The Anomaly of an Unchurched Follower of Jesus

Hey, good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome to Church Online this morning.

Sunday Funday.

It's the best day.

That's so good.

Best day of the week.

I love it.

And we're so glad you're here.

And we're believing God's gonna use our time together to speak to us and challenge us, encourage us.

And so we're just we're so expectant.

Hope that you are, and so glad that you decided to spend part of your weekend with us.

My name is Brandon.

I'm Cody.

Yep.

And we are just uh really looking forward to what God's gonna do.

So if you've been tracking with us, we've been in a series around community uh for the past few weeks.

We would highly encourage you to go back and look up the rest of those online if you missed the past couple weeks.

But we're jumping into week three and we're really talking about what it means to be uh a city set on a hill.

So we've talked about um what it means to be in the family with God, but then how uh when God brings us into the family, that means by de facto we're in family with others and in relationship.

So we've learned how we're supposed to be responsible siblings to one another in the family of God.

We say it all the time that the church is not like a family, but we are a family.

And so uh this series has really been helping us learn how to be uh that together.

And then today we're talking about how to be like to others and that really the family becomes a city set on a hill uh to be a witness to the world around us.

And so we're excited about that, we're jumping into that.

So get on the edge of your seat, get ready for it.

But before we get there, a couple things to know.

We're gonna download that Church to the Grove app if you've not done that.

I know that we sound like a broken record, but it is the best spot for you to land to know what's going on with the life of our church.

Uh stay connected, take next steps, to get involved in a community group, um, to give, to do.

I mean, you can do anything and everything on it.

I mean, not anything here, but everything revolving around the church you can do on it.

Um I think that we are just transitioned to a new giving platform.

So that's you know, you get all the information there.

Uh just lots of lots of changes as we move into the fall.

Not lots of changes, but you know, as we're moving to the fall, we got a lot of things going on.

Um, and that app is gonna be the best spot for you to go for um any resources that you may need.

And that's uh, you know, is that it?

That's it?

Okay, that's great.

You did it.

Yeah, so make sure you download that app.

Uh we did also just to mention uh for those of you who uh are kind of new to our church, we just had a family business meeting last week and um super exciting.

We voted, uh the family voted unanimously to move forward with the building project um and to take some next steps towards what it looks like to put a new a new facility on our Walk Grove campus because we're just we're running out of space, man.

It's amazing, and God is moving and uh and we're seeing life change happen and we're just full of.

And so uh we're so pumped about what God's doing there.

Um, and you can probably find out more info uh on the Apple website and stuff about that, but just to make make you aware God is on the move and um he is growing his church and it is so exciting.

We even just baptized a handful of people this past week.

Um, we've had uh I think it was over 20 people that have uh joined family to be a part of the family just in this past week.

Um, and so all that to say, if you have been watching for a while and kind of kicking the tires on um this whole church thing, we'd love to just invite you to come be a part.

Uh we're so grateful for technology that allows us to do stuff like this.

Uh, but there's also nothing like being in the room.

And so we would invite you to come to one of our gatherings or we'll have another family membership dinner uh coming up this in the next month or so where you can come, you can ask questions, and we can just hear more about your story and that sort of thing.

But uh just want to let you know that that's kind of some of the stuff that's happening uh around our church life.

And then also we are kicking off community groups soon.

So speaking of family, we would highly encourage you to take that step uh and not just to consume content online, but also to step into community because uh God calls us to be a part of his family, and you can't be in a family without people around you that are helping you grow and uh take more steps towards him.

And so uh make sure you're on the lookout for those coming up September, I believe, and um, we'll be launching those groups so you can find those on the app website as well.

Um, so all that being said, we are jumping into our next installment of community.

So make sure you're leaning in, grab those sermon notes like Cody mentioned earlier, and uh get ready for God to speak to us this morning.

Alright.

Well man, it is great to be with my church family.

It's so good to be back.

Um I missed being here last week.

Uh uh I mentioned uh to one of our ladies.

