The Family You Choose

God is good.

I'm really excited to be with you.

Like Eddie said in that video, my name is Shane.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And I know I say this every time I get up here, but it is a real joy to be able to open God's word with you.

We're gonna dive right in.

What I want to do today is provide us with the context in which we can begin to live out many of the concepts and principles that Pastor Greg has been preaching to us over these past couple of sermon series.

We just came out of All Ears, and then the series prior was called Well Done.

If you missed any of that content, I can't encourage you enough to check it out.

You can do so via YouTube or our podcast.

But over those two sermon series, Pastor Greg has been talking to us about principles like controlling our anger.

Is that a word for anybody in the room this morning or just me?

Controlling our anger, learning to forgive, learning to listen with empathy and curiosity.

And surely any relationship would benefit from the implementation of these skills.

But I want to bring them to bear this morning on our relationship with one another as the body of Christ, as the church.

What does it mean to be the church?

Anybody ever heard the phrase, your friends are the family you choose?

Anybody heard that phrase before?

Your friends are the family you choose.

I want to take that one step further and talk to you from this title, this subject, the church is the family you choose.

If you have your Bibles, go with me to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It's where we're gonna hang out.

Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

If you didn't bring a Bible this morning, it's all good.

We're gonna have the words on the screens.

Before we dive into the word, I do want to let you know from the jump that this talk might appear a little bit academic.

Because I'm gonna build a case, but if you stay with me, I promise you we're gonna go somewhere.

We're gonna be doing a little uh cultural diagnosis.

Not because we're the sort of church that thinks the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but uh Christians are elite at condemning culture.

We are very skilled at pointing out what's wrong with our culture.

I think we would do well to learn how to affirm what's good in our culture.

Because any good thing is a God thing, amen?

All good and perfect gift, every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning.

All truth is God's truth.

So we would do well to affirm the truth in our culture.

But the reason why I want us to consider some cultural values today is because we do, as Christians, need to understand which way the water is flowing.

So we can decide do we want to get swept up in its current or should we be swimming upstream?

But before we get to all that, let's consider Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

If you're there, give me a good amen.

Amen.

We're gonna pick it up in verse 9.

Scripture says this love must be casual.

Hate what is evil.

Wait, that's not what it says.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Share with the Lord's people who are in need and practice hospitality.

Let's close our Bibles, open our hearts.

We're gonna pray and ask God to bless the rest of our time together.

Spirit of God, would you come?

Would you move in the hearts of your people?

Would you speak to me and through me?

Father, I pray that you would give us a vision for the church at her best and the part that we have to play in becoming the beloved community.

Lord, we love you and we thank you.

And it's in Christ's name we pray.

And everybody said, Amen.

A guide by the name of Gary Athens wrote a book called American Ways, a guide for foreigners in the United States.

This book is broadly read by international students who elect to attend college here in America.

And the purpose of this book is to give them some knowledge of American culture with hopes that that knowledge will buffer the effects of culture shock on these international students.

So, what Gary Athens was attempting to do in this book was outline what is most true of life in America.

What is most true of American culture?

Listen to what he says.

He says the most important thing to understand about Americans is probably their devotion to individualism.

Everybody's unique, aren't they?

They have been trained from early in their lives to consider themselves separate individuals who are responsible for their own situation and their own destinies.

They have not been trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit, tightly interdependent group.

Gary Athens says that American culture is most known for its pursuit and reverence of individualism.

What is individualism?

Individualism can broadly be understood as the idea that you get to decide who it is that you want to be and how you intend to go about becoming that person.

Truth becomes relative.

There is no absolute truth.

You live your truth, and I'll live my truth right up until your truth starts impeding upon my truth, at which point my truth becomes absolute.

We no longer derive meaning or purpose or identity from God and community or a larger construct.

It's entirely up to ourselves.

We get to decide for ourselves who we are and what's true for us.

Another way to define individualism would be to consider some of the phrases and slogans that capture its essence, its ethos.

Let me know if you've heard any of these.

Follow your heart.

Just follow your heart.

Live your truth.

How about this one?

You do you.

You do your thing, I'm gonna do my thing.

Be true to yourself.

Another way to define individualism would be to consider the music that we listen to.

I'm sure it's in the lyrical content of so much of what we listen to, but I'm not really into music like that, y'all.

