IRL Community

The digital world gives us constant "access" to people through a screen, yet more and more young adults are experiencing significant loneliness and disconnection. In this message, Trent Norkus (Rocky Peak's High School Director) unpacks how a screen can never give us what in person community can, and how connecting to a local church can change our lives.

For more info about RPYA check us out on Instagram @rpyoungadults or at our landing page on rockypeak.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is up, RPYA? How you doing? Tonight I get to uh read the scripture. My name's Avan for those of you don't know me. Um so get out your Bibles or your phones, whatever you want to get out, get it out to read the scripture. We're gonna be in Colossians 2. It's in the second half of your Bible of the New Testament. Uh Colossians 2, verses 6 through 15. So get your Bibles out and let's read it together. I'll give you a second to get there.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hey, what's up, RPY? It's good to have you this Sunday night. If you and I have not had a chance to meet yet, my name is Dre. I'm the young adult pastor here at Rocky Peak, and normally I'd be there in the room in the ridge with you, but tonight's a special occasion. See this young man right here? This is Isaiah. Isaiah's my youngest son, and Isaiah is turning 10, which is a big deal in our household. So we're gonna be off celebrating this evening, but I'm excited for what we have in store for you. This is part two of our digital reset weekend. I kicked this off last week, in which we're talking about the digital world and how we're immersed in it. And the digital world can be a good thing, a very helpful thing, but it's a lousy king. So the series has been unpacking how do we keep the digital world in its place? See, the goal isn't to go back to the Stone Age or anything, the goal is to make sure that the digital world doesn't have authority over us. And teaching this evening is our good friend Trent Noricis. You're a big fan of Trent, right? Yeah. Trent has been a faithful part of RP Way over the last several years. Trent is also the high school director here at Rocky Peak. But more importantly, Trent Noricus is somebody that I have become incredibly dear, has become incredibly dear to me over the last several years. I first met Trent when he was in middle school. I was his middle school pastor, and believe it or not, I met Trent when he was shorter than me, which is kind of shocking, right? And over the years, I have watched Trent's grow, Trent's passion for the Lord grow. Trent is one of the smartest, most brilliant people I know. But more importantly, because of God in his life, he is one of the most humble and he is one of the most joyful people. And I say this with all sincerity that Trent is the type of man that I hope my sons would grow up to be. Trent is an absolutely incredible individual, and I'm excited for you to get to hear what he's been learning. Understand this as we're going to this time of teaching. Trent has no intent to talk at you. Trent is here this evening to learn alongside you and to share what the Holy Spirit has been teaching him. So I hope you're ready for what God has in store this evening. So would you do me a favor and would you give a warm and let's say rowdy, right? Yeah. And a rowdy welcome to Trent Norcus.

unknown 2:44

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 2:58

What's up, Arfieway? Love you guys too. Wow, that was really special. Um, I didn't know that was happening. Uh Dre has been really special uh in my life. Yes, like he said, he was my middle school pastor. Um he's been a mentor to me um for a very long time, and he plays a very special role in my life, as I'm sure he does in many of yours as well. Um he's he'll be officiating my wedding this summer. Um and uh and I miss him, and I um I wish he was teaching tonight, um, but unfortunately that's that's not what we have in store. So, yes, uh, if you didn't hear, my name is Trent. Uh I have had the privilege of getting to serve in RPYA uh over the past few years. I love this ministry. Um and so I just want to encourage you to sew in. Uh that's gonna be a lot of what we're talking about tonight. Um, but to take advantage of this ministry and not to just walk in and walk out but be a part of the community that's happening here. Um because if none of us do that, it doesn't happen. But if all of us do that, if all of us are walking in thinking, what can I give? and how can I be a part of this, um, that's how we get real uh community. Um and so uh with that, I I did want to mention, like Dre said, I am uh the high school ministry director, and I love high school ministry, and I want to say, um, as a, I don't know how to say this, a warning maybe, uh, in a few months, uh, there is a uh a new class that is graduating high school and they'll be coming into RPY. And uh they are, based on like weekends and life group attendance, the the biggest class revolution has ever had at this church. And not only are there a lot of them, but they are special. Um I even just kind of get emotional thinking about them. I I was their VBS leader as a kid every single year. I was