Staying on Track with Community - Saddleback Weekend Service

Everybody, welcome to Saddleback Church! We're so glad that you're here, and we are so excited that we get to worship with you today. And so right now, we want to invite you to join us. You can sing, you can clap your hands. Are you ready? Come on! Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, this is the day you make. So I'll rejoice and be glad, rejoice and be glad it is. Oh, this is where I believe that you are more than enough, more than enough for me. Come on, let's sing it together. You are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. When I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, oh, my soul, bless his name. All that is within me say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, Jesus, come what may, you are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise. You are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. When I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. It's more than a feeling. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, oh, my soul, bless his name. All that is within me say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. So let it rise up like a river, overwhelming the Holy Spirit. Let it pour out with no limit, overflowing the Holy Spirit.

Oh, come on church, let's sing together. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Sounds like you've got joy today, Church. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. It's more than a feeling. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is within me. Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is within me. Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is within me. Say, the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Well, you've got joy. Why don't you give praise today? Oh, we thank you, Jesus. Oh, we believe in the power of the Lord. I pray into the atmosphere. Spirit of God, you're here. You have all authority. I pray over my heart and mind. I am healed by your stripes. Your blood declares that I am free.

In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim. Every weapon formed against me must break. In the mighty name of Jesus. I drop a permanent boundary line. The enemy has no right to come near my family. No skin could ever undo God's plans. No matter the circumstance. The cross has sealed my destiny. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim. Every weapon formed against me, it must break. In the mighty name of Jesus. I will not fear. I will not fear. When the enemy comes near. On the door frame of my life. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear. I will not fear. There's an army of angels here. I'm protected on all sides. By the blood of Jesus. I will not fear. I will not fear. When the enemy comes near. On the door frame of my life. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear. I will not fear. There's an army of angels here. I'm protected on all sides. By the blood of Jesus Christ. In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray. Calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim. Every weapon formed against me. It must break. In the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. Oh, I know. Oh, I know that I know. I will not fear. I will not fear. In my soul. Every key to every victory. I hold. In the mighty name of Jesus. It's in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. It's in the mighty name of Jesus. Name above every other name. Can we just praise him today for all that he's done in our lives? He died for us. This is good news. In the darkness we were waiting. Without hope. Without light. Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes. To fulfill the law and prophets. To a virgin came the work. From a throne of endless glory. To a cradle in the dirt. Praise the father. Praise the father. Praise the son. Praise the spirit. Three in one. God of glory. ♪ Majesty, praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ We praise Him to reveal the kingdom coming ♪ ♪ And to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation ♪ ♪ You did not despise the cross, for even in Your suffering ♪

♪ You sought to the other side, knowing this was our salvation ♪ ♪ Jesus, for our sake You died, oh we thank You Lord ♪ Let's lift our praise today. ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty, we praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Oh, in the morning light You rose ♪ ♪ All of heaven held its breath ♪ ♪ Till the stone was moved for good ♪ ♪ For the Lamb had conquered death, yes ♪ ♪ And the dead rose from their tombs ♪ ♪ And the angels stood in awe ♪ ♪ For the souls of all who call to the Father are restored ♪ ♪ And the church of Christ was born ♪ ♪ Then the Spirit lit the flame ♪ ♪ Now this gospel to the world, He shall not kneel, He shall not faint ♪ ♪ By His blood and in His name, in His freedom I am free ♪ ♪ For the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me, yes ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty, we praise forever to the King of kings, every voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty, we praise forever to the King of kings, praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Let's praise the King of kings today and lift our hearts and sing, you are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Are you God Almighty, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, holy, you are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Are you God Almighty, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, holy, you are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Are you God Almighty, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, amen, amen ♪ Welcome to Saddleback Church. My name is Nicholas, if we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet. And I want to take a moment and just say thank you for taking the opportunity and the time. to meet with us for church today. We here in the online community want to make

