is

faithful. And let us consider how we may

spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up

meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but

encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the

day approaching in this one piece of Scripture.

We have this beautiful imagery from God of two gatherings that

are still being put out to the world today.

The first gathering is to draw near to Him, which is only

possible through the blood of Jesus Christ.

He made a way where there was no way.

We were dead in our sins and transgressions, and while we

were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Amen. Indeed.

So we gather to Him by faith in Jesus.

And as Pastor Christine mentioned last week, this is the

forever new family that we become a part of.

It doesn't replace your blood family relationships, it expands

it. This new family.

Look, your brothers and sisters are all throughout this room.

Do you see them? Do you count them as actual

brother brothers and sisters? Are they strangers to you?

Are they foreigners to you? Prove it.

But then God says there's another gathering.

He says, I command you to keep gathering.

Keep gathering at the table. Why?

Well, for your sake and for the sake of the Kingdom, keep

gathering. What we're finding out in church

research, statistics, polling is that regular church attendance

in the United States of America is considered attending one time

a month, which means 12 * a year to gather at the table, To

gather at that place where God's Kingdom is revealed, where the

marginalized find help and hope, and where the welcome of God,

His physical display of love, is here.

And we say I only need it 12 times or less, maybe a little

more. It's a value proposition.

Every time that we're choosing whether or not to gather here on

a Sunday morning, we're choosing, is it worth it to me?

Do I value it or do I value something more?

Do I value the beach? Do I value my own personal

devotion? I can do church by myself at the

beach. I'm going to show you today

biblical. You cannot.

It's not the full picture. Certainly you have personal

devotion, your prayer closet, you and God.

It's part of it. But there's this whole other

part of gathering that comes to us from the image of God Himself

here at the table. I'm going to show you three

things today that the table brings to us, and I need to tell

you this. It's going to feel a little

redundant. You're going to be convinced in

the first little bit and you'd be like, get on with it.

I'm going to keep going more and more and more until you're sick

of it. And then I know that I've done

my job. So when you're sick of it, just

tell me, OK? Is anyone actually going to tell

me they're sick of it? That'd be fun.

So 3 reasons why God commands us to gather the table.

Number one, it's for your own spiritual encouragement and

perseverance. Hebrews chapter 10 is very

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

explicit, urging believers not to neglect the gathering to

getting together with other believers, but to spur one

another on towards love and good deeds, knowing that isolation is

a slow poison that causes our faith to weaken.

We don't see many spurs anymore, do we?

I got one cowboy over here. What's going on?

You can stand up for a minute. Do you have spurs on?

No spurs. It's all right.

We just don't use them anymore. Hello.

You can see the spurs on a cowboy's legs.

All right. Can you in your mind see them?

Everyone, if you're not familiar, they're the little

swirly, spiky things that you goad the horse or whatever

animal you want to go that's spurring them on.

Now I want you to think of the cowboy here with the spurs on

and the horse way over there and get this mental image in your

picture that a cowboy without a horse spurs nothing.

They're just wearing funny shoes.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I cannot spur you and you cannot spur me unless we are together,

unless we are gathering at the table to encourage one another.

We cannot understate this or overstate this, whatever the

right way to say that is. I don't know about you, but when

I'm not gathered at the table, I find my faith leaking.

I find my strength sapping because doubts and insecurities

and social media with all of its news, fake news, is impregnating

me and trying to get me to live off of death.

And so from time to time I need a brother or a sister to look me

in the face and say hold fast. I know it's stormy now but

believe. And if you can't believe, I'm

going to believe for you and tell you can believe.

Look me in the eyes, hear my voice, hear my conviction, feel

the strength of my spirit as I'm believing over you, with you

spurring you on. In this middle season of the

church, from Jesus ascension to Jesus's return, I need you to

spur me on, and I need you to be spurred on by me.

And let me state the obvious, I cannot do that unless we're

together, unless we gather. And as you spur me on and I spur

you on, then we'll better reflect who God actually is and

the world will see his glory because they see an encouraged,

persevering, faithful church. When the rest of the world is

screaming out, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, the

church says my God is still on his throne and I believe in

Jesus name. Look at this Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5:14

verse 14 says you are the light of the world.

When we encourage one another on and we stand strong in our

faith, we become the light of the world.

This you and Matthew chapter 514 is not you, but it's us.

It's plural, it's not singular. The you is an us. the US is a

you. It means we and we are gathered,

and when we gather, we are the light of the world.

Put it another way, when we gather, we reveal the glory of

God's Kingdom by spurring one another on in faith to

persevere. Hold fast.

This being a disciple is a long walk in a singular direction of

obedience. And I need you, and you need me

to spur you in case I keep walking.