so for the for the boys, I was their wildlife life group leader in um my first like season as a as like the high school ministry director. Um they've been uh core students in the ministry, and so I want to I say that because um they're coming into this ministry and they they need people to look up to, and they are very serious about Jesus. And so they when they come into this ministry, I I the last thing that I would want is to for them to come in, and I don't say this to scare you at all, but for them to come in and say, I don't know if those are the people that I want to follow. Because guys, they're serious. And so I want to encourage you guys, and every year it's the same thing. There are people coming into this ministry, and many of you guys are are those people. And so I want to encourage you guys to be growing because there are people looking at you, or at least there will be. Enough said. What about that? Um, we've been in a series um that we're calling Digital Reset. Why? Um, because especially uh is everyone here in RPYA? I don't I think everyone is Gen Z. Everyone that's in YA, at least. We're all Gen Z, right? Uh thank you, Indy. Let's go. Indy does middle school ministry, you kind of have to know that. Um, and for those of us who are Gen Zers, if that's what you call it, uh the digital world, social media technology, is so to speak, the water that we swim in. That is the thing that surrounds us. It is everywhere. Most of us, you can't even do school without technology and the digital world. For many of you, your entire school is on the digital world. It's on your computer, it's on your iPad, it's on your phone, things like that. Um it is not a small part of our lives. For many of us, it dominates our lives, and so we should be learning how to think and handle social media and the digital world accordingly. Um, if that's if it's such a big part of the world we live in, um, how should we think about it? How should we use utilize it? And so tonight I want to talk about the digital world and commitment. And I want to say uh from the outset, some of you may not struggle with the things that we're talking about, but it is certainly the direction that our world is headed in. So I want us to at least, at minimum, be aware of these things and vigilant against them. So I have a few goals. One of them, and I I hope it would be the goal of every sermon, and that is to show you Jesus. That he is far better than anything else you could find in this world, anything else you might be seeking, that he is far better, and that he has given us his church, and his church is beautiful and wonderful and amazing. And you will not find anything like it on earth. And because of those two things, I want to call you to a higher level of commitment to Jesus' church. Or, so to speak, I would love, if we can, in this hour, even myself included, to ignite our affections for Jesus and his people. And so I want to ask you a question, and that is, what does your current level of commitment cost you? And if you're new to church, I again I don't I don't want to scare you and think like, oh, there I it's my first time here, I'm just checking out this Jesus thing, and this guy's demanding of me. He wants something from me. And if that's you and you're new to this Jesus thing, like you are welcome to come check it out. But for those of you that have been following Jesus, I want you to ask, what does your current level of commitment cost you? And again, I don't say that to shame you, to say you're not doing enough. However, for some of us that may be the case. And so I don't want to get in the way of a conviction. If that's something that the Lord might put on your heart, that yes, you maybe you're right, I'm not very committed. I kind of walk in and I walk out, and that's the end of it. I would hope that this could be of some sort of not only conviction, but also encouragement. Because the church is amazing. And so as we dig into these things, let's go ahead and pray and ask for the Lord's help in our time. Jesus, we thank you for this time. Um, I pray that it would be sweet to us. Not because of anything I have to say, not because of anything other than the fact that we get to hear from your word. That it is true that as we as we open up your word and as we look at our passage of scripture for tonight, it is true that the the God of the universe is speaking to us. That you're gonna talk tonight, Lord, and I pray that we would listen closely. I pray that because of that, that we wouldn't just see the things that we're gonna go over as just words on a page, but we would see them as they really are God's word. And so I pray that because of that, we would receive your word with very deep and with very serious joy, because we got to hear from God this evening. So help us to put aside distractions. Um help us to give our attention solely to you, Lord, um, and to hear what you might have for us. And with that, help me to get out of the way and anything that is of me. I pray that it would be your word that's spoken tonight and not my own. So we thank you, and it's in your sons, and we pray. Amen. So as we get started, I want I want to paint three pictures for you guys of three different things. Uh