this the best experience ever for you, so if you're looking for the message notes you can find those in the link in the description down below, or you can download our Saddleback app, select online community, and access the message notes through the digital program there. One way that we can get to know you a little bit more is an event that we call Activate. It's happening this weekend and our online community pastor Carissa and myself are gonna be on the Zoom call, so we would love to see you, to meet you, and to help you get more connected with our online community and our church as a whole. So you can go ahead and register for that on the Saddleback app. We would love to see you there. Well there are a lot of other great things happening here in the life of our church, so let's go ahead and hear about some of them from our pastor Jeremiah Goley. Hey Saddleback, across all of our campuses these past two weeks of 21 days of prayer have been incredibly meaningful for our church. Whether prayer rhythms are brand new for you, or you've been faithfully praying for years, each gathering has been a powerful reminder of what happens when we come together as one church to seek God. We believe God is faithful to hear our prayers and to meet us right where we are, and as we come out of the 21 days of prayer we invite you to the return gathering happening February 18th through the 20th at our Lake Forest campus. Over the past couple of weeks we've been meeting at our individual campuses for prayer, but the return gathering is our moment to come together as one church family, seeking God and pursuing his presence together. There will be worship, times for prayer, and messages from Pastor Andy and Stacy, as well as Luke Lefevre, Al Gordon, and David Thomas. All generations are welcome and wanted at this gathering. If you haven't registered yet, you can register today at the Saddleback app or go to saddleback.com return. Now here at Saddleback you know that our mission is to urgently lead people to say yes to Jesus and his purposes for their lives. We are passionate about reaching people that no one else is reaching, and doing things that no one else is doing, so that more people experience the hope of Jesus. We do this in a lot of ways. We invite people to church, we serve others, but we also do this through giving. And because

of your generosity, lives are being changed every single day across all of our Saddleback locations. If you've never given before, I want to encourage you, take that first step today. A great way to do that is through the Saddleback app or by using one of these giving envelopes. Thank you for your generosity and for joining in what God is doing in our church. Let's join up with Pastor Andy now and all of our Saddleback locations for this weekend's message. Well hey church family, it is so good to be together and I do want to welcome all of you who are joining us online, all of our campuses across Southern California, our international campuses. I gotta say, on the front end of this message, I've been looking forward all week long to this moment. And I, just like a kid on Christmas morning, I've been so excited about this weekend. And here's why, because I know that this weekend, at all of our campuses, there are going to be some of you that make one decision that will change the entire trajectory of your life this weekend. I believe that. Because this weekend, we're celebrating the launch of small groups at all of our campuses. And at the end of our service, I'm going to give you an opportunity to one, lead a group or two, get into a group. And here's my prayer. My prayer is that at the end of this message, you will be so excited about getting into a small group that you will be shaking in your chair that you can't wait to get out and be a part of one of our groups. So today, as we're celebrating Connect Weekend, I do want to just remind us of where we've been so far this year. We've been in the middle of a journey looking at how do we get our lives back on track? How do we get our lives back into alignment with God's very best for all areas of our life? And we looked particularly about our faith and how do we get on track with our faith. And we looked at our relationships and our finances and our vocation and ultimately with all areas of our life moving in the direction of God's best. And one of the things that has happened in the midst of this season of getting our lives on track is we've been seeking God's heart through prayer at all of our campuses. And I have just been blown away with the response of our church. Just seeing people in this room at Lake Forest, pictures from our campuses, the hunger

