Practice

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We are in the middle of our Vision Series, setting the trajectory of our community in 2024.

And the goal is pretty straightforward. We want to learn how to make friends and love other people. J. C. Ryle once wrote that friendship, quote, halves our troubles and doubles our joys. And that’s when you have a good friend. But you know, making friends is pretty difficult. Yesterday we were at set up and my youngest was just bawling.

And you know, that’s just another Saturday morning at the van camp household. But I was trying to figure out why she was crying so much. So I bring her over. What’s going on? She said, she said that I’m not the prettiest girl in this group, and I know I am, but she says that she’s the cutest, and it’s just like, well, we’re making friends and loving other people, hopefully better than our little kids are.

And, uh, it’s so hard, you know, when you’re a pastor, because you have to be nice to all the other girls, because, but you want to say yours is the cutest, you know, but no, we’re all the cutest. Um, you know, that kind of thing, so that was fun. Hopefully, we’re doing better than that. Uh, but the reality is, is we are in a loneliness epidemic.

Uh, Gen Z is the loneliest generation in history. I find it funny, everybody’s talking about, everybody knows that friendship is common sense, but it’s certainly not common practice, and as I talk to you as your pastor, I know so many of you, you want more friends, you want to connect more, but you don’t know how, or you’re too scared to, or all sorts of other obstacles.

May I remind you of this terrifying stat that loneliness is more dangerous for your health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And I think what you might learn, what all of us have learned, is solving loneliness is really hard. a lot harder than you think. It’s not just being a part of a crowd. It’s not that simple.

You could be in the middle of Manhattan, Times Square, and still feel lonely. And so in this series, we’ve learned, though, that we need friends because God created us that way. In the first week of our series, we looked at Genesis, and even in the Garden of Eden, where there was nothing bad, there was nothing evil there, right?

But God said it is not good for a man to be alone. And so what we need are friends. God built us that way because God himself is a community. But this friendship isn’t built overnight, and that might be the hardest thing for us. It’s a really slow progression. Step one, we mentioned, it’s proximity. We just need to get in regular contact with people.

We’re just not around people enough. Step two is vulnerability. Last week we talked about slowly but surely sharing your weaknesses, your wickedness, and your wounds. I thought it really developed a lot of great conversations in our Together group this week about that. But today’s step It’s really overlooked, and I think that’s totally to our detriment, because I want to be honest.

So far, just being in proximity with people and being vulnerable with people doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve made like a genuine Christ centered friendship. And maybe you’ve done those two things before, and you’re like me. You’ve had those friends, and it can get really ugly really fast. A lot of authors tea,chers, and leaders talk about that.

Um, the psalmist calls it a company of mockers. You may be together doing life, but you’re not encouraging each other towards godliness. David Brooks calls it tribalism. He calls it the dark twin of community. I love his definition of tribalism. He says a lot of today, we don’t have communities, we have tribes.

And tribalism is not based off of mutual affection. Instead, you’re gathered together based off of mutual hate. Do we not see that everywhere? Some of us are friends just because we agree that we hate all the same things. What a great life. Not at all, right? That is a terrible friendship. Eugene Peterson calls it sectarianism.

That’s a big 10 word, especially if you’re from Queen Creek like me. But look at the quote on the screen. He says the following. He says, The impulse to sectarianism has its roots in selfism. The conceit that I don’t need others as they are, but only for what they can do for me. Selfism reduces life to my appetites and needs and preferences.

Sects are composed of men and women who reinforce their basic selfism. Liking the same foods, believing in the same idols, playing the same games, and despising the same outsiders. A sect is accomplished by community reduction. Getting rid of what does not please us. Getting rid of what offends us. Weather of ideas.

Or people. And I love Eugene this last line. He’s such a poet. He says, Sex are termites in the father’s house. See, our vision for 2024 isn’t how to make acquaintances and avoid certain people, though I think we know how to do that. The idea is to make friends, and I really believe the biblical picture of friendship is beautiful.

