We Are the Church: Connect in Community

A testimony video played before the message this morning:

Before I took my walk with the Lord seriously, I was engaged to a girl. I thought that’s where my life was going to be heading. That didn’t end up working out, the engagement got broken off, and I knew I had to make a decision. Either I can handle this through my own strength, or I can give it to God. I don’t even know how long it was, but I had spent hours praying and giving my life to God. I don’t know where I will be a year from now, two years from now, but Lord, my life is yours.

After I had given my life to Christ, I responded to Pastor Matt’s altar call, and I was all the way in the back. I was not comfortable doing it, but I went from all the way in the back to all the way up in the front. And I had people pray over me. They had told me about getting involved in a community group, one of them was the men’s group. I had to take a big leap of faith because I didn’t know anybody from there. I met a man named Brandon Bomgardner, and he gave me a hug and made me feel loved and welcome.

Right before I got baptized, I met Sherry. Sherry recognized me, and she recommended me to go to the Young Adults group. She’s like, “I can sign you up for the group.” And I was like, I actually was needing this, I didn’t know if you guys had a group or not. I’ll never forget this, I was driving to work, got an email from Sherry directing me to the Young Adults group. To me, that was everything. It was just like she remembered me. I have met so many friends and have had so many people that have had my back that I can count on, sharpening me as I’m sharpening them. It’s just always there for me, in the highest of highs or the lowest of lows, that I have amazing brothers and sisters in Christ that I can count on.

I love that story. I love Brett’s story. First service he sat right up here in the front row, and I told him, I said, I knew the very first time you came, because I knew the family whose daughter you were dating, and I was like, “Oh, she’s got a guy with her today.” So anyway, I was like, “Oh, that’s who he is.” But there were two things from his story that jumped out. One was that he apparently reads his emails while he drives down the highway. Anyone pick up on that one? I was like, “Okay, don’t drive near him when he’s driving. Just don’t send your kids on the road with him for any reason.”

But the other was honestly the connections that he made. It’s interesting, because he’s been here for several years now. And I’m sorry, Brandon, what’s your last name? “Bomgardner.” Bomgardner, yeah, that’s what I thought. I was like, and he doesn’t know his small group leader’s last name, no, that wasn’t, but now he does. He just was nervous in front of the camera.

But Brandon got him connected right away, and he’s been part of that group. When we were out the other week talking, having breakfast, he’s just telling me like he’s ready for leadership, he’s rising up and God’s ready to do stuff in his life. And same with the young adults group that he connected with, he’s still with that group, and he found his people right away. He made that connection right away, and that’s been just a key thing for him continuing to grow in his faith.

And we love stories like that, and we hope that that story is true for a lot of you, that you’re finding your people, you’re finding your connections, the places where you get to grow.

By the way, if you’re brand new to Eagle Creek Church, I am Matt, I’m the pastor here, and we’re glad that you’re here. We’re in a series where we’re calling it We Are the Church. What does the church look like? How do you become part of a body of believers? Maybe you’re brand new, looking for a church, maybe you’ve been here for a little while, but you don’t really yet have your people here.

And I had this vision of seeing a church where literally everyone who comes knows a group of other people that come, because you actually connected relationally outside of a Sunday morning, enough to where you’re like, they became my people, it was my church. And for years I told everyone, “That’s my church.” But now it’s, “It’s my friends, it’s my people.” And that’s a transition. How many of you know it’s a different thing to say, “That’s my church” and “That’s my people,” right? That’s where my friends are, that’s where my group is.

And so there’s a picture of what this can be, that we’ll talk about, God’s picture of what that can be in a church. But how many of you, just a quick question, how many of you during the average week, just be honest with yourself, would say, “I see more people’s faces on the average week on a screen than I do live and in person”? Between your TV, between your computer, between your phone, you’d say, “In the average week, I probably see more people on a screen than I do in person.” Think about that one. Okay.

Now, there’s a bunch of studies that happened whenever we were in COVID, and they were like one of the Surgeon General deals that came out, and I was reading articles people were sending me saying, look what’s going on right now with people, and one of them was that over 50% of Americans during that period of time were struggling with depression and loneliness, disconnection. But some good things came out of it, but maybe they’re not good, I don’t know. How many of you since COVID do not like to walk through Walmart to grocery shop, but you prefer to pull up and let them bring the groceries to you? Okay, come on. Some of you are saying that is way too much work, “I make them bring the groceries to my front doorstep, ring the doorbell, and walk away so I don’t even have to see him.” You’re like, “I wait till I see the car pull out before I walk out.” You’re like, “I don’t even want to see the face, I just want the groceries on my front doorstep.”

