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Foreign actually like to begin this morning by giving you a guide. And this guide is how you could get the police to show up to your next church gathering. All right, if you're taking notes today, this is going to be a good one. All right. But, yeah, pretty soon after we started ministry. We've been in ministry now for about 10 years, but pretty soon after we started, we realized that one hour of time on a Sunday morning is not enough to really make an impact on the discipleship journey. Sure, one hour is enough time for God to show up and radically change somebody's life, but one hour is not enough time for the spiritual formation of a teenage community. And so we were looking for ways that we could extend our time together. And we thought about it, thought about it, and the solution we arrived at was using our home as a hub, because at the time, you know, if we wanted to gather here, we would have to set up and we would have to break down. And I was like, well, that doesn't feel a whole lot like home, you know? And that one hour on a Sunday blossomed into 14 hour Sundays, right? And it wasn't just the time that blossomed. It was also the people. I remember walking around my home one day trying to count to figure out how many people was in this house. And I lost count at about 40. And I was just like, at this point, you know, like, you just let it go, I guess. I don't know. It was. I was like, this is absolutely wild. And it wasn't just a social. I know sometimes we think, yep, y', all, a lot of young people gathering. Just a bunch of foolishness happening. And, and that's not wrong. But along with the foolishness, you know, there were a lot of really good conversations about God and, and faith that would actually start at 1am on Monday morning, much to my disappointment, because I love to go to bed early. Yes, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times, and everybody was enjoy. We were, you know, you could say happy. Everybody except for my neighbors, I don't think they were too happy about it because we got a report that somebody was speeding through the neighborhood and they apparently tracked that back to our home. So I got a message from the HOA or whatever, you know, and the president, and I was just like, okay, okay, everybody, like, we got to figure this out, because, you know, it can't keep going on like that. But several Sundays went by, and I remember this moment so clearly. I was standing in my driveway and I watch this young lady get in this car and gal just like, mash gas, bro. Like, she, like, no. Like. Like she had somewhere to go. And I just looked and I was like, my neighbors are going to love this. This is going to be really interesting. And so I did the most Christ, like, thing I thought that you could do in the middle of chaos. I went and I took a nap, right? Closed my door and I went to sleep. This is a very true story. And I woke up to somebody knocking on my door. And you know that moment when you're like, you ain't fully there. Like, your body's up, but you just haven't fully arrived yet. And they say, do you not care that we perish? Just kidding. They didn't say that. They said, the police are outside and they would like to speak with you. I'm like, that's a good one. Like, that's funny. Like, I don't believe you. I'm going back to sleep. And they're like, no, no, but for real, though, like, the officer's outside. And I was like, oh, this just got real. So I walk out there and I'm just like, I know exactly why you're here. I don't say that. You know, it's just like, hey, how are you, officer? Just happened to be in the neighborhood, could help you out with anything. Would you like some water? You know, it's like. And they are very serious. And I could tell that they're a bit surprised because I think what they were expecting to be called to was a home where there was probably a bunch of underage people drinking and can on and music and all of that. But there was nobody there drinking nothing besides probably some terribly mixed iced tea. Right? There was no alcohol on the premises. We were not making noise. Nobody was smoking weed that I knew of. I'm just kidding. I promise I'm responsible. I promise. I just. Okay. I couldn't help myself. Right, all right, sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. I apologize. All right. But there was no loud music. This was not the typical party. They were used to pulling up to and shutting down. And they're like, so, what's going on here? Your neighbors say, it's like you have a block party every Sunday. And I'm like, man, we. We just church people, man. Like, we, like, we over there. And I explained to them what's going on. They said, well, we have report that somebody's speeding through the neighborhood. And I said, yeah, caught that. I said, we already messaged her. So that was. That was on us. And, you know, we Go through this whole scenario and at the end it ends up being, you know, like, okay, like, somewhat. And since then, by the way, we've been over to the station, we've taken them food, we've prayed with them. We ain't Wyman. We cool. We cool, right? So next week, when we got the body. I'm just kidding. No, I remember the day afterwards, I was thinking, I gotta call my landlord and explain this. And my landlord happens to be my mother, who I am renting from. Yes. And so I call her and I'm like, man, you know the lead up to calling your mother with disappointing news, you're just like, thinking over all the things in your head. I'm like, hey, Mom, I'm a disappointment. Just wanted to let you know. Still a