0:00

are any of you biological

0:03

twins? In this space.

0:05

You're our biological twin with

0:08

him. Y'all

0:11

look nothing alike and have

0:13

different parents. So I'm confused. I

0:15

heard adopted him. Yes. You, you,

0:18

you went to the same store. Does

0:20

anyone know any biological twins? Anyone

0:23

that, yes. Yes. Do are, do these

0:25

twins look like very, very similar to each

0:27

other, like identical twins?

0:30

Have identical twins.

0:32

man, I always wanted to have an identical

0:34

twin. I grew up an only child, but I

0:36

thought, I thought, man, if I had an identical

0:38

twin, then like, could

0:41

they go to school for me and I could stay home?

0:43

And I would like, or, you know, what

0:45

I wanted more was like a clone because I thought, what if

0:47

my clone could go to school and we could come ho they could

0:49

come home and I'd just download the information

0:51

so I could do whatever I wanted. Or to

0:53

be able to have a twin and be able to pull

0:55

practical twin pranks. Have

0:57

any of you seen any twin pranks before?

1:00

I wanna show you one that I saw on

1:02

Instagram through the drive-through. Check this out.

1:07

Thank you. You

1:09

got another McChicken I gave you?

1:11

I gave it to you. So you have two orders? No,

1:14

this is just my first order. But didn't

1:16

uhhuh I. So

1:22

I saw another one where the person went. They literally,

1:24

they're like, I think I'm losing my mind.

1:27

And they just walked away. They just left.

1:29

I always wanted to be able to pull off twin pranks

1:31

like this. Well, we are starting a brand

1:33

new series called With You,

1:36

and this series is all about life in

1:38

community and what it's like to live life with

1:41

people because we know that we are made

1:43

for community. Specifically we're talking

1:45

about the church, which is who we are. We are here.

1:47

If you raise your hand, if you're in a church building right now,

1:50

Perfect. Most of you got that one pop

1:52

quiz, but you passed. Now there,

1:54

there have been a number of different statistics

1:56

that have come out. In fact, there was a newer study

1:59

that was just recently done on

2:01

isolation and loneliness, and it showed

2:03

that right now 36%

2:06

of all Americans on the other side of C O V

2:08

I D are battling with loneliness. That

2:10

includes 61%

2:12

of young adults. They didn't have a

2:14

statistic on youth and teenagers,

2:17

but if you think about yourself

2:19

or your school, how many of you would say that

2:21

amongst middle school and high school, it's somewhere around the same? Do

2:24

you think that it's around 60 ish percent of

2:26

people feel alone or isolated today?

2:29

Maybe 80. It might even be higher

2:31

amongst us, right? We spent a lot of time in

2:33

isolation or not around community.

2:36

In fact. The health effects

2:38

of social isolation are pretty

2:40

severe. Social isolation significantly

2:43

increases your risk of premature

2:46

death from all causes,

2:48

a risk that may rival smoking,

2:51

obesity, and physical inactivity.

2:53

Social isolation is associated with 50%

2:56

increased risk of dementia, which means

2:58

your ability to remember things and, and,

3:01

and the world and space around you. 50%

3:03

increase. Poor social relationships.

3:06

It was associated with a 29%

3:08

increase risk of heart disease and

3:10

a 32% increase risk

3:12

of stroke. It's also associated

3:15

with high rates of depression, anxiety,

3:17

suicide. It's among leading causes

3:20

of death and like things like heart failure

3:22

nearly four, increasing your risk

3:24

of death by like four times. So

3:27

all I'm saying is it's not good to be alone.

3:29

It's not good to be alone. And I know that right now,

3:31

especially on the other side of Covid, many of us

3:34

have spent a lot of our time alone.

3:36

That's why we're doing twin night. We're doing life

3:38

together. So America

3:41

has been described as the society

3:44

of hyper individualism. Someone

3:46

say hyper individualism. Hyper individualism.

3:48

You don't have to say it hyper. But yeah.

3:51

So say it one more time. Hyper individualism.

3:53

Hyper individualism. Okay. Hyper

3:56

means like excessive or

3:58

to a great extent. So when someone's really

4:00

hyper, it just means they have a lot of energy. And

4:02

so when we say individualistic, what that

4:04

means is years ago they used to describe

4:06

America as an individualistic society,

4:09

and now they say it's hyper individualistic

4:11

because we do so much of our life alone

4:14

and we've created some false narratives

4:16

in the world where we think I don't

4:18

need anyone else. In fact,

4:20

maybe I'm better off without other

4:22

people, or I'll just do things on my

4:24

own. I'll get it done faster. If I do it on

4:26

my own, I'll take care of myself. Nothing can get in the way

4:29

or keep me from my goals.

4:31

How many of you have watched Marvel before? Any Marvel

4:33

fans? There's a great villain.

