Connect in Community | Romans 12:3-13 | September 13, 2026 | Aaron T. Colyer

I do hope you have a Bible.

Open it to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We're going to be walking through the middle portion of Romans chapter 12 this morning as we talk about connect in community.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Now, typically I like to pray before we get going and pray for a pastor friend of mine.

Today I have this note in my Bible.

Pray because it's National Grandparent Day.

Did you know that it's National Grandparent Day?

I'm not sure that you knew that.

I was made aware of this about a month ago.

Our pastor team was meeting with some church members talking about how do we give a more robust ministry detail to grandparents being legacy grandparents.

Now, I say that word a lot in preaching.

We talk a lot about Christ-centered homes.

We talk a lot about grandparents.

You should know the milestones and the resources so that you can pass them on to the next generation.

But now we're brainstorming about making that a more robust ministry to train legacy grandparents so that we can actually invest into the next generation and invest in Christ-centered homes, as what Pastor Mike likes to say, to the 10th generation.

So I'm just pausing now before I pray to say if you're a grandparent, praise God.

I'm glad you're here.

I'm glad you're here.

If you are not a grandparent and want to be a grandparent, there are some families in our church looking for adopted grandparents.

We've had that at many ministry stops that we've had along the way.

We've served now in four different churches, and three of them we've not been close to grandparents.

And so it's been a blessing for us for someone in the church to say, I'll adopt you in.

I'll help you get a date night.

I'll help watch the kids.

I'll be an emergency contact at the school.

How can I pray for you?

Give me weekly prayer requests.

That's certainly something that we would love to see fostered more and more at our church.

So let's pray.

And let's pray for grandparents, and then we'll walk through Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Lord, thank you for this morning, and thank you for what we've already experienced in this place, your presence.

And there's so much energy in the room, and it's fun.

It is fun to be all together in this big one gathering.

But I pray, God, that the energy in the room that's most notable and most important to every person here is your presence.

So even now, as we lean into your word, uh, would it be the Holy Spirit leading, guiding, directing the things that I proclaim from the Scriptures today?

Would you give us ears to hear and eyes to see our great need for Jesus and how to apply the Scriptures?

Lord, I do thank you for all the grandparents in the room, and I pray, Lord, that they would more and more and more be intentional to be that kind of legacy grandparent that points their adult children and young grandkids to Jesus.

That we would do, like it says in Deuteronomy 6, uh, we would teach our kids diligently what it is to love you with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And we do it all the time as we sit in our house and walk by the way when we lie down and when we rise.

Help grandparents know the role that they have to continue to encourage that kind of ministry.

As we seek your face, God, we are asking for you to move.

So do big things for your glory.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This one big gathering.

It's been good.

It has been good, but it's not gonna be forever.

In two weeks, we go back to those two gatherings.

And as you heard from our pastor Mike Stevens, that it's gonna be at 9 and 10:30.

I hope you're excited about that.

I'm excited.

I'm excited about trying something new.

And like he said, if if it doesn't work, we'll pivot.

But I'm excited.

And what we've been going through in these last weeks in this one big gathering is our vision and values.

It's been intentional.

You you've had access to that since around Easter, but we even worked really hard to get that curriculum for the small groups.

And if you still haven't picked one up, you can grab it in the back of the room.

If you want a digital copy of that, you can still ask our office and we'll send it to you.

So that our whole church rallies behind this vision that we have to magnify Christ, share the gospel in every home in the Wimberley Valley and beyond.

That's what we want to do.

We want to magnify Christ and share the gospel.

That comes down into four main categories.

As we talk about the things that we value around here, things that we see in Scripture, that the whole man would be shaped and sanctified into the image of Christ.

That is glorify God.

We want to glorify God, absolutely.

That's that's part of trusting in God's word.

We want to abide in Christ.

We talked about that last week.

Today we're talking about connect in community, and next week we'll talk about multiply disciples.

So open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I hope you hear some of the language of the values under connect in community.

Those values are creating authentic relationships, serving inside and outside the walls of the church, and engaging the culture.

Listen and see if you hear some of that language as we read through Romans 12, verse 3 through 13.

Romans 12:3–13

It says, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ.

That phrase in Christ is so important.