inside of our church, wanting more of God, praying for breakthrough, praying for lives to be changed. And every day, all week long, we've had this stage and our campuses filled with cards of prayers from you. And we've seen so many answered prayers just in two weeks of prayer. So if you've been a part... of our 21 days of prayer at one of our campuses. I wanna celebrate you, just say thank you for coming out to be a part of that. And I wanna give just a small challenge before I jump into my message. If you haven't been yet, I wanna encourage you to go to at least one day. And a great day to go is Monday, this coming week. And I believe if you go Monday, you'll wanna come the rest of the week. So just one day, I believe God will use it to change your life. And I believe there's something shifting in our church. God is changing our church with hunger for more of him in all areas of our life. We will never be the same after this 21 days of prayer. Do you guys believe that? Yes. Now, as we talk about getting back on track, I had this question after last week's message. And this question really ties into when my kids were young. I remember when the kids were young, they used to do this little train in our living room. And we would spend hours on end setting up the track and they would kind of link together. And there was a little button that you could press

on a little small train. And there'd be this track as they were going along. And every so often, if all the tracks were not linked together, one train, the first train would come off. And then what happens? Every other train behind that falls off the tracks because the track was not set up correctly. And it made me think about what we've talked about with our lives, getting back on track. And this question emerged in my mind this week. How do you stay on track with all that we've done this year? If you've made decisions to get on track with your finances and start honoring God with a budget, or you made a decision to reconcile your marriage, or you made a decision in particular to start honoring God with your body or your work, how do you stay on track in all areas of your life? And that's what we're gonna talk about today as we look at the power of community to help us stay in the direction of God's very best for our lives. I believe God gives us three tools to stay on track. One is his word, two is his spirit, and three is his church. That these are God's tools for us to live a different kind of life. And today we're gonna look at the start of the church in Acts chapter two. I love the passage of scripture we're gonna be in. And I want us for a moment,

if we could just read these few verses out loud together. Acts chapter two, verse 42 through 47, the launch of the church after the resurrection of Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Let's read these verses aloud together. You guys ready? I think there's like four people that said they're ready. You guys ready, all of our campuses? Yes, okay. Says this, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions and gave it to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. This is the word of God. And I love this little chunk of scripture. I remember sitting in a conference and there was a leader up front, a pastor who read these few verses and God used these verses to call me to be a pastor

and start a church from scratch. I remember that moment vividly. And something inside of my heart just came alive as I saw for the very first time that the power of God's local church, there is nothing on planet earth like a local church that is alive. There is no force, no institution, that there is nothing that transforms people's lives like the local church. And we're gonna look at how does that happen? How does the local church actually help you stay on track and transform your life? Well, it happens one, in a large group like this that we're gathering in at all of our campuses, but two, through small groups. And here's the big idea for us today. When it comes to community, when it comes to staying on track, staying connected, helps me stay the course. So if I wanna stay the course, as we've looked at all these areas of my life, I must be connected as we see here in Acts chapter two, 42 through 47. The early church was this beautiful picture of a group of people that gathered together corporately for worship, and that yet from home to home, they gathered with one another, they spurred one another on,

challenged each other, supported one another, prayed for one another, and as a result, the early church thrived. And there's a quote that says, the church at its birth is the church at its best. So I believe we can look at these few verses as a model for our lives, as a model for our church of how do we stay the course through being connected in community. And I have three big ideas that I wanna share with you from this passage around staying the course. staying connected and the power of community. And the first one is this, community in the context of the local church, large group then into small group, what community does is it fuels extraordinary devotion. It fuels extraordinary devotion. And there's something that happens when you get in a community with a few other people that are moving in the same direction that you wanna go. You've experienced this if you've gone to a CrossFit class. I go to CrossFit once a year. And once a year, Memorial Day weekend, there is a big competition called the MRF. And every year I'm like, I'm just out of breath. I'm about to die at the end of it. And Jeremiah Goley from our staff invites me to go every single year. And I run way past my capacity for about 60 minutes and then I lay down and die for the rest of the day.

