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[Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Black. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] Hey, good morning guys. We're going to start in a couple minutes, but just as people are coming in, will you as much as you possibly can just scoot to the middle of your row just to allow spaces on the sides? But yeah, we'll start here in a couple minutes. Thanks. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, good morning church. Will you stand for our call to worship this morning? Amen. Our call to worship comes out of Psalm 89 starting in verse 5. It says this. says, "Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord? Oh, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones and awesome above all who are around him. Oh Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, oh Lord, with your faithfulness all around you." Church this morning, let's sing to a God who has no rival. Nobody compares to him. He's worthy of our worship. And he's given us a song to sing in response to his great love. And so let's sing it to him. [Music] I am an instrument of exaltation. And I was born to lift the name above all names. You hear the mey of all creation. There's a song of praise that only I can bring. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only in Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? [Music] There is no one, only Jesus. You are the God of the aes. Yeah, you chose to make my heart your dwelling place. You heal my brokenness. Show me your glory. By the songs of thanks, not even angels sing. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? [Music] There is no one only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only you Jesus [Music] of God. Anointed one who was and is and is to come. seat on the throne above. Holy, holy, rightous one who shed his blood to us the father. Jesus Christ we go to God [Music] [Applause] Jesus Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Yeah. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] There is no only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Come on, sing it with me. There is no one. >> Who else is worthy? No one. The last is worthy. There is no one only Jesus. [Music] And the angels cry. Oh, all creation cries. Holy. [Music] You are lifted high, holy, holy forever. Hear your people. Hear your people sing. Holy to the King of Kings. Holy. You will always be [Music] holy forever. Thousand generations falling down in worship. Sing songs of ages to live. All have gone before us and all will believe. Sing a song of aes to sing. Your name is the highest. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above the wall. [Music] All his dominions all powers your name stand above them all the angels come. Oh we all creation comes. Oh you are lifted high. Oh, holy forever. So if you've been forgiven and if you've been redeemed, sing a song forever to me. If you walk in freedom and if you faith, sing the song forever. [Music] Sing the song forever and they live and the angels cry. Oh, we all creation cries. Oh, you are lifted high. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] always be holy forever in your name. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above and all thrones. All thrones in all house and division. Your name stands above your name. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name standing [Music] all in your name is Christ. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You will always be [Music] holy forever. Always be. You will always be holy. Holy forever. Forever you will always be holy. Holy forever. [Music] Good morning church. My name is Rob Wilbourne. I'm one of the deacons of hospitality here at the well. If you're able, looks like most of you are already, please stand for the reading of God's word. Our scripture passage this morning is from Ephesians chapter 2:es 4-9. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised raised us up with him and seated us seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that none may no one may boast. This is the word of the Lord. Hey, thanks Rob. Guys, you can go ahead and take a seat. just want to welcome you to the well and also apologize so sincerely, okay? Like especially for those in the lobby, I'm so sorry about your parking situation. I mean, just devastating. You didn't expect that this morning to show up to church and have to walk three miles to get to a building. Um, I apologize. Hey, listen. What I know is that this morning every year, cuz dude, I mean, and I'm going to talk about this in a little bit, but I I I'm a man that is filled up with some anxieties. And so stuff like this just just fills it to the brim, you know, like you got like when you're in a room filled with people and the sensory overload and it's like all these faces that I don't know. Here's what I want to do. I'm going to pray first right now. Actually, I got some announcements for you. But, um, I I'm want to pray that Jesus would calm that like would quell some of the anxiety that comes when we're in rooms filled with people we don't know and those like sneaking thoughts that come in that I have. Dude, this morning I just had I just had to confess to like the the the one of the people I love most in this world, my own insecurity and feeling weird about some stuff. And it all it all is stirred up from this. And I want to just stand up here and be honest with you and acknowledge what I'm having to acknowledge to myself, which is that we are here to glorify Jesus. We are here to make much of Jesus Christ. We are here to worship him and to celebrate him. And man, the the evil one would have us in this space get in our own heads and be distracted by the bodies that are around us. And I want to pray against that junk. All right. Um, this feels like a weird time to make announcements. So, I'm going to pray