← Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
How To Build Healthy Community
00:43:42
Part 4 of Lets Talk About it
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Hey, church family. Summer is officially here, and I am so excited for what's ahead. We'll wrap up the let's talk about it series next week. Then in June, we're starting a brand new series we're calling Soul Good Summer, where once again, in the month of June, we're gonna hit the topic of the soul, the mind, the will, the emotions, and how a healthy soul can change the way we live. You know, oftentimes we spend our time working on the outside of our lives. Our schedules, our relationships, our habits, our. But God tells us the real work starts on the inside. So I want to encourage you to lean in, stay connected in the month of June, and bring people with you to church. I really believe God is going to move in all of us in a really powerful way. Now, today is a special Sunday. I am so excited to have pastor Caleb Chambers from our newest campus in Peachtree City, Georgia, with us. Caleb and his wife Katie have grown up here at Highlands. Caleb's a Highlands College graduate and faithfully served as our first Shoals campus pastor. And I'm so excited for all the vision and passion God has given them for Peachtree City. Caleb is an incredible leader and an anointed pastor. And today he's gonna dig into another one of our most requested topics from our Easter survey. How to build healthy community. And I know we're gonna be challenged and encouraged, especially because summer at Highlands is a great chance to live out what we're gonna learn.
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So.
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So let's open up our hearts to the word of God and put our hands together and welcome Pastor Caleb to the platform.
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Oh, come on, church. Does anybody in this place love Jesus this morning? Let's give him our best. Amen. Welcome to church. Everybody wanna look into the camera and say a big hello to all of our locations that are joining us. Of course, the department of Corrections facilities in Alabama and Georgia. Can we clap our hands for our church family? So glad to have everyone connected. And I do want to take this moment to look into the camera and say a special hello to every single person sitting in the auditorium at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, our newest Highlands location. We clap our hands for our newest campus. Hey, I gotta tell you, summertime for a portable church that meets in a school is a good time, because we got word this morning we could leave all of our stuff up because school was out. That is a miracle and a praise report this morning. But, man, I'm excited for today. I do want to take a moment and just honor Pastor Mark and Jill, I'm so grateful for our pastors, for the way they lead us. And I was thinking as I was driving in some of my favorite things about them. And really, I can't look any further than their genuine authenticity. And I just need everyone to know that who you see on the platform and who you see when they're walking in the commons, when they visit your location, and is who they are every single day. And it is so fun for us to get to follow in their wake. And our vision is clear. Come on. Our mission is strong. It is a great time to be a part of Church of the Highlands. Anybody grateful for your pastors this morning? Come on. We clap our hands for them, and, man, we're gonna have some fun today. Diving into part four of the series we're in called let's Talk about it, where we're talking about the topics that you requested. Like, we've talked about how to read the Bible. We've talked about what. What it means to build strong families. How about last week, Pastor Mark sharing on spiritual warfare? I don't know about you, but I've been suiting up every day before I step out. But this week, we're gonna dive into something I'm really passionate about, and that is how to build healthy community. Pastor Mark just mentioned that I've grown up in this house, and that really is probably the most true statement you'll hear all day. I walked through the doors of Church of the Highlands at 19 years old and really had no idea about life. And it's in this house that I've grown up. It's in this house that I've matured. It's in this house that I've started a family. And everything about my life has been marked by Jesus and what he's done in my life through this family of God. And if I had to list the top two or three things that have made the most difference in my life, healthy community would be right up there at the top. And I love that we're gonna get to lean into this today. There's a reason why it was on the topics of things that we wanted to discuss, we wanted to lean into, we wanted to get better at. And here's the interesting thing for me this morning, as I've been praying and really processing and believing for what God wants to do today is that we live in the most connected era in human history, and yet we live in one of the loneliest, that today, in 2026, we have more followers, but we have fewer friends. Like, come on we have more group chats, we got more group me's the devil. Can I get an amen from a parent with a kid and youth sports? I don't need another group me. But we have less community that somewhere along the way we've traded depth for reach and we've somehow called it relationship. But the life that Jesus modeled for us and the