Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, New Life Gillette Church, we are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Good morning, church family. And I say church family because we are a family. So like C.J. said, we're going to be doing a little bit different today. The message you get two for the price of one.
I've got some questions and we've got an interview panel. We're going to be looking at community. We're going to be looking at family and friends. And what does that look like in a church?
My wife and I, when we first came to this church years ago, we noticed this church was very intentional. Intentional about worship, intentional about preaching, just all the things that we do.
But the thing that we fell in love with was how intentional this church is with creating a family. And this is my church family. This is your church family. This is our church family. So that's what we're going to be looking at today is just what does it look like with friendship and community in a church? As always, we need to get into scripture and we need to pray. So if you have your Bible with you, if you have a Bible app, go ahead and open up to Acts chapter two.
Acts chapter two is a beautiful look at the early church and how the church had assembled and how it had started to be on mission. So Acts chapter 2, 42, 47.
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily to those who were being saved.
Let's pray.
Father. God, we thank you. We thank you, God, that we can come together as a church, as a family, that we can get into your word, that we can have discussion today. Lord, I pray over the message that as we share, that we honor you, that we see your kingdom breaking forth on this earth. I pray for the people in the congregation, Lord, our church family. I pray for those that are looking for their next step in community and friendship, that they would see your holy Spirit giving them guidance in your name. We pray. Amen all right, so we put together five questions.
In fairness, I let them see the questions ahead of time. So it's not a trivia quiz, but we've got five questions looking at just this passage of Scripture, how it applies to church, how it applies to Gillette. So we're going to look at five different questions. The first question I have, and this I'm going to ask you first, CJ is why is this passionate passage of Acts relevant to our understanding, to the church?
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Here's why.
Because first off, this is the first description of church that we have in Scripture. What we're doing today, what you're doing sitting here, is the same thing that was birthed in Acts Chapter two. So first off, this, when we constantly go back and look and make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing as a church, this is one of the places that we go. But because it's the first time a church is ever described, in addition to that, it gives us the context that a church exists in. So if you were to back up just a chapter to Acts chapter one and then read through Acts chapter two, what you'd find is that Jesus, you know, he dies and he rises again and then he ascends into heaven. And he tells his disciples to wait, wait for a little bit, and the Holy Spirit's gonna come. Now, you need to understand something. The Holy Spirit comes indwelling us, which it's bringing us back to the garden, right? We're not in a perfect world anymore, but we are now with God. God is with us again, indwelled by the Holy Spirit. But Jesus basically says when the Holy Spirit comes, it's going to birth the mission. You're gonna be doing what you were created to do. So the disciples wait. The Holy Spirit comes. And the first thing that happens, the Holy Spirit comes, the first thing that happens is that Peter and, and the other disciples stand up and start preaching the gospel. They start sharing the gospel to people who do not yet follow Jesus. And I wanna read actually one verse before where we started, verse 41. It says those who accepted his message were baptized. About 3,000 were added to their number that day.
So this is the description of what the church is. But the church exists within the context of a mission.
That is incredibly, incredibly important.
And I want to say something that's a little bit bold here, but I believe it. And it's that a church isn't a church if there's not mission. If we're not preaching the gospel and actively leveraging our Lives and our resources and our gatherings and everything. We have to reach more people. Then we are not the church then. We're a club. We're a religious organization. You know, we're a community organization, but we're not a church because from the very first day a church ever existed, we were preaching the gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus, and people were coming to follow Jesus. So we're a community. This is the description. But the whole thing this community revolves around is the mission that Jesus called us to.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah, I think about that too, with our youth group. You know, a few years ago, one of our youth pastors passed away. And if you were here at our church, it was a very hard time.
And our youth group, as a church on mission, they like, we were so worried for our teens. Obviously, what we found is because we were on mission because we were centered on Jesus, although it was an extremely difficult time for our teens, we found out we weren't just a fun place to hang out, that we actually were acting as Christ called us to be as a church. And so through that tragedy, we were able to have that community, have those friendships, and have Christ be part of that, which was so hard. But without that community, without mission, we never would have gotten through that.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: I want to jump in real quick before we move on. I didn't say this in first service, but this series is called While I Breathe. I Hope. And something I want us to see is that without the mission, we lose hope.