So honestly, the only song that came to mind for me was Independent Women by Destiny's Child.

I think Frank Sinatra wrote a song called I Did It My Way.

I Did It My Way.

Now, when using the idea of individualism as the opposite of being needy, as the opposite of not having a self-contained identity, as the opposite of being so grossly enmeshed with other people that you lose yourself entirely.

When we're using the idea of individualism on those terms, individualism becomes something that we should all aspire to.

Individualism, in and of itself, isn't all bad.

But like everything else, there is a shadow side to being a one-man wolf pack, to being a lone ranger.

And it's this when you go it alone, you truly go alone.

Check this out.

Over half of Americans, that means, statistically speaking, over half of you in this room report experiences of chronic and deep loneliness.

You experience the fear of missing out.

And he's talking, these statistics are talking about more than just, man, I wish I had something to do tonight.

This is a feeling of being alone.

We're all alone together, but we're alone nonetheless.

Three decades ago, the typical American had three close friends.

These are more than just the homies that you catch a football game with.

These are your closest confidants.

These are the people that you did life with, that you shared meals and shared your secrets with.

Three decades ago, most Americans reported having at least three close friends.

You want to know how many friends we report having today?

Less than one.

Less than one.

The digital age has made for a ton of connections, but for whatever reason, we are unable to cultivate deep and abiding relationships.

Only 8% of Americans have regular conversations with their neighbor.

Anybody chop it up with your neighbor?

I know I don't.

The shadow side of individualism ironically leads to intense loneliness.

And this has also infiltrated the church, resulting in a self-centered spirituality.

Consider this.

Christianity oftentimes is simply co-opted as a means of self-help.

It's reduced down to the means by which I go about becoming a better person.

It's all about my joy, my peace, it's about getting my blessing, and our faith, which was intended for the sake of the world, becomes entirely about ourselves.

Listen to me, y'all.

There is a reason why Jesus didn't say that the greatest commandment is to love God and love yourself.

We are called to love God and love our neighbor.

Now I want to be very careful here.

What Jesus isn't saying is that we should love God and love our neighbor at the expense of ourselves.

In fact, you are best equipped and enabled to love God and love your neighbor when you yourself are receiving the love of the Father, when you are solidified in your identity as a son or daughter of God.

It is entirely appropriate.

And I encourage you to prioritize your own spiritual health and vitality.

But Jesus seems to insist that the best way to do so is among a company of fellow travelers who are journeying together in an attempt to follow after Jesus.

But many of us think that this is a solo effort.

We think this is a solo endeavor.

One study conducted by the Barner Group on the state of discipleship indicated that among millennial Christians, I'm a millennial, millennials are those who were born in the 80s and 90s.

Among millennial Christians like myself, some 41% believe that my spiritual life is entirely private.

Almost half of us think that our spiritual life is entirely private.

37% say that they want to be disciples on our own.

But solo discipleship is an oxymoron.

It's like jumbo shrimp or civil war.

It is literally a contradiction in terms.

Now, your faith is a deeply personal matter.

Don't get it twisted.

Your faith is personal.

I hope that you have made a willful, deliberate, personal decision to put your faith in Jesus that has resulted in a vibrant personal relationship with God.

Your faith is deeply personal, but it should not be private because you cannot do it on your own.

Now, with all that in mind, everybody feeling nice and chipper?

You guys leaning in?

With all that in mind, I have great news.

I have literally gospel news about the opportunity that we have as the church to depict and portray the radical alternative to individualism, to the onlooking world.

By living life, by doing life in a community of committed relationships with one another.

A community that is committed to serving one another, blessing one another, encouraging one another, and bearing with one another.

I use that language of bearing with one another very deliberately because the implication is that sometimes these relationships will wear you out.

Because relationship is hard.

Sometimes these relationships will be a burden to you.

Sometimes they will cost you more than they contribute to you.

But I'm noticing this deeply troubling trend amongst Christians.

I'm not projecting this on y'all because I know you're more spiritual than this, but I'm noticing, I'm hearing among Christians on social media and even in conversation this idea that goes something like this.

I'm going to cut off.

I'm going to cancel anybody that doesn't contribute to my peace, my joy, or my happiness.

