Checkpoints - Connect - Luke 5:17-26

Well, good morning again. Listen, when you came in today, not only did you see the handout, there should have been something that looks like the handout inside of it like this. And let me let you know what we're doing here in our series that we just started last week, checkpoints. We are producing every week a devotional guide that covers the same checkpoint that we're covering this week. So, this one we'll be covering today is Gather. And so you've got five daily devotions that you can take. They won't take you more than two or three minutes a day. If reading the Bible on a regular basis or even like opening it up during the week, it's not something you're used to. This would be a great way to start and allow God to continue to speak to you throughout the week and it goes handinhand with our checkpoint series. Now, let me make sure you understand the name of the series is checkpoints, not checklist. Now, here's why that's so so so important. had someone stop by last Sunday afterwards and said, "Keith, I love this new series called Checklists." And it just kind of made me cringe on the inside. And here's why. When you think about checklists in your life, it's more about behavior modification, isn't it? If your wife, guys, gives you a checklist of things that she wants done, she's not looking for love from you. She's looking for you to get things done. And so, so many times as we think about checklist, this idea, it really is about behavior. It's about modification of that behavior. But when we think of checkpoints, it's more about relationships. It's about the intimacy that you find in relationships. Let me see if I can explain to you. Let's say you're a parent and you've got an adolescent young child. You've got a 12-year-old or 13year-old or 14year-old or maybe even worse, you've got a 16-year-old living at your house. And before this child was ever born, you dreamed of raising children that you have a close relationship with. You know, the ones that come home after school and say, "Hey, can we sit down and just talk?" and they tell you about everything that took place in the day and they go out on a Friday night and they come home promptly at 1000 p.m. and never want to stay out past that and you get to talk and what they do and who's their new friends and who's dating who and you've just got this idea of relationship. And the really cool thing about it in this pretend relationship, you actually have it with your child. Like they do come home after school and tell you about their day. They do come home on the weekends and explain what's going on with everybody. They do their homework without you asking. They keep their room clean before you even even bring it up and offer to give them money to clean it. I mean, it's just like this this joyous, wonderful relationship, but all of a sudden, one day, things to begin to go downhill. Instead of coming in and talking to you after school, your child, this 16-year-old, go straight to the room and shuts the door, and they don't come out until it's time to eat. In fact, you honestly think you could probably slide food under their door and they'd be happier than coming and sitting with the family. their room is a mess. They never talk about things going on. You're getting notices from their teachers that they're not doing their homework. And so, you're just kind of beginning to panic going, "This is not the child that I thought I would raise. This is not what I dreamed of." And so, you have a brilliant idea. You sit your child down one day, this 16-year-old teenager, and you said, "Here's what we're going to do. These things are slipping. So, we're going to create a checklist. We're going to create a checklist." Kind of like when you're three years old and when you do your homework, we put a star by it. when you come home and you keep your room clean, we'll put a star by it." And so you had all this list of like 10 different things that you thought would help get this student, this child back to where they used to be before the downhill turn. And so you put the poster board up, you got the stars beside it, and over the next six weeks, it works. The room is cleaned. The homework is done. They come home and and sit down and talk for a few minutes, and they go to the room. You're kind of going, "This is brilliant." But then after about six weeks, you realize you're still missing something. And here's what you recognize. Your child is doing all the right things, but you're still missing the relationship with your child. They're doing things because they've been told to do it and they get the star beside their name. But that intimacy, that relationship, that connection that you had before all of this went downhill, it's just not there. And all of a sudden you realized a checklist may look may make things look good on the outside, but it doesn't always improve the actual relationship. And so as you think about your own spiritual life, take this out of the context of a trying to get a 16-year-old to live and do something in your house. Imagine our spiritual lives. I think too many times many of us have fallen or maybe even in the trap right now that that is our spiritual life. It's a checklist. Read the Bible, check. Go to church, check. Be nice to people around me, check. Honor the people around me, check. You name the list, and check, check, check. But reality, we can look up and this checklist is