Because our mission is to go into the hopelessness of the world, sin, darkness, brokenness, and to proclaim the healing and hope and redemption of Jesus. Right. So when we lose mission, then when tragedy happens, we don't have much of a response. At least that's not unique to the church. Right. We respond the same way a therapist does. Therapy's awesome. I think everybody should go to therapy.
But our response isn't different. If we lose the mission, if we have the mission of Jesus, then when tragedy comes, we get to say, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope. Because Christ died and rose again. So therefore, whatever this tragedy is, isn't the end. Do you see that when we have mission as a community, we also have hope. If we lose the mission, then we start losing hope because we're not focused on the redemption and the transformation that Jesus can bring anymore.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: All right, next question. What are some of the defining characteristics of a church? When you think about a church, like, what are we here for? When we assemble together, those defining characteristics? Mark, what do you think?
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah. So naturally, from this passage, you see a couple of things. You see the apostles, they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and to fellowship, to the like breaking of bread and to prayer. And that language is that you see that teaching was a huge part. They devoted themselves to teaching. So they knew the words of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, but then they devoted themselves to prayer. They saw prayer as a priority and worship and fellowship. But then you have like this weird phrase of breaking of bread. And that's like, don't over spiritualize that. That is just talking about eating together in a home.
And the language that we see of like together, all things in common really brings out this idea of friendship.
So when you come down to it, these four characteristics are teaching, prayer, worship and friendship.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Friendship. We don't talk. We don't use that word enough in the church. But we're supposed to be friends. I hope that you have friends that are in the room with you right now. And if you don't, I would really like to help you meet them because you just don't know them yet. But you do have friends. But there's something, there's a phrase that a lot of pastors use. What we say, I'm not trying to step on your toes. And what we mean by that is I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable with what I'm about to say. I am trying to step on your toes with what I'm about to say. There's a word that's super important Here in verse 42, it says they devoted themselves.
Devoted. Now the Greek word there means devoted, but it's translated some different ways that I think help us see what it means in the context of church. So one of the ways it's translated is to stick to. Or one of the things it can mean is to stick.
So they stuck together. They stuck to the teachings, they stuck to the breaking of bread. Another thing it can mean is to adhere.
So tape adheres.
It's not going anywhere.
It's stuck, it's staying.
And here's where I'm gonna start stepping on toes. All right? There are a lot of us in the church in America and the smart money says here in Gillette and A New life too, that we go to church.
We think of ourselves as, yeah, I go to new life, I'm part of new life. But what we mean is I go to church when the elk aren't bugling, and I go to church when the fish aren't biting. And I go to church when there's not a Good concert in Rapid. And I go to church when Jelly Roll's not playing in Denver.
And I go to church when the kids aren't playing soccer.
But they stuck this description of the early church. Says they were devoted to one another. They adhered together. Now, here's the thing.
If you're one of those people who comes when nothing else is going on, I'm not telling you to stop coming. Alright? I'm glad you're here.
But what I want to tell you is that I think you might think of yourself as part of New Life. But what I want to tell you is that you're actually a fan of New Life, not a part of New Life.
You're a fan of the church, not part of the church.
Look, I'm glad you're a fan, but we want you to be part of this thing, all right?
Now, look, I skip Sundays to hunt every once in a while, too. That's not the point. It's not saying be here 52 weeks a year, but it's asking what your devotion is. What are you stuck to?
Who are your people? Who are your friends?
I believe as a culture, we have exchanged friends for fans.
We want people who agree with the same thing. We want places that we like to go. We want people we like to be around. But I've got good friends that I don't always like to be around because they tell me the truth. But they're friends, right?
They're not just building me up. They're not just resharing stuff on social media. As a church, we need friends. Friends who are on the mission together. If you want to know a definition of the church, I would write this down if I were you. I think the definition of a church is that we are a community of friends pursuing the mission of Jesus together. We're a community of friends pursuing the mission of Jesus together, following the teaching of Jesus together. Fans are great, but the church doesn't exist to make fans, all right? The church exists to make the world completely different because we are friends pursuing his mission together. Now, I'm done stepping on toes for a minute.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: What do you think, Mark?