And it’s a community of people who are really bonded together over love, joy, and peace. But we are stuck with acquaintances, and we avoid other people if we do not take this next step of practice, practicing the way of Jesus. together. And so, if you haven’t already churned a second Kings 21, I want us to begin with an Old Testament example and then end with our rabbi Jesus in the book of Matthew.

As you’re turning there, let’s pray. Father God, I just ask you to use these passages the same way you’ve used them for thousands of years. And that’s drawing people to yourself. That’s creating a community formed by the image of you, King Jesus, and loving the outsider, the foreigner. The enemy, Holy Spirit, what we’re looking for today, I think we all want it, but it’s impossible in our own power.

So, Holy Spirit, would you give us that grace today? Give us the grace to take the next step. Give us the grace to find people around us to do life with and give us the grace to really have what the Proverbs call a beautiful friendship. In Jesus name I pray, everybody says. Amen, amen. So one way to summarize 2 Kings is they learn this one lesson over and over and over.

Preferences poison the people of God. They poison the people of God. Here’s what they do. They get their king. They follow God’s law for a little bit. They get really comfortable. They start doing what is right in their own eyes. And then they fall back into despair, they’re a sinner, they have a prophet come, and now they do the cycle over and over and over.

Now, 2 Kings 21 tells the story of probably the most evil and corrupt king in all of Judas history, and his name was Manasseh. So, Manasseh, basically, he led the way in creating a community based off of shared faith. preferences based off of people’s appetites. A few things you, if you read 21 through 23 that he did, we learn that Manasseh filled Solomon’s temple, this is the temple of God, with foul images and relics.

He also built rooms in the temple for male prostitutes and he even, I don’t know if it gets more evil than this, he sacrificed his own child in the fire to the god of Malak. Okay, living off of preferences, but then look at verse seven in chapter 21. We really see the indictment of what he did. 2 Kings 21, 7 through, uh, 7 through 9.

It says, sorry, verse 7, not, it’s chapter 21. Here I go again. Verse 7. Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made in the temple that the Lord has spoken about to David and his son Solomon. I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land that I gave to their ancestors. But notice this condition. If only they will be careful to do, or practice, all I have commanded them. The whole law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they did not listen. Manasseh caused them to stray.

So they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. To summarize, what is happening to these people is they weren’t following the way. They were following their whims. And it led to all sorts of destruction. Now you churn to chapter 22. It’s all about his grandson Josiah.

His father actually only reigned for two years. Uh, his father was assassinated. And so Josiah becomes a king at just the young age of eight. Anybody have an eight year old in the house? Can you imagine him running a whole kingdom? I don’t think so, but this is what this eight year old had to do. But he did a better job than even Manasseh, who was in the age where he should have been.

By the time he was 20, we learn in 2 Kings 22, he was cleaning up the mess that his grandfather started. And at age 26, which is prime, right? You’re really getting in. This is your full, uh, full, what, frontal cortex? Is that, did I just mess that up? No, yes, I’m a neurologist. Um, it’s fully formed, right? And so something profound happens when he’s 26 and this is a huge like revival a grace to the people of God Look at with me in chapter 22 verses 8 through 11.

I want to apologize I guess last week some of our verses were wrong. That’s on me. My bad. It’s not the tech team That’s Trey because he put it together verse 8 the high priest Hilkiah, which by the way many believe This is Jeremiah the Prophet’s father. Just think that’s cool told the court secretary Shafan I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple And he gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.

Then the court secretary, Shaphan, went to the king and reported, Your servants have emptied out the silver that was found in the temple and have given it to those doing the work, those who oversee the Lord’s temple. Then the court secretary, Shaphan, told the king, The priest, Hilkiah, has given me a book.

And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. Now, when the king heard the words of the book of the law, He tore his clothes. What many commentators believe, you have the Book of the Law. So, this can mean one of two things. It’s either the Torah, which is Genesis, Exodus, Ephicus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, or other people call it the Pentateuch.