I said it, I said, did you you know I asked her a question?

I said, Did you miss me last week?

She said, Well, I wasn't here last week.

Well then you didn't miss me last week.

And so, but um, I'm so thankful for Jonah um stepping in, and I've heard nothing but incredible uh comments and responses about how well Jonah uh preached the word, and so we're so thankful to have staff and guys like him.

Uh I I will tell you funny, funny.

So Jonah, uh last Sunday morning, uh I get a text, I don't know, it was a little bit after uh 10 o'clock, and Jonah says, Have we ever had a service, a gathering, that that has ended in under an hour?

And so I I knew what he was getting at, and I and he he preached short.

That's what he emphasized.

He preached short, and the service went shorter, and I answered it.

Not from my not from my knowledge that we ever had a gathering that lasted another hour, and it better not ever happen again.

And so I I think the second gathering went a little bit longer because we had a bad rhythm, right?

Listen, I don't care how short he preaches, I'm preaching the word as long as I need to, okay?

I know that scares you.

Especially if you if it's your first or yet or second time here, my name is Rod.

Grateful to have you with us.

Hopefully, you're welcome warmly.

Our mission here at Church of the Grove is to reach people far from God and to lead them to become followers of Jesus.

That's our heartbeat.

And so we we want to be a family.

We want to be a church that is warm and friendly, but but even along with that, we want to be a church centered on Jesus.

And so we, it's great for us to be friendly, but we need to make sure you have an experience where you encounter Jesus Christ, and that is our heartbeat.

That is our heartbeat.

The title of today's message, and I usually don't even tell you a title, but the title of today's message is the anomaly of an unchurched follower of Jesus.

The anomaly of an unchurched follower of Jesus.

We're in this series, Tom, titled Community.

We're talking about community and what it means to be a church family, what it means to be connected into the life of a family of followers of Jesus, where you are experiencing not just vertical relationship with God, but horizontal connection with the community of other believers.

Jesus resides in us.

When we put our faith in Jesus, he gives us the Holy Spirit.

And so Jesus is in us, and we experience the fellowship with one another.

We experience Jesus in other people.

But today we're talking about sharing our faith.

As a community of believers, we are to share our faith, and we all are responsible to share our faith.

And so let me I was just kind of going over this.

And I, you know, I love sharing my faith.

I feel responsible as believers, not as a pastor, but as a follower of Jesus.

All of us are responsible to share our faith.

Some of us have the gift of evangelism, and I think that's probably a small percentage.

Some of us are scared to death to talk to other people about Jesus.

And that's okay.

You can grow into it, you can overcome that fear by stepping out in faith.

But I love I love to talk to people about Jesus.

It's just kind of a little bit naturally wired in me.

This is just a couple of weeks ago.

I was I was at Waffle House.

I was at Waffle House with my friend Larry, and and I and when I walk into Watt House, they all yell, hey Rush.

Because I've been going there for 18 years.

I've been meeting people there for 18 years and having breakfast, and some of those ladies have been there as long or longer than I have been going there.

And one of those ladies has has been dealing with the issue of cancer.

So I know she went to around cancer, she experienced healing and freedom from cancer.

Amen.

But the bad news is the cancer, she has now uh cancer has shown up in her body again.

And I and I just stopped for a second.

I talked to her about the Lord.

I've talked to her about the Lord before we talked about how I I said, I'm gonna pray for you, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray for you.

But I just said I said, look, can I just ask you a question?

And I can't, you know, I know her by name.

I don't want to I don't have permission to you know, I didn't get permission to talk about her or tell her story because I want to be careful because this is uh gonna be online, but I said, can I just share with you so I said I got this little FDA rightful on my on my on my arm here on my wrist and I said I've talked to you about prayer, I've been talking to you about the Lord, but I want to ask you a bit more of a personal question.

And I said this little this is what FDA calls the four.

This heart means Jesus loves you.

Jesus loves you, God loves you, He wants a relationship with you.