one of which is one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of as a human being. I uh it was this last October, and uh something had happened, and I had heard that um there were gonna be these like cars that were gonna drive down this street, and I really wanted to see them. There was something about them that was really cool. I'm not a huge car guy, but there was something about these cars that was really, really cool. And so I I wake up at I hear, I know where they're gonna be, I know the street they're gonna drive down, I know what time they're gonna be there, and so I wake up at four o'clock in the morning. I could never otherwise do that. Um I wake up at four o'clock in the morning and I I drive to the train station, I take the train, I think it's like a subway or something like that, and I get to exactly the street, and I wait for these cars to drive by. And they drive by and I look at them, and I walk back to the train station, I take the train, I get in my car, and I go home. It's one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. You're probably thinking, like, what am I missing here? That sounds lame. Like, I stood on this street corner, I watched the cars go by, and uh it wasn't like they were like Lamborghinis or anything, like they were. Well, in order to fill in some context, I do have a picture that I want to put up of what I went to, and that is this. Does anyone know what that is? Yeah, it's the Dodgers parade because we won the World Series two years in a row, of course, and we're about to win a third. Um, go Dodger fans. The Dodgers are really important in my family. Uh my my dad's family comes from a very hard-working immigrant family. And uh when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to LA, the job that allowed my grandfather to move to the United States was actually that he got hired as a painter to paint Dodgers Stadium. So the Dodgers are very important in my family. And so, like that story I told you. If I just went to downtown LA and I stood on the street corner, cars drove by, by the way, the cars are the buses with the Dodgers on them, in case you missed that part. Um, it was like really amazing. Um, but if I if that's all that happened, it's not even really that important. It wouldn't be that transformative or that cool to be a part of. And even if I had watched it on TV, great, cool, the Dodgers won. I'm sure those people there are having a good time. But there was something about all of us being together to celebrate the city of Los Angeles, the greatest city on earth, of course. Because there's something about people gathering together. Here's another one. Um I'm getting married this summer, and I'm something I'm really excited about. It's my wonderful bride to be Bella. Um she's really awesome. Um But the the reason I share that is imagine, like we have we we have this wedding, and and not to if you guys, if you guys, when you get married, if you're if it's just the two of you at a courthouse, like great, I don't mean to shame that at all. Um it's a wonderful option, saves a lot of money. Uh but imagine I had this wedding and and I we walk, but we get married, we have the ceremony, we walk back down the aisle, and everyone is celebrating from their living room. And they're not there. And I can think in my head, like, oh, everyone's clapping, and and we we hire a DJ and we're dancing, and we can think like, oh, everyone's celebrating at home. Would it really be that special? Probably not. Or think about it this way: if I especially when you're a kid, you you throw a birthday party, your parents throw you a birthday party, and they're like, we invited everyone to eat cake from their house. And they're gonna celebrate. And they're gonna be so excited, and but you're not gonna see any of them. For the second two, there's something missing, and that's people that are gathered together to celebrate your birthday, or to celebrate a marriage, or to celebrate the Dodgers winning the World Series. There is something particularly special about when people gather for a specific purpose. In the first instance, there was something incredibly powerful about people gathering together. In the second two instances, there was something seriously missing because of the lack of people gathering together. And this is the threat of the digital world. You can see all sorts of good things. Like you can scroll on Instagram reels or or watch things on YouTube or or TikTok or whatever, and you can get all sorts of good content, but it ultimately it's not the thing that God has designed you for, and it may actually be robbing you of life and joy. And as many of you know, um, there was a specific year in our world history where things began to become incredibly digitized. What year is it? 2020. Everyone knows. The year 2020 came with the rapid acceleration of the digitization of our society. COVID incredibly accelerated that, and with that, two things became incredibly digitized. For the worst. Church and community. There's a lot of overlap between the two. And I think those are oxymorons. Online church and online community. And so, with the church and community becoming increasingly online and digital endeavors, it begs