MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Strong Theology and Warm Community | Pastor Will Hawk | January 5, 2025
The episode explores the delicate balance between love and duty, particularly reflecting on the Apostle Paul's emotional farewell to the church in Ephesus. It examines how a vibrant community demands both solid theology and genuine connection among its members, urging listeners to actively engage with their faith and each other.
• Relationship dynamics of love and avoidance
• Paul's emotional farewell to the Ephesians
•Importance of serving with humility
•Struggles and authenticity in community life
•The power of truth-telling in spiritual accountability
•Lifelong growth beyond Sunday attendance
•The overarching mission of mutual support and love
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Good morning, welcome to Midtree. Good morning guys, glad you're here, stokes, one of my favorite things about that song is that we know how the story ends, but we don't know how our story ends Like. What a comfort to know how the world wraps up, how Christ will reign supreme overall, but I love the fact that I do not know how my story ends.
Karen Anne Hawk:Like the adventure that's not the end of that. I'll be honest, when I'm singing it, I'm reading Revelations right now, and so I was like I kind of know how the story ends, because it's very confusing, but I do know that I'm in heaven. So I was just like trying to sing it with the whole heart, but I couldn't really.
Will Hawk:How far into Revelation. I feel like I should know this as your husband.
Karen Anne Hawk:I don't know. Midway it's a good part the commentary girl goes there are three beliefs that we're not really sure of. This is we think it's already happened or it might happen, or it has figuratively going to happen or something. And I was like girl, she doesn't know, I definitely don't know. So yeah, good morning.
Will Hawk:We're glad you're here. You got Revelation for free.
Karen Anne Hawk:this morning I've been begging Will to preach on Revelations, but he's a scaredy cat and won't do it. How dare.
Will Hawk:How dare?
Karen Anne Hawk:Actually I kind of want him to preach on Revelation, but the selfish side of me was like I bet I would never see him on Saturdays, so maybe not. Or see him on Saturdays, so maybe not.
Will Hawk:Anyways, if you are, I want to show them a picture. It's going to take me a minute, so you sort of do the report.
Karen Anne Hawk:If you are new to Midtree, would you fill out this connection card. It says name, phone and email and we will probably contact you once. And if you are a regular or new, we would love to pray for you. So you can fill that out. You can put it in the offering thingies there, maybe in the back and on the side.
Will Hawk:Yeah, there's a couple in the back and right outside the door.
Karen Anne Hawk:But we have teams that meet throughout the week. I am one of them that gets to pray for y'all. So, yeah, we appreciate the prayers All right, do you guys?
Will Hawk:can y'all put up the picture that I've got? Just wanted to let you guys know that we had one more kiddo added to the midtree family. So this is Larson. Yeah, you can clap, they can't hear you. But praise God and seeing as. By the way, if you don't know, if you're visiting with us, thomas, our youth pastor, this is his third child and first daughter, larson, and I thought this would be fun. I cannot leave this up for a really long time because we have stuff to do. This is Thomas's personal phone number. I would love it if you would either send him an encouragement or if you would ask him who he thinks he is, that he is in a church this morning. Either of those would work out really well for me. So if you get a chance, please feel free to do that. That would be great.
Karen Anne Hawk:I'm very excited about this little baby y'all. She's got great cheeks, she does. I have a picture of Emmett, their first baby, on my watch background because his cheeks bring me such joy. If you are looking to know more about Midtree, our website of course has a lot of stuff on it, but also this little packet in the back of the pews does. Is that all?
Will Hawk:That's it. And then, yeah, if you guys would welcome Josh and Maggie. They both work. They both work, yeah, directly you can have one. So how many lighthouses have you built? Zero, yeah, but if you show up to the campus, there's a lighthouse right there.
Josh Ghrist:Okay, I didn't build that one. My dad actually built that one. I didn't know that, but it's just a fake lighthouse that sits there and kind of symbolizes what we do.
Will Hawk:But right next to the Indian Ocean is y'all's compound, your complex, which is simultaneously housing for staff and you guys. It is the hospital and the clinic, and right around the corner there's a pharmacy. Now, it is one of the neatest things. By the way, one of my favorite things about having Josh and Maggie here is how many of you they know Like I finally feel like I get to have you on my turf, because every time I'm hanging out with them, I'm dealing with, like cultural and language barriers, and now, like it's your turn. I know, except you guys like this is very easy for you.
Karen Anne Hawk:Just culture.
Will Hawk:Well, what's so funny is you were born there.
Josh Ghrist:I moved out where I was moved out there when I was two years old.
Will Hawk:so yeah, and so you're more Kenyan than you are American, even though nobody would look at you, and know that I'm still learning English, so if you guys will speak slow I'm just kidding, I'm not All- right.
