How's it going everybody? You guys good? Hey, would you help me welcome in all of our campuses real quick? Hey everybody, we are so pumped that you are here joining us. You made it. It is daylight saving Sunday, and so congratulations. You, you made it. Maybe you didn't, maybe you were expecting to come earlier than this. I don't know, but hey, look, turn to your neighbor real quick. Look at 'em and say you had a whole hour less to get ready and you still look great. You still look great. Turn and look at your other neighbor and say, ah, no, I'm just kidding. I just keep say the same thing. Hey, husband's the first person that you turned to better been your wife. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, no, it's, it's an honor that you guys braved the Sunday with us. Uh, the daylight savings always like has its casualties, right?

Hey, if we haven't had the ple pleasure meeting yet, my name's Blake. I'm part of the team here, and I, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you I am amped today. I'm ready to roll in the word with you today. The reason why I might be because I had more coffee than normal or the Bon Jovi I listened to on the way here from the Gulf Coast. There's no telling, but I am excited to be continuing in on this message and the series that we've been in called The Way of Jesus. I love this idea that we are, as we gather as a church, as we come together as a group of people, that we are being formed into the image of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I don't know about you, but that gets me really excited because me with Jesus is a whole lot better than me without Jesus. Somebody don't you agree? Maybe for your own self.

And so this series we're looking at what does it look like to be formed into his way to walk in the way that Jesus walked, not just so that we look good as people, no, no, no. So that we can say we've been saved, we've been redeemed. God has given us a new life, and now look at Jesus. See Jesus. And so we're gonna continue on in this theme as we've been walking in his way over the past few weeks.

Now, I've gotta tell you, I have an agenda today. Like I, I want you to do something coming out of today's message. And the the do something is this, I want you in a house church. That's my desire coming out of today. Maybe you're saying like, I can't, like you don't know my story. I I'm, you're right. I don't know your story. I don't know what you're experiencing, but my prayer is that every single person that listens to this message today would join a house, church. And if you're in a house, church, that you would go further up and further in on your house church, because I truly believe it's house, churches, communities, and pockets of people that are going to ex that are going to allow us to experience revival in South Mississippi. I truly believe that.

And so, but there's always a question, right? There's always something that that's in the back of our minds. And I wanna ask you this question. Have you ever felt like you've gone into a place and you felt like you didn't belong? Like, has, has that ever happened? I, I don't know about you, but that always happens to me. I see I'm very comfortable in spaces. I don't have a lot of like spatial awareness. And so I'll just walk into places and I'll just like start talking to random people. This happens to me, me all the time.

Uh, when I do weddings, I love doing weddings and seeing a bride and groom come together. My favorite thing in the world is like the rehearsal night because there's free food at the end of the rehearsal. And I really enjoy that part, y'all, I don't know why. And so every time we go into the rehearsal and there's always so many people, so we're talking to people, hanging out, getting to know grandmama, granddaddy and all this stuff, and getting to know the groom side of the family, but not always. You can't always get to know everyone at a rehearsal.

So I did this wedding in Jackson several years ago, and we went up there for the rehearsal and we were there, uh, through the night and into the wedding the next day. But the rehearsal was wild. Y'all was one of those really big weddings where it was like, you know, the bride and the groom. They had like 17 different groomsmen and bridesmaids like together and you know, they all brought their significant others and there was family and extended fa you get it? And so we did the, the rehearsal, it went great, but the rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant that's, it's one of my favorite places I love in Jackson. But when you go in, there's these like rooms in the back where you can set 'em apart. So like you can have this little area for this group of people, you can have this area and then this area.