church that he desires to build, the church that he has released into the world, that's now our opportunity to build and keep building. It was never meant to be a solo project. From the very beginning, the design that God had for us was for us to be together. Not that it would be a nice add on to our faith, but it would actually be the actual evidence of our faith that to truly follow God, to truly be planted in God's plan for your life would mean I have to be connected in relationship. I have to be connected in a healthy, strong community. So I'm excited to lean into what the Bible says about this. And you know, anytime you want to discover what the Bible says about a topic, there's a few different filters you can use to do that. You can certainly google it. I do that all the time. What does the Bible say? Of course, today and time, a lot of people like to chatgpt. What does the Bible say about this topic? You can also look at the first place that topic was mentioned. This is actually a really great way to study something. It's called the law of first mention. It's a great grid. It's typically where you're going to find the purest form of a word or topic where it was mentioned first. But one thing I love to do that we're actually going to do together today is when I'm wanting to know more about a topic or what the Bible says about it. I love to go and look. Did Jesus talk about this topic when he was on earth? And if he did, what did he say about it? And that's what we're going to do today. That Jesus himself talked a lot about relationships and the importance of them. And it was so important that he was actually talking about relationships in the very last week of his life, down to the last night of his life. We're gonna look In John chapter 13, the last things that Jesus would say to the people that were closest to him was laced with principles on relationships. As a matter of fact, today we're gonna start in John 13, but we're gonna look at some scriptures from 14, 15, 16 and 17, because these five chapters happen in a matter of minutes. It's the last night of Jesus's life. And as he has conversation with those that are closest to him, he focused on two things. One was the person of the Holy Spirit and the second was relationships. Now I just have to believe today, together that if Jesus was talking about something right before he went to the cross and ultimately would leave the earth, it had to be important. Like if this was the last thing his parting words, that it's probably something we should take note of. So In John chapter 13, I'm going to read a few verses. This is what it says just to kind of set the scene for where we're going. Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So just see what's going on here. It's that last night. It's that last moment. And Jesus has decided, I'm going to spend my last moments with those that are closest to me. I'm going to spend the last night that I have with the community that I've built. I want you to take note of that. This is really, really important. It says he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, lord, are you going to wash my feet? Anybody thankful for Peter out there? Like the guy who always says what everybody's thinking, the guy who's going to say something that's going to. I mean he's like watching Jesus wash these people's feet and he's like, no chance am I going to let him do that. He says, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus replied, you don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will. No. Peter protested, you will never ever wash my feet. And Jesus replied, unless I wash you, you won't belong to me. This is a powerful scene in scripture that Jesus, who was the leader they followed their savior, was now washing their feet. That the last night of his life around a table with his closest friends, he's driving home the importance of the aspect of relationships in our life. Now what we have to catch here is the significance. Washing feet would have been relegated to the lowest of servants. They would have been appalled that Jesus was doing this even so much. So you see the interaction with Peter going, hey, you're not about to wash my feet, are you? And Jesus says this, you do not realize now what I am doing. But he was demonstrating something that he would hope that they would realize later. I think that statement right there still holds true for us today that. What was he saying? Most of us don't realize how important it is to have people in our life that know the dirty areas of our life. Oh, that's what healthy community is, that I would have someone that knows, hey, you know what? Underneath my shoes and socks, I got a little dirt between my toes. Like, hey, everything is not always good in the neighborhood. And we need. Doesn't have to be everybody, but come on, we need somebody that knows that about our life. And so if you're missing that in your life today, then this message is for you. If you've had that in your life before, but you somehow lost it, then this message today is for you. Or maybe you're in the room today at one of the locations and you feel like, man, I have that. But I think I can take a step to make it stronger. Come on, we're gonna do that together. And today is for you as well. So will you pray with me? Jesus, we love you. God, we're so grateful to be in your house. And, God, we are grateful for your word. That's something that we can build our life on. And so as we lean into that today, God, would you come and do whatever you want