And it’s interesting, this kind of disconnect from other people has become very comfortable and very common, so much so that it’s affected the way people relate, or just don’t relate, within the church. I don’t know if you knew this, you and I weren’t around 150 and 200 years ago, but did you know that in most communities across America 150 to 200 years ago, the number one social experience of the entire week was church on Sundays? It really was. It was like our country was centered around community, and they rode their buggies and their horses and whatever, and brought their kids and walked in, and they all showed up in this common gathering. And did you know that before then, that was common in Christianity all the way back to the time of Christ, until the last hundred years, where we’ve become far more disconnected and our social circles have broadened into other places. But the family of God was truly a family of believers for the past couple thousand years, and now it’s become a disconnected group of people that believe in a common thing.

And so what we want to do is figure out what is the healthy part of Christianity where connection needs to happen.

Did you know in Genesis chapter 1, God is creating all these things, and on five days he’s creating before he gets to mankind. Day one he creates light, and at the end of the first day he says, “And it was good.” And then the second day, “And it was good.” And third and fourth and fifth, “It was good.” All those days, “it was good.” And then he created mankind in his own image. And on that day, the sixth day, he did not say, “It is good.” He said, “It is very good.”

Very good. So now look around at someone around you and say, “You look very good today.” There you go. And now look at someone else and say, “You look almost as good.” No, you don’t have to do that, I’m kidding with you.

But here’s the thing. We were created in God’s image. We were very good. But after that, before sin had ever entered the world, before the first person had done anything wrong, God looked down at Adam, before Eve, and for the first time out of the mouth of God, we hear the words, and God looked down and said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” The first thing in all creation that was not good was loneliness. The first thing that was not good.

Why is that? Okay, so God created us in his own image. Well, what does that mean? Well, God has existed eternally in relationship, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in perfect love and perfect harmony and perfect relationship. And so when it says God created us in his own image, it meant we were created for loving connection. So why did he create Adam first, alone, without Eve? Probably so he would know how much he would need connection and need relationship.

How many of you in this room would say I am single, or was single a little longer than I wish I had been? I wanted to get married and meet someone before I met someone and got married. How many say, “I had a little period of loneliness in my life”? Come on, anyone? Okay, some of you are like, “I met and married way too young, I didn’t know what I was doing.” But for a lot of us, for a lot of people, me included, I was like, “God, why not?” I’ll tell you what, it produces an appreciation when you’ve had to wait, it makes you say, “I need relationship.”

I want you to know there are some people that feel like something is missing in your spirit, in your spiritual life, in your church life. And I would say God’s looking down on you today at Eagle Creek Church right now, and he’s saying, “It is not good that you are still alone relationally at this church.” It is just not good that you don’t have a relational connection, and you’re not, you don’t have people that you open up to, that you’re talking with, that you’re having relationship and fellowship with.

That is the first thing that God said was not good. In Acts chapter 2, verses 46 and 47, I read it a couple weeks ago, but literally, like 3,000 people have come to Christ, tons more have believed since the day when the 3,000 believed in Christ. And now listen to what these brand new baby Christians, who haven’t been in church for five years, they’ve been in church for five days, or maybe five weeks, that’s just brand new baby Christian, it says, “And day by day, attending the temple together.” So the apostles would teach at the temple, we learned that from other passages in the book of Acts. So they’re going in hearing the apostles teach. And then it says, “And breaking bread in their homes.” That means having dinner with each other, hanging out at each other’s homes. “They received their food with glad and generous hearts.” So they were happy to share and hospitable, and not upset that everyone was eating up their food. “And with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” People like, “These people are awesome, they’re super cool, I love the way they treat each other.” “And the Lord added to their number day by day those that were being saved.”

A wonder people are like, “Yes, I absolutely want to hang out with that kind of group of people that are growing together, that are hanging out together, that are having dinner together, that are having that kind of relationship.” So, what if your connection at Eagle Creek Church was more than Sunday? What if your connection involved people that you actually built a relationship with, and you enjoyed hanging out during the week with?