[00:12:14] Speaker C: So, C.J. what I hear is it's impossible to attend. It is possible to attend church and not experience friendship or community 100%.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: It's possible to attend church, but never really experience what church was supposed to be from the beginning.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: Amen. I mean, I think this is just a reflection, like you said, of our culture, of like, we're prioritizing or we've traded friends for fans and because of that, very few people prioritize friendships. It doesn't mean we don't need it, that we don't recognize that. We just don't prioritize it. And because of that, we don't experience it.
If we don't, we don't see the worth of it.
And when we think about why we moved to Gillette, we moved because of money. We prioritized money.
And the one thing that money can't buy is authentic community.
And so when we. It's possible to come into the church, listen to an awesome teaching, and leave and become unseen. And when we do that, we're actually experiencing a cheap version of what we see here in Acts, Chapter two. We're experiencing the teaching, maybe a little bit of worship, but not in the way it was intended to.
When CJ Invited me here and we first went out for a meal, we went to Ranchen Roost.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:13:39] Speaker C: Amen.
This is not an advertisement, but unless
[00:13:45] Speaker A: they want to sponsor us. I don't know if you're here today, but if you would like to, I'll wear a T shirt every Sunday if you give me free burgers.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: Just for the record, I mean, if I get a tattoo, you may be a little concerned.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: I'll get a neck tattoo that says Ranch and Roost. Jalapeno Popper.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: But one of the things, and you're gonna have to correct me on this. Is it the Jalapeno Popper Burger? Is that what it's called? So, yeah, he's like, you must get the Jalapeno Popper Burger. If I went there to Ranch and Roost and I got the Jalapeno Popper Burger and I took a bite of the bun and said I experienced it, they'd be like, no, you didn't.
But that's what happens when we just come and we attend and we leave.
Because each one of these things build on each other in a deeper way.
And so that's why it is possible, like when we come here, that we cannot experience the community God intended it unless we start to devote ourselves to it.
And it's worth being said here, too, that we were made by God for God, and we can only be satisfied by God himself. And this is one of the defining characteristics of the church.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah, what you were saying, Mark, made me think of something that Katie from Hope of Life said last week. She was describing when Carlos founded Hope of Life, and he was a very wealthy businessman, but when he thought he was dying, she used this line. She said that he Realized he was so poor, all he had was money.
I don't know if you caught that line or not. That's an incredible line. He's so poor, the only thing he had was money. And like Mark said, there are a lot of us who come to Gillette because the jobs are good, the pay is good. Right. Here's the thing. If all you got is money, you're still poor. God didn't make you for money. He made you for himself and for community.
God didn't look at the first human and say, it's not good for a human to be broke.
He said, it's not good for the human to be alone.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Right now, I'm not saying I want you to be broke. I'm just saying these are our priorities. That we can have everything else and not have God and one another and be poor and missing out on everything we were made for.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so true. You know, as a high school teacher, I walk through the halls of the high school and I interact with a lot of teens. And a lot of those teens, you know, where do they find their hope? Where do they find, you know, community? A lot of them are isolated, and I'll invite them to youth group. Their friends will invite them to youth group. And the one thing I'm always amazed at is teens. After about two, three weeks, they'll come up and they'll say something. And it's not always the same, but they'll say something to the effect of, I wish I would have found youth group a year earlier. Two years earlier, they said, I didn't know this community existed. I didn't know this place was here. And they're sad that they didn't have it. And we welcome them in. A big part of that is the mission, and a huge part of that is that mission with the Friends of Community, which is what they were looking for.
All right, next question.
So I noticed as you read through this passage in Acts 2, verses 44 and 45, it said all the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
So what is this, These two verses, how does that play out in our church today?
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Well, there's. First off, there's like a 75% chance that. That I just made that statistic up. There's like a 75% chance that as an American, you read this and get nervous because it sounds a little communist, which I'm allowed to say that about the Bible. All right. It sounds a little bit like we all have one big pool, and, you know, nobody gets to keep anything. There's no private property, anything like that. But here's what you gotta see, is that this isn't a governmental structure that's given to us in this passage. In other words, we're not being told that the leaders of the church force everyone to put everything they have into a pile, and then you take out what you need. That's not what is being explained here. What's being explained and described is a group of people who, because they were devoted, because they stuck together, all right?