to do in our hearts? Would you speak right to our hearts and our minds? Would you help shape our life? Would you help us leave here today ready to build healthy, strong community the way you designed us to live? In Jesus name and everybody said, amen. Amen. Amen. I have a question, maybe just for reflection, not for response, but when is the last time you found yourself doing something you know you had no business doing? Like, you said yes to something. You're like, I shouldn't have said yes to that. Or you said you could do something that you knew you couldn't do? This is for me, anytime in my life that I say yes to a home project. I'm in that zone. I am now out of my skill set. I am now out of my authority. And for a long time in my life, I was in denial about this truth. I am now in my mid-30s. I have learned Some things. And some people save up money to go on vacations. I save up money to pay someone to do home projects in my house. It's just my lot in life. Okay? But years ago, I was not there yet, and I was learning. As a matter of fact, Pastor Mark mentioned Katie and I, my wife, we've grown up in this house. And what I love about our church is I have gotten to meet so many people across so many different areas and communities. Our journey started at River Chase Campus. Our journey continued at Fulton Dell. For the past nine years, being in Shoals, and then now getting to be a part of what God is doing in Peachtree City, Georgia. But when I was really young and our family was really young, we were a part of the Fultondale campus. Matter of fact, we were really new at the time of the story I'm about to tell you. We had two kids under the age of three. We were very wet behind the ears on everything. Life. Okay? And my wife walked in one day. It was a Saturday evening. You just got to know as a pastor, everything that can happen will happen on a Saturday night. That's just the way it goes. You're trying to be low key. You're trying to be chill. You're trying to get ready for a big day, and something's going to happen. She walks through the door, she says, hey, I got bad news. I got a pretty bad blowout. Flat tire on my car. I'm like, okay. And she said, do you want me to call my dad to fix it? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not calling your dad unless we're going out to dinner. We are not calling our dad to fix our tire. Okay? No, I got it. You sure you got it? Like, I know you got. It's Saturday night. You got a big day tomorrow. No, no, I got it. I got it. I'll get it. So I get out there and, you know, I don't have any of the right tools. I don't have any of the right gear. I got, you know, I got the jack out of the trunk. Those are not made to jack cars up. Can we just be real in church? That is not what that is there for. Don't even know what it's there for. So I got this car jacked up, and I'm trying to get the tire off, and I can't really explain all the details that happened because I really don't even know. But all I know is there was a moment where it looked like it was Going good. There was a moment where I had knocked the whole car off the jack. And there's a commotion going on out in the driveway. I'm now sweating profusely, because you sweat more when it's not going your way. And this one hour project has turned into a three hour project. And my wife, she just opens the door and she says, hey, do you think we should call someone? And I say, absolutely not. I have this. Is everything okay? I heard a loud. No, it's fine. It's fine. Just like I planned it. And so I go over to the other car that we have, and I get the other jack out because now the other one's trapped underneath the car. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to get it all out. I'm going to make it right. Lo and behold, I get going and I knock it off again. And about the time there's a big commotion going on, I am also yelling loudly, God, why have you forsaken me? That kind of stuff. And she just comes to the door. She opens the door. Now I got two little babies running around. She's being mom. And she just opens the door and she just hands the phone to me. It's time. Call somebody. And so I picked up the phone and I called a gentleman who's a part of our church at the Fulton Hill location. Name's Darrell Burrell. And for years he led our setup team. Just an amazing man. He lived just down the street from me. And I called and I said, darrell, I need some help, man. Can you please come help me? He's like, I'll be there in five minutes. Of course, he shows up with all the right tools, an actual car jack. Within 10 minutes, everything is fixed, ready to roll. And he just looks at me and he puts his hand on my shoulder. He says, caleb, can I tell you something? I say, yes, sir. He says, why don't you just do what you're supposed to do and be a good pastor and let us do what we're supposed to do and we'll take care of this. And we laughed about that. I have laughed about that for years. But here is the reality, as I was even just thinking about our time together today, that how many of us in life right now are currently facing things, and you're doing it the way I was trying to change that tire, that you're facing something that you were never meant to face alone. You were never meant to conquer alone. You actually don't even have the tools and the resources and all the Things you need to get through the thing because God designed us to do it together. We were never designed to be separate. We were always designed to be together. Yet for so many of us, we struggle with this. We find ourselves doing life alone, lacking strong community. It's huge. It's all around our culture we see a report stress in America report. 