Practice, not performance.

We're going to be diving into Luke chapter 10 today, if you have your Bibles. So for the next month, if you're hanging out here with us, we are going to be in a series called Rule of Life. We all love church rules, right? Just kidding. We'll get into more of what that is, but I want to start today by centering us on the word of God, in the scripture the Lord put on my heart for this morning, this first Sunday. That's in Luke chapter 10, starting in verse one. It says:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals, and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, peace to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him, if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, the kingdom of God is near you. But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet, we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God is near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. He who listens to you listens to me, and he who rejects you rejects me. But he who rejects me rejects him who sent me. The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. He replied to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will injure you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Luke 10:1-20

Amen. Let's pray today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who came, who died on the cross, that today we get to even sing about the power found in your blood and the transforming work of the cross. And we thank you that now we have the power of your Holy Spirit speaking through this text. So we just invite you, Holy Spirit. And I invite all of you today, in your own way, would you just welcome the Holy Spirit to speak to you today? Would you just say, Holy Spirit, you're welcome, I'm listening. God, we take a moment to set aside all worries, all anxieties, the to-do list, the things that are pressing, and we just breathe in your Holy Spirit and say, you're welcome, because we know we need to hear from you today. We need to be transformed by you today. So God, would you have your way in this place? In Jesus' name, amen.

The strategy in Luke 10

Okay, so for the past probably four or five years, we have started off the new year with almost the same type of message. So if you've been around here for a while, you've heard this, and that's kind of the point, because we struggle so much with forgetfulness. I care very deeply about the word of God and what I preach on Sundays, but I also recognize that out of all the sermons you sit through, you are probably going to remember like 2% of whatever is said. These words are just a pathway for you to encounter the presence of God today. So it's okay that you don't remember every single word that's said, but there are some things I hope you do remember.

What we see Jesus doing here with his disciples is that as he's getting ready to send them out, to do the work of the ministry, to continue his mission, he's giving them Holy Spirit strategy for how to accomplish that. I believe God is so strategic in how he works and how he moves. And so one of the strategies the Lord has given us as a church is what we call a rule of life, which is really a set of spiritual practices, spiritual disciplines. There are all different ways, formative practices, that you can word it, but basically, it's things that we do that help us to create space, to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, so that naturally, out of the overflow, we can do what Jesus did.

I love even that last song we sing, where it says it's not about perfection or striving for that. What I want us to realize, even before we begin today, is that we can live like Jesus and we can become like him. We don't do these spiritual practices so that we can earn this abundant life, but we do all of it from a place of abundance, from a place of the already finished work on the cross. We can live differently, live healed, live whole, live restored, because of what Jesus already did on the cross. Amen? So that's important for us to recognize today.

As we talk about this rule of life, this is our training manual, our Holy Spirit strategy for how we do this. I think it's always great, especially going into the new year, when we talk about this, because this is the natural time where we're talking about new things, new practices, resolutions, goals, whatever that may be. How many of you are runners here in the room today? Anyone? We got a couple hands, it's okay, if it's like three miles, that counts, a mile, whatever you run, it counts.

Now, I don't know if you've run a marathon, I haven't, I may never, maybe I will, we'll see. But you don't just wake up one day and run a marathon, you don't just do that. But there's all sorts of stories, and I love sometimes when you get on these YouTube loops watching these powerful testimonies of people, it's like, I never thought I could even run a mile, and then they're running a marathon. But it doesn't just happen overnight, it's training. It's waking up day after day, taking baby steps, until one mile turns to five, and five turns to ten, and next thing you know, you're running marathons, or ultra marathons. It's training. It's everyday practice.

And that's what we're going to be talking about today, how do we practice the ways of Jesus. So our takeaway is that a rule of life is a set of practices that lead us to becoming more like Jesus. It's really that simple, that's what we're talking about, that's what I want you to remember. And our invitation today is for us to commit to practice. I want to talk about pace today, so that we can receive what it looks like for us to live, not for the promise, but from a place of promise, and fullness, and abundance, and healing in Jesus.

