1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Good morning, maybe. Am I on? Hold on, I have to start my watch real quick, because the first time I ever preached, I preached for 52 minutes, and I can promise you, you guys don't want that. 2 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:27,000 If I'm looking at my watch throughout, just know it's that I'm trying to spare you all. So yeah, good morning. I'm not Brandon. I'm going to call myself Brandon 2.0. 3 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:33,000 I'm a little bit younger. Unfortunately, I have a little bit less hair. We do have the same impeccable style. 4 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:42,000 We both really enjoy the short-sleeved button-up, usually from Old Navy, although when I asked my wife this morning, I walked in, I said, "Is this okay?" 5 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:48,000 She had not seen my sermon. She did not know I was going to make that joke, but she goes, "Yes, Brandon Jr." 6 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:56,000 And she also pointed out this one is Tommy Hilfiger, not from Old Navy. I also only have two kidneys. They are both mine, however. 7 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:01,000 Neither of them are trying to kill me, so I do have that on Brandon. 8 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,000 I did clear that joke with Brandon before. A little trigger warning. 9 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:11,000 What we're going to talk about today is we're going to talk about community, about being part of the community of God. 10 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:16,000 We were on vacation a couple weeks ago, and we were sitting out on the screened-in porch, and the TV was on. 11 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:21,000 We weren't really watching it, necessarily, but all of a sudden there was this show on called Alone. 12 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:29,000 If you've ever seen the show, so we sort of watched this episode and really kind of got hooked, and we came back and really got into it and watched the full season. 13 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:39,000 But the premise of the show, they take ten survival experts. These people are like, I mean, when I say survival experts, these are like legit survival experts. 14 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:46,000 They take them out to these super remote locations in Canada or like, you know, Alaska, these like crazy places. 15 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:51,000 It's always cold because, yeah, why not? They drop them off literally by themselves. 16 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000 So they take them to ten separate locations. They're spread out across, you know, hundreds of miles. They don't know where each other are. 17 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:05,000 And the whole idea of the show is it's basically, can you outlast everybody else entirely by yourself? 18 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:11,000 So it's just literally take you into the wilderness, drop you there. You don't know how long other people are lasting. 19 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,000 They call it tapping out. You have a satellite phone so you can call and be like, yeah, I'm done. 20 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:25,000 So what's amazing as you watch this show, a couple things. So first off, I really think that all these survival shows are just about making guys like me feel completely inferior. 21 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:35,000 So when winter rolls around, my wife actually ends up lighting the pilot on our gas fireplace that we literally just like flick the switch because I don't actually know how to do it, so she always has to do it. 22 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:44,000 And I'm watching this show where these men and women just walk out into the middle of a wilderness with a hatchet and like nothing. 23 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:50,000 And then all of a sudden they've got a log cabin with a fireplace and they're like banging rocks together and they've got a fire, right? 24 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:58,000 So I can't do that. It makes me feel horribly inferior. But the whole idea behind this show is this exploring this idea of how long can these people last alone. 25 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:04,000 What's super cool about it, I went back and looked at all the different episodes, like why different people tapped out. 26 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:13,000 You know, people get frostbite and they tap out. People literally starve. They lose like 30% of their body weight and they end up tapping out. 27 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:19,000 They, the one guy like burned his log cabin down, right? Like he had a log cabin, it caught fire, it burned down. 28 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,000 It's like 60 days in and he had to tap out. So these horrible things are happening to these people. They're going through this terrible situation. 29 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:34,000 But what was amazing is the number of them that tapped out, not because of any of those things, not because of any of these horrible things they're going through, 30 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:42,000 but because they just couldn't stand being alone. They missed their spouses. They missed their kids. When Brandon saw that note, he's like, "I'm not really sure that 31 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:50,000 that would necessarily apply to me," and I probably tend to agree with him on that one. They missed just human interaction. So it's really fascinating. 32 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:56,000 You've got these people that can handle almost any situation, certainly beyond what any of us in this room could probably handle, 33 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:04,000 yet when given this opportunity to test their skills, it's this being alone that they can't really cope with, and so they end up tapping out. 34 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:11,000 The reality is that it shouldn't really surprise us all that much, and that's what we're going to look at today. As a matter of fact, 35 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,000 in the beginning stories of the Bible in Genesis, God sort of tells us this right off the bat. 36 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:22,000 So let me just set the stage just a little bit. I always think it's important if we're talking about the Bible, 37 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,000 I always think it's really important to understand what you're reading or what you're talking about. 38 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:32,000 I know in my faith journey, understanding the history of the Bible and the history in the Bible has been very helpful for me. 39 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:40,000 So Brandon talked a little bit a couple weeks ago about Genesis 1 and this account of creation and God resting at the end of it. 40 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:46,000 When you're reading Genesis, a really important thing to keep in mind is that we were not the target audience. 41 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,000 I grew up here in Frederick County. I went to Frederick County schools. 42 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,000 I learned reading and writing and math and science in Frederick County schools. 43 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,000 When I read something, I approach it very much as a Western thinker. 44 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:05,000 I read something and my mind is looking for facts and information, and that's just the way that I've been conditioned to think. 45 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Well, Genesis really wasn't written or orally transmitted for people like me that think that way. 46 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:21,000 It was transmitted for people in the Near East, right, who understood poetry and literature and structure of writing and these things. 