Four Passages I Want To Shape Our Church - Acts 2:42-47 - Coleton Segars.mp3

Today's uh teaching text is from Acts 2, 42 through 47.

The last two weeks and and really just the month of November, what we've wanted to do is just look at a handful of verses that we're hoping that shape the life of our church, that become kind of the um a little bit of the the nuanced way that we want it to be formed and that kind of thing.

And so we just we're just aiming at certain things and trying to go, here's how we want this passage specifically to shape the life of our church.

And so two weeks ago we looked at Jesus' uh words where he says, Come to me and I will give you rest.

Last week we looked at Habakkuk's cry and prayer, like, Lord, we have heard of what you've done in the past, and we're really amazed at those things, but we'd like to see those things in our time.

And uh talked about prayer.

I really hope that was encouraging to you.

The idea that prayer is such a gift to us, uh that the Lord hears and responds and does really, really amazing things beyond what we can imagine or fathom.

And then this week I wanted to talk about community and all those things, and so we're gonna look at the early church and what it says about them and how they shared life together, and then talk about some of those things as well.

So, Acts 2, 42 through 47.

Luke writes, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

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

They broke bread in their homes, and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This is the word of the Lord.

Um this is a picture uh on the screen here.

Um, Colin, if we can go to that picture.

Uh this is a picture of me in high school, uh, my senior year, uh, the the like moment after we won the state championship.

And this has nothing to do with the message.

I just wanted to show you that I was really good at baseball one day.

Uh that's me, the little arrows pointing to me.

That's me.

Um this was an amazing moment in my life.

I didn't peak here, I still haven't peaked yet, it's coming.

Um, but this was an amazing moment in my life.

Such a huge part of my life was baseball.

And uh this team of people was was just incredible.

One of the best community, or what community, one of the best teams I was ever a part of.

The coach said this that we were the best team he's ever coached.

That we just, as a team, we worked together, we came together to do just about anything that we could possibly need to do.

And what we needed to do in the last inning of this game, we were down by six in the last inning of the game, and we needed to score seven runs to win the game, and we ended up scoring eight because we're just a little better than seven.

And so we scored eight, won the state championship, played against people like Buster Posey, who played for the San Francisco Giants.

Jason Hayward from the Cubs was on our team.

I mean, you know, I'm just dropping some names here.

Um, and I was also there.

Um but uh but our coach did.

He was like, it is the one of the best teams we ever coached.

And for us, like most of these guys in this picture, we started playing baseball together when we were five.

And so this state championship was something that's like 13 years in the making.

We just we knew each other really well.

We knew each other's batting averages, we knew um our tendencies at the plate when we were hitting, we knew our tendencies out in the field, we knew what to say to encourage somebody and what to say in order to get somebody out of a slump.

Like we knew all kinds of stuff about each other, and it made us a really, really good team.

And again, our coach said this like this is the best group of players that he's ever had uh play through those things.

But the reason I share this is because even though we knew a ton about each other, this was really a space, like we knew a bunch of stats, but it was really a space where I wasn't actually known.

They knew almost everything about me, and we could do almost anything together.

But they nobody on this team knew that a month before this happened that I almost killed myself.

Like nobody knew that.

Nobody knew that I struggled with suicidal thoughts.

Nobody on the team knew that.

They knew that I was pretty good at at left field and I was number two battery and I was really good at that.

Nobody knew that a month before that I struggled with almost taking my life.

Nobody knew on this team that one of the players was dealing with a drug addiction that was really small at the time, um, but ultimately shifted into a space where he died a couple of years ago due to that drug addiction that began that year.

Nobody knew that on this team.

Nobody knew that one of the players had a dad who was a closet drunk that the player kept away from everybody else, that he ultimately the dad drank himself to death.

We didn't find that out until at the funeral that this was something that he'd been battling even during this game and that kind of thing.

It was just really good at hiding it.

Nobody knew until at a wedding, years and years later, that um one of the players in the back there, um, his dad was abusive to him and was abusing him, and nobody knew that.

We knew stats, tons of them, about each other, but we were not known in any kind of way.

And there wasn't this space that existed in a team that was this close and this tight that could work together so well.

There wasn't this space to share some of the most intimate, most vulnerable, most scary things that we had going on in our lives.

We could talk about anything and everything as related to sports, but when it came to real life stuff, nobody was known here.

And it was an incredible group of people.

And so I say all of that just to say that, like one, I love these guys, and we stay in contact with these guys, and we're more vulnerable now than we were back when we were 18 because it's easier now than it was then, hopefully, for many of us.

But I say that because even though it was an incredible, incredible time in my life, and I loved that, and I love that team, and I love those guys, I want a better community than that.

Like I need something deeper than you know, the stats of my life.

You know, all the different I know where he lives, I know that he's married, I know he's has a kid, I know he likes to pray.

Like, great.

But like I want a community, and Rainey and I, when we were choosing the church that we wanted to be a part of and stuff like that, we were like, we want a community of people that we can do life together and share life together, and we will do that life together until we're dead and buried.

Like, I want that kind of which maybe it's like that's too much, we barely know you, but that is what we want.

We're not looking to like, you know, pad a resume and then move on to this thing.

Like, we genuinely want rich, deep relationships with people inside the church because I think the church offers a community that no place else in the world can offer.

And so if we have this space where it's like, yeah, I I they know a lot about me, but I'm not known, then we have failed as a church.

And so I want this space and I want a community of people where it's like, not only do they know a lot about me, but I'm known deeply, all the struggles, all the stuff, all the dirt, and I'm accepted and loved in that space, and I'm lifted up, and people speak truth into my life, and they they encourage me, but they also bear my burdens and they also care.

Like, this is what it's supposed to be.

And so that's what I want.