4:36

I almost said in the Bible, there's a great villain

4:38

in the Marvel mcu. He

4:40

does a little, he did this. You, you know who I'm talking about. What's

4:42

his name? Yeah, theos. Okay.

4:44

This clip, this clip epitomizes

4:47

American society to me. Fine.

5:01

I'll do it myself. I'll do

5:04

it myself. Man,

5:06

I remember that clip showing up and I was like, whoa,

5:09

who is that? Cause I didn't know, cause I don't fall

5:11

in marbles. But I think that

5:13

so characterizes how

5:15

we often think in our life. We just think

5:17

I'll do it myself. We think things are

5:19

better off. If I'm on my own, I don't

5:21

need anyone else. And that's hyper individualism.

5:25

Nichols, what other things maybe have you noticed

5:27

about individualism? Yeah. You take a look at individualism

5:29

and it really just starts to change your mindset

5:31

to the sense of where you're saying, I am the

5:33

one who decides my future. Notice

5:36

how it says I am my, it's very individual,

5:39

self-oriented, and it's becoming to

5:41

the point where your individualistic mindset is

5:43

not welcoming and people seem dispensable

5:46

to your agenda, to your life, to your will, to

5:48

your way. And it turns it to

5:50

where you're, where ind individualism uses

5:52

we language for me motives.

5:55

Mm. Where you're going to a point where you're thinking about

5:57

how can I be a part of a group activity, or

5:59

how can I hang out with those people so myself can

6:01

be boosted in this status, in

6:03

this form? How can I make myself

6:05

more known by using other people? It's

6:08

really just turning that individualistic mindset

6:10

saying, I'm gonna do what I need to

6:12

do to become better than you. Mm.

6:15

So, I've noticed that too, where

6:18

a lot of our mindset is really fixed

6:20

on ourselves. And like what you're saying

6:22

Nichols, is when you look around at other

6:24

people, you actually can almost look at people

6:26

like stepping stones, you know, people

6:29

to use, resources to use to get you where

6:31

you want to go. And

6:33

anything else on that that you wanna say? So

6:37

what's the result of a hyper individualistic

6:40

society? Well, number one,

6:42

it's isolation. We

6:44

live in a society where majority of

6:46

people today feel isolated. People

6:49

are discouraged, and, and

6:51

what happens then is we begin to face really,

6:53

really hard things in our lives, and

6:55

we're doing it entirely alone. And

6:58

what we want you to know today, our first point for

7:00

the day is that we cannot do

7:02

life alone. We

7:04

cannot. The truth is

7:06

that we can't, no matter how much

7:08

you want to, no matter how much you

7:10

wanna try, The thing.

7:13

The reason is because we were not made to,

7:15

in the very beginning of the Bible,

7:17

where this is where we as Christians, we wanna

7:19

find our understanding of the world. We go straight to the

7:21

Book of Exodus. Exodus chapters one

7:23

through three is really the beginning

7:25

of the creation story. But what we see is

7:28

God creates, I know. What

7:30

did I say? Exodus? Yeah. Yeah. I apologize. Thanks for,

7:32

thanks for connection. Connect, grabbing it for me. So

7:35

Genesis chapters one through three oftentimes

7:37

considered the creation story God

7:39

creates. And then you have the

7:41

fall in chapter three, and

7:43

what we see is God creates man and

7:46

he, he makes man, he says, he looks

7:48

at him and he says it's good, but over time he says,

7:51

Hmm, it's not good. That man should

7:53

be what? Alone.

7:55

And so what he does is he creates woman. Woman

7:57

becomes a helper, a partner in

8:00

life, showing that man was not made

8:02

to be alone. In fact, God exists

8:04

as a trinity. We say God

8:06

exists as one being in three persons.

8:08

Who's that? Father, son, and

8:11

Holy Spirit. So even within

8:13

God's very nature, he exists

8:15

in a community with himself where

8:17

love is expressed, relationship

8:19

is had. Even within his

8:21

nature, there is this togetherness. He

8:24

made us to be with him. Fast forward

8:26

to Noah and the flood. Many

8:28

of you might know the story. Noah is

8:30

commissioned to build a great arc,

8:32

and when he builds that arc, he is summoned

8:35

to get two of every animal

8:37

to, to really simplify the story. Two of every

8:39

animal. Why does he need two of every animal?

8:42

Because when the world gets flooded and

8:44

everything dies, and

8:46

those animals need to repopulate, they

8:49

need to. You need a partner.

8:51

So what it shows us is in the very

8:54

fabric of God's creation,

8:57

we are not meant to do things alone. God

8:59

is not alone in that. He's in community with himself.

9:02

He makes man, and he makes him in community with

9:04

another. He takes the creatures and he puts

9:06

it into the fabric of the DNA and the

9:09

patterns of the world that we do life

9:12

together. We cannot, and

9:14

we're not made to do life alone. Yeah.