Think Penta, five, the Pentateuch. Also, though, many people, most people agree. Isn’t this crazy? So, the whole people are built around these, the Torah, these books. And they are so corrupt, they lost this book. They don’t know Moses instruction because they’ve ignored it for so long. Right? How many of us, we don’t even know where our Bibles are anymore, right?

Other generations read it all the time. We don’t even have one anymore. Kind of the same concept. So to recover what many people believe is Deuteronomy, which is one of the five books of the law. Now, what’s great about Deuteronomy is it’s actually a sermon. So this is Moses last book. We believe Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

And Deuteronomy is in sermonic form, so it’s supposed to be really stirring. It’s supposed to, you’re supposed to see like Moses is on top of a mountain and he’s preaching this truth of all the stuff they’ve learned from the first four books. And Moses wrote Deuteronomy because he learned what most Christians quickly discover when they start to get together.

Conversion is easy. Community. is harder. Amen? If you know Hamilton, that’s a bit of a Hamilton reference for us five nerds in the room. No? Okay. Um. Conversion, here’s what we totally miss in the Old Testament story, because a lot of us assume the Old Testament is just about earning your faith, and then everybody didn’t do a good job, so then Jesus came to save.

I would like to say grace has always been the story from start to finish. You see in Genesis 3, God promising Jesus to come, all, grace all over the place. And here’s where we really miss it. In the story of the Exodus, when they’re delivered, and now they’re in the wilderness, that is when they get the law.

Now, here’s what we need to see. Egypt represents slavery and bondage to sin, Satan, and death. What God does, before these people don’t really do anything, all they do is cry out, God delivers them from this place of oppression, through the water, and to the other side of freedom. Many people look at the water parting, it’s kind of a picture for you and I as we do baptism, but we have to realize they became the people of God just by crossing the Red Sea and getting away from Egypt.

Same for you and us. All we have to do is just believe in Christ, right? Pray the prayer, right? Come forward. Confess that you need Jesus. And now what you’ll recognize though, you’ve been saved, but now you need a set of practices. You need something to make this community, like, stick together and look a whole lot like Jesus.

And so that’s what happened to the people of God. They walked across the ground. They were delivered to the other side. They’re now the people of God and now they’re given the law and here’s what they’re learning. They have to figure out how to get along. And if you know your Old Testament, They didn’t do a very good job.

The first generation was so caught up on their preferences, some of them would say, Let’s go back to Egypt. I enjoyed the food there. Let’s go back to Egypt. They would think Egypt was better than, than freedom. And how many of us do that, right? Oh, sin, that was so much better than this new life I have now.

But we know that’s not true. But we get caught up into that lie. So, Moses writes from God, writes the law to help the people not be, not be gathered based off of shared preferences, instead based off of shared practices. So then you have Deuteronomy 5. So Josiah’s listening to Deuteronomy 5 and change starts to happen.

So Moses in Deuteronomy 5, I know this is so much, I’m gonna be brief here, he reminds this new generation. So, the first generation that crossed the sea, they wandered, they complained and grumbled too much. They weren’t allowed to see the promised land. It’s this next generation. So, Deuteronomy is like the law summarized one more time for this new generation so that they follow the law, unlike their grandparents and grandparents who did not.

You guys with me? I know this is so much. This is like Old Testament 202, you know what I’m saying? So, Deuteronomy 5, he gives this, he says, look, you will flourish as a community. But only if you gather around shared practices, not around shared preferences. So this is what you and I call the Ten Commandments.

Today, we’ve so individualized the Ten Commandments, we think it’s just a personal morality test, which it certainly is, but it’s more than that. The Ten Commandments were written as a set of activities, habits, and rhythms that were to spur you on to the grace that’s already been given you. You’ve already been saved from Egypt, okay?

This isn’t to earn your salvation, but we do this in order to lean into all that God already has for us. And you’ll notice when you read the Ten Commandments, you can’t do them on your own. It’s a community project. And so Josiah, here’s the law, here’s these shared practices. Light bulb turns on. My grandfather gathered around preferences, so we added all these other idols and activities and habits.