Underline that, if you underline in your Bible.

We are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

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

Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

If I was preaching through the whole book of Romans, you might have heard me make much of the gospel.

That even though we are dead in our trespasses and sins, we can be alive in Christ.

This whole argument, or some some might have learned the Roman road.

We see a good picture of the gospel in Romans 3:23, 6.23, 5, 8, 10, 9, and 10.

Romans 3:23

And all of that's happening in the context of Romans, and then he gets to chapter 12 and he instructs Christians to let their whole life be worshiped to God in verse 1 and 2.

This is your your living sacrifice.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

He says, This is how you live for the Lord.

And it's no accident that he then goes on to give instruction on how we should relate to one another as Christians, how we should live inside this local body of Christ.

So if you're taking notes, I hope you will write this down.

Number one, be a part of the body, be a part of the body.

Verse four, we have this language.

We are one body.

Just as one body has many members, so we are one.

And then verse five, we are one in Christ.

And then this is a bold statement.

We are members of one another.

That means when I am hurting, we are hurting.

When I'm growing in Christ and I have a zeal for Jesus, we have a zeal for Jesus.

When you are out sharing the gospel and living on mission, we are sharing the gospel and living on mission.

When you are stuck in sin and darkness, we get stuck in sin and darkness.

When we understand friendship and hospitality, then we are the kind of friendly church that everyone always tells me, by the way.

Visitors come and they say, This is the friendliest church I've ever been to.

Praise God, church family.

It's not just we individually, it's we together.

And I think it's important that we see from this scripture and so many others to be a part of the body.

We we want church.

I, as one of your pastors, we as your pastor team, we as your ministry staff, we want church to be more of a family and less of a one hour a week.

I checked the box.

Let me just tell you right off the bat if you're a one hour a week, I checked the box.

I'm not preaching at you today.

I promise.

But you may feel like, gosh, there's more I could be doing.

And just ask the Holy Spirit.

Say, Holy Spirit, does something need to change?

And show me.

Show me, remind me intrusive scripture, and show me in my own life practically what might need to change that I am more than just a check the box one-hour week kind of church member.

We are a body together, we are a family.

It's not enough just to slip into church in the middle of the second song and then leave before the last song is over.

That's not how the body works.

We get to know one another, we invest in one another, we spend time outside the walls of this church, get involved in a small group.

We got Sunday groups, we got midweek groups, invite someone out to dinner, go to a coffee shop, schedule a play date.

You got young kids, moms, schedule play dates.

If you're an older lady and you got some time, you're retired, and you know there's some stay-at-home young moms in this church, say, hey, why don't you come over?

I'll make you brunch, bring your kids.

I've got breakable things in my house, but I'm gonna put all that away because relationship with you matters more to me than things maybe breaking in my house.

Right?

Be a part of the body.

And I understand sometimes because I've heard it.

Sometimes when when a pastor starts really pressing hard on that, or maybe in a small group, it's pressing hard about man, be involved and get to know and relate to one another, bear one another's burdens, all this language.

It's really easy to throw a pity party and say, Must be nice.

Must be nice if someone would just invite me.

I don't know why my phone's not blowing up.

I don't know why I'm not getting invited.

I don't know why I'm not getting the text messages.

Must be nice.

Listen, if that's you, that's a cop out.

It just means you need to do the one, you need to be the one that's doing the inviting.

Right?

Don't throw a pity party and say, Well, I'd love to get to know the people in this church, but they never invite me to anything.

Call them up.

Call them up and say, I want to get to know you.

I want to I want to be a part of your life.

So we got lots of good questions in this sermon.

One is this how does one become a part of the body?

Well, I'm so glad you asked that question.

Thank you for asking.

I want to go back to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

There's some really important language at the very beginning of the New Testament church.

There's a pattern here, and I hope you'll pick up on it.

Acts chapter 2, verse 37.

Acts 2:37

Peter just preaches the gospel, lights out sermon.

And people want to know how how do we believe?

How do we how do we make Jesus the King of our life?

And here's his response, verse 37.

When they had heard this, they were cut to the heart, said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

Peter said to them, Repent, be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.

You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and your children, and for all who are far off.

Everyone whom the Lord God calls to Himself.

