[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us as a member or if you simply need prayer or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to bring our conclusion to our series, are you ready to heal?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've had significant conversations looking at women and men in the Bible to help us process Peter Scazero's thoughts in his book, emotionally healthy spirituality.
[SPEAKER_00]: So today, we're going to look at a group of people women and men in the first century church and consider how their lives are changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: as a result of their collective fate.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you will please grab your Bibles and join me in a book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study guys work together and you can follow along with these words and the transcript of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study guys work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, join me in a book of Acts Acts chapter two.
[SPEAKER_01]: His word will be verse 42 through chapter three, first one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm reading an in New American Standard Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word of the Lord says,
[SPEAKER_01]: They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone kept filling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the Apostles and all the believers were together and had all things in common.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need.
[SPEAKER_01]: Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favored with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 3 verse 1, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour, a prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to conclude our series called, are you ready to heal with this thought in mind about that life?
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated in the presence of the living God, turn to your neighbor's neighbor, I'm about that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, you know I love you too much to bring up old stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But do you remember before you got saved that you about that life?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is about getting saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some kind of way we become a Christian and become less committed.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we were fully committed to everything we was about before we came to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us were about that go-getter life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were setting goals and attacking them and stepping over home ever and whatever we're trying to get in your way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us was about that drinking life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I say drinking, I really mean drinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mixing browns with whites.
[SPEAKER_01]: And drinking beer before liquor.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you laugh in this, because you was about that life,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know what I'm talking about that day, everything you need to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us was about that fitness life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doing everything to look our best, even when we didn't feel our best because we overemphasize a parent's over soul wellness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us about that smoking life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were waking baked with a blunt before work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then as soon as you clocked out, a blunt after work.
[SPEAKER_01]: and twice two days on the weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whilst it's important because here's a major key and that is this, everything that you're committed to do, you're also submitted to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: You committed to the divine arms so you submitted to training and sometimes even hazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You committed to sports so you submitted to grueling practices.
[SPEAKER_01]: You committed the scamming and scamming so you submitted to somebody who would teach you
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't just randomly accomplish tasks, you are intentional to do things a certain way to get a certain outcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jimmy Red, if you wanted a degree, you would meet with somebody, see the course layout, follow that course layout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Until your syllabus is, we'll start to stack up and your gray sheet and transcript will start to fill up the grays for the credits you had earned.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us wanted to be known for how we put it down in the bedroom.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you would line them up and knock them down.
[SPEAKER_01]: One by one, not knowing that word on the street would be that you was foot-a-streets, but Yane Caracass, you was about that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Question, why do we have a plan to be great in every other area of our lives, but get saved and think maturity happens by mistake?
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Lord saved you, he didn't want to make you weaker.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to take all that same energy and just put it to some good.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you got baptized, when you gave your life to the Lord, that wasn't the moment to become less committed, that was the moment to keep that same energy now that you're serving God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I ask you a pivotal question, a crucial question, that only you can answer from the depth of your soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that question is this, are you ready to heal?
[SPEAKER_01]: When I ask this question, is really your question on, are you ready to replace dark habits with light habits?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready to replace death habits with life habits?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready to replace old habits with new habits?
[SPEAKER_01]: And are you ready to replace worldly habits with heavenly habits?
[SPEAKER_01]: This same conversation we've been having now for two months, we started back in May, took a few weeks breakin' between and picked it back up in August, but we have been throughout God's Word, and we have learned from both women and men all throughout the Bible what healing really looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've traveled these seven pathways, starting first with David and the woman at the way, when we had the conversation around knowing yourself so that you may know God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we looked at Joseph and Esther, whose stories emphasize to us that we gotta go back in order to go forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we stop by this old married couple Abraham and Sarah as we learn from their experience how to journey through the wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: and we learn from our Savior what it looks like to enlarge your soul through grief and loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we looked at Daniel, a prophet, and Anna, a prophet test to discover the rhythms of a daily office in Sabbath.
[SPEAKER_01]: Day last week, we thank God again for Alicia Walker, who through the Good Samaritan and Abigail depicked it for us what it looks like to grow into an emotionally mature adult.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now today, we're going to look at women and men who are followers of the first century church about what it means to develop a rule of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: These followers of the first century were known as followers of the way, let the church say the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, when I say rule of life, I don't mean rules of religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want you to think restriction, I want you to think structure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to think an intentional plan designed to help you develop the rhythm so that you can experience growth spiritually.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an intentional path you follow that helps to keep you centered around and continually paying attention to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter Cousero says in his book, emotionally healthy, a spirituality, he says our goal is the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: union with God in Christ, transformation into His image, and the freeing of our hearts from anything that stands in the way of Christ living in and through us.