9:16

And looking at that, we understand that.

9:19

Very important aspect. We can't do life alone and we

9:21

can look forward into Acts chapter two

9:23

verses 44 through 47. I'm reading out

9:25

of the n l t says, and all the believers

9:28

met together in one place and shared

9:30

everything they had. They sold their property

9:32

and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

9:35

They worshiped together at the temple

9:37

each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper

9:39

and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.

9:42

All the while praising God and enjoying

9:44

the goodwill of all the people. And each day

9:46

the Lord added to their fellowship, those

9:48

who were being saved. So you look at this example

9:50

of the first church, and it's really just showing

9:53

that community as a necessity. It's

9:55

something where it's every part of that scripture

9:57

says they did everything together. Together,

10:00

that key word. They could not do life

10:02

alone. It wasn't an option for them. They shared meals,

10:04

they met together, they worshiped God

10:06

together. The busyness of the world did

10:09

not stop them from being in community.

10:11

Mm. So many things are trying to pull you away

10:13

saying, Hey, come do this. You have this story

10:15

about, you have this story about when God's saying, be

10:17

with my people and learn to love me and worship

10:19

me together. So looking

10:21

at that, you understand here that they praise

10:23

God together and lived in that freedom. They

10:26

had everything and did

10:28

everything together. That's cool.

10:30

When you look at, so we look at the creation story

10:32

through the Bible, and then we look to

10:34

the New Testament and the establishment

10:37

of the church in the Book of Acts,

10:39

and everything that defines them is that

10:41

they do life together. Everything

10:43

is in common. Everything is shared. So

10:45

not only can we not do life

10:48

alone, Number two, we

10:50

need to know that we were actually made for

10:52

each other. And there's a really cool scripture passage.

10:54

Nichols is gonna read outta Corinthians, that

10:56

shows us that God made us

10:59

for each other. Yeah. First Corinthians

11:01

12, 12 through 21

11:03

says, the human body has many parts,

11:05

but the many parts make up one whole body.

11:08

So it is what the body of Christ. Some

11:10

of us are Jews, some are gentiles, some

11:12

are slaves, and some are free. We have

11:14

all been baptized into one body

11:17

by one spirit, and we all share the same

11:19

spirit. Yes, the body has many

11:21

different parts, not just one part. If the foot

11:23

says, I am not a part of the body because I

11:25

am not a hand, that does not make it any

11:27

less a part of the body. And if the ear

11:29

says, I am not a part of the body because I

11:31

am not an eye, would that make it any

11:33

less a part of the body? If the whole body

11:36

were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole

11:38

body were an ear, how would you smell

11:40

anything? But our bodies have many

11:42

parts and God has put each part just

11:44

where he wants it. How strange a body

11:47

would be if it only had one part. Yes,

11:49

there are many parts, but only one body

11:52

that I can never say to the hand, I don't need

11:54

you, and the head can't say to the feet, I don't

11:56

need you. I'm sorry. I have

11:58

all sorts of, we'll get to this in

12:00

my head. Just how many of you seen

12:02

a like a Mr. Potato Head before? Okay,

12:05

that'll help me. Thank you. Some of you. So there's

12:07

two really simple lessons from

12:09

this passage right here. Number one is that

12:11

you cannot do life alone. You

12:13

cannot say, I am not part

12:15

of the body. I'm just gonna do life

12:17

on my own. I'm gonna do it alone. Like if you are

12:19

the arm in Christ's body and you're

12:21

like, you know what? I don't need you body boop, and you

12:23

detached yourself, what is gonna happen?

12:27

You are the arm. What's gonna happen?

12:31

Your arm's gonna shrim up and it's going to

12:34

decay and it's gonna die because a

12:36

body part, a limb, a finger, a

12:38

toe, an ear, an eye, it

12:40

cannot exist on its own. And

12:42

when God says you are part of the body,

12:44

what he is telling us is do not try to detach

12:46

yourself. The moment you try to detach

12:49

yourself from the body is the moment you

12:51

sentence yourself to death. You

12:53

were not made to do life alone.

12:55

The other is that you are

12:57

such an essential part of the body.

13:00

Not only can you not do life alone,

13:02

but look, look across the aisle, look at someone

13:04

across the aisle. Make eye contact with someone. They

13:07

cannot do life without you. Now,

13:10

many of us think, I don't know if that's true.