Now, that is happening at higher levels than we’ve probably ever seen as a church. It’s something we believe deeply in. And you’re like, “But it’s not happening for me.” So, I’m going to tell you real quick today, this is the way you make that happen for yourself. I can’t make that happen. How many of you know I cannot be the matchmaker of everyone in this church? Sherry almost can, but Sherry’s not quite good enough to help everyone be friends, okay? She works at it, but she can’t do it.

But here’s what you can do. One, literally, you could get into one of 50 different community groups. And in fact, can I encourage you today, right now, interrupt me, don’t interrupt me literally, but mentally interrupt me by opening your phone up to the app. And Sherry put right up at the top right now, our app person has had a baby and took a break, and my wife took on maintaining the app. Can I just say, she is a stud, she’s amazing, she does stuff, I’m like, “What, you run the app?” Okay, she’s like, “Well, for right now, till Carolina gets back,” you know, she just had the baby and blah blah blah, but she’s back like this next week, so hallelujah, because Sherry’s going on a mission trip too. So, anyway, she put right on the front of that, at the top, so support my wife, go on there and look, it’s all the groups, and I think you can enter a couple things about yourself to say, “Here’s a group that fits.”

Now, so you find a group, but a lot of people have become super interested in these DGroups, where you get to form your own group without us, and you just say, “I got three ladies,” it’s mostly a group of ladies or a group of men, “and I want to get three or four ladies that I know, and we want to study together.” Here’s what we’re going to do today, if you’re like, we have the Bible reading plan and the leadership guide for you to say, you could start your own DGroup in your home, at your work, coffee shop, whatever night of the week with your whatever group of friends. We have all the material for you. We just need you to mark it on your connection card on the chair by you and drop it at the welcome center when you leave today. If you do that, we can get you hooked up, get you all the material, the training, everything you need to start your own DGroup. You don’t have to be a theologian or a rocket scientist, it’s really super easy, really super simple to do that.

But you’re going to have to take some steps into relationship, they don’t just happen, they don’t drop in your lap, you have to go after relationship. How many of you ever tried out a group of people, maybe in your neighborhood, or maybe with school or whatever, and it didn’t take you very long to say, “Not my people.” You know what I’m saying? And you just hung out and you’re like, “That’s not my people.” But then you found a group later and you’re like, “I love them, they’re so awesome.” And your spouse had to learn, listen to you talk for like a half hour about how cool everyone was, and she does this and he does this and they went blah blah blah, and it’s like, “Okay.” And they’re like, “Okay, great, I’m glad you have friends, yay, good for you.” Anyway, but the point is, you know, when you connect, right?

So, I’m not going to guarantee you that the first group you show up at is instant connection. How many of you are like me, you connect really well with one or two people, not with 10 at a time. Anyone like me? It’s like, I can have a real great conversation with this guy or with that lady or whatever, but you put me in a room of 12 people and say, “Make everyone feel welcome,” I’m like, “Oh my gosh,” I mean, I just got to focus on one person at a time. Sherry makes the whole room feel welcome. I just found out about one guy, she’s like, “And this person and that person,” that person is like, “Well, this guy and I, we solve the world’s problems, I mean, literally, we’re going to have, the Ukrainian crisis is over if the president will just listen to us.” So, we’re just, that’s more me.

And so, you show up at a group and you figure out who your people are, who you can go deep with, who you can connect with, all that kind of stuff. And sometimes you got to try a few until you get to the right place.

So, here’s what we’re going to do this morning, I’m going to help everyone in the room be super good, super good at showing up at a community of believers at Eagle Creek Church, whether it’s a DGroup you’re starting one, or being part of a community group, and being the best place and the best person for everyone else to connect with and talk to, because you know how to do Christian relationships, right? Four things are going to help you to know how to do these Christian relationships, right? So here they are, write them down, remember these things. Also, by the way, that is also on your app, probably the sermon notes.

Grace Makes Room for the Real You

So here they are. Number one is this. Grace makes room for the real you, not the fake you. Now, judgment makes room for the fake you, because you can’t let everyone know who you are if you think they’re all going to judge you, right? But grace makes room for real people to show up with real problems and really talk and really be open. And you’re like, “Wow, I feel super comfortable with that group, talking, telling them my stuff, whatever, everyone’s listening, no one’s judging, everyone’s just there to support you and there to pray for you and there to encourage you.” You got to be part of that equation.