[SPEAKER_01]: How we get there will vary, depending upon our personality, our gift mix, our temperament, our geographic location, or particular calling from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: In addition, God will have different practices and infoces at different seasons and phases of our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you're saying around, here's what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: As God's daughters and sons, we're all on our way to maturity and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fire characters to reflect His through and through.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the journey there will be unique for each one of us, because each one of us are unique as a part of the whole.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may not have the same exact rule of life or rhythm for your dynamic regard as the person said next to you, but a rhythm uniquely designed for you is crucial for you to experience growth spiritually.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, as we look at Acts chapter two, we're gonna look at what it means to be about that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before we do, here's a big idea that I wanna state then give you the opportunity to state with me if you are courageous enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I choose to replace ungodly habits, we've got all the habits.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, is that not the truth?
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where there's no judgment to anybody in the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just me knowing me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember unhealed me and now that I'm starting to meet healed me, we wanted to keep differences is replacing ungodly habits.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got all the habits.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you want to repeat that after me or with me,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you mean it, repeat it with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't mean it, just say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the person standing next, you know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the character trader being about that life is only helpful if it's the right type of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as followers of the way, number one, we are about that study in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we bought that study in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And followers of the way women and men in the first century would always grow together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Acts chapter 2 verse 42, it says that they plural were continually devoting themselves plural to the apostles teaching and to fellowship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Breaking bread and to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice the plurality there in the pronouns.
[SPEAKER_01]: They themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just plural to indicate that it's many people, but it's also to infer that it's many kinds of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which are me, Rae, you got all kinds of people who are there growing together.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's important because sometimes we look at people who we think are students or deep or notal word, and for whatever reason we assume that that's for them and not for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We may feel like we're more creative, more right-brain compared to the left brain and you got a different kind of personality mix and you think that studying the word is just for a certain type of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the spiritually elite.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we miss is they end them sales indicate that anybody who wants to come together at the foot of the throne of God to go deeper in His Word are welcome to do so because depth in studying God's Word is not just for the studies, it's for all God's children.
[SPEAKER_01]: their devotion to the apostles teaching happens in a rhythmic fellowship and what it implies is on a day-to-day basis or a week-to-week basis, the early followers of the way study God's Word together so they could grow together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, what's also implied in this verse is that the apostles would also study to make sure whatever they were saying was in line with the Torah, the nebaphim, and the ketubim.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that, Reverend?
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the law, the writings, and the prophets, the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the apostles would have to study to make sure whatever they were teaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: was in line with what the Old Testament was saying and everything Jesus had been preaching for the last three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that important?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a major key because only when you study for yourself will you be able to tell if the preacher has been studying to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna talk to the heart of the Christian who knows your ear is maturing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your palate for preaching is starting to mature, because you don't start studying it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You all know it all, but you know more than you used to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you knew you started to grow and mature when your ear for what good preaching is, started to change, and you would hear some videos, or you would see somebody on YouTube, and you would just think to yourself, blessed they are, they, they ain't studied.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that important?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you don't study for yourself, you won't be able to tell that the preacher and study are needed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because how you gonna know I get up here and I lie to you about not just what's in here, but what it means if you haven't studied for yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to hear me whenever you come to the way community church, I want you to listen, not just with a critical ear to judge, but a critical ear to make sure rev in studying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that important?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I am not infallible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me, I am not the way I'm just the pastor of the way community church.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you gotta have a mature pal in to be able to tell if the preacher been studying, but you can't tell if the preacher been studying, if you haven't been studying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you haven't been studying, here's what you essentially saying, I'm going to just take whatever you say at face value because I don't know the difference for myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean around?
[SPEAKER_01]: That means a rule of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the believer, consist of reading scripture, silence and solitude, a daily office, or checking in with God and study in God's Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reading the scripture tells you what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Silence and solitude, appliance the soul to hear from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: A daily office is just small check-ins with God throughout the day, and study takes you deeper into what the Bible means.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us as believers should be doing all four every week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, based on your unique life, your unique circumstance, your schedule, your strength, your weaknesses, how you do it, when you do it, and where you do it, will be unique to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you read the Bible, that you spend some moment in silence and solitude, that you check in with God regularly, and that you study is something all of us should be doing on some level, because you got to read it to know what it says, but study it to know what it means.