We need to remove all of those and bring back the Ten Commandments and become a community together. So he recovers the book, tears down all the altar and shrines. He reinstitutes following the way of God, not the whims of man. History lesson done. This text, and throughout the Bible you’ll see this lesson over and over and over, is the following.

Fools are formed through shared preferences, but friends are formed through shared practices. You actually see, I think for us, our definition of friendship is very low level. It’s like, hey, we like the same things together. But biblical friendship, like what David and Jonathan had together. is much deeper.

It’s like a church family. Deep friendship caring for one another. So this lesson is deeply embedded in every Jewish person, especially in the time of Jesus. And so Jesus, turn over to Matthew, he follows this same formula. We’re going to create a community not based off of shared preferences. That’s what Manasseh does, and it leads to all sorts of evil and people dying.

No, we’re going to share, uh, be a community based on shared practices. Look at me in Matthew 4, 18. Jesus gets tempted, he begins his public ministry, and he gathers his crew, his friends. His disciples together to go change the world verse 18 as he was walking along the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers Simon who is called Peter.

We know a lot about him right and his brother Andrew They were casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen Follow me, he told him, and I will make you fish for people. Anybody grow up, you know, with the fish sign and all of that. I was in a youth ministry. I think one day we called it like fish for people.

I don’t know. It always felt so cheesy to me. Like we’d come with our fishing poles, you know, like go to junior. I, I pick you, you know, it’s not going to work. But fishing for people back then was a Hebrew idiom that was like really powerful. So Jesus is this amazing rabbi who knows how to teach. I’m excited.

I got Caleb to laugh. I’m feeling great about my life right now. And, uh, I have to just point that out. And I’m lost. No, the Hebrew idiom meant, like, hey, you notice how my words are powerful and I can influence people to change their life? I’ll do that for you too. I’ll make you fish for people as well. So it’s a powerful, like, ooh, I have greater purpose to life.

Keep reading. So immediately, they, they bought it. They left their nets and followed him. They left their jobs, their full time income. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. So he starts with four, two sets of brothers. They were in a boat with Zebedee, their father, preparing their nets, and he called them.

Immediately, they left the boat, and their father, and followed him. Okay, so. I’m only pointing that out. He’s starting to get his friends together. If you keep reading Matthew, all of a sudden, what’s in chapter 5? It’s, he’s preaching the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Caleb calls it the Mound. Forgive him. I don’t know how he got it there.

Now we’re not friends again. It’s fine. Um, Sermon on the Mount. Now, turn with me. Matthew 5 is incredible. Matthew 6. Matthew 7. Uh, Jesus is the best preacher of all time, and so now he’s landing the plane. This is like when, for us, Emily begins to play on the piano because he’s ending his sermon. Verse 24 is one of the key texts for us.

So I want you to imagine this. In the beginning of Matthew 5, he says, he goes up on the mountainside, and his disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying, so he’s teaching his disciples how to form a community, a set of friends, over shared practices. That’s one way to totally view the Sermon on the Mount.

Verse 24, therefore, this is my conclusion. Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, uh, NIV says practices them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Maybe some of you know the story, right? The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded the house, yet it didn’t collapse because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine, notice, people who even know the Bible, they’ve heard the Bible. They’re still gonna be in trouble. The difference, these people, the friends versus the fools. The fool, everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t practice or doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the wind blew and pounded that house and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash. I love for us to always point out the storm hits both homes. So, just because you’re practicing the way of Jesus doesn’t mean your life is perfect. You’re gonna experience heartache. But you can withstand the storm.

Verse 28: When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. So, the whole story of the Mount is that. He doesn’t just talk about forgiveness so you can answer in the textbook what is forgiveness. He says, if you have something against a brother or a brother has something against you, what is the practice in Matthew 5?