Practice, not performance

So I want to take a minute to talk about our church's rule of life. So if we have the slide here to show, what are the practices? This has been years in the making, you can find this on our website under resources, we have a workbook to go along with it. Daily practices, we want to commit to this rule of life as a community, to say we're not just going to be people who show up on Sundays and occasionally cross paths, but we want to be deeply committed to being formed together into the likeness of Jesus.

Part of it is starting the day with scripture and prayer, and everybody is in different seasons of life, maybe it's five minutes listening to a verse, maybe it's saying the Lord's Prayer, maybe it's praying a psalm, we often pray psalms at our church. Or maybe it's taking, I read something recently, if you read like twelve or fifteen minutes of the Bible every day, you could read it in a year. It's not that much, it takes about forty hours to read through the whole Bible, that's it, we've got a lot of those hours in the year. So it's just saying, start somewhere, read, then take breaks throughout your day. We are so busy that we often forget to just pause and acknowledge God's presence. It could be setting a timer on your phone, or having a lunch hour, before you begin, taking a moment to pause, acknowledge God's presence. It's also a great time to pray for other people, intercede, and then end our day in examen and gratitude.

Part of the examen is taking time to replay your day with God, to repent, to confess your sins, and to turn back to Jesus again. These are spiritual practices that form us into the ways of Jesus. And then our more ongoing practices, monthly or weekly, are to keep the Sabbath, to live not for the Sabbath but from the Sabbath, from a place of rest. We want to be a church where we're practicing fasting together, as we head into Lent in just a couple weeks, we're going to be talking about that, about fasting together. We come and gather and worship on Sundays, and when we show up, we're devoted to each other. So we have all these regular rhythms of saying we were not created to just consume, but to contribute.

That's why we talk about that so much, believing each and every one of you has unique ways God has created you to contribute to seeing his kingdom come right here, right now in Madison. And so this idea of committing yourself, devoting yourself, to community groups, to forum groups, which we're going to talk about later today, and then that we would seek renewal for our city, and then ultimately the world. That's part of why we do things like host Laundry Love with Neighborhood House, or partner so much with local organizations here, and our global team that's leaving for Thailand in just a few days.

We want to be people who are committed to these things together. These are our practices and our strategies, and why we don't just have values on a website, but practices, because we want to live these things out. So I want to encourage all of you, if you haven't yet, go to the website, take time to revisit what you're already doing, and who you're becoming as you do them. Where are the areas you need to shift as you head into this year, to start to develop a rule of life, a set of practices? When are you praying? When are you praying for other people? When you pray, who are you praying for? What does that look like?

I share all of this because I've found that having a strategic plan for how I'm going to be formed into the likeness of Jesus has radically changed my life. A lot of you know a lot of my story, where I grew up following Jesus most of my life, I would memorize Bible verses for Tootsie Rolls later. Not to brag, but I was a national teen Bible quizzer at one point in my life. Don't quote me on it now because I can't remember it all, but it's there, it's in my heart. I remember when I was like eleven or twelve, we were paid like a hundred dollars to read the Bible in a year. I would do all of these things and follow the rules.

But this is so much more than just following rules, it's being formed into the likeness of Jesus. Because I found that even though I would know things, hear things, and even quote things, because I wasn't practicing things, it wasn't truly changing and transforming my life. There's a difference there, because even as a teenager I could quote at one point seven different books of the Bible, which is just wild, I was like, why, how did I have time for that. And somehow I did have friends, I promise, friends did exist, but I could quote seven books of the Bible while still snapping at my parents, or blocking my brothers on Facebook whenever I got mad at them for something.

