True Freedom is Found in Community

Well, I want to welcome you to our July 4th online gathering.

Welcome to Church at the Grove this morning or at whatever time you're watching this.

My name's Russ.

I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove.

We're excited that you've joined us for this online celebration, especially on this holiday weekend.

So some of you might be hanging out at the house, some of you might be at the lake or having fun, which I don't know why you'd be gathering with us or watching this, but we're excited you're with us.

And but I want to encourage you to do a couple of things.

I want to encourage you to, if you haven't already, pull out your phone and download the Church at the Grove app.

It's the way that we all stay connected together here at Church at the Grove.

It's a way for you to let us know if you have a prayer request.

Maybe this is your first time, or maybe it's one of the first few times you've gathered with us and you have yet to fill out what we call an encounter card.

We want you to do that electronically so we can connect with you.

We're talking about community this morning, and we want to build community.

So we don't want this to just be an experience where you're just watching.

We want you to actually connect.

We want to have a conversation with you.

And so you fill out that encounter card, connect with us online, uh, let us know if you're watching Church Online.

We'd love for you to engage with us in the chat.

Excited for you to join us this morning as we talk about community here on July 4th weekend.

We believe that God is uh has joined us in community through Jesus Christ.

And that's kind of what we're talking about this morning.

And Nathan's gonna kind of lead us and into what we're talking about specifically this morning.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so thank you again for joining us on July 4th, as Russ said.

And Russ even wore his American flag shirt um today to represent.

Um we thought about saying the Pledge of Allegiance to him, but decided not to do that.

Um but happy July 4th, and hopefully you and your family, wherever you might be, are having a great weekend so far.

But today, 245 years ago, our country was really founded.

It was uh the signing of the Declaration of Independence, is what we celebrate on July 4th.

And when that happened, you had 56 men that came together and they all binded themselves together.

They they pushed themselves together, and they were willing to sacrifice themselves, their reputation, and their dignity for a new nation, for a new way of life.

Actually, at the very end of the Declaration of Independence, it says as they were signing together, we mutually pledged to each other our our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

And so you had these men that were coming together, and as they came together, they were leading their lives to show freedom for a new country, but they were doing it together.

And as I read that statement, I think about the church.

Not that the church is, you know, America, or not that America is the church, and not that we're celebrating freedom from America, but ultimately the ultimate freedom we have is in Jesus.

But what I look at that is thinking about the incredible community that was found in these men coming together for a new way of life.

And when you think about it, that's really how the church should be.

The church should be a group of people that are coming together and they're living out a new way of life.

That's what we should ultimately be about.

We've heard it said that we know ultimately who we surround ourselves with is who we ultimately become.

And so if you hang out with a bunch of kind people, you'll probably become more kind.

If you hang out with people that have some business intellect and they know how to grow a business and do well, then you'll probably be able to pick up some of the things that they have as well.

If you have somebody that you're hanging out with that's just super wise, then you'll probably become more wise.

But then the opposite is true as well.

If you're hanging out with people that maybe aren't the best uh best for you and they maybe don't have their act all together, then you'll probably follow suit.

And so it matters who we hang out with.

And so we wanted to spend this morning talking about biblical community and intentional biblical community, because in that we believe is where we really find freedom for our lives and we ultimately begin to walk out the way that God has called us to walk out our lives.

And so biblical community must be intentional.

And so we want to do something a little different this morning.

We wanted to have more of a conversation.

We wanted to read some scripture and do a little bit of teaching, but ultimately we wanted to have an opportunity for some of our staff members to share about some of their personal stories and stories of people in our church that have experienced freedom as a result of intentional biblical community.

And so we've got uh Pat and Russ.

There are our elders on staff here, and so we wanted to get the old crowd in there, and then we wanted to get the younger crowd in there with Dylan and Jonah, and I'll kind of split the difference for us this morning.