54% of adults feel isolated. 50% say they feel left out. 50% report emotional disconnection. This is where we're living. This is the nature of the time we live in. Our next generation. They're dealing with it even more than anyone else. 60% of Gen Z say they have gone no contact with a friend or a family member in the past year. 40% of young people say they experience loneliness on a daily basis. What am I saying? I recognize this was a topic because some of us are feeling it some kind of way. Here's the reality for us to grab hold of today. Proximity is not the same thing as community. Communication is not the same thing as real genuine connection. And followers are not the same thing as friendships. The Bible is full of a different way, a different plan, a roadmap to get us a different kind of community. And it would be a tragedy if we ignored it. And the words of Jesus himself are going to guide us today on how to actually build healthy community. We're going to pull it right out of Scripture in the book of John, those five chapters that last night of his life. We're going to let Jesus encourage us today and give us the foundation that we can leave here every location and say, you know what? I'm going to build healthy, strong community. I'm going to commit to it. I'm going to let God use it in my life the way he always intended. Can I get an amen in this place? Number one is simply this community is built when we serve one another. Jesus redefined greatness that night. The one with all the authority picked up a towel, picked up a bowl. So no, I'm going to wash some feet. You know, in a culture obsessed with personal brand and status, this is still the most countercultural thing a follower of Jesus can do. Show up for someone else, needing nothing in return, helping someone else clean the dirt out of their life. Come on. There's not a line of people out in the world trying to do that. But here we are. This principle Reigns True. John 13, verse 12. Do you understand what I have done for you? This is Jesus talking. You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet. You also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. It's all throughout Scripture. 1 Peter 4:10. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. We're all supposed to serve. God's created us to. He's gifted us to. He's actually made us all a different part of this unique body. So the question isn't whether you have something to offer. The question is, am I currently offering it? I love summer at Highlands. Matter of fact, I love anytime at Highlands. I'm a church rep. Like, all I know since 19 years old is church. I love church in the summertime. I love church in the springtime. I love church at Christmas time. I love church all the time. Memorial Day weekend. Come on. I'm preaching to the choir right now. Church is fun. But what I love most about summer at Highlands is it is some of the best opportunity to build community through serving. And maybe you're like, I don't know if I have anything to offer. I don't even know how to serve. Can I just tell you this? It can start really personally in your own life. You can leave here today and go, you know, I'm serve someone through a random act of kindness, man. I'm going to encourage someone that I see in the grocery store today, Man, I'm going to pay for the person behind me in the drive through. Just. Why? Because I want to serve. Supposed to serve. You could literally serve your neighbor. All of us probably know someone lives down the street, lives in the neighborhood. Someone in our orbit, someone in our sphere of influence. You know what? They probably need something. I could step in and help them. That's an opportunity to serve. Can I tell you this? One of the best ways you can serve around here this summer is lead a small group, do what the Hillman family did. I'm gonna create a space that people can come into and find the community that we know they need. It's not overcomplicated. It's not rocket science. It's literally as simple as, hey, I'm going to a park, bringing my family, bringing dinner. Y' all, come on. Going to a coffee shop. Hey, meet me there. Hey. Opening up my living room for a game night. Come be a part. That's a way that you can serve. And while you're serving, you're helping people find the community they've been looking for. And every time we serve, we're building that together. Here's what I want us to get deep down in our heart is let's not let this be a summer on the sidelines. Let's let it be a summer of significance. Now look back and man, this summer was useful. The summer was a time I leaned in. The summer is a time I let God use me in a powerful way. And along the way, I built some really cool relationships, some really deep, genuine friendships. We all need to serve. And hey, news flash, there's moments in our life we all need to be served. When all hell breaks loose in your life, you need someone to show up and serve you. And that's what the church is here for. But it's a two way street. And it happens when we get into the mix and we start to rub shoulders with one another and say, you know what? I'm gonna build community by serving someone. Number two is this community is built when we encourage one another. Oh, I love this one. I love encouragement. I love running into people who have the gift of encouragement. I mean, just two nights