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Hey guys, how are we? It's great to see you guys. I know A Alex already asked this question, but uh anybody here stay up last night and watch the whole game? If you're a long art fan, yeah. So uh make sure you got somebody next to you to elbow you, kind of wake you up when you start snoring here in a sec. No, I'm I'm not I'm not predicting that you will do that because it's gonna be such a amazing sermon. It's a joke, it's okay. Well, uh before we jump into the message this morning, a couple things. One, uh, if you're a guest, my name's Nick, I'm one of the pastors here, and we're glad that you're here this morning. Um we uh we love I love being a part of Point Community Church. It's a great place uh for my family and I to stay connected and be involved with a group of believers. And uh so if you're here as a guest, I want to say welcome. We're glad you're here. Uh in fact, we we have a small gift for you back at what we call the connection point. It's in the back of the room. So make sure you stop by there before you leave today and pick that up. Uh but we are a family of Jesus followers, pointing people to life in Christ, and so we um invite you to participate with us. Uh being family together uh means that we have an identity, uh, that we are part of God's family because of what Christ has done for us, and we'll we'll explain more of that even in the message today because of what we're talking about right now. But uh we are glad that you're here, and uh we hope that you feel welcomed and encouraged by your time with us today. Uh before we uh get to the message, though, as I said, uh one other thing I want to mention is that on October 1st, so that's just a couple weeks away, we have an opportunity to serve, uh tangibly serve uh the community, and so we are combining efforts with other churches in our city uh through what we are calling City Serve Day on October 1st, from 9 to 12 or from 1 to 4 at Akins High School. Now, there's 20 different schools, AISD schools in our area that will be served that day, but we as Point Community Church are specifically uh taking the lead of the projects that will happen at Akins. And so what that means, if you don't know where Akins is, by the way, it's just right here across the street, massive high school here in South Austin, very diverse uh place, and it's really a cool, cool campus. Uh, we know some of the staff, some of the faculty that are there. We've been trying to support them, just be a partner to them to serve them, to pray for that school. Uh in fact, on October 10th, only nine days after this, we'll serve breakfast to all their staff and just say, hey, we love you guys. We're we're here to support you. And so uh we don't want to just say that, we want to act on that. And uh, and one of the ways you can you can participate with us is on this October 1st, we're gonna go and we're going going to do some uh some mulching and some planting of flowers and some trimming bushes and trees and just doing some general cleanup at Aikens High School facility. Uh, and we want people to know that when we say God loves you, Jesus loves you, that it has some action to that. And so this is just a practical way we can do that, okay? And uh and what's cool, like I said a while ago, is that we will do this uh with other churches in our city. And so we want uh the the people of South Austin to see that we are not in competition with other churches. We are all one church, we are all one big C church, and we work together, we serve together, um, and we we are wanting to serve these schools. And so what you can do is you can actually text the word serve to that number, and if you do that, you'll you'll receive a link to sign up for the project. And in fact, I encourage you if you want to do that now, won't be offended if you pull your phone out right now and do that. Um but don't miss out on an opportunity to come serve with us. You can either serve for from 9 to 12, 1 to 4, or you can do the whole thing if you want and just stick around. Uh, it's up to you. But that's that's um what we're doing on October 1st. Let me pray for us again, real quick, and ask God to speak to us during our time. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to be here today. And I do pray that you would speak uh life into us, you speak truth uh into us, God, uh that we would be reminded of who we are, we'd be reminded of who you are, um, and that we would we would respond to you uh in a way that that is um I I genuinely believe that if we see you rightly, we will respond appropriately, but we just ask that our hearts be ready to respond, ready to receive and respond. And so we just thank you again for what you're gonna say and prepare us to receive the word. Praise your name. Amen. Um we are in the midst of a series, uh week two actually, of a series on community called Come to the Table. And as I was thinking about that this week, I was thinking about some of my own community experiences, being in community with others, and it took me back to my college days. Uh, when I was going to college, I went to a school in Abilene, it's a small school, about 3,000 students, uh, private university there in Abilene, Texas. And when I um I was in the process of getting ready to go there, they asked the question, do you have a roommate preference, or do you just want to kind of put it out there and see who you get? And I was like, Well, this would be kind of fun. I'll just put it out there and see who I land with. And so, sure enough, they assign me a roommate, and I show up, and of course, it's a little anxious, not real sure what's gonna be like, and who's this person? I'm gonna spend uh a lot of time around in this little 12 by 12 dorm room. Uh, and and and so I get there and I walk in the room to start putting my stuff away, and there's this person standing facing the other direction, and I I could I was kind of like, all right, who is this person? And they turn around, and this guy named Jonathan, and uh he is a very interesting character, uh, to say the least. Um, and we couldn't probably not have been any different from one another than we were. Uh he was a missionary kid from Japan, and he was not happy about being at college. He was not happy about being in Abilene, Texas. He was not happy uh about being in the United States, period. He wanted to go back to Japan to be with all of his friends. Uh he was in a major uh punk rock band over in Japan, and he was missing that. Uh he was just he was an interesting, interesting guy. Let me tell you what what I mean by that. Um so he began decorating his room. Here I show up. I'm I'm kind of this uh athlete slash prep, and so I've got my plaid, you know, comforter for my bed, everything's organized. My mom's got got me all this stuff. It's so my my nice nice, neat, orderly dorm side of the room. And uh and he um proceeds to like decorate his side of the room with cassette tapes that he would shred and hang from the ceiling. Um, and then he liked