Speaker 1: Amen, family, it's so good to see all you guys this morning.
Speaker 1: We are going to be in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12.
Speaker 1: And we started a new series last week entitled Deeper, entitled Deeper.
Speaker 1: Everybody say deeper, ready?
Speaker 1: Okay, let's try it one more time.
Speaker 1: Hold on, I want the guys to say it, but I want them to say deeper, in the deep voice, okay.
Speaker 1: So, gentlemen, on the count of three, one, two, three, oh man, a lot of ladies were just impressed.
Speaker 1: Right, there we're in this new series called Deeper, and this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the five rhythms it takes to grow deeper in our faith.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what can happen is we can look at our lives and we think there's no way I can grow deeper in my life.
Speaker 1: If you knew the past I had, if you knew the baggage I carried around, if you knew this, then you would know I can't grow deeper and I would say not true, bro, everybody can grow deeper if you'll incorporate these five rhythms that we see in Scripture.
Speaker 1: And speaking of Scripture, last week we learned the first rhythm and a little quiz question to open up this morning.
Speaker 1: Last week, the first rhythm to grow.
Speaker 1: Little quiz question to open up this morning Last week.
Speaker 1: The first rhythm to grow deeper in your faith is to consistently take time to read and meditate on Scripture.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: Somebody shout it out there, I think they were at the earlier service.
Speaker 1: That's right, though To take time and read and meditate on Scripture.
Speaker 1: And this week we're going to see rhythm number two.
Speaker 1: The rhythm that you must have in your life to go deeper in your faith is the rhythm of godly community.
Speaker 1: The rhythm of godly community.
Speaker 1: Now, all of us would probably agree community is important in life.
Speaker 1: If you agree that community is important, would you say amen If I said who in the room on the balcony lower floor who likes to be lonely?
Speaker 1: Everybody's raising their hand.
Speaker 1: We don't like being lonely.
Speaker 1: In fact, you could probably look back at times in your life where you did some things that you now regret because you didn't want to be lonely.
Speaker 1: Or maybe there was like a friend group, and you were like I want to be a part of that friend group, I want to be cool like them, and they were like hey, to be in our friend group, you need to do this or not do that.
Speaker 1: And you either did that or you didn't do that.
Speaker 1: And now you look back and you're like I should have done that or I should have done that and you did it because you wanted to be in that friend group or maybe, or maybe or maybe there was another situation in your life and you're like I don't know about that person, I don't know if I should be running with that person, I'm just, but I'm kind of lonely.
Speaker 1: So you start running with that person and then you look back and you're like why in the world did I run with that person?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why Because you're lonely.
Speaker 1: It's interesting Even doctors doctors tell us that being lonely is actually bad for your physical health.
Speaker 1: They say it's equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes every single day.
Speaker 1: We know loneliness isn't good for us.
Speaker 1: In fact, this is why God said.
Speaker 1: God said, after he made creation and he made man, he looked at Adam and he was like dude, it's not good that you're alone, it's not good that you're by yourself.
Speaker 1: The kitty cats were not enough for Adam.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, kitty cats aren't enough for any of us.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it wasn't enough and we need human community.
Speaker 1: This is what we were designed for and what God did.
Speaker 1: In his wisdom and his grace.
Speaker 1: He's designed the church to be a place where we can form this kind of community.
Speaker 1: And community is so important because who you walk with is who you'll be like.
Speaker 1: It's been said this way show me your friends and I'll show you your future.
Speaker 1: And all the parents in the room are like yes, kid, write that down.
Speaker 1: But it's true.
Speaker 1: And when we think of church and community within the church, let's just be real that church can kind of be a triggering word for some of us, that church can kind of be a loaded word for some of us.
Speaker 1: When I say the word church, you can have all kinds of things come to your mind.
Speaker 1: You can think of a bad experience you had growing up.
Speaker 1: Maybe you think of church you think of like a building that you drive by.
Speaker 1: Maybe you think of a band musicians, maybe you think of a pastor that teaches way too long and is kind of boring.
Speaker 1: We all have thoughts in our mind when it comes, when we hear the word church.
Speaker 1: But the word church actually comes from a Greek word and the word is ekklesia.
Speaker 1: Let's all say the word ekklesia together.