But before we jump in, I wanted to read Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 5, it says this uh So it is with Christ's body.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, in service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in his generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

And so we have to see that in this passage of Scripture, we see that intentional community helps us to know not only that others matter, but that we matter as well.

Intentional community gives us a place where we can be known and we can know others.

It's a place where we can love and be loved, it's a place where we can serve and be served, it's a place to celebrate and be celebrated.

And so with that said, I want us just to kind of talk briefly about some times where you've experienced intentional biblical community and the difference that that's made in your lives.

Yeah, I would I would love to start.

That's okay.

Um first just want to say it's kind of funny how um you guys, maybe the two older ones here, but you guys definitely have more hair than he does.

That's true.

That's true.

They got you on that one.

They got you on that one.

Um, anyways, I am so excited about this conversation because it has helped me that really this whole idea has helped me become the follower of Jesus that I am today.

Um it was, I remember when I first gave my life to Christ in high school, um, I had never really grown up in church or experienced the true sense of biblical community.

And so for the first year or two, um nothing really changed in my life because I I was still hanging around with the same people and nothing like I wasn't experiencing any any sort of growth or fruit in my life because the people around me were the same as they were before.

And so it wasn't until I made the decision to intentionally surround myself with people, even some of you guys here.

Um, Pat, when I was in high school, you know, surrounding myself with you and your family and the student ministry here at Church of the Grove that I began to truly grow and walk in a relationship with Christ.

And it was lunches with Russ, and it was hanging out at Nathan's house that became my community and still is to this day.

Um I've seen it in the lives of uh so many close personal friends too, where they've given their lives to Jesus but ultimately have fallen away from the faith because they uh chose not to plug into community.

Um that's a sad reality, but that's the the the it reveals the depth and the importance of this kind of community in our lives.

Yeah, I mean I totally agree.

I mean, I think that's my story too.

I mean, we didn't really grow to church growing up, and um, when we did, um, you know, there were several occasions uh when I was maybe early middle school and then later middle school where there was an invitation given.

I walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, got baptized, but then nothing changed because there was no connection, there was no community.

And it wasn't until I was almost a senior in high school when I had another experience where I feel like I gave my life to Jesus, but this time there was biblical community that surrounded me, and that's where the difference came.

That's where I really learned what it looked like to follow Jesus and have a relationship with him and where real life change started to occur, and it was in the context of biblical community.

What else?

Well, you guys found biblical community within the church, and I did as well, but came at I came at it from a totally different approach.

I hung around with the opposite kind of people prior to coming to faith in Christ.

But back in 1984, before any of you guys were born except Russ, I hung out with a bunch of degenerates.

And when I came face to face with Jesus and accepted him as my Savior and made him the Lord of my life, I still wanted to hang around the same guys.

The guys I played basketball with, the guys I did other things with that we shan't talk about.

I wanted them to know Jesus.

I wanted them to see the change in me.

And after about two or three months of me constantly sharing things I had learned about Jesus and inviting these guys to come to church with me, and my my newfound girlfriend who would later become my wife, one of the guys that I was the closest to looked at me and he said, Pat, we don't share the same interests anymore.

And I said, Well, what does that mean?

He said, I'm not going to church with you.

I like what's happening in you.

You're a completely different person, but we don't have anything in common anymore.

And I think you need to find some new friends.

I was shocked.

I cried over that.

And only later, through much prayer and searching through the Bible and talking to some new guys that I had met at the church we started attending, did I recognize he knew, and he wasn't even a follower of Jesus.

He knew that we needed biblical community in our young faith, or I did in my young faith.

And I began to hang out with guys that were attending a Sunday school class that I became part of.

I started singing in a little group.

I know that's hard for y'all to believe, those of you that have heard me sing nowadays, but back then I sang okay.

And I was in this group that had a bunch of young adult married couples in it, and we started hanging out together.

And I I began to be challenged by others to grow in my faith, to read books, to listen to Christian music, to be faithful in church attendance.