13:12

Maybe you looked at someone, you said, we don't even cross

13:14

paths a lot during the day, but think

13:16

about this, when you have the body of

13:18

Christ, what that means is I'm some role,

13:20

I don't know what I would be. I don't know if I'd be an eyeball

13:22

or. Toenail. I'd

13:24

probably be like a, I'd be a hangnail or

13:26

something. I don't know. I don't know what

13:28

part of the body I am,

13:31

but what I do know, what I do

13:33

know is when you are here

13:35

and you are here and our leaders are together

13:38

and we're in a room together, we thrive

13:40

together in ways that we cannot alone. Yeah, because

13:42

I have a personality and I have a certain gift

13:45

set, but you know what? Each one of you

13:47

has a different personality and a different

13:49

gift set, and you see the world differently. And

13:51

when you use your gifts and you use your talents

13:53

and you share your personality within the

13:55

body of Christ, we all thrive

13:57

together. And so if you feel like

13:59

you maybe are not valuable, maybe

14:02

you don't feel like you're significant or you don't have

14:04

anything to offer, this scripture even says

14:06

to us that all these parts belong

14:08

together and that we all need each

14:10

other. And I think it's important for us to know, friends,

14:13

we can't do life without you. You

14:15

are essential. You are important.

14:18

And we need you. We

14:20

need you in the body of Christ. Anything else

14:22

you'd add to that Nichols? Yeah. What we're really trying to say

14:24

here is you cannot support yourself.

14:27

You need others. You need the body of Christ,

14:29

you need community, and you need Jesus.

14:31

So looking at this, you think of like what Khalil's saying,

14:33

just to reemphasize like. If you're an arm

14:35

or an eye trying to see something

14:38

and do something, you can't get there without the legs.

14:41

You can't get there without the legs. You can't make these things

14:43

happen. So what you need is the rest

14:45

of the body to just support you with every single

14:47

part of what you're doing. You need community. Yeah,

14:50

so that's what that first part of

14:52

the scripture says, but it continues on Nichols,

14:54

can you read the next part of the chapter? Yeah. Continuing

14:56

from verse 22, it says, in fact, some

14:58

parts of the body that seem weakest and least

15:01

important are actually the most necessary.

15:04

The parts we regard as less honorable

15:06

are those we cloth with the greatest care, so

15:08

we carefully protect those parts that should not be

15:10

seen while the more honorable parts do

15:12

not require this special care. So God

15:15

has put the body together such that extra

15:17

honor and care are given to those parts

15:19

that have less dignity. This

15:21

makes for harmony among the members so that

15:23

all the members care for each other. If

15:25

one part suffers, all the parts suffer with

15:28

it. And if one part is honored, all

15:30

the parts are glad. All of you together

15:32

are Christ body and each of you is a part

15:34

of it. So we just said

15:36

this, right? But if you think you

15:38

don't matter, these are lies that we often

15:40

believe. I don't matter. I'm not significant.

15:43

I wouldn't be missed if I was gone. And

15:46

we talked about the fact these are lies that we can

15:48

believe. Sometimes I, I can think the same

15:51

thing as I think, man, if I, if I just poof,

15:53

if I just vanished, would the world miss

15:55

me? Do I, do I even make

15:57

a difference? Am I even significant

15:59

on this planet? What the scripture is

16:01

telling you is that you are as

16:04

part of the body of Christ, you are, you are essential.

16:07

And sometimes we look at other people

16:09

and we go, man, I wish I had their

16:11

gifting, or I wish I had their personality,

16:14

or I wish I was as cool as they are, as popular

16:17

as they are, man, they're, I used to do this in class.

16:19

I used to say, man, they're just so witty. They're like so clever.

16:21

And I was like, I wish I was quicker. Like we

16:23

compare ourselves to other people. What's essentially happening

16:26

is you an essential part of the body.

16:28

Looking at another part and going, I wish I was that

16:30

part. Oh, I'm just an eye. I wish

16:32

I was a hand. Or, oh, I'm, I'm

16:35

a kneecap. I wish I was an eyeball.

16:37

Like I wish I was a hair follicle. We,

16:40

we look at other, we look at

16:42

other people, and this is

16:44

the, this is the consequence of

16:46

not understanding our identity in the body of

16:48

Christ, is that we think our role is

16:50

somehow less significant. I

16:53

think that somehow we're less than others. But

16:55

again, we need you. And the

16:57

beautiful thing about a body friends

17:00

is that there is beauty in diversity. One

17:03

of my favorite things is when we look

17:05

across the room and we see different ethnicities

17:07

and we see different heights and we see a different,

17:09

all the diversity. There's beauty in

17:11

diversity because it gives us a brighter

17:13

picture of who God truly is. If I

17:16

just looked at myself, this was all

17:18

I saw, I wouldn't know much

17:20

about God. But when I see

17:22

all the diversity and I realize, no, that's

17:24

a God's image bearer. They represent

17:27

God in some way. They have his character, his nature

17:29

together across the planet,

17:32

across cultures, across the

17:34

globe. We see the body

17:36

of Christ and who Jesus really

17:38

is. This is important because

17:40

we are made for each other.