Speaker 1: Ready, ekklesia.
Speaker 1: Just learned some Greek Ekklesia.
Speaker 1: This is what the church is.
Speaker 1: It's a called out group or assembly.
Speaker 1: This is, biblically, what a church is, so what this means is that it's a group of people, it's a community, that have turned from their sin.
Speaker 1: They put their faith and trust in Jesus.
Speaker 1: They've come together in community.
Speaker 1: They've been called out from the world to glorify God.
Speaker 1: This is what the church is, this is what the church is supposed to be, and when the ecclesia is functioning how God designed it to function, it's one of the most beautiful, powerful, life-giving healing places on the planet.
Speaker 1: I was reminded of that just a couple services ago 845 service.
Speaker 1: Somebody came to me after the service.
Speaker 1: They had a tear in their eye and they said they've been coming over like six months.
Speaker 1: They said this church has changed my life, and I said this church has not changed your life.
Speaker 1: The God that we serve has changed your life, and when the ecclesia, though, is healthy and it's what God designed it to be it's going to be life-giving, it's going to be life-changing, and this takes us, actually, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12.
Speaker 1: There's a guy named Paul.
Speaker 1: Everybody say Paul Ready.
Speaker 1: Paul was in a place called Corinth.
Speaker 1: Everybody say Corinth Ready.
Speaker 1: Corinth was filled with a bunch of knucklehead people.
Speaker 1: You know any knuckleheads?
Speaker 1: You sitting here knucklehead?
Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: Corinth was a place where you had these people.
Speaker 1: They didn't know anything about Jesus.
Speaker 1: They heard about the gospel, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker 1: They put their faith and trust in him and they were trying to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: But they had no idea what they were doing.
Speaker 1: In fact they were doing some like wacky stuff, like just stuff that you read 1 Corinthians you're like, oh my goodness, that's not cool man.
Speaker 1: They were doing all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Paul goes to them.
Speaker 1: He had spent 18 months in Corinth and he's teaching them this is how you follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: And he's teaching them of this new concept, the ecclesia.
Speaker 1: He's saying as Jesus followers, you need to be a part of the ecclesia and this is what a healthy ecclesia looks like.
Speaker 1: And he uses a word in 1 Corinthians 12 that's kind of unique, to describe the church.
Speaker 1: In fact, it might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think of church.
Speaker 1: He says in verse 12, he says for, just as the what's the word?
Speaker 1: Just as the Body.
Speaker 1: He's talking to the church.
Speaker 1: He's saying your body is one in many parts and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ.
Speaker 1: The church is supposed to operate as a body.
Speaker 1: A healthy church functions like a body.
Speaker 1: Now you know what the body.
Speaker 1: You got all these different parts of the body.
Speaker 1: We got our pinky.
Speaker 1: We got our big toe, which none of us think everything about our big toe, unless we stub it.
Speaker 1: Then we all think of it.
Speaker 1: You got our big toe, which none of us think, ever think about our big toe, unless we stub it.
Speaker 1: Then we all think of it.
Speaker 1: We got the big toe.
Speaker 1: You got all these different systems in the body, like you have the respiratory system.
Speaker 1: Now we don't really think about our respiratory system and the importance of that a lot until we can't breathe and then we really see the importance of that.
Speaker 1: You got the cardiovascular system.
Speaker 1: You got all these different systems in the body.
Speaker 1: In fact, does anybody know how many systems the body has?
Speaker 1: Oh right, did you say that Smart right there?
Speaker 1: 11.
Speaker 1: She's right, 11.
Speaker 1: I know that because I have Google 11.
Speaker 1: 11 systems in the body and you would think the body systems.
Speaker 1: You would think, man, maybe they like, how do they operate?
Speaker 1: Do you have, like, the cardiovascular system over here?
Speaker 1: That doesn't really need the skeletal system.
Speaker 1: The skeletal system doesn't really need the cardiovascular system.
Speaker 1: They're not separate, they're not independent of each other.
Speaker 1: Watch this word, watch this word, watch this word, watch this word the systems of the body are interdependent on each other, dependent on each other.
Speaker 1: They're not just dependent on each other, but they're interdependent on each other.
Speaker 1: And this is what Paul says.
Speaker 1: The church, it's a body.