I don't want it to have a space where it's like, man, on the outside we show up and everybody's here and it's great.

Hey, how are you?

Good, good, good, good.

But and then all one day your marriage falls apart, and it's like, how we had no idea.

Like, what a tragedy.

It's gotta be a space.

There has to be a space in the world where you can be able to be honest about some of those things.

Um, and the church is supposed to be that space.

Because at the end of the day, if you're struggling with a sin, the idea is that so is everybody else.

Like, yeah, maybe not your sin, but I'm struggling with my own.

And so if you were to share all of your dirt, I'll just like, I'll just, I'll one up you, I promise.

I can one up your dirt.

And I think there's supposed to be a space where we do that.

Okay, so we want a community that's really, really rich.

So, what I want to do today is talk about three reasons why we want really solid, strong community.

Talk about what we're going to do as a church and as a leadership to try and pursue those things even more.

I think it is Christ's community church.

There is a lot of community here, but we just want to press in to new expressions of community in order to get those things.

And so we want to look at what we're gonna do as a church to do some of that stuff.

And then I want to ask you guys to commit to some things.

You don't have to write anything down or sign your name to Jack.

There's nothing like that.

We just just here's some things that you could do in order to press into that.

So, three things why we want community.

The first, we have needs, we want community because we have needs personally and individually that can only be met in community.

We have needs that can only be met in community.

So I love the one-anothers in the Bible, there's a bunch of them, and like it's like love one another.

And they said that 16 times because nobody knows how to do that.

But there's all these one another's in the Bible and all these different things.

And one of the ways that we read those is like you should love one another, you should encourage one another, you should do all these things for one another.

And we can read it and go, that's what I need to do.

Okay.

I need to do those things.

But what the one another's also do for us is they reveal our personal needs.

And so what I mean is if you are supposed to encourage one another, that means that somebody is supposed to do that for you because that's your need as well.

So the one another's don't just give us a way to live in community with other people.

The one another's actually testify to the needs that we have personally that need to be met by somebody else as well.

And so if it says encourage one another, the truth is, yes, you should go and do that, but the idea is you need encouragement too.

And somebody in your life is supposed to spin around and do that for you.

And so all the one another can just be read as rules that you need to go and do for other people, but they also need to be read as like, oh, and these things are needed for me as well.

I need this stuff in my life.

And so they're not just go and do, it's like also this is the kind of needs that you have in your life.

So for instance, uh this next slide here, comfort one another.

There, 1 Thessalonians 4.18.

The idea is yes, you should go and comfort one another, but the the alternate idea and seeing it the other way is there's a type of comfort that you need that can't be found anywhere else, but will be made available to you in community.

And so if the scriptures testify to the fact that you need to comfort one another, the idea too is like, but there's also comfort that you will need that you won't be able to find in a drink, that you won't be able to find in a team, that you won't be able to find in a sport, that you won't be able to find anywhere.

The idea is that there's something that exists here that only exists here.

And so you can find comfort in massages and all these other things.

You can find comfort in all that other stuff, but there's a space here in community where there's a type of comfort that's only available here.

In like inside the church community, there's a type of comfort that's only available there.

Same with teach one another.

There are things that you need to learn, and that's why it says that there are things that you need to learn that you will only learn in community.

Stuff that you need to be taught, stuff that you need to understand from other people, and you can't learn those things.

There's no book you can read, there's no podcast.

I love what Rainey said earlier.

There's no podcast you could listen to.

You can learn a ton of stuff, but there's something unique about what you can learn inside an actual community.

There are needs that you have, needs that like I need to learn things inside this community.

And it's like, and it's only available here.

It's not available anywhere else.

Honor one another above yourselves.

There is a type of honor that exists that you cannot get from your work, from your accolades, from your successes out in the world.

Like you can be honored there, but you're supposed to receive a type of honor here that's completely different than what the world can offer.

And this is why it says to the church to honor one another above yourselves.

Because we need honor in a certain way that the church is the only space that can provide it.

That's why it says accept one another.

There's a type of acceptance that you need to feel safe and like you're enough.

And so you won't, excuse me, and so you won't find that anywhere else in the world.

So you need a community in order to experience that type of acceptance that you need.

You'll find acceptance out there, but there's a type of acceptance that you can only find here.

And these things are supposed to meet your needs.

Bear one another's burdens.

There are things that you'll walk through that will be too heavy for you, and you'll only be able to not be crushed by those things.

It's not perfect English, but it's okay.

You'll only be able to not be crushed by those things if you're actually walking in community.

And so the idea is if you remove yourself from the community, you'll be bearing the weight of life, that you can go nowhere else to go and find somebody to help you carry that thing.

This is why the testimony to the church is like go and bear one another's burdens, because there's not another space you can go to to find someone to bear those things.

You can find help out there with different things, but like here, there's something that the church offers in bearing our burdens.

It's like, if we don't have that, we'll be crushed by those things.

Speak the truth in love to one another.

There is truth that you need to hear, to correct you, to guide you, to keep you from making a mess of your life, to keep you from blowing up your family, to keep you from blowing up your marriage.

There is truth that you need to hear that the world cannot or will not give you.

They might lie to you or they might berate you, but they won't give you the truth and love that the church is supposed to give you.

And so there's something here that you need, guidance that you need, wisdom that you need, truth spoken in love that you need, that your life will not flourish unless you're a part of a community that is willing and uh safe enough and then bold enough and daring enough to say something hard that they know this might end our relationship, but I'm gonna speak it in love to you because you need it and you will not receive it anywhere else because no one loves you that well or is willing to take that risk.

But there's something here in community where that's supposed to happen, and you will not flourish unless you have those people speaking in your life.

And so this is why the writer in Hebrew says, don't give up meeting together.