Reese's cups, and so every time he would eat one, he would put the package on the wall, and that was his decoration. Um, like the first couple of days were his school, uh, he goes down to the Army surplus and he buys a flight suit, and he wore the flight suit every single day uh of the whole semester, uh practically the year. He went to the pet store and bought an aquarium, uh, which I don't think we were ever supposed to have, and he put some fish and and uh a turtle and some other things in it. Um multiple times I would come in and he would be passed out on the bed from he had been trying to pierce his ear or his body in some way again, and it passed out in the process. Um I mean, it was just a very interesting experience. And literally, like there was this line down the middle of our room. I came in one day and he was pouring uh rubbing alcohol on the desk and lighting it just for fun. Um, it was just a very weird experience, and and I was like, This is my roommate, here's who I'm gonna do life with, in a sense, or at least be around for this semester. And we ended up being roommates for a year. We actually became good friends. Uh, we were just completely different, and there were everything about him drove me crazy, okay? Um, he did shower a few times that semester. Um and I was I was thinking about community and how you being in close proximity to people, it's hard. I mean, for those of you that have gotten married, you know, like when you go from just dating this person to living in community, like as in they're up in your grill 24-7, right? Or a lot of the time, and and you have to deal with it, is like you went from really loving this person to I'm not sure I like this person, uh their personal hygiene habits, they're whatever it might be. But community is hard. And it's hard enough when it's with people that you like, and when it's people you don't like, or you don't even feel like you have anything in common. Uh it's very difficult, right? But God has called us into community, and one of the interesting things about community is that it is it is diverse. It is a diverse kind of thing, and it's a it's a it's um a very eclectic. I mean, I just look around this room this morning and I see all of you uh from different walks of life. We all live for the most part in a in a relatively close geography, but there's different values, there's different upbringings, there's different ways of thinking, and and there's there's different backgrounds that you guys all bring. And so community is a very unique thing. And so, but God has called us to connect into community with one another, he's called us to live in community with one another. And I want to talk about uh not just how difficult it is, but why is it so important that we live in community with one another? Why is it that we actually spend time together? Why is it that we should know each other? Why is it that we should actually uh invest in each other's lives? Because when I say that the church is a family, for some of you are like, man, I don't really want that. I don't really want to be in close relationship with this group of people that I don't know. Uh but we're gonna talk about why it's important and also how we actually experience some of that uh in our lives in tangible ways, okay? So, that being said, let's go to Hebrews chapter 10 this morning. And to set up the text, we're gonna be in verse 19 uh through about 25. But I want to set it up by reminding you that when we started the series last week, we we talked about the significance of being in community around the table. And that's why this series is called Come to the Table, because there literally is a physical uh community that takes place at the table. Uh, and we talked about how that the Bible is full of this instruction and description of how people come together at the table. In the Old Testament, the feasts were designed to be places where they would come and they would remember what God had done, they would celebrate God's goodness. They did it because God told them to. And so it was a really uh powerful time for them that as they partied, yes, they partied, they celebrated, they remembered God's goodness, they remembered God's salvation, they remembered uh the hope they had in God. And then you get to the New Testament, and of course, Jesus does a lot of ministry around the table. He ate with people. In fact, it even says in the scripture he came eating and drinking to the degree that his critics called him a glutton and a drunkard, okay? Because he would spend so much time eating and drinking with people, and uh, and they literally did not uh like that about him, and they they condemned him for it. But the table is a physical place where uh these connections would happen, these relationships would be established or be developed, cultivated, and and then we see Jesus, when he leaves, he gives his disciples instructions to go and make disciples of all nations. And in Acts, uh we get this account of Jesus saying, You're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He says, But I want you to wait here and pray and seek me, and the Holy Spirit's gonna come and he's gonna empower you, and he's gonna empower you to do what I've asked you to do. He's gonna give you the strength, the capacity to actually fulfill this instruction. So that's what they're doing. Uh they wait for 40 days, they pray. Pentecost happens. Uh, for those of you maybe new to the story, uh, but this idea that Pentecost is this moment when the Holy Spirit comes, and when the Holy Spirit comes, the church is just ignited with a passion and a boldness, and the apostles start to preach the gospel, and they start to tell everybody in the streets about Jesus. They're even able to supernaturally convey the gospel in a message, uh, in a in a language that all the different people groups that were there in Jerusalem could understand. And 3,000 people come to faith the first day. So they have a megachurch day one. And then we get this description in Acts chapter 2 that says that they would meet together daily in the temple courts and in each other's homes. And so they would get together, they would gather, they would talk about God, they would talk about Jesus specifically and what he had done. They would celebrate the community that they had in Christ as they had this new faith and they were sort of understanding it in all of its freshness. They were listening to the apostles teach, they would pray together, which I don't know that there's anything that's more drawing in terms of community, drawing people together than praying together, but they would spend time doing that. And over time, persecution starts to set in on the church, the early church, and they get persecuted and they get pushed out away from Jerusalem. So Jerusalem, they're all kind of huddled together, they're hanging out, they're enjoying each other, but persecution happens and they start getting dispersed, they start getting scattered because of the persecution that comes from the government. And