WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.799 This podcast is the Ministry of Graham Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:05.839 For more information on our church, please visit GrahamProquay.org. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:10.160 Well, my name is Lance Williams, and I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Graham Parkway. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:15.119 Uh Neil is out today, but he will be back next week, and uh all will resume as normal. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.120 But it's my privilege to be here before you. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.280 I always enjoy uh preaching, so uh I appreciate it, and it's a lot of fun. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:28.640 So if you've got your Bible with you, uh we're gonna be in uh on page one of your Bible, Genesis 1, 1, 26 and 27. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:35.840 Uh if you've been with us for the last week or so, uh we are in the middle, smack dab in the middle of a uh a short series on our core values. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.759 You may have just come back from uh our introduction class, and that's okay. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:44.799 You'll get a little bit of uh uh of a repeat, but we're in the middle of a short series on our core values. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.000 Last week was spiritual intimacy from John 15. 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:51.600 This week is biblical community, our second core value. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:01:00.799 And then next week we'll wrap up the series with our last core value, which is consequential ministry, or uh, as some people like to say, ministry that matters. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:02.079 And so that's where we're at. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:07.760 And so today in our second week, right in the middle of it, we're gonna be talking about biblical community. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.439 And if I have a subtitle for this, it's You Were Made for This. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.400 You were made for biblical community. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:22.879 Whether you realize it or not, this is something that is ingrained in your DNA as a human, is to connect with other humans. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.040 But I'll get to that in just a minute. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:26.159 Community. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.159 It's a fuzzy word, isn't it? 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.959 It's a fuzzy word that we kind of get our arms around and we just don't quite know what it means. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:35.680 Uh we think we experience it, but we're not really sure. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:36.959 Uh it's a fuzzy word. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:42.159 It can be used for all sorts of excuses, like laziness, like, oh, I couldn't prepare for that. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.840 I was uh enjoying community uh would be one that I've I've heard. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:49.200 Oh, I I couldn't be there because I was enjoying community. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.920 Uh it's a fuzzy word that's used for selfishness, it's uh misused for laziness. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:59.840 Uh but the reality is we in this country are a group, surely, but a group of individuals. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 Uh and individual rights rule the day, and individual freedoms rule the day. 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:12.319 Uh we are a group of individuals that like ourselves a whole lot, and so community, uh we think we know what it is, but we all of a sudden start pursuing it for our own good. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.639 Uh a good example of that would be Facebook. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.560 I like Facebook, unlike the other guy that stands here and delivers the word. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:19.759 Uh I'm on Facebook. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:21.759 I might need to repent of how much I'm on it. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.840 Uh, but the reality is I'm a fan of it. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:26.879 Uh so when I stand up here and talk about it, here's what I mean. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.479 Facebook is good for a purpose, but it can't be your community. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:31.599 Twitter is good. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:36.159 If you want to have a bunch of people follow you, go to the bathroom, whatever you're doing, that's fine. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:42.319 But the reality is there's got to be something more with more gravity in your life than status updates. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:56.319 There's got to be something in your life, someone that's face-to-face, lunches, community groups, whatever, to where your life can actually be changed literally into the image of God, in the image of Christ. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:03.919 We are individuals and yet we're connected in more ways than ever before through social media. 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:05.520 But we can't stop there. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:10.319 We've we are called, we are created for intimate relationship. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:16.240 Um Barna, George Barna, if you don't know who George Barna is, uh, he's kind of like the gallop of Christianity. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:30.719 And uh he put out a study not too long ago that said only 17% of Christians believe that being a part of a local community of faith is vital to their spiritual formation or their growth in Christ. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:31.680 17%. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.080 That's less than one in five. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:40.319 So if you look down the row and you see four people down there, you need to condemn them or whatever, because it's you, right? 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:42.960 You're the one that's in community, it's not the other four people. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.120 Uh that's surely how it must be. 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:54.000 But it's about one in five that Christians believe it's vital to develop their walk with Christ in the context of a local community of faith. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:55.439 That's not a lot. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.360 That is not, that's 80% of us in this room say, you know what? 