taking place, but we're still missing this personal, intimate, fellowship, relationship with God that he wanted. It's behavior, not modification, not a heart connection in there. And so here's what we're proposing in this series called check points and not checklist. Checklist is all about behavior. Checkpoints is all about relationship. Because it was Jesus who showed up on the scene and he looked at those people that were wanting to follow him and instead of giving them a list of things to do, a checklist, he said, "Follow me. Just go the direction I'm going." And so we're looking at different checkpoints in our lives that the scripture points out that helps us moving and pointing in the right direction so we truly are following Jesus in our relationship. And these checkpoints, if you're here last week, the first one that we looked at, we looked at gather. And here's what we said the definition for gather is. Gather is centering your life around God's presence and God's people. That's what we're doing right here, right now. When we come together weekly corporately like this, we are gathering and we're not just coming so we can sit put our seats in a blue seat and check. We're really coming so we can gather around God's presence and God's people. And the one we're going to look at today is not gather, but connect. And here's the definition. If you're taking notes in your handout, here's the definition for connect. It's choosing authentic community over isolated faith. You see, gather, we all come in here and there's a sense of relationships going on and we're all doing the same thing together, God's presence and God's people. But when we take it to another level, and that's connect, we're really choosing authentic community. And if you're filling in the blanks, here's the one that you can write down. When our spiritual life is directed by a checklist, we end up with an empty religion rather than an intimate relationship. And so it's checkpoints and not checklists. Now, when we talk about this idea of connect about authentic community, it is gathering in smaller groups. Like look around the room, you may know a whole lot of people, but you're probably not in authentic close relationship community with a lot of people. And so this idea of of community, this idea of connect is truly more of an idea of a small group of people that take it to a different level. And I want to introduce you to a story today. Many of you probably heard this one ever since you're little if you grew up in Sunday school about some individuals, four guys who were in a group, who were in community, who connected with one another and they made a difference. So if you've got your Bibles or we'll have the scripture up here on the screen. We're going to start in Luke 5:1 17. And here's what the Bible says there in verse 17. It says while Jesus one day while Jesus was teaching now there in this particular account in Luke doesn't give us an idea of where he's at but you can read about the same story in the book of Mark and the book of Mark says that Jesus was in Capernium when he was teaching. Capernium would have been a fishing village there in in Israel and it would have been a smaller village. Maybe a thousand people would live there. So you can imagine living in a town with thousand people. There's a good chance that everybody knew everybody. You might have not have invited everyone over to your house for dinner, but you could walk down the street going, "I know that person. I know that person. I know that person." You're somehow connected with them because there's only like a thousand people. And so on this particular day, Jesus is in the town of Capernaum and he's teaching and some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. Now probably there had been a lot of people there listening to him teach but because the notoriety of him they would have come from different areas also not just the town's people. So all these religious leaders kind of showed up to see what he was talking about. And it seemed the Bible says that these men showed up from every village in Galilee and Judea as well as from Jerusalem. And the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus. And so in this particular day of him teaching, he wasn't just speaking, he was healing. They were seeing blind people see for the first time. They were seeing people that couldn't walk well get up and walk. They were seeing all kinds of miracles take place in addition to Jesus talking about the kingdom. And then it goes on to say in verse 18, it says, "Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat." Again, the count in Mark gives us a little bit more details. And Mark says this, "Four men came carrying a man on a mat." And the Bible goes on to say, "And they tried to take him inside to see Jesus, but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd." And so they went up to the roof and took off some tiles and they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd right in front of Jesus. And so these four men, now I don't know about you, but all my years growing up, I never heard my Sunday school teacher say, "And the four men." In fact, I went back and listened to a number of different sermons from people across the United States, and I never even heard preachers on on the social media or wherever I looked it up on YouTube that would say these four men. Do you know how we usually describe them? Four friends. Now, it's