in Hebrews, when we pick up here in the text, in Hebrews, he even starts the book of Hebrews by saying, to the churches scattered. Because they've been scattered by persecution, by hardship. And he tells them in chapter 10 some specific instructions about how they should stay the course in the community that they've been called into. This community that they've experienced, because persecution was pushing them to a place where they were struggling to want to stay connected. They thought if I'm identified with this people group, my life's gonna get hard. And so they were struggling at times to want to stay connected. Are you still with me? So that's what's going on. And in Hebrews chapter 10, Paul or the writer of Hebrews, depending on uh who you believe that to be, it's uh there's some debate about that, but I I think Paul wrote this. Regardless, the writer of Hebrews tells us some specific instructions here on how to live in community with one another. Here's what it says, verse 19. Follow along with me. Now, therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, he is opened for us through the curtain, that is his flesh. So uh just love the beautiful language that Paul or the writer gives us here. He says we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, reminding us that the way that we can enter into God's presence is through the sacrifice that Jesus has made. Okay? So it's through the sacrifice of Jesus that we have access, confident access, into God's presence. It says by a new and living way that he has opened for us through the curtain that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest, that's Jesus, over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water. That's what happens when we come under the blood of Jesus. Uh, that may sound weird to you if you're not a church person, you've never been around this, like what's up with this blood thing about Jesus? It's because the scripture tells us that Jesus, his sacrifice on the cross, the blood that he shed, is what washes us clean. It removes our stain of our sin and our guilt. And so we need to have a clear conscience because we have been washed by the work of Jesus at the cross. That's that's how we receive forgiveness of our sin. That's how we get access to a relationship with God. He goes on to say, let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So he knows that these people are struggling with wavering in their commitment to God. Anybody else waver in your commitment to God sometimes? I do. He says, I want you to know, hold on to the hope that you have, the confession that Christ is our salvation, that he is who we need more than anything else, regardless of what's going on, regardless of persecution, hardship, hold on. But then he says, I want us to really lean on these two verses. And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings as some habitually do, but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So those la those last two verses there are really significant in terms of understanding the type of community that God wants us to live in, the type of relationships that God wants us to have with other believers. And so we're going to talk about that this morning a little bit. One of the things that we've said before here, and so maybe this is just a review for some of you, is that we as human beings are created for community. Okay? The reason why community is so important is that we were actually created for community. If you go to the scripture, the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, uh, the word Genesis even means beginnings. When you go to that book, you find God creating people. You see Him creating the world and everything in it. And as Christians, we believe that God created everything by the word of his mouth, right? He said, Let there be light, there was light. And each time he creates something, he says something about it. He says, It is good. That's cool. God says it's good. So you look around, you see everything in our world, and God created it and he says, it's good. He creates man and he says, it is very good, which is a great thought that God sees us not just as like everything else, but we actually have a special place in creation. But then God says something that's very significant when He, for the only time in the creation narrative, he says there's something that's not good. Anybody know what that is? It is not good for man to be alone. Now, uh Adam's here in the garden, he has animals everywhere, he's got a task to do, he's got this beautiful place, God's provided food, and yet he says it's not good for man to be alone. He's not just talking here about marriage, by the way, because we know that what happens is God creates Eve. But he's saying that the way God has made human beings is for relationship. That we're made to relate with God and with other people. God made us that way from the very beginning. And even before we are born, we already start relating. Now, I'm a dad, I love being a dad. It's one of my favorite things in the whole world to be a dad. It's also one of the things that can bring me a lot of frustration. But but and that's because I fail at it a lot. But I know that as a dad, uh, there's something that unique happens uh even when my wife was carrying our children. Um, our oldest daughter, who's now 13, I remember a powerful moment uh with her. She started moving in the womb. Jada's been telling me that she's moving, I can feel her moving inside of me. We didn't know it was a she, but this baby's moving inside of me. And uh I remember the first time I saw uh Aubryn, our oldest daughter, move inside of Jada's womb, and I saw this like, I saw her, you know, belly kind of kick out. I was like, oh, that's awesome, you know. Do it again, you know. And and so like we're sitting there watching, and so every night, you know, we just kind of lay there watching Jada's belly move, you know, as the baby as this baby, this life inside of her, is being knitted together, stitched together, if you will, by God, like Psalm 139 tells us. And so, but what was cool is I would talk to her, again, not knowing who she was, not knowing she was she, we hadn't named the baby, but we just talk, I just talk. And I would just talk and pray and sometimes even sing, uh, and just just and what was fun is even in the womb, I would say something, and it was like the baby would move, she would move. And it was like, hey, you know, it's like, and she still does that when I say hate to her, she kicks me, right? No, um, no, but so it was just a really cool experience. And and so, and then she was born, and I remember being in the delivery room, and of course, it's kind of an out-of-body experience, especially the first time. It was just such a wild deal. I'm like, what in the world just happened? And uh, and and then I she was crying, and they were over there working on her, and and I walk over to the table where they've got her laid out, and you know, they're like messing with her and doing the apgar and all