47 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:28,000 And so when they would read these stories or hear these stories transmitted, they would just pick up on things that we really will never pick up on. 48 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:34,000 And one of those things in Genesis is the fact that Genesis is really, like we read it and it's this account of creation. 49 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:41,000 We're like, "Cool, that's how God created." An Eastern thinker would read it and understand that it's really about learning the nature of God 50 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:46,000 and about the nature of man and about the nature of the relationship between man and God. 51 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,000 That's really what an Eastern thinker would read into it. 52 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:55,000 So in Genesis 1, we read about this account of creation, and God spends three days separating, right? 53 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,000 He separates light from darkness. He separates the water above from the water below. 54 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:03,000 And then the water below, he separates into dry land. So three days separating. 55 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Then he spends three days filling those things he just separated, right? 56 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,000 So he fills the sky with the stars and the sun and the moon. 57 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:17,000 He fills the birds and the water with fish, and then he fills the land with the animals. 58 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:22,000 So three days separating, three days filling, and then there's this weird little like appendage sticking out, right? 59 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:28,000 That doesn't match up to any of these three days that is talked about, and it's this idea that God rested. 60 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:35,000 So an Eastern thinker would pick up on that immediately and go like, "Man, that's a super important part of this whole story 61 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,000 is that there's these three and three that really match up, but there's this other one that doesn't." 62 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 And so the nature of God is to create, but then God also rests. 63 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:56,000 And we find out at the end of verse 31 that God rests because he looks at his creation and he says, "It's good. Everything is very good. I'm going to stop." 64 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Now what's interesting is it's not in our nature to stop, right? Look all around us. We just keep creating and keep going and keep striving and doing and doing and doing. 65 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:10,000 And Genesis is teaching us like at some point you should just stop because things are good and you should just rest. 66 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:18,000 So we get to the end of Genesis 1, this creation account, and God's resting because he looks and things are very good. 67 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:24,000 But then if you go to Genesis 2, Genesis 2 gives us a little bit of a parallel account, right? 68 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:31,000 A little bit more detail about kind of how God created or sort of some things that happened as God created. 69 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:39,000 And it really gives us some insight into man's special place in God's creation, that man was different. 70 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,000 We actually learned that man was made in the image of God, which I've always thought to mean when we walk and talk. 71 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:48,000 But, spoiler alert, if you go to Genesis 3, guess what? The serpent is walking and talking. 72 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,000 So it really must not be that. There's something different. But anyways, that's sort of a digression. 73 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:59,000 So Genesis 2 starts to tell us about this special creation of God called man. 74 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:08,000 So Genesis 1, we end and everything is very good. We get to Genesis 2, and we find out that actually there's something not very good about the creation. 75 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:14,000 In fact, there's a problem. So in Genesis 2, starting in verse 18, we read this. 76 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:20,000 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone." 77 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:29,000 So this sets the stage for this problem. God created, he's got all these things that he created, and he said it's good, and so he rested. 78 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:35,000 But then he's looking at it and he goes, "Ah, man, like it's really, really close, but there's a problem. 79 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:43,000 Because this special creation that I made, he's alone. And that was never part of my plan for him, for him to be alone." 80 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:48,000 And so God's going to try to fix this problem in his creation, that man's alone. 81 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:53,000 So we read on and we read this. God says, "I'll make a helper who is just right for him." 82 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:58,000 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. 83 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:03,000 He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 84 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:11,000 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals, but still, there was no helper just right for him. 85 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:16,000 So I always try to like imagine, I mean, what was this like, that God, like Adam, just like sit right there, 86 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,000 and he just goes over here and starts like making some things and brings it to him. 87 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:25,000 He's like, you know, here's a chicken. And Adam's like, "Ah, I don't know, like that's pretty cool, but you know, okay, here's a dog." 88 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:29,000 And Adam's like, "Yeah, he could be my best friend, but it's probably just not right." 89 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:35,000 Or he brings a giraffe and all these super cool things. That's God's first, like I'm just going to start bringing all this stuff to Adam, 90 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:40,000 and he's going to find, like we're going to find him something that's going to make him not alone. 91 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,000 But none of it works. So then we go on and we read this. 92 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:51,000 "The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs 93 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:56,000 and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 94 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:03,000 At last," the man exclaimed, "This one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman 95 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:13,000 because she was taken from man." So we read, "At last, at last everything is finally good because man is not alone." 96 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:18,000 Now we often read this passage and we immediately think marriage, which is certainly a part of this, and 97 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:23,000 it goes on to talk about this is why a man leaves his wife when they become married, but it's more than that. 98 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:33,000 It's that God's special creation was alone. They looked through all of the creation of God, and they didn't find anything. 99 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:40,000 Special creation that was similar to the man, that everything was finally good because man was not alone. 100 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,000 God has always had a plan for us to be connected to people and to be a part of a community. 