SPEAKER_00 0:01

Community is something that you and I were created for. Community is something that you need, and community, if you're anything like me, is something at times that you struggle with. Because when it comes to community, there's something that there's some sort of attention that's there, right? There's this balancing act that goes on when it comes to community, and when things are out of balance, things don't seem to work the way that they're meant to. I was reminded of that in a strange way this week. Liz and I, my wife, uh, we have a mattress pad on our bed, and from time to time we have to wash it. And I don't know if any of you have ever tried to wash a mattress pad, especially a thick one like our one. It's not always a really fun procedure. So you wrestle the thing off the bed, and then like you're shoving it into the washing machine. You know, it's like wrestling jello. And and eventually you get this thing down into the washing machine, get it started. It's so full it doesn't really even move, you know, inside the washing machine. Well, anyway, I did that this week, and I walked out of the laundry room, and uh a few minutes later I heard this sound. Whoa, woo, woo, woo, woo-hoo, woo. You guys know what I'm talking about? When the machine's completely out of balance. I walk in and you know it's like shaking all over the laundry room, and so I'm like, oh great. So I go and I I uh uh I try to adjust this big wet uh mattress pad inside the thing to even out the load so it will spin properly. And then I walk away and it happens again. So I go back in three times. I go back in, and finally, on the fourth time, I got it evened out, balanced out, so it finally would spin enough to get some of the water out of this silly thing. And as I thought about that and I was thinking about this whole thought of community, it reminded me that when the machine's out of balance, it struggles to work, much in the same way that when we have community out of balance, we struggle to function and work in the way that God intended us and created us to. Because God created us to be relational. God created us in his image. God himself is relational. Now we don't have time to jump into all of this, but we as Christians believe that God is in relationship with himself. There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, right? The Trinity. And so he's relational and he's stamped his image onto us as human beings. That's what makes us unique. And because of that, we're built and engineered for relationship. And because of that, we need community. Now, community is a word I've already thrown out a bunch of times, and that's kind of rude without defining for you what I mean when I say that word. So let's work on a definition together. This is the one that I pulled off Webster's. Community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. So if we adapt this definition to Christian community, which is what we're talking about today, and specifically a new kind of community, that's just a fancier way of saying Christian community. If we adapt it to that, here's our first fill in the blank this morning. A new kind of community is a group of people who have the life-changing love of Jesus in common. We have the life-changing love of Jesus in common. Uh, you guys, unfortunately, don't all of you don't get the advantage of what I get to from time to time, which is standing up here and looking out at you. Because you guys are a very interesting group of people. As I look around this room, there isn't a lot that I could see that I would say, yeah, this is what this group has in common. Like, it literally, if if this wasn't a church building and somebody just walked into this room, they'd probably be like, what are all these people doing together, right? Because what you have in common is Jesus. That's the reason that we're gathered here today. And as I look across this room, like Nick mentioned earlier, I see all sorts of diversity between age, between race, between, you know, even fashion sense, all these different things that we have that are different. And as I go around the room, I know different pieces of people's stories and I know the different backgrounds that we come from, but it's beautiful to see what God is doing in this community because the common thing we have in together is the love of Jesus. And I get to see that on a smaller scale in our life group. It's really cool when I look around the circle in our life group, uh, because when I look around the circle, these people have become my friends. We've been meeting together for a couple of years now, and and these people in the circle are my friends, but outside of Jesus, we probably would have never met each other. But it's because of Jesus, who he's done, that we get to live and to love and to serve one another. So when it comes to this Christian community, there's three pillars that kind of hold it together. There's three things that we see in Scripture time and again that show us what community is a part of. And in this series, a new kind of community, what we've set out to do is talk about these three different pillars in three different weeks. Kind of makes sense, right? So the first week, what we talked about was intimacy with God. It's hard to be a God follower without a relationship with God, right? So there's that first piece. We call that, if you want to keep it in simple terms, the up piece, alright? You've got this relationship with God, the up piece. The second week, last week, what we talked about was interdependence, there's a good word, with insiders. So that's the relationship that we have with