Speaker 1: No, no, the church is a building.
Speaker 1: I drive by it all the time.
Speaker 1: No, no, the church is a pastor, like the short, stubby guy that teaches on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1: The church is a building.
Speaker 1: I drive by it all the time.
Speaker 1: No, no, the church is a pastor, like the short, stubby guy that teaches on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1: The church is a—Paul says nope.
Speaker 1: Wrong view of the church, bro.
Speaker 1: The church is a body.
Speaker 1: The church is a body that contributes to each other, that depends on each other, that sharpens each other.
Speaker 1: But I have a concern.
Speaker 1: We all live in America, which is a good thing, but my concern is that, because we live in such a consumeristic culture that we can view the church like consumers and our view of the church can be like consumers rather than as interdependent followers.
Speaker 1: Now, let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: I mean, in America, being consumers, like there's just some things that we really love.
Speaker 1: For example, we really love Amazon.
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1: Come on, nicole, yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: You know I'm talking to somebody and they tell me something.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1: I'm like I want that.
Speaker 1: This is what I can do.
Speaker 1: Pull out my phone, amazon app, order it.
Speaker 1: Amazon app order it and like, the next day it's at my house.
Speaker 1: What a time to be alive.
Speaker 1: And if it's not at my house in three days, I basically have a mental breakdown because we have a problem Like what are we doing?
Speaker 1: I consume Something else.
Speaker 1: They have these like, all these different like food delivery systems.
Speaker 1: You know, like you can get.
Speaker 1: They have DoorDash and Uber Eats and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And, man, if you've ever done that, let me tell you your life has been changed, bro.
Speaker 1: You just order food.
Speaker 1: It's just like it comes to your door.
Speaker 1: It's like this is amazing and we have all these different things.
Speaker 1: And it's trained us, for good or for bad, to be consumers.
Speaker 1: And we can have this mentality about the church, but the church was never meant to be consumed.
Speaker 1: It was meant to be experienced, lived and shared together.
Speaker 1: If we can get the next slide up.
Speaker 1: The church was never meant to be consumed.
Speaker 1: It was meant to be experienced, lived and shared together.
Speaker 1: And what can happen because we live in 2025, and we have the luxury of having different churches all around us to some degree is we can be serial church shoppers or serial church hoppers.
Speaker 1: I went here.
Speaker 1: The worship was oh, kids ministry was, it was good.
Speaker 1: It wasn't great, but it was good.
Speaker 1: Pastor preached like 35 minutes.
Speaker 1: 30 minutes is my limit.
Speaker 1: I can't do 35.
Speaker 1: Went to this church over here.
Speaker 1: Pastor preached 30 minutes.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 1: I was impressed.
Speaker 1: It was like pinpoint accuracy 30 minutes Coffee in the lobby best of any of the last five churches I've been to.
Speaker 1: It's elite Kids ministry, though it didn't have a slide.
Speaker 1: I was expecting a slide.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to this one over here.
Speaker 1: Man, I mean that church was pretty good until they asked me to actually do something.
Speaker 1: It was like weird.
Speaker 1: It was like they wanted me to serve, Like who's got time to serve.
Speaker 1: I mean preaching was good, worship was good, kids ministry was good, coffee was good, but they asked me to serve.
Speaker 1: Can't do that.
Speaker 1: I'm out.
Speaker 1: This is what happens.
Speaker 1: We become serial church shoppers or serial church hoppers because our view of the church is one of consumption, rather than being an interdependent body that experience lives and shares life together.
Speaker 1: And because we have in the last 50, 60 years, we have the megachurch movement, it's even more easier just to consume, and I love megachurches and I think they're great, but it's like I can just slip in, slip out.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows me, I don't know anybody, I don't have to do anything, there's no accountability, it's all good and it's like I love this church.
Speaker 1: That's not a church experience.
Speaker 1: You love a spiritual show on Sundays every now and again and that the church is meant to be a group of people that are experiencing and living and sharing life together.
Speaker 1: And the church needs you Like you need people, every one of us.
Speaker 1: We need somebody that's 20, 30 years down the road in their walk with Jesus to encourage us, those of you that are more further along in your walk with Jesus.
Speaker 1: You need the younger followers of Jesus behind you, like we need the church.