this other stuff, and and she's just crying her head off, and I say, Hey baby, like I'd been saying through all of the time, and she instantly stops crying and she goes like this, gonna look looks for me. And I'm man, I just started bawling. I was like, whoo! That was awesome. It was just a moment as a dad, and I was just reminded that even from even from uh inside the womb, we are relational creatures. We relate. It was such a powerful moment for me. We are made for relationship, we were made for connection. And even in just her recognizing my voice, I was reminded of how cool that is to connect with this life. We are made for community, we were made to relate and connect in relationship with one another. God designed us this way. And just in case you didn't know this, um, you know, when it says in the scripture that God made us in his image, when God says, Let us make man, and notice he says, let us make men. Is God like, has he got a multiple personality disorder? Like, what's going on here? No, it's the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Even in the very beginning of the Bible, we understand that God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's much bigger than I can explain right now. You'll never get your brain fully around it. It's a mystery. But God is three in one, and he says, Let us make man in our image. So, what he is saying in that is that he wants to make human beings, in essence, to reflect who he is. And part of that is that we are made for relationship, just like he lives in relationship. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in this beautiful, uh in this beautiful um life-giving relationship where they promote one another and they serve one another and they care for one another and love one another, and they made God made us in his image, so we are made for relationship. Are you with me? Because we we have this need, and that's rooted in the Trinity. It's rooted in who God is, and Him making us in His image. Now, obviously, uh this issue of relationship being relational and being designed for community, there's there's some issues that have arisen from the fall. Uh, the relationships have been broken, and God uh see saw that, and he has been restoring those relationships with him and with us. But we were made from the beginning for a relationship. We were designed for it. We were hardwired for it, if you will. So not only are we created for community, but we are also called into community. We are also called into community. So what does that mean? Well, it means this that when we come to faith in Jesus, we are also at that moment that moment being identified with God's family. One of the words that's used to describe our salvation experience as a Christ follower, as a Christian, is adoption. It's a word adoption. In fact, if you go to Ephesians, you'll find that word there, that we've been adopted into God's family. So when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we're not just receiving Christ into our life, we're becoming a part of the community, the family of God. That means we have some brothers and sisters out there, right? Some of you are like, I don't want to claim those brothers and sisters. They're a little odd. But if they are in Christ, they are your brothers and sisters, right? They may feel the same way about you. But the idea that we are in a family. God is our father, and we are now siblings in Christ. And so we come into community. We are called into community. Some people would say that their Christian faith, that their relationship with God is private, and that it's just between them and God. And let me just tell you that that's not biblical. Okay? God should speak to you in private. You should have time in prayer with God in private. You should read the word of God, the Bible. You should read this alone in private. But your relationship is not private in that it involves other people. It's personal, but it's not private. It is personal. God wants to speak to you personally. He wants you and him to have a dynamic personal relationship, right? Where you interact with him when you're not here amongst the community of believers. But it is not a private thing that you just keep to yourself. In fact, I would even go as far as to say it's an oxymoron to say you're a private Christian. That's not possible because we are called into community of faith. Now, I will say that I've heard people say things like this. You know, I love Jesus, but I don't really like the church. I like Jesus. He's cool. Uh I believe in him. I put my trust in him. I'm a Christian, but I don't think I need the church. And I know some of that comes from woundedness. It comes from people being involved in church and being hurt by Christians. Uh it comes from, you know, things of, well, you know, I love Jesus and I can follow Jesus, but I don't really have time for the church. And we're going to talk about that maybe later. But here's the deal: uh saying that you love Jesus, but you don't love the church is like you saying, Nick, I want you to come over for dinner to my house, but don't bring your wife because you don't like her, because I don't like her. Uh that's you know what I'm saying? If you said, hey, Nick, I want you to come over to my house for dinner, but you can't bring Jada because I don't like her, I'm like, I'm not coming, right? Because the truth of the matter is, is that we're one and I love her, and so that's offensive to me. And when you say I love Jesus, but I don't like his church, I don't love his church, it's that way. Now, does that mean that the church isn't uh offensive or isn't it difficult at times to deal with? Isn't it doesn't have warts and wounds and issues? No way. I mean the the church has its problems, but we we love it even in its flawed state, and we we are called into the church. So to be a Christian means to be called into community, called into God's family. And I would even say that if you want to understand what it means to be a disciple, if you want it means to be a follower of Jesus, learning to live out the ways of Jesus, you can't do that outside of community. You can't do that outside of spending time with other believers. Now, let's get back into the text for a minute, because the community that we're called into looks certain ways. And over the next few weeks, we're actually going to talk about some of these things, but Hebrews gives us at least three things that I think can help us understand the type of connection that God wants us to have with other believers. Um, the first thing that you notice is he says in verse 24, he says, Let us be concerned about one another. Let us be concerned about one another. God wants us, as we connect to his family, he wants us to connect deeply with one another. He wants us to connect deeply. Let us be concerned about one another. Now, um, I don't know how many of you are social media people. Uh, you have a Facebook account, an Instagram account, or some other thing. Maybe you're still clinging to my space, I don't