disappointment. No, no, my mom doesn't think I'm a disappointment. But that's how I felt because I'm like, oh, this terrible thing happened. And so I get on the phone with her and I'm just explaining what happened. And she tells me, she says, well, she says, you tell that young lady, she says, make sure she knows that she's still welcome there, that she's still always welcome. And everybody makes mistakes, and we can't just go around cutting off people because they make a mistake sometime, you know? And that really hit me. That really, really hit me because I was like, that's so true. I was so worried about this situation. And she just redirected my focus to what truly mattered. And it was being a community and having a sense of community for people who know that it is safe to make mistakes. And when you make a mistake, however avoidable that mistake was, you still get to come back to the community to be welcome, to walk through forgiveness. Right? And that, for me, was such a. I will never forget that. I will never, ever, ever forget that. But why am I sharing this story with you? I'm sharing this because I want to remind us this morning that in our pursuit to community, even community, that is Christ. Like, it is messy. I know a lot of us already know that. You've already experienced that. But we live with this example from the early church. And the truth is, our community, for a lot of us, don't really look like that. You read Acts, chapter two and you look at it and you see what they were devoted. What were they devoted to? Apostles teaching prayer, fellowship, breaking a bread, Breaking a bread with gratitude. And you see this community, and you look at our community, it's like, that ain't really. You know, if they had to Write a chapter on our community right now. I'm not sure it would be that inspiring to future Christians, but it's so beautiful. Everyone was filled with awe. Many wonders. All the believers were together. They had everything in common. They were selling property to give to people who had need. They met every single day and the Lord added to their number daily. Such a beautiful picture, right? And I'm like man, you jump over to Acts chapter 4 and the picture continues. In verse 31 it says after they prayed the place that they were meeting was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. When's the last time you prayed? And a place shook. All the believers were one and heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had with great power. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and they brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. It even gives us an example at the end it says Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, who the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. He sold a field he owned and he brought the money and put it at the apostles feet. Is there anybody in here who wish that our church was more like the early church? Show of hands. All right, well that's a couple of us. All right. Solid. All right, all right. For the, for the couple of people who do really wish that. Let me keep reading. All right. This is still the early church. This is the next verse. Now a man named Ananias together with his wife Sapphira also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles feet. But then Peter said, ananias, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received from the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold? Wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not just lied to human beings but to God. When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great Pharisees all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in. Uh, oh, is correct. Not knowing what had happened. And Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said, that is the price. Peter said to her, how could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also. And at that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And Great Fear sees the whole church and all who heard about these events. I'm gonna ask my question again. Who here wishes our church was like the early church? All right, I see some hands, so I need you to stand up if you lie this year. Ushers, are you ready? Oh, okay. Okay. No, no, Too soon. Okay. This is a really beautiful picture. All of it, like, Great Fear seizing the body. And not just the body, but everyone who even heard about it. To see the power of God present in the church brought reverence about the entire community that the church was placed in. You know, I see a community like this, and I have to ask myself sometimes some questions, because the truth is, I don't know how much Dinaj is committed to seeing a community like this in Nassau right now. I could say it, and I could preach it to you, but here's the thing. Like, that, for me, is an ideal, right? I look at that. I do believe fully it's possible, but I'm so disappointed by my actions sometimes to move, to take steps towards that community. You know, for me, and I know for a lot of us, we have built worlds for ourselves that are literally so far removed, it's worlds apart from the picture of community that we read in scripture. I say I want deep community, but I don't even want you call me, don't call me, text me. And I got my notifications off Real Talk. Like, I don't even want to be that accessible. I just get mad when people give my phone number out. They say confession is good for the soul, right? Like, this is. I'm not. This is not a sermon illustration right now. I'm telling you for real. I struggle with this. Some of us, we don't even like any interruptions at all to our routine. We