For The Community - Pastor Abbie Sawczak.

We're going to spend some time talking about how to live for the community. We're talking about this in the context of our Christ-centered community and the body of Christ. How do we live for the community? Our main teaching text that we're going to be diving into is going to be from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and it's all about the body of Christ. And then of course Acts 2 verse 42. I would consider both of these when it comes to community. If you've been around church for any amount of time, they're kind of like the classics. You know, like if you're going to talk about community and you didn't use one of these verses, I don't know if you did it right. But at the same time, even though they're like the classics, we still need to hear them. I don't know if you have those scriptures in your life, but it's like, okay, obviously if we didn't need to hear these, we would probably all have thriving, healthy community in our life all the time.

But these are some of those classics that, yes, they can be repetitive, but also have so much richness and so much truth. We are going to read all of 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 12 through verse 31. It's a lot, but I believe in us. We can do it. I'm going to be reading out of the New Living Translation, but if you have your Bible app, or if you ever need a Bible, stop by the welcome table. We'd love to get one in your hands. But would you join me as we read 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12.

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free, but we have been all baptized into one body by one spirit, and we all share the same spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand, that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, I am not part of the body because I am not an eye, would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if the whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything, but our bodies have many parts and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it only had one part. Just visualize that for a second. How strange if we just had like all feet and no hands or hot dogs for fingers, anyone, if you get that. How strange a body would be if it had only one part. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. The head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard less than honorable are those we clothe with greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen. Well, the most honorable parts do not require the special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members so that all members care for each other. If one part suffers, all parts suffer with it. And if one part is honored, all parts are glad. All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church. first apostles, second prophets, third are teachers, and then those who do miracles. Those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, and those who speak in unknown languages. Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not. So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you the way of life that is best of all.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Prayer for open hearts

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word today. And God, even just the truth that we're reading, that you have a special plan for each and every one of us in this room. That you knew exactly what you were doing when you created us in your image and that we all have a part to play. And we thank you for that, God. We thank you that you see us as valuable, as good, as people that you want to use to partner with to continue to see your kingdom come here in this place and in this city.

And so we thank you for that, God. And we just pray that you would help us to have open hearts as we continue to hear from your word today. Would you help us to have open ears to hear what it is that you want to say and those hearts that are just ready to receive the good, the hard, the things that are going to lead to transformation. And so we just ask that your Holy Spirit would come and speak. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

All right, can you turn to the person next to you and say, you are different, but I need you. Turn to them and say, you are different, but I need you. The reality is what we're reading here today is that there are many parts of the body. Some of them are a little different. We are all a little different. Can I get an amen to that? We're all a little different, but we need each other. You need the person sitting next to you. You need the person in this room that you've never met and maybe have no plans to meet. Some of you, Betty, I see you shaking your head at me there, but we all need each other. We all need each other.

The body of Christ is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. That we were not created to do life alone, but rather to do life in community with each other. That he left us one another to walk with, to journey with, to support one another. In Acts 2 verse 42, when it talks about the early church, it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. After Jesus was here on earth and he left his disciples to continue his mission of making disciples of all nations, reconciling people back to him, they started what was the early church, and then we continued to grow and grow and grow, and somehow we get here today to this type of church model.

But if you look at what God intended for community, I think some of these core principles still ring true today. To be devoted to one another, to be devoted to listening to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to sharing meals around the table, and to praying for one another. Our communities that we have here at church, as we mentioned, are going to be neighborhood-based or area-based. And so much of that is that we want to create communities that still look like this, not because the early church was perfect, but because there's still truth to those core values of saying that we were created not to live life in isolation, but to have moments where we sit around a table with one another and we share a meal. So in our church communities, we love having food.

Sometimes it's just chips and salsa because we don't have time to cook. Sometimes it might be a nacho bar or whatever that looks like. But creating space to consistently share meals together. We have times where we pray for one another because we realize that there's moments in our life where you're going to show up to people around you and you might not have the words to pray anymore and you need your sister or your brother or that person in this room that you don't know yet to come alongside and say, I'm going to pray for you.

The crisis of community

But unfortunately, today we're in a culture where community like God created us to live in is really hard to come by. Community where you truly have people that are giving their all and are coming and bringing all that they have to the table is hard to come by. It's been said recently. I'm going to give a shout out to my good friend, Austin Woodford. He just wrote a book that I'll probably be sharing more soon that I just got my hands on.