They knew one another really, really well. And you got to think about it, 3,000 people were added the first day. The last verse in this section was more people were added to their number daily. So these were people that worked really hard at knowing one another, and they were friends.
This is what friends do when friends are in need. And I want to differentiate something. Again, fans don't meet needs, all right?
I'm a big fan of the turnpike troubadours, all right? If Evan Felker has a flat tire, I'm not changing it for him. He's got a road manager to do that.
But if my friend does and they call me, I'll be there. Do you see the difference?
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:33] Speaker A: They knew one another, they were devoted. They ate meals at one another's houses, so they knew one another's needs.
So they responded like that, hey, look, what I have isn't just for me. If you need anything, I've got your back. It makes me think of my wife and I experienced this when we were in South Carolina. We were working at a church plant. We were broke, and we had. Over the course of a month, I think we had our clutch go out in two cars. And then one of the cars we had just replaced the clutch in got totaled by a drunk driver.
We had no vehicle, and we did not have any money to purchase a new vehicle at this point, because, believe it or not, the drunk driver was arguing that it wasn't his fault. And it took a while to get insurance to pay out on that. So we were without a car for an extension, extended period of time. Now, I didn't get up on a Sunday morning and say, your pastor does not have transportation.
Who would like to donate a vehicle? I didn't do that. But I had friends that I was in a small group with, and we just talked about it. Those were the people that, you know, when I needed prayer, I went to them that we just talked about life. They knew us, and they said, hey, here's the keys to our extra car. It's just sitting in the driveway right now. Take it for as long as you need it. Give it back when you're done.
They knew our need, and they said, you know what? If I have something that will meet your need, then here, you can have it. Because we were friends, because we were in small group together, we were in relationship together, they got us through that tough time. That's what's being described in this passage. It's a community of friends. They care about the mission, and they're pursuing a mission together. And they know one another well.
And because they know one another well, they're meeting one another's needs. And I can guarantee you, if we just went around and we found people, I bet if we found somebody or anyone in this room who's been in a life group for, like, more than two years, I bet you would have a story of you or someone else in your life group that somebody had your back and met your needs when you couldn't do it. They brought you a meal when you were sick, they washed your kids. When you needed childcare, they did something. They went out of their way to meet your needs, not because you asked for help, but because they knew you and they knew your needs.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And this fall, we're looking at the theme, you know, I breathe, I hope, I am thankful for my life group friends. I've got life group friends that are in this room right now. And I know one of our life group members got really sick a year and a half ago and was in the hospital. And it wasn't just, oh, you know, I'll pray for you. It was, I want to go to the hospital, I want to hang out with you. I want to make sure your kids have meals. And our whole life group came together to support, you know, our friend because they were in need at the time.
Mark, what do you think?
[00:21:16] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, there's two things I want to say here. The stories we just heard and the examples we just thought of as we talked about these examples is. Or these stories is.
Our theme is while I breathe, I hope.
But we need change of language to say why we breathe. We hope because we bear hope together in a community.
And that's what these stories represent, is people coming together, bearing hope together.
And the next thing that's really helpful for me when I look at this passage in Acts chapter two, is to look at it descriptively, not prescriptively. And what I mean by that is, like, when you go to the doctors, they prescribe you a medication, and they tell you, here's the orders that you. So you do it in the morning, at night, or you gotta do it at 8am and 8pm and you do this to get healthy. But what Luke is doing here in this passage is he is recording. He is describing what authentic friendship, authentic community looks like among true believers against those who are following Jesus. And he's just recording that, hey, they're. They see a need and they're putting their money together to help that need. And it's very much like the stories we have when our life groups came alongside of us or our friends and our faith came alongside us.
And this is a helpful way. I will say this. Just because I said it's descriptive does not mean we do not learn from it or dismiss it. Like, we do need to say, like, this is how the church started out, and this is excellent model for us and we can learn from it. So it's helpful to look at this as descriptive, not prescriptive, because of that.