and then I'm going to make announcements and then we'll do our sermon. Okay, let me pray for us. Jesus Christ, Father, would you be glorified in this place? Jesus, would you be made much of in this place? Father, I pray that when people walk out of this building, when people go back to their homes and their schools, the conversation wouldn't be about the random guy on stage or how the worship was, but about how good of a God that we serve. God, would you fight for us right now against that impulse, the thing that Satan and the evil world is delighted by where we are distracted by the people around us? And I get it, man. I'm there. Like, Father, would you give us a supernatural sense of calm and peace now so we could receive? Father, I I believe what you've got for us. Father God, would you give us ears to listen? Give us eyes to see, God. Give us those hands and feet to live out what you called us to. Jesus, you are it. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Hey, a couple things, okay? If you are a university student, I know we have some here. Um, connecting with you, I'm sorry, okay, connecting with you in our lobby is absolutely impossible. Okay. And so, we have set up the green space, which is the the sweet yard we have behind this building. Um, that is you you'll have to kind of go out this door and then walk that way, but we've set it up. Our university ministry is there. From what I hear, there is 300 donuts and 150 burritos. And so, at the very least, food. Okay. So, I we're just asking that you would go out there so we can connect with you. So, you can connect some faces to some names because, dude, we love you. We are thankful you're here. From the beginning of this church 12 years ago, one of the gifts that God has given us is a a a strong student population, and we are honored by your presence. Okay. Second thing, if you have a child in 6th to 12th grade, we have a youth ministry meeting after the third service, so like 12:30, we have some food. It's going to last an hour. We're going to ask that you would be here just to get some information about what's going on with that. Okay. Now, I already prayed, so I'm not going to do that. And we're going to get into our time. Man, if you are new with us at the well, um our typical rhythm, like what we do as a church is we walk through books of the Bible and the reason we do that is because we believe it's God's inspired word that is authoritative in our lives. So, what better could we do? That's why we stand for the reading of God's word is to make much of the the inspired word of God that we have been given by our good God. Okay? And so, uh, the later on in the fall, we're going to step back into Genesis, which is where we have been for much of this year. And it is an amazing book that is loaded with weird stuff as we found so many sermons on circumcision. I did not realize that was coming. Okay, that kind of button hooked me as I got into Genesis and I've just learned many things about circumcision. Um, but that's coming. But this morning we are continuing with a series called the well DNA. And what we're doing in this is we are attempting to give definition to some common church words that you've probably heard if you've been in church. Church like or church like words like community, hospitality, disciplehip, mission, things of that nature like and and I think what happens is depending on the church you're in, you use the same word but the definition is kind of different. And so we're trying to tell you and give definition to what we're saying when we say these words. And so this morning we're starting a couple of weeks of talking about biblical community. Biblical community. And my plan, which this the spirit is continuing to implode as the morning goes, my plan was to talk about authenticity and vulnerability this morning. and because those are some things that we talk about. But I I think that as I was praying through this by Wednesday, the Lord just started to blow that up and had me feeling kind of unsettled in it. And I think this is the reason, okay, like from really the be like most recently in our church when you hear things coming back about the well, one of the things that people talk about is authenticity and the public vulnerability even in preaching. And admittedly, dude, like a lot of that comes from the fact that God did not equip me with a lot of filters. Okay? So, I say things on accident. Like my my dad used to tell me when I was a kid that I suffered from a condition called diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Um, it continues into adulthood. Okay? And so, what happens then is in sermons like I'll talk about struggles. I'm not scared to talk about my failures. I've talked about my ongoing battle with um anxiety and panic attacks and the journey I've been on with with the common graces of medication and counseling. And I know there's many of us that this makes feel very uncomfortable in here. And and I found out this week there's people who have left the church because I talk about those things. But but here's the hope. My hope in doing this and talking about those things is that it would signal to the rest of us that it is okay. Like y'all, Jesus's goal for you is is is not moral and emotional perfection. Jesus's goal for you is to love Jesus with absolutely everything that you've got right in the middle of the mess that you are. like to love Jesus in the brokenness, to love Jesus in the hard times, to love Jesus just in this like like the the the wrestle that is life. And for some reason, we have set up church in such a way that it doesn't seem that there's a lot of space to be a human. There's not a whole lot of space to struggle. Like you walk into places like this and even I I mean dude like even just from the womb we feel like we got to put on a mask and come into this place and smile in a certain way and say certain things