I'm like out of it. And the reason I run so much faster is because I'm right next to Jeremiah and I don't want him to shame me afterwards. And the truth is when you're in community, it spurs you on to live a different kind of life. So I have been so encouraged again this week with prayer to see so many generations coming together to seek the heart of God. And one group of people in our church that I've been so encouraged with is our college students and our young adults coming together for prayer. And there's this one group of students. They meet together every week for their small group and they have been challenging one another to get up early in the morning to be in the room for prayer. And how many of you know that college students do not get up at 6.30 a.m., right? So I want you to see this picture right here that I got with them this week. I guess you have to be six foot two to be in their small group. And that's my oldest on the far right. But I just have been so encouraged because these guys, they would not be at prayer alone. And they're challenging each other to live a different kind of life. And that's the beauty.

If there's something on the inside of you that wants more of God, if there's something on the inside of you that longs for more of his power and his presence in your life, if there's a part of you that is saying, I wanna live a life that's more committed and on fire for God, well, the best way to do that is in community. It's to find other people that spur you on. And in the middle of the week when you're challenged and struggling, it's to have that group that you can come to and they inspire you. And notice again, in verse 42, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. You might circle in your notes that word devoted. It means to be continually committed. So they were continually committed to the apostles' teaching. And notice it says themselves. It's plural. So it's in the context of community. One of my mentors, a guy by the name of Dr. C says this. He says, no one becomes the best version of themselves by themselves. So if you wanna grow, if you wanna transform, if you wanna be a different person, you need community. You need people around you that stand with you. And I thought one of the best ways

that I could just display this is through sharing with you a little bit about my small group. Now, I've been in a small group. Now, this last semester, a couple of small groups since we've been here, but this last semester was by far the best small group I've ever been a part of. And this group is a group of men older and younger, but they're all business owners or business leaders. And so we pulled this group together with another business owner. And if you wanna know the difference between a group of business owners and people who aren't business owners when they get together, people who aren't business owners get together and complain about their boss. People who are business owners get together and complain about their employees. So that's one of the differences among many. But this group has been such a lifeline for me on a personal level. I've been able to develop new friendships through it. And I'm so encouraged every week when I get together. So I want you to see this short video that highlights some of the things God is doing in the small group I'm a part of. This group has been an important part of my journey because I've been able to watch other men

with similar circumstances or experiences, show me that it's okay to come and not have it all right, not be all put together. And also just model for me what it's like to put God first in your life. Our group ranges from 30s to 60s, but guys who have started a business for entrepreneurs that we all like to do the same thing, all guys who love the Lord. And it's nice because I do other groups where I meet just business people, and that's great. Or people that are in groups that are just Christians, but to have Christian business people in the same group, we have a lot to talk about. My wife asked me during Christmas, so when are you starting your men's group again? I said, I think in February. Why, why do you ask? She says, because you're different when you're going to that weekly meeting. Oftentimes we go to church on Sunday and then Monday through Saturday you don't have a lot of connection from some spiritual brothers and having this group gives you a chance to just to do life with people on a 24-7 basis. I open up to these guys about stuff that's going on in my personal life that I don't really talk to even some of my good friends about. You know, I'll bring up things to these guys that me and my wife just talk about. There have been some really heavy things shared of life experiences that people are going through that maybe they feel is very unique. And every single time one or several other people at the table have been through that exact experience in life before and have walked that journey and can give guidance and support

and love. If you want growth in your life in all areas, this is one of the best ways to do it. It may feel like another obligation but it's an obligation that's going to become fruitful in so many other areas in your life. You got to go and jump in with both feet, find one that you think would fit you best and just do it. I cannot believe the desire I have to be here and I went so long, multiple years without being in a small group. What was I waiting for? This last week we launched our group and I was walking back to the car after group and I was just in tears thanking God for that group of men. And the thing that I just thought is the beauty of community and how many people in our church family are doing life alone, missing out on this great gift that God has for us, trying to do it in our own strength without community, without the church coming alongside of us. God did not design you to do life alone. And the other truth that is in this scripture and I even experienced in my small group is that community strengthens me in my weakness. So not only does it help me with my devotion but it strengthens me with my weakness. And I'll describe it with my group this last week. This is part of why I was just so blown away with our conversation. We're kind of journeying through this small group curriculum that we're going to launch in the fall of next year, piloting it. It's called Anchored. And with Anchored we're going through some of the basics of just following Jesus. And so this last week we're talking about the Bible. And all of us are gathered around and you'll notice from that video we're all different ages. Some of the guys are more mature than others. Some are younger than others. And in the conversation some have been following Jesus for a long time.