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:03.360 I don't need to be a part of a small group, men's group, Bible community, whatever. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:06.479 Uh big church is good enough for me, and we'll roll on from there. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:26.000 But let me just say this: if you do not have a small community, and I'm not talking about this, if you go to church for 10 years and just come to big church or worship service and never get involved into the veins and the life, the lifeblood of a church, you will come every Sunday and hear a lot of sermons and shake a lot of hands and give a lot of money and never change. 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:29.680 And the room went silent. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:31.920 Because I'm talking to the big group. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.319 If I told this in my Bible study class, they'd be like, totally agree with you. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:34.560 Amen. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:36.639 Y'all are in here and not so much. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:38.959 But the reality-that's the reality. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:40.639 This is good for a purpose. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:42.879 This is community in a sense. 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:44.720 This is corporate worship. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:49.439 But God calls us and created us for something a little bit more intimate. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:59.360 Not for you to stare at somebody's at the back of their head, but for you to turn your chair and to be able to relate on a connectedness that you never thought imaginable. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:00.879 That's what our small groups are for. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:02.480 That's what Bible communities are for. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.079 That's why we call it Bible community, because our core values, biblical communities. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:09.199 That's what our midweek studies are for, that's what our community groups are for. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:13.199 All that is to help you get connected with other people. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:18.000 But I'm the spiritual formation pastor, and so I'm supposed to come up here and push you towards all that, right? 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:23.519 Inflates my numbers, it gets me job security, I like all that good stuff, but that's not what I'm going to do today. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:29.920 I'm not going to push you to all those things because here's what I've come to realize identity precedes behavior. 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:32.399 Identity precedes behavior. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:34.560 If you are a baby, you cry. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:37.839 Identity precedes behavior. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:45.040 So the reason why many of us may not experience biblical community is because we don't quite understand who we are. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:50.480 How we've been created, what God has put in us. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:55.199 And then that will push us to act a certain way. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:00.319 The reason why we may not get involved is because we don't understand who we are. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.040 But here's what I want you to understand of who you are today. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:06.560 You are a person that was created in the image of God. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:11.040 And that God is community at his very core. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:13.120 He is Father, Son, and Spirit. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:15.120 And he created you for community. 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:19.680 And the reason why you and I hide from community is because of sin. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.160 This great thing called sin. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:26.399 And so we hide, we blame, we cover, we do all kinds of different things. 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:29.120 I'm giving you a big preview of the sermon right now. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:37.839 But here's the reality is that when Jesus came to earth, he prayed that we would have the kind of community that's found in the Trinity. 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:49.519 Now I've said the word, I've said Trinity in church, and so we all have just lost ourselves and now we're just enveloped in this big cloud of I have no idea, of mystery. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:54.000 But let's look at the scriptures and let's understand really who God is. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:07:00.160 Uh, because when I mentioned what I was gonna talk about last night to a friend of mine, I said, Yeah, it's gonna be all based on the Trinity. 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.399 I'm a little concerned about it, but we're gonna run with it. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:05.839 He goes, Are you gonna use the word Trinity? 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:08.399 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:09.439 I'm gonna use the word trinity. 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:12.560 I know it's not found in the Bible, uh, but it's all over the place. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:13.839 I'm gonna show you that today. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:18.959 Uh turn with me to page one in your Bible, Genesis 1, 26 and 27. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:24.639 We'll read here first, and then we will jump off uh into other places in Scripture. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:27.680 Genesis 1, 26 and 27. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.639 This is really where we find our first point of our sermon today and of our time together, and that is this. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:34.160 We were created for community. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:35.120 It's pretty simple. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:36.959 1 26 and 27. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:45.680 Then God said, He's right in the middle of creation, he's created everything except man, and now he's gonna write out what he's gonna create in man and how. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:47.040 Let us make man. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:48.639 Verse 26. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:53.839 Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. 