And it's not like, hey, you're supposed to be in church every single Sunday.

There are Sundays that you shouldn't be here.

Like I was talking to Kevin.

Like there's certain Sundays you shouldn't be here and you should go home and go to the hospital or whatever you need to do.

And but that's not what he's saying.

He's like, just don't cut yourself off from what you actually need.

You have needs in your life that cannot be met in another scenario, another context, anywhere.

It cannot be found except in here.

And so he's like, just make sure you do not give up meeting together regularly so that you have the needs in your life met by the people in your life that have committed to you to meet those needs in your life and to say those hard things, even though you might not want to hear it, but they can do it in a way that only they can do it because they're part of the same church community.

This is why community is such a big deal, because you have needs that just will not be met any other way.

And so I think many of us go living our lives about 80% or 70%, or some of you are like, I'm living it like 30% fulfillment right now.

And I think there's a space where it's like, but if you if you were to press into this commitment, this community of the local church, this community of people here, then you would actually go from 30 to 40 to 50 and so on and so forth.

You would experience the things that you actually need for your body to thrive and for your life to thrive, and for the things in your life that are uncorrect to be corrected and all the rest of it.

And I realize some of you have had bad church experiences.

I didn't, I mean, I didn't grow up in the church, and so I don't carry the baggage of bad church experiences.

I missed the purity culture movement, which I'm so thankful I missed that because it sounded terrible and like true love waits.

I don't know.

I just I anyways, I don't want to, I I could rant on that, but I missed all of the bad stuff and like came into church and was like, this is amazing.

Have you guys read the Bible?

Like, this is incredible.

I had no idea that all this stuff was real.

I didn't so I don't bring in the baggage of elders or deacons or or gossip ministries that are you know prayer rooms that turn into you know gossip stuff where it's like we're really just talking bad about Jane.

Like I don't I don't have any of that.

But I realized like some of you do.

And so when it's like there's the the community is supposed to meet your needs, what you're bringing in is a history of the community not meeting your needs, but actually tearing you down.

And I hate that, I'm sorry for that.

And I can't change that.

All I can say is that as the leaders of the church, like what we want is a space where we understand biblically that we're supposed to be in the community of the church because we have needs that can't be met anywhere else.

And so we want to seek to create a community where the needs that you have and the things that you're longing for and the things that you can't find anywhere else, you can find here.

And so that's what we want.

That's the first one.

Excuse me.

Y'all, I've been sick for like two weeks.

I don't know.

Pray for me.

I don't know what that is.

Um, I mean, I'm not contagious, I'm fine.

But all right.

Second reason we want real community is that there's power in community.

And I know I talk about the power of God breaking into our lives, and I will talk about it forever because one, I think it's real, and I think it's not experienced in the Western church, and I think it can be.

Uh but there's power that actually God has bound up in the community of the local church.

So there's this um addiction therapist called Alex Lurza, or called his name is Alex Lurza, and um he referenced this study that happened uh, I don't know, in the 50s or something like that.

He talked about this rat study.

I've I've shared a story about a rat study before.

This is a different one.

Uh have a lot of rat stories, y'all.

Um but there was a study about addiction.

They were trying to test addiction theories on rats.

And so what they did is they placed a rat in a cage and then gave him water and then drug water, okay?

And then left the rat alone to see what it would do.

And what it did is it drank some water, then it drank some drug water, really liked the drug water, and became addicted to the drug water to the point where it continued to take the drug water, overdosed, and died.

And so did that to all the rats, and every rat did the same thing.

Got addicted to the drug water, overdosed, and died.

Okay.

And so the conclusion of that study was the opposite of addiction.

The only way to keep people from dying in addiction, the only way to do that is to make them sober.

The opposite of addiction is sobriety.

That was the conclusion of a thing.

That's where the just say no, you know, dare thing came from and all the drug, war against drugs, and all the rest of it.

That's where that came from, from that study.

Okay.

Then in the 70s, there was this um Canadian, what was he, Canadian psychologist named Bruce Alexander that looked at the findings of that research and was like, we we don't know if this research is true or not because the rats were tested outside of a normal environment.

Like rats don't travel alone.

They normally travel in packs.

And so this isn't a normal environment.

It's not natural for them.

Let's test the rats in a natural environment.

And so they got a cage, they called it Rat Park.

Basically, he uh literally, that's what he called it.

Uh, and it was like six flags for rats, and they just they stuck a bunch of rats in there together, and they gave them like a ton of food, and then gave them like balls and games to play and all this different stuff that they were able to do.

And uh and then also gave them the water and then the drug water.

And uh, what they found in watching the rats is like most of the rats, most of the rats didn't even touch the drug water, and then the majority of the rats that did never went back, never became addicted, and none of the rats overdosed and died.

And so the research, as they looked at it, it was like, hey, actually, the opposite of sub uh of addiction isn't sobriety.

The opposite of addiction is connection.

Like that's the that's the truth of the research.

And so there's all these papers that have been written about all of this stuff.

The idea is like there's something broken in our culture where we're no longer connected, and so what it leads us to do is to turn to outside sources to try and find what we're looking for.

But realistically, if you add connection in the mix, all of a sudden the drug water, he says to the rats, became actually a source of danger.

They were like, we don't want to do the drug water because it's gonna break my connection with other people.

And so the idea is like there are things in our lives that we are struggling with and that we're dealing with that the Lord, every now and then will just, you'll pray, I'm like, Lord, just save me from my addiction to porn, or save me from my lust, or save me from my addiction to alcohol or to drugs, whatever like, or save me from something.

I'm dealing with something difficult.

Would you please help me with that thing?

And sometimes the Lord just He just does it.

And He does this amazing thing and this silo thing, just you and Him, and does this thing.