101 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:52,000 So what I want to talk about this morning is I want to talk about three things that community does for us. 102 00:10:52,000 --> 00:11:02,000 And then I want to talk about some steps that we can take that can help us build our community and stay connected to the people around us so that we don't find ourselves alone. 103 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:08,000 So the first thing that community does for us is community actually connects us to God. 104 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:14,000 So we're going to, if you want to flip ahead, we're going to go to Matthew 22:36-40. 105 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:20,000 And we're going to read about this interaction that Jesus had with some Jewish leaders. 106 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:25,000 And what they're trying to do is they're trying to trap him, right? They want him to answer a question incorrectly. 107 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000 They want to get Jesus arrested. They want to get him out of the way. 108 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,000 So they're going to try to ask him this trick question, and this is what they said. 109 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:36,000 "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" 110 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:43,000 So Jesus replied this, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 111 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:51,000 This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important, or like it," your translation might say. 112 00:11:51,000 --> 00:12:00,000 "Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all of the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." 113 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:04,000 So something you've got to think about here is this is an Old Testament question. 114 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:15,000 This is a Jewish leader asking a Jewish rabbi or another Jewish leader this question, like, "What do I need to do to get in this right relationship with God?" 115 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Because under the Old Testament, the way that you connected to God, the way you became in this special relationship with God, is you followed His commands. 116 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:31,000 It's not like now where we are baptized and we, through Jesus and through His death, we get this right relationship with God. 117 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:38,000 This is the Old Testament. The right relationship with God, the connection to God, comes through following the commands. 118 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:48,000 So the real question here is like, of all of those things, and there's a ton of them, some that aren't even in the Bible, these religious leaders would put additional commandments on top of people. 119 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:55,000 Of all of those things that connect us to God, what is the most important thing that connects us to God? 120 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:03,000 Or how do we most become right with God? So Jesus says, well, you love God. That's the first one, right? 121 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:10,000 But then he says the next thing is like it. And the word that he uses there, and I would butcher it, so I'm not even going to try it, but if you were to look it up, 122 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:18,000 it's the same word that is attributed to Jesus when he tells his parables. The kingdom of God is like a blank. The kingdom of God is like this. The this is like this. 123 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:24,000 In other words, here's this thing you can't understand, but I'm going to put it into words that you can't understand. 124 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:32,000 So here's this concept being connected to God, loving God, that it's kind of hard for us to understand, but I'm going to tell you how you do that. 125 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:39,000 That's what Jesus is saying here. He's answering this rhetorical question, this unasked question. Okay, well, I'm supposed to love God. 126 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Well, how do I love God? How do I connect to God? And Jesus says, well, you love the people that God loves. You love your neighbors. 127 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:53,000 We'll learn later as Jesus is teaching, well, who are my neighbors? And Jesus tells this story. It's like, well, everybody is your neighbors. 128 00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:00,000 And it's not just your fellow Jews. It's not just your fellow Christians for us in the 21st century. It's everybody is your neighbor. 129 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:10,000 And then through loving your neighbor and through loving people that God loves, being part of this loving community, you are actually being connected to God. 130 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:22,000 One of the worst, I think most negatively impactful things of the last two years, and really as the government response and organized government response to the last 131 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:30,000 two years, I think has been the isolation, right? Churches were closed. Schools were closed. Kids' sports were shut down. 132 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:38,000 We weren't even supposed to have people in our homes. I can remember at the beginning of the pandemic, so my wife and I do CrossFit. 133 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:42,000 That's a whole other sermon, believe me. I'm not a vegan. If I was a vegan CrossFitter, I could really talk forever. 134 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:49,000 But we were like scheduled to have some people over at our house from our gym, and it's like, well, I mean, are we worried that the police 135 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:55,000 are going to knock down our door because we're having people in our house, and that isolation that you feel 136 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:02,000 from not being able to be connected to people is just a horrible feeling. I was personally more disconnected from people 137 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:09,000 and more disconnected from God than I have ever been in my life, and my faith suffered, completely suffered. 138 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:15,000 We stopped going to church. I stopped talking to people about God, and it was terrible. In fact, just a few weeks ago, 139 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:21,000 we were over at Rachel and Brandon's, and it was like we're trying to gather all the kids up and get out 140 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,000 because it was it was later than we probably should have stayed, and Brandon and I started getting into a conversation, 141 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:30,000 something about the Bible. I can't even begin to tell you what it was, and Erica and Rachel are sitting there, 142 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,000 and I'm pretty sure their eyes both like rolled completely in the back of their heads because we both just started getting going. 143 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:41,000 I don't remember what the conversation was about, but I remember the feeling afterwards. I was like, "Man, that's probably the 144 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:48,000 first time that I've had in the last probably two and a half years any type of like in-depth spiritual 145 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:54,000 conversation with someone." Now the whole time that I wasn't having those, I had my Bible, all right? 146 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 I've got the Bible on my phone. I've got it everywhere that I went. The Word of God is literally constantly 147 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:04,000 with me. God was still there. I was still had a relationship with Jesus. I've still got the Holy Spirit. 