other Christians, with other believers, where we love and we serve one another, where as brothers and sisters in Christ, we look after one another's needs. And that's the in piece. If you want to keep it simple, we're talking about this in thing. And this, in our third and final week in this series, we're going to talk about a third piece called influence with all. Influence with all. So not just the people who believe the same thing as us, but actually people all around us, the people that God places in our lives. You may like to refer to this as, you know, missional living, living with an outward focus, but but essentially the simple term for this is out. So you've got up, in, and out. These are the three things that we've been talking about when it comes to community, and biblically we see time and time again that this is how God has created us to live with one another. Now, one of the ways that I think about this from time to time is kind of like a stool. I know that's a bit strange, but think about it like this. If community is a stool, it's got three legs to it, right? These three legs, this up, in and out piece, they're all important. If you take one of the legs of the stool away, the stool falls over. It doesn't work the way that it was created to. So I'll give you an example. If I have, you know, good re good relationship with God, I've got this up piece going on, and I've got a good relationship with people who believe the same thing as me, the other Christians, and yet I don't have any influence with other people in my life who believe things differently from me. All I am is I'm a Christian living in this little Christian bubble who never does what God has asked and commanded us to do. And so the thing is out of balance. It's the same with the other things. If I if I take one of the legs away, it doesn't seem to operate the way that God created us to. Now I want to show you this from the scriptures. So let's go to Acts chapter 2 this morning. If you have a Bible, feel free to grab it. If you don't, there should be one in front of you in one of the seats. You can grab that and read along. But Acts chapter 2 is where we're going. And this is where we've spent most of our series so far. Acts 2, verse 42. As we read through it this morning, I'm actually going to show you these up, in and out pieces, okay? So here we go. Verse 42 of Acts chapter 2. Oh, a little context here. This is uh this is the scriptures telling us about the very first church. Jesus has gone back up into heaven, and he's giving us a little bit of background here and saying, hey, this is how, you know, the very first church came into existence, and this is how it operated. Okay? So here we go. Acts 2, 42. Now all the believers were together and held all things. Oops, sorry, I jumped to 44. Let's go to 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. Now, this is the up piece, right? You hear that in there. They've got this teaching element, they've got this prayer, there's this relationship with God that's getting fostered and grown in this moment, okay? It goes on to tell us what happens because of that, which is kind of cool in verse 43. Then fear came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. That's cool, right? Verse 44. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as anyone had need. This is what we talked about last week. This is the inn peace. This is where they're serving and loving and caring for one another, um, looking after one another's needs as they pop up. Okay. It continues on in verse 46. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude. Listen to this, verse 47. Praising God and having favor with all the people, and every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Now this is kind of cool to think about. They're having favor, it says here, with all the people. When it says that, it's not just saying, yeah, they had favor with all the people who thought the same thing as them. No, that literally means they had favor and influence with the community that was there in Jerusalem. They're there in Jerusalem, and as people are looking at what's going on in these people's lives and this radical new community that's starting up, they're like, wow, this is really cool. What's going on? We they look up, they were looking up to what was going on in these guys' lives. And so what I wanted you guys to jot down in your notes there on the second fill in the blank is this. This new type of community that we're reading about here and that we're seeing was an inclusive, exclusive community. Now, some of you are like, you just kind of cancelled out two words there. They should cancel each other out. That was on purpose. Uh it what we believe as Christians is this. If you go to John chapter 3, you look at Jesus' words, he's talking to a guy, and he says, he says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish. Not if some, whoever. Okay? So it's an inclusive message. The gospel, the message that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, to rescue us from our sin. That's an inclusive message, but it's exclusive in that if you jump over to John 14, Jesus again is speaking, and he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So, yes, there are some parameters to what we believe as Christians. It is an exclusive message in some ways, but it's inclusive. It's wide open to anyone who will believe. And so what I want you to think about this morning is the fact that the gospel doesn't pull us into exclusivity, but actually propels us to love and to reach out to the people that God places around us. Whoever that may be. Maybe that's some