In Romans chapter 14 and verse 1, this is what it tells us. “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” So, you get a new person and they don’t know much about the Bible, and you kind of give them one of those little snicker, “I’m the grown-up Christian, oh no, that’s not what God says.” And you make them feel about an inch tall because they didn’t know something. How many of you know you can encourage and build people up without having to be smart and argue, right? So, you look at people where they are, and you’re like, “This is where they are, I don’t want them to feel bad about this, but I have to teach them truth and encourage them and help them to understand it.” How many you know there’s a right way to do that, that it makes them feel better, like, “Oh, thank you so much.” And suddenly you’re the safe person, and now they’re coming to you and texting you with all their questions, and you’re like, “Oh no, I opened a can of worms.” But then you’re excited about it, because it’s been a long time since you got to tell someone who wasn’t a Christian, just became a Christian, all the stuff that you’ve learned. How many of you know you learn more by teaching than you do by learning? You really do. In fact, that’s actually a principle about learning, is the best way to learn something is to teach it.

My wife, she read a book about that recently, and literally she was talking to me and she’s like, “I’m doing this because the best way to learn something, I was just reading this, is to teach it.” So I’m like, “Great, bring it on, I want to hear it.” And so she’s been practicing that in her own life, because she wants to remember the things that she’s learning. And so you can have that opportunity if you set it up right, the way you talk to people, and then they want to listen to you.

In Romans 15:7, this is what it says. It says, “Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” So part of grace because this is all under the category of grace, is they don’t know, and you tell them in a really nice way. That’s gracious, right? Here’s this, they don’t fit, but you make sure they feel at home. And why do you do that? Because you didn’t fit with Jesus, because he was perfect and you were sinful. And how many of you know he welcomed you anyway.

And so worship doesn’t just happen in this room when we sing out, “You are worthy, God, you are worthy, God,” like we were singing earlier, worship doesn’t just happen there. Do you know how God is glorified in your life? What is it? “For the glory of God.” When you make people feel like they’re valued and welcomed, you are bringing glory to God. So, how many of you know you can worship God at the front door of your community group, at the coffee shop of your community group? Because when someone walks in and they’re looking to figure out where the group is and who the people are, and you say, “Hey, are you looking?” Everyone ignores that person, and you stand up and say, “Hey, were you looking for the whatever group? Yeah, come on over, sit by me.” You pull a chair up, and you don’t just say, “Oh, we’re over here.” How many of you say, “Oh, we’re over here, done, cut it”? How many say that’s not welcome? Welcome, you stand up, you grab a chair, you scoot it up beside you, you scoot yourself out of the way, you don’t have prominence, they have prominence, and you direct the conversation to them. You don’t continue the conversation and leave them feeling separate and awkward. Amen.

So, literally, that is glory, that is glorifying God. When you got up, you grabbed a chair, you scooted up beside them, that was glory to God. It was glory to God. The refocusing the conversation to get to know them, that was glory to God. Amen, amen. So every time someone walks through the front doors of the church, everyone who’s a greeter, if you’re a greeter, if you’re a welcomer, if you’re in the parking lot, if you’re serving donuts, did you know that you are literally bringing glory to God with every person that truly feels welcomed by you? Amen, amen. I think one of our welcome crew is over here, amen to me here.

But I want to encourage you to just say, that is every time, and it’s just that there are ways that make people feel welcome and ways that make people feel disconnected from one another, from the church. And when people realize, “Hey, you’re not perfect, I’m not perfect, I fit in,” because if they’ll accept mess-ups like you, they’ll accept mess-ups like me. If you can admit that you have a problem and that, you know, “I can feel welcome here.”

Whenever my kids were really little, me and one of my best friends, Troy, would go out. Neither one of us were golfers, but they had a free golf course for pastors on Monday mornings. Now, it used to be traditionally pastors would take off Monday mornings because they were wiped out from Sunday. My brain is always working on Mondays, so I just get up and start working anyway mentally, so I was like, I might as well work on Mondays, because I’m not going to not work because I just had Sunday, so I’m thinking about everything. But I think they gave pastors a free golf day on Mondays because it was a traditional day off, and they could just take it out on a ball, and be like, “Yeah, that lady caught me in the lobby, thank you, Jesus, for,” I don’t know.

But I was so terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And I developed this thing, I’d never golfed, and I developed this thing in golfing that is this. There’s a thing called a slice. And then there’s a compounding of a thing called a slice, which is technically referred to as a wicked slice. I have a wicked slice. I have a next-fairway-over slice. And you think that’s a joke, it is literal, I literally walk the hole this way, I walk that way, usually into another fairway, and wave at people and say, “Just a second,” and they go, and then I run out there and I have to aim sideways, perpendicular to mine, not at the hole, perpendicular, so it will go like this and maybe end up on my fairway.