148 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:10,000 I still got all these things, but what I was missing was that connection to people, and because of that lack of 149 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:17,000 connection to people, my connection to God absolutely suffered. So the second thing that 150 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:25,000 community does for us is that community encourages us. In Hebrews 10, verse 23 through 35, we read this: 151 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:33,000 "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm. For God can be trusted to keep His promise. 152 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:39,000 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works, and let us not neglect our 153 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:46,000 meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is near." 154 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,000 Now, I didn't grow up in the church. I didn't actually start going to church until I was 16. 155 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:57,000 The only reason I started going to church is that I was dating this girl, and I wanted her to like me, and I wanted her 156 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,000 dad to like me. Now, the good thing is she's sitting right over there, so the whole plan worked. 157 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:08,000 So I didn't grow up in the church. I don't really have the youth concept of church, but I had often 158 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:15,000 heard, like from 16 on, I'd heard people quote this verse, and when they quoted this verse, it was always about 159 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:21,000 attendance, right? Like, don't give up the habit of meeting together, as some people have. Like, if you missed church 160 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,000 because you had to work, well, don't give up the habit of meeting together. Oh, you know, your kids had sports. 161 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:31,000 Well, you know, you shouldn't give up the habit of meeting together. Now, in the context of the 21st century, 162 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:37,000 absolutely, that is part of this verse. Part of this verse is that, yes, we should do this. 163 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:42,000 This is a very good and very healthy thing, and we should prioritize this in our lives. 164 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,000 But, here's the deal. If that's all that it was, the writer of Hebrews, 165 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,000 we don't actually know who it is. I think it's probably Paul. That's another conversation. 166 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:56,000 But, the writer of Hebrews couldn't say, "Make sure you go to church because God's watching, 167 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:02,000 and He's keeping attendance, and you don't want to get to the end of the semester and have, like, a B-," you know? 168 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,000 And Peter's standing there at the pearly gates, and he's like, "Ah, really? Like, honestly? 169 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:13,000 The cutoff is like a B, and you're at a B- and you're like, "Peter, man, can you just bump my grade up just a little bit, 170 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,000 and maybe, like, some extra credit or something?" That's not the way that it works, right? 171 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,000 If it was supposed to work that way, that's sort of what the verse would say. 172 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:23,000 The verse would just say, "Make sure you're in church because when you die and get to heaven, 173 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,000 you want to make sure that you get in and you want to have a good attendance record," right? 174 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:35,000 That's not what it is. The reality is that you can absolutely be in church, and you can be in church every single Sunday. 175 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:41,000 You can be here every Wednesday. You can be here every time the church doors are open, like some people like to sort of like hold over people, 176 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:49,000 and still not be doing what this passage is actually telling us to do. It's not just the attendance that's part of it. 177 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:58,000 Look at what it's saying. "Hold tightly without wavering." "Motivate one another to acts of love and good works." 178 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:04,000 "Encourage one another." These are active phrases. These are not passive phrases. 179 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:13,000 It's not just attend church, sit in the pew, walk out at the end. You got your attendance mark for the Sunday. 180 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:19,000 These are active things. God does want us to be here. God does want us to be in this community. 181 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:27,000 But if we're not being active in that community, if we're not doing these things, particularly the last one, encouraging one another, 182 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:33,000 then we're not really doing what we're supposed to be doing as part of this community. 183 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:46,000 The call to be part of that community is about so much more than just attendance. It's about taking this active part in each other's constant source of encouragement. 184 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:56,000 Community connects us to God. Community encourages us. And the third thing that community does is community shares our sorrow. 185 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:10,000 Now, again, not to harp on COVID too much, but one of, for me, like, the lasting images of the last two years is seeing these videos of people who had to, like, bury their parents, and they couldn't actually have a funeral. 186 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:17,000 Or seeing, like, husband and wife who've been married for 60 years, and one of them gets COVID, and they're, like, separated for six months. 187 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:24,000 And we see these videos, and they're, like, happy to come back together. And I watch them, and honestly just wants me to, like, take up arms against the government, to be frank with you. 188 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:28,000 Because I'm like, well, they shouldn't even have been in that situation in the first place, but whatever. 189 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:37,000 But it's this, like, people going through the worst things they've ever done in their lives, and they have to do it alone. 190 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,000 They have just this immense sorrow. They've lost loved ones. They've lost jobs. 191 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:47,000 People lost their jobs because they weren't willing to do certain things, and they're just going through this horrible thing. 192 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,000 And it's like, oh, and by the way, you're going through this terrible thing. Now do it alone, all right? 193 00:20:52,000 --> 00:21:00,000 Community shares our sorrow. Jesus experienced something very similar where he was going through this incredibly sorrowful experience. 194 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:05,000 So let me just sort of set the stage. He knows that he's about to be betrayed. 195 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:10,000 I don't know really how that works. I don't know if he had, like, visions and he knew exactly how things were going to work. 196 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:16,000 But he knew he was coming to the end of his ministry on earth, and he knew what was getting ready to happen. 197 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:23,000 And so he's sitting there, and he shares a final Passover meal with his best friends, and we just partook of that meal. 198 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:31,000 That was what he really wanted to do. He sends his guys on. He's like, "Go and prepare the Passover for us. I just want to share this one last meal with you all, 199 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:36,000 because I need this encouragement for what I know that I'm getting ready to go through." 