interesting. As I began doing more study, I just assumed somewhere in the Bible it said four friends. But nowhere in scripture as you read in this account and there's another one in the gospels also. It never refers to these four guys as four friends. But I do think this that we can guess pretty well that they were friends. Again, scripture doesn't say for sure, but think about this. It is a small town of a thousand people. Everybody knew everyone and everyone in this town was rushing to this house to hear Jesus teach and watch his miracles happen. And so for four guys to show up and have some kind of idea, project, some kind of like caring system that they wanted to take this paralyzed man to see Jesus, I would assume, and again, I'm only assuming that these four guys had some previous connection with one another. It wasn't like one walked by and said, "Hey, you over there. Can you help me? Hey, can we get Hey, one more over here." There had to be some kind of consensus among them, probably friendship that brought them together to take part in trying to help this man. And so the Bible says they took him to this house. Now, understand this. An archaeologists have dug up homes back in this region of the world from back in those days. And here's what they've discovered. That most of the homes back in those days would have had stone walls, but they would have had flat roofs. And the flat roofs would have been made of thatch and sticks and hay. And so for these men to come up there and cut a hole in the top of the roof would have been a fairly easy thing. Like you think about somebody coming into your house right now, even if they wanted to cut a hole to get into your house from the roof, it would be a major undertaking. But as long as these men had access onto the roof, it would have been fairly easy to create this hole to lower this man in order to see Jesus. And then then the Bible goes on in verse 20. And once they lowered him into the house, so I want you to get an idea here. Imagine this is the house. Imagine you're all the people listening and watching Jesus teach right there. And all of a sudden, as you're focused on Jesus, stuff starts falling from the ceiling because there's no way they can cut a hole in it cleanly. And no dust or particles or straw or sticks fall down. And so as they cut the hole in it, things begin to fall. And people may be falling on people's heads because the Bible describes this room was so packed nobody else could get in. I don't really imagine Jesus had a lot of personal space as he was teaching because I'm sure the crowds pushed and tried to get closer and closer and closer. And so the hole gets cut in. The man starts coming in and they all just start looking up and they're curious about what's going on. They're they're wondering what's going to happen. They're looking at all of it and just taking note. In verse 20, seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, "Young man, your sins are forgiven." Now, if we've read this story too many times, sure, that's what Jesus said. We expect Jesus to say that, right? But no one in that room expected him to say that. First of all, first of all, only God himself could forgive sins. Jesus is at the point of his ministry right now that he is revealing himself and slowly letting out that he is the son of God. But people haven't grabbed hold of that yet. They've come to see the miracles. They've come to see the show. They know there's authority in what he says, but they probably hasn't quite grabbed hold of that he is truly the son of the living God. And for anybody to look at someone else and say, "Your sins are forgiven." They're like, "Whoa, whoa. Let's take a step back here for a second. You might have just made that blind man see. You might have just made that deaf man hear. But you don't have that kind of authority. You don't have that kind of position to forgive somebody's sins. So I imagine at this point point everybody took a gasp [gasps] because they couldn't believe he said it. In fact, the Bible lets us know as we read these next verses that the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they did more than a gasp. They were offended. Look what it says there in verse 21. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law said to themselves, "Who does he think he is? The blas blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins." And Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he asked them, "Why do you question this in your heart? Is it easier for you easier to say your sins are forgiven or is it easier to say stand up and walk? And so I will prove to you that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man. And he said, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home." So if you don't think I have the authority to forgive sins, watch what I do here. And he said, "Get up." And the man who had never stepped foot on this earth before, his whole life he had been paralyzed, his whole life he had laid on this mat and expected and had to have other ones take care of him. He stood up, the Bible says, and he walked. And immediately as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and he went home praising God. And everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe. And they praise God, exclaiming, "We have seen amazing things today." Now, here's what we need to understand as we read this scripture and we study this. Many times