So I get there about 20 minutes later than I had intended to through rehearsal dinner. And I walk in and I find the room and I walk in the room and everybody was already eating. And uh, well, they were kind of having the appetizers. And so I just kind of sat down in the corner over here next to this really sweet old lady. Her name's Miss Edna. And uh, so Miss Edna and I, we started talking and I started hearing about her life story and I was telling her about mine. And then the waiter comes by and I was like, what do you want to eat? I was like, what do you got? They were like, barbecue salmon. I was like, let's go with that. And so the barbecue salmon, I was thinking about it. Ms. Edna and I were just having the best time in the world. And so finally I asked the question, I said, well, whose side of the family are you on? Are you the bride or the groom? And she said, honey, what are you talking about? And I said, I said, isn't this so so-and-so's rehearsal dinner or you're not the, she's like, no, honey, this is a family reunion. We've been having it here for the last 27 years. And I was like, okay, thank you Miss Edna. I'll take my, and I'll, and the room that I was supposed to be in was the one next door. And uh, I gave it 45 minutes late. But hey, good news. They had barbecue salmon there too. So it was, it was great.

But I walk into these places all the time. Have you ever felt this way? You walk into a place and you're like, I don't know anybody here. You walk into a room and you're like, man, there's, there's not really anybody I know here. And everybody knows the inside joke except for me. Like everybody seems to have a relationship with each other except for me. And I feel like the person on the outside, or maybe, maybe you felt this way, I thought I was going to belong to a church, but it ended up just feeling like a club.

And can I tell you friends, that's not what Jesus came to build. And if that's you and you felt this, that you felt like maybe you haven't belonged, maybe you haven't had a place, I want you to know that every single one of us has a God-given desire to belong. This is not unique to you. This is something that God has placed inside of each and every one of us. And I want you to know that there is good news for you today, friend, that as we continue on in this series, that God is building a place. God is building a people, he is building of movement so that you can have a place to belong. Jesus came to this earth for you and for me, not individually, but to bring us together. This is exactly what Jesus came to build a place where we never had to ask ourself the question, do I belong here?

In fact, I love what Jesus tells Peter in Matthew chapter 18, verse 16 or 16, verse 18, he says, and I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not, cannot, shall not overcome it. Y'all, that's one of those verses that when you read it, it's just like, let's go. Because when you think about this idea that for 2000 years God has brought a people together, a people of all different backgrounds, of all different creeds, of all different upbringings, of all different hurt in H, and he has united them together. And that this thing that we call the Church of the Living God has sustained through pandemic, through persecution, and yes, even through politics. And it is still standing.

And here's the secret, here's the spoiler alert, friends, it ain't going anywhere. The church will stay and it will be a part of what God intends in his plan. But the cool thing about it, friends, is it includes us, but it is not built on us. Jesus builds his church, he unites people together. And yes, he builds his church through people, but not because of people and sometimes even in spite of people. But he's going to build it nonetheless.

This is why house searches are so incredibly important to me because it's six 30 on Wednesday nights, friends, little pockets of heaven gather together to sit underneath the word, to pray together, to live life together, to share one another's burdens, to lean in on their stories together in communities and neighborhoods and our prayer friends, is that we would see a house church in every city, in every community, in every neighborhood, and ultimately within walking distance of every single person in South Mississippi. Because they may not come to a big room like this, but they'll go to their neighbor's house across the street. You can be a part of that mission, but we know the why, right?

We know that Jesus has come to build his church. Jesus never called people to follow him alone. This is such an incredible piece of Jesus's ministry. If we're gonna walk in his way, we have to recognize he didn't call people individually. He brought them together, he unified them and he built a church.

Now, this is personal for me because I'm being a little bit vulnerable with you here. When I first came to church here, I was a, a freshman at Southern Miss and I had met this wonderful girl named Lauren. She is now my wife. And but she said one of the first things she said to me was, if you are gonna date me, you have to come to my church. And I was like, you got it. I remember the first Sunday here, I'd been bouncing around y'all. I grew up super traditional like, like straight. I was wearing suits at 12 years old friends. And so I was jumping in, I remember where I was sitting, I was sitting right over here like two rows up on this section. And I remember standing there by Lauren during the worship and I hated every single minute of it. I couldn't stand it. I was saying to myself the whole time, music's too loud, light's too bright. Thought I had at my A A RP card by that point, 18-year-old kid standing there, can I tell you, it had nothing to do with the church. It had everything to do with my heart. I was arrogant, I was prideful. And to be quite honest with you, I was angry at God that there was a movement of his spirit that was happening that I had not been a part of.