And he says this about community, that we are hyper-connected, but we are relationally starved. That we are hyper-connected, but relationally starved. Think about it. Depending on what social media platform, it might be friends or it might be followers, but we can be connected to hundreds of thousands of people still not feel like we have any true real friends. We are more connected than ever in this day and age, yet this upcoming generation is known to be one of the most loneliest generations of all where anxiety, depression is skyrocketing.

Why is that if we are more connected than ever? Could it be because we are still missing what it looks like to live as a community of believers as the body of Christ? How God created us to live? So if you're here today and maybe you're in a place where you're like I struggle with loneliness or I struggle to know who to call when I really need something, can I tell you that you were created for so much more than that? And that there is potential for you to have life-giving relationships where you don't feel that brokenness or disconnectedness, but instead have relationships of intimacy and depth. But it is going to take commitment. It is going to take consistency and it is going to take you knowing the value that you bring to the room and contributing in every single space that you're in.

Our online connections that we have, although can be so good. And I am one of those people that I oddly do love social media and I think it can do some beautiful things, but they don't fulfill the craving for community that we were truly created for. So if you are craving more and you feel like you just can't be satisfied with where you're at, I want you to know that you were created for so much more. You were created for this deep, intimate relationship with Jesus, and you were created to be a part of the body of Christ, where you experience a glimpse of that relationship right here on earth. And the reality is like we just can't do it alone.

One of my good friends a couple years ago said something to me that I'll never forget. And she said, what I love most about when I meet people is recognizing that every time I meet someone, they represent a different piece of who God is, a different piece of his image and his heart. And they bring something that I'll never experience with any other person again to the table. That's the beauty of the body of Christ. That's the beauty of each and every one of you here today. Is that when I look across this room we're all different. We all look a little different. But I'm looking at people who were created in the image of God. And you have something valuable to bring. You represent a different piece of God's heart that I'm only going to interact with when I interact with you. How cool is that? How special is that? That when I look into your eyes I get to see a piece of God's heart that I'm not going to see in the next person. But the next person I'm going to see something beautiful too.

And so what does it look like for us to truly follow Jesus example and to realize that when Jesus was here on earth that he created this new culture for community? When he invited his disciples in. What does it look like for us to now do the same? For us to not just say, well, this is how our world is now. And I guess this is how I have to live. But what if, just stream with me for a second, we said we too want to create that kind of community where we're for each other, where we're giving of ourselves?

And so that's what we're talking about today. That's the big so what is that when Jesus was here on earth, he created a new type of community and he's inviting us to do the same. But just to kind of sum it up, some of the things that I feel like would sum up the culture of our current community outside of the church and what we're fighting against right now is isolation, comparison, loneliness, distraction, transition, self-sufficiency, and consumerism. These are going to be some of the biggest barriers that we're going to face today in fighting for real community that God created us for.

But what does it look like for to be a part of the body of Christ? A body of that community that's committed to each other. That's consistent. That has true connection and is constantly contributing and adding to one another. Committed to breaking bread and sharing meals. But also consistent in showing up for one another like they did in the early church where they gave above and beyond.

There's an expert from a commentary that I wanted to read on this scripture in 1 Corinthians 12 where it says that there's several metaphors in this scripture talking about how the body of Christ, the church, is the living body of Christ today. The physical body of Christ that remains today is the church. The church is to be the hands, the feet, the eyes, and the ears of Christ. The most popular metaphor for this is found in what we read today in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul titles this section, One Body, Many Parts. And I'm going to read just a few more of those verses today.

For just as one body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body verse 18 says but as it is God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose 19 if all were a single member where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

1 Corinthians 12:12,18-20

You see, God did not design human life to be a bunch of humans that just randomly cross paths from time to time. Human life is meant to be interconnected and interdependent. Although each person has an individual call, there are things that God is going to invite you to do, it's all functioning not just with you, but in this greater story of what God has been doing for all of time. Community, this idea of coming together in unity, when we look at that word, to come together in unity, it is, it's in its original form, it is an act of giving oneself as a gift to the other in service and companionship. I want to read that again and if you're taking notes this is good to write down.