Do you know why I kept going through that painful, awful, terrible experience? Because Troy was worse. I was like, “But I can beat him.” We did not. And there would just get points where it’s like, “Are you counting anymore?” It’s like, “No, it’s boom, boom, boom, boom.” He would hit right over the top of that thing. He was 6’4″ and he never bent over, it’s like, “Bend over, the ball’s down there, you’re 6’4″, bend over.” He finally bought longer clubs, so he could find the ball, it’s like he’d top it and top it and top it, and then carve up grass now and then, not supposed to do that, wrap his club around a pole, and I’d be like, “Troy.” He was a very competitive athlete, and he hated that golf ball.

But you know what? I loved it, and he loved it. And we would do that over, and that painful thing over and over again, because we could both be in the same boat for a while, we could both want to do something together that we were both bad at, and it was still, every time one of us hit a good shot, the other was almost more happy than we were about it. We’re like, “Way to go, Matt, you did it, look at that one, you hit that one almost straight down the fairway, it’s not in the other fairway, amazing.” If I didn’t hit the other fairway, he’s like, “Way to go.” And I’d be like, “Troy, you hit the ball, it went in the air this time, that is awesome, it didn’t bounce that way.” He could bounce that ball really far, though.

But you got to have people in your life that just, they get it, they have grace on you, they understand, they don’t think they’re better than you, they’re happy for you when you do a little bit good, right? Even though everyone else may be better, they’re happy that you’re as good as you are. And so, if I could just say the most important thing to show up with at every single group, at every DGroup, is tons and truckloads of grace, right? Just lavish grace and mercy and kindness and understanding on everyone in the group. That is so super important.

Of course, we deal with admonishing, correcting, and I’ll talk about that, there’s a place for that. But the first thing we want to lead with is that welcome heart of grace.

Healing Happens in the Light

The second one is this. The second is this. Healing happens in the light. In fact, I’m going to, that’s such an important concept that I want us all to say it out loud together. Let’s all say it together. Healing happens in the light. So, acceptance lets you tell the truth, then God can bring healing. So you feel accepted, grace is there. And now that I feel grace is there, I feel safe to tell you what’s really going on with my life. But if you don’t have grace, you won’t have openness. Things won’t come, if there’s no grace, there’s no openness, right? I mean, just honestly, it doesn’t happen.

So you start with grace, because that allows people to say, “Here’s where I have a wicked slice in my life right now, I’m playing off the wrong fairway, and I need help because I can’t figure it out, I can’t do this, I’m messed up right now.”

In James chapter 5 and verse 16, it tells us, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.” And I think this is probably one of the hardest parts of nearly every Christian’s life, of all the things that they do. Like, some people would consider it would be harder to do this than to tithe 10% of their income. They’re like, “Well, if I had a choice, I’d rather give away 10% of my income to God than I would confess my sins.” For some people, they consider witnessing really hard, but they’d say, “I would rather go tell someone about my faith than literally openly confess my sins to someone.”

And yet it says what happens though when you do it. It says, “So that you pray for one another.” The response would be a prayerful response. The right response, if someone says something’s messed up in their life in your group, is what? It’s pray. It’s pray, not judge. It says, “That you may” judge one another? No, it says, “That you may pray for one another that you may be” what, healed.

Now how is that healing happening in that life? It actually says this, “The prayer of a righteous person has” what, great power “as it is working.” In other words, as you’ve prayed it to heaven and God is now working out the prayer in that person’s life. Now, have you ever prayed for someone that God would help them overcome a sin battle in their life? Just one person, you ever just had one prayer for one person that God would help them overcome a challenge, an addiction, a whatever? And I know it doesn’t happen every time, that person has freedom, they have a choice, they have a will, they have to choose to submit themselves to God, I absolutely understand that.

But I believe that a consistent prayerful work on your part allows a miracle to happen in someone else’s life at a much higher capacity, a much higher rate, than would happen without that happening in their life. And I say that as one who, my wife and I have prayed for many people for God to do miracles in their life, and we get to see the miracles God does. Now, something we don’t do is we don’t take credit for miracles that God does, by going back and saying, “Now, I prayed and God answered my prayers.” I’m like, how many of you want them to rejoice in a miracle like God’s gift was just to them, for them, because God is good, right? I want Jesus to get all the credit for all the miracles. I don’t need credit for miracles, because when I get to heaven, I’m going to realize everything I took credit for was a blessing God can’t give to me, right? So, I’m not going to brag about what I do to those people for those things. I’m just going to say I know it’s true, because I’ve watched it happen way too many times to not know it’s true.