in scripture, there is what theologians would call the upper story. The main reason this story is placed within scripture for us to read 2,000 years later. And here's what we need to understand. The upper story taking place right now is that God wants us to see through his scripture that Jesus truly was the son of God. And he had power to physically heal people. But as the son of God, his greatest power and position was forgiving people's sins. That's the reason we celebrated together the Lord's supper today because we remember the death, the burial, and the resurrection. That is how our sins are forgiven. So that's the most important thing that we can learn from the story. But while in many of the narratives in scripture, there's an upper story, there's also many times a lower story. And the lower story are things that we can learn about the kingdom of God that supports the upper story. And I want to share with you quickly as we end today. There is a lower story here. And here's what the lower story concerns. There is a group of men. We call them friends. Many times the Bible doesn't specify, but there was a group of men because they chose to interact, do life, share life, move through life as a group. God did amazing things through them to the paralytic. did amazing things in their lives and did amazing things to the people watching. And so the lower story of this great truth, this upper story that we learned about God and about Jesus being the son of God, it is supported by, watch this, by a group of people. Had there not been a group of friends, we might not have even seen the upper story take place in the bigger story. In fact, as you're taking notes, let me point out, let me just show you as we walk through this a little bit deeper. Let me show you the different levels of what God did because of these group of men. These group of men here, I'm going to use the word because our second checkpoint this week is connect. When we do life with a group of people, that's authentic community. Rather than living in isolation, we choose authentic community. When we intentionally step into group, God can do some amazing things through us just like he did this these men. So here's the first one. If you're taking notes, write this down. Through connection, okay, remember I use the word connection. That is when we come together, connect in a group, a small group. Through connection, the paralytic experienced Jesus. Okay? If these men had never showed up, if this group of men had never been connected, if this group of men had never shown up, this paralytic would have never known who Jesus was, Jesus would have put on this great revival service and words that we might use today. And the man is still laying on the corner in the marketplace. In fact, there's a very interesting verse that we find in here. And here's what this verse says in verse 20. says, "When Jesus saw," watch this, "when Jesus saw their faith." Now, this is interesting because here's what we know scripture teaches. You and I come to a relationship. We encounter Jesus because of our personal faith. Okay? Mama can't give her faith to her kids. Husband can't make his wife take his faith. Faith is personal. No matter how much you pray for somebody, no matter how much you long for it, we cannot push and force someone else to have our faith. Or here's another way to look at it. Somebody else can't ride the coattails of our faith. You with me? So faith is individually, personally. Each person has to receive Jesus on their own. But yet in this passage, the Bible says this. When Jesus saw their faith, so how does that work? That puts a tension in our theology. That makes us wonder, well, if it's there, that's plural. But Keith, I thought you said it's singular when it comes to faith. Here's what we have to remember. The paralytic's faith saved him, but the group's faith got him there to be saved. Are you with me? His faith saved him. But without the faith and the actions of the four men, the group of men, the connected men, the paralytic may have never gotten there to be saved. So Jesus looks up and the stuff is falling from the ceiling. The straw is falling on his head. Sticks are tumbling down. And the man is being lowered on a rope. And he said, "Because of their faith." Jesus recognized something that we need to recognize in our own lives is that when a groups come together, when a group of people come together, it is their faith and acted together as they are connected as a group that God often does some amazing amazing things. In fact, here's something I wrote down. God often uses the faith of the people around us to strengthen the faith within us. There's some days I got this much faith. There's some days I got no encouragement. There's some days that I don't have to make it through the day, but I have a group of people around me that when those days when I'm measuring this much, they add to my faith and their faith helps me make it through the day. There are no moments when we need someone else to carry us. That's why the group's faith was so important for the man's faith. I'm preaching right now. I'm looking at my friend Kevin right here. Kevin, I'm going to put you on the spot because you're one of my favorite people. Many of you know Kevin. Kevin came to our church about two years ago. And Kevin just had never even been to a church. The first time he came to church was the first day he came here. Had never set foot