17:42

Yeah, and so with that, if you think

17:44

that you're weak, Not important

17:46

that you don't belong or don't matter. What

17:49

God is telling you is that we were made for

17:51

each other. Mm-hmm. We were made to bring value

17:53

to our differences. Understand that we were made uniquely,

17:56

beautifully and wonderfully and fearfully made.

17:59

When we understand that we were, we are made to

18:01

bring value to our differences. We are

18:03

killing comparison, we're killing

18:06

comparison. So we don't

18:08

all serve the same purpose. We don't all do the same

18:10

thing, look alike or anything,

18:12

but we're all unique. Our individual

18:14

characteristics work together and

18:16

that's the point. Good.

18:19

So point number three, Nichols hit us with

18:21

it. So godly community makes

18:24

burdens lighter. So we can touch back

18:26

on what we were talking about and how there are several

18:28

things that like. Isolation

18:30

just brings, it brings discouragement

18:32

and where, to the point where you're facing hard things

18:35

and you feel like there's no one around you to support you.

18:37

But we can look at like just the image that's shown

18:39

in Ecclesiastes four 12. The strand

18:42

of three cords isn't easily broken,

18:44

and we understand that every person who carries burdens

18:47

when they try to overcome it, they begin to feel

18:49

isolated. They begin to feel discouraged and

18:51

face the hard things with no one to help them. But

18:53

you see, when we're in community, we become

18:56

stronger. What we say here at

18:58

Pulse is that we are stronger together. And that's

19:00

not just a slogan, it's truth, it's

19:02

truth, and we speak it because when we're in

19:04

a community, the weight and the worries of the world

19:06

don't hit us as hard because when we begin

19:09

to let our Godly community encourage us

19:11

and walk with us, we grow to be

19:13

stronger together. And with that,

19:15

that's living in a godly community that supports

19:17

you because Jesus is the center. Good.

19:20

Now look at that photo of that

19:23

rope. It's

19:25

a rope wrapped around a couple times. Thank you friends.

19:28

Here's what I, here's what I noticed about the rope. I,

19:31

I didn't grow up on a farm, but my grandparents

19:33

had a farm and we had horses. And so, they

19:36

would, they would bail the hay

19:38

with baling twine. And the baling

19:40

twine was super tight

19:42

cuz it would go through the machine and

19:44

it would bail it and it would be like compressed.

19:47

And one of my favorite things to do,

19:49

When I figured this out was I would go up to it

19:51

and I would take a knife and I would go to the bailing twine,

19:54

and I would cut it really, really slowly because

19:56

it's made up of a bunch of different strands. And I'd

19:58

see them go, like, they'd start

20:00

popping and then eventually just go, and

20:02

then it would like pop open. I like, yeah, I

20:04

was classic guy. Right. Just like that's,

20:08

that was my reward. Yeah. But what

20:11

was. What I would do with that is I would

20:13

cut a bun, I would cut it, and they would all kind

20:15

of, until it was down to just a couple

20:17

holding on, and then they would, it would explode.

20:20

But you and I alone

20:23

are like one little strand of that rope.

20:26

And on our own we are not that strong

20:29

and we face incredible pressure in the world,

20:32

constantly pressing on us on

20:34

our own. We constantly feel like we're about

20:36

to snap. But what we want you to

20:38

know as we're talking through this series, we're gonna be talking

20:40

about communal disciplines and what it looks

20:42

like to do life together in the church,

20:44

how God surrounds us with this community

20:47

that brings light and life to us.

20:49

We cannot do life alone. We were not

20:51

made to do life alone. And

20:53

the great encouragement for you who maybe

20:55

is alone or feels isolated, or who, who

20:57

hasn't been in community much lately

21:00

is that burdens are lighter.

21:03

In community because that rope

21:05

is so much stronger when it's surrounded by other

21:07

strands and it doesn't break

21:09

when it has others. That rope can stand

21:11

incredible force, but if you were to try to separate

21:14

it and just have one of those, it would break on its

21:16

own. That's us on our own. And

21:18

so when Nichols quoted that Ecclesiastes

21:21

passage that says A strand of three

21:23

cords is not easily broken, you

21:25

know what it's talking about. It's

21:27

talking about having good friendship. Yeah. Good

21:30

community around you. Because when

21:32

I might be struggling, when you might be in

21:34

a place where you're like, man, I'm battling all this on my own

21:36

and I'm overwhelmed and I'm, and I'm burning out.

21:38

I don't know if I can hold on. I don't know

21:40

if I can keep going or keep believing

21:43

or keep persevering. It's just hard.

21:45

When you come into Godly community and you

21:47

share that here in small groups and with your

21:49

leaders, and we pray for each other, you know what happens?

21:52

We encourage one another and we speak words

21:54

that build up and we might remind one another

21:56

of the scriptures and of God's promises

21:58

and who he promises to be in your life.

22:00

And we go, man, that's hard. I'm sorry.