00:07:54.079 --> 00:08:03.600 And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.560 So God created man in his own image. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:09.120 And in the image of God he created him. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.279 Male and female, he created them. 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:15.759 Male and female, he created them. 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:18.720 Now, what's really important in all this are two words. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:30.959 And if you're anything like me, uh I did for years, just ran past these verses with no real good comprehension of what God was trying to tell me and what he was really trying to communicate about himself. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:40.000 And it's two words in that first, uh, that first verse, verse 26, let us make man in our image. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.240 Now he's not talking about three gods because that's not the God of the Bible. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:53.120 Instead, he's talking about this one God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:09:00.000 Let us, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, make man in our Father, Son, Holy Spirit image. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.559 And God is yet one. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:05.919 That's what I put on the front of your bulletin today. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.519 Uh I said in the first service, and I'll say it again, that's not like a 1996 tribal art tattoo idea. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.200 That's that's the Trinity. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:13.759 Okay? 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:15.759 And so that's your history lesson for today. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:17.679 The big circle is God. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:18.720 That's what it represents. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:23.919 And yet the smaller, kind of intertwining uh circles, that's Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:30.240 So we have one God eternally existing as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:31.120 There you go. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:36.159 You've just heard a sermon on the Trinity, and that's pretty much all you're going to understand. 00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:44.320 Because God is so mysterious and so much bigger than we could ever imagine, we can never understand the Trinity. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:50.960 And so instead of kind of running from it, which most of us have done, or abandon it altogether, let's not talk about it. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:56.639 Instead, God's calling us to understand what Augustine understood, right behind me. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:02.720 The Trinity reveals that the very life of God is a life of intimate relationship. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:04.720 And we'll never understand that. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:09.120 We'll never understand the arithmetic that goes with the Trinity. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:14.879 It's not like an egg, it's not like water, it's not like anything else you have imagined in your life. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:21.200 And so instead of trying to figure it out, which we're not capable of, let's just embrace the mystery together. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.840 That God is one and yet three. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.879 And that's not going to make sense to anybody but Christians. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:29.360 Because we accept it on faith and believe it. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:33.120 We don't try and figure it out like arithmetic. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:36.720 Uh I heard somebody describe the Trinity like this. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:42.080 Uh, it's a riddle that describes a puzzle inside of an enigma. 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:44.960 Okay, now we're in deep. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:46.720 Uh I like to think of it like this. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:53.120 It's kind of like a piece of jalapeno or like a pineapple inside of a dove, inside of bacon. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:11:04.000 And if you don't like that, then perhaps it'd be like a piece of peanut butter smothered in caramel or caramel as anybody likes to say, except for me, caramel uh wrapped outside of chocolate. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:07.519 And the reason why I say that, that's not like the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:12.240 I'm saying it's so good that once you have a little taste of it, you don't want to go back to anything else. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:13.600 You don't want to go to ignoring it. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:16.559 You just want to embrace it and just keep eating. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:22.240 That's the doctrine of the Trinity, and I hope that we'll see that today, especially in our scriptures. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:29.440 But here's the reality: God is one, and that he eternally exists as three people Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:33.600 And he created us, humans, in his image. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:40.480 The God who is at his very core, community, created you and I in his image. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:51.919 So if we are created in his image, right here in the context, I'm not reading anything into it, then it must mean that we've got something in us, innate, in who we are, that's communal. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:54.879 That's built for community. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:57.279 There's a reason why you want to connect. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.200 There's also a reason why you don't know how. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:00.879 We're going to talk about that. 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:06.159 There's a reason deep inside of you that you want to connect with other people. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:09.519 It's because God made you in his image. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:14.000 And his image is a God of community where he's always relating with himself. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:17.679 He's relating with the Son, He's relating with the Spirit, He's relating with the Father. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:25.919 And it's this grand circle, this grand dance of just loving on each other and giving to one another and pointing to each other and saying, You get the credit. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:27.039 No, you get the credit. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:28.639 No, you get the credit. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:30.720 That's so not like us. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:32.879 I want the credit. 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:40.000 But God created in us this innate need, this desire for community. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:49.440 Uh Larry Crab says this: As surely as the birds were created to fly and fish created to swim, we were created for community. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:56.960 As surely as the birds were created to fly, which of course is natural, and fish created to swim, well, yeah, that's their native environment. 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:00.559 We were created for community. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:07.840 Let me just continue to read on in Genesis, because if we flip the page to page two, things get really interesting. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:26.720 If we find in Genesis 2, 18, this statement from God, God has gotten done creating everything, and he's looked down, and Adam has named all the animals, and he's looked down, he's looked at man, and God says to him, It is not good that the man should be alone. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.120 Let me explain to you why this is so profound. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:38.000 Because Adam finds himself in the middle of the garden, and sin has not yet come into the world. 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:44.320 And yet God looks down at man and said, You and me are not good enough. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:46.559 You need something more. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:51.279 I've created you for something more than just you and me. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:14:00.879 And so if we have this the stance where we just say, Well, it's just me and my Bible and Jesus, and that's all I need, God is saying to us, that's not good. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:03.200 We need more than that. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:06.799 This is a good start, spiritual intimacy, yes. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:15.120 But in order for you to grow, in order for you to change, in order for you to mature into Christ, we need something else. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:16.720 We need something more. 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:19.519 It is not good for man to be alone. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.960 And so God does the only thing that God does, and he fixes it. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:25.840 And he creates Eve, right? 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:36.879 So not only is it absolutely necessary in our core for us to connect with other people, not just with God, not just worship, but also service. 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:44.639 There must be something else that we can learn from this because I see all that and I go, okay, it's not good, but what is good? 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:51.600 What does it look like to have the kind of community that you created us for before the fall of man, before Genesis 3? 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:57.200 It's in fact found right there at the end of Genesis 2. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:00.720 This is what it looks like to be inside biblical community. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.759 225, it says this. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:08.799 And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:10.960 That's biblical community. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:22.399 That is standing in front of someone else, completely exposed to all of your insecurities, all of your moles, all of whatever else you got, and you're just saying, I'm not ashamed. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.200 This is what God created us for. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:35.919 And we read this and we go, okay, they were naked, not ashamed, and we just think of it as a physical thing, like Adam and Eve really love naked time, like they're your kids after bathtime and they're just running around crazy. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:38.000 But there's more to it than that. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:45.440 It's the spiritual side of us that says, you know what, I have this innate desire to just be known. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:49.600 And to just open myself up freely and be accepted. 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.639 That's in you and that's in me. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:57.279 The challenge is we've lost that ability. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:15:59.759 We've lost that freedom. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:04.480 Because if we keep reading, which we're going to, chapter three starts. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:09.360 Which is kind of leads us into our second uh our second point. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:11.759 Because of sin, we hide from community. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:22.639 Although at our core we are communal beings created by a God of community, we don't experience biblical community, we hide from it because of sin. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:30.960 Now, the last verse of chapter two, before the world goes sideways, is they were naked and they were not ashamed. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:32.159 That's pretty awesome. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:37.600 Can you imagine a marriage or a small group where you're just able to just say, you know what, this is me. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:39.519 I'm totally just ah. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:43.120 But I'm not ashamed. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:50.879 God's completely filled me up and satisfied everything that I am, and I may stand before you broken, but I'm not ashamed. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:58.159 The reason why we don't experience that on a normal basis, and we have to ask the question, can you only imagine? 00:16:58.399 --> 00:16:59.759 is because of chapter three. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:10.799 Turn with me there, and it's in verse six, excuse me, verse six, that we begin to understand what went wrong, why we hide from this thing called biblical community. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:13.200 Now, again, this is right after 225. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:16.960 My Bible is probably the same as yours, right above chapter 3, the fall. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:18.480 And chapter 3, verse 1. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:28.319 Now the serpent was more crafty, and all of a sudden, just when everything was great, Satan starts to come in and ruin everything. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:29.680 Verse 6. 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:38.799 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:43.039 She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:47.119 And the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked. 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:52.240 And they sowed foot fig leaves together, and made themselves loincloths. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:18:02.640 And they heard the sounds of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:07.039 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:13.279 And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:15.200 He said, Who told you that you were naked? 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.160 Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:24.640 And the man said, The woman whom you gave to me be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:28.400 And then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:33.920 And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:48.799 Just reading out of that those seven verses right there, we can understand fully why we hide from community, why biblical community is just this nebulous idea and not something that we experience on a regular basis. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:53.200 The first one is this, and that is they covered themselves. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:56.160 They made themselves loincloth. 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:11.200 And just like the little words were important in Genesis 1, when we wanted to understand God's nature as community, the little words here are really important in Genesis 3, because what God told them to do in Genesis 1 was to rule over the creation, rule over the earth. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.079 Trust God, but rule. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:25.599 And here in Genesis 3, they quit worrying about all that stuff, their main responsibilities, and they start going, they start protecting and providing for themselves. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.559 What was God's sole responsibility? 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:34.960 All of a sudden, man takes and says, I'm making a loincloth for myself, what you've given me is no longer sufficient. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:37.279 And so they cover themselves. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:40.160 You ever been around a person that can't be wrong? 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:43.759 Just cover themselves all the time? 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:45.519 No, no, no, that wasn't me. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:46.000 Nope. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:46.480 Nope. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:48.079 I think you're wrong because of this, this, and this. 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:51.200 And you're just kind of, the more you talk about it, you're like, yeah, you're definitely wrong. 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:52.960 Like I can definitely tell this is you're wrong. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:55.920 And it's not that I'm right, I don't care about being right, but you're wrong. 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.680 And then all of a sudden they just give it up. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.440 They say, All right, you got me. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:00.799 I'm wrong. 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:02.480 Finally, they give it up. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:04.880 What's more attractive in that relationship? 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:10.960 The covering, the clothes that somebody puts on that says, oh no, no, I'm okay, I'm okay, nothing's happened here, we're good. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:12.400 Or just the confession. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:13.680 And you say, you know what? 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:15.680 Totally just messed up right there. 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:16.559 Can you forgive me? 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.880 Or, yeah, I got all these insecurities. 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:20.559 Been dealing with them for years. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.400 Hate it, but there they are. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.400 That's more attractive to all of us than the, no, I'm good. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:26.880 We're good. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.599 You don't see any problem here, do you? 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:32.640 That's what covering does. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:36.480 Uh, the second thing that you do, that you and I do, is that we hide ourselves. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:40.240 Again, we take themselves or myself and we hide. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:52.079 That's why you and I go to a community group or a Bible community or small group or men's group or whatever you want to talk about, even a lunch for that matter, and they offend you, and then you withdraw and you hide. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:55.680 Not only do you cover, but then you and I hide. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:01.200 And when we were in India, uh, I keep thinking to myself, man, it was like a week or so ago that I was in India. 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:02.559 We keep looking at pictures and whatnot. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:03.680 We were in India. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:10.319 Uh we uh drove, we flew to where we were in India, and then you have a six-hour drive into the heart of India. 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:16.240 Uh and it's just an interesting drive, and we're gonna show a video in a couple weeks that kind of gives you a little perspective on all of that. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:29.599 But we get there, and I think I slept for most of the way, and we get to where we're gonna be in our hotel, and we get it's in the back alleys of this little bitty town, and there's people everywhere, and I don't know what time it is because I'm just waking up from a nap, and I'm just like, okay, where are we? 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:31.599 Because this is nowhere I want to be. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:32.640 This is not good. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:42.079 I'm every I got eyes on you, and there is people everywhere, and it's a tight little confined space, and the hotel has bars, and you're just kind of like, okay, what are we doing? 