But I think there also exists this space where the Lord wants to drive out things in your life where He will say no to a prayer request to you solo that He wants to actually, but when you get plugged into community, He wants to drive those things out of your life slowly over time by using the community that you're in.

So this is why there's passages in the scriptures like, hey, as iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another person.

The idea is if you pray, Lord, sharpen me, please.

And he's like, go hang out with somebody.

Like, that's what that's the idea.

It's like I'm not gonna just sharpen you naturally.

I want you to be attached to my bride, this community, and I want her to do the work that I do.

And so that what you're looking for and longing for can be experienced.

And sometimes it's miraculous intervention and he just does it.

But many times the way that he actually brings and breakthrough into our lives is by using the community that we're in, using that connection and all those different things to shape us and to change us and to mold us and to actually bring about healing through being a part of a community.

Not miraculous intervention, but over time, slow, methodical relationships with one another.

That you're speaking the truth into my life, and I'm doing that for you.

I'm bearing your burden and you're bearing mine.

And then all of a sudden these things begin to shift and change.

So, excuse me.

We see this with confess your sins one to another.

James 5.

Confess your sins one to another, pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Like it doesn't say confess your sins to God, and then you'll be healed.

I mean, we should confess our sins to God, but it doesn't say that.

It says, confess your sins one to another, let that person pray for you, and then healing will be what you you'll experience healing over the struggle with that sin.

You'll experience that, not from I confessed my sins only to God.

I confess them to another person.

They prayed for me and I received something different than when I if I confess my sins to God, he's faithful and just and will remove my sin, cleanse me of all unrighteousness.

That's pretty strong.

But if we confess our sins to one to another and have what that person pray for us, we experience something completely different.

He has bound up his power, yes, in himself, but he's also divvied it out to his people.

And he wants us to experience something together that we cannot experience apart from this.

And he's just done that.

And it can seem a little rude, like, why did you do that?

Why do I have to, you know, why why can't I exp why don't you just answer the prayer?

And he's like, Because I know that you need the church.

I know that you, and so if I answer all of your prayers in a silo, you could just live your life, go into the lake, and never actually being a part of a community.

And the church needs your voice and you need their voice.

And so I have to allow things only to come in your life.

Through the church itself, so that you realize I am dependent on the church.

I can't receive the fullness of what I'm looking for outside of that.

I have to have the church.

And we live in a culture that just doesn't want to need anything or need anybody.

Amen.

We live in a church.

Or we live in a, we live in a culture where it's like we just have this space where we're like, I don't want to need anyone.

And the Lord's like, yes, but I built you to need other people.

I made it that way.

And so I created the space where you could actually have your needs met in all these different ways.

So for you and for many of you, he might absolutely just take away your anxiety.

Like, man, I just struggle with anxiety, I have anxiety attacks.

He might do that.

He might just miraculously, you're praying one night and just doesn't.

What a gift.

I hope he does do that.

But it's also very possible that he might use the community you're in to walk with you in it, to talk with you through your anxieties, to shape you and form you, to bear your anxiety with you so that it's lighter for you.

And then over time, as another person comes in and another person comes in, and another person comes in, all of a sudden the weight of that anxiety no longer is as heavy as it used to be.

Because somebody's standing there with you going, I won't let you fall under this weight.

I will make sure that we carry this thing together.

And I think there's a space in there where that's what he wants us to do.

To remind for those people in your life to be like, remember to cast your cares on him.

Every time you struggle, remember, remember, remember, you can cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

Remember that the peace of God will reign in your heart as we bring those things to him with petition and thanksgiving.

Remember, and we when we have people like that, I think that's a way that he helps shape us and form us.

Yes, I'm all for medication, y'all.

I took medicine before I got here.

I'm sick.

And so I'm all for the medication that helps the chemicals in our brain.

But I also think there's something about connection that also releases chemicals in our brain and does a deep spiritual work in our life that transforms hearts.

And I think one of the things that we're lacking is not the number of medicines that we could take, but one of the things that we lack is community through connection that ultimately drives those things out of us.

And so I believe that he might take away your sin struggle and he might just take it away, but it also may be taken away by other people sharpening you and going through life with you, not judging you, having compassion on you, not condemning you, but restoring you.

And your sin struggle may just be blotted out, not because he took it away, but because you're in community with other people.

That helped you walk that thing out, helped you experience grace, helped you experience all those things.

He might miraculously save your marriage.

He could do that.

And again, I pray daily for those of you who I know your marriages are struggling.

I pray that he does do those things.

But it's also true that he might use the community around you to be honest with you, to call you out when you're being stupid, and for them to call out the other person when they're being stupid, and to help you learn what it looks like to fight together and not apart.

The community is supposed to be this space where we're like constantly pushing you together, reminding you of the covenant you made, reminding you that redemption is possible, that dead things can still come back to life.

And you're like, my marriage is dead.

It's like, I know, but resurrection is kind of his thing.

It's what he's known for.

Like I promise.

He can do that thing.

And you need people around you, and he might just do it, but it's very possible that he wants to use the people in your life to pour out his power into your life.

There's aspects of his power that we will not experience.

And there are things that you are currently dealing with that you're praying he would change that he's just not going to do until we dive deeper into community.

And it can sound mean, but it's actually the kindest thing.

If Teddy found a way to get all this food and all his homework done and read all of his books without any of us, it won, it would break my heart, but it would steal from him a life of growing up with a healthy family and something that I should be doing for him.

He would be doing on his own.

Even if he found a way to do it, it's still unhealthy to do that.

And so the Lord has bound up in his people a space where we have to, if you want to experience more of me, you have to go into that space.

You have to enter in.

You've got to take the risk.