friends, some co-workers, some family members, neighbors. But the gospel message should be one that propels us outward. Now, some of you may be sitting there saying, okay, fair enough, but how do we know that to be true? Well, that's a good question. How do we know that as Christians we are called to engage the world around us? Well, the first reason that we know that is because we have the example of the scripture, right? We just read a scripture that kind of gives us an example, a template to how church is meant to look. That's why we used Acts 2 for this whole series. It's a really good template. If you look at verse 47 again with me, you'll see there that it says, praising God and having favor with all the people, and every day the Lord added to them those who are being saved. There is this thought that yes, we are meant to have favor, we are meant to have influence, we are meant to have relationships with people who look at the world through a different lens than us. That's a good thing. But even more than that, we have the words of Jesus that command us to interact with people who don't look at the world the same way as us. I want to show you a scripture in Matthew 28. You don't have to turn there. If you'd like to, it's Matthew 28, verse 19. It'll be on the screen. But this is a scripture that's really important and again, very famous, because it's it's quoted a lot. But the reason it's quoted and it's important is because, yes, it's Jesus' words. Anything Jesus says is important, right? He is God's Son, right? That should make it important. But even more so, this is the very last thing he says before he leaves earth. So that should make it even more important. And so what he says in his last statement, the Son of God, in his last statement to us as humans, us as followers of him, he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. He doesn't say, Hey, you guys just hang out. You guys, when you come to faith, just chill out, I'll be back in a while. I promise, I'm coming back. No, the message is clear, right? Go, therefore, and make disciples. And so we know that there is a case. If we are a Christ follower, our job is to go and to engage the people around us who don't believe and look at the world in the same way that we do. So you may be thinking, okay, that's I I can I can get that, but what is this all going to lead to? If I choose to live this type of life, if I choose to engage in community in the way that you're talking about, Holly, what does that all mean? In the biblical example, what happened from these guys engaging the world around them, what did it lead to? Well, the first thing that we know, if we go back to Acts chapter 2 again in verse 47, we know that more people came to faith. So when we live this in this type of community, live in this type of way of engaging people outside of the community of faith, people will come to faith. That's a cool thing, right? The second thing that we see, as we read on through the book of Acts, I'm going to give you a quick overview of what happens next to the church, the very first church, is that gospel saturation happened. Now, some of you are like, well, he just put two church words together. That's awesome. Uh, gospel saturation. All that means is that the Christian message got so spread around the city of Jerusalem that everybody knew who these people were and what they stood for. Imagine if in the city of Austin that happened. That the message of Christ, who he is and what he's done for us, was told to all our neighbors, all our friends, all our co-workers, so that everybody had a chance to know and to understand who Jesus was. Wouldn't that be really cool? How do we know that this gospel saturation happened? Well, Acts chapter 5, I want to read it for you. Verse 12 says this many signs and wonders were being done among the people. So this is a little bit later on than Acts chapter 2, through the hands of the apostles. By common consent they would meet at Solomon's colonnade. None of the rest dared to join them, but people praised them highly. Okay, so none of the rest of the people there in Jerusalem, everybody had kind of been like, yeah, I'm either with these Christians or I'm not with these Christians. And so this gospel saturation happens, but the next thing that also happens is there's this respect going on, right? I don't know if you guys see that. It was they had favor in chapter two, and now here in chapter five it says, but the people praise them highly. And so there's this level of respect that kind of goes back and forth that that happens. You're like, okay, these are very cool things. So if I engage in community the way you're talking about this morning, you know, people will come to faith, there'll be gospel saturation, there'll be disrespect. Well, I haven't finished yet. There's a couple of more things that happen from this type of living, and they're not so positive, okay? The next thing that we see happen in Acts chapter six is that there's relational difficulty. Relational difficulty. Here's the reality. If we live in community with one another, we don't just bring out good stuff. Amen? Right? We bring our bad stuff with us too. You know, when you live in quote close quarters with somebody somebody, you get to see everything, right? Like you see warts and all. You've got the whole exposure to what's going on. And that started to happen amongst this community. There was some the there was some discontentment, there was some murmuring, some mumbling about what was going on in this new type of community. And so it wasn't all positive. The other thing that wasn't very positive that happened, if