Some are really new to faith. Some aren't even followers of Jesus yet. And in this group when we started talking about the Bible I just asked a couple of questions like what's your experience with the Bible been like? And what are some things that have shifted in your life because of the Bible? And one guy goes, hey, I've never really read the Bible. I don't even know where to start reading the Bible. And then another guy chimes in and says, hey, just a few months ago I was right where you are. And somebody told me that if I start in the book of Proverbs or if I start with one of Jesus' stories of Jesus' life, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and I just started taking a chapter a day and let me tell you what I'm seeing in the Bible after before I never read it before and my life is changing. So one guy starts sharing with another. And then just a moment after that another guy says, you know, I come to group on Wednesday and I go home on Wednesday night and I'm so pumped up and I read my Bible on Thursday, but then on Friday kind of that fire goes away. How do I stay consistent with it? And another guy says, oh, I was in the same position as you just a few months ago. And I started praying for God to put a hunger inside of me for his word. And I would just ask every day, God, set my heart on fire for your word. And now I'm consistent unlike I've ever been before. And my heart was just so filled. Like these guys are sharing with one another and the guy who's new is bringing something and the guy who's been following Jesus for decades is bringing something. Are you guys tracking with me? It is the greatest gift and how we strengthen each other in community. And I want you to see again with this verse. I want you to notice how specific it says, all the believers met together in one place and they shared everything that they had.

They sold their property and possessions and they shared the money with those in need. Now there certainly is an aspect of community that is generosity with our financial or our physical possessions. But there's another kind of sharing that when you come into community, there's something you bring. There's a gift that you have. There's wisdom. There's knowledge. There's experience. There's even desire for God that you carry. And all of that you're bringing to a group and you're strengthening one another. And when you're strong and somebody else is weak, you pull them up. And when they're strong and you're weak, they pull you up. And I love how God uses community to strengthen us in our weakness. I'll give you another example just from this week. We asked the question, how has God used the Bible to change the way that you live? And one of the guys who is phenomenal at real estate, like he's been doing this for decades, he said, when I was young in real estate, I just started my business. And there was a moment in my business where somebody, they messed me up. They took lots of money from me, and I hired an attorney. And that attorney got all the paperwork together, and we were about to present our court case, and I started reading the Bible. And as I was reading the Bible, I came to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. And when I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount,

there's this one verse about when somebody comes to you, if they're your enemy, you should pray for them and bless them. And I thought, if I'm a follower of Jesus and I'm gonna do this, I can't sue somebody and then say I'm blessing them. So he goes back to his attorney, and he says, I'm dropping the case. And the guy's like, no, you're not. And he's like, no, I am, I'm a follower of Jesus, and I believe God wants me to drop this. And the guy's like, you are stupid. You are, you are D-U-M dumb. You are so, I cannot believe, this is a slam dunk for you, brother. And he says, no, I'm not doing it. Now, we're speaking hundreds of thousands of dollars. So his attorney is like, okay, but I need you to just sign a letter saying that you told me to do this because I think it's so stupid. And so he's just billing them hours, adding them up. And then afterwards, after he dismisses this guy who owed him lots of money, the attorney comes back and says, man, I gotta grab lunch with you. Like, I'm blown away with what you just did. I've never seen anything like it. And at lunch, this attorney says to him, you know, I'm so blown away by this.