22:03

How can I help? And we come in together. And

22:05

you know what? While on your own, you

22:07

may have been easily broken in community,

22:10

you can stand strong. Do

22:12

not find yourself isolated. When

22:15

you have God's people here to

22:17

do community with. And

22:19

as we're closing and wrapping up this time,

22:22

there's one more thing we want you to know about

22:25

the church. We want you to know that

22:27

all that we long for all

22:30

that we long for in this life and in this world can

22:32

be found in the church. Now,

22:35

as I thought about that sentence, I believe that with

22:37

all of my heart, but I also thought,

22:39

man, if I say that, I don't know if people will believe

22:41

me if I say everything

22:43

you hope for. What do you want? What

22:46

do you long for? Acceptance,

22:49

belonging, purpose,

22:52

identity, community.

22:56

What do you long for? Value? You

22:58

want a life of significance. Everything

23:01

we long for is found

23:04

is the church. Why? Because

23:06

everything we need is found in God and

23:09

God has given us a people where

23:11

we can find him. Where we can experience

23:14

him through others, where we

23:16

can experience purpose and mission

23:19

and life and value and identity and

23:21

security where we can experience love.

23:23

I lived outside of the church for so long and I felt

23:25

alone. I felt like no one saw me. I didn't feel

23:27

like I mattered. And you know what happened? When

23:29

I became a Christian, I came into the church,

23:32

I started getting surrounded by people where I was just like, why are they so

23:34

nice? Like, why are they so

23:36

nice? I know the church isn't perfect. But

23:38

why is that person they're giving me like food and stuff

23:40

and like they're thinking about me and, and they're

23:42

asking how I'm doing. Why do they care so much?

23:45

And it was weird for me because I wasn't finding

23:47

it other places in the world. But pretty soon

23:49

I realized it's because God

23:51

exists in this community. God

23:54

exists in the body of Christ. And when

23:56

I put myself in the middle of the

23:58

body of Christ, I get to experience

24:00

the fullness of Christ around me. And I'm surrounded

24:02

by his love, and I'm surrounded by his care

24:05

and his goodness. And in that place, I found

24:07

identity that I never knew I needed. I found

24:09

the belonging I was looking for.

24:11

I found brothers and sisters

24:13

and friends and family that

24:15

I needed in a family that I

24:17

have. That very much

24:19

is they're lone wolves. They do things on their

24:21

own. We don't not always have each other's back, but

24:24

in the church we do. And so

24:26

I found a family in the church that

24:28

I couldn't find elsewhere, and

24:30

I want you to know that

24:33

for those of us who recognize that Jesus

24:35

is Lord, that he is our God. We

24:38

attach ourselves to this body. We don't isolate

24:40

ourselves, but we, we plug into this community.

24:43

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

24:45

That means the moment you receive Jesus'

24:47

Lord, his Holy Spirit fills, fills

24:50

your heart and your life and he begins to flow

24:52

from you. Scripture says, it's no longer I

24:54

who live but Christ who lives in me. You

24:57

become someone who actually exudes

24:59

God's love, and that's why we need you,

25:02

and that's why we need community with each other.

25:04

We are guided and taught. And

25:06

empowered by the Holy Spirit

25:09

in this community. There is something that

25:11

happens here. Friends say church, church,

25:13

something that happens here in the church, not

25:16

the building, but in this body of believers,

25:18

that cannot happen anywhere else because

25:21

nowhere else or there people in

25:23

dwelt with the actual spirit of God.

25:27

This community is different. I dunno,

25:29

some of you may have begun to experience that.

25:32

But we are united by what Jesus has done

25:34

for us. And the Bible tells us that the relationships

25:36

that happen in the body of Christ can

25:38

be stronger than family, stronger

25:41

than family, stronger than blood. Why? Because

25:43

we're not united necessarily by our

25:45

parents' blood, but we're united by the blood

25:47

of Christ and what he has done

25:50

for us. It's

25:52

important. This body is different,

25:55

and we just wanna speak to the importance

25:57

of the church. The importance for you

25:59

to be a part of the church cuz you cannot do life

26:01

alone and the importance for you to

26:03

be in the church because we

26:05

need you, we need you, we

26:08

need your gifts, we need what God has put

26:10

within you. That's what makes the church the

26:12

church. Nichols, have you found

26:14

that to be true or what's, what's your experience

26:16

with, with life in the church? Yeah.

26:18

So I I didn't grow up in a Christian home

26:21

when I was about eight years old. My parents divorced.

26:24

At that time I was living here in Albany, but

26:26

when my parents divorced, I was faced with the question, who do

26:28

you wanna live with? And I ended up moving

26:30

to Lebanon with my mom. And so I was in

26:32

this awkward place

26:34

where I was just battling because I

26:37

believed God had divided my family. And it

26:39

was just this whole thing where I

26:41

just fell into this isolation because I moved to

26:43

a different town. I didn't have my friends, I didn't have my people.