And we started hanging out outside of church, and it began to affect our family, uh, our friends, our neighbors.

We started having guests over at our home that were from our church, and it changed everything.

It changed not just my perspective, but it changed my whole way of life for the better.

Yeah.

Well, I still like I feel like you you and Joy and Kelsey and Jake, um your whole family, y'all still live this out on a regular basis.

I mean, you're constantly having people over, you're in a men's group, right?

And the men's group, I mean, just to see some of the community that's happened in that men's group has been phenomenal.

I mean, some of the people that have not been connected, and maybe you still don't even go to this church, but still are finding connection and biblical community in y'all's group, which is just incredible.

Yeah.

It's pretty amazing.

We met this past week and just decided since we weren't meeting every week over the summer, let's get together once a month and just hang out.

So we had a cookout, and we had nine guys from the group who pretty much come every week, and then four first-time guests.

So it was a great way for us to kind of reach out to some other guys.

And my dream is that one day our group will multiply.

We'll have a couple of Tuesday night guys.

I'm sorry.

Jonah, Pat, I mean Russ?

Well, I would say that uh one of the common things that I'm hearing, common theme, uh, is that that community that we're talking about, biblical community, is not connected to a Sunday morning gathering.

And we say this all the time at Church of the Grove, that you really don't experience community sitting in rows staring at the backs of the heads of other people.

You experience community in a circle.

And so what I'm hearing as you guys are talking is that it's it's meals and it's time at somebody's house, it's it's community that happens outside of Sunday morning, which means that community has to be intentional.

It takes a step.

Sometimes it's a bit of a risk, but but it it means that we we we we're vulnerable and we're open to developing the kind of relationship that leads to this idea of biblical community.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think um even you know, going just getting back from college, I think college is one of the I mean, just a great opportunity to experience what biblical community looks like because, you know, like you said, it not everything happens on a on a Sunday.

So in college, like I've lived with 11 dudes that believe in Jesus and love Jesus, and we all like we literally live together under the same roof and and push each other um towards Christ.

And I think that's just one of the closest glimpses of pure biblical community that that I might experience until I step into the kingdom of heaven.

Um, but it was so special because it wasn't it wasn't a one day a week thing.

Like we committed to push each other daily um closer to Christ.

And I mean that the effects it had on my life and the ways that it pushed me closer to Jesus are you know is something that I will never never forget and will forever be grateful for.

Yeah.

Well, and I think I mean we talked about how biblical community is a place uh where you can know that you matter, but it's also a place where you can find healing and accountability.

Um I love 1 John 1 9.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful to and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Um but then in James 5, 16 it says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

And so the first one was if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

But then if you want to experience the healing, it says that we confess our sins to one another and we pray for one another.

And I think a lot of times, especially in kind of the American church that we live in, we don't want that vulnerability like you're saying, and as a result, we settle for maybe, hey, I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna ask God to forgive me of my sins, but then we continue to struggle in the same patterns of sin, and it's only when we introduce accountability, people, you know, confessing our sins to one another, praying for each other, that we begin to find freedom in that.

Has that been y'all's experience?

Yeah, I mean, I think go again, going back to living with, you know, my my brothers in Christ in college, um, there was a level of accountability that, you know, when the the temptations of college hit, you know, hit me, there was 10 other guys, you know, as I walked out the front door, you know, at 11 o'clock on a Thursday night, they'd be like, you know, where are you headed?

What are you doing?

Um so I think there there was, I mean, that's when victory over sin and and temptation just came to life for me, was when I had 10 other guys doing life alongside of me and keeping me accountable and guys that I could come to and say, hey, you know, like I I fell short in this area.

And then after that, they would continue to help me um, you know, fight it and and keep on guard for it.

Yeah.

Was that something you guys came up with organically or did you have a plan for this?