[SPEAKER_01]: Silence and Salatu gives you that quiet place to hear from God as you drown out all the noise that's clamoring for your constant intention.
[SPEAKER_01]: The daily office just made small check-ins with God and it shouldn't be too much because if you got a friend that you're accountable to, if you've got a parent or a grown adult child that you talk to regularly, if you got a spouse or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or girlfriend that you are engaged with, you know that check-ins are important.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I want to check in with a certain amount of people in a certain window of time, they're gonna feel like some wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I want to call my friend, at least three times a month, and we talk, he gonna feel like, bro, what's up?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I want to call my mom and my dad, at least every 10 days, I'll, I need to do better with that actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least every 10 days?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I don't check in with him, you understand?
[SPEAKER_01]: So a daily office is just a check in with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I figured since you woke me up this morning, I ought to say good morning to the one who gave me brand new merch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's no time right before I eat this quick lunch and go back to work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just pause and take a deep breath and let you know I'm still here with you and you still here with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And can't you got anything you need to say?
[SPEAKER_01]: My ear is open to heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before I lay down to close my eyes, Lord, you kept me for another day's journey, and I'm glad about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before I go to sleep, let me just say, appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Daily office is just a rhythmic check-in with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason it's important that we have these built-in tire weekly schedules because it helps us live up to our annual thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: For those who have been a part of T-Daw for some time, you know our thing this year is what church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm asking, are you ready to heal?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because first we did three, 15 says that we ought to sanctify Christ in our heart, always being what church, ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But do a witch into this and respect.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is Peter saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter is saying, if you not study in in reader, you're not ready to explain what you believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: If somebody came to you and was like, why don't you get up on Sunday and drive all the way to congers and wait and bump it up for bumper traffic and park down the hill behind the building.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two and a half Sunday is above.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I do two and a half because I don't know which one to have real may not be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I like to stream sometime.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all seriousness, as you grow closer to the lower people going to see it in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it ain't gonna be your outfit, and it ain't gonna be your new color, and it ain't gonna be your new hairdo.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not gonna be the makeover you give me or something externally.
[SPEAKER_01]: People will see a light in you, after a vessance coming from you, that they won't know the origin of, and they may get curious and say, how are you, why is there then you used to be kinder, then you used to be more patient, then you used to be, what is the difference between you today and you when I first met you
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ain't reading this study, you're not ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Paul shows us what it's like to be ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had to defend his faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was on trial before Felix and look at what he says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 24, 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, but I confess to you that in accordance with what church, the way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Believing everything that is in accordance with the law, Old Testament, and is written in a prophets, Old Testament verse 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having a hope in God,
[SPEAKER_01]: which these man cherished themselves that their show certainly be a resurrection, a both the righteous and the wicked.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you hear how sure he is?
[SPEAKER_01]: How confident he is, how ready he is because of his already and his own study.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why at TWCC we create space for you to study in groups of people to go deeper so you can go further.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause at the way we bought that life, we bought that study in life, but in number two, we also bought that giving life.
[SPEAKER_01]: about that given, like, follow us up the way, Witton Jazz Gave, but they would give together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we got a rule of thumb here at the Wake Community Church.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I get invited to another church to preach and you come join me, I'm bringing an offer from the Wake Community Church, because we go together and we give together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not just other churches community partners too.
[SPEAKER_01]: We give together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that generous spirit is a through line with people in the first century church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Acts 244-245 and all the believers were together and had all things in common and they were selling their property and possessions and shared them with all to the extent that anyone had in the, what you say, here's what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not possible for spiritually, emotionally or mentally small people to be authentically generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not possible for spiritually, emotionally, or mentally small people to be authentically generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning, if I'm not growing and expanding in all aspects, I'm not cultivating a spirit of generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: They may give something to be seen as generous, but it is not authentic generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my personal self affirmations and I try to say it to myself multiple times a week is I am financially free and generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I used to say that to myself, I thought that means to be completely debt-free.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a component of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But really, financial freedom is not about your, you're profiting a law sheet, it's not about, you know, your debt-to-income ratio, financial freedom is not just about the receipt on the end of your portfolio or on the end of your checking account.