And another thing, our friends are so valuable because your faith needs Christ like friends, because friendships form you.
As a youth pastor, I used to say this, and the teens would always get so annoyed by it. But I would say, show me your friends and I'll show you your future. Because your friends are so pivotal in your life.
And that's why it's so important when you see that what Luke is doing here, they're talking about community going in the same direction together.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: I'm gonna jump in here because there's probably somebody here that this is gonna be really relevant to, that you're wondering why you're not growing. You feel stuck in your faith. Nothing's changing but the. That things. The thing is, none of your friends share your faith.
You're not in a life group. You don't have friends around you that are pushing you in that direction. You're trying to quit partying, but all your friends are out partying. You're trying to quit sleeping around, but all your friends are sleeping around. You're trying to quit looking at porn, but all your friends are looking at porn. You need friends that are Christlike.
We can diagnose it. I'm not a doctor, but we can diagnose right now. If you're not growing and you're frustrated by it, but none of your friends are. Are growing. That's why. All right, you're becoming like the people that you're around, they're forming you. And you need to. If you want to start growing, you need to get around people who share the values that you're pursuing. Get around people who are Christlike, and you will become more Christ. Like, if Jesus needed to hang out with 12 guys for three years, you better believe you do too.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: All right, Amen.
So the next question, as you look at Acts Chapter two, we're very intentional with our church, with our structures, how we do things on a Sunday morning, how we do things with life groups.
Mark, how do you see our structures that new life reflect in Acts chapter two?
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So you see two groups. You see a large group gathering where they were listening to the apostles teachings. But also, like in the synagogues or the temples, it says.
And then you have the breaking of bread in homes, and it's a smaller group gathering. And so the simple answer to this question is that we gather here on Sunday morning just like the apostles did and the first century believers do. But we also gather in small groups, what we call life groups. And this is extremely important because that's how we grow. As CJ just said, that's how we go in the same direction. That's why we're so passive.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Passionate.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: Passionate.
I can't say that word. Passionate.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: We believe in you.
[00:25:48] Speaker C: Yeah, that's not gonna work.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Words are hard.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: I didn't do my lips, the teeth, the tips of the tongue exercise before this.
That's why we are so, so passionate about this, is because we believe. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Your friends like you.
Oh.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: I needed that encouragement in that moment.
Thank you.
But here's the thing. We're not trying to fill up your calendar. We get that life is busy. We get that you have a life outside of church, that you have families and you have a job.
But this is how God first designed the church. When the church was born, to have these large group gatherings like this.
And now these life groups and true transformation, true growth happens alongside a community inside life groups.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Any insights, cj?
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I think that's awesome.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: All right, retweets. Love it. All right, next question.
As we're looking at our church, we also need to be thinking about Gillette. We need to be thinking about our larger community and how our church fits into that. So how does Acts Chapter two look like today for people in Gillette and our church?
[00:27:11] Speaker C: Yeah. So one of the things when we moved to Gillette, like I said earlier, we moved here probably because of a job. We moved here because of a relationship.
We moved here because of family, whatever that is, is that we realize that we can't be alone.
And in a cigna's survey By Cigna In 2020, 58% of Americans said that they sometimes or always feel like no one knows them well.
And I think when we move to a new place, it's really easy to isolate.
And so what this means for Gillette and New Life is that we need to be a community that bears hope together and is inviting people into that hope.
In Genesis chapter one, the first thing that God sees about Adam is that he is not meant to be alone. And he has all the animals pass by and realizes that none of them are a suitable helper. And then he makes a companion.
And that's exactly what life group does.
Invites them into companionship, invites us into companionship with others.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: In 2023, the Surgeon General of the United States. And you should Google this, you should not believe something just because a person with a microphone said it. All right?
Do your own research, confirm this. In 2023, the Surgeon General of the United States released a special report that was titled I Believe Our Epidemic or the Epidemic of Loneliness in the United States.
So this is the primary official public official responsible for health, for our physical health as a nation identified that there is an epidemic of loneliness in our nation threatening our physical well being.