and be a certain person. And I think it is one of the most like elaborate lies from the evil one that we've got. My hope is that you would know that this is a place that you can be human, that you can drop your shoulders, that you can take a breath and know that it's okay. All right? And all of that is still true. But I do feel like the Holy Spirit brought some balance to my thinking this week. And I had this whole thing written out and in the middle of service, I just felt like I shouldn't say any of it. And um let me So I'm gonna do this. Okay, this is a weird morning to just go straight off script, but I'm gonna do it anyhow. I think the the balance is that the culture we live in also talks a lot about vulnerability and authenticity. And I think the way our culture tends to see it often is that those things are just ends in and of themselves. Like the goal in and of itself is to be publicly vulnerable and then to kind of step away. Like that's the goal. That's the end. And what tends to happen is it actually like when there's, you know, vulnerable things online like we watch videos of people talking about struggle and things like that. There there's this kind of cathartic thing that happens where we feel momentarily comforted because we get it and we've been there. But the problem is when it's like a video online, you look up and you realize that you're still alone. Like it didn't actually put you into community. And I think there's a way that we can do that even in the church, man. Like I like I was like this morning when I was sitting in the back, I was like, Austin, why do you care so much about this? Why is this something that you're stirred up about? And I think it comes from the fact that for years in my own life, I was the guy that was able to like again I don't have filters so I don't mind talking about the stuff in my life. But the problem was there was still like this hiding component in me and it wasn't actually forming community because I can be vulnerable just enough and then like swoop out of the situation. And so it becomes this kind of like end. It's just about being vulnerable but not being accountable. not being in other people's lives. And it took the Lord taking me to my stinking knees, we planted this church 12 years ago, and about three years in, I had a full-on emotional and mental breakdown. And I had it on stage. It was a weird Sunday, dude. Like, I got up here and I just started balling in front of a bunch of people and nobody knew what was going on. But what it did was it started this journey where I could actually like I like when you have a situation like that, you're just like this this is over. Like this thing's over. We're done. Like we're going to hang it up. We're moving back to Oklahoma, you know? And what I realized was there was an aspect of being known and being out in the open and being in the light that actually started to create community. like it actually like pushed people into my life and checking on me. And now I find myself in a place in this church where I've got people that there are multiple men in this church where there is not a single stone unturned in my life. And it has been one of the most joyful, one of the most freeing things that I could possibly imagine. And on this side of it, I see the design of Jesus in it. But I'm concerned because I think that there's a way in which we can talk about vulnerability and authenticity as if they are ends unto themselves. And in Christianity, what we see is that absolutely there's a call to live in the light. There's a call to walk out in the open, to live life in front of one another. But those are not the ends in and of themselves. Authenticity, we find, has a utility. And in the Christian faith, it is something that helps to form, foster, and sustain Jesus centered, Jesus passionate, authentic community. Okay? And that's what I see here. And I because y'all, I'm convinced there cannot be true community without authenticity and vulnerability. How can you say you're in people's lives if you don't actually know them if you just know the surface of what they present? But the secret in all this is the thing that makes an authentic life actually possible is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what we're doing this morning y'all is we're going back to some basics, some of the most beautiful scriptures that we have in the New Testament and we're going to talk about how that forms community. Back to Ephesians chapter 2. I got to go quick because I just rambled for too long. Starting in verse one, Paul says, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were like were by nature nature children of wrath like the me the rest of mankind." Now, this is wild. These three verses are hard and the word gospel literally means good news. But what Paul is reminding us of here is that y'all, you cannot get a handle on the good news without hearing the hard news. And the hard news is that all human beings have been born with a terminal disease. That we have sin in our lives. And that sin is not just the culmination of the naughty stuff you do on the weekends. Sin is actually woven into who you are. Since the garden, it has been something that has followed all of us and been a part of all of us. And what we're told here is that sin has brought spiritual death to all people. This is Bible's words, not mine. Okay? And when we talk about death, this is not just like um a fun word we throw out. Death isn't life support. It's not walking with a limp. It's not a metaphor. When the Bible says you're spiritually dead, there is no hope for you. It's over. It's going to take a legit miracle for anything to change. Look at verse four. Says, "But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ." And so sin has brought spiritual death to all people. But God, dude, like God intervenes here and out of his great love because of his great mercy sends his son