[SPEAKER_01]: To be financially free is for my selfhood to be separated from my stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if my self-hood is defined by my stuff, my self-hood is confined by my stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what's my self-hood is separated from my stuff?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I have the freedom to truly hold everything with an open hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm starting to expand as a person mentally, emotionally and spiritually, so that generosity is just a natural outflow, it's organic reality.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, maturity teaches us that we can be generous with our margins even if they are slim.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, don't you think about it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever you have an opportunity to give, if you say, I don't have it, question is, what don't you have?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is the itch you don't have the amount the opportunity requires was the itch you don't have the attitude to do what you can in the moment Right, that's not saying I'm gonna always be able to pull somebody out of foreclosure If your house is foreclosure or come out of me I paid the slash six months that you miss plus the next three months that you get on your feet It's not saying I got that capacity
[SPEAKER_01]: But if I'm standing in line and I'm checking out that public saying they asked me if I'm going to give some to the March of Dimes, whatever amount I want to tell them, in that moment, do I not have it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a dollar amount or is it a out of two?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because generosity, regardless of margins, is a so issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: patronize the business and it was checking out and I added a tip to check out and when I did so the person receiving the payment said man y'all rich and I was like
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the moment, it kind of struck me, the further I walked away, the more it really just upset me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not because there's a problem with being rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not rich at, I probably be rich one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be a rich, granddaddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: My job, I want to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be the patriarch with the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I want to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's in need, baby girl, to my granddaughter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Your dad is saying, no, he'll take this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your granddad is saying, yes, I'm his daddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will be your daddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a real dream of mine, also one of my personal affirmations.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in that moment, I didn't give that tip because I got a surplus I don't need.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave that tip because the Lord is cultivating in me, the capacity to give even with slim margins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is it important, Rev, because to be rich is a matter of financial quantity, but to be generous is a spiritual quality.
[SPEAKER_01]: The two are not the same, because we know some people with a profit and long sheet that would make us blush.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know some people, if we saw us on a debit card, it'd give you a headache.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know some people who have no debt and who have assets flowing through and through, but don't have an ounce of generosity flowing through their veins, because it's not about a melt.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a soul issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the text here says, even if they had different amounts, they all had the same soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: They gave together.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says they sold everything they had and they would give to those who have me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of y'all are around.
[SPEAKER_01]: The next thing you say, but not be crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you're not from the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: That we from the same tell us to sell air thing we got and bring it to the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause if you say that, we're gonna say, let's start with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see that bronchow out there in the positive pocket, and I say, you're bronchow, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Bring the proceeds to the search.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what I was saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna keep my, uh, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that's what this text is saying because the text doesn't imply that they stop earning wealth.
[SPEAKER_01]: What it's saying is they became free handed with their stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: The spirit of the text is as a need arose, they were willing within their means to meet that need.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not saying they quit their job, stop earning money, went to church and just said in the church all day and let God feed them as a matter of fact.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Paul was a tip maker who kept a job in addition to other things he would do in order to make an income.
[SPEAKER_01]: The issue here is not the income.
[SPEAKER_01]: The issue here is freeing their heart of greed so that God could use them to share.
[SPEAKER_01]: To share means to take some amount and cut off to give you a piece.
[SPEAKER_01]: Share is something it took me 10 years into these 19 years of marriage to learn how to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're going to a restaurant and look at the same menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd be like, hey, what you want?
[SPEAKER_01]: Same menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm an order.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to order.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter what she order,
[SPEAKER_01]: She always whore some of without her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it took me 10 years in to say, did you see the same in you that I just saw?
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be sitting there and I'll say, I'm gonna be a gentleman, I'm gonna let you order first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, I was on a budget.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would wait to see what she got to see how much I could afford it for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I said back, you're going to order.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, oh, let me get the lobster with the scrubs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
[SPEAKER_01]: Water, no ice.
[SPEAKER_01]: How much is ice?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no ice, no ice.
[SPEAKER_01]: They bring both plates out, this girl got lobster and shrimp.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's still like, can I have a piece of yogurt sandwich?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I had to learn how to cut off a piece.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's on your plate that you refuse to cut a slice off?
[SPEAKER_01]: The generous realizes, I'm grateful that I'm the one who gets to cut the slice because it's still on my plate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I hear the way community church, one of our values is free-flowing generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are not a church that will console every brown penny is people give.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to cut off a piece to share it with Rockdale County Schools, especially those who are right here in our community.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cut off a piece for cancer research organizations.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cut off a piece for the boys and girls clubs in Metro Atlanta.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cut off a piece for South the Cap Trial and we cut off a piece in ways that we can't tell you because you gotta be anonymous as you dignify people that you bless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody with a generous spirit in this house who can testify?