Speaker 1: And I just want to.
Speaker 1: I want to say something that I totally get.
Speaker 1: It's like gathering on Sundays can be really hard to do For some of us.
Speaker 1: We came today and it was like it took everything in us just to show up here and you're here, but you were like dragged here or drag yourself here.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 1: It can be hard.
Speaker 1: You got work, commitments and the chaos of modern life and just everything, and Sunday mornings can almost feel like just another obligation.
Speaker 1: But here's the truth.
Speaker 1: Almost everything valuable in life is hard.
Speaker 1: It is Parenting is hard.
Speaker 1: Right, parents, that's what we've been told.
Speaker 1: Friendship is hard, marriage is hard.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't make these things optional, it just makes them worth fighting for.
Speaker 1: In the early church, the book of Acts, they understood this.
Speaker 1: They understood that they were interdependent followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: They understood that they needed each other.
Speaker 1: They understood the power of praying together and relying on each other and serving together.
Speaker 1: And Paul tells the church at Corinth Paul had experienced that in the book of Acts, in Antioch and these different places.
Speaker 1: He had seen that, he experienced the encouragement.
Speaker 1: He goes to Corinth, where these people, their thoughts of the church, is all over the place and he's like guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, the church is a body.
Speaker 1: It's a body.
Speaker 1: And how is the body formed?
Speaker 1: The church, you need the church, the church needs you.
Speaker 1: And he tells us in the next verse how this body's formed.
Speaker 1: The church, you need the church, the church needs you.
Speaker 1: And he tells us in the next verse how this body's formed.
Speaker 1: He says we were all baptized.
Speaker 1: This means we were immersed by one spirit into one body.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit immersed us into the body of Christ, whether Jews or Greeks.
Speaker 1: Greeks notice that's ethnic difference, that's different backgrounds, slaves free, different classes of people the way they identified them, then Slaves free, different financial places, but they were all given one spirit to drink the Holy Spirit that brings us together.
Speaker 1: They were diverse and what the gospel does is the gospel unites what the world tries to divide In this culture Jews, greeks, different sides of the room, slaves free, different sides of the room.
Speaker 1: The gospel brings all of them together because Jesus brings people together.
Speaker 1: He says, indeed, verse 14, the body's not just one part, but many.
Speaker 1: If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, Is it not, for that reason, any lesser part of the body?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that the foot's like, yeah, I don't belong, not a part?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, is it not for that reason any less a part of the body In verse 17,.
Speaker 1: If the whole body were an eye?
Speaker 1: In verse 17,.
Speaker 1: If the whole body were an eye?
Speaker 1: Can we just imagine that for a second?
Speaker 1: If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
Speaker 1: If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
Speaker 1: But as it is, god has arranged each one of the parts of the body in the body just as he wants it.
Speaker 1: Every single part, everybody matters, because every part matters.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have been in an environment or maybe you've been raised to think that you're less than, that you're not that important, that you don't have a part, that these are the gifted, talented people, your sibling, they're gifted and they're great, but you're not and you have been made to feel less than.
Speaker 1: And maybe you have that mindset and you're in a church community and you're like, yeah, I'm not that important, I'm not that big of a deal.
Speaker 1: Paul would say baloney, you matter.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're here and you think, man, I don't really need to be a part of a church, like, it's like Christianity, it's just.
Speaker 1: It's just, it's between me and God, it's a personal relationship with God.
Speaker 1: And you're right, it is a personal relationship with God, but it's not a private relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Christianity, my friend, it's a team sport.
Speaker 1: Some of us think of the church like we think of a football game 50,000 people in the stands watching 22 people do all the work on the field.
Speaker 1: 50,000 people badly in need of exercise watching 22 people on the field badly in need of rest.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all get that a little later.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying and we can think of the church like that, but Christianity is for all of us man.
Speaker 1: It's us doing life together.
Speaker 1: You think of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: There's these passages.
Speaker 1: They're called the one another's, and what the one another's are is.
Speaker 1: They show our dynamics of how we're to have relationship with other followers of Jesus, and there's actually 59 of them.
Speaker 1: They're actually commands that show us how we're to interact with other people.