So I want to encourage you to say, I’m believing for a miracle in a friend’s life. Okay? Are you praying for the miracle? And then what’s it say of a righteous person? Are you trying to live in a way that God can really honor those prayers? Because those people matter so much that your prayers have to be powerful.

I want to tell you something about you, about you and your choice to live a holy life or not live a holy life. You think your choice to live a holy life is all about you and your connection to God. How many of you understand that, according to this passage, your choice to be a righteous person living a holy life also has great impact on the people God wants you to bless and minister to with your life, right? So whenever you choose to live a holy life, it’s not a selfish thing, “Oh, I just want to be a good person.” It’s a selfless thing. I want to be positioned to bring blessing to my family, to my children, to my church, to those in my community group, at my work, at my DGroup, wherever I am. I want to be in a position to bring blessing. I’m not positioned to bring blessing when I’m living entrenched in sin, I’m creating a lack of opportunity for others to receive blessing through my life by my own sinfulness, right? So, I want to be positioned to bring blessing through working towards righteous living.

No, none of us are perfect, none of us are perfectly righteous, I get that, none of us are perfectly holy, I’m not, you’re not, no one’s going to get there until we get to heaven. But there’s a difference between habitual sinful lifestyles and habitual holy living, there’s a difference. And the Bible describes it, and it describes the impact of that difference on prayer for other people. And so I want to be in a place of prayerful impact by righteous living as the pattern of my life. And so I want to encourage you towards that as well.

Help Each Other Keep Going

Let me give you the third thought. The third thought is this. Help each other keep on going. Help each other keep going. Okay, so sometimes people in the church quit. Not because they’re going to another church or they moved, but sometimes people just kind of shrink away spiritually from the things that are helpful to them, because other priorities took over their life. You know what I’m talking about? Some of you would say, “I know what that’s like, I’ve been there, right? It’s like I was connected, I was part, but this happened and that happened and the other happened, and I just haven’t been around, I haven’t been connected, and I can feel the negative effects after a while, of like, I don’t think I’m quite as passionate as I used to be, I don’t think I think about God maybe as much as I used to, I don’t think I’m maybe making the kind of impact that I’d prefer to be making spiritually with my life, I don’t know if it’s all at the same level anymore.”

Now, I’m just going to tell you, in my experience watching this pattern a ridiculous amount of times, after 22 years, here it is. If you think, “I don’t have to be in church to serve God,” technically, technically that’s true. But how many of you know being in church is part of serving God’s commands? So it’s like, you don’t have to read the Bible to technically be a Christian, but how many of you know, “Studying to show yourself approved, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” by the way, I’m quoting Paul’s words to Timothy, is scriptural, and that is part of your walk with Christ, is to know the word of God, right?

So, you don’t have to pray to be a Christian, but how many of you know your disconnect from God through a lack of prayer is going to negatively affect your Christian life? Every time you subtract a significant portion of Christianity from your Christian faith, it will subtract something from your spiritual walk. It just, and I say that because I’ve watched it, I say that because it makes sense that Jesus knew that we should do the things that he told us to do, and that it would work and help us to live Christian lives. Otherwise, why did he bother to tell us to do all these things? All right, so, he told us to do a lot of things that work, and he told us to do them because they work, and because he wants us to have a walk with him. And so now and then we see people that just stop doing it, they’re just like, “I just don’t do that anymore, and I know it’s probably not good for me, but I’m busy, and it’s just not working out right now.”

In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24-25, it says, “Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day drawing near.” Let us do what, what’s the word here? So it says, “Now the us” is Christians that are in the church, that’s who he’s talking to. “Let us,” Christians who attend church, who are meeting together regularly, think about something. What are we going to think about? Well, we’re going to think about, how do we stir someone, motivate, push someone towards being a little more loving and good works. Like, hey, show up into a loving relationship with other believers. How are you going to love other believers if you never see other believers? Because the only people you see are on a screen, you know, I don’t see a live person.