You don't need people like that guy in your life anymore. Let me introduce you to another guy who does real estate, who invests in real estate projects. And he introduces him to another guy who later invests 100 times what he lost in that first court case. Y'all, that's crazy. That's crazy. And it all came out of a prompting. Now, I'm not saying every time you say yes to Jesus and obey the Bible, it results in $100 million investment into your work. I'm just simply saying that when you obey God and you hear stories like that, it strengthens your faith. So God wants you in community so that your faith can be stronger. And in Ephesians chapter four, these few verses are so significant. It says, we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful scheming. Instead, by speaking the truth in love, we grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who's the head that is Christ. Now watch this. From him, the whole body joined and held together grows by every supporting ligament. It grows and builds itself up in love

as each part does its work. So that connection results in growth that we get stronger as we're a part of community. And that leads me to the last point. Community multiplies the reach of my life. And what I love about how God works in the early church is that God took a group of ordinary people like us who loved him and poured out his spirit upon them. And they said, God, we're gonna do whatever it takes to share your good news to the ends of the earth. And these early disciples, God multiplied rapidly the movement. And notice in verse 47, it says this, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So what is so crucial about community and what is so different about the church from every other club or institution or organization that might exist, the church is not like every other organization. We are a group of people with a mission faced outward. So we love each other on the inside. We care for one another. We bless one another, but our community that we form is hospitable and open to people who are currently not connected to the heart of God. And the more that the church in community has its eyes on the people disconnected in the world around us, the greater the impact becomes and the greater your impact becomes.

And if there's a part of you that longs for your life to count at a deeper level, God gives you the church as a partner to come alongside of you to help your life have the greatest possible impact. And my prayer for you, as you consider, how do I let God, one, stir in me in a way that my faith is stronger, but two, how do I let God use my life, the gifts and talents, and impact people who are disconnected from him? It really is in the context of being connected to a local church. So what I want to invite you into is I want to. invite you not just to come to church and go in and out and experience great services and great children's ministry, but it's to connect yourself so that your life might flourish and you might experience the power and presence of God and ultimately the greatest possible impact that you can have with your life. In Genesis chapter two, verse 18, God's word very clearly says, it's not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper who is suitable for him. And what that means is you were not made by God to do life alone. And I'll close with this last point. It's impossible. It is impossible to live a rich and satisfying life alone. It's impossible to live the fullest life

that God created you for alone. And loneliness is so detrimental to the soul, so detrimental to our body. Studies show that loneliness is worse for us than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. And somebody just said, does that mean if I get into a small group, I can keep smoking? And what I hope for you today is that you can realize that God is giving you this opportunity right now to be a part of community, to be a part of a small group. So I wanna just share with you how you can be a part of a small group right now today. And as you make this decision, I believe that God will use this to radically transform your life. Now at all of our campuses, in just a few moments, your campus pastor or your campus host is gonna come out and share with you some of the incredible groups that are launching at your campus. But I briefly wanna tell you that if you will pull your phone out and scan the QR code that's on the screen or tap, there's a button that says tap here around some of your seats, you can tap. And it will bring you to a small short form. And when you go there, it'll take you about 30 seconds just to say, I'm interested in a group, one, or I wanna get connected into helping lead a small group, two.

And as you do this, there'll be an email that will come to you with a link where you can find all of our small groups. And all of our campuses today are gonna be equipped to help you get into community at the end of our service. I believe this decision is one of the most important decisions that you could make in a faith journey. And I so badly, so deeply, hope that today you've heard it loud and clear that this is a gift that God is giving to you. And today you can make that decision. And I wanna share two stories with you, and then I'll pray and your campus host will be up. One story is a couple from our church in the Bay Area where we pastored for 14 years. A lot of our families were young and there were a lot of babies being born in the early days of our church. I mean, it was like half the church was babies. And there was this one couple and they went full term with the baby. And on the day when the baby was supposed to be born, the baby was a stillborn, and the grief was so overwhelming. I remember getting a call from this mom and just being on the phone with her, and she's just weeping over losing her child. They invited me to do the service. It was the worst, it was the worst service I've ever done.