to live a perfect life that none of us could to die the death that was ours to die on the cross, paying the penalty of our sin in total. And now through his resurrection because Jesus was raised through his resurrection, we get an eternal life. And that eternal life is applied to your account simply by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone. And what we're told is that that new identity is sealed and guaranteed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Amen. >> Hallelujah. >> This is the gospel message of Jesus Christ. This is the base level by which you are saved. Verse seven, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and the kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not your own doing. It's a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that nobody can boast. church. This is the message by which you have been saved, by which you have been redeemed, by which you have been made new. And it is also the basis, the base level for authentic Christian community. Christianity and community in Christianity has to start with the acknowledgment that we could not save ourselves, that we bring nothing to the table. And yet we have been saved by a merciful God into a spiritual family. Like this message is beautiful, but it also does a couple things to create community in the Christian faith. And those are the things I want us to walk through here real quick. Okay. First, this idea that the gospel itself in terms of forming Christian community first off flattens the human food chain. This is how I worded it this week. I don't know why, but there's a food chain of humanity and it becomes flat in the gospel where there is nobody on the top and nobody at the bottom. All of humanity is in the exact same spot. And the devastating part of this is that we can't even see culture apart from the food chain. We can't see anything in our lives apart from this food chain that exists. man. Like I just with students coming in, I was thinking about that this week because when I was a junior at ACU, I decided that I needed a job, which I had many I I kept for about three months. Had many jobs at ACU, but I decided that the perfect job for my skill set was being a campus tour guide because I can walk, okay, and I'm pretty good at talking. You know, I do have a little bit of a waddle as my kids tell me. So that maybe that was the thing that took it out. But I walk into the office and I tell them that I'm the perfect man for being a campus tour guide. And I ask for an application to which I was told that this is not how that job works. To be a campus tour guide, you first have to be in a special club that is only for honor students. The problem was I was a C student on chapel probation with hair to my shoulders. Okay. I in in terms of the ACU academic food chain, Austin was at the very bottom, like basement level rejection on the spot, you know. So, I went to my house, I turned on some Incubus, and I pouted because it was the early 2000s. I love No one even knows what Incubus is anymore. Unbelievable. Yes, you do. Thank you. Okay. But these types of levels we see are just built into the fabric of humanity. They're based around education and experience and income and how you look and the way that you vote and the the place that you grew up. We have these org charts in our jobs. We've got gifted and talented programs in our schools. We've got chains of command in the military. We've got country clubs, swim clubs, social clubs, fraternities, all of which function on this food chain where somebody's at the top and somebody else is at the bottom and everybody else fits in between. But what the gospel does is it turns that structure on its side. It flattens the field of humanity. Because in Jesus, it doesn't matter where you grew up. It doesn't matter how rough or kind your background was. It doesn't matter how religious you were growing up. It doesn't matter how wealthy or poor you are. It doesn't matter what side of town you grew up on, the color of your skin, the culture that you have. None of it matters. In the gospel as a Christian, every human being has the same base level definition which is a redeemed sinner through the grace of Jesus Christ alone. This is what forms us as a people and that's the basis for Christian community. And this is so much stronger of a basis than what we typically build relationships off of like shared interest and income levels and life phases. The problem is if that if that is all your relationship's built on, then what you're going to feel is that that is a very frail, thin relationship that will change when the phase ends. Like you guys both like running. That's awesome. What happens when Levi breaks his foot? You know, like there's distance form because he can't run like you run anymore. when your kid plays baseball and your buddy's kid gets into robotics and you're not going in the same path anymore, like there's a distance that starts to form because that relationship was built on something fragile and temporal. But in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is completely different. There is a strength and an eternality that comes from the relationship that you have with Jesus. And what is crazy is that the gospel has this way of taking people who in any other setting and in any other room would be enemies and adversaries and the gospel turns them into a spiritual family. I love the example that we get in Acts chapter 16 when the church at Philippi is formed. There are three key people that are saved and formed onto the core team of this church in Philippi. When you look at it, Paul goes to Philippi on mission knowing no one. And the first lady he runs into is a gal named Lydia. She is a wealthy uppidity woman woman from Asia Minor. She is a dealer of high-end fabrics. And so just think Kim Kardashian of ancient Philippi. This is Lydia. That's the first convert. Second