Fresh Starts in Faith: Cultivating Community - January 26, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Good morning. Again, still morning.

Don't worry, it's not noon yet. I know you're anxious to get that app,

the email that shows you how to get it.

Some of you already downloaded it while I was yakking about the app already.

You guys are fast. Praise the Lord.

Hey, we've been talking about fresh starts in faith this year.

We started out this month. Can you believe it? It's already going to be the

end of the month on Friday.

Some of you are going to go to the seniors thing at six o'clock on Friday.

That's going to be great.

But next Saturday will be February 1st. But we started out talking about the vision for this year.

Come alive in 25. And I hope that you take that seriously, not just as a neat

catchphrase, but that you really

begin to come alive, that you'll invite others to come alive in Christ.

And so I wanted to give you the basis for that if this is new to you.

And if it's not new, maybe some of your habits have slipped a little bit.

I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of start over. And so we've been talking about prayer.

Having a fresh start in faith through your prayer life. Last week,

we talked about a fresh start in the Scripture, in the Bible,

and really getting into that.

And I want to take a step further and really encourage you this morning for

the third component of a fresh start, and that is cultivating community within your life.

Now, when I say that word, some of you may freak out a little bit.

You're like, no, not the C word.

It means you've got to get together with other people. And if you're not an

extrovert, it can be kind of scary to you.

But I hope you're convinced this morning that God calls us to that.

I'll take you back a bit. I wasn't yet quite alive.

Maybe just a gleam in my father's eye or my mother's if they even thought about having kids yet.

But there's an album that came out. Some of you may have had this.

You don't have to admit it.

But it's an album called Revolver from the Beatles.

Oh, see, I got some that will admit that. This cost $3.95 at the warehouse,

This is a record from my collection, which my daughter, she's really into LPs now.

I guess they're not LPs, vinyl records, vinyl, whatever they're called.

Anyway, she stole all of mine. I mean, inherited them prematurely.

This came out about 1966.

And on this record, there's some neat songs. I'm not going to give an endorsement

from the pulpit for any of them by any means. There's some that are catchy.

But there's one on here. That's the second song on the playlist here on side one.

And it's a song that you've heard before. If I began to hum the lyric or hum

the tune, you'd probably catch on to what it was. It's not Yellow Submarine.

Now that song will be stuck in your head.

But it's another one. It's another song that can be catchy, but man,

the song is just a dark song.

The song is a scary song in some respects for people. because it's a song that

really expresses loneliness.

It's a song that really brings the loneliness spotlight onto some people in

our society, and some maybe that are overlooked and maybe not looked at on purpose,

but it's the song Eleanor Rigby.

Have any of you heard that before, perhaps?

Well, there's some interesting lines in that song. I'm not a singer.

I don't pretend to be, but I can read at least.

The song starts out, Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been.

So right off, you can see this is a lady that she's not just the church janitor,

but she's there collecting some sustenance for her life.

The lyrics go on to say she lives in a dream, waits at the window,

wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?

So man, we're here listening to some rock music and we get this sad song.

But with a catchy rhythm But man it draws us in To a lonely place.

There's another character in the song, Father McKenzie.

It says, Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear.

No one comes near. Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when nobody's there.

What does he care? So now we got a religious guy, a father, a preacher, if you will.

And he's shown to be lonely. The narrative turns quickly anyway,

because all of a sudden in the third verse or so, We see that Eleanor Rigby dies. Wow.

This is getting sadder and sadder by the minute.

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name.

Nobody came. Wow. Wow. Thanks a lot, Beatles.

Scripture or not the scripture. This definitely is not scripture.

I'll tell you the record. But it kind of reminds us of a book in the Bible.

And that's the book of Ecclesiastes, where we'll be today. We see the sad tale

that, I think it's Sir Paul McCartney had written the lyrics here.

It's interesting how sad and depressing the words of the song are,

because it was just, I think, a month or a few weeks before that,

that one of his other bandmates had said something.