He tells them, drop everything you have and go and make it right. What does he say about giving to the needy? He doesn’t say just care for the needy, feel bad for them when you walk by. In chapter 6 he says no, literally give to them and when you do it, don’t make a big deal. Give to them and move on, because don’t get the credit.

You’re doing this for God and not you. Over and over, there’s 14 set of teachings with 14 set of practices in Matthew 5 7. His whole sermon is about practicing the way. His whole sermon is about building a community, not around shared preferences. But around shared, thanks Spencer, practices. The rest of you fail.

Um, verse, chapter nine. You didn’t know you’re getting a grade today. You are. Chapter nine, verse nine. He’s forming a community based on shared practices. I want to keep making this point. I love the book of Matthew, by the way. Verse nine. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.

Oh, by the way, this is a perfect segue. We have your contribution statements in the lobby, and so tax season’s coming, everybody. All right, and he said to him, follow me, and he got up and followed him. So what’s Jesus doing? He’s adding more friends to the circle. How many, like, disciples, official disciples, does he eventually get to?

Anybody know? Twelve. Let’s prove that. Chapter 10, verse 2. Flip over one more time. These are the names of the twelve apostles. First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. We learned about those in the, in Matthew 4. Then you have Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, which we just learned about in the previous chapter.

James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus. Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, spoiler alert, who also betrayed him. Now, did Jesus put together a group of people based off of the same preferences? No, they’re completely opposite of each other. Let me just give you two examples. Matthew is written in this group.

First of all, those first four, those brothers, they’re just good Jewish boys who fish and just want to make their dad happy. Know the Torah at least a little bit. Then you have Matthew. He’s a tax collector. He’s literally on the payroll of Rome, the enemy of my enemies. This is who Matthew’s working for.

So he’s a Jewish man who sells out his own people in order to give Rome a bunch of money and himself a bunch of money. Tax collectors were lumped in as the worst sinners of that time. He overcharges people and he benefits off of betraying people. Okay, Matthew, not a great dude, at least not originally.

Then you have Simon the Zealot. The Zealot is also a group of people, the right wing insurgency group of the day. And you have to recognize, if the Zealots hated anybody, it was the tax collectors. The Zealots had a pretty simple ideology. They were organizing a group, practicing jiu jitsu together. Right?

Huh? Okay. My two people in the room who do jiu jitsu. There’s three. I, whatever. I know there’s a lot of you and you’ll tell me about it after. Um, but, You guys are amazing. I just lost friends. Um, Where am I? Okay, the Zealots, their whole crew was all about, we’re going to fight and take back Jerusalem. Okay, so they believed in an insurgency group and defeating all of Rome.

Now, tell me, do you think these disciples, these twelve people, at least even those two, do you think they agreed on everything? Do you think they agreed on everything? How about politics when that came up? How do you think that went? When they’re talking about the election season and the primaries, who they want, do you think that went really well?

And super fun? And it was never an argument about if the election was stolen or not? Do you think that was, like, great? No, it was a mess. Their anxiety would build up. Oh no, what am I going to do? This guy, he’s loco. He believes all the conspiracy theories. This guy doesn’t believe any? Come on, you gotta believe at least one, right?

Like, all of this stuff? Listen, we assume friends only come together based on shared preferences. And so we have this huge list. Jesus says, no, it’s not on preferences at all. In fact, you’ll find all, all y’all, we disagree in a lot of things and that’s okay. Ronald Roheiser is this wonderful quote. He says that Christian spirituality is as much about dealing with each other as it is about dealing with God.

How good is that? You want community. You want to grow. You want to become like Christ. You got to have people. And people are the worst. Come to church. Right? Jesus put this ragtag group together by design. Because he’s not making attenders. He’s making disciples. He’s not making fools who are formed by preference.

He’s making friends who are formed. by practice. I text, I text Pastor Caleb my thesis for this week’s message. That just means the main idea. I’m going to seminary again, and it’s just fun to say thesis. Anyways, so I text him the thesis and I said, hey, what, how do you know, what are your thoughts? Anybody remember the Sabbath series?

