Well, hey, good morning. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here today. Uh, hey, look, I wanna do this, okay, a little bit different before we jump into our Scripture and our topic for today. I want us to kind of think together for just a moment, okay?

So just think with me. Um, think about the first time you introduced your husband, your wife, your fiance, your boyfriend, girlfriend. I don't know your, your best friend. Think about the time you introduced them, or maybe it's coming up to your family for the very first time. Are you sitting in the car about to walk into Thanksgiving dinner?

It's gonna be their first experience with your family. What are you telling them? How are you getting them prepared for that moment and what they're gonna experience in there? Chances are there's probably some warnings you need to give them, right? Like, Hey, look, before we go in here, you just need to know that that Uncle Craig's gonna be here.

And Uncle Craig is a close talker. Like he's just to be up in your grill. There's gonna be a point where you think, I might kiss a man today. He's not gonna kiss you just back away slowly, right? Or, or, Hey, look, you just need to know when we walk up in here, like the decibel levels are going through the roof, it's going to be loud.

And it's not because anybody's mad. Everybody's really not yelling at one another. It's just that dad's going death and everybody knows it but him. So he's got the TV at 80. Everybody else is screaming at 95.

He's not mad at you. It's just, it's loud, right? My little cousin's gonna be up in here, dude, to only communicate in, in Fortnite dances. Like, I don't know, whatever your thing is, like, you, you, your family has some stuff, right? Because all of our families have some stuff.

It's just a reality. Chances are you probably need to talk about what's important to your family. Hey, listen, you just need to know, like my household, here we are. We look, we are Mississippi State fans. And so if you walk up in here at dinner and you say, roll tide one time, you're gonna get slapped and there's nothing I can do about it.

Like, that's just on you. We all got our stuff, right? All of our families got our stuff. And I want you to know, as a church family, it's no different for, for us. We got our stuff too.

And just know, like if this is your first time with us, and man, you're here to sit around the table, just know we are so glad that you're here. Welcome, welcome to the family. We hope you pull up a seat and we hope you stay for a while. But just know that around our table, there's a lot of imperfect people. There's a lot of people who come to, to this table and have a seat, and they bring with them imperfections, they bring with them baggage, and they bring with them pain, and they bring with them poor choices.

And we're all sitting at the table together. And now here's the good news for you, is that there's room at this table for you and your imperfections. We want you to bring them on. We want you to come, we want you to have a seat with the family and bring your imperfections, because honestly, we all have a bunch of them around the table already. And we want you to know what's important to our family.

There's a lot of things that's important to us. And so last week, or really two weeks ago, we started a conversation about, um, what we call our core values. And if that language, listen, if that language is tripping you up, some, if you're struggling to get your mind wrapped around what that means, just to understand that, like we don't use that language because it's catchy or cool, or it's in a leadership book, or it sounds corporate. If you've got core values around your office, we use that language because something powerful happens when you're able to name an idea, right? When you're able to put words to a truth.

If you've ever played a sport or you've interacted in a locker room, you know that there is something powerful when you can name certain guiding principles, certain truths, because then you can hold one another accountable to those things, right? And we believe, we believe as a family, there are certain truths. There are certain distinctives that are written about in Scripture that we want to name. We want to put some common language around them that help guide us as a family. As of last week, um, our lead pastor Jeff Clark, he said, one of our values is that we cultivate heroes and know we use that, that word heroes.

We use that intentionally. We're not saying celebrities or we don't, we don't create, and we're not gonna celebrate celebrities. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons you're gonna see a different face and hear a different voice on this stage, weekend and week out is because we want to be intentional as a family. We wanna be intentional about pushing against the celebrity culture that is the West western society. And that culture has begun to creep into the church that can be so dangerous and so deadly.

We wanna push against that. We're not gonna be a church. That, that creates a platform to create celebrities and, and, and prop up somebody's social media account for the sake of influence. We're not gonna do that. We do, we do want to cultivate heroes because each and every one of us, right?

Not just professional clergy, not just people who have got a special degree from a special school, not just people who like to talk in front of a crowd, but each and every one of us has been a call, have, have been called and equipped by God to do good works that God has prepared beforehand, so that no person, no man, no woman may boast or brag about themselves, but so that God alone receives the glory, wanna cultivate heroes. And so you, right? The the whole point of that is that you and I, each and every, we have a purpose. And you can be the hero of someone's story, not because you're perfect, but you can be the hero of someone's story by pointing them to a perfect savior who offers eternal rescue. We cultivate heroes.