the question, and this is something I want to focus on tonight, as people gathered around the message of Jesus to celebrate and to sing together as RPYA. What is the church? What is this church? What is this thing that we're a part of as Christians? And I want to recommend, I have two books uh that I want to recommend to you guys. I think I did this last time I taught in RPYA. I love recommending good books. You guys are young adults, and honestly, I like I'm a young adult too. We have more time than we will probably ever have again. Um, because like most of us aren't married and don't have kids. Um, those of us that are married and have kids can tell you. Uh Alex just had a baby like not super long ago, and I'm sure it's very busy, huh? Yes. So take advantage of your time. Um, two books I want to recommend that I think are really helpful for this question. One of them is like 50 pages, and it's like the size of my hand. Uh, and it's titled What is a Church? It's by Matthew Amati. Really short. I would like, if you and a buddy just like want to grow and like learn about Jesus, uh, buy a copy of this book. It's like $4 on Amazon and meet up at Starbucks and talk about it. Um, another one is titled Rediscover Church by Colin Hansen and Jonathan Lehman. Um titled Why the Body of Christ is Essential. And these books are similar in their mission and what they talk about regarding the church. And they actually share, I think that the authors are probably friends because this one references this one a lot. This one was written in light of COVID, so I think it's really helpful for how we think about meeting with other Christians. Um, but they they share a common definition of what the church is, and I kind of want to walk through that definition. Um, it'll be up on the screens, and we'll break it down. A church is a group of Christians. What is a Christian? It's not just someone who claims the name of Christ, but someone who has been bought with Jesus' blood and has put their faith and trust in him, and therefore, because of that faith and trust in him, lives a life of obedience to him. Not perfectly, but that's who they are. They were an unbeliever and now they are a believer. They've been transformed by Jesus. It's this group of Christians who assemble, that's the key word. The assembly. There is a gathering of people. You've probably heard like church is not a building, it's a people. That is true, but the church is a people who assemble. They assemble as an earthly embassy. We are ambassadors of Christ's heavenly kingdom. Right? Jesus reigns, and we're helping him bring that to earth as agents of influence in the world for Jesus. And so, what do we do when we gather together and we assemble as this group of ambassadors for Jesus? We proclaim the goodness of the king. We are about God's goodness. I'm hoping in this time that I can help show you, and by the teaching tonight and the songs we sing, that God is amazing. To affirm one another as his citizens that we are the children of God through what are called the ordinances. There are two of them. They are baptism and the Lord's Supper. I know we're getting super theological, but that's okay. Um, because it's true. Um, through the ordinances, we see people get baptized. How many of you saw baptisms a couple weekends ago? Didn't anyone get baptized a couple weekends ago? Let's go. Yeah, we got like three or four. Let's go. Um, but it's so encouraging to hear, and we we eat of the Lord's Supper together and we celebrate that Jesus has bought us, and we see people get baptized and see that God is saving people and he's transforming lives, and we're encouraged by that. And we display God's holiness and his love through a unified and diverse people. If you guys have ever like take a second on a Sunday morning or a Saturday morning, whenever you guys go to main service and just look around at the different people. Um, it's it's an amazing picture of what Jesus has done in the world that he's saved people from different backgrounds and different cultures, um, people old and people young. Um through a unified and diverse people in all the world following the teaching and example of elders. That last part is really specific and really important because it's what makes a church a church. There are lots of churches, but we as Rocky Peak are a gathering that meets here at this church that are under the authority and leadership of a specific group of qualified men called elders. And so we follow their teaching and example as they shepherd the pastors and the pastors shepherd us. But I want to focus the probably the rest of our time on this word assembly and how important it is. If you guys have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. It's kind of towards the end of your Bible if you're not familiar. Also, if you gotta use the table of contents, uh never be ashamed of that. Dre taught me that when I was in middle school, and I still think about that just about every sermon. Um couple things before we get into our passage. Uh one, I want to forewarn you that I will be using the wrong translation. Um I normally always we teach out of the NIV here at Rocky Peak. Uh in this passage, I just particularly liked the wording