Oh no, we discussed it once we moved into the house because we're we're all you know, we're all believers and we we kind of devoted the house to to be one of a house of ministry and hospitality, but also that while we were living there that that we were gonna do it, you know, and and live life together and and push each other closer to Jesus.

So I'm sorry.

I think the key uh in all of that and and and finding that healing and accountability um is the humility it takes on our part to and that vulnerability, like you're saying.

Like we we can't have that unless we're willing to go and to have that conversation with those guys or with those girls, whoever it is in our life, and say, hey, this is what I've struggled with, this is what I need.

You know, that's not gonna happen just randomly.

Like that takes you humbling yourself, laying down, and you know, as James says, confessing our sins and being willing to bring those to the light.

Um I think uh one one of you guys probably said this at some time when I was in high school, but uh you can't fight the devil in the dark.

Like you can't fight those things that you're not willing to bring to the light, and that bringing it to other people is the best way to do that because of how James is saying that that brings healing.

Um, and that's that's it is that to me, is that humility that finally getting to that point for me when I was able to say, I can't do this on my own, I have to get this out to somebody.

That was when real healing began.

Yeah, and isn't that an ongoing thing every day?

That you have to keep going back to that and sometimes going back to the same people, right?

Yeah, and I think that it's a bit ironic that we're all guys and we're sitting here on couches, and and this is not natural for us.

Um and and I know this is over uh being over general in a sense, but but it in in general, women have an easier time connecting in this type of freedom and this type of vulnerability.

Uh with men, it's so much harder.

Um, and so we have to be even much more intentional.

And and and I I would say most of the time we don't connect well, sitting around couches and and talking.

We connect around activities, you know, whether it's um sports or or a hobby or or or building something or whatever it is, or eating a meal.

But but we as as men, we've got to be willing to to seek that healing, it admit that we've got hurts and habits and hang-ups and and be open about that.

It's in that vulnerability that we get to experience the kind of freedom that scripture and James is talking about here.

When you think about it, like just I mean, this is a simple example, but like I think of like the animal kingdom, you think of like the African savannah.

I mean, the they travel in herds, right, to protect themselves from lion's attacks or whoever.

And when the zebra goes out by itself or whatever animal is out by itself, that's when it's prone to get attacked.

And I think that that's how the enemy works in our world today.

I mean, the enemy knows that there is strength in numbers and that when you start to kind of drift off from the rest of the herd, that it's an easy, it's an easy target at that point.

And I feel like a lot of people in the church today, not just Church of the Grove, but Capital C Church, I feel like they're living those kind of out on their own, and as a result, they're easy prey for the enemy.

And we saw that, I mean, even to a much more bigger degree with COVID over the last year.

Yeah.

That was what the enemy successfully was able to do in so many Christians' lives was get them isolated and alone from the community that they originally belonged to.

And I think, at least for me, that was one of the most eye-opening things about 2020 and walking through the pandemic was knowing how how do I get back to this community after I've just not had it for a year.

Yeah.

Um, and I think that's kind of like another aspect of responsibility that we have as believers is not only find community for ourselves, like Dylan was talking about, taking that that step, I need accountability, but also like looking out for our brothers and sisters around us that if we do see someone that's kind of walking out on their own, leaving the community, like that's our responsibility to say, hey Billy, you know, where you where are you headed?

What are you doing?

Um and and kind of drawing back in because you know that that might be what saves them from you know an attack from from the devil.

Yeah, absolutely.

When I think so you've got uh, you know, biblical community is a place where we can be known, you know, it's a place where we can find healing and accountability, um, but it's also a place where we can have greater impact.

Obviously, there's strength in numbers.

Um, I love the old African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

Uh Proverbs 27, 17 says, as iron sharp sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 12, two are better than one because they have a good return for their work.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

And so we see this kind of theme all throughout scripture, and we see it with Jesus, right?

Jesus could have done ministry on his own, but he chose not to do that.