Now, if you’re at home watching the service, we love you guys, but I don’t know how much you can love us through that screen, right? So, maybe you have some other Christians sitting in the room and you’re doing that and you’re loving them, that’s wonderful. But how many of you know, to love someone, you have to be up, you have to be around that person. Love is more than a feeling, because then it says what, love, and so you’re doing something about the love. So you love people and you’re serving them, you love people and you’re helping them, you love people and you’re involved with them, right? How many of you know a screen love ain’t enough? It’s not enough. Okay, so now I just turned off my entire online audience. And I know some of you can’t be here, and I’m going to let you off the hook because of a shut-in situation, a health situation, a travel situation. But I want to encourage you to plug in live to a body of believers where we can do the love-one-another thing in a very real and really connective way.

Did you have, have you all figured out, my role is not to keep an audience, by the way. My role is to preach God’s word, right? I’ve never, I stopped worrying about how do I keep people in my church a long time ago, and just said, “It’s Jesus’s church, I don’t have to keep anyone, I have to preach the word of God, right? I’m responsible to him.” So we try to hold that in our heart, but I also don’t want to be a jerk about the way I say things. So now and then my wife says, “That’s true, but you could have said it nicer.” I’m like, “You’re right, I’ll do better next service,” which I don’t have one, so you just got it.

Anyway, “Let us consider how to stir one another towards love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.” Let us consider, so, we’re going to think about this. Hey, we had DGroup the last two weeks and so there’s only five of us, what do they think, we’re going to not know they’re here, they’re not here, we got to get on em, we got to call them up, we got to say, “What’s going on,why aren’t you here?” “Well, I’m like two weeks behind on the reading and I feel like an idiot showing up not having read it and blah blah blah.” How many of you know that’s a great moment for grace? “Hey, listen, I missed a couple days myself, show up, it’s okay, just start where we are, jump back in, you’re fine.” But don’t skip it. Don’t neglect the meeting together of the brethren as some have done. Let’s get together, because we need to be in a loving relationship where we can encourage one another towards good works. That’s why we’re doing this thing, right? That’s why you signed up. That’s why you said yes. That’s why I’m doing it, is to help everyone and to help myself. So, let’s show back up and let’s keep going. You’re a good example of grace, and so show back up.

So, are you doing that? Are you in a relationship with anyone where you could do that? I literally, this last week, I had someone talk to us and they’re like, “So-and-so’s been absent, this is what’s happening with their life right now, and I’m super concerned about them right now. I’m going to take them out, we’re going to talk, and I got to challenge them, and I hope they’ll accept that. Is that okay? Is that a good thing?” And I was like, “That’s probably the most loving thing I’ve heard in a long time.” It really is, you’re willing to put your own reputation on the line because you actually love and care about this person. “Like, go for it, go for it, I bet God will bless and honor that.” And I haven’t heard the outcome of the conversation or anything yet, but I love that someone was willing to put themselves on the line and go for it out of love for someone else.

And so, I want to encourage you, in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, it talks about this. It says, “And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the idle.” So now and then you have to get on someone and say, “By the way, I’m going to let you off the hook for the last three weeks of Bible reading, but this week I’m texting you every day, and we’re,” no idleness, “we’re reading every day, okay, by eight, can you have it done by eight?” “Yeah, I’ll have it done by eight a.m.” “Okay, eight a.m., I’m going to text you and you have to tell me one thing you learned.” “Admonish the idle. Encourage the fainthearted.” “I just can’t do it.” “Yes, you can, you can do it, go for it, you can do it.” “I can?” “Yes, you can, you can do it, I believe in you, okay.”

And then, “help the weak,” when you’re like, “I don’t know if they can do it, I’m going to show up and help you, okay, I’m going to help you, you’re going to, we’re going to do this, all right, we’re going to do this because I understand what you’re saying.” And then what’s it say? “Be patient with” who, “them all.” How many say, but we all need patience, right? So it’s the attitude by which we admonish, is with patient admonishment, we encourage with patience, we help them with patience. How many of you say, “I’ve had people help me, but boy, were they moving around briskly and not happy that they had to help me,” right? You can read it. So whatever we do, we’re going to do it with the right spirit. We’re not just going to say, “I did the right thing.” “I did it with the right attitude, I did it with the right heart towards that person.”

Love Always Moves Outward

And then the fourth and final one is this. Love always moves outward. Love moves outward. Okay, so God’s in loving relationship, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And what does he do? He creates man in his own image. Because he’s lonely? No, he’s in perfect loving relationship. Why does God create man? Because love multiplies. Love multiplies.