Will Hawk:So obviously one of the things in our partnership is we love coming and hanging out with you guys. We've had folks Jimmy and Anne-Marie are here, by the way so if you want a chance to say hey to them, they're tucked in over there. Jimmy and I know the Barfields have gone with a couple of folks and done clinics, even clinics way out in the bush Pastors conferences. Thomas has gone and taught pastors conferences and then a church construction project. If somebody's never been to Kenya before and they wanted to be involved, could you convince them like yes, you could do this and it would be great.
Josh Ghrist:I can't could okay.
Will Hawk:I can't convince you.
Josh Ghrist:How would I convince you? Uh, we have an amazing place over in Kenya. Um, I would have them talk to people who've already gone just to see what it's like. Uh, you can't really visualize it until you've gone there, but when you see what God is doing in Kenya I mean, we planted our 105th church, um, and it was all started by my grandfather, and I've been there forever and I'm still okay, I think.
Will Hawk:Mostly.
Josh Ghrist:Mostly. And so just come, join us, come to Kenya, support the mission, and it's an amazing opportunity to follow the Lord in that. Yeah, one of the things if you've gone through the roots in that.
Will Hawk:Yeah, one of the things. If you've gone through the Roots class, you know that. One of the things when it comes to missional giving, we wanna make sure that the gospel is preached. Anytime tithe money is sent to support missions, we wanna make sure that the gospel is preached. But there are a couple of other things that we look for. We want members who are involved in the ministry, and one of our biggest is this is a ministry where any of our people could go boots on the ground, and so I've done a number of missions trips. Lighthouse is one of the, I think, best, easiest and most beneficial trips. You can go on, and that is not a very easy thing to say. All right, two more things. How can we pray for you and how can we support you?
Josh Ghrist:We are starting a iBank this year where we I don't know if you want to get into the details, but we harvest eyes and we're able to put them in other people. People have passed away, so ask Jimmy for details. Jimmy's got his hands.
Will Hawk:He's like oh, he's very generous people.
Josh Ghrist:I know, Got two. It will be one of the first in Kenya and we normally bring them over and do these surgeries sight-saving surgeries so you guys can be praying for that. We are trying to build our team and we are hoping for somebody to come and join us and help replace my dad as he's looking at retirement. So you guys can be praying for that.
Maggie Christ:And on the family front, you guys saw pictures of our kids. Our oldest is actually moving into college on Friday, so if I get a little weepy, it's going to be. Having kids on two continents is a big deal for us, especially this week. Our other two flew back to Kenya two days ago, so it's a big deal. But just prayers for our family as we navigate unity and connection in a new season for us, and then also as we're you talked about support we're heading back.
Will Hawk:I was going to make you say how people can give if you didn't, because I know it can be so weird.
Maggie Christ:Oh, I'm jumping right in. So we're heading back in three weeks, and so one of the things self-supported missionaries do is we raise our financial support, and we still have approximately $450 a month to go. So if any of you guys feel called to be a part of our support team, we'd love to talk to you. We'll be around. We have prayer cards to give. It's a great way to be a sender for missions when God has called all of us to be a part of it in one capacity or another.
Will Hawk:Awesome. And if, for whatever reason, you can't catch Josh and Maggie, you can come and talk to me and I'll be happy to get you guys connected. Let me pray for you guys. Thank you, you bet Well, heavenly Father, I'm grateful for not just Josh and Maggie.
Will Hawk:I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful for people who have raised their hand and have said this life is yours, lord, use it as you see fit. I am so grateful to see the way that you have, in such a multifaceted, deep, incredible way, brought healing to the blind, brought hope to those who are in hopeless situations, planted churches, trained up pastors and done more things than we can praise you for on a brought hope to those who are in hopeless situations, planted churches, trained up pastors and done more things than we can praise you for on a Sunday morning. And I would simply ask this, god, would you continue to do it? Would your kingdom continue to grow? Would those who are physically blind and spiritually blind find sight that points them to Christ, and would you plant more and more churches that your hope would be seen, both in this continent, in that one, and around the world? Thank you for who you are and for what you do. We praise you for this and for many more things in Christ's name, and everybody said amen. Thank you guys, love y'all. Well, all right, everybody, if you would grab your Bibles and flip to Acts, chapter 20.