26:46

My dad cut me out for a year. I couldn't talk to

26:48

my dad, so I was just stuck in this place.

26:50

And my mom was sad and I was just on

26:52

my own. For a long time going through

26:54

middle school and like, some of high school

26:57

too. It was just isolation and just this feeling

26:59

of like, I don't have people, I

27:01

don't have a community, I don't have a family that loves

27:03

me. Just all these thoughts saying, you

27:05

don't matter, you're alone. And then

27:07

I remember coming around fifth

27:10

grade, middle school is when I started coming to like youth group

27:12

and stuff and started learning, learning these new truths.

27:15

But around fifth grade, one of my friends that

27:17

I made in Lebanon invited me

27:19

to come to church. I said, sure.

27:22

If you stop inviting me, cuz he was asking me for a

27:24

long time. And I came,

27:26

I got to play a game, I won. I was like, this is

27:28

sick. I want to come back. And

27:30

so then I came back and then they let me

27:32

play a game again. And at that point

27:34

I just kept coming to the youth group and

27:37

I started to realize that the people there, every time

27:39

I came I was always greeted with a smile.

27:42

I was always greeted with someone saying, hi, how was your week?

27:45

And then I started to feel seen. Started

27:47

to feel heard. I could see that the, that there was something

27:49

different because most people who had ever asked me

27:51

that question only asked it once and never followed up.

27:55

But then when I came to this place to be asked

27:57

that week and week again, people said, Hey,

27:59

you talked about this last week. How's that

28:01

going? How are you doing

28:03

with that? I started to feel heard.

28:06

I felt like I could open up. My heart started to soften.

28:08

I was like, what is this? What

28:10

is happening in these people's lives that's making

28:12

them want to say hi to me? And

28:15

then seeing how. Coming

28:18

into seventh grade, I went to Oregon Youth Convention

28:20

and there was a speaker there and

28:23

I remember him saying something along the lines of, don't

28:26

let the pain of your family stop

28:28

you from receiving the love of Jesus.

28:30

Something along those lines. Paraphrasing. And

28:33

then I remember hitting that hit me and I had a conversation

28:35

with our youth pastor that day, and I

28:38

gave my life to Jesus in seventh grade. And

28:40

I, at first I was like, this is awesome. I

28:42

don't really know what I'm doing, but I love this cause I feel.

28:45

Something I've never felt. And then after a

28:47

couple weeks of that and stuff, just really

28:49

diving into what that meant, I started to learn what

28:52

a godly community is and how

28:54

to live in that and how to receive the love

28:56

from this community because it was Jesus

28:59

loving me through people. And

29:01

so seeing how I came from a place of isolation

29:04

to learning how to receive love from people

29:06

was huge for me because I, it's something I never

29:09

got to experience coming out of a place

29:11

where all I'd ever experienced was loneliness.

29:14

All I'd ever experienced was feeling like

29:16

I don't matter to

29:18

seeing a place where there was someone

29:20

kind enough to say, Hey, I see you

29:23

and I wanna know how you're doing because I love you

29:25

and because Jesus loves you. And

29:28

when people say Jesus loves you. Yeah.

29:30

That's a cliche thing to say that to most people,

29:32

but it's truth. It's truth. So

29:34

when someone's saying that, that's what I'm saying with

29:36

Jesus, I love you too. That's

29:39

the love of Jesus flowing in and through people.

29:42

And it's that godly community that's reaching out

29:44

saying, Hey, we want to do life with you. We

29:46

want to support you. We want to encourage you. We

29:48

want to push you and challenge you to become something

29:50

better than you are right now because there is

29:53

so much potential and God has a lot for you.

29:55

And that's something I began

29:57

to receive and something I began to see when

30:00

I began stepping into a godly community.

30:05

God is in the business of. Changing

30:08

lives of making

30:10

us new, of filling us with all that we need.

30:13

And it's very common today

30:15

for people to say, oh, you know, I don't, I don't go to church,

30:17

but I have like my own faith. You know, I

30:20

know, I know Jesus. I, I have my own thing. But,

30:24

but if you believe in Jesus

30:26

and you find yourself alone, you are a body

30:29

part detached from the body. You

30:31

will wither, you will suffer, you will,

30:33

you will die. You will get swallowed up

30:35

by the world. Right now

30:37

I knowing that a majority of people,

30:40

you guys told me somewhere between 60

30:42

and 80% maybe of middle school

30:45

and high schoolers feel completely

30:47

isolated. Here's the one thing I know

30:51

the world can't do community like

30:54

the church can. Why? Because

30:56

the world is not filled with the presence of God.

30:59

We are your peers

31:01

are. We need each other.