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day, about three thousand souls.

Later at the end of Acts chapter two, that that phrase added becomes important again.

And not every pastor agrees with me on this, but but I think this is a key text to make church membership a priority in our lives.

You receive Christ, you're baptized, and then you actually make a commitment to be a part of a local body.

Why do I think that's important?

Because later in Acts chapter 6, there were two groups of widows.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And these widows were supposed to be taken care of by the church, and they weren't getting treated equally.

And so the whole reason deacons even started in the New Testament is there needed to be some men of God that loved God with their whole heart that could go and help take care of these widows.

Well, how do we know which widows were apart and which widows weren't a part?

Because they were added to their number.

And I can make that argument in a lot of other places in the New Testament.

That's not the point of this sermon.

The point of this sermon is make sure you're a part of the body.

Well, how do I get to be a part?

I receive Jesus first.

I'm washed by the blood of Jesus.

That's how I get to be a part of the larger body of Christ.

I get baptized after faith underwater, and then I go commit to be a part of a local church.

You know, in our membership lunch, and we're going to do this today, actually, so they'll get a little preview.

I talk about there's 114 references to the word church in the New Testament.

And I think sometimes it's talking about the church universal, right?

Every believer in Christ from all time.

But did you know that 90 of the 114 times it's talking about a local specific church?

Ephesians is a good example.

To the saints who are at Ephesus, to the church at Ephesus.

Hey, let me give you some instructions, church.

There's lots of examples in the book of Acts.

You can write them down if you want.

Acts 11, verse 22, 11, verse 26, Acts 12, verse 1, Acts 12, verse 5, all talking about local churches.

Acts 11:22 Acts 12:1 Acts 12:5

Now, there's tons of scripture in the New Testament that says, do these things with one another, bear one another's burdens, love one another with a genuine love, outdo one another, with showing honor, as we see here in Romans 12.

In fact, if you got a bulletin this morning, you're in luck because you got you got a little takeaway here.

Look at all the verses that we have.

You got a bulletin, go ahead and pull it out.

Put this on your fridge, stick this in your Bible.

All of the verses that give us this instruction about one another.

2 Corinthians 13, comfort one another.

Galatians 5, serve one another.

Colossians 3, don't lie to one another.

1 Thessalonians 5, seek to do good to one another.

I think all these verses generally have application.

This is how we treat people.

But specifically, there's more accountability when you're part of a local body of church.

And that's when we fulfill the one another language that's in Scripture.

We love one another with a genuine love, specifically in our local church.

Generally, all Christians.

And then even as we're out facing to a lost and dying world.

And that takes work.

It takes work because no church is perfect and no person is perfect.

And I might say something that you don't like one time, or I might disappoint you, or I might forget about a meeting that we had, or so and so might say this thing that really offends you.

And you gotta work, you gotta work at loving one another with a genuine love.

Now, one of our values is creating authentic relationships.

The picture that I get for that is not putting on the church face.

I don't know if you know about this.

It's easy to come to church.

We got our picture made today.

So I got one of my favorite shirts on, I got my favorite shoes on.

I got these one time for Father's Day.

It's easy for me to get dressed up, come to church, put on my church face, wear that smile when people say, What's going on?

I'm like, hey, I got my church face.

I don't really want to be honest about things that are hard in my life.

I'm just gonna smile and go to church.

That's not authentic, by the way.

Let love be genuine.

Maybe you've played this game before.

If you know about it, just let me know by shaking your head like this.

Have you ever played the how you doing fine game?

You know what I'm talking about?

The how you doing fine.

Hey, how you doing?

Fine, fine, good.

Yeah, fine.

Yeah, I'm fine.

How you doing, fine?

Hey, how you doing fine?

And it's a game.

It's a game we play because we don't actually want to get into it when we're not fine.

If we're gonna create authentic relationships, we cannot play the how you doing fine game.

We want to create authentic relationships.

That's where we bear one another's burdens.

The context of this very verse as it continues to talk about how we relate to others or how we how we act when we're persecuted or how we seek peace.

Verse 15 says, Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

We talk about this in our church membership interview.

That's one of the commitments of healthy church.

That if I have something to praise God, and I can't wait.

