Nehemiah and the 7 C's: Community

Amen.

If you agree with what you're just saying, would you just give God praise in this place?

So when I started junior high, I moved from attending children's church every single Sunday morning into the adult worship gathering in this small little Baptist church I grew up in in North Carolina.

I was used to children's messages, children's games, etc.

So I got into the adult service and saw what was going on.

At the end of the very first gathering that I was ever in, there was like a business meeting at the end of church.

And in the midst of a business meeting, at the end of church, a fight broke out.

And I thought, adult church is amazing.

This is not boring like I feared that it would be.

And the next week we were meeting at another place because we left that church and started a new church.

Not kidding.

We were at a hotel for a while.

Within about a year and a half or two, we had bought property and we started building our own church.

Um, and I don't mean like uh we hired, I mean we built our own church.

It was a small little Baptist church, and so uh people within the church were building it.

We didn't hire a general contractor, people in our church did it.

I was a junior hire um with very little construction skills, but let's be honest, now I'm a 52-year-old with very little construction skills.

I was qualified to carry around buckets for trash.

I was qualified to hand people a tool or a supply.

If they were like, I need a brick, I have a brick.

Here you go.

And that was about the level of my expertise.

What I realized in hindsight, it's one thing to build a church, it's another thing to see God build community within a church.

It's one thing to have a building, it's one thing to have seats, it's one thing to sing songs.

It's a whole other thing to see God accomplish the work of building community that He so desperately wants to do in our midst.

We're in a series where we're talking about what kind of people do we want to be?

What kind of cultural values do we want to have?

We've got seven of them.

We can put them up on the middle.

These seven seeds, these cultural values.

We talked in week one that we want to be the kind of people who are compassionate.

I thought there could be like a yeah, amen, something.

We want to be the kind of people who are compassionate because God is compassionate when he shapes us and forms us.

One of the building blocks, one of the foundational things is we become people of compassion because we become like our God and like our Savior Jesus.

We talked about last week, we want to be people who are courageous, and compassion is even sort of affected by this courage.

We want to be courageous, not because compassion's soft, but because it's strong and you've got to put up with hard things.

So we want to be building on this foundation of what does biblical courage look like?

And we talked about last week.

Would you do this?

Put your hand out and like do, like grab.

We talked about biblical courage isn't grabbing, it's not taking, it's flipping your hand over.

It's receiving power.

It's God's power for God's task, it's receiving like for the purposes that God has, the strength he wants to give us, so we can be courageous.

And this week we're going to talk about what does it mean as we keep building to be the kind of people who are, we're seeking to be the community God wants us to be.

It's a foundational piece.

And and literally, it's the middle name of our church.

Hillside community church.

How do we become the kind of people that God wants us to be?

And building community is something that God does in us before he does it through us.

It's about a shared identity, it's a it's about shared rhythms of life.

It's it's about selfless sacrifice to be who God wants us to be.

Around here, um, or churches, you talk about discipleship.

We we have a phrase we use when we're talking about discipleship.

We say growing in community.

Look at it, growing in community.

Because we think discipleship is more than just having information in your head.

Discipleship is also about relational connection.

It's it's being on a journey with other people and other people who are helping you to become the fullest version of who Christ has created you to be.

We need other people.

This isn't a solo sport.

We we want to be people who are growing in community.

And right now, we're four weeks, five weeks into our fall community season.

There are uh right now, every week, 1,759 of you involved in a growing and community environment.

We're so thankful.

That that isn't a yay hillside, that's thank you, God, thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing.

But can I be really honest?

Just because you attend a growing in community group doesn't necessarily mean you're growing in community.

We've got to let God do the work in us.

So we're we're gonna talk about what that looks like, and we're gonna talk about it first of all through Nehemiah.

So for about 10 minutes or so, I want to set up a context of Nehemiah.

I want to tell the story, and I want to jump ahead in Nehemiah to help the story make sense.

But then the last part of the sermon, I want to really practically go to Jesus and the Apostle Paul and say, so what does it mean for us now?

Okay, so the Nehemiah part, if you've got a Bible, I would love for you to find Nehemiah chapter two, but we're gonna jump around in Nehemiah quite a bit.

So just get ready or look on the screens.

Um, Nehemiah chapter one, if you don't know the story, God reveals to this man Nehemiah, who is not a leader, he's not a religious figure, he's a cupbearer to the king.