of this translation. It's the New American Standard Bible. Um and so if it sounds a little different, uh, that's okay. But before we dig in as well, um I want to look at this passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, in the beginning of chapter 3. And I think this passage will give us some key insights into a few things. One, how we look at church. Two, how we live as the church, and three, a few considerations regarding the church and our increasingly digital world. So, with that, let's go ahead and read. We'll start at verse 17. Follow along. I know some of the words will be different. I apologize, it's all gonna be okay. First Thessalonians chapter 2, starting at verse 17, and we'll read down through chapter 3, verse 5. But we brothers, having been taken away from you for a short while, in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope, our joy, or our crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord and of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could endure it no longer, we thought it'd be best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed we were with you, and we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction. And so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith. Fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain. And so a couple important things I want to look at in this passage. We can't cover everything in depth as most passages of scripture are because God's word is rich and there's a lot in here. But I want to look at Paul's kind of posture of longing for these people. If you look at it in verse 17, he says, we've been taken away from you. If you have the NIV, it says, we've been orphaned from you. Right? This, like these, they're not even his parents, but he's using this over-the-top language. It's almost as if I'm an orphan. And he says that we were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. He even says in verse 19, who is our hope, our joy, and crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? A very large piece of his joy at Jesus' coming is getting to see all the believers together. And we'll touch on that a little bit more in just a sec. And then he even says, like, I've been away from you and I just can't do it any longer. I need to hear about what's going on in your life. You guys mean so much to me. I can't stand this any longer. I have to see you. And we want to be face to face with one another. Paul talks very intentionally about not just hearing about them. I want to see your face. And that has two dimensions to it. One is the actual, like we meet together as Christians in person so that we can see each other. That's why COVID was so difficult for many of us. So things like depression and suicide were through the roof because we were missing each other. But not only that, it is really easy to come here and to be physically face to face, but not emotionally and not spiritually. In your mask to mask. And I think the online world only makes that easier because it is so easy to hide. You put out what you want, you receive what you want. People only know about you what you are willing to give them. But this isn't the case with Paul. Again, he's he's thinking, even when Jesus comes back, one of the things that I'm the most excited about is to see you, to see all of the Lord's people. I finally, like all these people, I'm traveling around, and these believers are here and they're there, and I just can't wait to see you all together. Does anyone else ever think about, or maybe you've been asked or asked the question, like, when you get to heaven, like who are the people you want to see? Who's like the first person after Jesus you would want to have a conversation with? And there's there's two for me. One of them is Abraham. Um, his example of faith that's put forward in Hebrews chapter 11, of him forgetting this world and longing for the heavenly city, has been particularly encouraging to me. And there's a second person, his name is Hudson Taylor, that I really want to meet. Has anyone ever heard of Hudson Taylor before? Maybe you have. Maybe a couple in the back. Um Hudson Taylor is a famous missionary. Um and uh I remember having a conversation with my life group leaders. Um, they're wonderful people, Jeff and Susie Wong. If you want an example of godly people to follow, meet Jeff and Susie Wong. Um, Jeff is one of our elders and they're amazing people, and we were talking about the fact that if Hudson Taylor in 1853 had not decided to take a boat to China, we would not be meeting as a life group. Because we were able to trace from Jeff, my life group leader, like how Hudson Taylor had gone to China and shared the gospel with someone, and that person had been converted and shared with their kids and their kids and their kids, and then we have my life group leader. And I think about all these people, and and these people that have, like I think about, and they're amazing examples of faith, whether it be Abraham or Hudson Taylor, or like the Apostle Paul, or like those Christians that are being persecuted in the Middle East that we'll never hear about until we see them face to face. And I long for that day, and I get excited about it, but there's