Anchored In Community - Week 7

I want to talk to you from, I want to talk to you today from the topic anchored in community. Everybody shout community. Now if you come to church, if you've been here often, you go to any church, you probably hear community all the time. Here we go again, community. Why does everything keep coming back to community? Can I tell you something? In the life of a believer, community is not optional, it's essential. I'm afraid that too many of us treat community as the optional thing. God is like, don't you realize, even as we spoke, I spoke about it last week, I spoke about it the week before. God has called all of his people to be in community. There are some things that God wants to do in your life, there's some things he wants to do in you that can only be done in the context of community. I'm afraid that too many of us have bought the lie from the culture that we don't need anybody but us. I'm afraid too many of us have bought the lie from the culture that says I'm good by myself. I told the first service, I got to be careful when I say the line because I know the line too well. It's a line from Jay-Z and an old song that he did, and let me give you the radio edit version. He said, forget men, forget women too. All I got is this money, this'll do. I find too many of us have adopted that kind of thinking into our own lives. I find too many of us walk around like, forget family, forget friends, forget community. As long as I got success, I'm good. As long as I'm climbing a ladder at my job, I'm good. As long as my bank account got a million zeros and the longest zero is not the first one, I'm good.

I'm afraid too many of us fall for this lie, but we don't recognize in the beginning, in Genesis, God created all of the earth, and he's looking around and he says, this is good. This is good. This is good. This is good. But the first thing he looks at and says is not good is the fact that man was there and man was alone. He looks at the fact that man is in isolation and despite everything else being good, he said it is not good for man to be alone. What does that tell me? It tells me that everything in your life could look good. Everything in your life could be going well, but if you are alone, you are not good. There are some people who point to their own money, to their own status, to their own success and say, look at all of this. This is good, but we don't determine what good is. God determines what good is. And if we line up with God's standards, I would think we will find a lot of us are living outside of God's intended will, purpose, and plan for our lives, and we don't realize it yet. I always say this when it comes to community. Community is one of those things you don't really know you need until you get it. You don't really, every now and then I set up some time and I go to a professional stretcher. A professional stretcher, I lay on the table and they stretch my hamstrings, they stretch my back, my arms, my shoulders, my neck. I can feel it now, even as I'm saying it, they didn't stretch everything and it never ceases to amaze me how I get up from the table when I'm shaking my leg, I'm like, man, this is how I'm supposed to feel. This is the way my body, I've never felt like this in my life. Can I tell you, community is quite the same. A lot of us have been living so long without community that when you finally get community,

you don't, this is how my life is supposed to feel. This is what I'm supposed to feel in my heart. This is how life is supposed to look. God wants to introduce us to his way of living, but we can only do it if we bring ourselves to know what he says about community. I want to read this in Hebrews chapter three, verse 12 to 13, it says this, see to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. He says this, I'm going to read it again. See to it that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from God. How do you do that? Encourage one another daily He said If you are on your own if you are alone Drift is going to happen If you want to make sure you stay lined up if you want to make sure you stay in alignment with god You have to get around people who are going to encourage you when things get difficult I'm afraid too many of us enter difficult seasons of our lives and because we have not been intentional With community in our lives we go through these these times of our life on our own and our hearts becomes hard Our heart becomes hard and then the bible says this the heart is deceitful It's to see so when your heart gets hard you start believing things you're not supposed to believe You start confirming lies in your own and god is like no no, no, no You need to get around some people that can come back Perhaps here's what happens. I tell people this in my own marriage with my wife We've learned this if there's times When we get into a spat When we disagree the worst thing we could do Is to go into our own corners and not say nothing for three days

Sometimes that's the easiest thing to do though I told the first service it's funny I'm sure some some spouses in here probably here today and you haven't spoken to each other in the last three days Because you went through something And it's so hard to come together. It's so hard to apologize but let me tell you what happens during that time when you take the time and you and you Allow your own feelings To stop you from coming together. The only thing that you have to feed Your mind is your own lies your own hurt your own insecurities And it just starts talking to you and talking to you and talking to you So me and my wife do this like listen if there's ever a time That these lies start feeding. I need you to bring that thing out. I need you to say it I need you to say because perhaps There's some truth That needs to intercept the lies, but it will only happen if you bring yourself out of isolation I'm going to say it again because I really wanted to sink in I believe with all my heart Especially the world took such a dramatic turn post-covid And isolation became the default It became the easiest thing to do and being in community and being around people now takes a just a little more It takes a little more In genesis let me go to right quick and I apologize to the Production team I told him I gave them about 89 000 scriptures I'm like because when you talk about community There's so many scriptures in the bible that talk about community I'm like which one pick anyone They all point to you can't do life alone Think about the very fact that jesus himself when he came to earth One of the first things he did was prayed and get some community around him