ago, a friend of mine from college who I haven't talked to in a long time, sent me a text and just with encouragement and immediately my countenance changed. Immediately I was actually praying and getting ready for this weekend and he sent me that text of encouragement. I was like, man, that was just what I needed. You know what happened after that? It led to a 30 minute conversation from him and I catching up and talking about the different ways that things going on in their life and ways we could pray for each other. Encouragement sounds like fluff to some of us, but it's actually not fluff at all. When you realize how many people in your orbit are running on empty, it's a big deal. Come on, your words have weight. A text, a phone call, a moment of genuine acknowledgment, those are not small things. Scripture actually treats those as spiritual acts of survival. John 14, verse 1. Jesus does it. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. What's he doing? He's encouraging. You know what he wasn't doing? He wasn't encouraging them that everything right then was about to get better. As a matter of fact, Jesus knew it was about to get worse. What was he doing? He was encouraging them that eternity will be better. Oh, can I just challenge somebody today? Every environment you walk in, your workplace, your family, your school, your gym, wherever it is you go, you have the opportunity to lift the water level in that space because your eyes are set on eternity and not this earth. Anything someone's walking through, anything someone's facing, if they share that with you, you immediately have the opportunity to say, hey, don't let your heart be troubled. I know that's rough, and I'm gonna pray for you right there. But can I remind you, this is not our home. Hey, there's something better coming. Hebrews 3, verse 13 says this. Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. I love that verse right there. Notice the frequency. Encourage each other at Christmas time. Don't encourage each other when things go wrong. No, encourage each other daily, every day. Someone in your life needs to hear something true and good from you. Every day. The Greek word for that word is parakalasis. It means to come near. You can't have encouragement without proximity. Let me say it this way. Encourage. Encouragement is a contact sport. You cannot be isolated and be an encourager. How about this? You cannot be isolated and receive encouragement. Proverbs 11:25 says this promise, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. I know someone's listening to me right now, and I've been there before. You're saying, well, I need encouragement, and no one has encouraged me in a long time. And I understand what it feels like to be in that kind of moment. But that truth in Proverbs unlocks something really amazing when you grab hold of it. And my question back to you would be, when is the last time you encouraged someone else? Because it's in that moment, it's in that place that you yourself also get refreshed. So here's a great question for all of us to ask. Who in my life needs to be encouraged today? I've started asking that question every time I'm driving into the office. Who in my life needs encouragement today? Takes 30 seconds. Send two or three texts. Just encouragement. It changes everything. Community is built when we encourage one another. Number three. Community is built when we produce with one another. This one is huge. God doesn't just want us to feel community. He wants us to build something with it. Every gift you have was designed to work in combination with someone else's. That's why we're part of a body, some of us an arm, some of us a leg. Some of us have different roles, different skills, talents, abilities. But guess what? Isolation doesn't just affect your relationship. It actually stunts your fruitfulness. This is huge. Jesus was talking about this in John chapter 15. This is what it says Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. I love this. I'm the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Oh, we gotta catch that. Apart from him, we can't produce. But can I remind somebody? Today, God put you on this earth for a specific reason and purpose. He has things planned for your life and designed for you to do that. We're ordained well before you even got here. But when we disconnect, when we isolate, we remove our ability to accomplish the things that God has placed in our life. Deuteronomy 32 is a great example of that. Verse 31, man will chase a thousand. Two, they can put 10,000 to flight. Well, you got to know this. The math of community isn't addition, it's multiplication. What are you currently trying to build alone that God designed you to do with a group of people. He designed you to do with a team. Everything is exponential. In the kingdom of God, everything is exponential. When it comes to healthy community, our faith is exponential. When we believe together, amazing things happen. That's why the Bible talks about things like two or more are gathered. Why? Because when we get together, something special can take place. So many areas of our life. This is true. Our giving is exponential. You might think, well, my little bit won't make a difference. Hey, but together, what we all give generously, it changes the world. Did y' all know that just three months ago? In the last three months, we've launched two brand new locations. Prattville, Alabama and Peachtree City, Georgia. We took new ground this year that was only possible because every