Will Hawk:While you are flipping there, there's a question that I would love for you to ask yourself, and that question is have you ever disliked somebody so much, disliked somebody so much, that you went to lengths to avoid them? Don't answer out loud and please don't point them out to me if they happen to be on the other side of the building or in the pew in front of you. I was talking to my wife about this and she was like yes, like frequently and I think all of us have been there before where you walk into Walmart and you're planning to get milk and you're like, well, that'll be on the back end of my trip because I don't have it in me to deal with this whole thing. We're on the other side of Thanksgiving and Christmas, probably a few conversations that instead of walking into the kitchen, you just decided I'll go to the bathroom, whether I need to or not, to avoid what is waiting for me there. Now, the reason I ask this is because that's a very easy yes.
Will Hawk:How about this? Have you ever liked somebody so much, have you ever had so much love or affection for someone that you avoided them? Now, our answer to that would typically be no Will. That's crazy. If I love somebody, if I'm affectionate towards somebody, I am drawn, I am attracted, I want to be near them. And that's what my wife said to me. And I said yes, but when we pull into my mom's house and we have to be somewhere in five minutes, I will say do not get out of the car. I will get out of the car, I will go into the house, I will do what needs to be done, say what needs to be said and lift what needs to be lifted. You and the kids stay in the car. Why would I do that? Because if my mom, if my wife gets out of the car and starts talking to my mom, there's the afternoon. If my sisters are there, there's the whole day, because my wife likes them and they like her, and that is a very wonderful thing. But if it's a day when you have to get something done, sometimes you lovingly look across the car and you say please just stay in the car this time.
Will Hawk:Now I'll tell you why I bring this up. I want to show you a two-minute speech. Get excited, I'm not going to read the whole thing to you. It's also Paul's, so if you have a problem with it, you can take it up with God. What you're looking at in Acts, chapter 20, in fact I'll show it to you. I know you can't see the whole thing right now. This is a speech that Paul gives in Acts, chapter 20. But to appreciate this speech you need to notice how it begins. There's a story that is tucked into it and I'll try to see if I can show it to you. Yes, okay.
Will Hawk:Paul decided to sail past Ephesus. He's on his way, he's in his missionary journey and he's heading down the coast in the Mediterranean. And Paul sees Ephesus coming and he's like I don't have the time for this right now. He decided to sell past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia. It sounds cold. It doesn't sound like.
Will Hawk:This is the apostle to the Gentiles who wants to hang out with people who need to know Jesus because, if possible, he wanted to be in Jerusalem at a day of Pentecost. So he makes it around Ephesus and he lands in a place called Meletus, verse 17. And when he gets there, he writes a letter to Ephesus. So he basically says look, I can't go there, but I'm going to write a letter to you and I'm going to call the elders of the church, I'm going to call the pastors to come to him, and then I am going to give them this speech. I'm going to tell them the example of how I lived. I'm going to tell them what my expectations are of them. Now, here's what I want you to see. Well, you can't see that at all. Here's what I want you to say.
Will Hawk:This is Paul's journey through the Mediterranean. If you have an ESV study Bible, or if you Google Paul's third missionary journey, this is an excerpt of it, and I just want you to see how offended the church at Ephesus could have been you ready? Here's how Paul starts he comes in here and he goes to Ephesus. He then goes here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, and he's like all right, great missionary journey. We've seen churches planted, people encouraged, incredible miracles. The kingdom of God has grown. I'm going to head home Instead of taking a boat this way. He says you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna encourage every church that I just went to and so notice the line. I'm gonna go back here. I'm gonna go back here, back here, back here, back here, back here, back here, back here, back here.
Will Hawk:But look at this, the dude swings after visiting every other church he had been to. He looks at the Ephesians and he's like I just can't do it. It's like going to mom's house. If I stop there, there's no way I make it to Jerusalem in time. It's not going to happen. But here's what I want you to hear from me. It has nothing to do with a lack of love for the Ephesians. It actually has to do with the opposite, because when he gets to the end of this speech, here is what you will read.
Will Hawk:And when he said these things this little two minute speech, that is something between a TED Talk and a TikTok. Like Paul was the man, the amount of stuff that he would cover in two minutes. He was built for our day and age. I wish I could be more like Paul, except we'd already be done and y'all would be on your way out and you'd somehow feel like encouraged and convicted and like you weren't a Christian. But you are definitely a Christian Like Paul, incredible. And when he had said these things, how much love does he have for these people. When he had said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them all and there was much weeping on the part of all of them, paul breaks down. This gritty guy with calloused hands and incredible stories breaks down. They embraced Paul and they kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word that he had spoken. He said something to them that broke their hearts.
Will Hawk:This, by the way, again, is to the pastors of this church. He couldn't go to the church. He knew he wouldn't leave. So he brings the pastors and he says here's the deal you are not going to see my face again. And the Bible never wastes words.
Will Hawk:And I think my favorite line from this entire chapter is the last one. And they accompanied him to the ship. I love this. I mean, these are pastors, right. These are guys who deal with hard stuff. These are guys who hear all the stories. They've seen the highs, they've seen the lows.