I text him something and he sent me a sonnet. Here we go again. All right. This is his text message to me, y’all. How’s your friends texting? No emojis, nothing. Just pure facts. Okay, here’s what he says. Our best friendships and communities are the ones where we become better people because of the people we’re with.

But this requires us to fight against the pool of preference and sameness that usually keeps us stuck. And deformation leads to tribalism slash sectarianism and ultimately ends in isolation. As you all text like that, I am sure of it. Because at some point, the people we once shared preferences with change.

Or we change. Have you noticed that? We were friends because we had the kids in the same age, but now they play volleyball, we play football, so we ain’t hanging out anymore, right? My kids can’t play football. They’re girls. So we opt out and either bounce around to a new community or give up on people altogether.

We end up isolated, stagnant, and incapable of growth. But by contrast, A group of people centered around shared practice and accountability serve as a stable beacon. Who texts stable beacon? I love it. As a stable, I’m sorry Pastor Caleb. A stable beacon to the world of what goodness and change can really look like.

And that has a compound effect on the world around us, which is what the church is designed to be. Just look at what Jesus did with the twelve. Don’t you agree you should write a book? Okay, let’s look at what Jesus did with the 12. Matthew 11, one more chapter over. Verse 28 through 30. I was so pumped. Me and Justin were talking earlier, and he said that these verses changed his life, and I pray that the same for some of us again today.

Verse 28 says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest. For your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Yoke, again, was another Hebrew analogy. Yoke is where, uh, you know, it’s a piece of wood that goes across two Uh, oxen, and it helps them go along this right path.

And what it was was a call to become a disciple. Again, Jesus was a rabbi, he lived his life a certain way, and his disciples were called to completely mimic and reflect what his rabbi did. So in this time, you didn’t have a university, you had a rabbi. And you can tell somebody who their rabbi was just by the way they talked, and their accents, and what they did.

Because, again, disciples, the Talmudim. are carbon copies of the rabbi. So if you were to follow a rabbi in this time, and this is what our goals are as well, number one, you had to be formed by his love. His approval is more, the most important thing on earth to you. More than your own father’s approval. And as a rabbi, the rabbi would offer that love to his disciples.

The second thing was you’d be formed by his leadership. You do what he says when he says to do it. You can ask questions, but you still do the thing. And then also you’re formed by his lifestyle. Your behaviors and routines are, again, to become carbon copies of your rabbi. You eat like he eats. You intermittent fast like he would intermittent fast.

Any other intermittent fasters in the room, shout out to breakfast, it’s the worst. So we skip that one, and we feel better about our lives. So we call this the practices of Jesus, his lifestyle. So as these disciples were coming to him, Jesus says, come to me, learn from me, I’ll teach you how to live this life.

And these practices are things like Sabbath. Like we did earlier last year, witness, generosity, prayer, his fasting schedule, simplicity. We have to always be clear on this, by the way. These practices, again, we’re talking about being shared practices together. The practices of Jesus do not earn us God’s love, but they do churn us to God’s love.

Right, they’re not how we get into heaven, but it’s kind of how heaven gets into us. So John Mark Comer, he just came out with a wonderful book, um, called, uh, Practicing the Way. And, uh, he has this quote in it, I suggest everybody get his book, it’s so good. Me and Caleb are friends with him, it’s no big deal.

Now the quote says, the practices, kind of, we’re talking about making friends, that’s probably a lie, we’re acquaintances, uh, the practices are disciplines. Based on the lifestyle of Jesus that create time and space for us to access the presence and power of the Spirit, and in doing so, be transformed from the inside out.

So to make friends and love other people, step one is proximity, step two is vulnerability, step three is practice, okay? And every year as a leadership, we have to really get honest and figure out. Are we going to be, in 2024, are we going to be a preference based community, or will we become a practice based community?