you read on to Acts chapter 8, is that persecution broke out against these people, against this community. And so uh, you know, there'd been some percu persecution up to this point. Uh, you know, some of the apostles have been imprisoned, some of them have been beaten a little bit, but that was nothing compared to what happened next. Because what it tells us in Acts chapter 8, right after one of the church leaders was killed, they threw rocks at him until he died. What happened next in Acts chapter 8 is that on that day severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered. So some of you may be sitting there this morning, you're like, this sounds like awesome stuff, you know. Like, not only do we have relational difficulty, I also get to have persecution. You know, sign me up. Where do I get to sign up for this? But but think about this with me. God was able to actually use these negative things for good things. The relational difficulty piece, if you go back to Acts chapter 6, what you'll see there is that, yeah, it was hard, but because of that, the leadership decided to institute some new leadership, and the church thrived when that happened. It expanded, it grew. God was able to bless the church because of the relational difficulty. Much in the same way, when the persecution broke out against the church and things got really tough and everybody scattered, that was a good thing. Because as these guys ran and fled from Jerusalem, they went out into the whole entire Roman Empire. And as they're going out, they're talking about Jesus, right? The gospel's getting spread because of the persecution and the message, and there's new little communities popping up all over the map because of what God is doing in and through even the difficult stuff that's going on in this community. So I think the next obvious question for us to think about here this morning is this How do we practically gain favor and influence with the people that God has placed around us? If the example's there in the scriptures, like we've talked about, and if the command is there from Jesus to live engaging people who don't look at the world the same way as we do, look through a different lens, how do we practically do that? What does that even look like for us to do that? Because if you're anything like me, I don't find that always easy or natural. You know, that's not something that you know I naturally just fall into. And so I sometimes I have to really think and pray about what does this look like? Well, I think the most important thing that we can do, I'm gonna give you a couple of things, but probably the most important, the one that you could underline and highlight, circle, whatever, is love. If you want to practically engage someone that doesn't look at the world the same way as you, the main thing that you can do for them is to love them. Love is a practical thing. Love is something that isn't just always theoretical. Yes, it does help to love somebody with your heart and your mind, but also to serve them practically. There's a scripture in Romans 13, verse 8, it says this do not owe anyone anything except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love is the most important thing that you can bring to any relationship, especially one with somebody who looks at the world differently to you. And so I really want to encourage you that as you receive love, as you have God's love poured into your life by the community who believes the same thing as you, by your relationship with a God who loves you, share that love out with the people that God puts around you. The second thing that I'd encourage you to do is to give and to receive respect. Practically speaking, there's a lot that can be said for giving and to receiving respect in these relationships. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 9 says this about brotherly love, you don't need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. In fact, you are doing this towards all the brothers in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers, to do so even more, to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands, and listen to this, as we commanded you, so that you may walk properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. If you look at the NIV translation, it actually says, to win the respect of outsiders. Or as the message paraphrase puts it, it says, We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends. You always gotta love the way the message puts things, right? And so it's basically Paul's writing to some people there in this church where they're like, Oh, Jesus is coming back, this is awesome, I can quit my job, I can sit around and wait for him to come back and kind of live off whoever has money. You know, it's gonna be happening really. Soon. And what Paul is saying, hey, he's saying, no, no, no, no, guys, you're not getting the picture here. You continue living your life. Live a life that when people look at you, you win their respect. When they look at the way that you use your money, when you you how you use your time, how you love your family, when they watch your life, you win their respect. And by doing this, people will be pointed to the life-changing reality of Jesus. The third thing I'd encourage you with, I'd encourage myself with, is listening. Practically, in loving and serving and reaching out to people who look at the world differently to us, one of the things we've got to be good at is listening. This isn't something that comes naturally to us as human beings, right? Most of us are so self-centered or me-centered that we really struggle to be good