Now the problem with that is I don't think the scriptures would have so much to say about things like being long-suffering if we weren't intended to be in relationship with people who cause us to suffer on occasion.

How else are you going to grow?

How are you going to grow in patience when you've done cut off everybody that requires you to be patient with them?

How are you going to grow in grace when you cut off everyone that requires you to be gracious with them?

Jesus said it this way in the Sermon on the Mount.

He said, if you only love those who love you, you have no reward.

He says you're taking the easy way out.

In his book, Life Together, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that we aren't merely called to bear one another's burdens, that the real burden is bearing with one another.

That means being quick to forgive and not being so easily offended.

It means being willing to be inconvenienced from time to time and modeling mercy and grace.

Because when done right, the church is beautiful.

When done right, the church is a beautiful place to be.

It's a beautiful family to be a part of.

I love the way Ed Welch puts it in his book, Side by Side.

He says, we are meant to walk side by side in an interdependent body.

That means I depend on you, you depend on me, we depend on one another.

An interdependent body of weak people.

God is pleased to grow and change us through the help of people who have been recreated in Christ and empowered by the Spirit.

This is how life in the church works.

Or to say it another way, we need each other.

Oftentimes around one church, we say it like this: we say, Life is better in community.

We believe life is better together.

And we believe that because you are literally wired for relationship.

This is in part what it means to bear the image of God.

Our God has eternally existed, one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Confusing?

I know.

But what that tells us is that God in his very nature is a relational being.

So to be made in his image means that you are wired for relationship.

In the beginning, God created everything and he called it all good.

But you want to know the one thing that he said wasn't?

The fact that Adam was alone.

He said, It's not good for man to be alone.

So let me make a suitable helper for him.

This thread is tugged on throughout the entirety of the Bible and even into the New Testament.

So what I want to do is I just want to let the Bible speak for itself for a moment.

And I want to read to you some verses about the potential, some verses that paint the possibility of what the church can be and is becoming by God's grace.

As I read these, I want you to consider what stings as you survey your community, what's missing.

What do you contribute, and what do you detract from?

I want you to consider this picture of the church as contrasted with so many other groups.

You know, a lot of groups are known for what they hate.

The church should be known for who we love.

Amen.

A lot of groups are known for what they're against.

I believe we as a church should be known for who we're for and what we're for.

I'm going to read these verses without a ton of commentary.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul says, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say, and that there be no division among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and in thought.

1 Corinthians 1:10

Perfect unity should be the marker of the Church of Jesus.

Now remember, unity doesn't mean uniformity.

Unity doesn't mean homogeny.

Unity is best represented and reflected amongst people of diversity, people of different backgrounds, different convictions, different experiences.

However, they remain united under the name of Jesus.

That's the kind of unity that Paul is talking about here.

Elsewhere in Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 2, he says, be completely humble and gentle.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I know that that does not characterize my life.

But nevertheless, he calls us all to be completely humble and gentle.

Be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Some of your translations might render the second half of verse 2, that phrase, bearing with one another in love.

Some of your translations might render that.

Make room for one another's humanity.

Make concession for each other's faults.

What kind of church would this be if we made room for each other's humanity?

If we didn't have such a critical spirit.

If we acknowledge the fact that you are human, and so am I.

So we're gonna make mistakes.

Now that doesn't mean that we should be doormats.

We should still know where to draw the line.

However, we make concession for one another's faults.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope.

There's this refrain of one, meaning that the church should be one, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

First Thessalonians chapter five.

We urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive.

Encourage the disheartened.

Help the weak.

Be patient with everyone.

That means those who oppose your views.

That means those who get on your nerves from time to time.

Be patient with everyone.

Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

If y'all are still with me, give me a good amen.

Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

You guys, I am the worst sinner I know.

And I am a trophy of God's grace.

I am blown away when I think about the forgiveness that the Father has so richly lavished upon me.

And I am convicted when I think about all the times that I withhold forgiveness from others.

He says, consider that you were forgiven and let that compel you to forgive others.

And over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Now I do know that this very idealistic depiction of what the church is and is becoming is often at odds with some of our lived experiences, our realities.

I would guess in a room this size that some of you have been hurt at the hands of people in your church.

I'm praying to God that it wasn't this church, but I wouldn't put it past us because the church is full of broken people.