He chose to invest into 12 other guys, and they did ministry together, and there was the 72 after that, and then there were the disciples, and so you constantly are seeing community and people making a greater impact when they're together in that.

How have y'all seen that in your life, in your community groups, in your neighborhoods?

Where have you seen that be true?

Well, this group, the Tuesday Night Guys group, started three years ago with me and three other guys.

None of those original three guys are part of the group anymore.

They've gone, they've moved away or gone to other churches.

And I'm sitting there the other night looking around the little campfire that we have at me and 12 other guys, and I realized five of us live in this neighborhood right here.

We didn't intend our guys' group to be a neighborhood group, but we started reaching out to guys in our neighborhood.

And now every one of those guys comes to church at the grove and is part of this group.

And I have to bring it up, but I don't know that that would have happened had it not been for my little four-year-old grandson Jonah, who just invites everybody he meets to church at the grove.

He carries church at the grove invite cards in his pocket so he can invite people.

And I just kind of said to the guys in our group, why aren't we inviting people like he is?

So guys in the group started inviting others, and we had four first time guests.

I've had two more guys tell me, let me know when you're doing the next one.

We want to come.

Our whole group could be completely different by the time the next semester started.

And as I'm looking at our Walnut Grove campus on Sunday morning, I'm seeing couple after couple after couple that have come in the last six weeks, eight weeks.

And I'm thinking to myself, we need A group for these couples.

So I've already talked to a couple of guys about starting a new group, and I'm hoping that in the fall we have several new groups because we have that many people who are coming that desire to be part of biblical community.

And so y'all made a difference together.

I mean, by reaching out to neighbors and the neighborhood.

Yeah.

Exactly.

What else?

Russ, I know you have a cool story from your neighborhood.

Yeah, you know, as Pat was talking about, you know, part of what God's called us to do is not just be a part of community, but to leverage community for the gospel.

Leverage community for sharing Jesus.

And community is not always just about us.

It's not for us.

It's not just about meeting my needs.

It's about making sure somebody else gets to hear about Jesus and gets to experience biblical community.

When we planted our church, I mean, Jill and I wanted to be missionaries in our neighborhood.

And so we've had community groups ongoing in our neighborhood really for 15 years almost.

And you know, a couple times we've left the neighborhood to go out and help start other community groups.

But we just experienced something really cool in our neighborhood just a few weeks ago.

One of my closest friends now who's been part of our community group in our neighborhood, and he I would have called him a little bit of a skeptic and maybe a little bit of a seeker kind of person.

And his profession of faith was basically to tell me, hey, I'm ready to take the plunge.

I'm ready to get baptized.

I'm ready, I'm I'm all in.

And so just a couple of weeks ago in a pool in our neighborhood, we got to celebrate my friend getting baptized and going public with his faith.

And I don't know that it's even really hit me how significant that was.

I mean, but you guys know, I I mean, we've been praying and reaching out, and I would say today he's one of my closest friends.

And even whether he was in the church, whether he was following Jesus or not, I was committed to loving him and to our friendship.

And so, um, you know, and I think the Lord taught me a lesson through that.

Am I loving him just for because I know he's uh a person who God loves, you know, and and that he means a lot to me.

And so anyway, um our group got to leverage our community to see somebody outside the community become part of the community of Jesus.

And man, that's that's really what we want to see as a church.

You know, that's why we want to plant churches, it's why we want to uh reach our community and make a difference in our community in a practical way is to see um people come to know Jesus and become part of the community.

And just for clarity, I mean, that wasn't on just your shoulders, right?

I mean, that was the entire group.

Absolutely.

And and I would say, I mean, that probably other people in the community played a hu a bigger role than I did personally.

You know, um uh some of a next-door neighbor that's part of our church.

Uh it's just been so neat to see people have a role and play a part.

One of the coolest stories that I can think of in my my own life about this has to be my journey with our college ministry here at Roots College Ministry.