These transformative things didn't flow from that. But when I started to be strategic about saying, I want to practice the ways of Jesus, that meant I wanted to follow those strategies of living this radical, generous life, believing I'm created to not just consume but to contribute, to live sacrificially, to seek the renewal of other people in the city. That's when things started to change, because hearing is one thing, but practicing is another. Practices form us, they shape us, they lead us to becoming more like Jesus.

The strategy Jesus gives

As we look at what Jesus is doing here in Luke 10, he's giving them this strategy. He says, you're going to go out, the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, meaning we need everyone to get in the game here, we need everyone to show up and do something. But what I love about this is the process he gives them shows us that Jesus cares more about who you're becoming than what you're doing. He cares more about who you are becoming than what you're doing. Jesus wants you to grow in love. He wants you to grow in intimacy and connection with him. He wants you to grow into being more healed and more restored. Because the end goal is that we are forever with Jesus, that we are forever walking so closely with him into eternity. And he wants to know us in that type of way. That's why having a rule of life is, I think, one of the best strategies we can do, to say, let's center our lives around these practices.

I want to talk about those. Sometimes some of the fears I hear with this, some of the questions become, does this mean, if I'm saying these practices are going to change me, am I relying on myself in this, or am I earning, or is this an A plus B equals God is going to do this type of theology? Absolutely not. This is a way for us to create space to be with Jesus. When we commit to say, hey, I'm going to wake up every single day, and even if it's five minutes or fifteen minutes or fifty minutes, I am going to hear the voice of God, the first thing we do is create space to hear from God.

An example we can all relate to: if you're sick and you don't go to the doctor, the doctor cannot help you. You're simply showing up to say, hey, I need help, I need to hear from you. If you go see your counselor and you don't talk, which sometimes does happen, people literally just sit there and stare at you, they can't do anything unless you tell them something, I don't really know what we're addressing here. If we don't tell God, if we don't talk to God, if we don't create space to hear from God, how do we expect to change, to heal, to be restored, to walk in our true identity from that place of abundance?

I love in James 2, it says:

If one of you says to them, go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that, and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

James 2:16-22

I love this, because it says, even the demons believe. It's one thing for us to know about God, know about Jesus, know about the Holy Spirit. It's another to know the Holy Spirit in that deep, intimate, transformative way. It's one thing for us to pray and say, God, help people who need helping, these vague things. It's another to strategically say, Holy Spirit, show me where there is a need, highlight people you want me to come and feed and clothe. That's why, like our end-of-year offering that we did with our Big Give, is to physically feed and clothe people, to physically help people be freed from slavery, because we don't want to just pray these prayers. We pray the prayers, but we also know we have the power to help be the answers, to usher in the kingdom of God with our actions. Jesus wants us to be people who aren't just passive, who don't just say, God, I believe in you, but who are practicing, in the process of becoming more like him every single day.

The next thing that comes up a lot is, why start something if I'm just going to fail. I won't make you raise your hand if you've ever started a new goal in the new year and didn't complete it, but here's the best thing: we don't show up to be perfect, we show up to practice, and we trust that Jesus is perfecting us in the process. We don't have to show up to be perfect, we just have to show up, and trust that Jesus is doing the work only Jesus can do.

There's two different mindsets I want to talk about, and then we're going to dive deeper into the text, I promise, it's the longest intro to the intro. There's a difference between a practice mindset and a performance mindset. I was never a competitive athlete, but again, I was a competitive teen Bible quizzer, so I'm going to use this as my illustration, fill in the blank with football or soccer or whatever sport with a ball you want to choose.

So, a practice mindset: when you show up to practice, there's a level of ease, right, you're going to do good, you're going to show up, you're going to give it your all, but if you miss this, it's not make it or break it, if you don't get it perfectly, it's not like all these people are going to be let down. There's humility, there's teachability, I'm going to learn from my mistakes, there's flexibility, if I'm practicing and someone brings correction to me, I'm not taking offense, I'm like, awesome, I'm so glad you caught that, thank you, I'm going to fix that now for next time. That's practice. There's also peace that comes with it, because it's not game day, I'm good.