Said something not very good as far as Christianity goes.

Here's what was said. It was just weeks after John Lennon had penned these words

that this song was released, this album was released.

John Lennon said, Christianity will go, as meaning go away.

It will shrink and it will vanish.

I needn't argue about that, he said. I'm right and I will be proved right.

We're more popular than Jesus now.

No wonder you have such dark lyrics and a dark song, because there is no hope outside of Jesus.

Well, I'm sure that John Lennon knows by now he was wrong.

We know that we serve a risen Savior, that he's in the world today,

and that he continues to bring hope to people, even when life for some seems meaningless,

even when life for some seems hopeless.

Jesus is there, and it's part of our job to share the light of that hope with others.

Like I said, not a beetle, but the preacher in Ecclesiastes,

he kind of had some dark things too to say.

And I want to read to you, and if you're willing and able to,

I would invite you to stand as long as you're comfortable.

Ecclesiastes 4, verses 7 through 12, and this will be the text of the sermon today.

Ecclesiastes 4:7–12

The preacher says in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 7, Again, I saw something meaningless under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 4:7

There was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother.

There was no end to his toil. Yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.

For whom am I toiling, he asked, and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?

This too is meaningless, a miserable business.

And in verse 9, it says, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who

falls and has no one to help them up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. but how can one keep warm alone?

The one may be overpowered. Two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

Lord, thank you that even in the darkness of our human situation, we can still find hope.

Thank you, God, that in the moment of our loneliness, that God,

you show up and you were there.

And so, Father, this morning, we pray that if we have these lonely feelings,

that, Lord, if we're in a state where it just seems like nobody cares,

or even it seems like we feel like the character of Eleanor Rigby or even Father

McKenzie, that no one cares about anything,

that, Lord, you would bring someone to us.

Lord, bring someone to us, God, to help us to live in the vital community that

you've given us, this community of faith.

Lord, may your word bless our hearts today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you. You can be seated. You know, I want you to know there's importance

to prayer, as we've said.

There's a great importance to study in the Scripture.

That's why this church has invested in giving everyone a subscription to the

Right Now Media, because we want you to be in the Word all the time.

If you have a choice to show your kids programs on PBS or on the Right Now app,

I hope you'll choose the Right Now app, because that just won't entertain them,

but it will teach them godly principles as well.

And I know new stuff is added all the time.

But when we think about community, it means there's a common unity between people that gather together.

This morning, you've gathered together with the common unity that Jesus Christ

has done something in your life or that you're trusting that he will,

and so you're checking it out.

And so when we gather together, I want to tell you how vital it is,

how important that it is.

I want you to know that you grow spiritually when you fellowship with others.

You grow spiritually, and you have accountability when you come together with

other Christians, when you gather together with other believers.

Whether it's a larger gathering like this, or whether it was in your Sunday

school class that we had at 9.30, or whether it's going to be Wednesday night

when you gather together with a small group to study the Word,

to pray for one another and encourage one another.

Boy, it's vitally important, because this world really points to loneliness

of these great devices called cell phones have been invented,

and they really help in a lot of areas.

But one of the things they don't help with is loneliness.

Because you can get on that device, and you can see a lot of cool things,

and you can keep in touch with a lot of people.

But as soon as you put the device down, all that goes away if you're the only one there by yourself.

It's hard to laugh at a funny meme when there's no one there to hear you laugh

and that you can share it with.

When we think about loneliness, it's still a problem. I did some funerals when

I was pastor in McCall, and of course, it's a small town, so the funeral home,

there was only really one there.

And in that funeral home, the funeral director, he was also the coroner for Valley County.

And so he and I had some interesting discussions, and one of those discussions

talked about loneliness and how lonely people are.

And he followed that up by a statistic. I can't remember the exact statistic

But the number of people That were coming up To McCall to die I'm talking about

suicide The rate was enormous.