know. But wherever you are, maybe you have social media, Twitter, this social media phenomenon has created a weird dynamic relationally. Uh I'm not all down on social media, but I do know this, that it can create a real superficiality to relationships. And we can say that we are know people and that we are known by people and yet not really know people, right? Uh we can know them from a distance. So I like the fact that social media gives me uh the ability to keep up with friends, that I wouldn't really know what was going on in their life if they hadn't posted you know their 18 pictures about the food they've eaten this week. But I'm being facetious, right? But here's the deal like I know that part of being um you know on in social media gives me access to people's lives and and they just they post pictures of their kids and it's it's a lot of fun. It's also kind of weird in some ways. I'm like, I know about these people from a distance, or I meet somebody and they say, Yeah, we've been keeping up with you on Facebook. And it's like, really? Yeah, is that kind of that's kind of weird. Uh but also when we do Facebook or we do Instagram or whatever it might be, uh, we also tend to filter out the things that, you know, so we get this image management, uh, what we want people to see and what we don't want people to see, right? So they get this uh this picture that's maybe not real accurate of who we we really are. We paint a picture of the all the good things or the things that are happening, uh the positives and not the negatives. Now I know some people who like they just blow up theirs with all the doom and gloom. Uh, and that's that's that's fine. But what I'm saying is that there's this idea that we we think we're known because we post certain things or that we know others because they post things, and yet we don't have genuine relationship with one another. But he knows what he says, he says, let us be concerned about one another. In the family of God, we shouldn't just be social media friends. We shouldn't just like each other's posts. We should actually know each other. Now, you can't know everybody at a deep level. I get that. Practically speaking, if I went around every, you know, to everybody on Sunday morning and said, hey, not just how are you doing, but how are you really doing? Because you know, a lot of times we come into church and we say, How are you doing? I'm good. And then we just move on. Now, 95% I'm guessing there's at the time, I'm guessing that you're probably not good, at least some area, right? But we say that, how are you doing? But when you say how are you really doing, and you get below the surface, which by the way, it's a dangerous question to ask. Like, now how are you really doing? One, the person gets a little uncomfortable. Uh, two, we're like, are we really ready to hear this? We're ready to listen. Are we actually gonna, are we gonna listen to what they're saying or are we gonna check out? But but we want to be below the surface, to actually care about each other, care what's going on in each other's lives, caring about the struggles, the difficulties, the challenges, the hardships, to care about each other and to know more than just the superficial, I'm doing okay, I'm doing fine, everything's alright. We are called to really know each other. And here's the question Do you know people? Do you know other believers? Do you know them below the surface? Do they know you? Do they know you? Have you let people in? Let us be concerned about one another. I'm gonna talk about some bears in a minute, but I I can be honest with you. Sometimes I just I just don't feel like I have a capacity to really be concerned. I'm like, I'm struggling. Do I really have capacity to be concerned with others? That's that's just that's not good. That's not a healthy place to be, but that that that is sometimes why we aren't concerned about others. We're only thinking about ourselves self self-absorbed. The next thing that you notice there is he not just says connect deeply, he says connect purposefully, or this idea of promote love and good works, have an intentionality about our connecting, encourage one another. That's what he says in the text. He says to promote love and good works. And then in the NIV, he says to spur one another on towards love and good deeds, to challenge each other, to push one another, to prove, to help each other grow spiritually. Now, notice the writer of Hebrews doesn't say uh when you come together, receive encouragement from everybody else. Go there to get what you need from that community, right? Why does he not say that? Well, because if everybody just came to get, to receive, nobody would get, would get anything. But we come together and we come bringing encouragement and bringing challenge, willing and ready to invest in others' lives. Now, there are some weeks you show up and you're like, you are so unemptive, you have nothing else to give. You have nothing left to give to anyone else. But when we come together as a community of faith, if we all come and we say, What can we give? Guess what? All the needs. People get encouraged, people get uh challenged, people, people get helped, they get supported, we get to minister to one another. Church, being a disciple, being a follower of Jesus, being in community is not a passive thing. It's not just something you receive, it's something you give and you contribute to, something you're part of and you're investing in. That's why we say all the time, unashamedly, here from the platform, if you just come to services and you hear a message and you walk out the door, but you don't connect with people, you don't engage with people, you're not experiencing the fullness of community that God intended us to experience as a as a Christian, as part of God's family. And so we want to invite you into relationship with others. Now I know that can look a lot of different ways. You don't have to just join a life group at Point Community to be in community here. But I know this: you have to be intentional, you have to be purposeful, you have to pursue relationships with others and to go below that surface, like we talked about a while ago. Did you guys know that in Scripture there's 59 one-another's, roughly 59 one-another's, that are in the text that we are called to? Things like love one another, serve one another, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, right? Bear one another's burdens. That's a fun one, right? So, what I'm saying is that we are given all these instructions on how we are to invest in one another, how we are to come to one another and support and serve one another. That means we have to be intentional. It's possible to be here every week and not really connect. You're like, I could be here and not really be a part of the family, at least not being uh involved and invested in the family. Our invitation, the invitation is to come to the table, come to the community and invest, be involved, be actively engaged in the lives of others and invite