This division symbol represents the fact that we're separated from God by saying so.

She's like, yes, I understand that.

And then I get to the cross.

I said, You know what happened with the cross?

And she said, Yeah, Jesus died on the cross.

I said, He died on the cross for you.

He died on the cross to save you from your sin.

And to offer you forgiveness, and offer you eternal life, and offer you.

And I said, Do you know what this one is?

And I said, I just need to answer you.

Have you?

Have you ever done a point for you?

Knowing that you're about to go through another room.

And so so last week I you know, I I've had since I've been with you, I preached two funerals.

Since the last time I preached you, I preached two funerals.

And so last week I was with we we had a we lost a 29-year-old um uh niece.

I lost a 29-year-old niece last week.

And so last week I'm I'm uh a lot of her friends from Jacksonville um that are unchurched without Jesus.

And so we're sitting around uh tables and talking uh over eating and and and sharing.

And I I I took a napkin and I drew, I drew out what I call a three circles.

And I and I'm gonna I'm gonna train you on that.

If you don't know, if you've never seen that, we've done it before, we've trained you before.

So if you're new here, I'll I'll explain that.

But it basically explains how God designed this world to be perfect, but now it's been broken by sin.

But but hallelujah.

Jesus came and he lived and died and he rose again to save us and to give us the hope that he will restore everything back to the way it was before broken.

destroyed our world.

And so I shared, I shared that.

This was a fun experience that I had sharing my faith.

Back in May, I have an aunt who's a widow.

I lost an uncle during COVID.

And so I mean my family have to we share in taking care of her.

And so I had gone by her house to do some business.

I knew that Loganville baseball was playing in state championship, I think in the semifinals or quarterfinals down in Locust Grove.

And so I drove I love baseball, loved their team some of their coaches attend here.

And I went down to to watch them play and so I'm I'm standing I'm standing on the Loganville side right next to the dugout and for the first couple of innings we're just cheering we're, you know, it's an intense game very close game.

And all of a sudden these four young men come come up behind me.

Behind me I had a couple other friends that were standing next to me watching the game.

They come up behind me and they were just rowdy.

They were just kind of rowdy and and you know they're they're joking around they were just being teenagers.

But it was getting on my nerves.

And uh and so they weren't from Loganville.

They weren't from Locust Grove.

They were from another school down in that area.

And so I said well I'm going to have a little fun with them and I'm going to obey Jesus at the same time and so I turned right after right in between the innings after third out I turned around and I said hey guys so where do y'all go to school?

We go to Ola.

And I said well that's that's kind of that's not this is neither one of these teams are playing your team's not in the playoffs here.

And he said, well we all grew up with these guys and we're just kind of and so they were being rowdy I said well can listen I I said let me tell you I got I got a question I said I have a$20 bill you know right here.

I was just and I said guys I want to have a little fun I I I have a$20 bill I said if you can name or quote just six of the Ten Commandments I said have you ever heard of the Ten Commandments?

They go yeah yeah we've heard ten commandments I said if you can just name six of them I said there's four boys I said the first one that gets a six I'll give you I'll give you this$20 bill and they're like man oh don't lie I mean they they they start don't lie don't steal you know they get they they I think one of them got up to four they got to four and they're like man I can't I can't I shouldn't I said I said well I said well my obviously you're not going to get the$20 bills but I had I had made them promise I said hey if I if I'll I'll I'll I'll reward you if you listen to what I want what I ask you I said let me ask you a second question you you told me don't lie and don't steal or two I said have y'all have y'all kept those two perfectly any any any of you four kept those two or any of the other commandments I said you don't even know the rest of them hardly have you kept those two they're like no I said well I hadn't either I said would you let me just explain something to you real quick I said God gave us law he gave us the Ten Commandments to teach us something to teach us how incapable we are of living perfectly and Jesus I told him I said I said Jesus even came and and he and he took the the law the Ten Commandments to another level he said he said you maybe you you haven't ever stolen anything but if you've ever wanted something that somebody has that's not yours you're just as guilty.