listeners. I find myself, I'm in an honest moment here. Sometimes people are talking and I'm already thinking about what I'm going to say in response to whatever they've said. I'm not even really hearing what's going on in the conversation. That's how we are as human beings. And if we really want to engage people with the love of Jesus, we've got to be good listeners. We've got to be able to really hear their lives, hear their stories, hear their hurts, hear their pains, hear their journey, so that we can engage them where they are. So I really would encourage you to think about that when it comes to engaging with people who don't look at the world the same way as you. Think about how you can be a good listener. The fourth thing that I encourage you with is this is to stay true. If you want to practically engage someone who doesn't look at the world the same way as you, stay true to who you are. Stay true to who God has called you to be. You don't need to be somebody that you think you need to be. You don't need to try and just slot in and fit in and look like the rest of the crowd. I know that the temptation is there to like be like, oh man, I do not want to be the Christian in this moment. I don't want to be the good guy or the moral police or whatever else in this moment. But my encouragement to you is to stay true to who you are and who God's called you to be because people will respect you for that. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 says this Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, Gentiles just meaning people who look at the world differently to us, so that in the case that they speak against you, as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation. What's the day of visitation? That's when Jesus comes back. And so what Peter is saying here to the guys that he's writing to, he's saying, hey guys, live a life, stay true to who you are, live a life that when people look at your life, when Jesus comes back and they see Jesus in his glory, and they're like, whoa, God is real. Uh God is coming and he's judging the world. This is really serious. When they think about the seriousness of all that's going on, they will think back to your life and glorify God because they'll think that person showed me Jesus in the way that they lived. In the words that they say in the their actions and the way that they lived, they were pointing me towards Jesus. And they'll glorify God because of the way that you lived your life. It's pretty powerful to think about, right? And I know that this is a struggle because I struggle with this, staying true to who I am. Nick will uh agree with me on this. You walk into a group of people you don't know at a outside of a church context, and you're having a great conversation, then all of a sudden the question comes up, what do you do for a living? And you say, I'm a pastor? You know, it shuts down right there in that moment. Like, it's hard. And sometimes I wish I could answer something else because it really makes things difficult in that relationship, in that moment, to say who I am and what God's called me to. But I stay true to who God's called me to, and I declare, you know, what it is that I do and and the the fact that God has been good and gracious to me in my life to this point. So uh I had a very interesting experience about a week and a half ago. I got to do something I really enjoyed. I got to go up to the mountains, and I got to ride my mountain bike with a friend up in the mountains, which is really fun. What we did is we went up to a ski resort and we put our bikes on a chairlift, and they went up to the top of the hill with us, and then we got to ride down. It was just the good part, right? You didn't have to do the riding up. So, anyway, we had this great time. We had a few days away up there in the mountains, and then we came back, and it was a really good time with my friends, and uh we, you know, obviously spent some good time together while we're away. And this is a guy that I have a lot in common with. Uh, this friend of mine, we obviously both like mountain biking. That wasn't very hard to figure out, right? Uh we both like mountain biking, but we also both have uh families that are at a similar stage of life. We his daughter is a similar age to my girls, we have twin girls that are a similar age. Uh we also uh we're very similar in age. We're like one month apart in age. Uh they live close to us. Um their house isn't too far from where we live. His wife was a young elementary school teacher, my wife was a young elementary school teacher. So, anyway, we have a lot of things in common. But there's one thing that we don't have in common. I'm a Christian pastor, and he is an atheist. And uh he actually I mentioned that I was gonna, you know, tell this story about him to him the other day, and he said, like, make sure you say that I don't like that term atheist. And I was like, okay, okay, I'll mention that. I was like, that's just like I don't like the term Christian sometimes because of the baggage that comes with that, or religious. Um, but anyway, uh we uh we were driving along the road and we were laughing about the fact that we kind of sounded like a bad joke in some ways. You know, there was two guys going on a car journey, one was a pastor and one was an atheist. It kind of sounds like a joke, you know. But uh we had all sorts of great conversations. We talked about anything and everything, you know, obviously bikes, but also family and and politics, religion, uh, you know, spiritual things, evolution, all sorts of different things came up in our conversation on the way there and on