Will Hawk:And when Paul says, guys, I couldn't go by Ephesus. I could go by every other church that God has built, but I couldn't go by yours, because my love and my affection for your people is so great that I knew if the boat stopped in Ephesus I would be prone not to do what God had called me to do. I would be prone to just sort of nuzzle in and lean into home. By the way, this is not the sermon. This is not the lesson. Mcgs that are struggling to multiply, please listen to this. This is Paul saying for me to be on mission, I had to get outside of those who were the easiest for me to love. And the pastors run after Paul. As Paul is getting on the ship to go, knowing that his life is about to end, these grizzled pastors are like the eight-year-old boy when his big brother gets on the train to go to World War II, and he's running after the train. I love you. And then Paul has given them this speech as his love letter back to them. This love letter is, I think, what makes us us. So here's what we're going to do Over the next few weeks.
Will Hawk:We're going to look at this short love letter that Paul wrote, his sort of farewell address to a church that he loved greatly and deeply. Now I thought it might be fun to show you a couple of final words that were not Paul's. My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. Those are John Newton's final words to those who he loved. Great abolitionist and pastor. I don't know if anybody can guess what this one is. This is the end for me, the beginning of life. Greg, I'm looking at you. Do you know, do you Dietrich Bonhoeffer, guy who gave his life days before the allies landed in a camp where Hitler put him? This might be one of my absolute favorites. Jesus died for me. Do you want to know why I love this? Those are Spurgeon's last words.
Will Hawk:So many of you Spurgeon nerds like the guy's eloquent, incredible paragraphs of theology. This is what he said as he's going home. Jesus died for me. But perhaps one of my favorites comes from a saint in the third century. I'm done on this side. Turn me over. That's pretty good. I wanted you to laugh before I told you this. He was being burned as they said this Like. So sure, like it's an incredible story.
Will Hawk:This is Saint Lawrence in the third century. So sure, like it's an incredible story. This is St Lawrence in the third century. So sure was he of his salvation that when he gave his life for Christ and they built a fire under him. His last words were in dual meaning I'm done on this side. Turn me over. Talk about a guy I wanna hang out with in heaven. That's the guy. How you end your life with that much hope and that much beautiful sarcasm poking at those who feel like they are taking life when you are on your way to ultimately find it, what is it that makes us us?
Will Hawk:I feel like a sermon series like this can be very selfish. If I'm honest. Who cares? What makes Midtree Midtree? We are one church of many in a place that is filled with churches, but I'll tell you why I think it's important. If Midtree is your home, you need to know what it is that God has called the pastors of this church to build and to point his people to.
Will Hawk:Some of you may come to midtree because you like the music. Some of you may like the kids ministry. Some of you may like your neighbor who invited you. Some of you may like the preaching Maybe, maybe not. But here's what I know If you come to a place because you like it, it's not family. If you live in a place because you are about what it is about that's being a part of the family. And let me also say this this may be some of your first Sunday and you're like I'm not coming back. Okay, I can already tell you. Fine, I can handle that.
Will Hawk:I do not think midtree is the church for all people, but I will take this moment to tell you this. These three phrases you will hear here often, and if you are a soldier, if you are a student, if you are transient, if you are traveling right now, I would plead with you to find these wherever you seek worship. We define a healthy church as gospel, mission and community, these three interwoven circles that feed into and out of one another. A healthy church, according to scripture, has these three things on the forefront and as the foundation. I would also tell you this the Bible defines a healthy Christian as somebody who is beholding, believing and becoming, and all three must be happening all of the time. Now, churches are like people. People have personalities, they have fingerprints. They are different than one another. These are the things that we believe that God has called Midtree to be.
Will Hawk:In addition to what I showed you a moment ago, we believe that Midtree is supposed to be a place where there is solid theology in warm community. And that does not just mean our worship leader's gonna read a verse so you get one extra Bible passage and grab a donut and coffee on the way in Check, we did it. Solid theology, warm community. Now let's go into it. There's a little more to it than that. We're a family where everyone has a place and pitches in Members that shepherd one another through the delights and difficulties of life. But this morning what we're gonna look at is the first one, this tension between solid theology and warm community. And here's the thing if this doesn't make your heart beat, if it doesn't inspire you, encourage you and say man, I wanna run hard after Jesus. That's okay, mitri, really may not be the church for you, I'm okay with that. One of my favorite things to do is to help people find a church that is for them, where they can find all of those things. But I do believe that this is something that we are called to find, and the reason that I believe this is because it's what God's word calls us to. Now, why is this important? I can give you lots of theological reasons. I can point to a lot of verses, but here's what I'll tell you.