But God breaks his heart with a vision.

Uh, Nehemiah and the people of uh Israel had been many, many years earlier attacked by a foreign nation, taken hostage.

Nehemiah is about a thousand miles away from Jerusalem, and the people of God are in exile.

It means they're out of their homeland, they're in a foreign country, they feel isolated, they feel alone, they don't know what the future looks like.

There's a lot of uncertainty.

And God uh sends some people to Nehemiah to say, the people of Jerusalem, his people, are in great trouble and disgrace in the city, the walls are destroyed and the gates are burned.

City gates are vitally important for coming and going, city walls are vitally important for security, but even more than that, their identity was shaken.

Because their city and their people are destroyed.

And Nehemiah has a vision from God, not really like that God speaks, but he feels impressed.

God wants me to do this.

God wants me to go rescue the people.

And so in last week in chapter two, we talked about the courage that he had in going to the king.

The courage that he had in saying, I think this is what God wants me to do.

And the king said yes, provided him all kinds of supplies.

So Nehemiah takes the thousand-mile journey from Susa to Jerusalem and starts to inspect the gates.

And then in Nehemiah 2, verse 17, this is a verse we read last week.

Nehemiah 2:17

Look at what Nehemiah does.

After talking to no one for a while, finally he speaks and he says to them, You see the trouble we are in?

Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.

Come let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

So he's casting a vision.

He's like, You see the disgrace, you see the trouble.

He's helping people to define reality, to feel the pain.

And he's giving an invitation, come let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.

And I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me.

This is that defining feature of Nehemiah II, the hand of God at work through every circumstance.

And what the king had said to me.

The king blessed him with protection, authority, and provision.

And here's the people's response.

They replied, Let us start rebuilding.

So they began this good work.

So they start this good work, and the people joined together.

They they start to work on the walls, they start to work on what's going on.

Chapter three starts to tell us the story of how this happened.

I'll read two verses, starting in verse one.

Elisha, the high priest, and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the sheepgate.

They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the tower of the hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the tower of, however you say that name, the men of Jericho built adjoining section, and Zakur, son of Imri, built next to them.

Now I know you're just enthralled.

Wow, he built there.

That's really crazy.

Here's the point.

Nehemiah tells us about 45 different work sites on this wall, ten gates that are being built.

So here's my point if you're a general contractor in the room.

You're managing 45 construction sites simultaneously.

This is a work of like strategic operational leadership.

Nehemiah may not have some religious or political title, but he's a qualified leader.

And he organizes the people to do together what they could not do on their own.

And so you see this massive project take place, and everybody is working near their own home.

They get that area ready, then they go to another area.

Well, almost everybody.

Look at verse 5.

The next section was repaired by the men of Tokoa.

Watch out for those dudes.

But their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

There's always some entitled people in every group, right?

And they're like, no, we're not going to work.

We're not going to help out.

Somebody else can do this job.

But everybody else, it seems, they're a part of the building project.

It's a cooperative effort, and people from all kinds of professions and trades are involved.

If you read the rest of chapter three, you'll see there's people who are goldsmiths and perfumers.

These are like the artisans of the day.

They're sort of like pastors.

They don't have calluses from manual labor.

But they joined in in the work.

It didn't matter who you were, it didn't matter what you had or where you came from.

Everybody was joining in this common cause with selfless cooperation with individuals and groups who had been divided for so long because they were in exile.

They had been polarized because they were in exile.

They come together for this amazing task.

Chapter 4, verse 5, or verse 6, uh Nehemiah has this line: So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height.

For the people worked with all their heart.

The point of that verse is to tell us it is a miraculous work.

They got a ton of work done in a little bit of time because they worked together.

God was doing something phenomenal.

He was using them to accomplish a work that was desperately needed for the sake of the people in the place of Jerusalem.

Now that's sort of some of the specific of the work, but let me let's back up now or go forward and talk about why.

In order to understand really what is going on, we need to jump ahead to Nehemiah 9 and 10 to see this is sort of the why that's going on behind all the scenes.

And what Nehemiah 9 and 10 look like are different places in the Bible where there are covenants, where God chooses to make a covenant with his people, not a contract, but a covenant that God seals.

God does this with Abraham, he does this with Noah.

That's why there's a rainbow.

He does this with David.

He finally and ultimately does this with Jesus.