inside of a church. And through just teaching and Lor's interpreting for him and him hearing the word of God and talking, Kevin came to faith in Jesus Christ. But then about six, seven months after he came to faith in Jesus, his life had hit a hard time. He lost his job. And because of some of the disabilities he has with not being able to he can with some hearing just disabled disabilities, Kevin had a hard time finding a job. I have never been more proud of this church because people rallied around him. He was going to small group with with Lori um Reed back there and Sean Reed and the group rallied around him. There's times that one time he needed tires for his car and they pitched in financially and body and tires for his car. Joy Peters over here and she spent hours and hours and hours helping him on the computer, connecting him with social agencies that can help him know how to navigate. Really? Kevin has a job day because of Joy Peterski. There was others. There was one time it was his birthday and I remember when you were discouraged and there was no job Kevin and we threw a surprise birthday party for him and the joy that he found because people loved him. Here's why I say I share that story. Without a group of people, Kevin would not have experienced Jesus like he did. And that's the truth of that statement. The statement through connection the paralytic experienced Jesus. Through connection Kevin experienced Jesus. Through connection is how you and I experience Jesus. We're not when we're not able to carry our own weight on those days. But there's another truth in this. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. Through connection, the friends experienced Jesus. Through connection, the friends experience Jesus. Okay, I want you to go to the story here for a second. You're one of the four friends. Like, you're venturing out there. You're climbing the ladder. You're carrying him up there and they're going, "Dude, somebody's going to get in trouble for this. Okay, we're going to have to pay for this. Like, this may not turn out the way we want to. What if Jesus gets upset because we're like interrupting his little show, his sermon right here, but let's cut the hole in it." And they start lowering him down and they see this whole thing happen. They see Jesus looking at him and said, "Because of their faith, all of y'all's faith." He says, "Oh, your sins are forgiven." And then they look at the man and going, and Jesus looks at the man going, "And now get up and walk." Do you think the guys are on the roof going, "Guys, don't dance too hard on the roof cuz it all might cave in." I I think they're up there shouting and yelling and hurraying and amening up there. They're seeing like all of their actions together. They are getting getting to experience Jesus in a way that they would not have normally got to experience him. like everyone else is sitting in the in the in the house. Everyone else is sitting in the congregation. They're probably going, "Oo, cool. Wow, that's so often this is really good. I'm glad I came." But the friends are up there and they are experiencing the saving forgiveness and the saving lifechanging power of Jesus in a way that nobody else is sitting down there. Let me go back to my friend Kevin. I got to help him also. And I helped him walk through some medical issues and get him insurance and get him to the doctor. And I want you to know there was days, Kevin knows this. There were days that we spent more hours. I'm going, "This has turned into a p a part-time job." But I never said that begrudgingly because you know why? Your pastor's heart was being renewed. My heart was feeling the joy. I remember during that season, we passed out the little Jesus. Remember the little baby Jesus's? And Kevin kept put in his pocket and I think I shared this with you before. Kevin called me one time and said, "Keith," he said, "I'm really worried." But he goes, "I got baby Jesus in my pocket." Guess what I keep in my pocket to this day? Baby Jesus now. Why? Because I need a baby Jesus. No, baby Jesus is with us. But it reminds me of Kevin's faith. And I experienced Jesus through what the group was doing. and it changed my own heart and everything. In fact, if you're taking notes, you can write this down. It says this, "The greatest experience with Jesus often comes when you stop watching his work and you start participating in it." The greatest experience of Jesus often happens when you stop just watching what God is doing, but you start participating in it. Everybody sitting in that home that day was watching, but the four men were participating. And it was through their connection with one another that they were able to participate. Let me give you the last one. Through connection. Remember, we're looking at the lower story. The upper story is Jesus' grace, Jesus forgiveness of sins, Jesus healing of miraculous with miraculous powers. That's the upper story. But that upper story happens because of this connection that is taking place between the men. And the third one says this, the connection the people through connection the people experienced Jesus. Talking about the people sitting in the room through connection the people experienced Jesus. Look with me at verse 26. It says this after all this happened. The Bible says in verse 26, everyone was amazed and they gave praise to God. So that tells me the guys are up on the roof going, "Yes, this