You've got to press through the difficulty and the awkwardness of building relationships and talking to people that are difficult to deal with and talk to, and they talk too much or they spit when they talk.

Like, yes, but you have to go in.

Because if you don't, you're going to miss something that you're longing for and you're looking for.

So power.

There is power bound up in the church, and we will miss it if we don't experience community here and now.

So the third reason, third reason I want us to have community is community leads others to experience what Jesus is like for themselves.

His points aren't very clever, they're actually kind of long, but I do believe this is real.

It creates a space where people are able to experience Jesus.

If you look at the gospels, Jesus does miracles and transforms people's lives all the time.

It's amazing.

Randy was talking about that, the kingdom life, the eating life, people being fed, water's turning into wine.

What a glorious day that would have been.

Like just a just all kinds of miraculous stuff.

But then you have these other smaller stories where it's like Jesus didn't do a miracle and he radically transformed somebody's life.

And it was just through talking to them.

It was just through greeting them, welcoming them, inviting himself over to a meal.

Zacchaeus, we prayed over this at the prayer room.

Zacchaeus' life was radically transformed because Jesus said, Hey, I want to come eat at your house.

He just invited himself over for a meal.

And Zacchaeus comes down and he's like, I'm going to give all the money back, everything I've ever stolen.

And it was like this radical welcome of Jesus.

Nobody wants me, but you want me.

Changed his heart, changed his life, giving all of his money that he's stolen back fourfold.

Just radically, like no miracle, no nothing.

Just an invitation from Jesus to be in relationship with one another.

You do that with Matthew has the same thing.

Rome doesn't want Matthew.

The Jewish people don't want Matthew.

Nobody wants Matthew, and Jesus is like, You, I want you to come follow me.

And just he's like up and out, I'm like, let's go, let's do that thing.

He changes from Matthew the tax collector to Matthew the gospel writer, who ultimately shares the gospel with basically all of the Jewish people at that time.

Same thing with the woman at the well.

Woman at the well is sitting there, and nobody wants to talk to her, and Jesus is like, I want some water.

Give me, I'm thirsty, I'm parched.

And they have this conversation that ultimately leads to her, her life is transformed, but no miracles are happening in this space.

And some people can say, well, the woman at the well, Jesus had supernatural knowledge of her.

It's like, Jesus had the same knowledge that everybody in Samaria had of this woman, that she was sleeping with all kinds of guys.

Jesus just had that same information.

And all he was doing was just not rejecting her, but inviting her into a relationship, and it changed her life.

And I think that when we give a space and create a space where anybody anywhere is invited in, something powerful is at play, and people get the to experience what it must have been like to experience meeting Jesus.

And I think the church has this opportunity that when people walk through the door or into your home or wherever to go like, it was so inviting and it was so welcoming, and we disagreed on so many theological things or whatever, but all of a sudden they still wanted to be in relationship with me.

We give people the opportunity to be like, because this is what the reason you're experiencing this is because this is what Jesus is like.

And if you're wondering, and you've had bad experiences out in the world, what he what he's like, he's like this.

He is the most welcoming, loving, kind individual that you could possibly know.

And we know him, and he wants to know you.

Like you just give people this opportunity to meet them, to meet him.

It's a wonderful story of this church in Las Vegas that has this ministry to prostitutes.

And um, really, uh one of the stories in particular is just really beautiful.

But when they're doing that, they they use in in order to minister to these women uh hospitality.

That's their way of trying to evangelize these people.

And um and so what they do is they just basically share life with them.

It's like, let's go eat, let me go help you pick up your kids from daycare, let me go do whatever.

And they're just being kind to them and doing that kind of stuff, ultimately to build relationships.

But it's difficult because most of the people in that arena have been used by men, women, organizations, they've been used consistently.

And so when the church comes in to try and help, they're like, you're just gonna use me too.

And God is father, are you joking?

Like I had a father, okay?

And so they just have a really, really hard time making the transition and thinking that the church actually wants to bless them.

But it does work, and they use hospitality in welcoming people into their lives because most people want to just use them and move on.

They welcome them in and it ultimately transforms their lives.

One story in particular there was a woman that they just hardened heart, couldn't get to, would not listen, would not come to anything, didn't want to have a conversation, didn't want to go to coffee, didn't nothing, didn't want to share a life at all.

She was in the sex trafficking arena and it was like, this is what it is, and just leave me alone.

Uh but she had a friend that had come out of that and was at this church, and they were helping one another try and figure out a way to build relationships with this woman.

And so what what the friend did was like, hey, your birthday's coming up.

And so the church is like, let's just throw a birthday party.

Let's just have this huge birthday party.

We can go to her favorite restaurant and we can just have a surprise birthday party, and you could bring her in this whole thing, and we don't have to stay if it gets awkward or whatever, but we can just throw a birthday party.

And so that's what they they set it all up and they do it, and they bring the woman after she you know finishes her evening work one night, and they bring her to the restaurant, uh, which is closed because it's it's late.

Um, but go in anyways and uh flip the lights on, and it's a surprise party for this woman.

And they start singing happy birthday to her, which we're not gonna do for Victoria, but they start singing happy birthday to her, and she burst into tears.

And one of the things that she said whenever she was able to compose herself was like, No one has sung to me in any way in like 20 years.

Like, no one's ever sung, like I haven't heard people sing to me.

And it was like the birthday song, which is you know, catty and it's awful, but like it just something about that like just shifted her.

And then they gave her gifts and gifts and gifts and gifts and all of this conversation, all of this love, and all these different things.

She's like, no one has celebrated my birthday, no one, in 20 years.

And it was just this space where it was like it just melted this woman's heart.

I mean, like, I don't want anything to do with Jesus.

And she was like, the question, why are you doing this to me?

It was like, because this is what he's like.

This is how much he cares.