I talk about Teen Bible Quiz because one of the worst moments, probably, in my life, and I was fourteen and probably extremely hormonal, but I remember missing a question specifically about Paul in Galatians, and I got so upset, because in Teen Bible Quiz world it was wild, people would contest and say you're wrong, and then you're debating and all this stuff, and I got so mad at the girl next to me for something she did that I ripped her necklace off her in the middle of a Teen Bible Quiz match. It's crazy, I don't know who said that, but it's crazy, that's how upset I was, I was so competitive, I was like, pay attention, do better, all this stuff. And you're like, oh my gosh, we're literally quoting scripture as I'm ripping a necklace off somebody else, which is probably why I should never play sports, because I could get a little competitive sometimes, we've toned it down, okay.

But there's this competitive thing that comes out, because when you're in the middle of a match, in the middle of a game, it's like this is make it or break it, everything is riding on this. I think for my national competition, I won a total of thirty dollars in a little envelope that I got, so it was make it or break it, it was like the big leagues, but you think of game day and you're like, the stress and the pressure, so much of your identity can be wrapped up in the win or the loss, which is funny, because once you win one game, you just have to go win the next, right, there's always another game, there's always another performance, there's always something else to be perfect at. Mistakes, if you're looking for perfection in that game-day mentality, mistakes are so scary, you're like, I can't mess this up, because everybody's watching, everything's riding on this.

But with a practice mindset, you know my identity is not found in whether I do this perfectly or not, because it's all found in Jesus. I love at the end of Luke, how they're even coming back to him, and they're saying, oh my gosh, even the demons are submitting to us, submitting to our name, your name, like through us, and they're starting to make it about them. And Jesus is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's tone it down here a second. He starts talking about powers, like, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, I've given you authority, yes, he's like, I've done it, to trample on snakes and scorpions, but he says, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you. You're like, what do you mean, Jesus, isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? He's like, no, don't rejoice, because that's not what it's about, that people, that the demons, are going to submit to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice that we have eternity with Jesus, because of the blood of Jesus and his work on the cross. Rejoice that there's nothing that separates us from being healed and freed and restored forever. That's what we rejoice over. That is the goal. And as we practice, as we show up day after day, we can change and be transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

Okay, so the strategy we see in Luke 10, here we go. The first thing I want to talk about is how Jesus sends them. In Luke 10, we see the formation, he starts by saying, travel light, let go of the things, take nothing with you for the journey. Now this is a tough one, because what does this mean? It means, as we follow Jesus, we continue to give up and lay down, over and over and over again. I often think of how later we see Paul talk about how we're supposed to take up our cross daily, this is a daily thing, it's not just, I surrender once to Jesus. And, man, have I missed this so many times. I remember when I moved here to Madison, I thought, okay, that's the most I'm going to lay down, moving away from my friends and my family and all this stuff to come to this new city. And it's like a few months later, and it's like, oh, there's more to lay down. And there's more, because every day is a new journey, and every day the Lord's going to say, what is in your hands, every day the Lord is going to say, are you willing to travel light?

Can you imagine going out today without your phone? My phone is my wallet, thank you, Apple Pay. My phone is my directions, thank you, Google Maps, it's not Apple Maps because that's the worst. My phone is everything, my phone is my lifeline. And I'm just sent out, it's like, go, just walk, just be present, I will lead you. And Jesus goes before, which I also love, because he's showing them, I'm not going to send you somewhere I'm not already going, that I'm not going to be with you. He goes before, he goes with, he goes behind.