One of the Ten Commandments is do not commit adultery I said y'all y'all need to know that one and I said but Jesus said you hey you may not you think you may not have committed adultery but if you've ever lusted after anybody in your heart you're just as guilty I said so Jesus teaches us man we are totally incapable of keeping the law and they were like one boy looked at me he said are you a preacher I said maybe one boy said I go to church right around here around the corner I go to church right around the corner I said listen it's not about church not about being a preacher I said let me tell you something Jesus loves every one of you boys and I said because you have been so good in listening to me I said you don't get the$20 bill but I'll give you a$10 bill you go to the concession saying but listen to me.

I want you to think about what I just shared and I want you to know that Jesus loved you and he died for you and he provides forgiveness for you.

They grabbed the$10 bill they said thank you and then they ran like crazy and I watched the rest of the game in peace so sharing your faith has so so and I it has a lot of benefit you want you want to you want to scatter the crowd just start talking about but I mean it's but I'm I'm telling you it's just kind of ingrained in me but here here's what I want to here's here's the lesson for today all of us should share our faith but we're we're in this series called community and we've been talking about how our culture listen our culture is used to and has become about putting the me before the we putting the me before the we and so um I I I remember when I entered into ministry became a believer I would listen to these preachers tell these stories and these preachers would tell these stories about how they would get on an airplane and and I could name I could name at least two or three of these preachers that would tell these stories they'd get on an airplane and they'd say you know I had I just I struck up a conversation with my neighbor and and and and and and man I I shared the gospel with them and led them to Christ right there on the plane.

I led them to Jesus right there.

And I remember I man I want to do that I want to do something like that.

I remember I and I got on an airplane one time and I sat with a lady and and and I you know I started I asked her a question about her faith and she said I don't know I don't want to talk like that and she turned away from me for the rest of the flight so that it doesn't always happen so easily but here's here's what one of my mentors challenged me he said Russ if you share your faith and lead somebody to Christ and you you don't have any way to connect them into a discipling follow-up community relationship he said it's possible for you to do as much harm as you are doing good because you've given this person this sense false sense of security without any of the community that God desires for that person to grow in faith.

And so the doctrine of salvation is called soteriology the doctrine of the church is called ecclesiology and I'm telling you those go together like this when it comes to evangelism and sharing our faith the problem is that we've been socialized into an American paradigm that would be described as expressive individualism where we're we're where to understand salvation is just simply the individual responding or repeating a prayer and having a personal relationship with Jesus.

And I said a few weeks ago a couple weeks ago that that phrase is not even in the New Testament yes we have a personal access to Jesus and we walk with Jesus and it's personal because the Holy Spirit resides in us but we are to be into community in community involved in community and here's what we don't find in the New Testament we do not find an unchurched follower of Jesus in the New Testament now I'm gonna give you a caveat because any of you that are smart and you know your Bible there's two caveats to that one is the thief on the cross the thief on the cross he expressed faith in Jesus and he did not have a chance to go into a church community so so what that is a caveat but Jesus said you will you'll be with me in paradise if you want community if you're gonna have somebody Jesus is probably the best person to lead you to faith in Jesus.

The other caveat is the Ethiopian eunuch and I don't have time to go into those but I understand I know that that that might be a response but salvation is becoming a part of a new family it's it's it's it's this simultaneous relationship with Jesus and entering into a New Testament family.

I've shared this quote a couple weeks ago Cyprian of Carthage who's just one of the early church fathers he says you cannot have God for your father unless you have the church for your mother now I'm going to read a passage of scripture and I want us to stand as we read it.

Would you stand with me?

Let's read it Matthew 28 18 19 and 20 Jesus came and told his disciples I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit teach these new disciples to obey all the commands that I have given you and be sure of this I am with you always even to the end of the age go back to verse 19 and let's read verse 19 let's read it out loud together verse 19 therefore go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit father bless bless this time of teaching in Jesus' name amen y'all have a seat now my early experiences in church as a church member and then later as a as a staff member is that there were two distinct programs evangelism there's an evangelism program and there was a discipleship program.