200 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:42,000 And so they share this meal, and at the end of the meal, Judas has gotten up and left. Now, Jesus knows why Judas has gotten up and left. 201 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:47,000 Nobody else really knows, but Jesus knows. So he knows he's been betrayed. 202 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:52,000 He decides that he needs to just go be with his father. He needs to go pray. 203 00:21:52,000 --> 00:22:00,000 But he really doesn't want to be fully alone. And so he takes all of his guys with him, right, like his 12, or I guess 11 at this point. 204 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,000 He goes out a little ways, and he's like, "You guys stay here." 205 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,000 And then he goes a little bit further, and he takes his three closest friends, Peter, James, and John. 206 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:15,000 And he's like, "You guys come with me." Like, I literally cannot be alone with what I'm getting ready to go through. 207 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Luke actually records this and tells us that Jesus sweat blood, right? 208 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,000 So Luke is a doctor. I kind of think that's probably why he included this little thing. 209 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:29,000 He's probably nerding out on it a little bit. Like, he knows exactly what happened to Jesus, like, physiologically. 210 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:36,000 And so he writes that. But Jesus is so anguished, he's in so much sorrow, that he literally sweats blood, 211 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:42,000 and he just wants his closest friends with him. In Matthew 26, starting in verse 36, we read this. 212 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:48,000 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, "Sit here while I go over there to pray." 213 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:56,000 So that's this bigger group of his friends. Then he took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished. 214 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:02,000 So he took them a little bit further, and he says, "You guys, like, big groups stay here, little groups stay here, 215 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:07,000 and then I'm going to go over here. Like, I want to be by myself, but I don't want to be completely by myself." 216 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:12,000 And he began to pray. Here he told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. 217 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:19,000 Stay here and keep watch for me." What he's getting ready to go do is he's going to go ask his dad for a reprieve, right? 218 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:25,000 Like, he knows what's happening. He knows what he's going through, and he's like, "Dad, I know what I got to do, 219 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,000 and I'm willing to do it, and it's going to be terrible, but if there's any other way that this can play out, 220 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:37,000 now's the time to do this." This is the absolute climax of the story. Jesus knows it. He knows that at this point, 221 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:43,000 there's no turning back. Once he gets arrested, everything is downhill from there. Everything is downhill towards the cross. 222 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:50,000 This is his last chance for some kind of different outcome. He is beyond anguish, and that he just wanted his friends. 223 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:57,000 And the reality is that none of us were ever intended to go through these sorrowful times of our lives alone. 224 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:04,000 So community connects us to God. Community encourages us. Community shares our sorrows. 225 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:08,000 And then the big question becomes, how do we become part of that community? 226 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:13,000 So I want to give you sort of three practical things that I think you can do. 227 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:18,000 And these are not necessarily biblical things. Maybe you'll find this in the Bible. That would be a great Brandon question. 228 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:23,000 You know, for me it's just like, well, if I know that I'm supposed to be part of a community, 229 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,000 I know that this is part of God's plan for me, well, how do I become part of that community? 230 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:34,000 Or how do I get connected to it? So I think the first thing that we have to do is we have to get out of our comfort zone. 231 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:42,000 All right? The reality is that community is really, really, really, really, really, really messy. 232 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:49,000 Okay? When we decide that we want to share our lives with people, we have to kind of let our guard down. 233 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:56,000 And it can get really ugly really quick. Okay? And I'm sure all of us probably have stories about times that that's happened to us before. 234 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:03,000 But here's the deal. If community is supposed to be about us sort of encouraging one another and sharing in sorrow, 235 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:10,000 well, how can we ever really know what our burdens are if we aren't willing to let that guard down and share that with people? 236 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,000 You know, you run into people like, "How are things going? Oh, things are great." 237 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,000 And in the inside, what you're really saying is like, "Well, honestly, my marriage is in shambles right now. 238 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:25,000 My wife and I are fighting all the time." It's not. All right? She does hit me sometimes, but it's okay. 239 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:30,000 My marriage is in shambles. My finances are a mess. I hate my job. I'm lonely. I'm depressed. 240 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:34,000 My mental health is terrible. I've got health problems. That's what we're thinking. 241 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:38,000 But we've been conditioned to say that the answer is, "Well, I'm good." 242 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:44,000 We're conditioned to put on that "I'm good" persona, come here to church every Sunday, get our check mark, 243 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:48,000 and then walk out the door, and no one ever knows what we're actually going through. 244 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:54,000 Well, if we're going to be part of this community and we want to share that, we have to be willing to let our guard down. 245 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,000 Like, honestly, I'm doing pretty terrible right now, really. Like, I'm super depressed, or I'm super anxious, 246 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:04,000 or I've got this big test coming up, or I've got this, or I've got that, and I really need somebody to pray for me. 247 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:10,000 I really need somebody to be in the garden with me and come with me so they can share in that anguish. 248 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,000 Another part of getting out of your comfort zone is that you might be listening to all this and you're thinking, 249 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:20,000 "Well, I'm an introvert." Okay, I am not an introvert. It's very hard for me to relate to people being introverted 250 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:26,000 because that is not, believe me when I tell you, that is not me, okay? I would venture to guess that is probably 251 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,000 some of you sitting in here. Statistically speaking, there are probably quite a few introverts, 252 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,000 and you're listening to me, and you're like, "Yeah, I'm probably never going to do all that, so thanks. 