If jesus himself needed community, what do you think you're doing on your own? There's a I remember my niece my niece My eldest niece when she was younger You know how kids be dancing and they be like mommy daddy look Dancing And you get tired of watching them. They just dancing. I remember my niece one time. She's about five six years old She like mommy look i'm killing it I'm killing it. You know what I God had me think about that when I was doing a sermon earlier today. I like you know Isolation with success a lot of times look like you you could be succeeding You probably i'm out here killing it. God is like you're not killing it. You're dying But you've fallen for the trap You've fallen for the trap that as long as you got this money as long as you got this success that you're good In the beginning when God After he created adam once I saw this in the scripture. It changed the way I looked at community God looks at adam and he says It's not good for man to be alone in genesis chapter 2 you can put that one up genesis chapter 2 It says this in verse 18 the lord god said it is not good for the man to be alone I will make a help a helper suitable for him But for adam look at this No suitable helper was found So the lord god caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping He took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh Then the lord god made a woman from the rib. He had taken out of the man and he bought her to the man. We have an issue here and the issue is isolation. So how does God solve the issue to isolation? It says this it says there was no suitable helper to be found.

So I could imagine God looking he's like I can't find the answer to isolation so when he couldn't find it what did he do? He formed it. I believe with all my heart the answer to isolation in our own lives the kind of community God wants us to be in is not community that's easily found it's a community that's intentionally formed. I think we have to come out of this passive approach to community. Sometimes our approach to community is too passive. We will come into a message like today hear the pastor talking about community and we go home we say God would you just give me friends? Would you just cause the friends just to drop from out of the sky and then when the friends don't drop from out of the sky we get discouraged. When the friends don't show up the way we think they should show up we get discouraged. I want to encourage you don't be discouraged because the answer to isolation is not something that's found it's something that's formed. You have to be intentional about forming the thing that God wants you and this is this is super important and I think this is important why because I think some people look at the pastor on stage you look at me and you feel like CJ it's easy for you to say you're a pastor. I want you to know that you're talking to a person that hated people. I used to hate being around people. I used to anytime I hear one of these messages oh community here we go here we go now I'm gonna have to go out and find friends. I hate doing this. I told y'all if y'all ever heard me speak before there was a time in my life at a previous church I was at I would go to the early service on purpose just because at the time I was around like 20 years old or so and I knew there was nobody my age who was going to be at that service so I wouldn't have to connect with nobody who was looking to connect with me so me going to the early service I'm like you know I'm gonna just go to the

service so I could get out and nobody would look for me I don't got to connect with nobody and it never ceases to cease to amaze me how often I would leave the service and the other crowd was coming in and I would see people my age they'd be like CJ we got to connect and I'm like yeah cool cool cool cool let's do that hit me up knowing good and well I had no intention on linking up with nobody. I told them an early service this is a there was a meme I came across earlier it said if you make plans with somebody and then you see them later and they would say tell me the dates again you could go ahead and forget it. It reminded me like how often do I see people and they'd be like uh uh uh CJ let's do this on such and such date I'm like all right cool and then I see them the next day they'd be like CJ we still doing that I'm like yeah tell me those dates again what date was that again knowing a good and well I had no intention on ever meeting up with people sometimes God calls us to be the community that God calls you to be in sometimes can I tell you this is often inconvenient the issue with us being in community for some of us is that community is not the most convenient thing for us to be in it's super inconvenient it's super inconvenient you get in relationship with somebody you get friends with somebody I'm like oh why is this person always calling me they put you in a group chat God take me out this group chat just notification after notification after notification every call from God comes with a challenge every call from God comes with a challenge but the challenge never negates the call if you heard if I said this once I've said it a million times and I feel like I had to continue to say it because you don't know how many people