is awesome. lower him down and look what God's doing. Look what Jesus is doing. And all of a sudden, everybody's sitting in the room. And I can almost imagine this ripple effect. You know, like when the wave starts at a ball game and it starts slow, just a few people and it goes around the stadium, you think it's not going to make it, then it kind of gets bigger and bigger and all of a sudden before three or four times the whole stadium's going, "Woo!" and got it just as a ripple effect. I've got this idea that in that room that day, it took a few minutes for everybody to catch on, but before long, the ripple effect occurred. And the Bible says, "And they were all worshiping and praising God." You see, I tried to live personally. I'm sure you do, too. Try to live personally and individually so people can see God through me. But when you got two of me or three of me or four of me or five of me because we are connected in a group, it creates a bigger picture. Candle light service right here in this room on Christmas Eve. We'll turn the lights down and there'll be one room, one light, one candle in the room and we'll light it and someone else will light one. And before it's over with, every reli every candle in this room is lit and there's enough light in here that we don't even need the external lighting that we have. That's because the group effect that when we are all gathered together, the light for the world to see who Jesus is becomes brighter and brighter and brighter. In fact, if you're writing things down, here's one I wrote. Connection may begin with one relationship, but its impact can reach an entire community. And that's what happened with four men being connected to helping this one man. Now I want to rewind the story for a second. Let's tell the story in a different way. Let's let's tell the story not from what really happened but what if a story. Okay? So not in scripture but I want you to what if Jesus in this house teaching the house is full. This one man walks by. He sees this paralytic man here. He's seen him every single day of his life. There's times he's might have stepped over him trying to get to the marketplace. Maybe even knows him by name. Maybe he's even friends with him. But this one man looks at him going, "Oh, dude, we got to get you to see Jesus." And this man laying there on the ground, he's paralytic. There's nothing he can do. Same place he's been every day of his life. He's going, "I'd love to go, but how do I get there?" And this one man says, "Let me get you there." It's like, "Come on, let me help you stand up." But the weight of this paralytic man, he's like trying to get him. He can't get him three feet down the road. So he lays this individual, the paralytic individual, back on the mat and he goes, "Hey, I've got another idea. Let me just pull your mat." And all of a sudden, he just starts pulling the mat and he's heaving and he's hoing. It takes him 20 minutes instead of five minutes to walk to the house where Jesus is, it takes him 20 minutes. He gets there, he's like, "Okay, we're here. Let me get you in the door." It's full. He goes to the door and says, "Hey, can I get you to move so I can get my friend?" Everybody said, "No way. You should have got here earlier." So this man is sitting here with a paralytic man. It's one person. He's doing all that he can. He's 30, 40 minutes late to the show. He's 30 or 40 minutes late to hear Jesus. He's going, "I don't know what I'm going to do." And he looks and he sees a ladder and he thinks to himself, "If I could just get him up on the roof, he looks back down at the man." He's thinking, "There's no way. Maybe." So he picks the man up and he puts him on his shoulder and he gets one step up on the ladder and he tries to sec take the second step. It's not going to happen. Are you with my thinking here? Do you see how important being connected was to the lower story of the upper story that God wants the world to see who he is. God wants the world to experience who his son Jesus Christ is and the grace and the power and the freedom of a relationship with Jesus. But while he's leaning on you, he's actually leaning on us because there's greater power in numbers. There's greater of effectiveness in numbers. That's the reason as we talk about checkpoints following Jesus. It is following being connected with one another. There's no doubt in my mind that if one person was in this room said, "Well, I don't need anybody else. I can go spend time with Jesus. I can pray to Jesus. I can have a relationship with Jesus." Yes, your relationship with Jesus is individual and personal. But if you spend the rest of your life only living with and for Jesus by yourself, you will miss much of the fullness that he intended for you. He intended for the people he wants you to minister to and he intended for the world to watch what you're doing. And so listen to me church as we're looking at these different checkpoints. Checkpoints to make sure we're following in the right way of Jesus. The most one of the most important ones we can do is connect with other people. Now here's the problem with connecting. We get busy. Our schedules get full. And so it takes intentionality on our part to make sure that we are truly connected or we will spend the rest of our lives saying, "Hey, we need to get together." You ever had that conversation? Somebody, man, it's been so long since we got together. We need to get together. And