There's a covenant, a new covenant with Jesus.

But this is a covenant renewal where the people are recognizing who God is and who they are.

What God has promised in their responsibility, and in this covenant renewal in chapter 9, the people own their responsibility.

They say, We're sorry, we've sinned.

We've fallen.

God, will you please forgive us?

And they confess their sins in chapter 9.

And when there's a covenant made, there's an oath.

There's often a ceremony in the Bible.

And so the people are confessing their sin.

You get to chapter 9, verse 38.

In view of all of this, in view of all of this, we are making a binding agreement.

So it's it's it's it's an oath.

And we're putting it in writing.

And our leaders, our Levites, and our priests are affixing their seals to it.

So just imagine some giant book down here.

Look at me real quick.

A giant book down here, and all of us agree this is what God wants us to do.

And row by row by row, section by section by section, every single one of us, we come up and we sign it.

I agree, I agree, I'm in, I commit, I'm apart.

Look at verse 10, chapter 10, verse 28.

There's a lot of names in the first 27 verses.

They did it, they did it, they did it.

The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand.

The point of this is this.

Everybody joined in.

Everybody joined in.

All these joined their fellow Israelites, the nobles, and bind themselves.

It's a commitment.

With a curse and an oath to follow the law of God given through Moses, the servant of God, and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord.

Look at this.

Our God.

Not somebody else's God, this is our God.

And they joined together to say, God, we're going to follow your word, we're going to obey carefully your word.

We're going to trust you at your word.

So here's two takeaways for us to understand.

This is for everybody.

Everybody participated.

The whole community.

The whole community is invited, 100% participation.

Secondly, there's a general pledge followed by specifics.

There's a general, like, God, we're going to trust you.

God, we're going to follow your word.

And then there are specifics.

We'll follow you like this.

Can we just be really honest?

At literally 11:59 a.m.

on Sunday morning.

It'll be 12 o'clock before I'm I forgot I finish this.

It's really easy in church on a Sunday morning, getting ready to be Sunday afternoon.

I'm waiting for it to turn 12.

God will follow you.

It's a whole other thing on Monday morning to live it.

It's really easy to sing the songs.

We love you.

We're going to build our life on you.

You're a firm foundation, God.

You are our foundation.

But then there's Monday morning or there's Monday night.

And so the people make these general commitments.

We're going to trust you, we're going to follow you, followed by specifics.

There's three.

I'll talk about them in two weeks.

They talk about going back to the Sabbath.

God, we've neglected the Sabbath.

That one of the Ten Commandments, like God, we're going to find uh rhythm in our lives.

We're not going to be so busy and hurried.

They commit to honoring marriage like it needs to be honored.

We'll talk about that a little bit.

And they they talk about getting back to tithes and offerings and honoring God.

So we'll follow you, but then the specifics, here's how we'll follow you.

And all three of these are ways that God builds us into his people.

That God builds community.

So now let's take the Nehemiah story and try to apply it to us.

Three three different characteristics of the kind of community God is building.

First, God builds community in us through a shared identity.

We know who we are.

A shared identity.

We know who we are.

Here's what Nehemiah is doing.

It's about a people.

God's trying to let them know this community is it's about a people that God wants to work through.

Nehemiah reminds the people of their truest identity.

They're God's chosen people.

No matter their occupation, no matter how much money they have or don't have, no matter what they've accomplished, they are God's people.

It's their truest identity.

And so it's the reminder for us.

Community often begins with identity.

Before God tells us what to do together, he tells us who we are together.

Who we are together.

So let's just make it plain.

Identity is a strange thing in 2026 in Southern California.

Can we agree to that?

It's a really weird thing.

How do you determine what your identity is?

For many of us, it's about what do I do for a living?

Because that's why, hey, when we meet somebody, hey, how are you doing?

If we're at a party and it's a little bit awkward, we're like, what do you do?

Is that your identity?

So sometimes identity is we're looking in ourselves and we're trying to define it.

Who do I feel like I am?

What do I want to do?

Or how do I feel?

And we choose our own identity.

In our society, we can look around ourselves at surrounding areas and try to discern identity by our culture, the social media sort of algorithm that we're following, or some kind of news at night, and we start to be shaped and we have a certain identity based on what we consume.

But the truest identity of us is always who God calls us to be.

It's not found looking in a mirror, it's discovered, revealed, looking in scripture.