them into your life, right? Invite them into your life. How many of you know you need some people in your life who will be willing to call you out to speak truth to you, even if you don't want to hear it? I need that, right? I need people to say things to me that I sometimes don't want to hear. A verse that we've used fairly often here as we think about uh promoting love and good works. Sometimes those words are encouraging and they're uplifting, and sometimes those words are are really almost devastating, but they're words that we need to hear, and they draw us back to our need for God. And so we've used a scripture that from Proverbs where it says wounds from a friend are better than kisses from an enemy. Did you agree with that? Sometimes you need somebody to say something hard to you because they love you enough to say it. I need that in my life. I I think you need that in your life. And so we we need to connect purposefully to promote love and good works. I love, like I said, the NIV version of that, to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. To spur, that doesn't sound real comfortable, but the idea of literally being willing to get up in each other's lives and business in order to call each other to growth, to develop in our faith, to develop as a disciple of Jesus. We need that. The next thing that you see from the text is that not only should we connect deeply or purposefully, we also should connect regularly. To connect consistently, to connect faithfully. Notice what he says in verse 25. He says that we should uh you know promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do. Listen, if we want to be a part of the community God's called us to, we have to be faithful in that community. We have to be faithful, practically speaking. Let's just put all the cards in there. That means you have to show up. You have to be here. You have to be in community consistently. You have to be connected. Now, I told you a while ago that this church that Paul or the writer of Hebrews is writing to said they're struggling with persecution, and so they're tempted to sort of just drift and not be connected consistently in community. And there's a lot of reasons why we in this room can struggle with being consistent and regular in our church attendance. In fact, um, we've come to a place where in the United States uh regular church attendance is considered 50% of the time. If I show up half the time, I'm a regular attender. That's what the statistics show now. We've moved a long way down the trail. Like that's what it looks like. And I want you to hear me say this you do not get saved by going to church. You don't get to get more salvation because you go to church regularly. But if you want to grow as a disciple of Jesus, if you want to mature in your faith, you have to be consistent. I mean, this is a practice that goes into other areas of life. If you want to be good at something, you have to do it consistently. That's just that's just a reality. That's a principle, isn't it? If you want to move from my bench press being 100 pounds to my bench press being 300 pounds, men, you can't show up to the gym once a month. Not gonna happen, right? Just not gonna not gonna work for you. Because all you're gonna do at that point is get sore once a month.

unknown 36:14

Right?

SPEAKER_00 36:15

You got to work out regularly, consistently, faithfully. If you want to be able to lower your time and run in the mile to eight minutes, or you want to prepare for something, you have to do it consistently. You have to do it regularly. And again, I mentioned this earlier that the early church literally they got together daily. Daily, they were together in the temple courts, they were in each other's homes, they were faithfully connecting in community. I realize already there's some, I'm anticipating there's some pushback on this. Like, I don't have time, Nick. How am I supposed to connect in community? I can get here, I can barely get here on Sunday. Well, we'll talk about that in a second. But what I'm telling you is that we have to make a habit of being faithful to being in community with other believers. I need to be here on Sunday to sing songs with you, to hear the word, to spend time with you, to re-center my heart on the person of Jesus, to remember my identity in Christ, to remember who I am and what Christ has done for me. I need that in my life. And you guys are like, well, yeah, but you get paid to be here. It's easy for you, right? Hey, listen, I could be here but not engage in community. I could be here but not really invest in the lives of others. I can be very superficial, I can be, I can be uh sort of uh hidden in the shadows and not let people really know me. The goal is to be regularly and consistently consistently in the type of community where we do know each other, where we are connecting deeply. And whether it's programmed or non-programmed, the goal is to be in each other's lives. And by the way, parents, let me just tell you, um I've seen this. And this is not just parents, this is just a general observation of culture, and it's it's a general observation of humanity. We do what's important to us, right? We do what's important to us. So that means if it's important to us, we'll be there. Um, and I say this not as a pastor throwing rocks at the culture, but I can tell you right now, if I drive on a weekend out to the little league fields, I can guarantee you it'll be packed out. Why? Because if they value it. So people will work all week long, they will be dog tired, and they'll spend Friday, Saturday, Sunday sitting at a Little League game. Why? Because it's value, it's valuable to them, it's important to them. If we say that God is important to us, and God's people and God's community is important to us, I want you to know that our parents, that our kids are picking up more on our behavior than what we say. So what they are looking at is not just what we say with our lips. I mean, you guys know this, actions speak louder than words. They're watching our lives. And so if our tendency, if our habit is to make the default, catch this, and some of you guys are like, man, I walked in on a bad Sunday. Um if the default is I'll go to church if I feel like it, if I'll go to church, I'll go spend time with God's people if I don't have something better that comes along. I'll go to church if we're not too tired, we don't have too much sniffling going on, whatever it might be, you come up with your reasons, like you're gonna default to not being here. That's just that's the way it works. What I'm telling you is you have to make a conscious choice to say, my default is we're going. And we're gonna make every effort to be involved and invested with the people of God. You've got to make that decision, okay? And I'm not saying again, you don't you don't get more salvation for showing up. You're not gonna get a sticker. All right? We're not gonna pass out attendance stickers. Gold star, you're here three weeks in a row, way to go. That's not the