the way back. And we're almost back to Austin, and he asked me this really great question. He asked me the question, he said, if people on your church knew that you were friends with an atheist, would they look down on you? I was like, that's actually a really good question. I thought about it for a minute, and I said to him, you know, there's been moments in my life that I would probably say that I've been around Christians that Christians that would look down on me for having a relationship with someone who was an atheist. But I said, in my current context, I don't think so at all. I think that would actually be thought of as a good thing. And it's funny because I get back here to Austin, I'm looking through the teaching schedule, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm up for preaching this week. I'm looking down at the topic, and there it is, you know, engaging with people who have different views to us. I mean, that's exactly what I'm talking about this week, and I'm like, wow, that's that just happened. We just had a conversation about that. And if I could go back and have that conversation again, I would say, yes, absolutely, and emphatically, yes, it is good for us as Christians to engage with people who look at the world differently to us because that's what we're called to do. But the reality is at times we're gonna fall short. There's gonna be moments where we as Christians, if you are a Christ follower in this room, there are gonna be moments that we as Christians do not love people who don't, the people around us that don't believe the same thing as us. Where we don't listen, where we don't respect, where we don't stay true to who God has called us to be. And that's really good to think about this morning because I don't want you thinking that this whole saving process is on your shoulders. It's not on my shoulders. Because ultimately God is the one who saves us. Jesus saves, not us, okay? So remember that when we're talking about this and having this conversation, remember Jesus is the one who ultimately saves. Without Christ, it's difficult to win favor and influence with people who look at the world differently to us. We need Christ to empower us by his example. And so, really quickly, what I'd like to do this morning is go through those four things that we talked about and show you that when we fall short in those areas of loving, respecting, listening, when we fall short in those areas, Christ is sufficient, Christ is better. Let me show you how that works really quickly. Love. If we look at this category of love, in Romans 8, verse 8, it tells us that but but God proves his own love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now I don't know, I know some of you have heard that scripture a lot of times, but think about this. Jesus is perfect and he's here in his perfection. You're over here in your deepest, darkest moment. Think about like the worst sin or the n the worst person that you've ever been in your life. In that moment, Christ loved you enough to die for you. If you want an example of what it looks like to love someone who looks at the world differently to you, think about how Christ loved you. You were in your sin, he was in his holiness, and he came and he died for you. That's significant. So he gives us the ultimate example of what it looks like to love, and that's why and that's how we are ourselves empowered to love. If you want an example of respect, think about the fact that God, when he created us, didn't create us in the Garden of Eden to just be a bunch of robots with our own the only capacity that we had was to worship God, was to praise Jesus. No, he respected us enough to say, I want these people to be able to choose to worship me, to choose whether they want to follow me and love me and serve me. He puts a uh you know, a tree for them to be able to choose to worship him. And he respected us enough to say, yeah, I want these people to have that option, so they're not just created with one default setting to only worship me. Man, he respected us a lot in doing that. That's incredible. Listen. If you want an example of how Christ listens for us, Romans 8 again, man. Romans 8 is rich. Romans 8 verse 34 tells us this Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more so has been raised, which is good. He's also at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Intercedes, that's just a fancy word for praise, right? He prays for us. If you want to talk about somebody being a good listener, Jesus, what he is doing right now is listening to us and interceding for us. That's pretty incredible to think about. So even in the moments, I don't know if you guys have ever had these moments in your life, I definitely have, where I don't even know what to pray. I'm like, just like, God, I need you. Or God help. That's about as elaborate as my prayer gets. In that moment, Christ is listening and he's able to interpret exactly what I need to God. Isn't that cool to think about? He's the ultimate example of what it looks like to listen. Again, Christ empowers us to be listeners by his example, just as he empowers us to respect, as he was respectful for us. He empowers us to love just as he is the ultimate example of love. And he empowers us by his example of staying true. If you want an example of staying true, there's Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before he dies. He knows he's about to be brutally crucified on a cross. And he says, God, not my will, but your will be done. I don't want to do this. I don't want to go through this pain. But if this is what is have to has to happen and this is