And we're living in a world that says, Well, my identity is I just want to do my own thing.

And some of us are like, I'll go that way, and some of us are like, I'll be this way, and some of us like, well, okay, what about that?

But our truest identity is found when we align ourselves with the will of God, the ways of God, and the work of God.

And it's a shared identity because it's who God is calling, inviting us to be.

What does Jesus say about this?

In John chapter 17, Jesus is praying both for his disciples, his 12 that are with him, and for us.

John 17 · chapter mention

Look at verse 20 on the screen.

Jesus prays, saying this to the Father My prayer is not just for them alone, meaning the 12 disciples.

I also pray for all of those who will believe in me through their message.

So all of us who are followers of Jesus, we believe because the apostles have told us about who Jesus is.

Here's this prayer, verse 21.

That all of them may be, what's the word?

One.

One.

That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

There's a deep theological truth here in this passage.

That our God is a Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

And this sermon's not about that, but the mystery of this truth is our Father is our God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, with perfect unity and fellowship.

And what Jesus is saying, God, Father, as you and I are one, I pray that these people, my followers, would be one.

Unified.

Now let's be clear, that doesn't mean uniformity.

That doesn't mean we all have to always dress alike, think alike, all that kind of stuff.

What it means is we're united about what really matters, our ultimate identity.

We're united around Jesus Christ.

We're united around his work.

That allegiance is takes precedent over all other allegiances.

We're united that we're one, but look at what Jesus says with purpose.

Um, so that the world may believe that you have sent me, that we would be able to have this kind of identity in Jesus, unified together to accomplish the work in the world.

But the apostle Paul talks about this in Ephesians 4, verse 3.

Ephesians 4:3

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.

So can I just say this?

We don't create the work of unity, we participate in the Spirit's work of unity.

If we can participate in the Spirit's work of unity, then guess what we can also do?

We can participate in being unified, whatever that word would be.

Divisive.

So the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace, meaning the bond, the agreement.

And look what Paul says there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

God chooses us as his people in Jesus Christ.

We're made part of the family of God in Christ.

That is amazing news.

I'm not sure at 1205 if you're believing it right now, but that is amazing news.

Let me maybe try to help.

Let's imagine a sports team trying to figure this out.

So let's imagine USC last night as they're winning a game or the Dodgers.

Let's not imagine the Angels.

They're already on vacation, they were done a long time ago.

Let's imagine a real team.

And you're in the locker room with a real team, like the Dodgers or the USC Trojans.

And you're like, what makes you a team in the locker room?

It's not because they're in the same room together.

They're a team because they share an identity.

They wear the same jersey, they represent the same organization, they're pursuing the same goal.

The church isn't a crowd wearing different jerseys.

Oh, there are a lot of jerseys in here today.

We've got a new identity.

The jersey on top of all the other jerseys, we're Christ's.

We're Christ's people.

Thank you.

That was a great place for four of you to say amen.

It's like baptism is an initiation into this shared identity.

It's like welcome to the family.

You belong here.

And Jesus gives an invitation to every single one of us.

There's a place for you.

If you turn from your sins and turn to Jesus, there's a place for you in this family.

We're not primarily defined by an individual identity, but by belonging to Christ.

And in the middle of a loneliness epidemic in this world, in the middle of a self centered emptiness, God is wanting to build in his people a deep identity, the truest identity we get.

When it's received by God.

I don't know how they did building projects in the ancient world.

I don't think they had uh laser levels, some of you who are in construction.

Uh I do know they had cornerstones.

And so once they had a cornerstone in place, let's just say that this stage represents a cornerstone, they had a true, a true measurement.

Every other brick was laid to the cornerstone.

Every single brick was aligned to the cornerstone.

Uh, interestingly enough, that church I carried the bucket around for was called cornerstone.

Interestingly, in the New Testament, Jesus is called the chief cornerstone.

And we find our alignment not when we do our own thing, but when we align to his will, his way, his work in our lives.

It's a shared identity.

And that may sound restrictive in 2026, but I just want to tell you, it is the best news we could ever receive.

We're God's people.

Second, God builds community in us, in us, through shared rhythms.

We learn how to be together.

Shared rhythms.

Nehemiah's people didn't just make a statement about belonging to God.

We're yours.

They actually reorganized their lives.