Keep walking. Stay faithful #2 The reason we

need to gather is to experience His presence more fully in

community, in ways and community that we cannot experience in any

other way except that when we are gathered together.

This is the communal nature of our triune Godfather, Son, Holy

Spirit. They exist as Trinity and then

they created us in their their image.

And in Genesis chapter 2 verse 18, God looks down and says, not

Genesis 2:18

good for man to be alone. We live as three.

He's living by himself. I'll make a suitable helper.

Then he says, go increase and make more community over and

over again. Not only that, but Jesus

promises his special, very special presence when two or

three are gathered together in his name.

Matthew chapter 18, verse 20, corporate worship together, his

Matthew 18:20

presence together. When his presence is with us,

it's different than when we're alone.

It's not. Let me say this again, having

personal devotion is absolutely necessary, but don't stop there.

Gathering together in the communal nature of our Triune

God is also absolutely necessary.

For when we're together, there's this unique kind of joy that

burst forth out of us. There's a unique kind of

assurance in the gathering. There's this awe in God's beauty

between all of us. Is this all goes back to Week

1's message if you were here. We were created for community by

community. When we gather, it's a sacred

practice of returning to our original design.

We're meant to be together to gather.

And as I said in the last point, when we gather, we reflect more

better the image of God unlike any other kind of gathering on

the planet. When we gather, we're doing

something different. If you go to a concert, you're

watching. You go to a game you're you're

watching, it's not sacred. If you go to a conference and

there's somebody up there flapping their lips and you're

learning a life skill or how to make more money or whatever

we're doing, it's not sacred. But when we gather as the body

of Christ, each of us far-flung throughout the week and we come

me to me, whether that's two or three of you gather together in

AD group, right here in the sanctuary and an E group, youth

group, young adult group, group, group, group, there's something

sacred that happens. It's like the puzzle finally

gets completed and you were the missing piece.

We we've been missing this part of the body and now we gather,

we reflect the image of God isolated from one another.

We're incomplete, but together we are whole and wholly

experiencing our design, which is being made for community.

When we gather in any sort of This could be at your table at

home. This could be at Panera.

Side note, Panera started a value menu.

It's only $20.00 for a salad now.

Yeah, whenever you gather, forgive me, and you Share your

story with another person, or you're in a small setting and

you're singing, or here at the church and you're singing, or

you're watching with your eyes the evidence of God changing

somebody's life, then it's going to change your life.

You're going to be inspired and encouraged and challenged by

what you see and hear. But let me state the obvious.

You see nothing and you hear nothing.

If you're not together, gathered are united worship in small

gatherings. This large gathering that

displays the gospel visibly, especially here on a Sunday

morning, we get to show the world a reconciled body under

Jesus Christ. What the world tries to divide

genders, ages, races, God has brought together under the blood

of Jesus. When we walk out of here on a

Sunday and people are driving by on Sinclair and Connector Rd.

here and they're looking down on our parking lot, like look at

all those different people. Look at all those people.

It's a lot of people. And what they see is wow, God's

doing a healing work in the people in Jesus name.

I asked if the people around you are foreigners or strangers.

Look what Jesus says, Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

It's not really Jesus, He is the word.

It's Paul writing anyway, verse 19.

Consequently, you, all of us are no longer foreigners and

strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also

members of His household. The new family built on the

foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus

Himself as the chief cornerstone.

In Him the whole building is joined together and rises.

We rise to become a holy temple in the Lord and in Him.

You 2 are being built together to become a dwelling in which

God lives by His Spirit. You were foreigners and

strangers, but because of the blood of Jesus, you have become

one household rising in faith to give Him glory.

You here is not singular either. It's plural.

You as us, Us as you are the people sitting around you,

strangers to you. They're your brothers and

sisters. Davin.

I'm your brother, Davin. You're supposed to stay back.

They thank you. Davin.

Can I just follow the spirits leading right now?

I need you to stand up and hug a brother or sister that wait.

Thank you for your enthusiasm that help me God in your life.

At some point you treated as a foreigner or as a stranger.

Do you hear what I'm saying? Somebody maybe you prejudged

before because of their age, because of their race, because

of their gender. The world try to make you divide

from them, but here in God's house you're saying I'm uniting

to you. This is going to take some of

you some courage. Don't just go hug somebody you

feel comfortable hugging and hug appropriately.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I'm just making this up right now.

Let's see what happens on your Marks cassette.

Go in the name of Jesus. If you're watching online, I'm

hugging you. You're hugging me.

We're saying we are won by the Spirit, one of the bond of

Christ. Lord Jesus, thank you.

Come on, church, hug a brother, hug a sister.

No longer foreigners, no longer strangers.

One household of faith. Ann Hunt.

Brendan. All right, All right.