location, there's a group of people that says, you know what? Alone, I can't do that. But together, oh, we can make a difference in some other places. This is huge. Let me just bring you a good report. In those two cities alone in just the past three months, Prattville launched in February. Peachtree City launched in March. We've had 152 people give their life to Jesus between those two locations. Come on, that's something to celebrate. It's amazing. That was something that happened together. That is multiplication. There's examples of this all throughout our church that I love so very much. I wanted to give you just a couple. There's a group of guys up in the Madison, Huntsville area called the car guys. Now, I wish I had known them when I was having some car problems a few years ago that I was telling you about. But it's just a group of guys who love to work on cars, who are gifted in that way, have the resources and tools to do that. And they said, you know what? There is a need. There's a group of people that have some issues with transportation. They don't have the means to fix it. This is a way we can meet a tangible need and share the gospel with it. And I love. Right there you see an example of that. What are they doing? They're building community, producing together, doing what God called them to do. Same thing up at our Shoals location, there's a group of ladies, Ms. Sandy and Ms. Amy. They lead a group of ladies that love to quilt. Any people love to quilt? I love a quilt. I love covering up with a quilt. I think that's amazing. They love to quilt. And if you've never been around somebody that quilts, this is a labor of love. And last year, they were so passionate about it, they got a group of ladies, they spent an entire year making quilts so that every mom that came to giving hope could leave with a handmade quilt. What are they doing? They're building community, producing together, living on purpose that God marked out for their life that's available to every single one of us. Quilting. Who would have thought that? I love this quote from Henry Ford. Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together now, that's success. I don't know if Henry Ford realized that, but that was a spiritual principle. That's the very principle that we're talking about. Number four is this community is built when we protect one another. And I want to just camp right here for a moment because I just felt in my spirit, maybe one of our locations, there was going to be someone that needed to hear this truth. Lone wolves don't last. And there's a reason for that. The enemy of your soul knows this, and that's why isolation is always his first move. He's always going to tell you, oh, they don't understand you. Oh, they're not for you. Oh, they're out to get you. I need you to know this this morning. Real godly community. It doesn't just feel good, it keeps you safe. Oh, that's a word for all of us, that people who know you well enough to notice when something's off and you've given them a place where they can say it. How about this? Those kind of people, that's God's primary protection system for your life. It's the way he designed it. John 16, verse 1. This is what he said. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. That's a short verse that's packed with a lot of power. And here's a good reminder for all of us, myself included. I cannot watch over my own soul. I have to involve others in that process. By myself, I am unprotected. The Greek word in that verse for the word astray is scandalizo. That's where we get the word scandal. By definition, it literally means to trip up or entice with sin. This is huge. We all need someone who can step in and say, hey, hey, I don't think you're going the right way. Hey, hey. Have you thought about that? I can remember this as a 20 year old college student, right here in this church on a mission trip, right here on the front row is Pastor Hayes, who's been a big brother to me for years. I remember vividly him pulling me aside saying, hey bro, I see these relationships you're out here chasing and the community that you're forming and what's going on around you. I'm just telling you right now, you're going to sell yourself short if you keep down that path. And it marked me and it changed me. And almost 16 years later, I am grateful it's protected me. Ecclesiastes 4 says it this way, it's better to have a partner than go at it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. If one falls down, the other helps. But if there's no one to help, tough. Two in a bed, warm each other alone. You shiver all night by yourself. You're unprotected. With a friend. You can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three stranded rope isn't easily snapped. Here's the question of the day. Who has permission to speak into your life when you're drifting? If someone immediately popped into your head, can I just encourage you send them a text today and thank them and remind them they have that place in your life. If no one popped in your head, that's our opportunity to step out of this moment. Go. You know what? I'm gonna find that I don't wanna live unprotected. This is why we talk about groups nonstop. Not because groups are a great program. Because it is our protection. Launching in two weeks. Some are small groups. That's why we're showing a video about it. Why? Because you don't just need protection in the spring or the fall. No, you need it all the time. And that's our Opportunity, build community together, protecting