253 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:38,000 Thanks for giving me a little more anxiety as I walk out the door and know that I'm not going to do these things." 254 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:45,000 But here's the really good news. I think we have an awesome example in Jesus because I actually think that Jesus was probably an introvert, too, 255 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000 and you say, "Well, that's kind of crazy. Jesus is constantly around people," which is true. 256 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:55,000 But if you ever study the whole, like, Myers-Briggs, introvert, extrovert thing, what it's really about is, like, 257 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:02,000 where do you get your energy from, right? Like, introverts can be out amongst people. Extroverts can be by themselves, 258 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:09,000 but extroverts get energized by being with people. Introverts get absolutely drained by being with people, okay? 259 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:18,000 Jesus, if you read, oftentimes seems to be very drained when he's had his most people interaction. 260 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:24,000 Matthew 14:13-23. It's not up on the screen, but you all know the story. Jesus goes and he feeds 5,000 people. 261 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:29,000 Like, he's been preaching. It's the end of the day, and his guys are like, "Hey, boss, we should probably send them all home, 262 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:34,000 because they're getting hungry, and it's late, and they've got a long walk." And Jesus is like, "Well, just feed them." 263 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,000 They're like, "It's a good one." Jesus is like, "Well, you know, you have the power to feed them." And of course, they don't 264 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,000 believe they have the power, so they steal a kid's lunch. Kind of an interesting part of that story. 265 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,000 Poor little guy. He doesn't know what's happening. But take a kid's lunch, right? And then Jesus 266 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:54,000 feeds 5,000 people, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, Jesus, woo!" Right? But then right after that, Jesus is like, "Okay, now people 267 00:27:54,000 --> 00:28:00,000 go home. Disciples get in this boat, and you go out there, because I don't want to talk to you anymore. 268 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,000 And I'm going to go up on this mountain, and I'm going to pray." Okay? Because he is just absolutely 269 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:10,000 drained at this point. So being an introvert doesn't have to prevent us from getting out of our 270 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,000 comfort zone and building this community. It just might mean that maybe it looks a little bit different 271 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,000 for you, okay? Maybe it means that you're not going to be that one that just, like, 272 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,000 strikes up the impromptu conversations, but in your closer group of friends and your 273 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,000 closer group of community, you can be the one that starts opening up and letting your 274 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:32,000 guard down. Okay? So the first thing is get out of your comfort zone. The second thing 275 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:37,000 is that we have to make it a priority. So this was a couple of years ago, so this 276 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,000 was pre-COVID. I was sitting in church one Sunday, and I was playing fantasy football 277 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,000 all the time, which is not a good thing for me mentally, so I don't do it 278 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,000 anymore. It's not a good thing. But I'm sitting there, and of course, I'm, like, 279 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,000 checking my fantasy football team Sunday morning at, like, 10 o'clock, because I 280 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,000 got to make sure, is anybody out? Do I need to sub anybody? Whatever. And I just, 281 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000 literally, it's like God just smacked me on the back of the head. He's like, "This is 282 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:05,000 not what I want you to be doing right now. You're sitting in church. You're 283 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000 surrounded by people." And this was before church, I should clarify, right? Sitting 284 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000 before church, you're surrounded by people, and you are, like, this in your phone 285 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,000 playing fantasy football. And I was like, "Oh, man. Like, you're so right. I need to 286 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:25,000 get up, and I need to make, take an initiative to make a priority that I'm 287 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,000 going to go and try to connect with someone. I'm going to go and try to start 288 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:34,000 saying hi to someone, be part of a community. We have to make it a priority. 289 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,000 Now, the really, really important thing here, this doesn't have to be at church. 290 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:44,000 None of this community has to be at church. It's awesome when it is, but we 291 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:49,000 all have communities outside of church. We go to work. Our kids do sports and 292 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,000 activities. We go grocery shopping. We go walking. We work out. We do different 293 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000 things. We all have a community all around us, and we can be just as intentional in 294 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,000 the community around us as we can be in the community here in this building. And 295 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:08,000 both of those things are very, very important, and both of them are very good. 296 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:12,000 So we have to get out of our comfort zone. We have to make it a priority. And 297 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:17,000 the third one is that we have to be very intentional, and we have to seek out 298 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:24,000 opportunities. The reality is that someone in your sphere might need you to be their 299 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,000 community. That third one we talked about, about sharing sorrow. They might be going 300 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:34,000 through something, and they are looking. They are literally screaming for someone to 301 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:38,000 share their sorrow, but if we're not intentional about this, and we're not 302 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:44,000 looking for opportunities to be that for somebody else, we're going to miss them. 303 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:50,000 There's a story in Acts about Philip, and he's walking along the road, and 304 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,000 there's this Ethiopian eunuch, and it turns out this guy is actually reading out 305 00:30:54,000 --> 00:31:00,000 of one of the scrolls, the scroll of Isaiah, and Philip walks over, talks to the guy, 306 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,000 starts teaching him about it, and ends up baptizing the guy, but if Philip 307 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,000 hadn't been looking for it, and hadn't been looking for opportunities, and open 308 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:12,000 to the fact that this guy needed something, he would have missed out. 309 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:16,000 Well, about, I guess it's been, I don't know, five years ago or so, back in 310 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:20,000 2017, we moved, my family and I moved to North Carolina. 