convert was a Greek slave girl who prior to Paul had been possessed by a demon and made money for her owners by telling people's fortunes. Just terrifying. And what happens is that she runs into Paul and through God Paul delivers her from that demon. She gets converted. Paul gets thrown into prison which leads to the third conversion where in that prison cell the guy that is guarding him who is a Roman guard bluecollar worker. This is a former uh person that was in the Roman military. He had been trained by the most brutal ruthless government that the world had ever known at that point to kill people in the worst ways possible. And through Paul, God changes his heart and he is saved on the spot. And so now you have Lydia, the Philippian Kim Kardashian from Asia. You've got a Greek slave girl fortune teller. And then you've got a Roman bluecollar war vet. And that church is their core team. Like these people have nothing in common and should never be in a room together, but their redemption and Jesus is all that they needed. And there was community formed in that. And so what we see is that the gospel flattens that food chain of humanity and forms community around a shared redemption. Second, the gospel frees you up, church, to come out of the shadows to live an authentic, vulnerable, known life in front of other believers. We talked about this last year because we're going through Genesis. But in Genesis chapter 3, what you find in that story is Adam and Eve living in utopia, perfect community with God, walking. We're told that they are naked and unashamed. And that's not just a physical nakedness, even though it was physical nakedness. Okay. Um I don't know why. I'm so sorry. I don't know why I added the A. Um, but it was also an emotional, it was a mental nakedness. Like they were known by one another. There was nothing to hide. There was no shame in that relationship. There was literally no stone uncovered in their lives. And what you find is that when they go on then to be deceived by the evil one and rebel against their god, the first act of those humans after rebellion is to jump in the bushes and hide. to cover themselves up. Not just physically, but there's also an emotional covering. There is a mental covering. All of a sudden, they're building up walls between one another. They're creating distance between one another. This is a new thing. There's all of a sudden shame that has entered the picture in their lives. And what we know to be true is that all humans since the garden have been hiding in the same regard. Ever since the garden, humans have been jumping in the bushes trying to shield themselves from other people. And what we know over the course of time is that people have gotten pretty stinking good at hiding. We do it with all sorts of stuff by just avoiding people. You do it with busyiness. You can hide behind your achievements. And I think in church, there's two primary ways, at least what I see in myself and others, two primary ways that we can hide and do hide often. And in the church, we do it through halftruths and religious activities. I don't know if you've had that experience like I've had and like I've done in Christian community circles before where you have that mode where you can tell people just enough like give them just enough so they think maybe all of it's out there so you're actually able to continue to stay in the shadows so they don't actually ask too many questions so you're not fully known. Man, there's a way in an environment that's covered up with churches like Abalene for us to engage in Bible study. And I love Bible study. I love studying the Bible. But Bible study is not all that Christianity is. I don't know if you know that. There there's a way in which we can engage in Bible study and we can show up to community things and we can do Bible stuff and we can talk about biblical information and then we can walk away with not a single person in that room knowing anything about our private lives. No one knowing about our secret struggles. No one knowing about that man that devastating thing in our lives that is just hunting us down and is causing us distress. We also have a way of hiding in the church. And this is why James in chapter 5 verse 16 he calls them to confess their sins one to another. not just to God, but to confess it in community, to one another, to walk in the light. And the most poignant verse in 1 John 1:6, John says, "If we have fellowship with God while we walk in the darkness, we lie and we don't practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, here's the result. We have fellowship with one another. When you come out the shadows, when you're known, when you're authentic and vulnerable, there's a community that's formed around that and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from sins. So, we see this call to walk in the light and to live authentically and vulnerably. And we can never lose sight of the fact that the thing that makes that possible in our lives is the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel that forms this. It's not just us deciding to be authentic. We get to be authentic because Jesus has made a way for it. Jesus, we see there is no food chains in the gospel because in Christianity, your achievement is not what saves you. What matters in this faith is what Jesus has done on your behalf, not what you can do for God. Because that's not the thing. like what you're saved by is the work of Jesus, not your achievement. So as a Christian, if Jesus has already done all the work, and if God through Jesus has already declared you to be perfect, that's a literal word that the literal Bible uses. You get to Hebrews chapter 9, you in Christ are called perfect because you got his identity like that. You are perfect. If in God through Christ you are perfect, then what happens in that is you get freed up to actually be a human. You get freed