what you've called me to, is this if this is what I need to stay true to, I want to do it. In a moment he could have said, God, I'm out. Take me off this cross. I mean, he had the power, we believe he had the power to do that, and yet he chose to stay true to the course that God had called him to. So in Christ we see the ultimate example of what it looks like to love, to respect, to listen, and to stay true, just as we've been called to today. So, how do we respond to the things we've discussed today? Well, I believe there's two categories of us in the room here this morning. The first category of us is those of us who are not Christ followers, those of us in the room who may not know where we stand with this whole God thing right now. Again, it's awesome that you guys are here in the room with us this morning, and I want to encourage you for that. My encouragement to you would be this. I would encourage you to respond to the inclusive message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is one for everyone. Remember John 3 that I was talking about earlier? God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes, there is absolutely nothing that you have done, there is nothing that you will do that can separate you from the love of Jesus. That's what I believe as a Christian. That's what we as a community of Christians believe, right? And so if you stand here in this room or you sit here in this room this morning and you're wondering how do I respond to this, respond to the inclusive message. Become a part of this community of faith, become a part of this new kind of community. If you are a Christ follower, it's a I've got a couple of responses for you. It's a little more complicated. Uh I'd encourage you to evaluate your current community situation. First, I really would encourage you to evaluate how you're doing with this whole community thing that we've been talking about these last few weeks. You know, are you engaging in your relationship with God? Are you engaging with other Christians? Are you are you looking out and praying for people who don't look at the world the same way as you? Because God has called us in these three areas to have this kind of Christian community. And if any of one of those is struggling, it's going to be hard for you to walk out the life that God has called you to. Be very intentional and protective. If you're not, it won't happen. It's hard to have a relationship with God when you just jump up and get going straight into your day. At least for me it is. And so one of the things that I really try to be protective of is getting up and really engaging God first thing in the morning. And that helps me have my relationship with Him. Maybe for some of you it's engaging with other Christians and engaging in this Christian community. It's hard to be a lone ranger Christian. There's actually really no such thing, right? And so it would encourage you to engage with other engage here in this church community or wherever God places you. Engage in one of the life groups that we have going on. We've got a list of those in the listening guide for you this week. They're just starting up. There's a great way to jump in. There's a great week to jump into one of those. And if it's engaging with people outside of the community of faith, really think about what that looks like. That's actually the second thing that I want to encourage you with. Evaluate your position with those who see the world differently to you. Even if you are the type of Christian that's like hidden yourself away in a little Christian bubble, you still have people who look at the world differently to you that you engage with. It may be a coworker, a family member, a neighbor, or a friend, but really think about who is it that God's put me in there in their life for a reason. Who can I be praying for? Who can I be serving? Who can I be loving and listening to? Who can I be doing these things that we talked about this morning with? Really evaluate where you are and and pray for those people. The final thing that I encourage you with, if you are a Christ follower, is to realize your shortcomings. Remember we talked about right at the end here that we are gonna fall short when it comes to doing these things, to engaging with the people who look at the world differently to us. We're gonna fall short, we're gonna fall on our face. And so I want you to think about that. But not only think about that, but as you think about that, remember that Jesus is sufficient and worship him. So my encouragement isn't just to realize your shortcomings, but realize your shortcomings and worship Jesus. So there should be a great sense of joy here in this room this morning. As we're gonna sing a song here in a moment, like there should be a sense of celebration that even in those relationships, I can think of relationships where I've blown it. Like where I've been the Christian in this person's life. I think I'm probably the only Christian in that person's life, right? And I've like been so quiet and timid not to even say anything about my faith because I don't want to offend them. And later on in my life, I've been like, man, I really blew it in that relationship. Even in that moment, Jesus is sufficient, right? And that's worth celebrating. So this morning, in the moments that you had struggle, in the moments that you you struggle with all the things that we've talked about this morning, remember that Jesus is better, that Jesus is sufficient. And as you think about that, just worship him. Be like, God, you are good. Thank you. That even when I blow it, you are good. Let's pray together this morning.