Will Hawk:When I think of solid theology and warm community, what I think of is Stokes and I. However many years ago it was when you would get on break from social security office, going over to Willie T's how many years ago was that? 15 years ago, it was two guys who were trying to figure out ministry, wanting to point people to Christ, eating fried chicken that was covered in tons of buffalo sauce and then regretting it for the next three hours of their afternoon. It was us just talking about the goodness of the gospel and how the word of God and the worship of God blend together, and wanting to lead a handful of teenagers to fall in love with Christ. When I think of solid theology in warm community, I don't think of a guy holding a big Bible and pounding a pulpit. I think of a guy named Bill Harrison who, when I got married, he said hey, if you want to get together and talk about what it means to be a godly husband and a godly father, I'll meet with you at Chick-fil-A once a week, and did that for years.
Will Hawk:When I think of solid theology and warm community, I do not think about big things. I think about small things. To have one without the other would be one of the saddest things that you could find in your life. If you have solid theology but not warm community, you are likely to become one of the coldest people that could be. If you want to read about those, open your Bible and read about almost any Pharisee in the New Testament. My favorite would be Matthew, chapter 23. I'm not gonna read you the whole thing, just know that almost every line begins with Jesus saying whoa, and not the kind of whoa, w-o-a-h, like whoa.
Will Hawk:These guys know their Bibles Like W-O-E. How is it that you can tithe on stuff in your garden? In fact, I went outside. We've got like rosemary growing in these things. This is a little thing of rosemary, a sprig that's growing back there. These guys were so litigious in their pursuit of God that they would have looked at this thing in their garden. They would have counted the leaves and said 20, I'll take off these two and I will give them to the church and a guy walks up with a hand that's busted and Jesus heals it in a way and in a time that they do not like and they kick the guy out of the church. They had tons of theology, but they couldn't care less about people. My favorite part of that is when this man, who I told you he had a withered hand, he was born blind. Even more appropriate when this man born blind. When they find out, they kick the dude out of the church and the very next line, jesus went and found him and brought him back in.
Will Hawk:To have a warm community without solid theology is dangerous. Without solid theology is dangerous. It is very dangerous because you will find that there are many places with a sign we need to get one, but many places with a sign that has church on it. We're working on that. Right, josiah, we have a sign coming, all right, good sign, all right, that have church on the bottom. But what they're shooting for primarily is warm community.
Will Hawk:I had a dear friend who was navigating incredible difficulty in his marriage and I said, well, have you talked to the pastors? Have you shared with them what's going on? Because they were moving closer and closer to divorce. And he said, yeah, yeah, we have. We've talked to them. And they said, look, we're gonna love you guys, no matter what. If you get divorced, we're going to love him, if you get divorced, we're going to love her. And I was like, well, time out? Where's the Matthew 18? Where's the solid theology? Where's the question? Where is the sin? How can we fight for this?
Will Hawk:To have warm community without solid theology is one of the squishiest, most dangerous things that you can do, as people walk into a place with a capital C on the sign but not receiving the truth of what God's word actually says. Now, I think each of you in this room and I include myself, none of us hit that balance perfectly, and I would encourage you to go ahead and just look which one's heavier for you. Are you heavier on theology? Are you heavier on community? We'll revisit this in a few minutes, but I really want to show you what God's word says. How does God create solid theology and warm community? And I think the answer is he does it in Acts, chapter 20.
Will Hawk:So this is the beginning of that letter that Paul wrote. He's looking at the elders of the church. I love your people so much I couldn't even land there, or I never would have left. But I need you pastors to know this so you can take it back to your church, so that you can make the church in Ephesus the church that God has called it to be. And he says this. You know how I lived. You know what it was for me to live out my faith, as I was among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia. Why did he have to sail around them? Because he had lived with them, as I tell you the stuff that he says, not for days or weeks or months, but years. He lands in Asia and these become his people and he says this is what it looks like to have solid theology in warm community. It begins with serving the Lord with all humility. What solid theology and warm community looks like is serving, not being served.
Will Hawk:Let me pause when I put this screen up. I am telling you what God's word told the elders 2,000 years ago was important for their churches, and I'm telling you this today because it is important for midtree. This is Will, with Greg and Scott and Larry and all of the elders, trent, sitting down and saying what do our people need to hear to start the year off right? Well, why don't we tell them Paul's parting words to the people he loved most, pleading with them? This is who you must be, this is what you are called to, and the very first thing is seeking humility. Let me begin by being humble. I'm a guy who's talking about what church is supposed to look like. Midtree does not have it figured out. We are far from what I believe God has called us to be, but we're better than we used to be and I believe, by God's grace, we will be better in the years ahead than we are today. But how are we going to do that if we don't even know where we're going or what our trajectory is? It begins here, by seeking humility.