point. The point is if you want to grow spiritually, you gotta show up. You gotta be involved. You gotta be invested in community. Okay, I'll get off of that. There's some barriers to this type of community. There's some barriers to connecting deeply, there's some connect, there's some barriers to connecting purposefully, there's some barriers to connecting regularly. I asked the staff and elders just this week, I said, tell me what you think are the things that really hold us back from living in true community, living in as the family of God, as the people of God. Here's kind of the four things, four areas that we we developed or came up with, kind of brainstormed. One is individualism. Uh, we as a culture really value our individual lives, our individual ability to kind of run the show, call our shots, and to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps to do this thing on our own, independently of others. And so we don't really see sometimes our need for other people. We don't see our need for the family of God, for the people of God. And so individualism really is a problem because we we think, well, you know, I got this. I don't really need other believers. I don't really need community. I don't really need the church. I mentioned that earlier. Some people say, well, I believe in God, I just don't need the church. I don't need the community. And I'm not talking about just attending a service on Sunday either. I'm talking about being a part of God's family, being involved and invested in God's family. So individualism individualism individualism can sneak in, can creep into our lives, and we can just kind of do our thing. And we become very self-absorbed, and we begin really focusing on just us. And sometimes, by the way, just just FYI, this might step on some toes, but I want to tell you something. Uh sometimes we elevate the nuclear family to an unhealthy place. Uh, like to the degree that we say, well, you know, well, I've got my family, I've got my wife and my kids, and that's all that really is important. Like, that community is very important, but we need to be very careful that we don't elevate our nuclear family to the degree that we we disconnect from God's family, the spiritual family. Uh, it's very important for our kids to grow up in an environment where they see that God's family, the spiritual family, is also very valuable, very important to their health and to their spiritual growth, to our growth as a family together. So there are families that I know who they make decisions really based only on the nuclear family, meaning, again, your wife and your kids and your little small family. In the New Testament, one of the things I'm challenged by a lot is the fact that they didn't they didn't live with this mindset of it's just my family. They lived in what was called the oikos. It's kind of an extended family that actually went across boundaries, which went across into families that weren't blood relation, but they were spiritually brothers and sisters in Christ. And they lived in community together. Now, some of you are like, man, I didn't, I don't want to join a cult. That's not what we're talking about, because some people I've seen this go like an unhealthy degree, but I'm telling you, we should live in family with one another. We should care about each other, we should support one another. Uh, practical way this works itself out, even, is when I'm making a decision about work or finances or scheduling or big decisions in my life, I should invite people in as part of my spiritual family to help me, to pray for me, to give me white godly counsel, to make a wise decision. So, anyway, that being said, individualism will really destroy that kind of mentality. The another thing that happens is busyness. You aren't surprised by this, right? That it's on the list. Because we as Americans are busy. When I was uh even as a kid uh growing up in the 80s, um, I remember people saying, Well, if the devil can't make you do bad things, he'll just make you busy. That was one of the phrases that stuck with me from as a kid. Well, when we get so consumed with doing so many things that we're distracted. We fill our schedules with things that don't include connecting deeply in the Christian community. So we produce children who are experientially rich but relationally poor. They don't know how to relate to one another. They don't have to have deep relationships. We've got a lot of surface because we're just running, running, running, running, running, running, running, filling our schedules so full. We're so busy. Why are we so busy? Because we think we get our worth and our identity and our value from how much stuff we do. And we know statistically, by the way, that Americans are not as productive as we say we are. We're working longer and doing less. Because we we aren't taking time to rest and we aren't taking time to really connect. Connect deeply. So busyness can really do this. And by the way, I think kind of coupled in this, it was a part of this conversation. Busyness sometimes is again about filling our schedule, but also our minds being really busy and being distracted. I mentioned social media earlier. Sometimes we're we're with people, but we're not with people. Or with our family, but we're not really with our family because we're we're looking at email. We're thinking about what the work we have to do. Listen, my encouragement to you is learn how to have times where you shut that stuff off. I have to discipline myself in this. You've got to shut it off if you're gonna have real relationships and go below the surface. But busyness, distractingness in that way can really rob you of experiencing deeper community. Another one is materialism. Materialism. Well, how does materialism break down community? Well, to some degree, again, it could feed into working lots of hours to get stuff that we think we have to have in order to get our worth, our identity, value, pleasure, whatever from our stuff. But also, it can, this is how it plays out in my life. Sometimes I want to protect my stuff. So I don't want people in my life because they might mess my stuff up. Right? And so, you know, it's like we're you're you're in your home and and you don't want people in your home because you don't want people to mess your stuff up. Uh you don't want to invite the shock family over because their kids might destroy the place, right? Not really. We won't. If we do, we'll pay for it. Um but materialism does affect us. We tell our kids all the time people are more important than stuff. People are more important than stuff. People are more important than stuff. And I have to try and preach that to myself. People are more important than that floor I just put in that they're gonna they just scratched. Or whatever it is. It's how it's how life works for us. We have to ask God to help us with this, but materialism definitely can break down. And it really kind of leads to this even next piece here uh fear. Fear is a major barrier to real community with