I talk to when I tell them God said to do this and you bring up a million and one reasons why you can't do it you bring up a million one reasons and not not you don't only bring up a million and one reasons why you can't do it you justify those reasons God told me to be in community but CJ I'm an introvert so you know that don't really apply to me CJ God called me to be in community but my schedule is just too busy that don't really CJ God called me to be in community but I got a whole family I can't really be in the call any call from God God always comes with a challenge but the challenge never negates the call. Ask Moses. He goes to Moses and he says, Moses I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh let my people go. Moses is like, I got a speech impediment so I can't really do that. You get it? God's like, no I gave you your mouth and the challenge that you bring it up I hear it but it does not negate the cause. Matter of fact, I'll send, listen, I'll send your brother Aaron to go with you. You still got to do what I called you to do. I was sitting at the side, you know the thought that hit me? The thought that hit me is this, it says, the thought hit me is this, it says, it's a famous line it says, when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Y'all ever heard that before? When the student is ready the teacher will appear. Why is that true? When I think about it like this, the call, a call from God always comes with a challenge but the challenge never negates the call because the challenge, God will always give you a blueprint on how to handle the challenge that'll help you obey the call. But you will never recognize the blueprint if you're not committed to the call. This is the truth that a lot of us have a hard time accepting. Most of us can't see the ways that God called us to deal with the challenge because we're more committed to our own comfort and our own convenience than we are to his call. So when he says I called you to be in community because we're not really committed to that call, we don't see the ways that he called us to deal with the challenges of the call. He says, one of the scriptures in Matthew because I hear this when people get in community, they're like CJ, I get in community and community is messy. Community is messy. I get in community and people do things and say things that make me go crazy.

People do things. The last time I was in community, CJ, everything went bad. The last time I was in community, this happened. The last time I was in community, somebody said something and I never really recovered from him. I want Matthew 18. Matthew 18 and I'm jumping around. Matthew 18 verse 15. If you look at Matthew 18 and you study it, you start to see God gives us the blueprint for community if you catch it and how to deal with challenges. It says this in verse 15 in Matthew 18. If your brother sins, if your brother sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over but if they will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or tax collector. Why am I bringing this point up? Because in community, this scripture shows us when you get in community, you will have issues. When you get into those issues, this is how you deal with the issue. Somebody says something to you, you don't like, they do something that they do, do something that offends you. Here's what you do. You go to that person in private one-on-one. Some of you are like, I see CJ. I really don't like confrontation. So can I tell you something? Avoidance is not a biblical solution for conflict. Avoidance is not a biblical solution for conflict because what will happen is you end up either being in community where things are not the way they're supposed to be and you end up just suffering silently or you just X out community all together. Some of us have to pray that God gives us the boldness to address the things that need to be addressed. There's some of us who won't be in or not in community because you have this, I can't, it's just, it's just, it's just so hard to approach. God's like, again, the challenge never negates the call. There's some of us who have to, and I'll give you some examples of my own life. I remember there was one person who I was really close to, really close to, this is, this is important. There's somebody I was close to and we got into a spat, I'll call it that, a disagreement. And if you know me and if you've been around me, I'm not a person who's been around a lot of people. I'm not a person who's been around a lot of people. I'm not a person who's been around a lot of people. I'm not a person who's been around a lot of people. Who like I'm gonna just stay silent there was you know why because there was too many instances in my past

There's too many instances in my life. Well, I stayed silent when I should have spoke up. I Believe it is there's some people here who throughout your life you have been too silent when you need to speak up So I remember there's too many instances in my life where I had done this I got into this thing with this person and we were really close and I was offended and I was like This just can't be and I remember this person hit me up one day And if you know, you know, if you know me, you know, I'm a Knicks fan So it's like you like you anything you could you could do to get me in a good mood Start talking about the Knicks in a good way So the person came to me they like yo, bro, you see the Knicks last night they did a thing and I had to tell a person I Said hey listen Respectfully I'm not interested in talking to you about anything outside of this thing that we got to deal with Once we deal with this thing once we talk about this thing I could talk about the Knicks I could talk about everything else, but until we deal with this thing, I can't talk to you about anything else You know what we end up doing We end up meeting up We end up sitting down to talk we talk for two three hours as Long as it took there was tears. There was emotion and we end up the relationship end up being restored This some of us restoration is on the other side of you addressing the conflict that needs to be addressed Some of us think Not addressing things in spiritual We think not addressing things is the way God wants it no no no no no God says there's some instances I need you to go to that person Respectfully hey this thing happened When it happened it hurt. I think this is something we need to talk about and it says if that person Listens you won them over, but if they didn't if they don't bring two or three people with you And if that doesn't work didn't involve the church, and you know what I?