So what I wanna do today is I wanna talk about another one of our values, another one of these truths, these distinctives that we see in Scripture that guide us as his body, as God's bodies, God's family, within our communities. So let me kind of give you the language and then we'll jump into the text and unpack it together that it's born out of here. Here's what we would say. We would say that we champion teamwork because we value the house over any room inside. We champion teamwork because we value the house over any room inside.

Now, here's why we think this conversation is so important. Here's why we wanna have it. Because we live in a culture that pushes us towards isolation and loneliness. We see it at work, right? You see it at school because we praise the individual.

We praise the individual for the individual achievement. We don't talk about the team at Apple, we talk about Steve Jobs. How often do you see the offensive line getting the praise? No. You see the quarterback getting the praise, right?

We don't talk about the team, we talk about the individual. It pushes us. Our culture, our society pushes us to a place of isolation, of loneliness. We see it in social media, right? And, and how we frame relationships, because in a lot of ways, we substitute genuine relationships for cliques, for likes, for shares, for friends.

And, and as a result of that, you know this, we see it all the time. We talk about it all the time. As a result of that, we see all the conversations, the rates of anxiety, of depression, of suicide for every single age group in demographic going through the roof. Why? Because we're not created for that.

We're not created, we're not wired for isolation, for loneliness. You see it all throughout God's word, literally from beginning to end. You see that? And the book of Genesis, when God created life, he created everything out of nothing. And every step along the way, God said, this is good, this is good.

This is good. Until man was alone. The one thing in creation that God said is not good is that man is alone. And so what did God do? Well, he didn't just shrug his shoulders and say, oh, you know, five outta six.

That's not bad. No. He created companionship. He created Eve. He created community.

He created teamwork. Life begins in the garden with teamwork. Eve in the book of Genesis Eve is literally a co-labor. They're together in the work. We see it at the end of the story, the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into eternity. And what does it look like? It looks like the people of God gathered together for worship, for praise, literally from beginning to end. Our story with God is about togetherness. It's about teamwork.

It's about companionship. And so why, why would we do life now? Any different doesn't make any sense, and yet we do. One of the things you'll, you'll hear us say a lot when we talk about this idea of teamwork is that we're better together or we're better together. We're better in our purpose.

We're better in our life. We're better in our pursuit together. Listen, I know, I know. The idea of togetherness isn't easy, okay? Because people aren't easy, right?

Like, I get that. Okay? I've been in Walmart, I've been in the parking lot of Walmart. People aren't easy. Okay?

I understand. They get on your nerves. There's, we all got that one cousin that that just shows out at the family reunion. We all got those people at work that hits reply all on every single email. Like, I understand people aren't easy, okay?

Togetherness isn't always easy. I don't want to try to convince you that it's easy. I wanna try to show you that it's worthwhile, that companionship, that community, that togetherness is a worthwhile pursuit. So one Corinthians chapter 12, we kinda walk through part of this chapter together. One Corinthians chapter 12.

This is the apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, which by the way, don't miss the significance of that, the context of this that we're about to read, that, that this is a man writing to a collection of people, a group of people that are gathered together. As a matter of fact, the majority of the New Testament is that the majority of the New Testament are letters written to the local church or written to people who are gathered together. You, you simply cannot understand and apply the fullness of God's word without the context of togetherness. It was written to people collected together. So we gotta understand it together.

So one Corinthians uh, chapter 12, Paul says this, he says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, and he's talking about like the, the evidence. We'll see this in just a minute. The working out of the Holy Spirit in us. He says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans being, you didn't follow in the way of God when you were pagans.

You're led as stray, a mute idols however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is a cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. Now, there are variety of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone to each.

And this is a verse I really want you to key in on verse seven. To each is given the manifestation or the, the evidence, the representation of the Holy Spirit for the common good. Hang on to that phrase, the common good because it's important. We, we talked about this verse. Um, it's two or three weeks ago.

We gathered two or 300 of our leaders across all of our campuses together as we prepared and prayed towards this as we prepared and prayed towards the fall together as a church. And we talked about this verse and what it means, the common good. And one of the things we said is that the, the evidence, the manifestation, the representation of the spirit in you is not just for you. So for example, if God has given you the gift of hospitality, like you just enjoy having people over, you know, it just warms your soul to have people in your house to prepare a meal, to create a good environment for them. Understand that God didn't give you that gift so that you have fun throwing parties.