He remembers your birthday.

He doesn't sit there and hold withhold from you because of decisions that you've made or how life has gone for you.

Like, he loves you deeply.

This is what he's like.

If you're wondering who is Jesus and should I even get to know him, it's like he wants to celebrate your birthday.

He loves you, he is for you.

And so it just created the space for this woman who had a hard heart and was never going to do it.

It created a space for her to hear and learn about Jesus.

And she came to faith, and now she's a part of the ministry that helps bring people out of sex trafficking.

It's really a beautiful story.

But the point is, all they did, they didn't like, you know, spend a ton of money and doing that stuff.

I mean, they didn't buy her gifts and whatever, but it was just, let's just create a space where this woman can experience a welcome and an invitation in a hospitable environment like she hasn't experienced in 20 years.

And it just radically transformed her.

And so I want people in our church and wherever to experience in our homes or with us, like, man, when I'm around them, I experience what Jesus is like because they're so welcoming, they're so inviting.

And when we are this way, when our community is that tight and that together, and we're able to actually experience that for ourselves, we're able to pour out from that space, from what we experience together here, we're able to pour that out into the world.

And so those three things, that's what we want.

We want it to be a space where we have a community because we have needs that we need met that cannot be met outside of here in any space.

There are things that you have that I need that I can't find anywhere else, and vice versa.

There are things that we are going to struggle with that the Lord's not going to answer until we walk in community together, slowly, methodically, dealing with relationships, dealing with forgiving one another over and we have a family motto that's fix and forgive, fix and forgive.

We asked Teddy the other day, what's the what's your favorite part of our family?

He's like, that we fix and forgive.

It's like, yeah, because we make a ton of mistakes.

But like, favorite part of the family, like that's I mean, the church should be this space where it's like we fix and forgive.

We never cancel, we fix and forgive.

And so the walking in relationship, doing those things so that we're able to hold one another's burdens and actually care for one another so that we experience the power that God does want to give us.

He just wants to give it through community.

And then I want us to have community so that when people walk through the doors, they're like, I felt like God was in that place and I never knew it.

That's what I want.

So, what we're doing, what we're going to do to pursue those things.

Some of these you're gonna hate, okay?

Just just know them.

Maybe you don't hate them, maybe you just won't like them.

You can tell me later.

Um, and if you're gonna email somebody, email Larry, he still has email.

Um, what we're gonna do, one is optional name tags, okay?

Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence people, he says a person's name is the sweetest sound they can hear.

So it's optional.

Some of you are like, my clothes, would that stick?

I don't want, fine.

Southern Church, I get it.

We wear fancy stuff, and I'm totally on board with that.

Um, but in the back of the room where everything has shifted, all our information, our donuts, our coffee, all of the stuff, there's gonna be name tags back there.

If you want to wear one, it's a get-to, not a have to.

And we're not gonna judge you if you don't have one on being like, oh, you're too good for the name tag.

We're not gonna do that, okay?

Uh, but we're just gonna have them available because what happens, and it's scientific, Google it.

You guys, if you don't trust me, just what happens is when someone tells you their name and you immediately forget because you're a normal human with way too much going on in your life, it makes you not want to talk to that person any longer than you currently have to, because what if their name comes up and they just told me and I seem like such a jerk?

It's like my name is smrah, and you're like, I've I've already forgotten it, and we've been in conversation for five seconds.

And when that happens, the the clock starts ticking on ending that conversation.

You don't want to connect with them because you're nervous that they're gonna be like, and what's my name?

And then you're gonna be like, I don't know, I'm sorry, I forgot.

And then it's over, okay?

And so we're just trying to mitigate some of the awkwardness and all those different things.

And so we're just gonna have it, and name tags just have a way of creating the space where community can happen a little easier because all of all of the nervous awkwardness around they told me their name and I forgot.

I'm such a terrible human.

And then you spend more time beating yourself or berating yourself for how terrible you are, and then the two minutes of greeting is up because you're like, well, I just talked terrible to myself for two minutes.

I don't even have time to say nice things to people because I'm so mad at myself.

So we're trying to get rid of that.

And so wear them or don't, we don't care if they're just available.

I'm gonna wear one, even though most people know my name.

Um, but I do want it to be a space where we can have that.

And so that creates community.

If you don't like it, that's fine.

Um, and you don't have to wear one.

All right, next one that we're gonna do.

Monthly lunches after church in 2024.

Um, I'm gonna read that quote in just a second.

But one of the things that we're gonna talk about today is as a leadership team of the church is trying to implement once-a-month lunches.

It's great to be in here together for the hour and 15 minutes, but primarily this space is given to me just to have a monologue where I just tell you a bunch of stuff.

And we want it to be a space where you have longer than two minutes to not just small talk, but to actually have relationships and stuff.

And you're busy, we get it.

But if we could create a space where it happens here or somewhere or something like that, we'll just rent a restaurant out.

That would be really cool.

Um, but just something like that.

Max Cicato says this that something holy, something holy happens around a table that will never happen in a sanctuary.

In a church auditorium, you see the backs of heads, around the table, you see the expressions on faces.

In the auditorium, one person speaks.

Around the table, everyone has a voice.

Church services are on the clock, around the table, there's time to talk.

Hospitality opens the door to uncommon community.

It's no accident that hospitality and hospital come from the same Latin word, for they both lead to the same result.

Healing.

There's something about just sitting together and eating together.

We had people over last night, and it was awesome.

We had such a good time.

Lots of inside jokes that I could share with you, but they're ours.

Um but there's a reason, like we do want to sit with you and we want to eat with you, and we want to get to know you better because there's something different that happens around a table.

Um, and so we're gonna try and figure out what that looks like, but that's something we want to do.

