SPEAKER_00: Well, good evening.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Wednesday to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's always an honor and a privilege to be back with you.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter one, the Lord creates and it is declared good.
SPEAKER_00: Repeatedly, good, good, good.
SPEAKER_00: That is the refrain.
SPEAKER_00: And yet in Genesis chapter 2, suddenly there's like a record scratch moment in the midst of everything that has been declared good.
SPEAKER_00: That is this statement.
SPEAKER_00: In uh 2016, there was there was a study that came out where uh as long as they had been charting the uh average age that Americans were living, it had always been increasing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Health, technology, the age that people were living to was increasing.
SPEAKER_00: In 2016, for the first year in all of their charting, suddenly it had declined for the first time ever.
SPEAKER_00: But there wasn't a pandemic, there wasn't any sort of famine, natural disaster, any logical explanation.
SPEAKER_00: And they looked into it, they did research.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to rack your brain in your mind what you think it could possibly be.
SPEAKER_00: It was the beginning of a multi-year decline.
SPEAKER_00: The answer was uh deaths of despair.
SPEAKER_00: That is young suicides, drug overdose, alcoholism, all of these preventable diseases, but of self-inflicted harm.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, as a society, as a culture, uh, we were becoming more and more lonely and having uh extreme difficulty with it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, at the same time, they did a study, a study came out that said that chronic loneliness is more dangerous for your health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
SPEAKER_00: It is not good for man to be alone.
SPEAKER_00: On Wednesday nights, we've been looking at uh the church.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to think well about the church as we press into different ideas.
SPEAKER_00: We're in a section where we're looking at what we do as a church.
SPEAKER_00: We gather together to worship, to lift high the name of God.
SPEAKER_00: We gather together to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel last week walked through the ordinances, and as you can see on the screen this evening, I want to talk to us real briefly about the fact that we gather together as community.
SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians chapter 12 is a section where Paul is talking about the fact that we are the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now you are the body of Christ, but God has put the body together, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for one another.
SPEAKER_00: If one part suffers, then every part suffers with it.
SPEAKER_00: If one part is honored, then every part rejoices with it.
SPEAKER_00: Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, also in this section is where it talks about listen, some of you may be an ear, all right, and you can't say to the uh knee that I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: Or some of you may be an eyeball, and everyone wants to be an eyeball.
SPEAKER_00: But if the whole body is just an eye, that's pretty pointless, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I can recall when I first entered ministry as a youth pastor, um, music is important to leading uh youth, especially on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: That's the big night.
SPEAKER_00: But I was tired of being dependent upon uh these youth to show up and lead and play guitar, and they were uh very undependable to say the least.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a two-week stretch where I determined that what I was going to do was I was gonna learn to play the guitar.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you know anything about me, I'm all sports, all math, zero musical talent.
SPEAKER_00: So uh there's me uh watching YouTube videos and just trying to strum the guitar.
SPEAKER_00: And at one point, probably after about three days of this, my wife walks in and she's like, listen, it's it's it's like the guitar or it's our marriage.
SPEAKER_00: This this can this cannot keep going on.
SPEAKER_00: Just the same chord over and over, just trying to push it down over and over.
SPEAKER_00: I gave it up, all right, and you are thankful for it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You are thankful for it.
SPEAKER_00: True story.
SPEAKER_00: This is so embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we do sermon review all the time and service review, and uh I I had someone loosely uh connected to the staff call in and uh inform me, said, Listen, I was watching online this week, and I'm just here to let you know.
SPEAKER_00: Like someone that was on the lead song at the close of the service was awful, should never be allowed on there again.
SPEAKER_00: I can speak like this to you because I'm just I'm just letting you know, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I I went back and and watched the online.
SPEAKER_00: Eli had accidentally left my microphone on, and I was singing.
SPEAKER_00: Never let that guy on a mic.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, aren't we thankful that we have different parts of the body?
SPEAKER_00: There's different giftings, and here's what I would add to that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I experience God and the beauty of God through other people and their giftings.
SPEAKER_00: Like we need each other, but as I've grown and matured, there's this like I love to see God in you, in different people, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're not all the same.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the absolute beauty and magnificence of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, one, we are the body of Christ, we glorify Him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh number two, to set this up, in the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters are all about the fact that everything that Christ has done for you, you have every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it just paints this overwhelming, magnificent picture.
SPEAKER_00: And then when you get to chapter four, it says, therefore, because of everything I've said, therefore walk worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Walk worthy.