Community in its original form is an act of giving oneself as a gift to the other in service and companionship. If that is just a general way to describe coming together in unity, how much more should we be saying that about the body of Christ? That we're not seeing community and in church settings and our Christ-centered community is just a place where we show up and we receive or where we show up and we hope that we make some good friends and we have some fun memories. But what if we showed up and we saw it as coming together in unity and to give ourselves as an act of service, as an act of companionship, that we all came to give of ourselves, give of our part, give of the things that only we can give and only we can bring? How would that change our Christ-centered communities and the communities around us? Christ is calling us. He's inviting us to be a part of a community that's creating this culture that's not just about personal gain, but it's about personal giving.

And when we talk about culture and its customs, patterns, belief, it's in our church name, so we tend to talk about it a lot. But it's customs, it's patterns, it's beliefs, it's things that have been passed down for years to come. You see, right now, we have all, whether we know it or not, received things, cultures, patterns, customs, that have been passed down for years to come. What do we want to pass down to the next generation? What five, ten years from now do we want people to experience when they think about the body of Christ and when they think about community? That's what we're talking about today. That's what Jesus is inviting us into.

So I'm just going to walk through some of the three barriers, and there's many more that I want to mention when I think it comes to not being able to experience the community to the fullness like God intended us to experience. The first one is self-sufficiency. We want to rely on ourselves. We want to be able to do things on our own. We don't want to let other people in. We don't want to ask for help.

And even when you think of how some of us have been raised and trained, everything is about that dream, right? What is your dream? If I'm thinking about myself, it's okay. What is my dream? What is God's plan for my life? And if we're not careful and we use that individual language too much, we forget that it's not just about me. That, yes, I'm created in the image of God, but so is every single person that I walk past every single day. I am a part of a greater story. So it's not just about my dream. It's not just about my call. It's not just about me because I only represent one part. I only represent one thing and there's so much more going on to the picture in the picture.

It is through community that God's presence comes into the midst and the culture of today has become so self-serving and so self-focused. That even when you ask people things like okay, why did you leave your job or why did you move or why did you do this or end this relationship? It usually starts with what I felt or I needed or me me me. And now I want to be clear to you when we talk about this we talk about commitment. Like we're not talking about staying in toxic situations unhealthy situations abusive situations, right? Like there are reasons to leave and there are reasons when you have to say no and move on. That's not what we're talking about. But so much of our language has even become me my what I need.

What would it look like if we thought about everything through the lens of community? If we didn't just rely on ourselves but we did live lives that were so intertwined and so interdependent on one another where we truly made decisions in community and we truly thought about the impact of other people as we make those decisions? And we didn't just rely on ourselves or even just put ourselves first in those things but we started to allow ourselves to rely on other people. And that's when it gets a little scary is when we start to surrender some of that control and realize that we can't do it all by ourselves. But I hope that even as I say that, that that's a little encouraging to you, that you're just one person. You're just one part and you are important. You are valuable, but you can't do it. I can't do it. If we are going to see a move of God in this city, we need every single one of us and probably even more that's in this room to continue to say yes to what God is doing, to continue to say yes to being consistent, yes to showing up, yes to giving what we have because we all play a different part and we're different but we need each other.

The next thing that I see that can be such a barrier when it comes to our idea of community and keeping us from that is consumerism. We've talked about this in the past as a church. But we right now everything about the good life of creating this good life, we consume so much content. I just cleaned out my closet and I fall into those traps all the time of I need more, I want more, right? I see something I want it I have to have it. We are constantly consuming, constantly consuming. We're constantly not only consuming like material things or content on the internet but we're also trying to consume from each other and sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it. I find myself sometimes walking into rooms and I show up without even realizing with this unhealthy mindset of thinking, okay, what am I going to get from this? Is this going to be good for me? Should I show up to this thing? Is this going to be fun for me? Should I say yes to this thing? Is it going to be good, right?

Even sometimes we show up to church services and we're thinking, okay, I better get something out of this today. And if I don't get something out of us today we want to move on to the next thing. Consumerism is so ingrained in the deepest part of who we are. But what would it look like if we went back to thinking about community, and we think about the scripture that we're reading, and we thought about the role that we had to play, and maybe it's, you know, I don't know if I'm going to get anything out of showing up to my friend's house tonight, but it seems like maybe they've been a little lonely, so I'm going to go, and I'm to show up and I'm going to be there for them. What if we didn't just think about everything as something for us to consume, but rather saw it as an opportunity to see God move?