God gave you that gift for the single mother who lives up the street that doesn't have anywhere else safe to take her children. If God has given you the gift of teaching, mean you just, you, you love to see little children when their eyes light up with understanding, like, I didn't give you that gift to pursue a career path, although that may be part of it. God gave you that gift for those children that'll be world changers in generations to come. The common good. Th this language, it, it, it sounds a lot like the Book of Acts, if you're familiar with that story, especially the first co couple of chapters one through four or so of the Book of Acts.

Because there we see the New Testament church, we see this really being born into history. Jesus has been crucified. He's been buried, he's been resurrected. He ascends into heaven. When he ascends into heaven, the Holy Spirit dwells on God's people.

And when the Holy Spirit dwells on God's people, they begin to preach the Gospel and miracles happen. And this is an incredible movement. Thousands of people are being saved, hundreds are being added to the church daily. The Gospel is literally jumping languages and cultures isn't just incredible. And in all of that, the needs, they don't go away.

They get amplified. They, they're still single mothers who can't care for their children. They're still widows and orphans that, that, that are struggling to make ends meet. They're still dads who are out of work and don't know what to do. Like the needs are still there.

So what does the church do in that moment? They don't just pull back and punt. They don't just gather all of the good people. No, they pull all the resources. They say, we're in this together.

Come on. They have everything in common. They, they sell everything they have. They put it in one big pot and they start meeting the needs. To the point though, imagine if this was true of us today, to the point that the government begins to say, these people are turning our world upside down because they pursued the common good together.

One of the things we could say is men like we, we are better together. We're better together when we're in it together, when we're in life together, when we talk about teamwork, we talk about, uh, um, uh, champion teamwork. We're talking about the common good. See, the same thing that made the church powerful and beautiful in, in, in the Book of Acts is the same thing that makes the church powerful and beautiful. Now, in our culture and our time for such a time as this is a pursuit of the common good, that we're in it together, that we're in the struggle, we're in the celebration together, we're in the, the suffering.

We're in the congratulations together. We're in it all together. Like I, there, there are stories in the church of, of people who, whose medical bills have been paid, who have received, uh, cars for free because they, they, they couldn't get to work. People whose, whose houses have been taken care of and their yards have been cut because they couldn't manage it with all that they had going on. I mean, over and over and over again.

These stories are, and listen to me, all of that happened this week at Venture Church. And you say, oh, whatever. You crazy. That's that like vacation about, that's that like Easter story stuff that ain't it is, can I just, if you don't believe me and that's not your experience in church, then perhaps, perhaps it's because you are treating togetherness in the church. You're treating it as extra credit and not essential.

It is an essential part to following Jesus. It is essential to our walk of faith within him, with him togetherness. The common good can't be found where the individual is not known. And the only way that we're gonna be able to pursue that common good is when we're known and when we allow others into our story. Lemme say this and, and then I need to move on real quick.

Um, if you don't believe me on this one, you, you can, you hung up here. Spend the rest of the time Googling it. Um, it'll be okay. It'll be worth it. Studies have shown, okay, study after study after study has shown that a connection with the local church, a connection with a Christian community leads to it correlates to better health, longer life, greater financial generosity, more stable families like you don't, you don't have to believe this whole God thing to understand that's good for our society.

That's good for us as people. We need it. We're made for one another. As a matter of fact, I would say this, I would say that if you're living outside of a radical connection to the local church, you're living outside of God's design for your story. And when I say radical connection, I mean something that goes beyond a simple association.

And every few weeks I'll pop in and pop back out and listen to me. I I'm telling you that again, not to make you feel bad, I say that because if, if that's all you've got right now, a simple association, I'm not saying that to make you feel bad for not coming enough. We're not giving enough. We're not serving enough. I'm saying that because I want you to know there's so much more in life.

There's so much more in your faith journey for you and found in connection together. Lemme show you, lemme keep going, uh, in the Scripture. Uh, skip down to verse 11. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 11. Paul says this, all these, and he's talking about all the different gifts or manifestations of the spirit.

He says, all these are empowered by one in the same spirit who apportions, who gives to each one individually as he as God wills for, just as the body. And he's talking about your physical body here, for just as the body is one and has many members, many different parts, and all the members of the body, the many are one body. So it is with Christ. Now, let me kind of pull on this, this dualistic thread for just a minute here. Okay?