God's send this awesome thing in my life, and I show up to group, and someone's like, Man, I'm walking through something really hard.

I have to shelf my blessing to bear their burden.

Or the opposite, man.

I just I I want to go to I want to go to church and I want to talk about this very difficult thing in my life.

But that's when I realize that someone else is receiving an amazing gift from God and they just want to celebrate and shout it from the rooftops.

Can I be mature enough in Christ to shelf my burden and really celebrate with my brother or sister in the Lord?

When you're a part of the body, we know what we're rejoicing about or what we are burdened by.

We have these conversations, we have authentic relationships.

I was really frustrated last couple weeks to preach through a text like abide, like John 15, I love be connected to Christ, abide in Christ, and then at the end just tag on.

Okay, so here's three little things that we got to remember as we abide.

Here are the three values.

Let me just give you the list.

I'm so glad that today, coming right out of the text, I don't need to do that at the end.

Oh, here's a commercial for all the values.

I can actually just say creating authentic relationships looks like Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Let love be genuine, outdo one another in showing honor, serve the Lord, be constant in prayer.

We got to know each other if we're gonna actually connect in community.

So the question is what needs to change in your life for you to be better plugged into this local body of Christ?

And if you don't know, call me up and we will inventory your life, and I will help you find an answer to that question.

What needs to change?

Be a part of the body.

The local church is important.

Jesus died creating the church, universal and local expressions of his bride, Ephesians 5.

He loved his bride enough to give his life.

Church is not plan B, it's plan A.

Be a part of the body, connect in community.

Number two, use your gifting to magnify Christ.

We seek to magnify Christ and share the gospel in our homes in the Wimmerly Valley and beyond.

And so, right here, Romans 12, we have an example of this gifting.

Right?

Look at verse 6.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

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

Which gifts do you have?

Once you're in Christ and you're forgiven and you're connected to Christ, you're a part of the larger body, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

I think it's good to become a part of the local body and then use this spiritual gift that you've been given.

I was so encouraged.

Our student ministry took three weeks to talk about spiritual gifts.

And Brother Isaac sent him home with homework.

Fill out this gift assessment.

And I like to check in on the student ministry.

I just like students, anyways, but I have even more of an excuse because all three of my kids are over there on Wednesday nights.

And so I check in with them and I ask certain students how they're doing and what's going on.

And this young man, I won't embarrass him.

He comes up with a big smile on his face, says, Pastor Aaron, I brought it back.

I was like, What did you bring back?

But my spiritual gifts inventory was all crinkled up.

Maybe it'd been stuffed in pockets and and stuffed in the corner of books, but he filled it out and he brought it back.

He said, Hey, what's your spiritual gift?

He said, He said, like starting new ministries, like like the the apostle gifting.

I said, That's awesome, man.

That's awesome.

What else is your spiritual gifts?

Leading.

I said that's awesome.

How are you gonna use that?

I love that our students just spent time doing that.

It goes hand in glove to our values and understanding that we are here to serve in.

Inside the walls of this church and outside the walls of this church.

Verse 11 in this let love be genuine is also the command to serve the Lord.

Well, here's the question: How are you serving the Lord in this local church?

How are you using your gift?

Are you using it inside and outside the walls of the church?

Another beautiful thing that you get to just take home and put on the fridge.

If you look at this on the other side of all the one another language, we have most of the ministries that you could get involved in at this church.

If you have it, just wave it at me.

I just want to make sure y'all got it.

Okay, here we go.

Here we go.

So there's a QR code and a digital form.

If you're like, I've never served anywhere in this church, you could scan that today.

And it'll fill out a form online, and we'll talk about it in staff meeting on Tuesday and say who's going to call so-and-so to make sure they want to be a part of the safety team.

Well, Melinda's gonna follow up because you've got to be interviewed if you're gonna serve with young people, fill out a background check, and she'd be delighted if for the first time you said, I think it's time for me to serve in the kids' ministry at this church.

There's a whole list.

Here's how you can get involved, here's how you can use your gifts.

Serve the Lord.

What ways can you serve through the local church?

I'm glad you asked.

Because it's right here in your hand.

Y'all are all looking at me like, I just don't know that I want to commit to that right now.