When you get a broke a bunch of broken people together, there's liable to be some brokenness.

You might have been gossiped about.

You might have been betrayed by someone you thought you could trust.

You might have served and served and served, but were never taken care of or cared for.

Maybe you heard a sermon like this once upon a time and you decided to take the risk.

You were going to step out of anonymity and you wanted to dive into community.

You wanted to belong and contribute.

You said, This is my church, I'm going to make this my church, only to be let down by that church.

Now I do want to say that we hear countless testimonies of folks who have previous church hurt that have found healing here at one church, and I'm so grateful to God for that.

But if you're in here this morning and you've been hurt at the hands of people in a church, the only thing I can say to you is I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

I'm so sorry that the people of God failed to live up to the ideal of Jesus, the one whom we're called to follow.

Hopefully, you find healing here.

But I cannot promise that we'll be perfect.

But let us not lose heart to one church.

Let us continue to strive for this vision of what the church can be when she's at her best, because when she's at her best, she's beautiful.

When she's serving one another, she's beautiful.

When she's caring for one another, she's beautiful.

When she's on mission together, she is beautiful.

There is no more powerful force under heaven than the people of God united together, bound by love, who are who are striving to lift up the name of Jesus.

Now let's turn to the text we began with, Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And I'm going to invite my sister Gifty up here.

Gifty was the one playing the keys for us this morning.

Can we clap it up for Gifty as she makes her way to the stage?

Go ahead and check it, Gifty, see if it's on.

There we go.

So I've asked Gifty to read the scripture today in her native tongue.

Gifty is from Ghana.

Gifty's from Ghana.

She's going to be reading the text in tree for us.

And the reason why I asked her to do it, I actually just asked Gifty to do this just this morning.

This is an idea I had, so I'm grateful for her willingness to do this.

One of the things I love about this church is our beautiful diversity.

Anybody grateful for the diversity we have here at Wanchor?

So I've asked Gifty to reread Romans chapter 12, verse 9 through 13 in her native language of tree.

Romans 12:9–13

Thank you.

Amen.

Thank you, Gifty.

Let's clap that for one more time.

Isn't that beautiful?

Love it.

So now let's let's do a quick study here.

I'm not sure what the uh heading in your Bible says, but in my Bible, atop these uh verses, it actually reads, Marks of a true Christian.

In other words, how will the world know that we are different, that we are set apart, that we are the people of God?

How will the world know?

By how high we lift our hands?

By how many times we come to one church?

No, they will know us by our love.

Jesus expresses the same sentiment in John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

After he gets done washing the disciples' feet, he says in verse 34, New command I give you, love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must also love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.

If you have a one-church sticker in the back of your car.

No, he says, if you love one another.

So, what does sincere love look like in the body of Christ?

I'm so glad you asked.

Let's turn our attention to verse 10.

Paul says, be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

I actually don't like the way that the NIV renders that.

It's sort of a weak translation.

That in the Greek, that phrase brotherly love is the word Philadelphia, which is known as the city of brotherly love.

What Paul is talking about here is he's talking about a committed love, a love that goes beyond preference.

Because here's the reality: whether or not you love your family, they're still your family.

You don't get to curate your family based on interest.

You don't get to decide who's in your family and who's not based on how much they they contribute to your joy or your happiness.

You just because your sister doesn't rock with Taylor Swift as much as you do, doesn't mean you get to give her the boot, right?

My family listens to country music.

I want to cut them off just for that.

But I can't.

What Paul is talking about here is a love that goes beyond preference, a love that is committed to one another.

He goes on to say, honor one another, honor others above yourself.

That word honor means to have a high appraisal of each other.

It means to literally see each other as priceless.

Turn to the person to your left.

Turn to the person to your right.

To honor them means to see them as priceless.

Now that does not mean that just because you honor them, that exempts you from the risk that you will be hurt by them.

They might hurt you with their words.

They might gossip about you.

They might talk bad about you behind your back.

C.S.

Lewis says to love at all is to be vulnerable.

But to honor them means to believe the best about them.

To honor them means to praise them in public and resolve your conflict in private.

Listen to me, y'all.

Taking your grievances to Instagram with passive-aggressive barbs does not honor God.

God is not honored when his people are all upset with each other.

To honor means to praise in public and correct in private.