Let me show you some of the differences between the two. First of all, in a preference based community, it’s all about experience. It’s experiential. Practice based is experimental. What do I mean? In a preference based community, we say, hey, come. You’re going to experience something great. This sounds awesome.

It’s going to be this huge, amazing event. Come. In a practice based community, we say, hey, come. Experiment this Jesus life with us. We’re going to try Sabbaths together, and we’re going to fail along the way. We’re going to be hospitable to each other. We’re going to learn how to cook for the first time.

Let’s experiment together! Just don’t start with chicken, because that’s like, you’ll mess that up easy, right? Beans and rice, let’s stay there. I don’t even know that. Quesadillas, cheese quesadillas, right? Let’s experiment together. Cereal, moving on. A preference based community is about intensity. We try to people in, guys, this is huge.

It’s a, again, it’s like, BAH! You know, it’s great. Trust me. And then, read your Bible right now. Read the whole Old Testament. Read the New Testament in 20 days. It’s not confusing or whatever. It’s intense. Practice based community is, intensity is great when it comes, but more important is consistency. You know, I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to read my Bible, but I’m going to give 15 minutes a day.

I’m going to be consistent with that, and I’m going to see what happens. Preference based community is about convenience. We can actually even like tell people why they should come to our church. Kind of a hard sell about convenience. We meet in a middle school, y’all, right? And we set up, and we tear down.

It’s not super convenient, but what’s beautiful is you have the gift of commitment. We don’t know. So many of us have missed out on beautiful friends because we just haven’t committed to each other for the long haul long enough to see something beautiful come. I’m looking in the room right now. There’s some of my friends here in this room, and there were so many points where we could have stopped being committed to each other.

But such beautiful things have happened when we’ve pushed through and leaned in and put up with each other. It’s a wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit can do. I think preference based communities are super idealistic. This whole idea that you can find a bunch of friends that love all the same things that you love and hate all the things that you hate, like, that’s idealistic.

There’s no way. Like, you don’t even agree with your wife on everything, right? Anybody else? Right? Like, she Anyways, I won’t go there. I’m smart. But practice space is realistic. So we say the quiet part out loud. Yeah, we don’t always get along. Yeah, we disagree on things, but we love each other. We’re committed to each other.

Yeah, it gets awkward sometimes. Yeah, homeboy does not know how to sustain a conversation. But I love him, you know? It’s realistic. And this is one of the big things that I really want us to lean into, it’s a preference based verse practice. This whole idea, if you’ve been around the church for a few years, we talk a lot about trying versus training.

This was an idea from John Ortberg. So the whole idea is the Christian life is this beautiful life that Jesus lived perfectly. And so it’s kind of like saying, Hey guys, we need to run the marathon. You know, like this Christian life is incredible and you have to do everything perfectly. So I know you’ve never ran before, but tomorrow run a marathon.

How well are you going to do with that marathon? You’ll be in the hospital, let’s be real, right? But if you say, okay, I know that’s the marathon, tomorrow I’m gonna run a half mile, okay? That’s great, that’s probably smarter than trying the whole marathon, right? I’ve been thinking through this, so trying versus training, I think a lot of times we do church and we say, look, Jesus is perfect, go try to be perfect this week.

And we’re like, how do we start? Okay, I’m gonna try to run the marathon tomorrow, I’m gonna pray for four hours, and we fail, we fall asleep, right? But I’ve also noticed, we kind of come up with tricks. Where some of us, we’ve learned just a couple things and we can convince people we’re great Christians. So this year, I have been, ooh, he’s walking to the piano.

What’s happening here? So, oh gosh, can I move this Emily a little bit? You’re wonderful. So I’ve actually been learning, is this thing on? Wow. Okay, so anybody, when you hear somebody play piano, it’s amazing and you want to try it yourself and it sounds like this. Anybody, anybody done that? Nobody? Am I the only one?