others. Fear of being known, fear of being known like in full, uh, of being exposed that we don't have it all together. I mean, some of you, you would be more hospitable, but you're fearful because you think you have to be Martha Stewart to invite anybody over. Right? So nobody can come to my house because I can't let them see my dirty house, and I can't let them like not get a good meal, and I can't. Listen, you don't have to, you don't have to be that way to be hospitable. Um, one of the things I love about going to cross-cultural environments like being in Mexico, et cetera, I've been in environments where literally we were we were uh in this this people, these people's house. They were some of the most hospitable people hospitable people we've ever met. And it was a dirt floor uh with some thatched roof, and there was a pig running around the fireplace, and there was chickens walking through their living room, and and they but they were so hospitable, right? And I was thinking, like, people in the United States, we're so guarded and protected, we don't want people to see that we don't have everything together. And so that can actually break down community, fear of being known, even just honestly being open and and sharing that we not just not only with our house don't have it all together, but with our lives we don't have it all together. That we struggle with sin or we struggle different ways in our relationships. So we don't we just don't bring people in. We don't allow people to get to know us at that level. Now, here's the deal. Um those are all barriers that I I see that are practical barriers that are in our lives, but I really believe that the greatest barrier to community, the greatest barrier, the most significant barrier to community is a lack of belief in the gospel. It's a lack of belief in the gospel. And let me explain myself. Because I believe that when we try to tie our identity, worth, and value to these other things, like I can do this on my own, I don't need other people, or I have a lot of stuff to do because that's really important, or my stuff is really important, or uh I don't really want people to know me because then they might not accept me or like me. Like those are all gospel issues. You see, what the gospel says to each of those issues is that those things are not what's most important. What's most important is who I am in Jesus, it's who I am in Christ. In fact, the foundation for Christian community is the cross. The foundation for Christian community, the family of God, is the cross. You guys have heard this phrase before, if you've been around church, that at the foot of the cross it is level. That we all find ourselves on the same playing field at the foot of the cross. But I also think about even beyond that, it's not just that it's level, it's that it's surrounded by a community of people, all there bowing down with their need. And when we understand that the cross defeats our individualism by reminding us of our common need for Jesus' rescue, we can begin to have community with one another at a deeper level. When we understand that the cross overpowers our busyness because it says our worth and value is not tied to how much stuff we do, how much stuff we have on our eye cow, then we begin to create space for people and we connect at a deeper level. We understand that Jesus paid the price on the cross so that we could have community with one another. We could have relationships. When we understand that the cross overcomes our materialism by reminding us that our true wealth is not in the stuff we accumulate, but that we have been saved for a forever home with our Heavenly Father. We learn to have community here and now because we know that this stuff is temporary. Our real home is in heaven. Our real value, our worth, our treasure is in heaven. The cross, it overwhelms our fear of being known, being exposed as not having it all together because we are reminded that we are forgiven, we are loved, we are approved, and we are accepted in Jesus. Like that's what brings us together in community. Are you with me? So, yes, busyness is a deal, yes, individualism is a deal, but all those things are actually deconstructed when we realize that our who we are is defined by Jesus and not all that stuff. And the beauty is that Christ, he was rejected so that we could be accepted. He was kicked out of the community in essence so that we could be brought into the community. When he took our sin upon himself, it was as if in that moment he was willing to go outside of the family to bring us inside the family. That is what brings us into relationship and community with one another. God made a way for us to come to the table and to experience the life-giving relationships that we need. Listen, some of you today, um, you've been running from community because you fear people might know you. And you feel like, man, if they know me, they'll reject me, they won't accept me. Some of you are running from community because you feel like I just don't have time for that. I just don't have time, practically. I just don't know where I'd fit it into my schedule. My challenge to you, make time. See that it's one of the most valuable things that you can invest yourself in. I know it's countercultural. I know it doesn't fit into the way people think about life and all the other things that we're supposed to be doing to make ourselves valuable. But it's worth it. Here's the thing. I'm convinced that the closer that you and I get to God, the more community we will draw close to. That we will press into the community of people. I think that ultimately we will find ourselves in deeper community as we have a deepening community with God. I mean, this message is not simply a call to community. Uh, it's not just a call to have better relationships with people, it's a call to follow Jesus. It's a call into a personal, life-giving relationship with Jesus. And when you do that, you will start to love and serve and be involved in others' lives because you are convinced increasingly that it's all about Jesus. It's all about him, it's all about who he is and what he has done. And the more we love God, the more we will love people, to say it that way. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you have called us into communion with one another. I thank you that you are at work in my heart about this issue, that it's very possible for me to be in a room full of people and yet not be in community with others. It's possible for me to keep everybody in arm's length. And I just pray, God, that this morning you would remove the barriers of busyness and uh individualism and distractedness and materialism. God, just help me to not be fearful of people knowing me. And God, also help me and help these people in this room to invest in each other's lives, to really seek to be a part of the community, this family that you wanted us to be a part of, to be involved in. And then technically, if we are Christians that we are in, we are a part of. So we need your help.