But can I tell you what changed it for me? A few weeks after I had talked to Lauren, I was like, man, I really don't like that church. You know, I wanna do something else. You know, go, I don't know what I said. She said, well, let's, let's try a little small group at the home of Shane and Angel McGee. And they brought us in and in Shane and Angel's small group with other college students, I started meeting people and seeing the mission of our church through the people of our church. And that changed everything for me. I started recognizing, wow, this is something bigger going on here. God is doing something here. He's forming us into a community.

In John 1335, Jesus says this, by this everyone will know that you or my disciples, how if, if you have love for one another, this sounds like intentional community to me. So you say, Blake, I get it. I understand the why Jesus calls us to be, but how do we do that? Because quite frankly, I don't people, well, I don't like people. I don't wanna be around 'em. I'd much rather go to my house and hang out by myself or maybe for you it's like, no, I have too much going on with my kids. Like there's so much going on. I can't add another thing. I'm too busy. If I'm too busy, is the reason why you aren't wanting to connect into community. It's the precise reason why you need to connect into community getting involved with other people because Jesus forms us.

But in Colossians chapter three, verses 12 through 17, he gives us a look. Paul gives us a look at how we live in intentional community. So can we read this together, friends, as we dive into Colossians three, 12 through 17, it says this, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since it's members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do with all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This my friends, is the church. This is who we are called to be as community. Can we pray together towards that end that he would form us? That's He's calling us to be. Father, we do pray this. God, would you open our hearts? Allow us to see in your word that there is something so much more to glean than just gathering. Father, you are forming us into one body. Lord, I pray that we would be a body that is on mission to lead people to know, love and follow you. Ignite a fire in our hearts that is relentless for one more person. Allow the people around our community to see inside. And what they see inside is what you've written here in Colossians three. Father, we love you and we praise in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen.

I want us to walk through this together. We're gonna take this bit verse by verse to look at this idea of living in intentional community, but you have to understand where Paul was coming from as he was writing to the church at Colossae. So his friend, Ariss, this guy comes up, Paul's in prison at this point. Ariss comes up to him, is like, yo, bro, this guy, this place I grew up, it's called Colossae. I started a church there. It's awesome. And they're really young and they're having a hard time learning what it looks like to live in community. And Paul's like, hold my pen, I got you. And so he starts writing and and bringing it about and starts going. And this is where he crescendo into the first three chapters. Guess what he's talking about? Jesus, you got it. He's talking about Jesus all the way through how awesome Jesus is, how big Jesus is. And now as a result, once we understand Jesus, we can get into the practical piece of community.

And so the first thing I want you to see is the identity of community. Look at the first part of verse 12. Therefore, as God's chosen people holy and dearly loved, the first thing that we need to see is the identity of community. The identity. We can't go into what we're supposed to do without first learning who we're supposed to be. Now, this word chosen, I love this word, God's chosen people. The word we get here, it's called ecclesia. Can you all read that? CIA is the second K in there. It means chosen. It means called out. It means that something has happened, that there has been something that has been chosen and brought into a new place. Eccles, where we get the word church. God is saying here in Colossians three, as God's chosen people, as God's church, this is how we are supposed to be.

Now, ecclesia is a funny word. It's where we get the word eclectic in our language. Y'all ever know somebody who's eclectic, like they get a bunch of things from a bunch of different places. I like to think that my design is eclectic. Lauren just says that it really is because I have no design capabilities whatsoever. That's also true. But eclectic means you just bring from a bunch of different places and you bring it into one thing.

