SPEAKER_01 0:00

Speaking of being on mission and loving and serving people, uh, when we're in Houston and then previously in Mexico, I've had one of my good friends um be a part of that, a guy named Joe Ruiz, and I'm gonna ask Joe and his wife Maggie to come up on stage. It's always fun having Joe on a trip because he brings absolutely everything with him. So if there's something that you need, Joe probably has that with him because he brings the kitchen sink when he goes somewhere. Um so he's a good man to be a roommate with on a mission trip or any of those sorts of things. So yeah, you never know, you never know. He's lucky me giving him grief. I've asked these guys to come up on stage this morning because we are going to be talking about some things, including obviously discipleship, that's a part of the series that we're going through. You can see that. Um, and one of the things that we would say here is that life groups are the primary vehicle that we have for discipling relationships to occur. And so I wanted to invite these guys to come up, knowing that life groups have played a significant role in their life and their story. And so I wanted you to hear a little bit of that from them this morning. And so I'm gonna ask them a couple of quick questions, a little bit like we did with Foundations with Shelly, who did a great job last week. We're gonna just talk about life groups for a moment, and I'm gonna ask these guys to kind of give some input to that if that's cool. Um, so firstly, tell us um what life group you are part of, and the group that you were part of before that, that would be important too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Um, hello. Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

We were part of the Rethel group to start with. Um, which was great. It got really big, and uh so we decided to uh split up at that point, and now we are what multiply? Multiply.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Multiply is the positive word, right? Not split up.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Um but uh now we are the Altman group, which uh is hosted at our home. And it's pretty awesome. It's growing again, so it's time to break up again. Breaking up the bands. We're actually in discussion with that, so uh it's all good. It's really good.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Okay. Um I'd be interested to hear um just from you guys, um, a little bit from both of you, um, as to your thoughts on what the impact of life groups has been on your lives and even your story, your journey.

unknown 2:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Well, I I think the impact is um it's huge. I mean, there's so many different levels, but I'd first start with um just the Lord's really used it as an opportunity to grow me relationally. Um, I think Joe and I both have always kept like a superficial level of friendship in the church. Um and so it's just allowed us to really like dig in and um create authentic relationships that's grounded on the gospel, which we've never experienced before. So it's it's truly created a family around us. So um, and then second, uh the biggest impact it's had in our life. Um honestly it's kept our marriage together. Um really all that glory goes to God. But he uh in 2014, that's when we first uh joined the Rethols, and uh he just like sovereignly placed the right people around us. Um he had a plan and a journey uh for our family to go through over the next couple years. Um and had we not gotten involved in the Retholes group, um we would not have had the right people around us. And so um there are a few select couples um that walked our journey with us. Um and it was a very dark and messy uh road that we walked uh or traveled, and um yeah, they just uh they led us, they they lived by example, uh they prayed when we couldn't pray as husband and wife. Um and uh they just really led us out of the darkness, and so um here we are on the other side, and um we can see now how God is using our story uh to glorify him.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Absolutely. That's good. Would you add anything to that, Joe?

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Um no, I mean seriously, that's that's everything summed up, and I mean I don't know how it happened, but it did. Yeah it was I mean I do know how it happened through God's grace and um we would not be on this stage, not to mention in this church today, had God not brought us here and uh just fixed us because we were extremely broken. Yeah. And we didn't even know it. So that's kind of the sad thing about it.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

But uh now I guess the question I'd like to ask you guys is for somebody who's sitting out here and is kind of on the fringes of point community um and is like not really a part of a life group or hasn't even checked one out, what what would your encouragement be to somebody in that position? Would you have anything that you would say to somebody in that position?

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Um well, if your life is perfect, don't bother coming. Yeah. Because you don't need to come.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

That could be our slogan. You put that under our life group guide. Don't bother stopping.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah. Um but as we all know, um, we all have stuff and um hiding it or hiding behind it, or putting that um what did you call it, the surface, superficial, fake, whatever it is. Um it's not gonna help you. I mean, you have to have that relationship with Christ, which comes from that relationship with community, with all these people. And um it's not about seeing how everybody else is broken, but just to see that you're not alone in this and that these people are here for you as much as you are for them. And um it's awesome, it's a little crazy sometimes, it's uh can be annoying sometimes. It's it's great, and we we love our church family, we loved our first group, um, we love our second group, and we look forward to just continuing to grow this family with whoever wants to come. Everybody is welcome. Um please.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Um I I would just encourage anyone if you're feeling like just a little nudge or you're feeling some sort of draw to explore a group. I really feel like in my heart that God um designs each group. And like everyone in our group plays um a very specific role that God's designed for them, um, whether that's like a gentle spirit that just like brings peace in the room, or whether you're naturally a leader. Um but if if you're feeling called, um God has like a task for you, like He has something for you, He has something good waiting for you. And so um it's just really you know, a family of believers is what it comes down to, and um yeah, just community, and um it's really just a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Well, can you guys appreciate these guys with me for just coming up? I know that's not fun for them. Thank you guys.