Love how the Bible goes to a bunch of different layers to go through before you get a chance to dismiss somebody Some of us don't like to go through the layers. We just like to jump to the well He said treat them like a pagan or tax collector peace It's like well, it's about three other layers you missed Ain't know what I realized in my own life nine out of ten times if you go through those other layers chances of restoration are high Most of us never go through those other layers, but you know what else I recognize about when he says treat them like a pagan or tax collector That don't even mean you get license to cut them off Some of us would love it to mean that You're like no no no he said do you know how I treat pagans or tax collectors I? Recognize they're not in alignment With my word and with my way And so they're outside for a period of time, but I'm always pursuing them I'm old is always something that's still hoping for restoration The Bible teaches in a New Testament that when somebody has to be cast out of the community The prayer and the hope is that don't being cast out. We hit their heart enough that they would eventually be restored into the community There are some of us who have just can't you people for God they they are all the way out there And you're holding on to roots of bitterness and unforgiveness in your own heart God is like That's not my will either As a matter of fact some of the disciples acts right after this in Matthew chapter 18 It's like so God how many times should we forgive seven times? He says no not seven times 70 times seven times That that's that's that that just means you keep on forgiving That that just means you keep on forgiving forgive again and you forgive again and you forgive again you forgive again Can I tell, when you approach? Community the way God intended us to approach community. You'll experience community the way God intended you to experience community Too many of us don't experience community the way God intended us to Experience it because we don't approach it. We don't approach it the way he intended us to approach it

We go about it the way it's a casual relationship. God's like no, no, this is not a casual thing. This is an intentional thing And there's some practices that come along with it His his other thing he said there's a posture that comes along with it. He said the posture for community is humility In the beginning of this Matthew chapter 18 the disciples are together and they start arguing and they actually said Who amongst us is the greatest? He brings a child. He says unless you change and become like this child You cannot enter the kingdom you can't you can't get you can't enter my community Unless you do this, here's the key word unless you change a A Lot of us can't be in community because we don't like to change a Lot of us want everybody else to change but want us to stay the same God know the issue is not me. They gotta change The issue is not wrong with me God forbid you actually do change something in your life Do you know I speak to so many people who's in isolation? And it's funny I could talk to them and they could tell me some things and I could be laughing I'm like, oh, bro. That's you That's you sis, that's you Like no, no, no, it's not me. It's this person. It's that person. It's this person. I'm like, hey, listen You could continue to put it on everybody else's stay in isolation or you could begin to change some things. I Love it how when God forms Eve For Adam when he solves this issue for isolation I Love how God didn't consult Adam See some of us the issue with isolation in our own lives is this We think that the only people Who we have this whole list of people who can make it into our community? What they should look like what they should smell like What is what they should wear what they should like and we say this CJ You want me to change? I'm not lowering my standards for somebody else

You want me to lower my standards for him, you know what I recognize a Lot of us have confused our preference with God's standard Some of us can't get into community because we have a whole list of preferences that we refuse to change and we saying that's the standard listen God sets the standard we have preferences and And God's standard will never leave you in isolation What does that tell me if you're in isolation because of your standard you have to reevaluate and Determine if what you're calling the standard is your preference or is it God's standard? I? Love when when again when he goes to Adam, he doesn't he doesn't go to Adam say Adam What would you like and if Adam say, you know God, you know, I want somebody who's five five Thick in the thighs nice eyes Got our own independent You know, she know how to be quiet when the game come on And God is just checking off the list, okay, okay, okay, okay and got it Adam as you wish Some of us are in isolation because we want God to answer our wish list God's like no, no, no, no. No, I gave some standards and You just added 50 other things to the standard and you calling it and you and you think again You think it's you think that negates you from being in the community guys like no I need you to get in line with how I design you to be a community Rufus you could come You could get a lot and here's what the Bible says The Bible says wherever two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst when he says that those two or three are gathered in my name and the way that I called them to be an alignment with me When you are when you get in community in alignment with my intention there I am my presence comes The issue with some is that we're looking for perfect community That's like I never call community to be perfect. I Call community to be powerful and it's only powerful when you do it my way and my presence shows up in the midst of it Some of us are missing the powerful opportunities to be in community because we're trying to do community our way Guys like would you follow my blueprint? Would you come with a posture of humility? Would you come ready to forgive? Would you come ready to pursue? Would you come ready to address conflict when it needs to be addressed? Would you come ready for looking for restoration?