want to make sure, like, ain't nobody showing up at my door knocking. And we've moved into communities to ensure that it never happens. Right. We didn't want nobody Coming at our door. No, sir, not today. We are uncomfortable looking at this level of community. We even when we think about the need, in this very room, there are people in need, and some of us are annoyed with that. That is really uncomfortable for some of us. And today I want to hold up this picture of the early church, and then I want to hold up a mirror to ourselves to really look at how we can take steps to getting there, because I do believe it's possible. But it's going to be messy, and you got to make sure you're down for the ride, because otherwise we're going to lose some people along the way. When I think about being right here at New Providence Community church, to be honest, like, you know, let me put it this way. If Paul was still alive, we would have had some letters over the years. You know what I mean? We would have definitely gotten a letter or two. Right. When you're this far from the ideal, sometimes it can just feel a little bit discouraging because not only do you need convincing to change at this point, we need convincing that it is even possible to change. Some of us have seen the shortcomings, and we just become so disenchanted with the whole thing. And if you're feeling convicted this morning about this diagnosis, maybe you feel overwhelmed. Don't be troubled. The solution for us is very, very simple. Right. We are good church folk. What is the answer? Oh, wow, that's wild. I heard somebody say it over here. Who said that? Yeah. The answer is Jesus. Amen. Right. Let me run this back. Romans 7:25. It's not going to pop up. It's really simple. You could memorize it. He says, thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. You could look any one of your problems in the face and you can quote that scripture. You believe that Jesus is the solution. He is. If you would put it. Since I said diagnosis, he would be the medicine. But I don't think that's necessarily enough, because if we're going to prescribe something for this diagnosis, you don't just get medicine. You also get instructions with your medicine so that you don't hurt yourself or the people around you. Right. And so as we unwrap this prescription, I want you to understand that we are not trying to copy the behaviors of the early church. I believe that would be a mistake. I believe there's something a lot deeper. The behaviors of the early church flowed from the belief the early church. And that's always the way true belief works. Our behaviors. You look at it take anything you do, the food you eat, the way you spend your money. It flows from your belief. Not what you say you believe, but what you actually believe. Dallas Willard, in his book the Divine Conspiracy, I believe it's chapter eight. Here's the way he words it. He says, we always live up to our beliefs, or down to them, as the case may be. Nothing else is possible. This is the nature of belief. And so if the early church and what they experienced was a direct result of their beliefs, or let me put it differently, it was direct result of their understanding of salvation, I think we could draw the same connections. The level of community that we experience as a church, for us is a direct reflection of what we believe about salvation. We're going to dive deeper into this for a second. I want to. I'll use the illustration of adoption, right? If I were to adopt a little boy, when the process is done, and the instant the process is done and all the papers are signed and the home inspection is done and all of that, in that very instant, his identity changes. He becomes a son instantly. And legally, my heart would have already been attached to him. We would have already created that space. We were already on that journey. But I'm talking about legally his identity changes. He is a son, but not only is he a son, he will also be a brother. He will also become instantly a nephew, a grandson. Are you following where I'm leading you right now? You cannot only be a son or a daughter to a father with many children. This is a question of identity. Church belief informs behavior. What do you believe when the Father has adopted us into his family? We got to do some deep digging today. This is why Jesus. Oh, the beauty of Jesus, man, when he gives those two commandments right in Matthew 22, what does he say? He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. I'm just quoting it from memory. I'm not reading it at this point. Right. This is the first and greatest commandment, identity. Right. He's the Father, he says. And the second is, like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. He is ushering in a new kingdom type of family on earth as it is in heaven. A family identified by obedience to the Father. What do I mean by that? Well, there was a scene where Jesus was actually standing and he was talking to the crowd, and he was doing what he does best. He was teaching and healing. Right? And then we're going to jump backwards 10 chapters to Matthew, chapter 12 it says, while Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother. His. His mother and brother stood outside wanting to speak with him. And someone told him, jesus, your mommy and big bro outside, they. They've been trying to reach you. Guess what he says to them? Okay, let's stop. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go take care of this. He says, who is my mother and who are my brothers? Now, which Bahamian you know could look at their mother and say, who is my mother? Be right on the stage at your funeral. Like, that's real talk, bro. Like, this is wow, wow. Pointing to his disciples, he says, here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. We have no idea how offensive this is. Yes, in Bahamian culture, it's offensive to talk about somebody ma. But you ain't know how offensive it is. Back then, your family was everything. Everything. It was your honor, your reputation. Like you, you lived for family. There's accounts of people from this time leaving their marriage to go and support family. Like, this is so offensive. But he's willing to be offensive, to paint this picture that we are creating a new family, a family that is held together by so much more than blood, or at least not this biological blood, if you feel me, but by his blood and what was done on the cross. He's bringing us together. And I believe. I really believe that one day a true sense of community will break out in this place. I believe that, and I speak that. And it will break out not by our efforts, but by the grace of our Father. We got a taste of that in youth ministry. And you know what's crazy? When it breaks out, some of us, we will miss it. We will see it happening and not understand it. And so some of us will try to fake it, just like Ananias did. He saw what was happening, the response that was flowing from their belief that they didn't just become sons and daughters, but they had an obligation to their brothers and sisters in love. And he tried to copy the behavior, but if he truly had the belief, his behaviors would have flown, flowed from that, and he would have given so much more. When true community happens like this, there will always be people on the outside just looking, thinking, one, you're crazy. Two, we could just copy that and they won't understand it. And that's okay. That is okay. But for us, where does that leave us as a body? I promise we're going to have this on a really practical note, by the time that we Wrap this up. But if what I'm saying is true and our belief should inform our behaviors, specifically our belief about salvation, then this morning I'm calling you to a deeper level of community as a church. And I hope that you will answer that call. I'm not calling you to something as shallow as networking in the church. No. Networking for most of us is something that serves the self to boost our ego, to accomplish earthly purposes. I'm talking about something much deeper than that. I'm not calling you this morning to make friends. This church, no, community is more than friendship. At least Kingdom community. It goes so much deeper. What I am calling you to do today, in light of what we are saying, I am calling you to believe. Because if you truly believe what God says about you and your identity and who you are in him as children brought into a family, I ain't got to worry about your behaviors. I ain't got to worry about it. Because everything else will flow from that. Everything. And it will leave no area of your life untouched. And this morning, if you're sitting here and you're hearing me talk about a type of community like that, and you're longing for that, not just the community with people, but that community with God, then amen, Lord. Amen. Right, then. There is an opportunity for you here today to begin that relationship. There's people who showed up in this building today to pray for you before you even walked in so that you would have an opportunity to restore right relationship. Because none of this is accidental. Not a piece of it. And so I would encourage you to not walk out of those. Those doors until you find somebody who's willing to pray with you and intercede with you and bring you back into right relationship. A bit of a. Well, it's not a rabbit trail, but it definitely wasn't planned. Right. We mirror the image of God most when we live in community. You believe that God wants to do a great work within us through community. Before anything existed, what was there? Community. In the Trinity, we serve a God who didn't need anything else to be in community. And this is why Christianity for me, stands out as so beautiful. We don't. We're not a part of a monotheistic religion. God didn't need an object of us. He didn't create us just to have an object of his love so he could express it to somebody. No, that was already existing in the Trinity beautifully. So. And so when we start to walk alone and we think that we are. No, you're going against the very fabric of it if you believe you could do this thing on your own, you will find out very quickly. You can't. You cannot. And so practically for us, what does this mean? What does this look like? Because sometimes sermons feel like a, like a survey flight, right? You up in the air getting this really high view of the land. You get some insight, you could see the way things are laid out. But when the plane land, you're still in the same place that you took off from. And what do you do with that? That could feel very disorienting sometimes. But I'm not calling you today to go out and go to some place to create some elaborate deep community. No, I'm telling you we are landing back at where we are at. Where you place is because God placed you, the communities that you are already in, for a reason. One of the best things you could do after hearing a message like this is to go and love your family, the community that you were born into. And for some of us, we don't have that available to us, but we are still surrounded by people. And my question this morning is, are you faithfully loving them right there? Are you faithfully digging in and being rooted in that community? Are you