But he's telling them to go, to travel light, to accept hospitality. This seems like, at first you're like, I'd love a free meal, sure. But really, would you go to a stranger's house right now and eat whatever they give you? That's hard. At first you're like, sure, it's easy, but that's a hard thing to do, to accept it. And then he tells them to stay present, to go, to heal, and proclaim the kingdom. And I love this right here at the end, he tells them to go together, which is why we've started to do as a church, not only our community groups, our little house-church small groups that meet across the city, but also forum groups, which are groups of two or three people committing to meet with each other on a regular rhythm, whether over Zoom or in person, to pray, to talk about where God's moving in their life, to have a time of confession, a time of encouragement for one another, because we recognize we were not created to do this alone. Jesus sends them out together.

But then there's also a pace to this. In verse seven it says, stay in one place, eat whatever's before you, but stay in one place. So not only is Jesus giving them this plan, he's also giving the pace to it. And this is what I love, because again, I feel like it's a reminder, if he cares more about who we're becoming than what we're doing, it's not just go check all these boxes. I imagine, too, when it's talking about them eating and being in people's homes, there's probably some joy in that, some delight. I really do, any of you can invite me over and I will come, I love sitting at people's tables and enjoying a good meal, there's something beautiful about that.

But there's a pace as well, where he's saying, if they welcome you, stay, be present with people. I think one of the greatest gifts we can give each other nowadays is our presence, just sitting across from one another, being present, listening, attentive to what they're saying. Because of this, spiritual formation is not a sprint, it's a marathon. This is a long journey we're on, and every day is just a small journey of the greater journey of us being sanctified and transformed into the likeness of Christ. So what I hear Jesus whispering to them is, don't just rush and move on from one thing to the next, but slow down, stay faithful to where God has you in this moment. And maybe this is a word for some of you specifically today, to slow down, to be present where God has you right here, right now, and trust that when it's time to move to the next house, he's going to tell you, he's going to lead you there. But be present, follow the pace God has for you.

Formation leads to joy

And then the last thing is the promise, that formation leads to true joy. When we are formed into the likeness of Jesus, we experience true joy, because Jesus is our joy. Jesus is the prize, Jesus is the one we're living for, that we long for, even when we don't always have the words to express it, every longing, every desire, points back to Jesus. Joy comes from a place that only Jesus can give us in that identity, not from outcomes, not from striving, not from keep practicing, keep practicing, keep practicing. But again, the practices make way for the presence of Jesus to come and do what only Jesus can do.

I'm going to invite Bradley to come play as we get ready to close. Today we're going to do things a little differently, some teaching, preaching, and then we're going to get really practical, because my heart for us as a church is, I don't want us to be people who just show up and consume like a sermon, you're like, oh, that was pretty good today, oh, worship was cool, whatever, and then just leave. But as your pastor, my heart is that you would be people who know how to seek and be in the presence of God, which is why we have these extended worship nights, where we just sit and linger and pray and press in and say, God, we're waiting for you. That you would know the importance of reading your Bible, and know that every time you open your Bible, you're hearing the voice of God, and that's doing something to you. That you would know what it feels like to fast, to go without, and feel that full dependence on God, and grow your hunger for God. That we would not live for ourselves, that we would not live to just accumulate all this stuff, but we would live from this place of abundance, and surrender everything we have, continuing to say, God, now what do you want me to give, where do you want me to serve, but what do you want me to keep, where do you want me to stay, recognizing every moment of every day is his, every penny in our bank account is his. And so how do we continue to live this way, developing these rules of life, these practices?

I wanted to share a quick testimony about our Big Give offering that came in. So end of December, we've always taken, for the past couple of years, this offering that goes to both our local and global partners. This has been a practice for us to grow in our generosity, to be faithful to the Lord. And we talk about money so much too, because it's one of the most controlling things in our life, and the more we can grow that discipline to give that to the Lord, to trust him with it, it's going to echo into every other part of our life. So we asked, let's give generously, let's give scary numbers. And this has been a practice, the first year we had about three thousand come in, then seven thousand, then eleven thousand. And this year, Laura put on her heart to have twenty thousand dollars come in, and we were so close, we had over seventeen. We still had a little more come in, we didn't finally count until this week, but I think close to eighteen thousand dollars, which is incredible to think about.