one another. And lastly, we build community when we pray for one another. I love it. The night that Jesus was betrayed, the last thing he did before the garden was pray not for himself, but for the people that he loved. Can I just encourage you? Prayer is not the least you can do for someone. Oftentimes it's the most. It's the most important. I'm gonna take that to the Lord in prayer. I'm gonna agree with you in prayer. I'm gonna step in and shoulder that with you in prayer. It changes both the person you're praying for. And guess what? It changes the one doing the praying. John 17. Look what Jesus said. After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me. It's a beautiful scripture. Individually praying for those he was in relationship with, praying for those he had community with. James 5 says it this way, therefore, confess your sins to each other. Pray for each other so that you may be healed. Praying for people, praying with others, it unlocks our healing. James doesn't say pray for each other when it's convenient. No, he says confess and pray. Well, that requires honesty, that requires trust, that requires being transparent, and that requires being close in relationship. That's not small group, small talk. That's actual community. And I just want to close with this thought that on our journey, building a family and being a part of this house, we've had many moments, like I'm sure you have in life, that we didn't see coming. Moments that were scary, moments that we didn't know how it was going to turn out. And we've even had that journey in our own life with our kids. We have two boys, they're 12 and 10. And our oldest son, when he was almost 2 years old, had a major health scare. And I can remember getting the news of, like, a lot of unknown, not knowing how it's going to turn out. Doctor visit, doctor visit, test, test, all this stuff, no answers. And I was spiraling, if I'm honest, as a young dad. But I remember talking to some people in my life here at the church and them saying, hey, we're going to pray for you. Hey, hey, you're not going to do this alone. Hey, I know you got that diagnosis. Hey, I know they gave you that report, but we're gonna believe for something different. Can I tell you, when I began to have that take place in my life, my confidence began to rise. I began to walk through that Thing differently. It didn't change it immediately. It didn't change the circumstance. We still had to walk through it. But guess what? People praying for us, oh, no, no, no. That was different. And from that moment forward, every time we faced a season like that in our life, I get out the phone, I make the phone call. I send the text. Hey, we're gonna need some prayer right here. Hey, can you help us pray for this? And no matter what, I'm feeling that one step alone, it raises my faith level, it raises my confidence level. It gets my eyes back where they need to be. That's how important it is. From the moment God said it's not good for man to be alone, he has been in the business of bringing people together. That's what he's doing in our life. That's what he wants to do in our life. The church isn't a building you attend. It's the body you belong to. A body that only works when every part is connected, doing its job. Serving, encouraging, producing, protecting, praying. These are not just programs. These are postures that we take the way Jesus lived. And here's what I know. The best version of your life doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in community. Separate will always struggle, but together we'll always win. We is always better than me. Can I get an amen in the house of God this morning? Come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus. So every head bow, every eye closed as we get ready to close in prayer all across this room and every location with us, going to have a moment of just decision here. Because here's what I know. You can't have healthy community until you truly have a healthy relationship with Jesus. It starts right there. Maybe you're here today, maybe you're listening to this. You feel God moving in your heart. You want that type of community we've been talking about, the one he created you for. But you know you have to have a relationship with him first. If that's you, I simply want to pray with you. I'm going to have you raise your hand in just a moment. I'm going to count to three, and you're gonna raise your hand just to be included in that prayer. No one's looking around. It's really just a moment between you and God. That hand is kind of a bold sign. God, I want everything you have for me. If that's you, any one of our locations, on the count of three, just lift your hand. One, two, three. All across this room. Amen. Amen. Amen. Proud of you. Anyone else? So good you can put those hands down. I'm gonna simply help you through a prayer. Prayer of commitment, prayer of surrender. You can borrow these words if you need them. Most important thing is that you mean it, your heart to God. Just say, jesus, I give you my life. Every part of me is yours. I turn from my sin, my shame, my past. I receive your forgiveness. Thank you for the cross. And God, I ask that you would change me, cleanse me and make me brand new. And now make this commitment, say for the rest of my life, the best way that I know how, I'm going to follow you. Fill me with your holy Spirit. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen and amen. Come on, let's put our hands together and celebrate. Every person making a decision.