And then I went one of my early first classes in seminary was on evangelism and I can remember it like it was yesterday.

And we read this passage of scripture and my professor said there is no distinction in those two programs.

There should not be two separate programs in the church there should not be an evangelism program and there should not be a discipleship program.

There should be a making disciples program you see it and here's why there is one imperative verb in this passage of scripture and it's it is the verb to make disciples I could spend a whole little I could spend a whole sermon on that I'm not going to but he says we're we are to go and make disciples that's what we're called to do we're not we're not given the command go convert people to Jesus go make converts go go lead people into a prayer that's not the calling the calling and the obedience for us as the church is to make disciples we yes we lead people to Jesus but we are just as responsible as how we disciple them into the character and the image of Jesus Christ as well they they become a part of a family how does that happen Jesus's disciples he he for Jesus' disciples this meant that you would even loosen loosen the bonds and the loyalty of your natural biological family in order to unite with God's eternal family now ideally your whole family your biological family loves Jesus it's a natural fit for the whole family you as parents have have been led to follow Jesus and you've raised your children and and hopefully if not all of them they they if they if not all of them are following Jesus all of them have heard and understand what it means to follow Jesus that's God's intention but our problem is this individualistic culture expressive individualism that says hey you do it your way you just follow Jesus how you want to I shared my faith with with I've shared my faith multiple times with with men and they they they'll tell me man I just I just experienced God when I'm in a deer stand out there in the deer stand God's just all all around me right before I put a bullet in that precious little Bambi and I'm like that's great I I do too I experienced God in creation I experienced God in the beach I experienced God in the woods but but I I am I listen there it we are called as believers to unite with a family and so salvation is all about what God has done for me as an individual that's that individualistic culture.

Somebody would say salvation is all about what God has done for me as an individual that's the problem.

What's the answer?

Here's what Stanley Grinn says he says according to the Bible God's ultimate desire is to create from all nations a reconciled people living within a new creation and enjoying the presence of a triune God this biblical vision of community is the goal of history this biblical vision of community is the goal of history now I'm not gonna have you stand but if you want to turn in your Bibles uh turn to 1 Peter 1 Peter chapter 2 we're gonna we're gonna transition and I'm gonna walk through a little bit of 1 Peter and hopefully give you an idea of what we're talking about.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Now what who is Peter?

He is writing this letter he is writing it to all the scattered believers the church has been persecuted they're facing death I mean they are facing they're being thrown to the lions they're they're they're being thrown to they're being put into the um into the large Colosseums to battle and and to be to be eaten by animals all kinds of things they're there some of them being crucified some of them Nero would have parties and he would light his garden at night by burning Christians at the stake so in the midst of this Peter is writing to all the believers that are scattered and he says 1 Peter 2 1 through 5 he says so get rid of all of evil behavior get rid of all of evil behavior be done with all deceit hypocrisy jealousy and all unkind speech like newborn babies you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation here's what he's saying you you new believers you young babies crave crave the pure milk of the word so you can grow into the full experience of salvation cry out for this nourishment now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness you are coming to Christ who is the living cornerstone of God's temple he was rejected by people he was chosen by God for great honor and here's what listen to what he says he says you are living stones you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple you are all living stones you are the stones you are the church you are the temple this is not a building this is not this isn't a church this building is not a church we're going to do an expansion that's not the church you know why we're doing an expansion is because our church family is continuing to grow many of you are reaching out you're bringing new people you've seen what it's been like it's not as packed today but over the past several weeks it's just it's it's it's it's crazy I mean it it it's it's a zoo sometimes all of you have kids it's great keep having them but we gotta we gotta build a building for the space and we've got to remodel this one and I got some good news and I got some not so good news.

The good news is we have plenty of money to build that building out there.