31:04

We were made for each other. We're

31:07

made to do this life together, and

31:09

so we're gonna have some fun together. I'm

31:11

gonna, we're gonna laugh and,

31:14

and make the music loud here in a minute.

31:16

Amen. But before we do, before

31:19

we do, before we laugh, laugh, laugh. Ha

31:21

ha ha ha. I wanna speak to

31:23

what we're talking about right now. I wanna invite you to just close your

31:25

eyes for a minute and

31:28

to just ask, let me ask you, you

31:30

don't have to answer out loud, it's rhetorical,

31:32

but it's to get you to think. This is, this

31:34

is Khalil. Who cares about you? You're a pastor. This

31:37

is, this is Nichols and your leaders here. How

31:40

are you doing? How

31:43

are you doing? Two

31:46

years of some tough stuff, isolation,

31:50

school at home, online classes.

31:54

Maybe you're back in the building, but you just

31:56

don't feel present. Maybe

32:00

you're around your family, but you just don't feel seen.

32:03

How are you doing right

32:07

now? You know, man, I feel isolated. I

32:09

feel worn down. I feel alone,

32:13

and I know that I, I need a change.

32:16

It all begins with a relationship with Jesus.

32:19

It all starts with calling him your Lord

32:21

and Savior so that he can come

32:23

into your heart and rescue you. The

32:26

Bible will tells us that when we receive Jesus,

32:29

that his spirit comes and fills our

32:31

heart. And it says that he will never

32:33

leave you or abandon you, and

32:35

it's his presence in your heart.

32:38

That is the fulfillment of that promise. He

32:40

never goes anywhere because he is always

32:42

with you and he surrounds

32:44

you with his community. Yes,

32:47

I know we're not perfect. Not

32:49

yet, but God is using

32:52

this imperfect church is imperfect

32:54

people to perfect you, to

32:57

show you his love, to draw

32:59

you into new life. To show you who

33:01

he is for you. So

33:04

I want to just pray for you. If you do not have a

33:06

relationship with Jesus, today's the

33:08

day. Today's the day to come

33:10

into this fellowship. You see it on the wall,

33:12

it says, welcome home. You can have that

33:14

people and that home. Now you can have God's

33:16

presence. Now you just simply pray and say, God,

33:19

forgive me for living apart from you. Become

33:22

the Lord of my life. Fill

33:24

my heart with your presence. Be

33:26

with me. Be with me.

33:29

And from this point forward, he promises that he will

33:31

be, and you just keep being

33:34

in his presence. You just keep coming

33:36

and being in community so that you can experience

33:38

his love poured out upon you. Not

33:40

always perfect, I know, but

33:43

more and more each day, it

33:45

all starts with a relationship with Jesus. And

33:47

if you do have a relationship with Jesus, and for all

33:49

of us here, as we battle isolation, as

33:52

we continue to live the rest of our lives in a hyper

33:54

individualistic society. A

33:56

world that looks out for itself and only

33:59

itself, a world that's willing to use

34:01

you for its own advantage. A place where you

34:03

might not feel like you

34:05

are seen or you have community, or you can

34:08

be known right now. I just wanna pray

34:10

for you who feels alone and

34:12

with our eyes still closed. If that's you, I just wanna invite

34:15

you to put your hands out, kinda like you're just

34:17

gonna receive a really good gift and

34:19

to just in faith, put your hands on and

34:22

and pray with me. I'm just gonna pray

34:24

that God would, Give you his

34:26

presence that he would speak into this loneliness.

34:29

But God, right now, you see these hands out. Mine

34:31

are out. You see

34:33

these hands that are out

34:36

to say, I need something I don't have.

34:39

Our hands are out to say we feel alone. We feel

34:41

I isolated. Some maybe

34:43

feel abandoned, some don't feel seen. But

34:45

God, right now, May you fill them with

34:48

your Holy Spirit and show them that they are seen,

34:50

that you love them, that you know them, that you value

34:53

them, that they're here on purpose and for a purpose

34:55

that that heart beating in their chest is the reminder

34:57

that you have a plan for their life right now.

34:59

Would you just surround them with your warm,

35:02

encouraging presence? Go with them, meet

35:04

them in their bedrooms while they're alone, that

35:06

they would realize, wow, I'm not alone cuz I'm with

35:09

God. And right now, God, as they continue

35:11

forward, would you just continue to surround them with people who

35:13

love you? Who can show them your

35:15

love, God, who can speak to those

35:17

pain points and those fears and those worries

35:20

show them who they are in you. And

35:22

right now, God, as we commit to being the church

35:24

and doing life together, I pray that

35:26

you would use us to show your love to one

35:28

another, and that we would just continue to experience you

35:30

more and more each day. We

35:32

thank you for your presence. We thank you for this

35:34

gift that we are receiving. It's in Jesus'

35:36

name we pray. Amen.