Everybody clap your hands. Hey, good job, Church.

Did you meet somebody? Did you meet a brother?

Did you meet a sister? Are you here?

Do you have mouths? Did you meet somebody?

Did you hug a sister? Did you hug a brother?

Did you hug somebody you never knew?

That's your family, That's your family, That's your family.

Amen. When we gather, we reveal the

unity of God's Kingdom. Big settings, small settings.

When we gather, that's what we do.

Here's the third thing. Let me just remind you, the 1st

2:00 when we gather is for your spiritual encouragement and

perseverance. When we gather, it's to

experience His presence more fully and community.

And finally, when we gather, it's to build up the body for

maturity, service, and witness. I train you, You train me.

Together we grow up into all things Christ.

I cannot do this by myself. I can get to a certain distance

with me and God alone in my prayer closet in my Word.

He trains me in his word. But God designed it that the

other part of me that needs to be trained and raised up happens

by the impact of your life and your teaching, your

encouragement, your rebuke and reproof in my life.

Isaiah 64 eight, I'm paraphrasing here, essentially

says that he is the Potter and we are the clay.

We are the work of his hands. Well, guess what?

His hands are mine and your hands are his.

He uses your hands to shape this lump, and my hands to shape you,

and you to shape one another. And we cannot do that unless we

gather. Acts chapter 2, Ephesians

Acts 2 · chapter mention Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, Jesus and his disciples, story after story of

story, where they gather and they grow, they gather and they

participate in the sacraments, communion, baptism, where they

gather and they worship the entire time that they're

gathering. What's happening is that life on

life, transference is happening. What you've learned from God is

impacting me and vice versa. I cannot do this life without

you, and you can't do this life without me seated at the table.

We need each other. We need to gather.

I put in a sense, when we gather, what happens is we

reveal the transformational power of God's Kingdom.

If we gather and there's no transformation, then shut the

doors, what's the point? Why have AD group?

Why come to youth unless we walk out of these doors differently

and say I once was, but now I am fill in the blank.

God, in his mercy and his grace and his wisdom has transformed

me through other disciples, people who speak into my life

and shape me and form me. It happens at the table, not

when I'm off by myself in a corner.

Jesus invites us to the table through his broken body and his

shed blood. And as we arrive at the table of

faith and enter into the new household of faith, we find that

our brokenness and our isolation are gone.

And then he commands us to keep returning to the table over and

over in us, to form in us the heart and the mind and the life

of Jesus. And as we gather at the table,

we have the opportunity to uniquely display to the world

the glory, the unity, and the transformation of God's power.

Amen. I saw this at men's conference.

It was a table that was set. Sir, are you all right?

You come for a hug. I'm coming down.

Hold on now. Hold on.

What's your name, brother? Love you, brother.

We safe you. You're safe right here, OK?

Jesus is here for you. All right?

You hear me? A month ago I was blind in my

left eye and I couldn't see because I trust in God.

God the Bible says for my peace was placed upon him, that the

chastisement of my peace was placed upon him, and by his

stripes I am healed. A month ago I was crippled, I

couldn't walk. I was almost blind out of my

left eye, but I see a beautiful brother in front of me.

I see the pastor. Hallelujah.

Love you. Yeah.

I want you to be careful. I'm concerned.

I just want you to be careful. Right?

They got to. Don't be nervous.

You're in the House of the Lord. They got to see, right?

I hear you. Do you hear what he said?

He said a month ago I couldn't walk.

A month ago his left eye was blind.

Left eye was blind. But now he's seen and standing.

Somebody give God glory here. Love you.

Hey you pray the Lord interrupts your service and he does and you

just rejoice in Jesus name. Love you my brother, Thank you

for your courage. He said Hallelujah.

Hey I'll forget the rest of my notes now.

Let's just say this man came for a hug, couldn't do that by

himself. He came to the table and

together we get to see this is what the Kingdom of God looks

like. Healing, connection, hugs, love,

a welcome. Jesus wants to invite you to the

table this morning. Now when we come to church on

Sundays, this is what we're doing, what I'm doing, you know,

I'm seeing everything that's going on.

I'm learning. Oh, look what they're eating.

It's amazing. Look at the beautiful people,

right? Single.

Just saying. Oh, that's also not in the

notes. So just we show up, right?

But what God wants us to do is more than show up.

He wants us to huddle up, to take our seat at the table and

have an opportunity to look others right in the eye and

learn from them, feel their stories, hear their hearts, and

to share in a moment that doesn't happen in any other way

on the face of the planet except that we sit and we look and we

listen. Your faces are all saying so

much stuff right now. It's amazing.

And when we sit like this, we reflect the image of God.

And I believe God comes and sits right in the middle of the

table. Maybe God is the table and he is

the food and He is the light, right?