Will Hawk:You will find no star status in Paul. He would have been the guy who everybody would have wanted to know and talk to, well-known, would have had the most likes and the sermons with the most downloads and the most views, and he would have been the guy who helped with kids. He would have been the one who went and visited the elderly as they were navigating sickness. He would have been the one who went and visited the elderly as they were navigating sickness. He would have been the one picking up the prayer request sheet and praying over Pongo the dog which, by the way, was a beautiful, real prayer request that came through last week. This is who Paul would have been Not shooting for. Star status Paul would have put on display this great truth and what I think you should wrestle with yourself. He was more interested in the people around him than he was interested in himself. If you want a very quick barometer for your ability to determine, am I seeking humility? Are you more interested in yourself or in the people around you?
Will Hawk:In this moment, what matters to you more the person sitting in front of you, behind you, to the left or to the right, or what you're thinking about is coming next in your day, next in your work week. One of my favorite examples of this happens every Christmas, post-opening gifts, when school kicks back off. Are you guys back in school? Yet it's about to happen, right Like tomorrow's planning, maybe, and then Tuesday here. Yet it's about to happen, right, like tomorrow's planning, maybe. And then Tuesday. Here's what happens. Kid gets to school and he asks this question hey, what did you get for Christmas? Does he want to know what that kid got for Christmas? Spoiler alert no, he doesn't. What does he want? He wants to be asked hey, what did you get for Christmas? I got this really cool hat. That's awesome. I got a hat too, and let me tell you what else I got.
Will Hawk:This is the opposite of humility. This is using the people around you, navigating conversations and situations, to try to elevate who you are. If you want to seek humility, if you wanna know what solid theology and warm community looks like, it looks like you caring about people that are around you more than yourself. Here is one of the easiest hacks to do this show up to church five to ten minutes sooner than you usually do. All right, the reason I say you usually do is because I realize it would be a year-long endeavor for some of you guys to make it for the first song. I understand that, like, hey, I'm playing the long game here. All right, I'm hoping that by for some of you guys, year three.
Will Hawk:You guys, the first thing you hear Stokes say is the first thing Stokes says, like I am praying that for some of you guys. So here's what I would say If you want to grow in this, whenever you usually show up to church, show up five to ten minutes sooner. Walk in not worried about your coffee, your donut, your kid. Why? Because you dealt with that five to 10 minutes ago. Just meet somebody. If you don't know this, we have little slides running at the beginning of service and do you know who shows up to service on time and early? All the newbies, all the visitors? You wanna meet a visitor and you don't want to be embarrassed asking are you a visitor? Spoiler alert they're the ones that are here early and on time because all they know of our church is what Facebook and Instagram says, and it says nine o'clock, right. And so they are here. All you got to do is show up five minutes early and walk in and be like I don't know that person, guess what they don't know you.
Will Hawk:And one of the most humble things you could do is start your Sunday by saying man, I am not here so that you'll give me some good sermon or sing a song that I really like or pray a meaningful prayer. I want to show up to serve. This is what Paul says. Solid theology in warm community looks like, but he doesn't stop there. I serve the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials the things that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. It also looks like being transparent in our struggles.
Will Hawk:Church is not the place to show up and make it look like you have it all together. Church is the place to show up and put on display that you do not. And I know we live in the South and I know that that is a big ask. I am giving you the blueprint for meaningful interaction at the church, a meaningful way to pursue God. Our struggles ought to be on display. Caveat, I'm not saying I'm going to hand you a microphone and say tell me how you failed on Saturday. It's not what I'm shooting for, okay. What I'm trying to tell you is this this isn't the place to look polished up and buttoned up and mascara on. This is the place for mascara to run. This is the place for you to show up a little disheveled, because your soul is a little disheveled, wanting to come near to a God who wants to get you in alignment with his goodness. And it isn't just you seeking him, it's you seeking him through the people around you.
Will Hawk:Whenever I do a sermon like this, I say now you guys know that we have a couple of folks over here praying and a couple of folks over here praying. We would love to pray with you guys. And then y'all like, come down for three weeks and then, after three weeks, all of our problems have been solved. This is the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. Guys, I don't know how you grew up, I don't know what makes it awkward, but this is the place to be real. You're walking into this and you're thinking this is church, yeah, and if you're a Christian, this is home, this is family, this is living room. That is the way that the table is set for us. One of my favorite examples of this was John Hammock, who came and shared a testimony a couple of months ago and he sat here and he said I walked into this church and I walked into an MCG and on week one I told them I'm struggling with a fentanyl addiction. On week one, I told them my marriage is a mess and I need God to step in and, by God's grace, he has changed his life.