My daughter, Henley Grace, she's incredibly eclectic. When we go to the beach, I've told this story before, but she loves collecting shells. It's her favorite thing in the world to do. She'll stay out there for hours. As a wave rolls up, she'll go and find a shell and she'll pick it up. Now, I'll be honest with you, there's so many times that Henley will grab some shells, she'll bring 'em to me. I'll be sitting in my chair. I've got a designated shell pocket that I put all the shells inside about 80% of the shells that she picks, I would not pick myself. They are broken. They look exactly like the one that she picked just before they come in like little half sizes and specs. But it is my job as her father to take those shells. Once we leave the beach and we go home, we've got this jar that sits on a hutch in our our living room area, and I put those shells from every trip into this jar.

Now you say, Blake, why do we do that? It's to remind ourselves and to remember that all these trips that we've gone to the beach, and I love looking at this jar filled with shells broken and and disgusting. Honestly, like some things that just don't look good, but some of them are really, really pretty. But here's the deal. Why are these shells special? Is it because of the way they look? Is it because of the way that they're disformed? No, it's because Henley picked them. Henley picked them and she put one of them in the jar.

My friends, the reason why you are Ecclesia, the reason why we are a church, it's not because we look good. It's not because we act good. It's not because we feel good. It's not because we dress good. It's not because we act the part. No, we are brought together. We are set apart. We are created into a place because God chose you and he has placed you in the bar, in the jar, also in the bar. If you're at the hunt club, He has done this, friends, he has brought us together and united us, not because of what we have to offer, but because we have nothing to offer. And he has taken us outta the sand and placed us in the jar so that we might be called his. We are his church.

But not only that, he says, you are God's chosen people. You are holy, which means you are set apart. There is a purpose for your life as we come in together and we are united in as a church, as a chosen people set apart, and then right here y'all dearly loved. You are dearly loved by God. I think there's so many times that when we come into this place or we come into a house church, we step foot into a a community of people who are searching after the Lord together, that there's this feeling that we are a burden, that maybe for us it's just a little bit harder for us to step into community that couldn't be further from the truth. I want you to know that you are not tolerated by God. You are cherished. You are cherished by him. He does not see you as a burden. He does not see you as just extra weight to carry along in this movement of the church. No, you are a central dearly loved peace. And if you ever doubted that, all you have to do is look to the cross and say, Jesus, I know that you died for me. You gave your life for me, and now I am called out by you. I am brought into your family. I am holy and dearly loved.

This is the idea and the identity of community. This is how we start. Because if we're gonna look at what we do in community, community doesn't begin with what we do. It begins with who God says that we are. If we live in intentional community, friends and our house churches and on our campuses and everywhere else, we have to recognize that this is where we start with who God says that we are.

And then we move on to the next piece. Paul goes on here to show us the foundation of community. Let's start with the second part of verse 12. Clothe yourselves with compassion, with kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Then he says, bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, now we're getting into the brass tacks of community. Paul says, these are the virtues that we need to live. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Wow, that's a big one. That's tough. That's hard. How do we do it? Verse 14 and over. All these virtues put on love, which binds them all together. Love is what binds in perfect unity. Can you see this? Friends? There's a couple of things in this section I want us to see as we go into the foundation of community.

Look again at the in, at the top of verse 12 verse says, cloth yourselves. Now, think about this idea. When we talk about clothing yourself, it means putting something on. Paul is telling us here that these virtues that he just mentioned, kindness, humility, patience, compassion, forgiveness, all of the things that he's talking about here, he is saying, this isn't just something that happens when you give your life to Christ and you follow in the way of Jesus. It's not just something that you just happen to stance on. No, you have to put it on. You have to practice this. Now, for many of us we're like, yo, this is really easy. Like I put on clothes all the time like, I got you Paul. This is gonna be a really simple thing to do, but you gotta remember, the church at Colossus is a brand new church. They're learning what it looks like to live in community together intentionally, and it's almost like a toddler learning how to put on clothes.