You can see it if you read chapter 10 through the weekly uh Sabbath they agreed to, yearly feasts and festivals.

Every seven years they cancel debts.

They say there's new rhythms that we're going to live out as the people of God, because here's the reality.

You and I, we don't become a community by wanting community.

We become a community by practicing community.

We put it into practice.

We do the kinds of things that help build relationships.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together, he wrote about this idea.

And he said, the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community.

But the person who loves those around them will create community.

Here's what he's saying.

If you are in a group of people and you just love the idea of community, and your idea of community is, can we all get along?

Can we agree on every single topic?

Can we laugh at the same jokes?

And can all of you just agree with me?

That is an ideal of community that is impossible to have, isn't it?

And if I have an ideal that's impossible, the moment you don't agree with me, I'm disappointed.

And I want to throw in the towel.

But we love the ideal of community more than we do the people sitting around us.

If we actually love the people sitting around us, we'll start to say, Oh, maybe I don't have it all figured out.

Or maybe I'm the weird one in the group.

And I'm so glad they're all having grace for me.

When we love others as Jesus has loved us, we begin to see these rhythms shape us and form us.

Like if you come and you tell me, I've joined the gym, I'm going to get in shape.

Great.

And then I see you in a month, and I'm like, tell me how it's been going to the gym.

Oh, I haven't made it there yet.

You gotta actually show up and do the work.

Joining doesn't change a thing.

We've got to make room in our calendar.

We've got to have rhythms.

And even more importantly, in a world that pushes us to hurry, busyness, and overcommitment.

We're going to have to fight for rhythms that shape us in the right ways.

The early church, as it was birthed, Acts 2 tells the story of rhythms they committed to.

Look at verse 42 on the screen.

They devoted themselves, they devoted, they committed themselves to four things.

The apostles' teaching, that means the word.

They committed themselves to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They devoted means they made these rhythms central to their life.

Look at verse 46, and you'll see every day.

Verse 47, you'll see daily.

They were saying these rhythms shape us, inform us, and they're vitally important.

And that's why right now, if you're one of those 1,759 people, if you're in rooted Wednesday night after Wednesday night after Wednesday night, in alpha Tuesday night after Tuesday night, if you're in a men's group and you meet on Thursday morning after Thursday morning, or a women's group every Tuesday, every Tuesday, it's the repeated practices over time that shapes us.

It's the power of habit.

God shaping us to who he wants us to be.

I was telling a couple of our younger staff the other week that they have young kids, like multiple kids, doing sports and they're running like this every single week.

Anyone else?

And I'm like, I am so glad I'm not in that season anymore.

Not part of me misses it, but I'm so glad I'm not in that season anymore.

And I was like, you know, but but you're a part of a community, whether you know it or not, when you're on the practice field 15 times a week and there's four games and you're sitting there with the same people and you're doing the same things.

You're going to be bonded in ways just because the habit of doing things.

Here's my concern.

We're all probably a part of some kind of community.

I just want to make sure we're a part of the kind of community that's meaningful, that shapes us into who God wants us to be, not against that.

Most people, this isn't everybody, but most people in Rancho Cucamonga in 2026 don't lack opportunities for community, they lack margin.

Our calendars are too full.

Some of us don't necessarily have a community problem.

We've got a calendar problem.

And maybe that needs some rearranging.

Others of us, that's not us, others of us in this room, it's not a calendar problem.

It's we've been hurt.

So we started building a wall to protect our hearts and keep us away from being hurt.

And the very thing that God wants to do to meet us in our deepest needs, He wants to build a biblical community that hurts with others when they hurt and rejoices with others when they rejoice.

But shared practices begin to shape us into who God wants us to be.

Third, God builds community in us through selfless sacrifice.

We choose whose interests come first.

See, Nehemiah rallies a people to work together and to work for each other.

But we just gotta be honest.

In order to do this amazing work and restore this identity, their lives are disrupted.

Their normal schedule is disrupted.

But it's for the better and it is for good.

And when it comes to selfless sacrifice, can I just say this?

Nobody in the story of Nehemiah sacrifices as much as Nehemiah.

So if you're a leader or you want to be a leader, if you want to have influence, can I just say this?

You will never lead anything significant or have great influence apart from sacrifice.

So selfless sacrifice is a part of the story.

Think of a healthy family.

So you don't have to think radically like you move a thousand miles like Nehemiah.