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:42.559 Where are we? 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:43.119 And what's going on? 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:49.599 I get out of the car, and Aaron looks at me and he goes, Hey man, uh this is this is like the hotel. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:54.480 And I was like, Okay, well, I'd heard like a little little story about it kind of being a little bit, you know, shady one night. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:56.240 I was like, okay, that's fine, you know, whatever. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.759 But inside I was kind of going, Oh my goodness, okay, this is. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.240 It. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.440 We're in the back alleys of nowhere. 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:02.400 And there's nobody. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:03.119 I got no service. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:04.240 We ain't calling anybody. 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:10.480 And so I go over to uh our trip leader, who's David, he kind of leads things on the India side of things, and then I lead things over on our side. 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:12.559 We kind of meet up and then he takes over for a long time. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.079 And I go over to David and I say, Hey man, uh, is there any place else we could go? 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:17.200 Can we keep going? 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:20.000 And he just said, Where else are you gonna go, man? 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:21.279 We're we're in the heart of India. 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:22.480 Like, you this is it. 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:24.240 I was like, okay, all right. 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:25.680 I'm just gonna be okay with that. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:29.759 And we unpack and I go inside and I'm just kind of thinking, okay, what can we do? 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:30.640 How can we fix this? 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:32.400 I gotta, we gotta do something about this. 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:33.759 And I go over to him again. 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:35.599 I said, Hey, do I need to stay like with the girls? 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:36.880 Like, do I need to stay in their room? 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:37.920 Is that something that should be good? 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:44.960 And he just looked at me like befuddled that I'm this fearful, and he just goes, Hey man, you're gonna spread a lot of fear like that. 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.599 And I was just like, Oh, oh, okay. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:52.000 And in typical humanities fashion, I just hid. 00:22:52.400 --> 00:23:01.359 And then I did what was great, the third part of we we blame other people in this whole idea of sin, as I just go, but the girls are scared. 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:07.599 And and and we we we should uh maybe we should do something different. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:12.720 And uh and I just hid behind that that thin veil of spirituality and leadership. 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:15.119 Like, oh, I have their best interest in mine. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:17.200 Please, this shit is a good idea. 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:27.440 Uh but the reality is I was scared, totally full of fear, and then the verses started to hit me that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of boldness. 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:32.079 And all of a sudden, because of his words, I changed immediately. 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:36.480 And all of a sudden, I wasn't really all that, I was still like, okay, this is uneasy, but I'm not full of fear. 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:37.680 I'm not driven by this anymore. 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:46.720 And I woke- it took me a day, it took me a day to figure it out and finally to go to him and say, Hey man, I really appreciate you saying that to me last night. 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:49.839 I I didn't want to hear it, I wanted to punch you, as a matter of fact. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:59.599 But I appreciate you having the boldness and just the spirit to be able to tell me, give me words of life of truth that I might be able to change and go, you know what? 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:00.079 We're good. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:01.039 We're gonna be okay. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:04.000 Yeah, we've got to get home and lock our doors at night, but we'll be fine. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:05.599 Everything's gonna be okay. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.279 We're just gonna trust God. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:12.000 It was difficult, but it was certainly I don't think the team knows that. 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:12.880 Maybe some of them do. 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:16.240 I haven't disclosed that to them, but that's kind of what happened that first night for me. 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:24.079 And all of a sudden, instead of hiding behind this thin veil of spirituality, I was exposed. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:28.400 And that night I was like, ooh, telling me that. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:31.359 And then the next day I was like, man, thank God he told me that. 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:34.559 But it took me a day to figure it out. 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:39.279 Uh again, I mentioned this part, and that is uh the third thing that happens because of the fall. 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:44.240 The third thing that kind of gets messed up in our community is that we blame one another. 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:56.160 Uh that's what you see in at the latter part of what I read in 11 all the way to 13, where God just kind of visits Adam and He says, Hey man, um, like, why are you hiding and what have you done? 00:24:56.319 --> 00:25:02.720 And Adam goes, first of all, you remember this God, you put this woman here, okay? 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.359 Well, forget, don't forget that first, and the woman made me do it. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.000 And then the second thing that happens that God goes to woman and says, Okay, what have you done, Eve? 