I don't know if y'all have toddlers. I got a 2-year-old and y'all, it is the hardest thing in the world to get this kid to put his clothes on, he wants to do it himself. And so every morning before school, I'm like, all right, buddy, let's do, let's do clothes. He is like, daddy, I do it, daddy. I do it. And I'm like, oh, oh boy. Here we go. I say, okay, buddy, go do it. And about 30 seconds later, which is a problem in and of itself, he comes out and he's got his shoes on backwards, no socks, his pants were on inside out. His shirt's upside down and he may or may not be wearing a diaper daddy. I do it myself. And so what do we do? I grab him and I bring him on and I take him in. I say, nobody, this is how we do it. We take this shirt off, let's do this. We put it on this way here, let's try some socks. Let's put some shoes on. And then we walk out. And then over time, not just as he practices, but as he gets help from me, he begins to learn how to put his clothes on.

This is why intentional community is so important, friends that as we go into our house churches, we are learning to put on these virtues just like a toddler. Don't expect to get it right the first time. Don't expect that you just automatically know how to do it. Paul is saying you don't put your clothes on by accident, and so you don't accidentally become kind, humble, or forgiving. No, we do it because we practice over and over. Think about going to the house, to the house church that you're in and you've got four kids with you and you're trying once again to get to house, church on time, and you show up at six 50, the food's already gone. Well, that's a good time to practice patience, not just study about patience. That time where you and another member of your house, church or somebody here starts to have a little bit of a personality rift and you start to want to distance yourself from the your person. This is a great opportunity to put into practice forgiveness, not just read about forgiveness. In Colossians three, this is the importance of intentional community where we learn to put on these virtues together.

But then not only that, after all of these virtues that Paul gives us, he writes these down. These are the way that we are supposed to live in community. But then down in verse 14, he says, but the only way that you can do this, the only way that you can put it on, the only way that you can do this and practice it in and out is if you put on love, which is what binds them all together. Another word here, when you go into the original language, what it means is a binding agent. It's something that brings it together. It holds all of these virtues together. Why is this so important? Paul knows that without love for others, without leaning in and truly loving another person like Jesus has loved you. All these virtues that he just mentioned will start to morph and start to make you look better. Start to become selfish and motivated about selfish desires.

How many of you have felt this without love? Humility ultimately becomes self-righteousness. Look how awesome I am. I'm so humble. I used to have a guy that I was friends with. He would. He would say, I want y'all to listen to my humble prayer. I was like, I don't really know if it goes that way. I don't really know if it works like that. Without love, kindness becomes manipulation. Have you ever experienced that? Somebody kind, but really they just want something from you that happens without love. Without love, patience turns into passive aggression. Oof. That happens to me. Be patient. But at the same time, I kind of hold a grudge against another person. And without love, forgiveness is just a transaction. If you experience these in your life. This is why Paul knew that we had to have love. That's why house churches are so important, because you can't just study patience. You develop it. When you're frustrated. You can't just talk about forgiveness. You actually go and forgive another person. We lean in on these things and we put together above all of them love, because Jesus prayed in John 17 more than power for the church, more than influence for the church. He prayed for unity in the church, and love is what brings unity.

And then the last thing I wanna show us is the posture of community. Look in verse 15. How do we posture ourselves in this intentional community? How do we actually get up each and every day practice putting on these virtues, living in community through verse 15, look at this. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let peace rule. Now, this is a really interesting phrase. The word rule here needs to be an umpire. Y'all, I'm a big baseball fan. I'm southern. Miss to the top, like, let's go. I love this. There's nobody that I get mad at more than the umpire. Thank goodness I'm not at, I don't get a chance to go to the pee too often 'cause they probably kick me out with everything that I'll say sometimes. But that strike zone, when you look at the strike zone and it's like, man, this, it's it's, it's all dependent on how the umpire's feeling that day. If the strike is gonna be a strike, amen, brother. If the strike's gonna be a strike or if it's gonna be a ball, sometimes I'm like, that is crazy. It is a zigzag strike zone. What in the world are you talking about?