'Cause what you see is Paul kind of weaving in and out of the, the singular and the plural. He's kinda moving in and out of the individual and the corporate. We see verse 11, that, that God gives, the spirit gives to each one individually. But each individual is a part of the togetherness, the body. So what I want you to see in that is that God sees you and knows you individually, you and your story.

You're not lost in the crowd. To him. You may feel lost in the crowd, but you're not lost in the crowd. To him, he sees you. He knows you.

Your story, your struggles, your winds, your wiring, his 40 year old dad as a, as a single mom, as a, as a college student. He sees you. He knows you. He created you, he knit you together. You are his workmanship.

But he created you and he knit you together to be a part of something bigger. He uses, Paul uses the illustration of the body, the physical body. He says, just like your physical body has all these different parts to it. So it is with the church. The church has all these different parts.

Your body has arms and legs and feet and hands and spleens and stomachs and all that kind of stuff that do different things. But they do it all for the same reason, right? They do it all for one purpose. That is the help the life of the body. The same is true in the church.

And so one of the things we could say is that we are, while we might be uniquely, uh, designed, we're unique in designed, we're united in purpose. Togetherness doesn't mean sameness in the church. Like one of the beautiful things about the church is that it unites diversity. It brings us together with a common purpose. When we talk about teamwork in the church, when we talk about teamwork in the body of Christ, we're talking about a common purpose.

Henry Ford, um, Ford Automobiles, assembly line, you know, all that good stuff. Uh, Ford said that, he said, coming together is the beginning. Staying together is a progress. And working together is a success. See, Ford knew this principle.

He knew this truth. We're better together. We're better together when we work together, when we work towards a common goal, a common purpose together. Now, listen, I'm not trying to highlight Ford here. Puff him up because he used that principle for financial gain.

And that's not what we do. We have a higher purpose, right? The church has a higher purpose to pursue together God's glory that, that our, our family, our friends, people we love, would, would be able to live free from the slavery of sin. That our children would grow up in a grow up in a world not defined by anxiety or brokenness or hate, but they would grow up in a world defined by, by hope, by love, by peace, right? There's a greater purpose that we pursue, but we can't find it alone.

If you were to take, uh, your body and you were to cut off an arm, don't do it. But if you were to cut off an arm, well that, that limb, it, it's not that it, it, it's no longer an arm. It's still very much an arm. It just can't do what an arm was designed to do. And you, if you were to be cut off from the body of Christ from the church, it's not that you, you cease to be what God created you to be.

No, you're still a child of God. Designed, love, created by him, beautiful and designed, but you cease to be able to do what God designed you to do. There's a quote. Uh, and to be honest with you, I really don't even remember the name of the guy who said it. Um, but the words are powerful.

The words stuck with me. Uh, he said, no one can whistle a symphony. I love that line. No one can whistle a symphony because there is a listen. There is a beautiful song to be played by the people of God.

A beautiful song that tells of God's glory, that tells of God's goodness, that tells of eternal rescue. There's a beautiful song to be played that that tells of hope and peace and love, all that our world desperately needs. And listen, this song is incredible, but I can't play it alone. And you can't play it alone. And when we try to whistle it toge, when we try to whistle it alone, no matter how great the song is, people don't hear the beauty of it all.

But man, when we join in together and when we play together the same song, well then the world has a chance to hear. Their hearts are awakened to taste and see the goodness of God. We're better together when we work together. Lemme give you one more and then, um, I'll give you something practical to begin to think about. Uh, one Corinthians chapter 12, verse 25.

Paul says that there may be no division in the body, no separation in the body, but that the members, the individuals may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, then all rejoice together. When we talk about teamwork in the church, the reason we talk about this, the reason we wanna champion this is because we want you to know there is a common care in this place. Like I, I, I don't know.

I've struggled. I don't know the words to, to use to convey the genuineness of this. And so, man, I'm just, I I'm praying that God will awaken your heart to this reality. But in this place and around this table, you are cared for. And I care about you.

We care about you, not be, not because of what you add to the bottom line of a corporation. Not because of what you bring to the table. Not because we, we just need a warm body in a kid's room. No, we listen, I care about, we care about you. The divorce.

You're going through the family member in the hospital. You're mad at your kid 'cause they're already suspended from school. We care about you and your story and your pain and your struggles that you bring to the table. And I want you to know that because for so many of us, we're carrying that alone. You're not wired to carry it alone.