So we were able to call our church plant in Ireland and say, okay, we're covering your rent for a couple months so you can keep going. We're able to give to our Thailand team, going to work in the youth prisons, and to work with one of our homes rescuing women out of sex trafficking in Thailand. We're able to continue to partner with Neighborhood House, those who were at our Stocking Stuffer, giving presents to kids and families in our community, hundreds of kids coming through that day, our biggest turnout yet, so much generosity.

And here's one cool story about that. Stocking Stuffer started a couple years ago, when we got a call, and they said, hey, we have way too many kids signed up to receive free Christmas gifts, we don't know what to do. So we did some stockings. The first two years, our church physically paid for every single thing that went in, we took some donations, but we had an abundance to be able to say yes and give. This year we gave some, but now there are so many community partners and businesses, like Target donating old toys, all this stuff, that we showed up and were like, okay, what's left to buy, the tables were overflowing, full of stuff, because we're called to do this together.

But I'll share, we didn't quite meet our goal of twenty thousand. But that same Sunday night we took the Big Give offering, I look at my email, and I have an email from a church planter in Minneapolis, a church that started after we did, it's smaller than we are, and they said, hey, check your bank account, we believe in what God is doing in Madison, we believe in New Culture Church, and we want to see you have a building someday, your own space to call home, so we're giving you twenty thousand dollars. We received twenty thousand dollars toward a future home we don't have anything for, we don't know what that's going to look like. They had no idea we were sitting here trying to bring in an offering for twenty thousand dollars to go out. But that's the power of the Lord, the Holy Spirit strategy of saying we're in this together, it's not about one church, it's not about one person, it's all of us creating the culture of Christ, seeing his kingdom come. I was blown away, and I'm even more excited to say, God, what are you going to do with this, what else is happening that we can't even see?

I share that because we always have to remember stories like this: we don't give so that God will give us more, but let me tell you, it happens all the time, where you just see, he's taking care of us, needs we don't even know we have yet, he's taking care of. So we don't have to hold tightly, we don't have to be scared, we can live free, we can live healed, we can live from a place of abundance, not for abundance, because we already have everything we need in Jesus.

And so part of why I stress things like the rule of life, saying, I want you to practice the ways of Jesus, I want you daily to be with him, I want you to practice the things he did, living radically generous, serving the poor, caring for those in need, it's because that's when you're living how you were created to live. That's when we're going to usher in the kingdom, and you're going to find everything you're looking for. You're going to create that space to see him clearly when you remove the distractions. You're going to create that space to hear his voice, and to recognize it more. The more time you're in scripture, the more you're going to know when he's speaking, because you're like, that's my father, I know his voice. So this is not just a good idea, this is something I truly believe: the more we practice, the more we're going to become, and it's going to be this overflow that we experience, the promise of joy found in Jesus.

I want to take a moment, if you're taking notes today, when we talk about our strategy, just ask the Lord about pace, ask him, where am I trying to perform right now and perfect things that I just need to take a deep breath and practice. Where am I trying to perform, and you're saying, hey, will you just practice, will you just show up humble, teachable, flexible, will you start somewhere, will you not show up like you have to be the expert, but show up like you're ready to learn. So pace, and the next is practice, to take time and look at what you're already doing, because whether you know it or not, you do have a rule of life, you have a set of practices, they might not all be spiritual, but we all have things that are forming us. Just ask the Lord to show you: as I go into this new year, what are the practices I need to focus on, what does that look like? Again, if you go to our website under resources, we have a whole guide there.