up to be known because those things aren't connected to your identity. You get to confess. You get to talk about struggle. You get to talk about the things in your life. And you get to walk forward in freedom knowing that Jesus took all of it to the cross 2,000 years ago. Thank you. There we go. Chelsea Beckham. It's the gospel that gives us the opportunity to actually be open. And so we get the opportunity to fight against the sins that are wrecking our lives and to talk about the struggles that hunt us down. It's the gospel that makes a way for authentic community. Now, we're going to talk a little more about this next week, but there were two things that I thought about as I was just processing this through this week. And the first is that I know we have a lot of new students in here today. And man, when I went to ACU years ago, what I remember about that season was I remember showing up not knowing anybody and having this thought where I was like, I get to be whatever I want to be, you know, like I can reinvent myself. I can do whatever I want to do. And so many of you are in this phase where you are figuring out identity, where you're deciding who you're going to be. And in that, you're looking for your crew of people. You're looking for friendships. You're looking for people that you can walk with. And my ask of you this morning is that you would allow this and the gospel of Jesus to inform your view of community and relationship that as you go out and you're looking for friends and you're looking for that crew of people that are going to be your people that you would let this be the foundation of informing the people you want to run with. People that you can live in the light with. people that have been redeemed by Jesus, people that are out in the open, people who are vulnerable, not just for vulnerability's sake, but so that community can take shape in their lives. And if you're not a student, I think this is still something that we need to think about. Let this be the thing that informs the way that we engage friendship and people. And then the second thing, and I'm not even sure any of this makes sense, like this last one, but I thought about, and we've tal we've talked about this, how really there are two common deviations from what we've talked about. And that first is the way that we attempt community without authenticity. We attempt to have community without authenticity. And I throw a tempt in there because man, there's this way and I want to just man, this isn't shaming. This isn't me like preaching at you. This is me begging with you. If you are in a group of people right now that you have classified as community, that you show up to a house on a weekly basis, that you share a meal together, that you walk through information, and then you go home each week and you call it community. Dude, if if there isn't a person in that room, I'm not saying when you confess you got to be open with everybody, but you got to be open with somebody. If there isn't a person in that room that doesn't know your sin tendencies, if there isn't a person in that room that doesn't know your struggles, if there isn't a person in that room that doesn't know the things that you struggle with with your wife and with your kids, then I will tell you that what you've got is some Christian acquaintances. But you don't have community. >> Community requires authenticity and vulnerability. And the thing that makes it possible is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So you got that first deviation, the um attempt in community separate from vulnerability. But then what we talked about, the other deviation is vulnerability without community. simply talking about your stuff without letting anybody in. Man, something I know I lived in for a long time. May I call you and and maybe redirect your thinking to see it as something that forms, builds, and sustains Jesus centered, Jesusloving community. And man, this is the this is the thing that hit me hard this week as I was thinking about these two things because I'm convinced that Satan and the dark forces of this world are delighted by both of these deviations because both deviations leave you with the illusion of community but allow you to remain in the shadows. and what the evil world would want to do. I love Bonhaofer's book in life together. He talks about this. Satan loves to get people by themselves and not just in total isolation, but if if he can get you isolated in a crowd, that's the best because it gives the illusion you're around people, but the reality is you're still alone. And so Satan loves those deviations where we think we're in community, but we're still living completely in the shadows, completely in the darkness. All the things that wreck our life are still there, and we don't feel comfortable enough to talk about it. May I contend with you that an act of spiritual resistance is to walk in the light, to come out of the shadows, to find people that you can live authentically with, because this is what forms your joy. the way that we find healing and freedom. Sin dies like a mushroom in the sun when you give it light. So may we pursue this as an act of spiritual resistance in our lives. Y'all, I love you. I don't even know you. I'm thankful you're here, but I man, I want this for the people in our church. And the reality is, I know there's a lot of us here and there's not a lot of staff. And so if this is not a place that you can find that type of community, please just find it somewhere. Find people that you can be open with. And my prayer is that this would be that place. My hope is that. Okay. What I'm going to do is I'm going to pray for us as we do. I have no idea how this is going to work today, but we've got communion tables at the front and the back of the room. If you are a believer, you are welcome at the table. The elements represent what we've talked about. The body of Christ and the bread that was broken on your behalf. The cup that represents his blood that was poured out. And may we see these things to mourn as this morning as the foundation for the way that we are known, for the way that community is formed. And I'm going to pray for us. I want to prep you right now. We're going to have time here in a little bit to be prayed over down front if you need that. So, just prep your heart for that. But I'm going to pray for you now and we'll continue to worship today. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for the gospel. I thank you for the reality that even though my heart wants to continue to push me back into some worksbased achievement, righteousness, Father, you have saved me and us apart from that. Father, this morning, would we allow that to be the basis for the community that we're engaging, God? And I am blessed to be in a church where I have so many examples of people walking in the light, where I have so many people around me that I get to walk in the light in front of. And I know that this church, there's been so many people that have found those relationships, that get to live in the light and walk authentically and find joy in those spaces. God, would there be more of that? Jesus, would your spirit fight against that impulse to jump in the bushes? Jesus, in your redemption, you are pulling humanity out of the hedges. You are pulling us into the light, and you have made a way through your death. [Music] Father, I pray again for this crew of people that this place could be an exhale, that there'd be freedom to lower the shoulders, that they would feel that there is permission to actually be human. God, I'm we that we as a church would love you with everything we've got in the middle of the mess that we are. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. [Music] I love you, Lord. Your mercy never fails me. All my days I've been held in your hand. From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head of the goodness of God. [Music] All my life you have been faithful. [Music] All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am I will sing of the good news. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire. In darkest night, you were close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend and I have lived in the good place tonight. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. Every breath that I have made. Oh, I will sing goodness of God. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. Your goodness is running after running after me. My life laid down surrender now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running out. It's running after me. [Music] Your goodness is running after running at me. [Applause] Surrender now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running after is running after me. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am, [Music] I will sing of the goodness. I will sing of the goodness. [Music] How great the lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. Your work is finished. The end is risen. Jesus Christ my living. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could find on such boundless grace? The God of aesthetic [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm yours forever Jesus Christ my we sing hallelujah hallelujah praise the one who set me free hallelujah [Music] has lost its grip on me you have broken every chain there's salvation in your name Jesus Christ again. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost his grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ my [Music] we sing about the morning he rose his resurrection every reason to celebrate. Let's sing this together. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your very body begin to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared, "The grave has no claim on me." >> Amen. Let's sing it again. King the morning. King the morning. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Yeah. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] will be my raise his life from the dead. Oh, praise you my praise from pro [Music] my [Music] from the dead. Oh, [Music] my dead. Raise his life from the dead. Oh, raise the new be my dead. Raise his life from the dead. Praise the king. My dead life. Oh my life again. [Music] Jesus made. Come on, sing it. All to him. My sen [Music] Jesus and Jesus made it all to [Music] But he washed it white as snow. Amen. Give him praise for that. [Music] Man, if you're on the prayer team, would you mind going ahead and come down front? I don't even know if we have a prayer team today is if there's anybody anybody if you want to pray you know um listen just two reminders is that if you are a student please come join us in the green space right now I just went out there so many donuts you know like lots of burritos and really sweet people and so please come um we would love for you to connect this place we consider it such a gift to have the honor of your presence in our city and in our building today. Um second, if you have a student 6th grade to 12th grade, uh we have a parent meeting today 12:30 after the third service. There is food and there is Dan who is our youth minister. Okay, dude. I love y'all. I'm thankful for you. Um to close this morning, I wanted to read One of my favorite passages in all the Bible, Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 38. This will be our benediction for the morning. If you're new with us, I I know this feels weird because we don't do stuff like this, but I'm going to ask that you would hold out your hands in a posture of receiving. says this, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, church, in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Music] Go in peace. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Yeah. Heat. Oh yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music]