He said people would leave their homes down here in the valley and they would

go up to Valley County, a remote area, and they would end their lives.

Many lonely people couldn't find hope. Man, I wish they would have stopped by

McCall Nazarene Church before they even did that.

I wish that they would encounter people like you before they even headed up

the mountain to show them that there is hope, to show them that there's a way

forward, there's a way out, there's a God that loves them.

But even as Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie were talked about in this song,

they didn't have any hope.

Their life was a lot like the preacher says here, meaningless.

Everything is meaningless under the sun.

Well, that's a great church to go to, huh?

Go to a pastor preaching that all the time. But look again at these verses here.

See, the problem of loneliness still exists, but it was proclaimed here.

In verse 8, there was a man all alone.

He had neither son nor brother. And loneliness is having these empty feelings,

feeling like your life is purposeless,

these feelings of frustration because you want to live in relationship with

other people, but you can't make that connection.

One of the reasons we have a connect card is because we want to connect with

you. We want others to be able to connect.

We want to live life in community. We want to cultivate a good community of

faith within not just our own walls, but within the life sphere of our church.

But here the preacher talks about this man. He was all alone.

He didn't have any heirs, didn't have any family.

These empty and frustrating feelings.

Of course, we know there's many causes to loneliness. It's not just because

you don't have family, but having no relationships really adds to the sense

of loneliness, having no family, and on top of that,

working endless hours just to make ends meet, and then working all those hours

to pay bills and realizing there's nothing left and you can't really enjoy yourself.

And so you become disillusioned with even the stuff that you have.

Why am I working so hard to have all this stuff if I don't have anyone to share it with?

And so it's just like this, again, downward spiral that people get trapped in.

They don't have anyone to pass things on to. They don't have an heir.

There's no really pleasure in working because why are you working so hard if

the weekend you're just too tired to do anything or to having anything to do with anybody?

So, man, what a depressing way to start the sermon. Talking about loneliness.

And I don't want to make light of it because it's real and it's there to pounce on each of us.

No matter where we are in our life. And even if your house is full and bustling

and there's all kinds of activity, that loneliness can start to creep in.

And so we've got to guard against that.

Stand against that lonely feeling. Connect with people that we know have suffered

losses, that we know life has changed and there's difference there.

And I love that the Scripture just doesn't keep it on the sad stuff.

Man, it would have been great if Paul McCartney had found Christ and had pointed

people to Christ, starting out the song that way. It was a short song anyway.

There was still room and still time that he could have pointed people to Jesus.

Still time that Father McKenzie, in the narrative of the song,

could have had an experience with the Holy Spirit of God and had his life transformed.

And his church began to grow and then reached out to Eleanor and brought her in.

I mean, she was there at the church, obviously, because she was picking up rice so she could eat.

I know it's all fictional, but man, your brain could just go crazy with how

this could have been turned.

In our scripture, the preacher doesn't leave us just with, man,

the meaninglessness of endless work and nothing to share with anybody, no one to share it with.

But he immediately, in verse 9, turns it to really show us the solution for

loneliness is authentic community.

The solution to being lonely and alone is to find people to group up with,

to connect with in an authentic way.

Now, not in a way that you're with fake people that you can't trust because

they don't show themselves as vulnerable, that they don't open up to you and

ask you to pray for them as you are praying for them, the other people.

I mean, when we think about it, the authenticity, just being real with people is important.

And this is bore out here in the scripture, again, starting with verse 9.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

Man, there's some jobs you do. You just don't ever want to do it alone because

it's work. And it's the kind of work that it's not a fun work.

You're not like Snow White and the Seven Doors. You can't whistle while you

work because you're all alone.

And you really want someone to whistle with. You really want someone to work with.

And sometimes the time goes by so much quicker when you have someone else with you working.

The solution of authentic community is first and foremost, that you can gain

or you can work more and gain more when you have someone working with you.