something I don't want to miss. There is a taste of that right in front of me every week, multiple times a week, even. This is why the church is so important, because we are getting a taste of heaven. You guys have your different backgrounds and stories, and God has brought you out of different things, and He's bringing you through different things, and you guys have different cultural backgrounds, some of you, and you've come from different families and different stories. But it's a picture of heaven when we gather together. When we hear all the Lord's people singing, some on key, some of them off-key, like myself. But it's a picture of heaven, and we don't get that online, we don't get to see one another. And so before we uh go further into our passage, I want to highlight uh Dre had given me a chapter of a book. I honestly don't know what the book is titled or who the author is. There's a PDF of a chapter, uh, and so I wish I could tell you. Um, but there's two points in that if you want to uh write them down that I think are gonna be really important. Us it important for us, and there's just two things that the online world cannot give you. That the digital world cannot give you. The first one is that meaningful connection, if we want meaningful connection as humans, as Christians, is always going to be inconvenient. Meaningful connection is always inconvenient. Sounds discouraging, but it's not. There are people in this church that are hard to love. And I know that because I'm one of them. It is inconvenient. We're not always good friends with the people in our church, the people in our life group. But God has saved them and called them, and He said, Those are mine. And that's your brother and that's your sister. You love them. Sometimes we think, like, oh, it's, you know, like my life group meets on Tuesday, it's like, oh, it's been a long day. I don't want to go to life group. I I don't like, I don't want to go to RPYA. Like, I already heard a sermon this morning. Like, why do I need to go to that? Meaningful connection is always inconvenient. Church is inconvenient. To the outside world, we waste away our Sundays. Or our Saturdays or whatever day we're doing, we waste our Sunday nights. We could be out partying, but instead we're hearing about the Bible and we're meeting with other Christians. Meaningful connection, no matter what the context, is always going to be inconvenient. And the second thing is that meaningful connection always demands high commitment. Meaningful connection always demands high commitment. And we'll touch on this more in a second, but I want to say that the problem with the digital world is that there is no commitment. Again, you put forward what you want to put forward. You want to cut off a relationship? Block. There you go. Then you don't have to see them again. You don't want to talk to someone, you just hide their posts. I don't want someone to know something about me, I'm not gonna post it. They don't need to know. We make the rules. And so these sound really discouraging. Like, I'm okay, so I'm asking you to do something that is inconvenient and high commitment and it is costly. Like, normally, like when I hear that, I'm thinking, like, that's probably not something I want to be a part of. It costs me and it's inconvenient. So if those are true, if it's costly and inconvenient, why is it worth it? Why is community, why is church worth it? Why is gathering together with other believers worth it? In verse 18 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul says something really important. He wants to see these people face to face. Verse 18, for we, the him and his friends, uh, wanted to come to you. I, Paul, more than once, so I wanted to visit you over and over again, and yet, who got in the way? Satan. And even in chapter 3, verse 5, Paul says, For this reason when I can endure it no longer, I sent out, I sent uh to find out about your faith for fear that the tempter. Who's the tempter? Satan might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain. There is an enemy. And he is real, and he hates you. And he hates when we gather together. He hates that this is happening right now. And he wants to stop it. He does not want you to be involved in church. And if you go, he wants you to walk in and walk out and never have anyone find out about what's happening in your life. He doesn't want anyone to know you. He doesn't want you to know anyone. And he wants you to grow disillusioned with church. It's just a service. I don't need to go, I don't need to drive there. I could just I could just watch it and I'll I'll check the box. I'll get church done. And I get it, there are legitimate reasons to to watch church online. And I get it, COVID happened and people get sick and things were were away for the weekend and things like that happened. They're very real. But Satan wants us to think this thing, this church thing, life group, it's not a big deal. They don't need to know me, I don't need to know them. And not only does he hate when we gather together, but he hates you specifically. This is why we need each other. Because there's real spiritual danger. There's an enemy, and he is real. He's very real. For example, if