You know, um, three and a half years ago when I was graduating high school, Megan Sorrow had the incredible vision to create a space for young adults and college students here in Walton County that didn't really exist at that time, um, that was centered around biblical community and following Jesus together.

But um the beautiful thing about it was the intention wasn't to create this holy huddle of college students that belonged to Church of the Grove that never left and that stuck there for 20 years.

The intention was for this community to be almost like a like a runway for students to be sent off and to go off into the world and making an impact.

And if you take a look at where we're at now versus where we were three years ago, the original team of 10 to 12 people that we had, almost every single one of them has gone out, has has you know either gotten married or has moved and become a missionary or has gone to do uh other work for the kingdom.

But the key part is that every single one of them is still following Jesus, and every single one of them can look back and say, Roots College ministry when I was there, like led me to being here or pushed me to being there.

And the beauty, the even more beautiful thing is that you know, it didn't lead to to you know just roots dissolving, but when the Holy Spirit is at work like that, it's almost self-reproducing.

There's a whole new group, a whole new generation just three years later who has arisen, and Roots College ministry is still thriving and is still preparing a new generation of students to go out.

And that was been that's been one of the coolest things for me to be a part of.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

Well, I know we're we're kind of coming to a close, and so I want to um encourage our families that are watching this at home to consider what your next step would be.

Um we've got several weeks left really before we enter into uh what we call the next semester of our group life here at Church at the Grove, and so I want to ask you to consider, I want to ask you to prayerfully be mindful of how you might take a practical next step when it comes to community, because it's great to talk about community, um, but we've got to do more than just talk about it.

We want to we want to take practical steps.

And one of the things that we do at Church at the Grove is we organize community groups so you can get connected in community.

Um, it doesn't automatically mean that all of those groups are gonna produce the kind of community we're talking about, but if you never take a next step, you're gonna miss out on the opportunity for biblical community.

One of the things we said is that the uh biblical community is a natural result of the gospel transformation that Jesus provides.

And so I want to encourage you right now, if you've never taken a step to follow Jesus, we say that it's as simple as ABC.

Admit that you're a sinner.

Uh we're all imperfect people, um, but God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will, and part of that's biblical community.

And so admit that you're a sinner, admit that you need uh Jesus, that you need salvation.

And then B is for believe.

Believe and trust in the good news that Jesus came, he lived, he died, he rose again to provide for your freedom, to provide for your salvation.

And then C is for confession and commit to Jesus, commit to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

So I want to encourage you as we're celebrating July 4th and we're celebrating the freedom that we talk about in our nation.

Um, man, what a great day to celebrate your uh spiritual freedom.

And so I want to encourage you if you want to take that step, can I just pray for you right now?

Let's bow our heads and let's pray.

Father, Lord, thank you for the freedom that you have provided for us through Jesus Christ.

And I pray for that person that might be watching this morning or might be watching this at another time, Lord, that you would begin to pull on their heartstrings and God, you would draw them into a relationship.

And I want to encourage you just to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

It's what Paul says in the book of Romans.

If you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved.

Admit that you need Jesus.

Believe and trust in the good news that Jesus died for your sins.

He rose from that grave to prove that he had power over sin and death in the grave.

And then confess him as your Lord and Savior.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for these people that have possibly prayed to follow Jesus for the first time.

And I pray for those that know Jesus that have yet to take a step of faith and to put not only their faith in Jesus, but to put their faith in taking a next step into biblical community.

Father, would you lead us and would you guide us into where you want us to be connected in biblical community?

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us for this special online gathering.

I want to encourage you, if you haven't already, go online to our uh to our website, churchofthe.com, or uh to our Church of the Grove app.

Fill out the encounter card.

If you prayed to receive Christ, we want to know that.

And if you're interested in biblical community, if you're interested in connecting as we move toward this fall into our next semester of group life here at Church of the Grove, um, let us know you're interested, and one of our uh leaders will follow up with you and make sure that you get connected.

God bless you and have a great weekend.