You can get more work done when there's two of you rather than just one.

At least that's in concept, in theory.

Some people you work with might talk more than they work, and then you get less

done, perhaps. But there's an acronym for,

for the word team, together everyone accomplishes more.

In leadership circles, they often throw this out. And we think about it when

every person is doing what God has called them to do and is about the same mission,

they will accomplish more.

When you're a community, you're going to accomplish more than if you're just

trying to do something by yourself.

It goes on in verse 10, if either of them falls down, one can help the other up.

We can reach out and help others when someone else failed.

That's the power of community. And it's that accountability piece.

I mean, we want to do all that we can to help people from falling.

Help give them wisdom on the front end saying, I know you have freedom to make

that choice, but perhaps that's not a good choice to make.

Have you considered the consequences of making that decision?

Oh, you know what? I don't think I'd be hanging out with those people.

Here's why I think that, but I know you got to make the choice,

but I'm just telling you, be careful.

Or, you know, there might be other pieces of advice or insights or discernment

that we gain when we're with other people rather than when we're just all by ourself.

I've benefited from this point in the many years I've been a pastor because

I've had great church boards, still have a great church board.

And I might come blazing in with this great idea to change the world for Jesus?

And then the treasurer speaks up. Not you, Ron. It's another church.

Say, Pastor, that's a great idea. We love your passion. But you know what that will cost?

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. When we think about coming together and the wisdom

we can share collectively just from our life experience.

Now, we always leave room for the Holy Spirit. We always leave room to step

out in faith, but we can't even just neglect common sense when it comes to making

good choices or good decisions. We need the wisdom of other people.

There's one church in a town not near here, but they set up a little board that when people,

especially young people were making these major life decisions,

that part of their membership covenant was that they'd go to this board and

they would say, just kind of bare their soul, hey, I'm thinking about buying a house.

One, the idea was that we're going to pray for you.

We're going to bathe you in prayer right then. But secondly,

we're going to hold you accountable, and we're going to help you not just buy

a house, but are you ready financially?

Are you going about operating your life and living with good stewardship.

And then they would help just to give wisdom to the situation.

It was an interesting setup.

I'm interested to follow up and see how that's gone.

But you know, if a young person wanted to get married, they would come and just

seek the wisdom of these people in the church.

If someone was going to make a huge decision, like buying a house or buying

a car, it was just like a sounding board, but also an opportunity for accountability and prayer.

When we think about this point of helping each other, reaching out if someone's

about to fall or someone falls to pick them up and to help restore them.

Why? What was the old saying not too long ago? The church is the only organization

or the only army that shoots their wounded.

We don't want to be in that church in the spiritual war that we have. We want to restore.

We want to reach out and we want to help up.

I mean, if the person's down on the ground, They don't want to get up We can't

really help them too much We could try But there's choices that have to be made Scripture goes on.

Well, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

And in verse 11, and if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

One of the things about authentic community is that idea of warmth.

I'm not talking about everyone hopping in a bed. That's not what I'm talking

about. Okay, don't go there.

But I'm talking about the idea of warmth when you come to the church,

not just the thermostats, the temperature, but the reflection of the love that you get from people.

The preacher says here, hey, one person all by themselves, they're going to freeze.

With two are together, there's a warmth that's there. Folks,

you provide warmth when you come.

You provide the fellowship when you come. It was a hard time during the COVID

years when to preach a sermon, I had to stare into a camera and I had to give

the sermon with no one around to say amen or to let me know I was on the right track or to say, oh,

watch out. That was a tough time.

Some pastors, you know what they did? They would take their members' photos

and they would paste them on to the pews so that at least someone was looking back at them.

I hope, and my desires never go back to that because we miss the warmth.

We miss the fellowship. We miss being together.

Folks, when we think about community, we think about authentic community.

We do better together. We do more together.