I don't know if you realize that I can tell the temperature of the room, and the temperature of the room right now is like, oh no, here it comes.

Can I tell you something?

It's just a forecast to the next point.

The reason that we serve is because we've been given the grace of God.

These amazing gifts from the Lord.

And we can never pay him back, but we want our lives to count for something, so we use our gifts inside and outside the walls of the church.

Jesus is the perfect example of this.

Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.

I just don't know how I can serve.

It's just, it's gonna take time and it's gonna take resources, it's gonna take some effort.

I'm gonna have to get some training.

Guess what?

Jesus gave his life.

Yes.

I mean, we got no excuse, church.

We got no excuse.

What about serving outside the walls of the church?

I love even in our vision statement, right?

Magnify Christ, share the gospel in our homes in the Wimberley Valley and beyond.

We want our church to be the kind of lighthouse in this community that people know that's where that's where I go when I have a need.

That's where I go when I'm in trouble.

That's where I go when I need prayer.

That's where I go when I want to learn the Bible.

And the reason they know that is because we're outside the walls of this church.

Maybe you're familiar with Monday mornings, Carpenter Helpers.

Be a part, man.

They're serving people all the time in this community.

Rick has told me multiple times when I serve, I want to share the gospel.

I want to give a Bible.

Maybe you're a part of his hands, his feet on Wednesdays, going and delivering meals to someone that this just needs a prayer or a card or some company, a shut-in or a widow, a young mom that's like overwhelmed, someone that just came out of the hospital.

It's a wonderful ministry that starts here and goes outside of the walls.

Maybe it's other ministries not even associated with our church, just ministries that we partner with.

Christ's Breadbasket here in Wimberley.

Go serve with them.

We give them resources all the time.

True Choice Pregnancy Center in St.

Marcus, go serve with them.

The local school, show up and say, How can I help?

I can come on Monday mornings and just answer the phone.

I can come and make copies.

I can come and help organize the PTA.

Many of our church members have been involved in that in the past.

How can you help?

What can you do inside and outside of the walls of this church?

As a pastor team, we're praying for more and more ways to impact our community.

One of the things that I'm really excited about that we're brainstorming is to have once or twice a year a drive-thru diaper giveaway.

I don't know if you realize there's so many people in and around this community that when you have to go spend 50 bucks on a big pack of diapers at Sam's, they're like, I don't have it.

We don't have it.

Toddler's just gonna run around with nothing on, bare cheeks hanging out because we don't have it.

What a way to bless the community.

No questions asked.

You want to get one mega pack, two megapacks, or three.

If you need three, get three different sizes.

We don't care.

We're here for you.

Drive on by, we'll pray for you.

We want to give you these things.

We want to make sure that your kids are taken care of.

If you have other ideas like that, by the way, let us know.

Also know this.

We'll probably say, that's a great idea.

Do you want to lead it?

But we want to impact this community.

We want to serve inside and outside the walls of this church.

How are you doing that?

How are you using your gifting?

The list is right there in Romans 12, and there's other lists in the New Testament.

Do you know what your gift is?

And then how are you using it?

And if you are, make sure that you let grace motivate your ministry, whether it's inside or outside the walls of this church.

Let grace motivate that.

And that connects, by the way, with engaging the culture, because we don't just want to bang people over the head with the Bible.

We want to do that in a winsome way.

We want to share the gospel in a winsome way, in a loving way, with gentleness and respects.

But what does it mean to let grace motivate your ministry?

Look at the context again, Romans 12.

The reason that we can present our bodies as a living sacrifice is because we know the mercies of God.

I memorize this verse first in the NIV.

It says, In view of God's mercies, present your body this way.

Now the ESV just says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God.

You can say, Because of God's mercy in your life, make sure that your whole life is a living sacrifice to him.

And then the context, our passage today, verse 3, for by the grace given to me I say to every one of you.

And I would even argue that it's not just don't think highly love yourself, but it's all the things that he's saying now.

I'm saying this because I have received grace.

Now I'm pressing you to go and live in such a way that magnifies Christ.

Why?

Because you have received grace.

Another question.

How have you received grace in your life?

I'm so glad you asked.

Can I give you a few examples?

If you're in Christ today, if you're a Christian today, all of these are true.

If you're not a Christian, some of them are still true.