if you do that I Recognize in my own life. I the part of the reason why I hated community was because I didn't know how to deal with it and hated being around people was because I was not doing it the right way. There are some of us who have experienced community before but you've never experienced it and done it the way God called you to do it. And I tell people some of our job as a church is just to create spaces and places and opportunity for us to live out the call of God in practical ways. And so us as a leadership team we got together we started talking how could we help people be in community that's formed the way God called them to be in community. And we went back and forth we bounced ideas and then we've recognized you know it's time now for us to launch groups again. And when we launch it this time we want to launch it in a way that people have different opportunities to form community. So in this season of group launch that we're going to be doing we have three different types of groups. We have circles, we have courses, and we have care. There's some of us who need to sign up for care groups. The care groups will help you in areas where you need to forgive people you haven't forgive. Help you overcome grief where you haven't where you need to overcome grief. There's some courses financial peace university. Get around some people who's walking through this journey of getting better of with stewarding their finances in a healthy way. But there's some people who just need to get in circles. Just be with just just get around some people you're going to talk together you're going to eat together you're going to do life together. But remember community is a call from God. And every call from God comes with a challenge. But the challenge never negates the call. But if you are committed to the call you will see the ways that God have called you to deal with the challenge. So all this week as you leave here today these handouts are going to be handed out. For you to start thinking of practical ways I want you to scan the QR code. Look at the groups that we have listed. See what group you could be a part of. But here's what we did. We said listen if you look online and you don't see a group that you could be a part of we have an option for you to host your own circle. For you you know what I don't see anything here but for some maybe I need to start one for for guys who go to the gym. Maybe I need to start one for ladies just to come around and talk. Maybe I just need to start a dinner group. Maybe I need to start a group where we just come around and talk about the sermon. Maybe I just need a group. I'm a Knicks fan so maybe I just need to host a Knicks circle so I could just start being around people. I think so often we miss

I talked last week about obedience. So many times we miss the little invitations of obedience that God gives us. My life changed and I started getting community. This is the last thing I'll say. My life changed. I remember I was going to service at my old church and I've been praying for you know God would you send me friends and remember I told you sometimes the way God answers the thing that we need answered he answers it in a form of an invitation to obey. So I've been praying God would you give me community. God would you give me friends. He said all right I need you to switch the service you go to. I need you to I need you to stop going to this the earlier service because you know nobody is there that you could get in contact with and I want you to go to the later service. I went to the later service and the minute I walked in I had two people they're like hey CJ there you go we've been looking for you. I'm like oh my gosh that's exactly what I didn't want. They're like CJ do you want to go hang out later today? I'm like today? I didn't even have enough in my mind to think of an excuse. I'm like sure I'll go and I went with them and I get there there's about 8-10 other people there and we're talking and we're laughing and we're eating. I end up getting in touch with a person there who was a speaker. He said yo you like speaking we got together we started speaking and doing all these things started going to the inner cities and speaking to the inner cities. Long story short I'm all the way here now speaking and it's because of one small act of obedience one small inconvenience one small yes God whatever you say to do I'll do that changed the trajectory of my life forever. So I don't want to over spiritualize this. I want to leave this very simply head bowed eyes closed. For some of you God has given you another invitation today it's a simple invitation to a simple act of you know what maybe the thing I've been looking for is as simple Boy, it's just me scanning this QR code and just seeing, just seeing who's there for me to connect with. And if I don't see it, maybe it's on me to form it. When I can't find it, maybe it's time for me to form it. So Father God, I pray for each and every person in this room right now. I pray that you give each and every one of us the courage to step out of ourselves, to step out of our comfort zone and do the thing that you called us to do so we can experience life

the way you called us to experience life and so that we can be the people who you called us to be. In Jesus precious and mighty name we pray. Amen. Everybody stand to your feet. I'll say this again, because I know how easy it is for us to be in a room. You think you're going to do it and then you walk out as you walk. I'm like, I'm not going to do it. It's OK. Don't be that person today. Be the person who, you know what? Let me just take it. Let me scan it and let me actually sign up. Let me actually start being in community. Let me actually start being intentional about forming something and see what God would do through a simple, just simple acts of obedience. Stop in a hub. The hub will let you know everything we got going on in this Bible study coming up. Discourses, there's a lot going on. There is no and I love you. Believe me, I love you. But there is no excuse for anyone. That I have you in a place where you get a pass and not have to obey the call of God to be in community. God bless you. I love you. We love you. We will see you next Sunday. Make sure you grab a card and sign up. We'll see you actually on Wednesday at Bible study.