The next barrier that I see often is this barrier of transition. This barrier of transition where we don't stay long enough to have real community. Community takes time. Community takes time and so often we don't even stay long enough. We don't think we need it. So we choose that self-sufficiency again instead. I saw that somebody say this recently and I just thought it was so funny where they said one of the greatest miracles of Jesus' life was the fact that he had 12 friends in his 30s. That was the greatest miracle that we just don't talk about. Underrated was that he was in his 30s and still had 12 close friends. You know? And I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm like, okay, I'm like, I'm getting close to 30 and I'm like, do I have 12 close friends? Like, wow. You know, but like that truly was a miracle that he invited these disciples to come follow him and to be in his life and to have that consistency. But even that, do you think about it, that they committed to each other. They were consistent with one another and it was three years. And who knows how long after that, right? That the, some of them continue to be in those relationships and those things, but community takes time.

It's not this one size fits all, but for many of us, we start to transition before we've even been able to break through some of those barriers of transparency and vulnerability and get to the good stuff. And so we move from place to place wondering, when am I finally going to experience that type of relationship and that type of friendship? And I want to challenge you, like, have you stayed long enough for it? Have you stayed long enough for it?

And I want to challenge you just a little bit more, but to think about we are the church. We are the body of Christ. So what does it look like for us to be a stable place and a stable people in a world where transition is inevitable? In a world, especially in a city like this, where people move on average every three years? What would it look like to stay long enough to be a stable place and for us people to come? You see it's really hard to have intimacy and relationship when you don't have time to create history with one another. Think about some of the people you're closest to in life. A lot of times it's the people that you can call out of the blue even if you haven't talked to them in five years because you have so much history with them. That it doesn't even matter how long it's been. I want you to dream with me a little bit today. What does it look like for us to be so committed to community, so consistent with community that we start to have history with the people around us? And not only just for our gain, but to be a stable place for people to come.

Living out community

And so I'm going to continue through now the things of what I think God is inviting us to be as a church and as Christ-centered community. And the first is that we were created to be committed to community. We were created to be committed and reliant on one another. And if anybody just got a little anxious when I said the word commitment, me too. I'm still like, oh, can I use this word? Is this a good word? We hate the word commitment.

But here's a little exercise for you right now. I want you to think of if I were to ask you right now and say, hey, six weeks from now, I know that seems like might as well be six years, right? Six weeks from now, let's get dinner on this Friday night at 7 p.m. If you would not be able to commit to that, I want you to think, why is that? Why could you not commit to having dinner with me six weeks from now? Yeah, we're not, we're not there yet. We're not going to get to six months. That'll be like, you know, later down the road. But what is it in us that we can't commit to things, right? Well, there's one big thing called FOMO, the fear of missing out, where you might think, well, Abbie, someone cooler than you might invite me to have dinner on that same time on Friday night. I don't want to commit to you, right? Like we don't know or you're like, I don't even know where I'm going to be at that point. Like we don't commit anymore.

What could it look like if we committed to one another? What would it look like if we truly started to rely on one another? I found on a quick Google search six signs that prove you're a committed person. One, you are easily adaptable in any situation because the goal is more important to you than anything that stands in the way. Two, you are very tolerant. Wow, that's a good word, tolerant. Commitment requires tolerance. Google said it, not me. You are dependable. It says you are dependable. Man, I'm like, I want people to think I'm dependable. You are focused. You are passionate. You are straightforward. Thank you, Google, for our six signs of committed person.

But here's what I love about this. I was like, that was a good word, is the goal is more important. The goal is more important. Wow, what would it look like for us to live in a way where we all were so passionate to say, Jesus, we want to see you move in this city? And so we know that we can't do it on our own, and we're going to need each other. So we are going to be so radically committed to relationship with you, Jesus. We're going to be so radically committed to be consistent, to contribute, to show up, and we're going to be radically committed to one another, where we are going to be there for each other, where we are going to be dependable, where we are going to be focused, where we're going to tolerate each other, even when people get weird and annoy us.

What does it look like for us to live in community in that type of way? And Acts they continued to meet, and they broke bread. You know, sometimes I wonder, especially now I think one of the best ways that we can be committed to one another and to love each other is to try each other's favorite foods, expand your comfort zone of what you eat, be committed to try new things and getting to know one another in that so I say all this because I want you to as I'm thinking of this, it is intentional that we're launching communities and we believe in communities at this church because for some of you you might not be here for five, 10 years. I'd love it if you were, that'd be fun, but you might not be here that long.