That is incredibly important to hear. And if you read through that, if you just read the bullet points, if you just read the headlines and the subheadings of that article, what you'll find is that they were able to link loneliness to things like hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, all kinds of physical issues that come from the stress and exhaustion of being lonely.
It's hurting us. It's killing us being lonely. God did not make you to be rich. God did not make you to be independent. God did not make you to be able to do it on your own. God made us to enjoy his presence. He made us for himself and for one another. We need one another. Loneliness is killing us. Do you know what sin does? Do you know why God calls something sin? Because it's killing us.
A description of sin. A good definition of sin is anything that keeps you from what God has for you. Now here's the thing. Experiencing loneliness is not sin. If you're lonely, that doesn't mean you're sinning. But isolation is the result of a world broken by sin. Loneliness is the result of a world broken by sin. And one of the things that Jesus came to do on the cross is kill the things that are killing us.
Jesus came to kill the things that are killing us. He took upon himself the full weight and measure of our sin.
So that we could be filled by the Holy Spirit and not live in a perfect world with no brokenness but experience what it's like to walk in communion with God and one another. He's restoring us as close as possible back to the garden. You remember when I said earlier that I want to live as close now to heaven as I can get? So I'm not surprised. The Holy Spirit wants us to live as close as possible to what eternity is going to be like now.
He wants to destroy the things that are destroying.
And listen, I love Gillette. I love it here. I would like to die here in a long time. Not soon, but I would like to die in Gillette. I love it here. Everything I love to do is here. Like, this is. This is it.
We have a problem with loneliness.
I'm gonna say it again. We have a problem with loneliness.
All right, look, I get it. You're tough, you're independent. You can do it yourself. You don't need help. You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. I hate to break it to you. No, you're not. And no, you didn't.
I'm not trying to be mean here. I'm trying to tell you that when God created a human being, he created and said it's not good for a human to be alone. So it doesn't matter if you feel like you can just buck up and tough your way through it without any help. It's good killing you.
Isolation is killing you.
The other thing about Gillette is this is the only town I've ever lived in that in a room like this, I can say the headlines in February and every single person knows what I mean.
Listen, friendship does not fix mental health. It doesn't just make it go away.
Therapy, medication, all of those things are incredibly important as well.
But I can tell you for sure, friendship helps.
Friendship helps. We are pursuing, as a church, gospel saturation in our city. Why? Because we believe the gospel is the only thing that will actually change headlines. The gospel is the only thing that will actually break the bonds of addiction. The gospel is the only thing that will heal marriages and heal families. We believe the gospel is the only thing. And what you see in Acts chapter two is that when the gospel takes root, friendships, community forms. So one of the things we do as a church to change tangibly the reality and the experience of our community is we preach Jesus and we make friends.
We make friends with one another so that no one is alone.
No one has to go through life alone.
So please, please, please don't keep doing it alone. That's why we have life groups. Like Pastor Mark said. We're not trying to fill your schedule.
We're not trying to throw another product into the line and see what sticks.
We actually believe that real community will make things better.
It will bring real transformation. We believe it's what we were created for.
So we're gonna keep doing it. We're gonna keep chasing it, because it's what God's called us to. It's part of the mission that he's given us.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: I love it, and I love the fact that this is our church family. This is your church family. And we are called to live together and do life together.
Life group season. It's already started.
Mark, C.J.
someone wants to join a life group. It's already started. What do you think?
[00:34:09] Speaker C: Get in one and we'll get you in one. As long as they're in season, like you will get you in a life group.
We will die on that hill.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Sweeping declaration. For as long as I work at this church, if there is a life group in season, you will never be told no. That you can't sign up. We will get you in a life group. We will make a. We'll figure it out. We will get you into a life group. It's not never too late to sign up for one because we're never going to tell someone whoops. It's too late for you to have what God called you to.
We're going to do it. We're going to get you in to community.
Sign up. Sign up. You have friends, all right? You might not know them yet, but there are people in this room right now who want to share life with you and help you become who you were created to be. You might not know them, but they exist. We want to help you find them.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for community. We thank you that you give us this church.
We thank you, God, for the people that come together in small groups and in large gatherings that we can do life together.
In your name we pray. Amen.