Right? You’re like, I can do, like see, she raises our worship leader. That’s amazing, right? We’re like, oh, yeah, and you just can’t figure it out. There’s nothing and it’s almost like we’ve created the Christian life come up and hey, you saw Mozart go do Mozart and you’re like I got nothing but I tried again this week and we clap you tried try again next week.

We have no steps. We have no practice. We just try to go up there and do the thing, right? But then, if some of y’all are smart, you figured out the party trick. You don’t know how to play, but you can do this, I think. Let’s see how this goes.

Anybody know what’s going on? Anybody know that trick? So anytime you see a piano at a party, you’re like, watch this, guys.

What’s the rest of it? Don’t worry about it. Um, so that’s a trick. We have these tricks where we come in the community, and if it’s not practice space, we can say, I know how to pray. Heavenly Father. And then we’re done. And we’re like, good. I impressed people this week. I did the prayer thing. I can hold on for another week, but what you need to do and actually, this is why actually I got my notes here.

I got some lyrics here. We’re about to sing King of Kings. And so these last like month I’ve been trying to practice piano partially because I’ve always wanted to, but also I’m trying to like, what does it mean to learn a new thing? And I’m trying to remember that’s how all of us feel. Yeah. Like, when we’re learning Sabbath, we don’t just have it right away.

We gotta take little steps. We’re about to do hospitality. Some of us, we’re not gonna get it right away. But like, for me, I’m, I’m where I’m at, and I’m pretty proud of this. I don’t want to sing, though. I hope you know what song we’re doing. So, this is Come on. You hear this? I was about to sing. I’m not going to do it.

I think I already messed up. One more. I’m sick, so I can’t sing. Come on, right? So Yeah, I’m egotistical and did that for class. No, um, but we have to see I can play this song. Why? I’ve learned six chords. There’s a lot of songs I can’t play. I want to play this. This is how I thank the Lord for loving me.

Anybody can’t do it. It’s in like E or something. I don’t have it, but here’s the thing. If Emily, if you can come up, we’re all in different parts of the journey of faith, and we’re all learning things at different paces. Now, here’s the reality. You clap for me because you know. I probably have the IQ of a monkey when it comes to playing piano, and so you were excited that I knew how to do something.

But Emily can play the same thing, go ahead.

It’s not the same. You hear that? Now, am I all of a sudden sad, because Emily’s so much better? You can keep playing, you can keep showing. No! Why? We’re at different levels! She’s played this for more than a month. I’m just kidding. I’ve only been one month, so I’m just proud of myself. She can do any of the chords of any of the songs.

But in the, in the Christian life, this is what we’re a people of grace. We root each other on. Oh, you don’t, you don’t even know. Okay. Party trick. That was fun. But like, let’s learn a couple of chords. Let’s do something here. And so we’ve been doing that as a community. We’re a practice based community. So last year, Sabbath, some of you were just there.

It was awkward. We’re still learning that together. We did scripture. Some of you read the New Testament for the first time. Simplicity. We’re about to approach hospitality, and I want us to keep that in mind. We are a practice based community. We root each other on. This is why in your together groups, it’s always, what does success look like for you?

It’s different for everybody. But in your stage of life, in your stage of maturity, what’s the one next step you can take? So, we encourage you to be involved in your groups this week. You’re going to brainstorm a set of practices you’re going to commit to with each other. Hey, we’re going to work on this together, and practice means you hold each other accountable.

Hey, we’re going to try this and if we’re going to say we’re going to practice hospitality and host people once a month, we’re going to be asking each other, how did that hosting go? It’s in it. That’s fine. Rooting for you. What can we do this week to put that on the calendar? See that is when a beautiful community and friendship is born.

And grows into something. Not when it’s based on preferences. Come here because you’ll like this and do that. But based off of practices. Come experiment these practices together. We’re done playing the tricks. Some of you just know Bible reading and prayer. And you know you’re hitting a wall. And there’s so much in life you can’t answer to.

Because you only know a couple things. Come. Admit your weakness. Be vulnerable with us. And practice this with us. Together. Let’s pray. ​