And then I just want to pray over us, and then we're going to share a little bit about form groups, that we would be people who just walk in that promise this year. So I just want to pray: Holy Spirit, I thank you so much today, even this first Sunday of the year, it serves as a reminder that you give us a fresh start every single day, that there is something new you want to do in us every single day. And so God, I thank you that as we look at the gospel of Luke, we see that even then, when you were walking so closely with your disciples, you gave them strategy. You told them to go together. You told them to be open, to be willing, to sit, to stay. You had a pace set out for them. And even when they came back and did the things and felt like they did it right, there was still this correction, and you continue to point them, and you're pointing us, back to you, that everything comes back to you.

So God, I pray right now over every single person here, you know our hearts, you know our desires, you know our longings, and I pray, Jesus, would you come and satisfy them with the presence of your Holy Spirit. Would you give us personal Holy Spirit strategy for this year ahead? Would you show us what it looks like to remove distractions, to see you clearly? Would you give us motivation to wake up in the morning and turn to you before we turn to anything else? God, would you help us grow in our radical faith and our generosity? Would you continue to remind us we're not alone in this journey, but you are with us, and we have community to walk alongside us? Would we not be afraid to be people who are practicing, who are ready to confess our sins and repent and turn to you over and over and over again? God, we need you, because practices without your presence are nothing. So we just say, Holy Spirit, not only in this moment, but every moment, would you have your way. We surrender to you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray, amen.

Form groups

So the last thing we wanted to do today, we're going to transition gears a little bit, but I wanted to get really practical again, because I want us to have a moment, but then I want it to lead us somewhere. So I'm going to invite Josh and Isaac to come up for just a second.

We want to take a minute and talk about form groups. We started this again this year as a way of saying, okay, we want to continue to grow in our covenant community, being people who are radically committed to each other. Josh and Isaac were form group partners, and so again, we have our Sunday gatherings, our Tuesday night community groups, and our college-age community, which is missing today, we feel them missing here. But they'll be back in a couple weeks when school starts. So we have college community, and then we have forum groups. This is something you can sign up for, we open signups in September, and we're going to open them up today. So if you want to be paired with someone to practice a rule of life and all of that, this is it.

I want you guys to start by telling us a little about what form group has looked like for you. Yeah, I think form group, what it's meant to me, has been having a best friend I can always lean on, text, have dinner with, have those hard conversations you don't always have, especially at our stage of life. You don't always have somebody to go and talk to about what's going on and what you're dealing with day to day. So having somebody I can text, we say, hey, let's go grab Chili's tonight, or are you feeling Qdoba, whatever, and we get to go grab dinner together, sit in the car and talk after, really be honest with each other. I think that forms you into who God needs you to be, because you're being open and honest with another human. Isaac has done a great job of pointing me back to God in those moments, and I try to do the same for him, so it's been really cool.

Yeah, a lot of similar things for me, but it's like having someone who's there, who's committed to being there for you, that you can text or call or whatever you need to do at any moment, there's already this baseline commitment, I know Josh is there, whatever I need, if I need a hand, encouragement, prayer, he's so ready to do that. And I know there are other people too, but it's so nice to have that as a built-in baseline, and he keeps continually pointing back to Christ, which is so awesome.

Can you guys describe what you do when you meet together, and some of that connection throughout the week that's helped you in your formation to Jesus? Sure. There's nothing too official about our meetings, it's been a lot of getting dinner, hanging out. The big piece for both of us has been the commitment, the sharing, the honesty. It was interesting, when we started our form group, it started with us just texting each other occasionally, it wasn't as close, there was still good encouragement, but at a certain point we broke some barriers down and started sharing some deeper parts of our lives, different things going on, and ever since then it's really helped us both share more, encourage each other in better ways, love each other more.

Yeah, I think that's been the most helpful part, once we've brought down those barriers. I was talking to Isaac even earlier today, saying, if you were in a form group before and didn't get to that deep level, I'd encourage you to try again, break through that barrier of being deeply honest with the other person, allowing them to have that trust going back and forth, because if I'm honest, our form group wasn't great until we did that, we almost had a running joke about not being a good form group until we broke down that barrier. So give it a shot, see what happens when you're honest with another person.