And I think that sometimes there's a couple choices. It's one that I'm just going to show up and be here for a minute and in and out. And it is going to be like just this crossing paths with strangers every single Sunday, or maybe every other, depending on the person you are. Or you can choose to commit to community. It might make the goodbyes a little harder. But can I tell you that it's going to be worth it? I love that. We just had a couple move in May that they were here for only a year and they got up here and went before they moved and they shared how this year was one of the most transformative years of their life because they went all in for community and they really did. They did like our marriage class. They went to communities like they were serving. They did all these things. And they talked about for so many years because of their jobs, they would only be in one place for a year and a year and a year and a year. And they never truly went all in. And because of that, they always were longing for more. And it made the goodbyes so hard, but so worth it for the way that they committed to community.

The next thing that we see is be consistent with connection and relationship. Be consistent. Man, if we're going to be dependable on each other, we're going to have to be consistent. And I want you to know this that when God came and he said when God sent Jesus to die on the cross to be the price for our sins to save us he also saved us into relationship relationship with him was all about relationship with him and relationship with each other.

So if you're like me and maybe you say these things often or you hear these things often like I'm lonely, I'm lost, I need help, the amount of people that I prayed for to save my relationships, they're broken. When Jesus called the disciples, he called them into community with one another. And so again, I want to remind you that there is a new way for us to do community. And he called them to be committed to one another and consistent with one another. Like his first thing was say, hey, just come follow me. Leave what you have behind and come follow me consistently. Show up time and time again. We have at a church this thing that we call the rule of life which is a set of practices and things that we want to be committed to. You can also find that at our welcome table, but it's this set of practices that we want to say okay if we're going to be on this journey together for however long the Lord allows us as a church community here.

Again, some of us, it might be a year, some of us, it might be five, but what are we actually doing? And what are those things that we're going to practice together? And a part of our practices are things like prayer and fasting, but also rhythms of relationship and community. Because we realize that if we are saying yes to Jesus, then we're saying yes to being a disciple of him. Someone that is in the process of learning what it looks like to be with him and become like him and to do what he did. And he had relationships with people. Messy ones but consistent ones. And so I want to encourage you that if you have yet to sit down and create patterns and rhythms in your life for community, to do that this week. Because these feelings that we feel of loneliness and isolation, that's not how God created us to live. And we are going to need each other to continue to remind ourselves of that through community.

Some of my simple like rhythms and rule of life when it comes to community is I have one of my best friends that I call every single week on the same day. And even that sometimes it's a 20 minute phone call, sometimes it's an hour and a half phone call, but that consistent touch point with someone who knows me, that consistent touch point of connectedness is so important for my well-being of knowing that I'm not alone. And there's all different ways that we can do that. And then our gathering in Tuesday night communities is a part of that rhythm to say, let's gather in these smaller places where we can continue to be consistent with one another.

Called to contribute

The next thing that we see is I believe that the culture of Christ, the Christlike community that he wants us to create, involves contributing. You see, each and every one of us, when we talk about being a part of the body of Christ, we are an integral part. We are an integral part of the body of Christ. We are different and we need each other. And again, this should take some pressure off of us as individuals. But God, each man should be accountable, yes, for himself, but remembering that God has placed each of us different things individually while at the same time working in community to do good for all believers and for our city and the world at large.

We were created to be dependent on each other. You see, when Jesus invites us into relationship with him and he calls us to be his disciples and to follow him, it means in all ways and all things at all times. And part of that is doing radical things for community. Jesus, he laid down his life for a relationship with us. So when he said, yeah, I want to enter into community with you, and community means that I am going to give all of myself, he literally physically did that. He gave all of himself for us. And then he invites us to join him in that. He invites us to also lay down our lives, to lay down our preferences for one another, to lay down everything.