We used to do it and then COVID happened and shut everything down, and so we're gonna figure out a way to do that.

But just a space, again, another option for you to be in community with us.

Uh, next, uh, community group, a midweek community group in 2024 with childcare.

Right now, on Wednesday nights, we do an adult Bible study.

It basically allows the single people in our church, whom we love, and the people without kids in our church, who we also love, uh, to come.

But if you have kids, you're really, it's very difficult for you because you either got to find a babysitter or leave them on the street or something.

I don't you know.

Uh so there's nothing for you.

And so what we're going to do is starting in January, we're going to uh create a space where we can, you can just show up and bring your kids.

We'll have something for your kids.

And it's going to be still be at the house, but we're just going to have more of a, it's already kind of shifted this way anyways.

Uh we're going to have more of a meal together and kind of, you know, grab and go kind of thing, where we can chat and hang out.

We still want to discuss the scriptures.

I think the scriptures are central and should be central.

But we want it to be a space where you can bring your kids, have a space where you pause for a second just with the adults, and then have the kids doing something else and do that.

So we're going to make that available to you.

It probably likely will still be on Wednesdays, but the hope is from that group we could spawn another one in August and have two of those things.

And so that's what we want.

Julie Kyle brought uh this uh Buffalo chicken dip last week.

It was phenomenal.

We ate all of it.

Um, but it was really good.

Sorry, just shout out for Julie.

Uh but that's one of them.

Uh, that's another thing we're doing 2024.

Uh, then our monthly events.

Y'all may know this.

We try to do this uh this year.

We did you know women's thing in September, men's thing in October, uh, women's thing in November.

We just did it last week with the book club.

It was awesome if you were there.

It was so great.

Uh in December, we're doing an all-church Christmas party, not an animal party, an annual Christmas party.

Um, and then January, we're gonna do another C3 women's event.

February, we're going to Top Golf.

Let's go.

Top golf for the men.

Uh March, we're gonna do an all-church Easter festival kind of thing.

We're gonna try and do it here at the school if we can rent this space out and invite the community and all the rest of it.

Uh, April, we'll do another women's event, and then May, you can kind of see the pattern.

We can't do everything every single month, but we do want to create a regular rhythm where it just becomes normal for you to go, wait, we did one in November, another one's coming up in January, so that we have space for you to show up and just to have a space where you can do that.

Those are things that we're doing.

Just I just wanted you to see those things coming up.

They're not planned, all of them just yet, but they're happening.

Okay.

And then lastly, what we're doing to pursue it.

Men's group Wednesdays at 6 30 in the morning.

I know it's early, but if you some of I talked to somebody on Thursday, they didn't know we did this.

If you're a man and you want to come to my house and have a men's group, it's early, but you're welcome.

It's a wonderful time.

We'd love you to be a part of that.

We're gonna try and create another one because the people I talk to have to go to work and they get there at like 10.

They're like, can we do one at like 8:30 or something?

And so we're gonna try and figure out another one where we can create a space for those who can't wake up this early.

Um, but uh we'll figure that out.

But that's another one that we're doing.

Um, these things will evolve and change over time.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said if you fall in love with your way of doing community, your method, if you fall in love with that method of community, um, you will crush community and destroy it everywhere you go.

But if you just fall in love with people, you will create community everywhere you go.

And so that's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to look at the needs of our church and go, here's what we need to do.

We need community, let's see if we can do these things.

And then as our church morphs and changes, we can look at those things, navigate them, and decide on those things.

Okay, I gotta go faster.

Um, what I want from you, or what we want from you, one, is get involved in community, get involved in community.

And this does not mean show up to church every single day, make sure at every single thing that we do.

That's not what that means.

There are days that you don't need to be here.

There are times when you feel like a hypocrite that you should just stay at home and love your family well and don't bring them to church.

There are spaces for that.

Um, Larry somewhere is angry that I just said that.

And so I do think that that's true to some extent.

And so I'm not saying that it's also possible if you show up to every single thing that we do, Sundays, Wednesdays, Wednesday mornings, Wednesday, women's events, men's events, if you show up to all that stuff, it's still possible to uh come to every community event and still not have community.

This is deeper than just showing up.

There's something about opening your life up to other people and showing them the stuff that you're afraid to show other people and then allowing other people to do that for you.

If you show up to every single event, you can still not be a part, or you can be a part of the community, but not have community.

There's something about opening up your life, and so get involved in that way.

Be willing to open up your life and to share your life.

That's what it says.

We didn't just share the gospel with you, but we shared our lives with you in Thessalonians.

And so that's what we want.

Get involved in community.

Uh, show up when you can, and we do want you to be here, and it will take sacrifice, but be open to the community.

Lean in, next one, lean into the small talk uh that happens in the church.

This is scary for most people that hate small talk.

I understand that, but here's a good method.

This is just a practical, it's not like a biblical thing, it's just something that works for me.

The Ford method of communication, family, occupation, recreation, dreams.

If you're ever talking to me and we don't know each other, I am doing this in my head.

Okay?

And I have like 10 questions for each one.

Like, how's your family?

Good.

What's your family do this weekend?

Good.

Is your family in school?

Good.

And I just like run through a list, and then as soon as, uh depending on the conversation, occupation, how's your job?

Do you like your job?

Is that the job you want for a long time?

Is that I just run through this thing, and so this has saved my life.

And actually, it made me a lot of good friends.

Um, so Ford method of communication.

Lean into the small talk.

If you're like, I just need a, I don't know how to do it, I don't know what to talk about.

Just one question for each one, and as soon as that's done, you can be like, Well, I gotta go because I'm finished up here.

Um, and then move on to the next person and do it again.

Uh lean into the small talk uh and then help build community around you.

Help build community around you.

Be hospitable to other people.