Number one, if you woke up this morning, God's grace.

Breath in my lungs, God's grace.

If you've experienced his patience even in your rebellion, and he hasn't just smashed you like he could, because he's a just judge, but he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

What is that?

God's grace.

The fact that you were once lost, but now you're found.

Grace.

That you have eyes to see and ears to hear, that he's opened your heart to believe.

Grace.

You've been given gifts, grace.

That all who are in Christ have a future, have an eternity.

That's God's grace in your life.

And because of God's grace in your life, that's why we're gonna pour out our lives like a drink offering.

That's why we're gonna serve inside and outside the walls of the church.

That's why we're gonna magnify Christ and share the gospel.

That's why we're gonna go engage the culture.

Why?

Because I know God did not have to be gracious to me, and he has.

So that motivates me to go live for him.

That's what Paul's saying here.

He's been given grace, so he says these hard things to believers.

I've got a short sermon clip that I think really illustrates this powerfully.

The only issue is we don't know the larger sermon clip.

This is a guy named Francis Chan.

Maybe you've been influenced by books he's written or sermons that he's preached, but this is so good.

Just think right here.

It's like 90 seconds talking about God's grace in the life of the believer.

It's when the grace of God comes upon your life.

This is the result.

He turns you into a giver.

You start becoming like Jesus.

And you just go, gosh, I know all this stuff is happening, but I want to give more.

I'm at the point where now I'm on a cross and they're spitting on me.

And what does Jesus say?

Forgive them, please, please, please, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

He's still giving.

Even after what everyone did to him.

And he says, Because the grace of God, that's who these people became.

You know, a lot of times when we say, Oh, the grace of God is on me, it's because we're rich or we're healthy.

No, the grace of God is on you when your character has changed.

And you've been conformed into the Christ-likeness.

It's like, man, the grace of God is on their lives.

It's really good.

In fact, I tried multiple times to get the larger sermon and I can't find it.

I even asked AI, do you know the larger sermon of this?

Because I want to watch the whole thing.

If you find it, send me a link.

I'd love to watch that whole sermon.

It's the grace of God that motivates us to go out and engage the community, to serve the community, to magnify Christ.

It's the grace of God that motivates us to go share the gospel.

It's the grace of God that motivates us to say, all right, I'll raise my hand, even though it's hard and it's going to cost me something to serve inside this local church.

I'm ready.

Train me up.

Use me.

It's the grace of God that motivates those things.

Now that last value is engage the culture.

If we really are the light of Christ, if we're salt and light, we engage the culture.

If I had a whole nother sermon to preach, I would preach Acts 21, verse 22 through 34.

Acts 21:22–34

Write that down if you want some homework.

Acts 21, verse 22 through 34.

Acts 21:22–34

Paul there, he's trying to get all the way to Rome to share the gospel with Caesar, and on the way, he's sharing the gospel.

He's there in Athens, and he's preaching.

And he's preaching to lost people, and he uses things in the culture.

He says, I saw this tomb to the unknown God.

Can I tell you the God that is true?

The one that created, the one that made salvation possible in Christ alone.

He talks, he uses their poets, he uses the culture, but he doesn't bend the truth.

That's the balance, right?

We don't bend truth to go meet the culture.

We stand on truth.

We stand on truth.

But we want to be present.

We want to be among.

We want to be active so that the light of Christ is reflected off of us.

Ultimately, verse 34 in that passage, some believe and they join Paul.

Isn't that great?

How do we engage the culture?

That's a great, great example.

Acts 21.

Have you ever heard this phrase?

The world's just going to hell in a handbasket.

The culture, man, just to watch the news.

Can you believe it?

Just going to hell in a handbasket.

Church, if we really believe that's true, it's on us to do something about it.

We don't just say that and we'll give up.

We just give up.

If the world really is going to hell in a handbasket, we have got to be the ones getting into the darkness and sharing the light.

Amen?

We've got to be the ones that are going to share the gospel.

Jesus loves you.

Just that phrase alone could start a conversation.

You don't have to have all of Romans memorized.

If we really believe the world's going to hell in a handbasket, let's do something about it.

Church should be a training ground where we lean on the word, we get filled with the Spirit.