He's all of this as we sit together.

So thank you for letting me sit at your table for a second.

I want to invite you to the table.

Yes to faith in Jesus Christ. That's the first yes to the

table. To say I want to be a part of

the forever family, to have a seat in the heavenly realms

where God himself dwells. To know that one day I will

spend eternity with him. And that day starts the moment

you say yes to Jesus. And then secondarily, to hold

fast to what we learn in Hebrews, to not give up the

gathering of the Saints, to say I'm going to be a part when the

church gathers, I'm going to be there.

I'm not going to be the one person who comes one time once a

month, but I'm making a commitment to be in God's house

when the doors open. And then finally, to go beyond

just to huddle. This is, I'm sorry, just to show

up and to huddle up, to sit down at the table in the D group, in

an E group, at youth group in young adults.

And you don't even have to do anything officially at the

church. This just could look like you

saying, hey, want to come over to my house this evening and

let's eat together and let's open the word.

Let's let's gather at the park bench, have a conversation about

what God's doing in our lives. Where two or three are gathered

there I am with them. That's a gathering.

Anytime that we gather, I need you.

You need me. It's the way God designed it.

It's not good for any of you to be alone.

Not one. So gather in the family, at the

church, and in your homes. Don't just show up.

Huddle up. I'm going to say it again.

You say the tagline, Don't just show up.

Don't just show up. Look at your neighbor.

Say it. Don't just show up.

Let's pray, let's pray. If you've never received Jesus

as your Savior, you've never taken your seat at the table,

now is your time. This is your day to say God.

I want in the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth and

believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved right

then. Save from sin, save from eternal

damnation, save from a lifetime apart from God and save to grace

and forgiveness. Save to the new life, the oldest

gone, the newest come. Save to in eternity with your

Father, in His presence, fullness of joy.

If you'd like to receive Jesus today, then just pray this

prayer with the entire church. They're going to pray with you.

Everyone repeating after me saying, Father, in the name of

Jesus, I recognize that I am a Sinner in need of a Savior, and

I confess and I believe that Jesus is Lord.

I receive you as my savior. Come Jesus and live your life

through me all the days of my life.

Just want to sit here in a moment and let those of you that

are praying that for the first time today, make it, make it

your own. Yes God, I believe I'm coming

into the family. You prayed that prayer and

received Jesus. Today is your new birthday,

March 8th, 2026. You've been born again.

I'm going to do something that I'm going to ask you just to be

bold. I'm going to count to three.

If you're a brand new believer, you're going to raise your hand

as high as you can. The reason why is my ushers are

here ready to give you something right here right now that you

must have. So this is very important on the

count of 3123, anyone believing Jesus for the first time.

Yes, Sir. Come on any others we see you

keep your hand up just a minute. Keep your hand up just a minute

till we get you something. Our ushers are coming ending up

in the mezzanine. We're looking for you.

If you're online and being saved, then just type in the

notes I'm being saved and we'll get we'll get connected with you

as well in Jesus name. Praise be to God.

Any others today anyone nervous and didn't raise your hand.

You're like I better anybody I do.

We don't want to miss this moment.

We take our time. Secondarily, I want you to pray

with me this simple prayer, if it's your intention to be

committed to regular consistent church attendance, showing up at

the table so that we can glorify God in unity and transformation

and revealing his glory saying, Father, I recognize that I've

undervalued your house and today I make a commitment to choose

you. Sundays belong to you.

I'll be here because I know you're here in Jesus name.

If you've made that commitment today, I'm going to count to 3

and you're going to raise your hand.

We're not giving you anything. This is just you visibly saying

I'm in. I'll be here 123 anyone be here

with me. I'll be here.

Come on, Jesus name y'all be here too.

Here's the last thing. If you're willing to take a step

beyond Sunday services, I'm not going to have you pray.

I'm not going to have you raise your hand.

I just want you to go search the church app or go to our brand

new Connect Central. Did you see it out there?

Come on, let me just say this. 25 people said yes to building

that thing out there. And you know what they found?

They found a table out there. They make community as they made

that thing. I sat with them when we had

pizza with chicken and banana Peppers.

Weird. They ordered it anyway, so they

didn't just do a task. They did life together and they

said, hey, this is what we want to happen.

One Sunday they leave and it's old Connect Central.

The next Sunday they come back and it's brand new Connect

Central. That was the goal.

But along the way, they found they were sitting at the table

of life. They enjoyed laughter.

They enjoyed the good feeling of doing a work together in the

name of Jesus. That's what happens when you

serve on the Dream Team. You find friends that are full

of faith. There's so much here that you

could step next to in community. I just invite you all the way

in, In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.

Amen. Stand to your feet.

Hallelujah. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.