SPEAKER_00: You have every reason in the world to walk worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to pause for a second and I want you to think if if uh what you think is gonna come next, right?
SPEAKER_00: Walk worthy of this calling that's upon your life, of all that Jesus has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: You might immediately think of all the don't list, like, well then don't do this and this and this and this.
SPEAKER_00: Or you you might think of the your own your own do list, well, do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Have my quiet time, read my Bible, journal, do all the things.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, uh 4, 2, and 3.
SPEAKER_00: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another and love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: That's all corporate stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's all love one another stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Walk worthy of all that Christ has done for you by loving one another, being tolerant, putting up with right, the family sort of stuff, like, hey, in the difficulty of dealing with us, like do it in love because we're family.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've been known to uh be a pig-headed man and uh not wait or ask for help to move heavy objects.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really good at this nice little pivot move where you can pivot and pivot and just keep walking, some heavy refrigerator, all sorts of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I've also been known to ding many, many corners of the house and even damage some products, drop things down the stairs, those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens if you just break?
SPEAKER_00: There's so much chuckling around the room.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_00: I was not trying to throw you under the bus, just me.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: You know how like let's take moving a couch.
SPEAKER_00: I I have done some awkward things with the couch, just trying to walk it and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when you get two buddies?
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's just like just pick the dang thing up and go wherever you want.
SPEAKER_00: It takes half a second.
SPEAKER_00: I'll spend an hour walking it and doing all sorts of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what scripture says.
SPEAKER_00: Bear one another's burdens.
SPEAKER_00: I I I want to I have to be quick, but I want to read to you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I want this to wash over you.
SPEAKER_00: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.
SPEAKER_00: Just as I have loved you, I also want you to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: John 13, 34.
SPEAKER_00: There are probably about 15 love, the command for us to love one another, honor one another, Romans 12.10.
SPEAKER_00: Uh show hospitality, have fellowship with one another, be at peace with one another, Mark 9.50.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another, forgive one another, bear with one another, bear one another's burdens, Galatians uh 6, 2.
SPEAKER_00: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort one another, care for one another, encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: There's three times care for one, or encourage one another, serve one another.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of it's it's the body.
SPEAKER_00: We're a body.
SPEAKER_00: We bear one another's burdens.
SPEAKER_00: It's so foolish for us to try and do that on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, and finally, and I'm landing the plane, is our call to actually protect one another in accountability.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to James 5, 16.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the deal, right?
SPEAKER_00: Accountability.
SPEAKER_00: You need people in your life that love you enough to walk beside you, to bear your burdens, and also love you enough to call you out on your junk.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Like guardrails on a road that are not there to restrict you, but they're there to protect you.
SPEAKER_00: No one ever uh got angry at a smoke alarm for waking you up in the middle of the night to tell you your house is on fire.
SPEAKER_00: It's there to protect you.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is, is remember the stat at the beginning?
SPEAKER_00: We're so isolated as a culture.
SPEAKER_00: We think that things like social media and these real loose connections uh make it so that we can be actually further and further apart.
SPEAKER_00: God has made us for community, for community, to pray for one another, uh, to hold each other accountable, to walk with one another, to be different and to bear fruit with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, what what is so incredible about scripture in uh Ephesians chapter 3, Paul's super theological, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Like he's deep, deep, deep.
SPEAKER_00: But in this section, to simplify it for you, he says, the church, okay, the fact of that we are what I just described, we are a living temple with different parts.
SPEAKER_00: We're this body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the manifold wisdom of God or the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The church, this this collection, right?
SPEAKER_00: Eclectic collection, motley crew, right here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we are the glory of God to, who does it say to?
SPEAKER_00: The heavenly authorities.
SPEAKER_00: That would be both good and bad.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan in the heavenlies is this right here.
SPEAKER_00: Because his spirit indwells us, and we are a part of one another as his body, and in Ephesians, that is the revealed magnificent plan that is so unbelievable that angels and demons no one could ever comprehend what we are.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God as a body that loves each other, carries one another's burdens, learns from each other, and holds each other accountable.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful to be the church.
SPEAKER_00: Help us think about it well.
SPEAKER_00: Help us think about community.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I know in our culture as Americans, we are so individualized and we take shortcuts for everything because of time and wanting to cram so many things in.
SPEAKER_00: God, help us to have genuine community, to be known by the people around us, to carry one another's burdens, to be able to confess the real us that you see to others, confess our sins one to another.
SPEAKER_00: Father, help us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We love you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.