We're there for accountability to make sure that we don't fall Make sure people

don't fall into sin Help guide godly decisions,

godly lives To provide that love and the care that comes from one another But also,

we can better defend ourselves when there's more of us.

I love this. Verse 12, the one may be overpowered.

I think when I read the scripture, I think of the story that Jesus told about

the prodigal son, right?

The guy's going up on the road alone, and he gets jumped by all these guys.

I mean, they beat him down, they take his stuff, and here he is just all alone right there.

He was overpowered. There's only one of him.

Some of you, I thank you for your witness. I thank you for how you share Jesus,

just in the way you live, but also in what you say and how you say it in a loving,

loving way, how you're bold for your faith.

And I know that scares the daylights out of some of you because sometimes you

feel like you're going to be that one person to stand up and to defend the faith,

to stand up for life, to stand up for the scripture.

And it can be scary, but we know when we gather in here, there's more than one.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. Isn't that great?

When there's more than one of us standing up for the faith, contending for the

faith, but we got each other's back, and we stand back to back,

and we're there watching out for anything.

We're there to stand up, to defend our brothers and sisters.

Boy, no one, I don't know about your family, but someone starts talking smack

about my family, that really makes me angry. I'm ready to fight.

Hopefully not physically. I guess it depends on who I'm fighting against.

No, I'm not that kind of guy. When we all stand together united as a family,

when we as the body of Christ stand together united, we defend the forces or

we defend ourselves from the forces of evil.

Folks, when we stand up for the family, together we unite.

We stand up for the family and what God means by the family.

It doesn't mean we don't love other people. We stand up for what God says is

true, is right, is just, is the design for that.

So I know sometimes you're made to feel by our culture.

Sometimes you're made to feel by the news media that Christianity is so passe.

Maybe they believe what John Lennon said that, boy, it's not going to be here

very much longer. But look around.

We're here because of Jesus. We're here to contend for the faith.

We're here to live out who Jesus has made us to be.

We're here to do that, not by ourselves, but in community, together.

When we gather together, we can defend ourselves, but it goes beyond that.

You see, again, verse 12.

Don't you hate when you're towing something and you use a cheap rope and it breaks?

Hopefully you don't use a cheap rope or a cheap toe strap.

And I had this toe strap in McCall the first year I was there.

It must have came with Melanie's truck.

But we went to our friend's house, and it was one of the first icinesses,

icinesses? One of the first icy times that we had.

And where we parked, we parked all summer there, but we didn't think,

oh, it's winter, and we have to go up this hill and then go up another hill.

And we didn't have good tires on the truck at that time, and we kind of got

stuck. And so I said, oh, don't worry. I've got a tow strap.

Let me go get it. So we hooked it up to the truck.

We hooked it up to this other better four-wheel drive. And man,

he started going and that toe strap got really, really tight.

And then you heard these sounds.

Like a creaking sound, like you knew something bad was going to happen because

the truck wasn't moving, but that thing was so tight.

Next thing we know, pop, that thing just explodes. Luckily, no one was around.

We had at least enough sense to step back.

Then the guy that was in the other truck, he said, I got something better than

that. I'm like, man, you could have told me earlier.

Well, I didn't know you had cheap stuff, he said.

He got his good toe strap, multi-ply, multi-layers, and he hooked that thing

up and no problem getting unstuck.

You know, a cord of three strands. When there's two people, that's great.

When there's three of you together, man, then you're not only on the defensive,

you can go on the offensive because you're not just watching one another's back,

but you've got a better degree, 360 degree scope of watching out, of living.

Folks, we need each other is what I'm saying with this whole sermon.

We don't want to be like the lonely guy who's working and working and trying

to make his way, but for what?

Living by himself, not with anybody else. But if we can plug in together,

and I hope if you've been new, like within the past year or so,

that you've been able to plug in somewhere.

There's plenty of opportunities. We try to go over and above.