Just think practically of a healthy family or a healthy roommate situation.

Somebody's got to give up the last piece of pizza.

Not everybody can have it.

Somebody's got to get up in the middle of the night when another person's sick.

Somebody's got to go to the emergency room.

Somebody's got to change their plans.

Somebody's got to spend money that they didn't want to spend and listen to problems when they didn't really want to listen.

There's just sacrifice that's natural in relationships.

If we're going to be the kind of people that God is trying to form us to be, we just need to know their sacrifice.

Let me just say it another way.

In Jesus' words, do you want to be his disciple?

If you do, he says, Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.

It is the way to abundant life.

It's just not the American ideal that we're sold in commercials.

So what does Jesus say about this?

John chapter 15, verse 12.

John 15:12

Jesus says to his disciples, My command is this love each other.

How?

As I have loved you.

Follow that model as I have loved you.

And then Jesus says these profound words greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

He's like, you want to know what this kind of selfless sacrifice looks like?

It's laying down your life for your friends.

I really seriously doubt in the next week.

Many, if any, of us are going to be asked to physically lay down our life for our friends.

But I bet every single one of us will probably be asked, Will you just sacrifice a little bit of time?

Will you sacrifice a little bit of energy?

Will you sacrifice your preferences?

Will you sacrifice a little bit of money to help out?

Selfless sacrifice is an essential ingredient to community.

And then the Apostle Paul speaks to this in Philippians 2 and writes, Therefore, if, so it's conditional, a bunch of ifs.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, if you've got these things, Paul says, then make my joy complete by being like-minded.

Again, even like-minded, it's not uniformity.

It's with all the beautiful perspectives and personalities and experiences, the diversity that we have.

It's coming together for the sake of what God wants to do and be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of others.

What Paul's trying to say, if we want the Jesus kind of way in our relationships, if we want the Jesus kind of way in our marriage, if we want the Jesus kind of work in our friendships, if we want the Jesus kind of work in our Bible study group or whatever that thing is that we do, there's a way to do it.

We value others ahead of ourselves.

There's a selfless sacrifice involved.

And then Paul goes on in verse 5 to give Jesus as the model.

Look at this verse on the screen with me, if you would.

This is so practical.

In your relationships with one another, I just want you to do something.

Pick one person.

In your relationships with, pick that person, your kid, your spouse, your friend, your neighbor, the coworker you don't really like, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, the mindset shift.

Not what's in it for me.

Who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be, here's the line, used to his own advantage.

Jesus didn't treat people.

What's in this for me?

How's this to my advantage?

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a, what's the word?

A servant.

Servant.

The way we relate to each other is a servant.

Not what's in this for me.

But how can I serve?

Selfless sacrifice.

In the 1970s, Francis Schaeffer was this fairly well-known Christian apologist.

He wrote a book called The Mark of the Christian.

And he writes our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful.

Christian community is the final apologetic.

What he says is this.

So there's like roughly 12 weeks between now and the end of the year.

Sorry.

What would it look like if you just stepped out in this area with God and maybe just said, what needs to be realigned in my life?

Where do I need to maybe be readjusted, it revisioned, where it's not all about me, but instead a shared identity?

Where do I need some practices, some rhythms, or even as I do this end of the year, set myself up for success in 2027 by not overcommitting ahead of time?

Where do I need to maybe have some selfless sacrifices and begin to say, God, would you do your work in me?

God, would you do your work in us?

And we would posture ourselves as people who are ready, willing, and able for God to do what only God can do in us.

Would you pray with me?

God, your word has sometimes some very hard truths.

But you never speak a hard truth that you won't empower us to fulfill.

And so, God, would you, by your spirit, remind us of your strength, your wisdom, your discernment?

Would you remind us your ways are countercultural to the ways of this world?

And would you give us that gift of faith to keep on trusting you?

We want to be the kind of people who receive this identity, who live out of the fullness of who you want us to be.

God, I'm praying for people in here today.

Don't let us settle for less than what you really have called us to in life.

Do that deep, deep work.

That we wouldn't so be, that we wouldn't be so focused on ourselves and miss the others.

We wouldn't be so focused on achieving but but miss receiving what you want to provide for us.

So would you encourage us and challenge us in ways that are appropriate to be your people, loving each other for your glory and the good of others?

It's in your name, Jesus.

We pray these things.

Amen.