allowing them to call you out and you calling them out? Does truth exist in there? This is the community that you already have. And if you are faithful with that, God is honored. He really is. Sometimes you hear a sermon like this and you get fired up for something big. But the problem is the geography ain't change. You're going right back home to where you live. But I hope that that inspiration would be enough for you, as God speaks to you, to start right where you are at, right where he planted you. So that is honestly the next step. As simple and as boring as that is, you should probably start there. And I know love and family is difficult because those are the people we get the most frustrated in. And that seems like a hill of a task. That's okay. You go and you be a light on that hill. You go and you be salt in your families. And I promise you God will honor that. It's difficult trying to live in community because sometimes your community isn't perfect. Well, not sometimes, all the time. They ain't perfect. It is possible that your community will betray you. My community betrayed me yesterday. I was at Baja Bay Water park and I was just trying to be a good baby daddy with my kids, you know, and I was just spending time with them in the little kids pools, like there's nothing wrong with that, right? And these Friends come. Well, I thought. I thought they were my friends. They came over to me and they said, dinaji, why don't we go over to a slide? One of the slides over on that side of the park. I'm like, I've never even seen that side of the park. Why? Because, yes, I'm big man, but I ain't trying to die, right? I am afraid of heights. That's my confession. I don't understand y' all people. Y' all need prayer. Who like to feel like you're falling to your death every time? I don't understand that. I don't know. That don't make no sense to me. Why. Why would I pay you to make me feel like I'm about to die? Die make no sense, right? But they're like, no, we could just sit on this tube, and we just go down the slide. It ain't that bad. It's a baby slide. So I look at my wife, and I'm like, I don't. I don't do this. But she's like, yeah, but like, it's my mom. Like, you should go. Like, she's like, the betrayal started there because there was nobody who could have got me on that slide besides my wife. Nobody. And I looked at her, and I knew. And she. She was like. I was like, but you know how I feel. And if you say this is okay. All right, man, we going walking. And I trying to stall. I was like, yeah, I come in now. Y' all go ahead. I can be right behind y', all, right? And we walk in, and I'm looking up at this slide like, man, listen, I'm pretty good at physics. I'm calculating the angles of the drop, and I'm like, with the amount of weight we have on this, the speed we could be going when we wrap around that, like. But this ain't make no sense. But I go and I walk up these stairs, right? And I start talking to this lifeguard. And I'm like, man, listen, I ain't trying to be here. Like, what? Like, I've never prayed for lightning so much in my life. Never. I'm like, what would it take, Lord? What would it take? You know? And I'm up there at the top, and I'm like, lord, you said you would never leave the righteous forsaken. What is happening? What is happening? And I. I get on the slide, and I kid you not, we are sit in this thing, and the power shuts off. And I'm like, my Lord, won't he do it? Oh, church, I'm here today to tell you I serve a good God. Oh, man. In the midst of betrayal, he did it. But the power company turned it back on. And I'm sitting there like I have no other way out. And the lifeguard's not helping. She's like, oh, my son, he's a baby. He could do this. I was like, so you're trying to make me feel like less of a man, less of an adult when I about to die? Anyway, we go there, all five of us sitting there. The man spins the raft so that I'm going down backwards. Let me tell you something. We hit the first little piece, and I was like, okay, that's not bad. I felt a little something, but that's okay. And then I don't know who designs these contraptions, but we need to shut down this industry in this country, right? The thing circles and you're looking at the hole that you're about to be flushed down, you know, and it's just circling and I'm like, lord, this is really about to happen. My throat, as we fall down there, is hurting. I don't know where the scream came from. It started probably in my toes and erupted out of my body. Like, real man scream. Like, no high pitch, nothing. And that was just the first drop, man. I. I ain't see the rest of the slide. My eyes was closed. I was screaming, right? I'm realizing that I probably shouldn't be admitting this live on camera, but anyway, I hop off that raft at the end. But I said, but y' all don't say nothing to me, bro. I don't hear nothing from nobody. Nobody. I'm screaming like, going down this thing, man, like, that is not okay. It's unacceptable. And this morning, I tell you about community. You need to find good friends. And I'm in the search for better friends. So if y' all want to be a part of my community, let me know. Let me know, please. But on a real note, I know some of us, when we get hurt by community, maybe yours is in a slide, maybe it's not. We want to leave. Some of us want to leave. Paul wrote a lot of the New Testament. He wrote to seven churches in there. Do you know how many of them had issues? Seven. All. You know how many of them he told? Alright, well, I guess you could go leave and find another community. 