My friends, when we try to allow intentional community to be ruled by anything other than the peace of Christ, one by Christ on the cross, it turns into a crazy strike zone. Intentional community starts to turn into this. He said, she said, it starts to turn into my way or the highway. It starts to turn into what I desire instead of what we need. What makes the call. Ultimately an intentional community is not my emotions, it's not my desires, it's not my pride. It's not the assumptions or the stories that I tell myself. It's not my politics. It is the peace of Christ. We fight for the peace of Christ in our intentional communities so that unity may be gained. Why? Because where the peace of Christ stand, the vision doesn't stand. The chance He's calling us to live in the peace of Christ, to be the umpire in our lives and in our communities and in our hearts.

And then lastly, in verse 16, so we have the peace of Christ. And then he says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly. I love that word dwell. 'cause it means to take up residence. It doesn't just mean to passively chill. It doesn't mean just to like hang out with the Bible every now and then. It doesn't mean just to like go to it for 30 minutes and no, he means to let it dwell in you richly to allow the Bible to seep into your life the word of God. This is why in house churches we come to the word of God each and every week because we believe it forms us. It transforms us into new creations. It allows us to see properly what God is saying about us and about each other and about the world. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another. When we take the word at its word, we start to have a proper view of intentional community.

Now, Dietrich Bonoff, forgive us a warning in this. He said, the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community. When you start to allow your dream of what you want community to be, take precedence over everything else. No. But a person who loves those around them will create community. You say like, I have this idea of way I want communities to be. I just wanna stop you there. Don't allow it to be your idea of what community should be, but allow yourself to step into the God, to given community that God wants you to be in. That's the community that we lean into. Start to love the people around you. Join a house, church. Get connected because love ultimately creates community. This is why Paul says bind everything together in love. Because it's love. When we love another person, when we bring them in and we're not manipulative or we are not trying to get our own way or we're not selfish, that love begins to create these pockets of heaven so that the kingdom of God can go forth.

It's a story as old as time. Friends. The reason why we are here today is because the greatest act of community building has ever happened. Happened on the cross of Christ. He stepped into this world, he gave his life for you and for me. He hung on a cross and then three days later rose again in victory so that we could experience being called out, being chosen, being she apart, and yes, being dearly loved. It is for freedom. The crisis that you free friends, I want you to lean in to that today. See the true gospel community. Take shape, but don't just learn about it. Live it. Live it.

I wanna challenge each and every person here today to step into community, to say, God, I want to be formed and I want to have a proper identity as someone who's been set apart, who's been called by you, who loves other people well, because when that happens, friends, there ain't a devil in hell that can stop what God wants to accomplish through his church. There's nothing that will stop the community of living God, fighting for yearning, for seeking out unity through love. It's not about me. It's not about what I want. It's not about my desires. It's not about my preferences. No, it is about me giving my life for you, my family's life for you. So for the glory of God, for the good of other people so that this world will be changed. This is intentional community.

Today you have an opportunity to respond to that. All of our campuses, maybe for you, you need to stand and you need to sing. We're about to sing a song to the king of kings. Y'all all glory to his name. Maybe you wanna stand and sing, maybe you need to come down front and to pray with someone. Our prayer teams are available. You wanna receive communion or go to the crosses. But for everyone, I want you to pray intentionally about what does it look like for you today to step into intentional community. I told you I had an agenda. We want you in a house, church, share your life. Be the blessing that God has created you to be. Maybe for you, you need to go to someone today and ask forgiveness from them, or you need to forgive someone. I encourage you to do that. You can pull out your phone right now if you want to text 'em, say, can we grab lunch? I need to ask forgiveness. Whatever that looks like for you.

Can I pray every you as we move into this time of response? Father, I thank you that we don't have to guess at what community's supposed to look like. You in and of yourself, Lord, are a community. You've invited us into that community, to the work that you accomplished on the cross. And so Father, now, in this space, in this time, we wanna say yes to them. We don't wanna try to paint a picture of what we desire, but God, we want to lean in on who you have called us to be. So Father, I pray in the same way that Jesus prayed in John 17. Father, would you make us one unite us. Lord, help us to put on the virtues that you've called us to live so that the world may see that there is something different about these people. They're living in a different way according to a different set of rules, guided by a different umpire, the peace of Christ moving our hearts. Now, Lord, as we respond, we love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.