two weeks later, hey, we need to get together. Four weeks, we and it just never happens. So, I want to wrap up just making sure you understand. And this is a just a one of the ministries that we have here that I truly believe as your pastor that the group's ministry we have may be one of the most important ministries that you can get involved in because through our group's ministry we try to plug you into a group of people so you will connect with the group of people intentionally that you can have this authentic community that is necessary to follow Jesus in the checkpoints. We have all kinds of groups. We have groups that meet on Sunday morning. We have groups that meet because of ages. We have groups that meet because of stages in life. We have groups meet because people can only meet on Tuesday nights and homes. We have groups that meet on Wednesday nights. So, there's all kinds of ways that you can connect it in a group. But I truly believe, listen to me, as your pastor, if you're not in a group, you are missing some of the fullness [music] of God. what God has for you. And that's why we call it one of our checkpoints that we look not for behavior, but for a relationship. Now, let me just wrap up. I know the band's behind me and I'm running late. Let me just give you three steps. Okay, we said every week we're going to have action steps. Okay, here's the first action step. Maybe you're never in a group. Maybe I just said group and you started like hyperventilating because the thought of connecting with people you don't know just freaks you out a little bit. Okay, like I'm not going to somebody's house that I don't know. We realize this. That's a big step. I used to tell people because I love groups. I love people. Hey, if you're just contending church, come over to our house on Thursday night and join our group. And I realize that's for some people going, there is no way I'm walking to a stranger's house like that. So, let me give you a crawl step. Okay, crawl. Simply participate in a [music] community event. Like, Keith, what's a community event? We've just began these where we look at the seasons of life. Maybe the 20 and 30 year olds, maybe the 40 and 50 year olds, maybe the retired people. We have different seasons, different community, seasons of life community events. And there's no commitment. It's a onetime deal. We had one at our house, Denise and I, a few weeks ago for some, 40, 50, and 60 year olds. And guess what we did? We played bunko. Okay? There was nothing spiritual about it. It was simply for people together. And you're like, "Oh, they're not as strange as I thought they were. They're nicer than I thought they were. I think I might like to get to know that person better." [music] So, if you've never been in a group before, but you're like, "Oo, I'm not sure about this." Simply just sign up for a community event, and here's how you do that. On your connect card, on the back of it, write your name and just put, "Let me know about the next community events, and somebody will call you and help you figure out the best one for you to go to." That's the crawl. Okay. Now, maybe you're past that. Maybe you're like, "I know a few people. I just never prioritized it." So, here's the walk step. Join a group for a season. [music] Our groups, many of them run for eight weeks. Now, even if they long run longer than eight weeks, you can try it for eight weeks. We call them seasons. That way, you can try it. And if it's not for you, there's a chance to get out of it. We're starting our groups up the week after Labor Day. So, here's my commitment to you. If you know a few people, but you just haven't prioritized authentic community, you [music] haven't prioritized connecting, join a group just for this season. And if you get with those folks in that group and you meet weekly for eight weeks and it doesn't help you at all in your life, then if I was you, I'd jump out. Um, we Denise and I, other churches, we've joined groups before and after several weeks, we're going, "These just aren't our people." But we found another group that were our people, that ones we really connected with. And so, join a group. Now, run. Okay, some of you may be in a group. You're like, "Hey, I don't check. I got this one off. I'm following the past. I got the checkpoints. Let me share this with you. We still need more group leaders to start new groups. And I know what happens. You get in a group and you don't want to leave cuz these are my people. These are ones I love hanging out with. This is what I look forward to. And what happens if we're not careful? We become a church of holy huddles. So, we have to continually [music] be starting new groups. go back to our story. Who grew the most? Who did you experience Jesus the most besides the man on the mat? The four people lowering him down. And so maybe God's calling you. If you're interested, like Keith, I don't know what it means, but I'd like to know more what it means to maybe lead a group. Put your name on the connect [music] card and we will help you with that. But bottom line, connect. It is experiencing authentic community together. So Jesus, we come to you now

and you have designed your church, not South Subchurch, but your church. And I know this idea [music] of authentic community connecting in relationships beyond just saying good morning on a Sunday is part of your design. And may you lead us to that. In your name we pray. Amen.