0. He wrote to all of the churches and at no point did he give them an excuse to leave. He encouraged them, he pleaded with them. Work it out. When things get inconvenient, work it out. When somebody hurts you, remember how you hurt our Lord. And all we're asking you to do is to extend the same level of forgiveness that Jesus has extended to you. But that's not possible. Exactly. And so it requires something supernatural outside of us. And unless Jesus is the glue holding the community together, it will fracture. Because if you're like me, we petty and we get upset really quickly over small things. Right. I'm in community as well. We got a small group that meets at our home. I am not Pastor Dinaj in my small group. No, I'm Dinash, who has to be encouraged to open his mouth to talk. And a couple meetings ago, somebody called me out and I was trying to be like, yeah, well. And I was like, you know what? Thank you. Thank you for calling me out. We need this. We need the call outs. All of us are human. Even though I stand on a stage like this, I as well, I'm subject to the same scriptures, the call to community. I cannot walk this out on my own. I don't care how much scripture I know, I cannot walk on my own because that is not the design. We were created in the image of a relational God who existed before time in community, in the Trinity. There's some research out there if you're interested in doing any actual reading on this. This guy wrote a book. It's called when the Church Was a Family Recapturing Jesus's Vision for Authentic Christian Community. I want you to just listen to it. I'm not going to put it up. All right. He says, long term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay also grow. People who leave do not grow. We all know people who are consumed with spiritual wanderlusts, but we never get to know them very well because they cannot seem to stay put. They move along from church to church, ever searching for a congregation that will better satisfy their felt needs. Like trees repeatedly transplanted from soil to soil, these spiritual nomads fail to put down roots and seldom experience lasting and fruitful growth in their Christian lives. Some of us are like, but I only hear because my work brought me here like I did. I didn't choose to be. I know that's fine. You can still pursue community that's deeper than, you know, the superficial community. And I salute you because that is more difficult because you know a time is coming very soon. Well, you will be uprooted. But we are still called to plug in and to go deeper. Some of us today man, listen, we've been hurt by relationships, but it just so happens that God uses relationships to heal the hurt from other relationships. So don't isolate yourself. Please don't. The Father is willing and excited to heal some of us who have been hurt by these relationships. So as we end this, as we wrap this up, what is God revealing to you this morning? I hope that you see your need for community, but I also hope that you can see clearly the next steps you have to take. And if you don't, would you spend some time in prayer asking the Lord to reveal which areas you need to improve in as it relates to community? What is it in you that resists true, authentic community? And ask him to give you the courage to pursue that. If you don't believe in community, this morning, I would point you to Romans 12 to renew your mind. Because maybe you've become disillusioned by it. Maybe you are here and you're like me and you are deeply introverted. Or maybe you go deeper and you just really, truly don't like people. Hey, love for God fuels love for people. That's the way it works. And so I would point you right back to the same thing. I'm not trying to change your behavior. I just want you to believe. To believe that he is who he said he is. You know, on our website of this church, there is a vision that's written. And that vision says we are supposed to be a community of communities. What that means is we should be an example to the rest of this country what communities would look like, what Christ like communities would look like right here. Our community should be a taste of heaven on earth. Not because they're perfect, but because you have a bunch of imperfect people sticking together. If you believe in that, then may we move forward together. And I can predict the future. It will be messy, but it will be worth it because they will know that we are followers of the way of Jesus by our love for one another. Can we do that church? Not on our own, we can't. But we can strive for that. And so this morning, if you feel convicted, if you feel like that diagnosis fits, if you want to pursue it, community, even better. Would you bow your heads with me and spend some time talking to God? Father, we say thank you that you had the foresight to create us in your image, even though we. We still haven't mind the depths of everything that means. And I don't think we ever will because you are an infinite God. But, Father, would you grant us the grace to just allow the people around us to see a glimpse of you and your character through our community. May you help us not to be a people so easily offended, so transient, so selfish. May we see your refining hand through messy relationships. May we learn to stay and to stop looking for escapes from accountability. May you call us higher as we call those around us higher as well. And God, when we fail in this, may we remember your grace is sufficient and your power is made perfect in our weakness. Lord, have your way in New Providence Community Church and we access in the only name powerful enough to bind us together through struggles in the beautiful name of Jesus. Amen.