In Jesus' earthly ministry, there came a time when the free food had to stop, like the feeding of the five thousand. And all of a sudden, the public opinion turned ugly around him. All of a sudden, the people that were for him were now against him. And Jesus knew ahead of time that this was going to happen. I love that he ends in Luke chapter 14 when he calls his disciples and he starts to send them out. He ends his description in this section called the cost of discipleship with this breathtaking statement. In Luke 14 verse 33, he says:

Any one of you who does not denounce or does not sorry renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:33

Now renouncing may mean giving something up physically, but more often it means letting go emotionally so that what we possess no longer possesses us. That is what we're after in this idea of sometimes it can say, well, really, I'm supposed to give all of myself. That act of giving of ourselves to other people and recognizing that we're one small part in this bigger body of Christ is all about making sure that what we possess, our comforts, our earthly possessions, no longer possess us. You see, there's so many people in life that, and even I've been at this point of where we love this idea of eternal life of escaping hell and having Jesus at our beck and call, but then we're not willing to lay everything down. We won't do it for strangers, and oftentimes we won't even do it for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But I want to read some of the things that I've read at the beginning again tonight. That God did not design human life to be a bunch of individuals whose paths cross only from time to time, but human life is meant to be interconnected and interdependent. Although each person has an individual call that God has placed on their lives, that call involves being in community and working together to serve the body of Christ and be the hands and feet of Jesus. When individual calls within God's plans are not fulfilled, the community cannot continue to grow. We need each other. Community in its original form is an act of giving oneself as a gift to the other in service and companionship. How much more should that be said today of us as the body of Christ?

Will you stand with me today? Today, I just want to pray a prayer over you, but I want to encourage you what we read in this chapter here in 1 Corinthians 12, read it again this week on your own time and I want you to really think about this idea that we're all different but we need each other. I want you to think about what are the things that you long for in community? And what would it look like instead of all of us waiting for those friendships and those relationships and those things to happen, but if instead we started being committed people, if instead we started being consistent, faithful people, if instead we started seeing ourselves as a contributor, someone that can add value. You add value. You have unique things inside of you that we all need to experience.

And I believe that if we can start taking these basic principles, and if we can start being committed and consistent and start contributing and giving of ourselves and coming together in that type of way, that not only are we going to start to feel less lonely and experience the community that God created us for, but other people are going to as well. And so some of those practical things of saying, how do I make space in my schedule for Sunday gatherings? Being consistent, committed, and contributing. How do I make space in my schedule for Tuesday nights and being in those smaller spaces where we're sharing meals and we're fellowshipping? And maybe every week you're not feeling it and you don't need it, but you're going to bring something to that room that somebody else is going to need.

In your personal life, how do you find those people around you to be committed and consistent? When we're talking about even being in neighborhoods, man, my dream is that some of you in your neighborhood or your area, you're going to find those coffee shops to frequent and you're going to learn those people's names and you're going to show them the love of God in that way. Jesus is the ultimate example of giving all of himself and he's inviting us to be a part of that. And I believe that that's the moment when we get there and we can start giving of ourselves that we're going to experience that type of community.

So I want to pray for you if you want to close your eyes across this space. And first I just want to read you a few just questions for you to process with the Holy Spirit. And to just ask him. Ask him if there are ways in your life, or there's areas in your life that you need to commit rather than just transition and move on. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Ask the Holy Spirit if there's areas that you need to be consistent and you need to be less self-sufficient and start inviting other people into your life. And finally, ask the Holy Spirit to show you ways that you need to contribute. To stop looking at things as only things that you can gain or situations as only things that you can gain. But say, God, what do I have to offer as someone that was created in your image? Because we are the body of Christ, the community of Christ. And when we gather, his presence is in our midst.

And I love in John where it says that they will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another. And so that's the prayer that I want to pray over us today. That we would choose community. We would choose to love one another. And that we truly would start to experience the community we crave and the community we were created for. And so often times we pray in this way here as a church. And if you're comfortable I want to invite you to just stand with your hands open before you and your eyes closed as I read this prayer over us. And this is just a sign that you're ready to receive. And you're ready to say yes to this.

So Lord today we hold out our hands as a sign that we are surrendered to your plan for community. The community we crave and are created for. That we desire relationship with you and the family that you have given us. So now Lord we ask that you will help us to give of ourselves to each other. And as we do, would we experience your presence in our midst? We desire to be more than just strangers that cross paths or hyper-connected individuals that don't know each other's names. But we long for deep love, deep connection, and the community we were created for.

So God we hold out our hands saying that we are committed to letting go and committed to contributing and playing our part. And God we ask. May people know that we are your disciples by the way that we love each other. In your name we pray. Amen.