We're encouraged by brothers and sisters, and then we go out and storm the gates of hell with water pistols.

Right?

Because it's not our power.

God's got the power.

Jesus gave us his authority.

It's not on us.

We're his representatives, his ambassadors.

Of course, we want to do that with a balance of gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15 is so appropriate.

1 Peter 3:15

In your hearts, honor Christ as holy.

Always being prepared to make an offense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you, yet do this with gentleness and respect.

You know, sometimes we're tempted to retreat from the culture and to leave the culture.

But we're called to be a city on a hill.

We're called to be salt that's useful.

It doesn't lose its taste.

We're called to be a light, not put under a basket.

We can't retreat.

Because if we retreat and we refuse to speak the truth to the culture, what other ideas are they listening to?

I've talked to Christians that are praying about running for the school board.

Great! Engage the culture.

I've talked to teachers that continue to serve in our public schools, even when some things are not easy about our public schools.

Great! Engage the culture.

I preached in January about faith and work.

You don't take off your church hat and put on your work hat and go into work on Monday morning.

And so often, people, when they get really passionate about the Lord, say, Should I leave this job to go work in a church?

No, that job needs the light of Christ.

Be a missionary in that place.

I'm not gonna use this name, but many of you are gonna know who I'm talking about.

There is someone in Texas right now running for the U.S.

Senate saying he's a Christian and he's bending the Bible.

He's bending the Bible to talk about things that are not godly.

I've heard on podcasts and interviews say, Oh yeah, God likes this, God loves this.

Let me misquote scripture to talk about things that God does not love or does not like.

And if we retreat from the culture and say, Well, I hope they figure it out.

People like that are gonna be the leading voices.

We don't need that church.

So we engage the culture and we share the light, we magnify Christ, and we share the gospel.

What's it gonna take for us as a church to do that well?

I think connection, authentic relationships, serving inside and outside the walls of the church, engage the culture.

Now I just want to close with this one idea.

It starts with you being in Christ.

I said that's so important in verse five.

And there's so many other places.

Ephesians 1 is one of my favorite, to be in Christ.

Because you can't be a part of the body unless first you're in Christ.

Let me just give you a sampling.

It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 4.

1 Corinthians 1:4

That's we receive grace because we're in Christ.

Or Ephesians 1, we receive forgiveness because we're in Christ.

Or Romans 3, we have redemption because we're in Christ.

Or Romans 6, we can have eternal life because we're in Christ.

Being a part of the body starts with understanding my sin separates me from God.

But someone made a way.

We sang about it.

We sang about being washed in the blood.

Someone paid for my sin.

They didn't stay in the grave, they rose and they said, Repent and believe.

Turn from sin and trust in me.

Follow me, and I will make your yoke easy and your burden light.

I am gentle and lowly.

And every person at some point in their life has got a very important decision to make.

Am I going to follow Christ?

My prayer.

And I will preach to I'm red in the face.

Make sure you know him.

Every person in this room.

Because we're not going to be creating authentic relationships or serving or have gifts or engage the culture if we don't actually know Christ.

It starts by receiving the good news of the gospel.

And then we're molded and formed and changed and sanctified and we grow and he uses us for his glory to do great things.

Make sure you're in Christ number one.

Number two, what needs to change for you to be better connected into this community and for us to go and impact the community that we're in?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for the scriptures that guide us and teach us, correct us, and even sometimes when there's things that make us uncomfortable, Lord, I thank you for that too.

Grow me through some of that uncomfortableness.

Grow our church family.

Help us to plug in and be engaged and involved in each other's lives.

Help us to serve.

We've received your grace, and so there's so much that we can pour out because of what you've poured in to us.

And so, Lord, I don't know how people need to do business.

I don't know if it's scanning that QR code and signing up to serve.

I don't know if it's getting trained up, coming in, coming in, going to our equip class on apologetics.

I know I need to be sharing the gospel.

I want to make a defense for the hope that I have with gentleness and respect.

I don't know if it's laying our burdens down, being more honest with our church family about our struggles.

I do just pray that you would do business in this moment.

Do business with us.

Help us respond.

We need to pray with the pastor and minister.

Help us in this moment to respond, to better honor you with our lives.

We pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.