And I walked in, and when I walked into the room, they pulled the baby out of the casket and they put the baby into my hands. And the mom is just weeping. And as I look around the room, this is even more sad than what happened in the circumstances. The reality is here's this couple that they're grieving the loss of a child, but there's nobody in the room except for our staff. So this person has been living their life in isolation and not taking a step to be in community. And we'll do our best in that moment to bring staff around and to pray and to support, but there was no support system around them when they got into that moment. And if you compare that story, horrible grief, you compare that story to someone from our church that many of you know well at this local campus is Betty Hopkins. Betty Hopkins was one of our incredible staff members. She's a part of the black community in our church family. And she was in one of the best small groups at Saddleback Church for years. And it happened that Betty's husband passed away. And then just about 18 months later, I got a call that Betty had just returned from a mission trip and she had passed away. And Stacey and I came over to the house and within 20 minutes of coming to her house,

there were 20 people from her small group gathered around her family there, praying for one another and the stark contrast. Are y'all tracking with me today? The stark contrast between a life lived with community and a life lived without community. All of us are gonna hit those kind of moments in the future. And you might be doing great today. You might have just got the job promotion, your baby was born, your kids are succeeding, but all of us hit those moments, and what you have built before that moment will make all the difference. And one very simple decision to get into a small group will change your life. Now listen, I know there's so many reasons why we say we can't do it. I'm so busy, I got so much going on, and I just hope you can hear, like one commitment for 10 weeks, an hour and a half, once a week. Don't you say, wouldn't you say it's worth the rest of your life to be in community just to figure out what could happen in the context of being in a small group? That you might lose 15 hours of your life, but gain community around you that could support you for decades to come. So my encouragement to you is to take that step.

Maybe you'll get into a group and you're like, oh, I hate this group. You can break up with that group and find a new one. And there are some of you today that that decision is to get into a group, and then there are those who today that decision is to lead a group. I just wanna encourage you, as God is stirring in your heart, if you've been in a group and your group is filling up, you can take that step to be one of our leaders and our host this semester, to say, I'm gonna let God use my life. I wanna have the greatest possible impact with my one life. And your local campus host is gonna come up and walk you through how to respond to that decision to get into community or lead community. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you today for small groups. We thank you, God, for your local church and the power of community. And I pray that today you would help every person in our church get connected, that there'd be nobody that has that story of walking through a tragedy in life with nobody around them, God. I pray that you would make us a church where we have more people in small groups than we do on the weekends. And Lord, I pray that you would continue

to raise up more leaders at all of our campuses. You said that harvest is plentiful and the workers, the labors are few. And I'm praying right now, even as we conclude our service time, that there would be hundreds and hundreds of people today that as campus pastors come forth, they would come forth and cast that vision to call us into leadership and call us into groups and that as a result, God, there would be thousands upon thousands of lives that are changed through community. God, we thank you for all of this. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. And all of God's people said, amen. Amen. This Back on Track series has had such a great impact on our church and it's been a great encourager of how to stay on track with our lives. Like Pastor Randy talked about, one way that we can stay on track is through healthy community. And small groups are the way that we do that. Small groups allow us access to authentic relationships that help us to pursue growth and take next steps in our faith. In the online community, we have a lot of great small groups and we wanna give you an opportunity right now to join one. So you can go ahead and scan the QR code on your screen

or go to the Saddleback app and access the digital program and join a group there. You can select virtual when looking for a small group so that you can find all the different online groups that we have that you can join. If there's another next step that you'd like to take in your faith besides small groups, you can also go to the digital program on the Saddleback app and let us know there. We can be praying for you and walking you through that and supporting you in whatever next step you wanna take. Well, church family, we're so, so grateful that you decided to join us for church today. I hope you guys have a great week and we'll see you back here again next week. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!