Speaker 1: Some of them are as simple as be devoted to each other, accept one another, serve one another, bear one another's burdens.
Speaker 1: He goes on in different places.
Speaker 1: He talks about being kind to one another, which can be challenging.
Speaker 1: Have you ever met a difficult Jesus follower before?
Speaker 1: Don't say yes, okay, be kind, forgive.
Speaker 1: It's a tough one, right?
Speaker 1: Pray for one another and the way that we're going to live out these one another's will not happen on accident.
Speaker 1: This type of community doesn't happen on accident.
Speaker 1: This is the type of community that is forged.
Speaker 1: It's a type of community that people are committed to.
Speaker 1: Now I get the idea of like committing can be scary.
Speaker 1: Commitment can be scary, especially committing to a church.
Speaker 1: Committing to a church Church people are scary.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a pastor.
Speaker 1: Pastors are even more scary.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all think I'm scary.
Speaker 1: I see some of you guys walking out the door and you're like Pastor Nate, please don't even look at me, I don't have the cooties.
Speaker 1: I promise it can be scary.
Speaker 1: And what God has designed, though, is for community to happen so we can live out these things in relationship with each other.
Speaker 1: And for some of you, the step in your faith is for you to develop the rhythm of having godly community in your life, to you committing to that.
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
Speaker 1: Even Jesus was committed to a group of people.
Speaker 1: Every single person matters.
Speaker 1: Paul goes on in verse 19.
Speaker 1: He talks more about the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: He says if they were all the same part, if everybody was the same, where would the body be Boring?
Speaker 1: Yes, right, boring as it is.
Speaker 1: There are many parts, but one body.
Speaker 1: The eye can't say to the hand Paul's just trying to emphasize this again he's like you know.
Speaker 1: I talked about the hand and the ear thing.
Speaker 1: I just want to talk more about this, okay.
Speaker 1: Or I talked about the hand and the foot thing the eye cannot say a hand, I don't need you.
Speaker 1: The head can't say to the feet I don't need you.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, these parts of the body that are weaker, they're indispensable.
Speaker 1: I love that, those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greatest honor and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect.
Speaker 1: The jokes are in my mind, but I'm not going to say them.
Speaker 1: Verse 24, which our respectable parts do not need.
Speaker 1: Instead, god has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so there would be no division in the body, but the members would have the same concern for each other.
Speaker 1: If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Speaker 1: If one member is honored, If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Speaker 1: And every follower of Jesus has a responsibility and an opportunity to foster the kind of community of an interdependent body.
Speaker 1: You and I have a responsibility before God.
Speaker 1: You and I have a responsibility to each other.
Speaker 1: You and I have a responsibility to each other, but we also have an opportunity for ourselves because we need the body.
Speaker 1: Growing up, I didn't have a very biblical view of church.
Speaker 1: What I thought church was was we come on Sunday and we hear teaching and we sing some songs.
Speaker 1: Some of them I liked, some of them I didn't really like.
Speaker 1: I grew up in a church.
Speaker 1: There was a choir.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the choir was killing it, sometimes the choir they tried their best.
Speaker 1: They tried their best and I thought, okay, church was like I come, I get teaching, we go home, we have lunch.
Speaker 1: If I'm really lucky that's what I thought if I'm really lucky then I'm going to go home and on the way home we're going to stop and we're going to go out to eat, we're going to go out to a restaurant.
Speaker 1: It would be great, get church, see you next Sunday, guys with a friend.
Speaker 1: And as I started maturing and actually started studying this book and like what the church is supposed to be and this whole idea of like the church being a body and if the church is a body, then what that means is that I need people in the body it kind of made me uncomfortable, like I don't need people, I'm good, I got the Bible, I got Jesus, I don't need other people.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to open up to somebody and ask somebody to pray for me.
Speaker 1: Why would I do that?
Speaker 1: Why would I ask somebody?
Speaker 1: And as I started kind of dipping my feet more in community and like what like a biblical church is supposed to be, I started experiencing the power of having people pray for you and being open with people and sharing your struggles with people and walking through stuff with people.
Speaker 1: And it changed my life and I learned that the church is not just this consumer mentality, but the church is for me to be a part of an interdependent body, and it's not because I'm the pastor, I'm just a part of the body here.