In fact, a little bit later in Romans chapter 12, Jesus says, vengeance, or Paul says of God rather, he says, vengeance is mine.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Vengeance is God.

God's honor is yours.

He says, honor each other.

And then he says, practice hospitality.

This is a vitally important component of what it means to be the church.

So often, our understanding of community is very reductionistic.

Your community must be greater than the sum of your closest friends.

That is an important part of community, but your community should extend beyond your closest friends.

It should contain people who are not like you.

If how big is your table?

If seated around your table are people that look just like you, think just like you, say what you say, would do what you do, if you're surrounding yourself with a bunch of sycophants and yes, people who are only going to ever agree with you rather than challenge you and object to you or force you to see, to enlarge in your perspective, you're missing out on the depth of Christian community.

We need a bigger table.

Now, what I'm not saying is that boundaries aren't important.

Don't hear me and think that I'm saying that there isn't a time and place where it is appropriate to cut people off because all they're contributing to you is toxicity.

That there is a time and place for that.

But we need a bigger table, and there should be places in our lives where everyone is welcomed.

Everyone is welcome.

And I would submit to you that the best place for that is in your group.

Okay, I'm in two groups actually.

I lead a young couples group.

I also lead a group of guys that meet here for basketball every Saturday morning.

They actually rolled deep at the 10 a.m.

You should have seen it.

Like it was me surrounded by like several six foot five dudes.

It looked like I was they were my secret service.

It was weird.

But I school them every Saturday, y'all.

I just put it to them.

It's like, nah, I'm terrible.

But if you hear anything that I'm saying that's resonant with you and you desire community, I think joining a group might be the best next step.

If you have community, praise God for that.

But if you don't, I want to encourage you to fill out this card on the seat back in front of you and just let us know that you're interested in a group.

This isn't a blood oath.

We're not gonna hold you to anything.

This is just letting us know that you're interested.

We want to come alongside of you and help you find the group that's right for you.

Now you should make peace with the fact that when you go to that group, it's probably gonna be a little awkward.

Okay, you're not married to that group.

You can try several groups out until you find the one that's right for you.

But I encourage you to stay committed and help that group become the kind of community that you long to be and be a part of.

Here's where I want to leave us with.

I want to talk about the kinds of people we need in our circles, the kind of people you need in your corner.

I want to talk to you about the kind of friends that we need and the kind of friends that we should seek to become for others.

And I want to do this by taking a look at some of Paul's letters.

He's constantly shouting out people in his letters, and the profile of these people gives us a really good picture of the kind of community that we need.

So who do we need in our lives?

The first is this we need spiritual mothers and fathers.

Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 1, to Timothy, my true son in the faith.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Paul considers Timothy to be his spiritual son, and he likens his relationship to Timothy as that of a son to a father.

Paul would say elsewhere in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, You have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but you have not many mothers and fathers.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

In other words, he's saying, Y'all got 10,000 podcast preachers, but the thing that you're missing in your life is somebody who's a little further along than you are.

Somebody with wisdom and experience.

Not somebody that has all the answers, but somebody that can pour into you and invest in you.

I think we are sitting on an untapped resource here at the church in the form of older and wiser men and women who God is calling you to become spiritual mothers and fathers for people like me.

You may think that your best days are behind you, but God is giving you the opportunity to leave a legacy by becoming a spiritual mother and father.

If there are younger folks in your life that God has highlighted to you, I can't encourage you enough to lean in and begin to invest in their lives.

But if you're if you're in here and you would say, Shane, I feel like that's me.

Maybe you're an empty nester, maybe you're at an older life stage, and you'd say, Shane, I have the capacity to reach back.

I want to be a spiritual mentor.

If that's you, we're gonna throw a QR code up on the screens here.

There it is.

I want you to scan this QR code and fill out this form.

If you know nothing about QR codes, which isn't an insult, I promise, uh you can check us out at one dot church slash mentorship.

I want you to indicate to us that Shane, I'm ready to be a spiritual mother and a spiritual father for somebody.

We also need spiritual sons and daughters.

The appetite for spiritual mentorship is so deep in this church.

I can't tell you how many times I'm approached by somebody who says, Shane, I need a mentor, but I don't even know where to look to find one.