When the New Testament churches are gathered together, they’re in each other’s homes every night, night after night after night after night, they’re eating meals together, they’re encouraging each other, they’re being generous with glad and sincere hearts, and what’s happening? “And every day, the Lord’s adding to their number.” Love multiplies. God sees mankind and says, “You know what I’ll do? I’ll create man in my own image.” Why? Because they can love me, and I can love them, and they can love one another. Love multiplies over and over and over again.

When you find a real group of believers and a real community group, you’ll discover something about that loving community group will attract so many people into it, it will get too big. And when it gets too big, you know what it’ll do? Love will multiply. I got to pick on my wife for a minute, I cannot, I don’t know how many groups have started out of her group now, but she fills the welcome room up over and over again, it’s every Tuesday, every Thursday. It was every Thursday and every Monday, and now it’s every Tuesday and every Monday. But there are so many groups all through the church now that have all come out of one group. I think at last count she was up to 16 or 17 community groups that were small groups of women at a table that so loved each other that they had to meet more, and they started their own groups. Love multiplies.

And so I want to encourage you to say, “You know what, I want to be in an environment that is so loving that it can’t help but grow, and it can’t help but multiply, and the world is touched through it.” John 13:35, you guys would know this passage. “By this all men will know that you’re my disciples if you have love for one another.” They’ll just see it, they’ll know it, it’ll be real, and they’ll make a connection there. They’ll know that the love is real.

And so this morning, as we pray here in a few moments, I’m going to invite our worship team to come back up and lead us. And as they come back up, I’m going to ask you to open your heart to a surrender moment this morning, a real tangible surrendered moment to God. And here’s what the moment of surrender is: all across this room, and many of you have already surrendered yourself to some degree, I’m going to ask you to surrender yourself to a great degree spiritually. Here’s what it is. All across this room, I’m going to ask you as we worship to surrender to saying:

I’m new, or I’m old, I’ve been here a long time, but I don’t have a relational connection. And this fall, as we go into this fall, I’m going to prayerfully consider maybe starting one of those DGroups. I don’t have to start it at the beginning of September, I can start it in October, it doesn’t matter, DGroups can start whenever, I just, when I’m ready to start one and bring a group of three or four people, we’re going to grow together.

Lord, I’d rather just sit behind a screen. I’d rather stay distant. I’d rather drop the groceries on the front porch and leave. I’d rather just get the message, looking forward on a Sunday, and never have to look around this room at anyone else as a brother or sister in Christ. I’d rather look at the pastor and look at the back doors. But you’re calling me into community. And I can’t do that anymore. And I surrender myself to be part of the body of Christ, connected, loved, and loving others. I commit myself, I’m part of a family of believers. And I don’t want you to look down at me today and say, “It is not good that they’re alone. I made them for community, made them in the image of God, created for connection.”

So today, I stand with you. Maybe I show up at a community group, but I never open up, I never talk, I never share, I’m never vulnerable, I don’t pray for others. And this semester, when I go back into my community group, I’m going in different. I’m going in as a person on a mission to be open, vulnerable, changed, an agent of transformation. I’m going to let God work in my life this semester. I’m going to let God work through my life this semester. I’m going to be glorifying him as I welcome everyone who walks in. I’ll give him glory by welcoming and loving people. I’ll be that person.

Sherry said, if you want to start a DGroup, you can write it on a connection card, put it at the welcome center when the service ends. And you don’t have to start it at the beginning of September, you can start it in October, it doesn’t matter. So you find that group of ladies, you find that group of guys, and then we’ll give you the Bible reading plan, the way the group goes, and the way you can do this, and how to get it all up and going. We’ll get that all sent to you. Just drop your connection card, “Interested in a DGroup,” not committing, interested, you’ll get the material, and then you’ll be able to decide if that’s right for you, with that group of people.

We started with none about three weeks ago, and we’re somewhere well over 20 now. Okay, we just, three weeks ago we mentioned it, and now we’re somewhere up over 20 discipleship groups. How many say that’s super healthy? Amen. That’s super, super healthy. And then another 50 of our community groups as well. And so, super healthy. Lots of people forming relationships, connecting, growing together. It’s time for you to do that.

And so today, would you stand with me all across this room? And as we begin to worship, would you allow this moment of surrender?

Let’s worship. Let’s surrender.