Speaker 1: Even this past week I talked to some people.
Speaker 1: I'm like hey, can you pray with me about this?
Speaker 1: Like honestly, just pray, having people just encourage me.
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm saying some of y'all are missing out on what the church is supposed to be because you have a consumeristic mentality or maybe you're just scared to open up to people or maybe you're just scared to commit.
Speaker 1: And I'm just telling you if you would take that step and grow deeper in community.
Speaker 1: It would change your spiritual life.
Speaker 1: You would see the value of having people praying for you.
Speaker 1: You would see the value of having people that could kind of speak some life into you when you kind of need it every now and again.
Speaker 1: You would see the value of what God can do when a collective group of people genuinely believe that we are better than me, genuinely believe that we are not spiritual consumers just trying to get a Jesus high, but we are a group of people that come together for the sake of Jesus, to know him better, to make him known, to grow deeper.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: So we can do greater things for God than we ever have before.
Speaker 1: So God can do something in us and through us that only he can do by the power of his Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't happen by accident.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen when we just hang out and like think church is cool.
Speaker 1: It happens when we commit to each other.
Speaker 1: We're a body.
Speaker 1: So here's how I want to wrap up and I'm going to just skip to the end here.
Speaker 1: What do we do with all this?
Speaker 1: I want to give you guys some homework, super quick One.
Speaker 1: Here's a homework assignment I want some of y'all to get a more biblical view of the church.
Speaker 1: That's just what I want and this is what it takes for some of you.
Speaker 1: Just need to take this book and just open it and say what's the church supposed to be?
Speaker 1: Just look like, well, what's the church supposed to be?
Speaker 1: Some of you, when I said when I described the church earlier, it was like a lot of things come to mind with church.
Speaker 1: Some of you guys thought building, you thought music, you thought pastor, guys, guys, we got to get a biblical view of the church that we're a body.
Speaker 1: We have to get a biblical view of the church.
Speaker 1: Number two for some of us, we need to come to Connect Lunch next Sunday.
Speaker 1: Pastor Cody was talking about it earlier.
Speaker 1: You're newish to FCC and God is leading you to make FCC your church home.
Speaker 1: Come to Connect Lunch.
Speaker 1: It's next Sunday after the third service.
Speaker 1: This is the place where God's leading you and I would say this if God is leading you to a different church, maybe you're here and just checking it out and you're like I'm praying God might be leading me somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Can I just say if it's a Bible teaching, bible, believing ecclesia, we fully support that and we want you to get neck deep in community wherever God wants you to be.
Speaker 1: But for many of us, god wants us to take a step and come to Connect Lunch, and my last homework assignment is for some of us to take a step to form deeper community here at FCC, and I don't know what that looks like for everybody.
Speaker 1: In fact, for many of us, it could be different.
Speaker 1: For some of us, what that means is we need to be a part of a group.
Speaker 1: For some of us I'm just being honest it's just us.
Speaker 1: Some of us, we come to church like once a month, maybe twice a month, and we need to commit to coming and gathering with the church on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: That's what we need to do.
Speaker 1: For some of us and I saw this happen at the end of the last both services is we need to ask somebody to pray for us.
Speaker 1: We have people at these prayer next steps banners after the services and just ask somebody to pray with you.
Speaker 1: For some of you, what this means is for you just to open up to somebody, maybe just a little bit, and share a struggle that you're having in your life, and what that would do is that would allow you to be vulnerable, allow you to be open to them and lean into them for support.
Speaker 1: And it may feel weird, because you don't do that very often and maybe that's not kind of your MO, but I'm telling you, you will allow the church to be the church.
Speaker 1: How is God leading you to form deeper community in the church?
Speaker 1: And when you have this rhythm in your life, it's going to allow you to grow deeper in your faith.
Speaker 1: And next week what we're going to do is we're going to see the third rhythm it takes to grow deeper.
Speaker 1: First rhythm be people that meditate and read scripture.
Speaker 1: Second rhythm be people that meditate and read scripture.
Speaker 1: Second rhythm be people that form community in God's, the rhythm of community in God's church.
Speaker 1: Next week we'll learn the third one and if we do these rhythms, this is what's going to happen we're going to learn to grow deeper together.
Speaker 1: Let me pray for us today.