There are people that you you've been in church together for 10 years and y'all have never gone to lunch together.

There's something about that that needs to shift and change.

You've never been to their homes.

This church isn't that large.

Y'all, if this was Bellevue, I'd be like, yeah, I've never been to their home because honestly, they sit way up there.

I don't know.

But like here.

We need to invite people into our homes.

We need to invite people to lunch on a Sunday and be like, not just the same people over and over and over again.

You're gonna build relationships with that person naturally.

Find someone that's unnatural for you to build a relationship with and be hospitable with them.

You never know what can happen because Jesus was hospitable to people and it changed their lives.

And so find a space where you can do that.

Set up dinners with people.

Jesus changed the world by who he ate with.

In Luke, if you read the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is either at a meal, on his way to a meal, or leaving a meal on his way to another meal.

The whole book is written around food.

The whole thing.

He changed the world by who he ate with.

And you can do that as well.

You have three meals a day.

Some of you do the fasting thing.

That's weird.

Uh but if you do that, like just bring someone to the one you're not fasting, um, and then do that thing, okay?

Be hospitable to one another.

Again, you have no idea.

Ronald Rollhauser, great quote, and I'll finish with this.

Evolution works.

Evolution works from the principles.

The survival of the fittest.

However, one of the essential elements of Christian discipleship demands that we work from the alternative principle, the survival of the weakest.

Look around, find somebody that has no one, and be hospitable to those people and invite them into community.

Rainey and I want to do this, but we can't do it ourselves.

I love my personality.

I had a good father who said he was proud of me a lot, so I'm very confident in myself.

Love my personality.

But I also know that my personality can't hold every single person in the entire church.

If you look at it like a net, like I'm running through, and then Rainey's running through, Rainey has more people like her than me.

But then if we add you guys into that, the net becomes larger and stronger and weightier where you can carry more people.

And I'm not trying to build a megachurch or anything like that, but I do want to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

And one of those things is that you are called to be hospitable.

You're called to be like Jesus.

He changed the world by who he ate with.

And so a part of this, I do want community, but it takes everybody, and I can't do it.

I got an eight-year-old that I want to love the church, Jesus, and you.

If I spend all my time with you, I gotta be honest, he's gonna hate your guts.

And I want him to love you.

And I want him to love Jesus in the church.

And so I want all of us to take this on and go, this is not just the pastoral role, this is the role of the believers in Jesus, because we're called to be like him.

And so find a way to practice hospitality.

We'll talk about this so much more, but find a way to do that.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this group of people.

Thank you that they're here, and thank you that we have this space that you have called us into this holy thing.

This group of people that you brought together, and then you just blessed us with power.

That we have needs that can only be met here, that there's things that you want to work out and in our lives that can only be worked out and in relationship with these people.

God, I pray that we catch that vision, these things that we're looking for and longing for, these struggles that we've had that we're trying and praying, God, would you please that those things can come out?

I pray that you would cast that vision in our minds and allow us to feel it in our hearts, that you want to do work in our lives through the folks in this room.

And God, you want to reveal your character, your presence, your nature to the world.

And you want to do that through your bride, the church.

And so I just pray that you would build that here and begin it today and continue what's been built over the last 10 years and allow us just to experience new expressions of this wonderful thing that people get to share life together, share, share meals together, and in doing that, share life with you and experience life with you so that we experience the fullness of abundance of life that you have for us.

God, I pray that you would do that in our time.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

We're gonna take communion.

Ummunion.

We get to take a meal.

A meal.

This is how he did it.

Sat down with this disciple, and it used to be a love feast, is what it's called, which sounds the connotation now sounds weird.

Um, but it used to be like actual food, where like the people were drinking all the wine too fast and getting drunk, and Paul's like, hey, don't drink all the wine and get drunk before everybody shows up.

Like you're supposed to shear the stuff together, and they're like, Oh yeah, sorry about that.

Uh and then they'd eat all the food, just read Corinthians, they were messed up.

But uh the idea was like it was supposed to be this space where, like, what should we do all the time?

You should come together, share a meal together, love one another over the feasting of food.

And if you are poor and have no food, you have food.

If you're rich and you got too much food, pour it out on other people.

And everybody gets to be well fed like they did when Jesus fed the 5,000, and everybody had enough.

That's what this was supposed to be.

And so Jesus instills this thing and implements this thing that we get to do.

We get to take the the joy of wine and the life of bread and be reminded this is what he has come to do, and this is what we experience.

We experience joy together and fullness of life together, and we take it together.

And so, as we take communion, prepare your hearts, confess your sin to the Lord, um, cleanse, ask for cleansing, all the rest of it.

Just search your heart.

We're supposed to do that.

And so I just encourage you to do that and then take communion together, rejoice in the fact that Jesus has created a beautiful community where we can experience what we're longing for here and now, and we can do this together.

Uh, there's gonna be two people over here.

There's gonna be bread over here and juice over here.

We're changing things a little bit.

I'm sorry, but we are changing things a little bit.

There's gonna be two people over here.

Rainy and I are gonna be over here, and then we're gonna have some people on the corners here.

Uh, Barbara, can you pray over there?

Uh Brenda D.

Mont, are you can you pray over there?

Brenda will be over there.

We believe that prayer changes things.

Corey Tinboom says this beautiful thing that uh the wonderful thing about prayer is you enter into a space of the impossible.

I think I said that last week.

So wonderful.

Enter into a space where all things are possible.

So if you need prayer, we'd love to pray for you.

Please come and receive prayer.

But as you uh come, I want us to take a do a liturgy together.

This is the bread in Isaiah, it says this.

It says, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him.

Read this with me.

By his wounds we are healed.

And the cup represents his blood.

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Come and take communion as you're ready.