We've got a new group, of course, I've said it, this is my third time saying

it, But our seniors group, if you're just looking for fellowship,

looking to get to know people, see, Melanie's not here to make sure I talk right.

Friday night, six o'clock. Plug in. Bring some food to share.

We're Nazarenes. You got to have food.

Folks, there's an open door. If you're having a hard time plugging in, come see me. Let's talk.

Maybe there's not a group started yet that really meets what you're looking

for. Maybe you're the first one to start it.

As we go on in the life of this church, we're going to have just that.

We're going to have life groups that will meet outside of Wednesday, outside of Sunday.

Man, we'll meet in people's homes to really open up the door to explore more

and more about the Scripture, to really help meet the needs that we see that

come out in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You see, in Acts chapter 2, we really get a picture, we get a great snapshot

Acts 2 · chapter mention

of what the church is supposed to be.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 42, all the way to 47, I'm not displaying it,

Acts 2:42

but it just gives us that picture of the first church, the early church.

It says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship,

and the breaking of bread into prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common,

selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone that's had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Boy, it gives us the picture.

The picture is not one of communism, which a lot of times people try to squeeze this verse into that.

Well, they did sell all their things and they gave to everyone.

Everything was in common. Well, yes and no.

Their idea was not to form a government. It was to help people out and to bring

others to Christ, which was happening.

Any communist nation I've read of doesn't do that.

So how do we do that? Really quickly as we close this morning,

on the back of your bulletin, there's several things listed there.

The first one is to be intentional in building relationships.

I like to say it like this, always keep a seat at the table.

Always just have an extra seat there. You know, people are like Legos.

Not that we hurt if we get stepped on, although we do. If we step on one, I should say.

But you know, when you have a Lego, So there's only a certain amount of little

pegs that can be latched onto.

We always need to have one of those pegs open to hook something else on,

to have another person come into our lives.

You've got your family. They should be around your table. You've got your friends.

They should be around your table.

You've got people that you're sharing Jesus with and trying to live life with.

Have that extra seat open for them. And then always keep an extra seat there

for someone that God will lead into your path.

We think about the practical step here, we've got to go about it and say we

want relationships with others.

Folks, we have some great worship times together.

Sunday is the highlight of my week. I love getting together with you.

I wish our greeting time was like 15 minutes at least so I could get around to everybody.

But we need to be intentional about not just being here, but hey,

would you meet me this week and let's have a coffee or let's have lunch or dinner

to meet outside and to have an extra spot for someone who doesn't know Christ,

for someone that God puts in our place that we need to share with.

All right. Secondly, what I'd say as far as application this morning,

join or start or participate in a small group.

Get together with other Christians outside of the Sunday morning worship time. Just gather.

You know, it doesn't have to be really planned out or just say, hey, get together.

If you're like, if your week's pretty busy, there's a neat feature on the Right

Now Media that you can start a virtual group.

You know, those are the kind of groups that were started during the COVID when

people still wanted to get together. It's like a Zoom meeting.

They've got that where you could watch a program together. So you've got kids

that are off at college or off in the military or off somewhere,

but you still, you found a Bible study you want to do with them.

You can set this up to where you can watch and have a conversation with them

about the topic of the Bible study. It's so cool.

But plug in somewhere is what I'm saying.

You will be blessed. Others in that group will be blessed as well.

Three, offer and seek support. If you've got something to offer people,

if you've got an area of expertise and God wants you to use it to bless the

church, come see me and let's talk about where we could plug you in.

If you're needing support, I don't know if you saw in the bulletin,

but we have a cancer support,

called Courage Through Cancer right there at the top of the bulletin Now you

can have some encouragement You can encourage others You can pray for other

people You can be prayed for in this group If you want to join this I would

talk to Joe Howell back there,

She'll get you connected with that Some great encouraging things Some resources

to help as you're going through that kind of thing.

Fourth, serve together. There's

nothing greater than getting together to do some work for the Lord.