you think about it, like, okay, so I have my phone in my pocket, like, the amount of evil that I can find in under a minute is astonishing. Astonishing. It is everywhere in the world around us. And that's why we need the church. But because Satan is real and he hates you and he's after you, the mission, therefore, for Paul is even more real. And it's amazing to be a part of. And I'm and maybe you might sound discouraged that, like, oh, like, this Satan thing sounds really scary, and it is, but our God is even greater, and we can trust in him. And his plan for rescue from this enemy is this group of people. He's saved us, and he hasn't just saved us so that we could get a ticket out of hell, but he saved us for a life together where we walk with one another on our heavenward journey. So as we look at this mission, Paul in chapter 3, as he starts, he's saying, I need to find out about your faith. Why? Because there's an enemy that's after you, and I'm worried that persecutions and difficult times have come your way, and you might be thrown off course. And so I need to see you face to face. As an embassy, like we talked about earlier, of Christ's kingdom, our mission is to make citizens and not just, again, not just to get people their ticket out of hell card, but to bring them home to Jesus on this journey. This is why meaningful connection demands high commitment. This is the best goal. Getting each other home safe to Jesus is the best goal we could ever attain after. And there was a lot of danger on the way. Again, like I said, the amount of evil that you can find in seconds is amazing. And this is why we do things like partnership at our churches. Did anyone like at church this weekend we we welcomed our new partners and it's really exciting at the church, and I think it's a much bigger deal than we make it out to be. Did anyone become a partner this weekend? Scarlet! Yeah, let's go. It's very exciting. If you if you haven't done the partnership course, I highly recommend that you take that very seriously and you do that. Why? Because we are a body. We are gathered together as the church at Rocky Peak. Or if you go to another church and that's your home church, that is your body, and those are the people that you are supposed to walk alongside. And when one of you falls, you you pick them up, and and like when you fall, they pick you up, and we act as a church because why we're helping each other towards that final day when we see Jesus face to face. That's why we meet face to face together. You're gonna stumble in life. I'm gonna stumble. We're all gonna stumble. And the people around you are certainly going to. And a note about that, I want to encourage you guys not to hide your stumbling. That's one of the essential functions of a church. Like oftentimes we think, oh, I got caught up in this sin, and I don't want anyone to know because they're gonna think I'm a bad Christian. We're going to make mistakes. Do not hide your failures. When you do that, the purpose of the church is to say, help, I've fallen. I'm stuck in the mud. I've been caught up in the sin that I thought I wasn't gonna do again, and I need help. Can you help me? Can you pray for me? Can you keep me accountable? And as the church, we we reach out when someone else falls and we help pick them up and we keep them accountable and we do life together. We yell for help when we sin and we let the church be the church. There are people that you need to show up for, and there are people that need to show up for you. And again, I don't want to act like the commitment to the local church is not a high commitment. It is. And I don't want it to make it sound like easy peasy, but I want to affirm that being committed is going to cost you. It is very costly. Things like your time. It takes you've taken time out of your week to be here. And that is already a sacrifice that you are making, and that is something that is honoring to Jesus. And I applaud you for that. It costs money. Oftentimes, there are in the part of the essential function of the church. If you look in the book of Acts, is people giving of their resources to help one another. Why? Because sometimes we fall when it comes to sin, and some of us fall when it comes to things like life situation. Energy. Sometimes I don't want to go to life group. I'm tired. I don't always want to go to RPY because it's been a long day, but I need you and you need me. We're a family, we're an organism. If some of yourselves just decided I don't really want to, if your heart decided I don't really want to work today, you would die. That would stink. But these things, when when we give of our time and our resources and our energy to love one another and to help each other on our heavenward journey, these are things that the world simply cannot offer. Because they don't have. The digital world, if you want to go on YouTube, can give you great information and it can give you truth and it can give you good music, but it cannot give you church. It cannot give you life with other believers. And again, not just showing up, walking in and walking out, but doing life with one another. That's why we're so big at Rocky Peak on life groups. That's what's so beautiful about