The not so good news is some of you are holding on to it and and listen we're we're we're not gonna be shy about I mean I'm I'm I got a wedding there's a wedding that's gonna happen right here September 30th and so after I I pay for that wedding I'm looking forward to turning and just and experiencing sacrificial generosity so we can build that building.

Can I get an amen?

Please verse nine let me so verse five he says you're living stones what's more you are holy priest through the mediation of Jesus Christ you offer sacrifices that please God verse nine but you are not like that he's talking about people that are ungodly for you are a chosen people you are a chosen people you're a chosen people you're the elect you are the living church of Jesus Christ you're the called out you are royal priests a holy nation God's very own possession as a result you can show others listen to this as a result of being a people we can show others the goodness of God for he calls you out of darkness into his wonderful light I love this next verse once you had no identity as a people now you are God's people English Standard version that I study out of primarily it says once you're not a people but now you are a people a people of God once you were not a people now you are God's people you are God's people once you received no mercy now you've received God's mercy hallelujah right we've received mercy dear friends I warn you as a as temporary residents and foreigners you know that you now are a you have no citizenship in this world so Russ I've got a passport I do too it says I'm a member of the kingdom of the United States of America but you know what I am now a member of God's kingdom and that supersedes and is way more important than anything an earthly passport would say he says you you are temporary residents here foreigners keep to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your own souls we know that the the our enemies are the world and the devil and the flesh be careful to live properly among the Listen to this.

Listen to this.

This is how we do evangelism.

This is how we this is one of the ways that we share, that we demonstrate who we are.

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.

Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

This is heartbreaking and heart-wrenching for me.

Because we live in a culture where the world looks at the church primarily as a group of people that are fighting and can't agree, and they're aligned with a particular political party.

And they put us in a box and they think of us in ways that are absolutely disconnected from Jesus Christ and what he did in his life and his death and his resurrection.

We are not to be known for infighting.

We're to be known for how we serve each other inside the church.

We are to have a distinct way of loving and treating one another.

But then we are to be known for how we serve outside the church.

How we love our community.

And so I'll share my story.

And when I put my faith in Jesus Christ as an 18-year-old, my my older, both of my older brothers had invested and shared with me the gospel.

I had a grandmother that prayed for me.

And so on New Year's Eve, 1983, I I just I actually walked forward in a service.

And I and I and I acknowledged that I want to follow Jesus.

I want to know Jesus.

And as soon as that happened, there were there were I was in a church and we had what we called community groups.

Covenant community groups, that's what it was called.

And so it was not a Baptist church.

They didn't have Sunday school, the old Sunday school style.

We called them covenant community groups.

And all of the groups of people my age, they started fighting over me.

Come to our group.

You come to our group.

No, you come to our group.

No, you come to our group.

And man, I felt so special.

I felt so wanted.

I felt so loved.

And it was just, it was a natural process for me to just to want to go where I was wanted.

I can share you stor, I can share stories with you about my neighborhood that I've lived in since 2004.

What is that?

19 years this fall, October will be 19 years in my neighborhood.

And so there's a couple in my neighborhood that go to our church, or they might be at the next service, Denny and Tara.

And so I they moved into the neighborhood, and so Jill and I invited them to church, and they came.

They came to one of our services over while we were still meeting at the high school.

They liked it so much they didn't come back.

And they didn't.

They didn't come back.

They didn't come back at all.

And so we're, you know, Jill and I were like, well, what, you know, whatever it wasn't.

They, you know, it the God was working.

God was working.

So another family moved in our neighborhood.

They started coming to our church.

Jared and Samantha started coming to our church, and they had a daughter the same age as Denny and Tara's daughter.

Are you following the story?

I know it's complicated, right?

And so, so, so Jared and Samantha develop a relationship with Denny and Tara.

Jared gives Denny the Bible on a CD, in a CD set, and tells him, hey, just he, because Denny works at the airport, he says, he says, listen to this as you go back and forth.

And so Denny started listening to the word of God as he's commuting back and forth from work.

And so God starts working all of a sudden, man, before you know it, Denny and Tara are back.