And I got to tell you, we were cleaning up the playground area last fall,

and we had a lot of varying ages of people that were out there that were just

working their tail off to get the old bark up and to put the new stuff down.

And there was one young lady from our church. She was out there putting some

of the young men to shame and how hard she was working. But man, that was awesome.

Seeing everyone together working for the Lord.

Serve together. That's how you build community, to have a common project that

you're working on. Going on a mission trip.

Boy, that will build community faster than anything.

Because not only do you get to be with someone 24-7 practically,

you get to have their aroma spreading through the van as you're driving back

and forth from the work site.

You get to see what ticks them off or what makes them happy.

I mean, you just live life together, the whole gamut of it. So serve together.

I would say find an accountability partner.

It doesn't have to be someone that's going to have a checklist following you

around wherever you go, but it could be someone that you trust to say,

I'm trying to grow in this area of my life. Would you hold me accountable?

Just ask me, hey, how you doing with that?

Maybe offer me a scripture. Maybe offer me some encouragement.

I would suggest they be of the same gender.

When you find that accountability partner.

Last but not least, and I've alluded to this all morning, pray together. I love this church.

I'm so glad that God called me. I miss all my other churches,

don't get me wrong, and I love people that are in those churches,

but God's called me here.

One of the things that I love is we have people at the altars every Sunday morning.

I want to tell you, if the Lord ever moves on your heart to come to the altar,

you don't have to just do it during that time.

If God's moving on you, then you come. We have kids that come down.

We have parents, grandparents.

We have people that just come, and sometimes we have these prayer cards out

here. You come and you pray. Pray for that person.

Pray for what's going on in their lives. Folks, when we pray together,

it means we're letting down our guard.

It means we're saying, I'm not perfect.

It means I have a need, and I'd love for you to share this need with me.

Scripture tells us to bear one another's burdens, right? It just doesn't mean

physically, but I think spiritually as well. Say, would you pray for me?

I'm very grateful in my life now and in the past when someone says,

Pastor, I've been praying for you.

I don't know what your need was, but I've been praying for you.

But you know what? I knew what my need was.

I knew that I should have asked for prayer, but guess what?

God intervened and had someone praying for me when either I was too proud or

too busy to ask someone, hey, would you lay hands on me and just pray for me?

Would you help me with this?

Folks, as we wrap this up this morning. We live in a lonely world.

We live in a world where people are just looking for something.

They're feeling their loneliness, filling it up with the wrong things. Man, we got Jesus.

We got the hope for all eternity that we can share.

One, grasp fully onto who Jesus is and let that hope just go through you.

Have the faith in Christ that he could do anything and that he can do anything

through you. Be willing.

And then go and share that hope with other people.

You can't do it if you're by yourself. You got to be with other people to share the hope with them.

So go in and find those people that need hope. Hey, they might be right next

to you, right next door, right the next field down. You don't know.

But just be open to being guided by the Holy Spirit and let him move you and put you in place.

If you're daring enough to pray that prayer, God, use me where you want and

send me where you need me to go. He will answer that prayer.

You'll be blessed, but so will them other people as well. So take that this morning.

Plug in. If you want a fresh start in faith, plug in with other believers and

just trust God for what he's going to do.

Would you pray with me this morning before we have our closing song and our

benediction? Father, we love you, God.

So grateful to you that you've placed us in a place where we can connect with others.

And Lord, you've got a unique church here. There's people from all different

walks of life. Lord, there's people that have different experiences.

Lord, there's people that came to faith in different ways, but all through Jesus.

And God, we need each other. We really do believe that we can accomplish more

when we're all about the mission, when we're all about what you've called us to.

And so, Lord, help us to have a fresh start with a community that we're cultivating

that faith and building those relationships with one another.

Lord, keep fear away. We know that perfect love casts out fear.

And Father, bring us together, we pray.

It's in Jesus' name that we ask this this morning. Amen.