You don't have to carry it alone. There are people here that care for you and wanna shoulder it with you. Suffering or celebration. Either one suffering or celebration. Both are made better together, Right?

And here you can be together. So what do we, what, what do we do with this? Alright, so yeah, you know what? I would love to have some people, I'd love to have some community, but I like, I don't even know where to begin. I don't know how to do that.

Well, let me just give you one simple thought, okay? One simple challenge, maybe to be a little bit better at being together this fall. Wherever you are, let's start with the church. Wherever you are with the church, will you take one step further? I'm not asking you to do it all.

I'm asking you one degree more. If today's your first day, you figured, you know what? I'm gonna try this church thing out. Well listen, I'm gonna take one step more, come back, make Sunday a priority. I if, if you rolled up in here and you hate this, don't give up.

Okay? Email me. I'll help you find another local church to get connected. I just, I need you to be connected with a body. 'Cause there's life and faith to be found there.

If you are, like, if your connection with, with the church right now is, it's once every couple of months. You pop in, you pop out. Again, I'm not shaming you. I want you to know there's more for you. And so will you make Sunday a priority.

You don't have to do it all. Just make for, for this fall, make Sunday, the next four or five months, make Sunday a priority. And I promise you this, it'll change you and your family. If it doesn't, then don't come back. But you'll come back If that's man, if Sunday is your vibe, man, it's what you do.

You've got that down, you roll up same hour, you got the same spot. You know exactly who's gonna give you a cup of coffee every week and you, you get, and you just can't wait for the goosebumps during worship. Don't settle there. Don't stop there. One more step.

Join a house church. Begin to serve on a team. I had to, uh, tell you this story real quick at a house. Church pastor, I think this was a semester or two ago. Um, he, he was telling, he got a promotion at work.

I mean it, man, it was a great thing. Celebrated it. Big win for his family. Could have been more, he could, he could have got a greater promotion. He could have been number two in his organization making plenty of money.

But he drew a line in the sand and said, Hey listen, I need you to know Wednesday is my line. I can't miss it. I can't be outta town Wednesday night 'cause my house church meets and that's my priority. And because of that, he, he missed out on a greater promotion because of that. He missed out on a greater race.

Does he regret it? Absolutely not. You know why? Because he has two sons who are watching Daddy pursue Jesus. And not another dollar because his house every single week, his house is full of people.

His sons see, people see adults in their living room who aren't just there shooting the breeze and taking a couple of drinks. But are they pursuing Jesus? Generations are changed and we make the people of God a priority. Be a part of house church, be a part of a team, serve in some way. If man, if, if that's where you are, then maybe you're one degree, maybe your step forward is to invite someone to come with you.

Like don't stop with your story. Lean into their story and invite someone else to be here on Sunday. Invite someone else to go with you at House Church's. Just one step more, press in one degree more together. And man, I believe, I believe wholeheartedly, you'll find a world of difference.

So let's, let's do this. Um, we're about to step into a time of response. So lemme just invite you at your campus, wherever you are, bow your head and close your eyes for just a moment and just kind of mentally get along the best you can and just begin to process and, and, and ask, Hey, where am I with the church? Where am I with God's people? I'm here, but is it a priority?

I like it. Do I want anybody else to be a part of it? Where are you? Maybe you need to ask God to show you where you are, where that falls, where, where the people of God fall on your priority list. And then begin to ask God to, to give you the courage to take one more step.

'Cause again, I know, I know it can be difficult. I know it's not always easy, but man, it's worth it. I'm about to pray. Our teams are gonna lead us in a time of worship, and it'll be your chance to respond. Maybe you need to spend some time at the cross, at your campus.

Maybe you need to get on your face at the altar, have someone pray with you. Whatever. One step together, we're in it together. You're not taking it alone. You're not gonna be by yourself in it.

We're gonna be with you every step along the way. Lemme pray. Lord, we come before you. Now. God, I thank you that we don't have to do life alone.

God, that you, you've, you've brought us to a place, you've brought us to a people to find togetherness, community, God, that you, we don't have to, to shoulder the weight of life alone. I pray in this space and in this time, God, that you'll break down whatever walls are keeping us from, from pressing in. You'll give us the strength and the boldness to step into your story, our story with you. We love you. We give you all the praise, all the things we ask in your name.

Hey, amen.