Will Hawk:Sometimes we're afraid to talk about our brokenness because we're afraid that if God doesn't fix it quickly, it's going to make people question God. It's not. When we put our brokenness on display, it shows other broken people. Spoiler alert all of you that this is a place where we can come to a God who knows us and knows us well, that this is a place where we can come to a God who knows us and knows us well. This looks like leaders saying things like I may be preaching this to you, I may be singing this to you, but I'm singing it to me. I'm preaching it to me.
Will Hawk:It's you guys showing up to small group and your leaders having real prayer requests. If you show up to a small group and the leader's prayer request is always would you guys pray for me? I only worked through 40 chapters of my Bible this week. What, like? What is the norm? Like? What are we supposed to do with that? No, we need real leaders who are leading groups and facilitating conversations, saying things like I have been struggling with sin in this area and I need you to pray for me. I have been really wrestling with God calling me to have this conversation and I do not want to do it. Will you enter into these tears and these trials with me? Welcome to them.
Will Hawk:It's all theology and warm community means being transparent. Another thing that we will see serving the Lord with all humility. I'm in verse 19 right now, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears and trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. This is one of my favorites. I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.
Will Hawk:Solid theology and warm community means telling the truth, even when it's hard, caveat, asterisk. It's not just the job of the pastors to do this. Read Matthew 18. Most of the issues in the church, according to the gospel of Matthew, are dealt in the pews before it ever makes it to one of the leaders. It is somebody who loves somebody, seeing that somebody struggle with something and going to them. Not running to the pastor sending a text message or shooting off an email. It's him saying hey, you're a brother in Christ and I'm a brother in Christ. You're my sister, I'm your sister. I'm watching you struggle. I am entering into this with you. I'm watching you struggle. I am entering into this with you. I'm not just leaving it to the professionals.
Will Hawk:God has called us to tell the truth to one another, even when it's hard. If you get real excited about that, you may wanna talk to me before you go after it. Some of you love telling the truth when it's hard. You just need to work on your tone a little bit. Hey, you stupid sinner, what's wrong with you? Okay, that's. It's effective at telling the truth, all right, but it's not effective at winning your brother.
Will Hawk:I feel like there are a handful of you Enneagram eights who just need a special class on that. I love that y'all had nervous laughter at that. That's like one of the truest things I could say. That's not directly out of scripture. It is also by the way out of scripture telling. It is also by the way out of scripture Telling the truth, even when it's hard. It also means talking about things that make you shift in your seats. One of the ways that I think we do this well and I will tell you we do a lot. We need to grow in a lot of ways but one of the things I think we do this well is by working through books of the Bible. I love the fact that we have made it almost all the way through the book of Luke.
Will Hawk:If your notes have run dry and you're like, are we going to finish this thing Two more weeks, we'll be there, settle in. I thought it would be a little odd to jump into the crucifixion during Christmas. Call me crazy. It just felt like a bit of a tonal shift. We're going to be right back in there. Why does that matter? Because I can't skip stuff that's hard. I can't just live on Will's little soap boxes. It means we're going to talk about cultural issues. We're going to use words like abortion. It means we're going to talk about intimacy and sexuality. It means that we are going to talk about money, which always makes me feel cringy, because I feel like y'all are always like all right, man, fine, you want money, I get it. I want us to be able to talk about things that make you uncomfortable in the seat, and then you see what God's word says and it comforts you for the rest of your life. I know for a fact that this is something that you guys do really, really well.
Will Hawk:One of my favorite things about you is a couple who had come to the church a while ago. They'd started coming to church because they realized they needed to get serious about Jesus, and they started in a small group and it came out that, while they're pursuing Jesus, this couple was living together and the small group leader was like Will, should you enter into this? Can I talk about this? I was like by all means, talk to them. This couple hears the gospel not from a pastor of God's desire for them to pursue purity, and this, to me, is one of the most beautiful things. They decide not to live together. He moves to a different place so that they can pursue godliness and holiness in a culture that most people would have just tut-tutted about. Do you know how beautiful that is? Do you know how unbelievable that is in today's day and age? It's telling the truth, even when it's hard, but it isn't just telling the truth and not shrinking back. It's teaching you in public and from house to house.
Will Hawk:I'm almost done, by the way, with these, but this is how Paul lived his life. He didn't just live like this on Sundays. Solid theology and warm community means you don't just look like this on Sunday. Now I told you we were gonna come back to that scale and I was gonna let you kind of wrestle with it. I think this is an appropriate time to do so. Let me tell you what I think might be the biggest challenge for you this morning. I think it's gonna be this what is solid theology in warm community? It means you don't just look like this and act like this on Sunday morning.