311 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000 And what we realized is that when we got down there, 312 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:28,000 we had a very intentional choice to make. We basically knew nobody. We knew like one 313 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,000 family, it was the family we sort of moved down there with, and we realized that we 314 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000 had a choice to make. We could either just have this one 315 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,000 relationship and probably feel very, very alone 316 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,000 down there, or we could be very 317 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,000 intentional about seeking out opportunities to build these relationships. 318 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,000 Because we made this very intentional choice to build these 319 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,000 relationships, it was for me, and I think probably for my wife, she'd tell you the same thing, 320 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:00,000 it was the most alive that my faith has ever been. 321 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,000 I was studying my Bible more, I was praying more, I was involved 322 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,000 with the church more. I would see 323 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,000 people, they would, "How's it going?" 324 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000 and they'd tell me, "Actually, you know what, I'm 325 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,000 going in for surgery next week, like, I'd appreciate 326 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:16,000 some prayers." I would actually, shocker, like, make a note of 327 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,000 that, and then the next week I would, like, 328 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,000 call that person or text, I'm sorry, 329 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000 I'm a millennial, I don't call, I text, but 330 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,000 I would text that person and be like, "Hey, 331 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,000 I'm praying for you today." 332 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,000 and then a couple days later I'd follow 333 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,000 up and I'd be like, "Hey, how did 334 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,000 such and such go?" 335 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,000 and what's amazing is, like, that's 336 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,000 actually sort of what God wants us 337 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,000 to do, and in doing that 338 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,000 we get connected to people, we 339 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,000 build this community, we build these 340 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,000 relationships, and our faith 341 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,000 becomes stronger, okay? 342 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,000 So being part of a community, like 343 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,000 we talked about, it's not a passive thing, 344 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,000 it's not going to come natural, it's going to be something 345 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,000 that we have to actively try to do. 346 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,000 We are not in a culture, we're not in 347 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,000 a time in our culture 348 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,000 that is encouraging us to get connected 349 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,000 to people. We are probably less connected 350 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000 than ever, even though we're more connected, and if 351 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,000 we want to really build these lasting connections 352 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,000 in this lasting community, we have 353 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000 to make it a priority, we have to 354 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,000 seek out opportunities, and we have to be very 355 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,000 intentional. So one last 356 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,000 idea that I want to leave you with. I'm at 33 357 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,000 minutes, so this probably worked out great. 358 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,000 Jesus is walking along with his friends 359 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,000 at one point in his ministry, and 360 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,000 he turns to them, and he says, 361 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,000 he's kind of curious, and he says, "Well, 362 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000 what are people saying about me? Who do they say 363 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,000 that I am?" And they respond, 364 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:34,000 "Well, other people are saying 365 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,000 that you might be John the Baptist, come back 366 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,000 to life, you might be Elijah, 367 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,000 Jeremiah, you might be one of the other prophets." 368 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,000 And Jesus is like, "Okay, I get that." 369 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,000 He says, "Well, who do you say that 370 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,000 I am?" That's like what other people are 371 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,000 saying about me. What do you 372 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,000 say about me? Or who do you think that I am? 373 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,000 And Peter, Peter's always the first one 374 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,000 to speak, okay? Peter never has a problem being 375 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,000 the first one to speak. In fact, at some point 376 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,000 Jesus is like, "Peter, shut up. Like, stop. 377 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,000 That was really stupid what you just said. 378 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,000 I'm going to put you in time out." Okay? But in this case, 379 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,000 Peter actually got it right, 380 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,000 because Peter says, "Well, you're the Messiah." 381 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:08,000 And Jesus looks 382 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,000 at him, and he renames him. He says, you know, 383 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,000 you're going to be called Peter, right? The rock. 384 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,000 And on this rock, I'm going 385 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000 to build my church. 386 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,000 And we read this word, "church." 387 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,000 And what I will tell you, 388 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,000 and I'm certainly not an expert 389 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,000 in, like, etymological 390 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,000 sources of words, right? 