We have a ton of college students in our church whose families are hundreds miles, hundreds of miles away, who would benefit from a spiritual mother or father.

We have young couples, engaged, married couples who are taking their cues from rom-coms.

How much, how much would they benefit from from an older, wiser, wiser couple opening their home and showing them what a what a God-centered, what a Jesus-centered marriage can look like.

If you're in here and you'd say, Shane, I would benefit from a spiritual mentor.

I would benefit from a spiritual mother or father.

I want you to just click this QR code and fill this form out.

Indicate to us that you need a spiritual mentor.

Here's what I'm not promising.

I'm not promising that we're gonna find the perfect match for you, that there's gonna be immediate synergy and you and your spiritual mother or father, you're gonna you're gonna be BFF for the rest of your life.

That's not what we're promising, but but we just want to know the need.

And we're gonna follow up with you guys and we're gonna try to make some connections.

What would it be for us to become a church full of spiritual mothers and fathers?

A church full of spiritual sons and daughters.

We need spiritual mothers and fathers.

We need friends who are on mission with you.

Paul says in Romans chapter 16, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-worker in Jesus.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

They risked their lives for me.

Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful for them.

Priscilla and Aquila were a married couple.

They were missionaries that literally traveled Paul as he planted churches.

They lived with him, they served him, they, they, they, they lived, they traveled with him.

Scripture says that they risk for him.

You need friends in your life who will take risks for you.

Do you have somebody in your life who's betting on you, who's believing in the God dream that he's placed in your heart?

We need friends that will be on mission with us and risk for us.

We need friends who will refresh us.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, I was glad when Stephanus and his homies arrived because they have supplied what was lacking from you, for they refreshed my spirit and yours.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

You need people in your life who will ease your burdens and who will encourage you and who will speak life over you.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 11 says, Encourage one another and build each other up.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

We all know what it's like to be around people that deplete us and detract from us and take from us.

We need people in our corner who can restore our souls.

Take out your phones real quick.

If you have somebody in your life like that, who you are refreshed in their presence, I want you to text them right now.

Let's be a community of encouragement and just say, you are an answer to prayer for me.

I am so grateful that God has put you in my life.

We need people who will speak well of us.

Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6, Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant of the Lord, will tell you everything everything so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul says, if you need receipts for all of my exploits, ask my man Tychicus.

He'll let you know what I'm about.

We need people who will speak.

Do you have people in your life that you can entrust your reputation to?

Do you have people in your life who will speak well of you in a room full of others even when you're not around?

We need people who will fight for you.

Philippians chapter 2, 25, Paul says, I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Do you have people who will battle for you, who will fight for you in prayer?

Do you have people who will lift you up when you yourself don't have strength to stand?

Are you that person for somebody else in your life?

You need people who will tell you the truth.

This one stings.

Paul says in Galatians chapter 2, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him face to face because he stood condemned.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

This is that Peter.

Paul says, when we when when we linked up at Antioch, I told him that he was wrong.

What's he talking about?

Peter had bought into the lie that to be a good Christian, a real Christian, he had to adhere to, he had acquiesced to this idea that you had to adhere to all the Jewish customs.

Paul said, Pete, I love you enough to call you out, man.

You were wrong.

Do you have people in your life who will call you out?

Do you have the sort of heart to hear when they speak the truth over you in love?

Are you calling out your brothers and sisters?

What am I calling you to today?

I'm calling you to consider the condition of your relationships.

Are you in a community of tightly woven relationships that are committed to one another?

Are you experiencing isolation and loneliness?

If you feel lonely in here today, you don't have to leave here lonely.

We want to come alongside of you as a faith family.

Psalm 68 said, God places the lonely in families.

We want to be that family for you.

Maybe you're in here and you have detached yourself from community for whatever reason.

Maybe you've been betrayed, maybe you've been hurt.

If that's you, I want to encourage you to lean in again and give the church a chance.

Not because we're perfect, but because we're following after a God who is.

And we're committed to becoming like him more and more every day.

Following Jesus isn't a journey that you're meant to take alone.

Let's do this together.

More than anything, I want to give you a vision of what God can do in and through this community.

If we are known by our love, if we are unified in our pursuit of the person of Jesus, that's what the world's looking for.

We can be that.

We are becoming that by God's grace.

Amen.

Let's stand together.