Will Hawk:By the way, one of the biggest arguments against Christianity is, and has always been, hypocrisy in the church. Guess what? You're all hypocrites, and so am I, because there's not a one of you that have fixed your sin problem. We're just hypocrites who are repenting of it and somehow we need our culture to know that. That we're not saying we have all the answers and we have it figured out and my life is 100% worth emulating. What we're trying to say is you're not wrong when you call me a hypocrite, but I am running to the cross and asking God to forgive me of this and to change me of that.
Will Hawk:Now, when you look at this, I wonder which one of these is you? If you're the solid theology, that's where you're heavy. I should be on this side of the stage to say that and you're like man, I need to get a little bit better at warm community. So your thought is I'm going to read a book on community. You've missed the point, all right. The point is not I need to read some more. You know what I'm going to. I'm going to memorize some scriptures about community. No, that's not that. Here is why I think this is going to be a challenge. If you're looking at the scale and you have solid theology and warm community, what you are going to be prone to do is fix this problem by going after this thing, or you will say you know what I'm just going to go about it equally. I'm going to go to a Bible study. I'm going to meet my neighbor. I'm going to do this. If you keep adding equal weight to both sides, you are never going to balance this out. If this is you, you need to do something more radical.
Will Hawk:Stokes, you came up at just the right time. He drives me crazy with this. I get not you walking up. You're supposed to do that. Whenever I walk through his neighborhood with him, I don't even feel like a Christian anymore because he's just walking through and some of it was that my wife laughing Like it's embarrassing to me. We're doing, we're trick-or-treating like a good pastor's family and we're going through the neighborhood and Stokes is just bebopping around. Hey, how's the new baby? Is your daughter enjoying medical school? And I'm like I don't know. My neighbors, like what is this? The dude is so good at this. If only we could get his theology figured out.
Will Hawk:But and then there's some of you that are on the other side and you're like I'll be honest, man, I just love people, I want to hang out with them, I want to enjoy them, I want to build relationship with them, but I don't know about reading a Bible. So here's what I'm going to do I'm going to go meet with the people that I like and I'm going to ask them to tell me what God has shared in their word with them. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need to go pick up in the ESV study Bible. You need to find a podcast. We need to level this playing field.
Will Hawk:One of my favorite things about the people at Midtree is this I can be hanging out around a grill eating chicken on a Tuesday and we're having this deep conversation about eternal realities Deep things in normal places and I can be with somebody on a Sunday and just be talking about life and the kids. Shoot for realness here, shoot for holiness there, and find a balance in your life that's compelling to the people around you. The final thing that I would point out to you is this that he testified to the Jews and to the Greeks to repent and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews and the Greeks would not have gotten along. They would not have seen the world the same way.
Will Hawk:Paul wanted community more than he wanted comfort. He didn't worry so much about the temperature of the room. He worried about the temperature of people's souls. He didn't worry so much about if the drums were there or if they were loud. He cared about what was beating in the heart of his people. May our preferences die so that we can build a community of people who are about Jesus more than anything else. These were Paul's final words to the church he loved most. And these are Jesus's final words to the men who would build the church that he loved most.
Will Hawk:When the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him, and he said to them I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup If you guys want to go ahead and hop in place. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said take this and divide it among yourselves. And he took a piece of bread and he pointed to them and he said this is my body that is broken for you. Do you know what communion is? It is a family meal of deep importance. This, this is solid theology building a warm community.
Will Hawk:We are not putting our faith in a little piece of plastic and some Welch's grape juice. We are not putting our faith in this little piece of plastic and some Welch's grape juice. We are not putting our faith in this little piece of bread which, by the way, mine's a donut right now because I didn't have access to the bread that I think your wife baked for us. Is that correct, gluten-free Good stuff? Do you guys realize that this is made by somebody every time we gather together, because it's one of the ways that they get to love their community?
Will Hawk:This is what Christ was building A family who is not about themselves, but is about a different kingdom. About blood that was shed so that you would find grace, that you could encourage those around you. About a body that was broken so that you don't have to show up all fixed, because every one of us are in need. I don't know if Midtree is a church for you or not, but I know that every one of you need Jesus and I know that every one of us need a solid understanding of God and a warm group of people to pursue him in, so, as we come to communion today, we're not rushing and we're not in a hurry. Welcome to the small family meal pointing to the greatest promise God ever made, and if you have not trusted in Christ yet, if you are not sure, please do not come to these things and think that these fix you. Come and receive prayer. If you want to praise God for something he has done in your life, come and receive prayer. But when you are ready, come.