391 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,000 But "church" is probably a really 392 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000 bad word for it, okay? Because the 393 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,000 word is actually "ekklesia." 394 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,000 And I feel 395 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,000 like when Matthew is recording 396 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000 this, right, Jesus didn't actually say 397 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,000 "church" or "ekklesia." 398 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,000 He probably said some Aramaic word. 399 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,000 But Matthew's trying to, like, wrap his head 400 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,000 around, well, what, Jesus said this word, 401 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,000 like, what did he mean when he said 402 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,000 this word? And the word that he came 403 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,000 up with when he's writing this is "ekklesia," 404 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000 which was already a word, right? It was just 405 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,000 an ancient Greek word that literally 406 00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,000 meant the assembly, or 407 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,000 like a group of people that have been 408 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,000 called together for a specific 409 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,000 purpose. It was not a 410 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,000 church word. So Jesus 411 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,000 in his own words 412 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,000 said, "This entire thing 413 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,000 that I'm building, this whole 414 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,000 thing that I'm working on now, 415 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,000 this thing that's going to come after 416 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000 me is going to last for 2,000 417 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:20,000 years after my death, 418 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,000 is all about building this 419 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,000 assembly of people that are 420 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,000 going to come together in my 421 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000 name, believing that I 422 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,000 am the Messiah." At the end 423 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,000 of the day, that is what we are here 424 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,000 for. We are here because we have 425 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,000 decided, we've looked at the information 426 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,000 that this guy, Jesus, 427 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,000 we believe just like Peter 428 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,000 proclaimed 429 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,000 that he is the Messiah. 430 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,000 And because of that, we've decided 431 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000 that we're going to come together and be part 432 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,000 of this community, so we can share 433 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,000 our sorrows and we can be part of each 434 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,000 other's lives. So that was God's 435 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,000 plan from the very beginning. It was never 436 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,000 for us to be alone. And Jesus 437 00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,000 sort of caps this at the end of 438 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,000 his ministry, or sort of the beginning of his ministry, 439 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,000 saying, "This is the whole thing that I'm building. 440 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,000 My dad said it wasn't good for you to be 441 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,000 alone, and I have come 442 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000 to build this gathering of people so that you 443 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,000 never have to be alone again." 444 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,000 So if you are sitting here and you don't have 445 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,000 that community, again, it doesn't have to be in the walls 446 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,000 of this building. It's awesome if it is. 447 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,000 It can be outside, and it should be outside 448 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,000 to some extent in our lives. I would 449 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,000 just really, really encourage you this morning, start 450 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,000 taking those steps to seek out the 451 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,000 opportunities. Look around in your life 452 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000 and find who you can be part of that 453 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000 community for. So I'm going to pray for us, 454 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,000 and then Brandon's going to come up and do some announcements, 455 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,000 and then we'll close out. So let's pray. 456 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000 God, we love you. 457 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,000 We thank you so much for this time that we have 458 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,000 every Sunday that we can set aside 459 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,000 to come gather together in your 460 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000 name. We thank you for the truth 461 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,000 of your word. We thank you that your plan 462 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,000 was never for us to be alone, that your plan 463 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,000 was to share our lives with other people, and we 464 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,000 thank you for the people that we get to share 465 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000 our lives with. I pray for anybody here 466 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,000 that's struggling, anybody here who's going 467 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,000 through some things, Lord, I just pray that they know that they're 468 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,000 never alone. And if there's people outside 469 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,000 of the walls of this building, which obviously there are 470 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,000 that are going through similar things, I pray that 471 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,000 each one of us here today can go out 472 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,000 into our week, go out into our 473 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,000 lives, seek out those people, 474 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,000 and start building those relationships and building 475 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,000 those communities. Father, I pray that none of us here 476 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,000 would ever have to truly feel 477 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,000 alone, that your plan for us is to be 478 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000 connected, and that we would find that connection. 479 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,000 We love you, and God, we praise you. 480 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,000 In the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.