Last thing, why do you think everyone should commit to being in a form group, on top of communities and everything else going on in life? Yeah, like I said, I think it's one of those things, most of us in this room are single, so we don't necessarily have that one person we can always count on and go back to, it's obviously not a replacement for a spouse, but it can be so helpful to have somebody pointing you back to Christ, consistently showing up for you, there to help you, and in those moments when you're feeling down, you get to come alongside somebody else and help them, but they also come right alongside you and help you, when it's in its healthiest form. So if you're looking to take some next steps in 2026, wanting to improve your spiritual life in particular, get in a form group. And the other thing I'd say is, you may feel like you don't have a lot to offer somebody, but you probably have a lot more to offer than you realize, so don't go into it thinking, I'm not going to sign up, I don't have anything to offer, because you probably have more to offer than you realize.

Similar encouragement from me, people need people, God made us for community, he made us for fellowship with him, but also fellowship with one another. Especially in a day and age where it's increasingly easier to be disconnected, to fall apart from one another, or to have the pretense of community, form group is a great way to break down some of those barriers of the figments of community, and have the core, the reality of it. And there's no better way to shape one another, and to be shaped yourself.

Well, thank you guys, can you give it up for them, we appreciate it a lot. And I'd encourage you all to sign up and commit, and like Josh said, if you've done it before and maybe never got into that rhythm, do it again, because even as a church we're practicing, we're always listening to the Holy Spirit for strategy, trying things, that's what this is, it's an experiment, us practicing the ways of Jesus together.

Sending the Thailand team

Okay, last thing we're going to do, I'm going to invite, if you're going to Thailand, please come up, I want to pray over our Thailand team today. Nathan, Ashley, I hope you're still going, we leave Thursday. And Bradley, if you want to come up. So there are actually twelve of us going, several are sick, you can come all the way, I'm not scary, I promise.

So we're going to pray over the rest of the team who's homesick today, and the students still traveling back from Madison. Twelve of us will be leaving Thursday to represent New Culture Church, to go work with our partners, pastors Rachel and Brandon Powell. We'll be spending time in the Red Light District, prayer walking, doing some kids' ministry while the women are out at night, we get to host the kids and provide care and ministry, partnering with Project Rescue, who are helping women get out of sex trafficking. We're going to work with a church plant, Full Heart Church, so the next two Sundays we won't be here, we'll be at Full Heart Church, working with Pastor Tony, going in to do youth prison ministry.

Young boys go to prison as young as ten, twelve years old, and we're going to get to go into those prisons and share the gospel of Jesus, connect them with these churches, so that when they're done serving their time, they have people who can help connect them to their families again, since it's incredibly common that they'll get separated from their family for sometimes the rest of their lives. We're also just going to be learning about what God is doing in another part of the world.

So we want to invite you all to stretch your hands forward, and we're going to pray and send out our team today. Lord, I thank you so much for the team that has been praying, preparing, learning, trusting you to go on this trip this week. Lord, we know your Holy Spirit has gone before, that you will go beside and go behind, to continue to do more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine.

Right now we pray for those who are homesick, God, we pray you would bring healing to their bodies, Lord, we pray there would be no more sickness on this team leading up to this week, in the name of Jesus. God, I pray for the churches we're going to partner with, Holy Spirit, would you have your way, would you help us come as people who are hungry for more of your presence, and would we see you move in powerful ways. God, I pray for every single team member's heart, would this be a transformative trip, would this be something that forms us more into your image, as we see your heart and the people we get to meet on the other side of the world.

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to go and see how your kingdom is coming in Thailand. God, we thank you for the pastors, the churches, the ministries there, working day in and day out to set people free, to help them find your healing and the hope found in you, Jesus. We thank you that we get to partner with you. So we just say, Holy Spirit, would you have your way, would you protect us, would you give us your peace, would we be bearers of your peace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.