our church culture and why we have so many people plugged into life groups, because we don't want it to just be a service that you watch and it's like a movie theater. I come, I get my fill, I leave, but we're doing life with one another. There's an important verse in my life that I want to go ahead and put up on the screens that I think drives this point home really well. Um, from Hebrews chapter 10. Um, the book of Hebrews is my favorite book of the Bible. I love it. There's so much gold in there. Um, I encourage you to read it. It's kind of difficult, but I don't know, meet at a friend with Starbucks uh at Starbucks and or McKenna or Houseserts, wherever your coffee shop is, um, and dig into Hebrews together. Um I recommend reading it uh with friends because it can be hard and it's also really encouraging to read scripture with one another. Anyways, uh enough about that. Um in Hebrews chapter 10, the author, we don't know who the author is, but the author says, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. Why? Because it's really easy to not hold unswervingly, it's easy to get knocked off course. For he who promises faithful. It is easy to get knocked off course, but God has given us his word to guide us, he's given us his church to help feed and sustain us and his spirit within us. And he's faithful that if we hold on to him, he will bring us home safely. And so, how do we live this out? He says, Therefore, as the church, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching. That is what the church is. When I've started to slip back into old sin habits that I used to walk in, and someone lovingly calls those out in me. Hey, I've been noticing this in your life, and I say this not to be mean or to hard to be harsh or to be judgy, but I just, as your brother, I want to let you know that like you're veering off course, and this is very dangerous. Hey, I've been noticing, like, you've been coming to life group, and every week you've I've seen you, you're getting into your Bible and you have more insights and you're learning. Keep going. Don't let that fire die out. Hey, I I I'm just excited, like on a Sunday morning, like just tell someone, find someone that that you maybe that you know, give go up and give them a big hug, even if they're not a hugger, and tell them, I'm glad you're here because I get to do life with you. And we encourage one another until the day where we get to finally see what Paul says when Jesus returns, and I get to see all of the Lord's people together face to face. And so when we do church face to face together, it is a picture of what we are going to have for eternity. That is what the church is. These are things that the digital world cannot offer. And so, my encouragement to you is to plug into this community. Plug into YA. If this is not your home church, plug into your home church. You are more than welcome to come here to YA. If Rocky Peak is your home church, plug in. What does that look like? Depends. It's different for different people. For me in the season of life right now, that's high school ministry. I love high school ministry. Like please lead in high school ministry. We need leaders. Um, and they need godly people to look up to that are older than them. Um maybe it's serving an RPK, maybe it's missions. Maybe God is gonna call some of you overseas. I don't know. Maybe for some of you, it's making a firm commitment to keep in your Bible a list of the people in your life groups and to pray for them daily and to intercede on their behalf. Maybe it's showing up to life group with your eyes open and looking for hey, you seem to this is something that's really weighing on you that you're really struggling with. Is there any way I can help pray for you or keep you accountable? How can I love you best in this situation? Maybe it's finding an old life group leader of yours and thanking them for being faithful during that season of your life. How can you be the church? How can you be bought in and committed to this community? Because if none of us are committed, if we all just walk in and walk out, it is a movie theater. There's no community at a movie theater, it's just a performance. And so I uh in a moment I'm gonna send us into a time of reflection. And um last week uh Dre had given you guys, if you were here, um these sheets, there's some, they should be around in the back, um, that have a few things um as we've been focusing on the the digital world um and the effect it has on our lives, um and this really helpful practice that Dre gave us. Um, there's a few things on here. Um and one of them is uh what's one meal that I can spend away from digital noise? It's been like a thing in like Gen Z to like be like we're iPad kids, and so like we'll like be eating our meal with like Lord knows what on our phones in front of us, uh guilty as charged. Um what's like one hour in my day that I can spend away from digital noise? Maybe that's another step. Like, hey, every day the first hour that I wake up, I'm I'm not going on my phone, or maybe the last hour. Or both. Who knows? Um, or even what's one day of the week when I can put maybe a a screen time password on my phone and and have a friend keep me accountable there.