Now I'm a little upset because they they rejected me.

But Jared and Samantha, God worked through them.

And so, but we baptized Denny and Tara and their daughter Mackenzie.

I believe we baptized all three of them at the same time over at the school.

And so they live next door to this other couple named James and Brenda.

And James is sitting right down here.

James, James has become one of my best friends in life.

I mean, I listen, I this guy right here, I feel like I could tell him anything, and he would love me regardless.

And so, so James was not a believer.

He was not following Jesus.

I asked James for permission.

Actually, I just said I'm telling your story today.

And so James started coming to our community group.

Danny Terry, you know, we had some of our neighbors, people outside our neighborhood.

And James comes primarily for the food.

But he starts, he just starts asking questions.

Sometimes we we try to, Jared would lead the group.

And James would just, he, he asked question after question.

And we just we try to answer them.

Sometimes I can't answer any question.

I don't know.

I'm gonna go find out.

I'll try to find out.

We'll find out.

And so this is probably a two-year-plus process.

And I walk, I walk in my neighborhood.

I like to walk.

And I'm walking past James' house.

I walk up to James.

We and we we used to talk.

And he says, hey man, I'm in.

I'm in.

I'm like, what?

He said, I'm in.

When can I get baptized?

Yeah, yeah.

He said, how much do you charge to do baptism?

I said, more than you can afford.

He said, I'm in.

And so we baptized James and Danny and Tara's pool with our community group.

Praise it.

Is that not, is that not a great hallelujah?

Tell you another story.

This is just a few weeks ago.

We had a whole series, the summer, Summer with Jesus walking, going through the uh the gospel of Matthew.

And so I remember, we were called on Matthew 16.

I remember that I remember that Sunday and I walked in the hallway out into the lobby.

I love talking to people after services.

And so I'm out in the in the lobby, and this young lady who has been discipling one of her students.

This young lady is a teacher.

And so she's been discipling and investing in one of her students.

And she caught she said, Hey, come in, come in, come back in here.

And so I come in here and she says, Hey.

And she shares.

I don't have permission to share this story yet either, so I'm not going to say her say her name.

Um But she says, uh tell Pastor Russ what just happened.

And she was a bit shy.

But after after the gathering, after the service, she asked, she started asking questions.

And she, listen, she went on mission trip this summer with us.

She's been coming for weeks, months, maybe close to a year.

And all of a sudden she's got several questions.

And that morning, she turned and she put her faith in Jesus.

It wasn't even in the service.

It was after the gathering.

So she said, Tell Pastor Russ what you did.

She said, I gave my life to Jesus.

Let me tell you, that that young lady, she leveraged what she does for a living and her whole family.

Her parents, they all adopted that young lady into this community, into the in into the into their family, and they begin to invest and share the gospel so she would understand a beautiful example of how God works.

I could go on and on.

Most of the people in my community gathered over at Jeff and Vicky's Slender's house, and they're they're sitting right back here.

And they brought some of their friends.

Anybody heard of the movie The Jesus Revolution?

Anyone heard of that movie?

How many of you seen it?

How many of you seen it?

If you don't, you need to go watch it.

It is a very accurate depiction.

Now I remember my brother, my older brothers were impacted in a way by the ripples of that Jesus Revolution, that Jesus movement in the early 70s.

And so they brought a friend who was who was actually there, who was in Southern California when all that happened and was in the church where that took place with Chuck Smith.

Some of those great things.

And so people were converted to Jesus.

They came to this, there were these steps.

Somebody came to faith in Jesus, then they got involved in a local church, and then they experienced biblical discipleship.

But now it's not, it's not like that anymore.

Number one, we don't live in a culture with a predominantly biblical Christian worldview.

We live in a post-modern, post-Christian culture.

And so now it's not a neat, tidy one, two, three order.

Sometimes people get connected to a group.

Then they put their faith in Jesus and they begin the process of continuing to grow.

I've got some more notes.

I don't have time.