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.599 And it's not because he doesn't know, it's because he wants confession. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:21.200 And he looks at her, she looks at him and goes, But it was it was the serpent. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.759 And you don't hear anything out of the serpent. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:33.839 Just God judging what happened and throwing down the gauntlet for all of humanity because Adam and Eve had sinned. 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:41.839 And you and I have that sinful nature where we want to cover, we want to take care of ourselves, we want to blame somebody else. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:47.119 We get inside of a community and we say, but you said that to me two years ago, and I'm not going back. 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:50.160 How dare no, that's never gonna happen. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:54.960 Matter of fact, this happened in a Sunday school of mine, and I'm not going back to that. 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:56.480 That was a terrible experience. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:01.039 That's hiding, that's blaming, that's covering. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:10.640 And God is gonna call us to this type of a relationship that he models with himself when he gives himself to the earth. 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:15.759 The Father sends the Son to die for the sins of humanity. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:22.160 And then the Father and the Son send the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to live inside you and me. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:29.279 And he's just saying, I want you to be relating in such a way that your love is poured out for other people. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:39.359 Your love is poured out in such a way that you have no regard for yourself, that you give in such a way that you have no expectation of return. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:41.440 That's biblical community. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:44.880 And it's something that leads us to our third point. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:51.279 When Jesus came to earth on his last night, it was priority for him to fix this. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:00.559 Fixing our problem of sin of hiding, fixing our problem of sin of covering and of blaming one another. 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:02.799 It was a priority for God. 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:06.480 An absolute priority for Jesus. 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:09.359 Turn with me to John 17, verse 20. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:11.839 And if you don't have your Bible, look it up on the screen. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:38.720 But the God of the universe came to earth, and he came to earth in flesh, and uh, we just got out of a season of celebrating his birth, but he grew up, and uh, and when he did, he uh he chose disciples and and and he lived with his disciples, and on the last night of his earthly existence, when he was here, the last night he pulled his disciples into a room, an upper room, uh that he had prepared in advance. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:45.440 And uh he he washed their feet in John 13 to model and exemplify leadership, servant leadership. 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:50.160 In 14, he talks about hey, I'm gonna go, but don't worry, I'm gonna come back and get you. 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:54.160 In the meantime, it's gonna be better for you because I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:55.920 And that's pretty awesome and amazing. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:01.200 And for 14 and 16, it kind of unfolds for us this great doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:03.440 And then in 15, we talked about it last week. 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:05.119 That's right there in spiritual intimacy. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:07.839 Abide, the abide chapter, the remain chapter. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:12.480 And it's all about just what does it look like to be in a priority relationship with God? 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:21.440 And we keep moving all the way to 17, and it's all read in my Bible, but we get to 17 and all of a sudden Jesus flips the script and starts praying. 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:27.440 No longer does he preach to his disciples, he finishes and he prays, and he prays a lot. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:34.400 He prays for his disciples to remain faithful, and then he does something that you wouldn't expect. 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:36.720 He prays for you and me. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:41.039 God prays for you and me. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:52.400 Two thousand years ago, he's got us in his mind, and even before that, he's got us in his mind, and he's praying, and this is what he prays over you and I. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:56.480 John 17, 20 through 23. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:34.480 Jesus says this, I do not ask for these only, the disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be all alone, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me, and the glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved loved them even as you have loved me. 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:37.200 Catch a theme. 00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:52.079 Oneness, unity, community, that God of the universe would come and pray for us, that we'd be so united that the only thing that he can even compare it to is his own relationship with the Father. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:30:04.240 It will be that intimate, and that's God's desire for us, that we would be in such close proximity and community and connection with one another, that the only way he would be able to explain it is it'll be like the Trinity. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:06.240 It'd be like, hey, father to son. 00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.319 Now that blows our minds, does it not? 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:17.039 It kind of gets us to this point where we go, okay, what in the world does that even look like? 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:23.759 Again, an India story because it's fresh in me, and I knew that I'd be preaching today and what I'd be preaching about in community. 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:31.680 And as we went into this trip, I thought to myself, won't it be interesting to live community with basically four other people that I kind of know but not really know? 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:33.200