So we're going to stop for a second and we're just going to pray.

Here's what we're going to do.

I want you to pray.

Pray about your responsibility to share your faith and pray for our church to be a church that reflects.

That truly reflects the character of Jesus.

That's how we're going to change the world.

That's how we're going to see revival.

Can you pray with this right again?

Father.

We want to see you work.

We want to see you move.

God, I desperately want to see people become the faith in Jesus.

I want to see.

I want to see us become a church that truly reflects the character of Jesus.

So and I believe we see it.

I believe we're seeing some of that, Lord.

People are people are saying, you know, church at the Grove is a church that loves its community.

I hear that.

I hear that.

But Lord, I want to, I want it, I want you to continue to give us a hunger.

Give us a hunger.

A hunger for Jesus.

A hunger for holiness.

A hunger for ourselves to be changed.

A hunger for the word of God.

A hunger.

God, that we'd be more hungry for the things of God than we would for we'd be hungry than anything else in the culture.

We'd be more excited about new believers.

We'd be excited about what God is doing.

And so, Father, our prayer is that you would ignite a fire in us.

Ignite a fire.

And some of you, there might be one or two of you, there might be one or two people that are here this morning.

There might be three, there might be four that have yet to put their faith in Jesus.

Listen to me.

Listen very closely.

If you want to acknowledge and you desire faith in Jesus this morning, you want to turn and put your faith in him, would you just lift up your hand right where you are and say, I want, I want to put my faith in Jesus?

Would you just lift your hand right where you are?

Man, I see that.

Thank you, brother.

God bless you.

Anybody?

Anyone?

Who else?

Somebody else that would say, I want Jesus in my life.

I want to put my faith in Jesus.

Father, thank you for this young man.

Thank you for this brother that acknowledged he wants to put his faith in Jesus.

God, would you continue to just give a him give a hunger to him to connect in community and a desire to follow Jesus, not just by himself, but but in relationship with other believers.

Connect him.

Help us to be a hungry church because Father, you are worthy.

You are worthy of glory.

You are worthy of honor.

You are worthy.

God, we will spend eternity.

And so we'll spend eternity in your presence proclaiming that you are worthy.

So let's just right now get used to it right here.

We pray.

We thank you.

Thank you.

Would you stand with us?

What a privilege.

We're so grateful that you decided to spend just part of your weekend with us, and we hope that you are challenged, but also encouraged around God's word this morning and really encouraged to take some next steps towards him.

And one of the biggest steps that we would encourage this week is to be thinking about community, be thinking about how to get plugged in to life-giving relationships and the family of God.

And so, like we said at the top of the broadcast, we offer community groups and we'll be kicking those off here in the next few weeks.

And you can find out more about that on the APRA website.

But uh we just highly encourage and challenge you to step into community.

It's hard, it's messy, it's it's yes, uncomfortable and all the things like me.

And you love people.

It's true, it's true, it's energizing.

Yep, great.

Yeah, but it's in those relationships and in those environments that we're really challenged and uh really called uh called further and further in to be the people that God has called us to be.

And so, um, man, though it's hard and uncomfortable and challenging at times, it is so rewarding and so worth it.

And so get in the community.

And if you uh if there are any other next steps that you feel like God is leading you to, or you have questions about faith or what it means to be in the family of God, we would love to partner with you.

Maybe answer some of your questions or give you some resources.

So if you would text start to follow uh to 9700, start to follow all one word to 9700, and we'd just love to come alongside you, give you some resources for your journey.

Love it, love it.

Yeah, yeah.

If there's anything that we can do for you guys, please let us know.

Again, we're so thankful that you watched with us.

Uh so come join us in person though.

I would love to meet you.

Um yeah, I mean, there's there's so much going on.

The Lord is moving, and so come join us either at Walnut Grove or Social Circle, and uh we would love to meet you.

Um but outside of that, we hope you have a great week.

If there's anything that we can do, let us know.

Um we love you guys.

We do that.

We'll see you next week.

See ya.