[SPEAKER_01]: God, give me enough to cut off a piece.
[SPEAKER_01]: We bowed that line, bowed that study in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: We bowed that giving life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number three, we bowed that loving life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause see love is the differentiating factor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said in John 13, 34 and 35, by this with all men know that you're my disciples, if you have love, one, four, another.
[SPEAKER_01]: is love that differentiates the Christian from the non-Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we see in Acts 2 is that the women in me and who follow the way will always gather in together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Acts 2, 40, 16, 40, seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says day by day, continuing with what church, one-man, do you see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where?
[SPEAKER_01]: In the temple and they will break bread from house to house and they will take their meals with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Together, with dryness and what sincerity of heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that these people were a generous people because these people had a love between them.
[SPEAKER_01]: The love they shared made communal rhythm possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see it through their worship, daily, and their fellowship regularly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no matter where they work, they could be at the temple, which is the place that everybody goes to worship or house the house, from where you live and where I live and everywhere in between, regardless of the place the energy was the same, and the energy was built around one mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: That term, one mind, is translated from a Greek word that means to be in a unison.
[SPEAKER_01]: is the idea of diverse parts, making one sound.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just saw it right before eyes as we worship together.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look up here on the pool pit with me, you have many different instruments.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have drums, we got keys, we got keyboard, we got a bass, we had a four-part band.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not just the instruments as tools, but the people are instruments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you got four singers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we got the lady singing the day, and we got the man playing the instruments today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got four women, four men, four different voices, different ranges, different tones, different different sounds, alto, tenor, soprano, and all the above come together, four different instruments with four different instruments playing the instruments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is unique and diverse, but they didn't make eight different sounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: They say, we're gonna take our diverse part at it into what the whole is doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when it's heard and received, you won't hear eight different things.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll hear eight different things contributing to one's sound and the beauty of having one's mind is not that you gotta become like me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just means we sing it from the same sheet of music.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have a way for that in this room who can give God praise what a fact that you go to a church that'll train you at it,
[SPEAKER_01]: to just be somebody who is a spectator, but you can be a participator.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is anybody a part of T-D-U-M-C-C gang gang?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who can testify?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I'm about that T-D-U-M life because we all show in people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Regardless of my story, regardless of my strips, regardless of my past.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all doing the same thing together.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a harmony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Harmony done mean homogeneity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chameleon, we all all have to be the same, think the same, act the same, but harmonizing is the bending of the wheel to take my uniqueness and make it a part of what the whole is doing for the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we about that life, we about that study in life, that is growing together, we about that giving life, that is giving together, and we about that loving life, which is gathering together number four.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'll be done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also about that praying life, which is
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 3, first one, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of wet church, a prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there's a new word alert, gingerflate.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got Professor Me, new word alert.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jenguflet means to briefly be in one need to the ground and rise again as a son of respect worship or reverence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jenguflet is what a man does before a woman that he hopes will take his hand in marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Genia Fleck is what a younger person should do in the presence of an older person who can't rise from their seat to greet them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Genia Fleck is what somebody in the prom of their life should do before a child to become out of out with them so they don't know they're in a safe place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And gingerflake is what every daughter of the divine and son of the sovereign should do every day before all mighty God Just about a need to say Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I stretch my hands to thee.
[SPEAKER_01]: No other help.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know do I have anybody in the house who's about that praying life who can testify?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't never take too much time Just a pause to show honor What they me and little are damn dollar would say to put humility in your posture
[SPEAKER_01]: If you can talk to God without putting humility in your posture, then who do you think is God in this conversation?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you talk to God, but you're welcome out of two, maybe you thought God was kneeling before you, but I've come to Bush or LeBubble, and let you know that the God of the universe who sits high and looks low, bends the knee to no one, but what I heard somewhere is that he ever read knee shell.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I adore it to all you shit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So just make it a part of your day and not just praying alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to get some people you can pray together with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get saved and be less committed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we got to say, we was about that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we get saved, we are, you know, you know, proud of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember before you came to the Lord, you didn't have no problem bringing people in to whatever the move was.
[SPEAKER_01]: When as soon as you come to the Lord, I just, this is just me.
[SPEAKER_01]: For you came to the Lord, don't let you have an enemy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody you want to put hands on, you're gonna get all your head, bus, and friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ones who can throw them things, hey, come talk to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: All like such and such and such and such and such and such, say this about me, we're gonna meet them outside and we're gonna have their business.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you called them me on some crazy stuff, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause you would plot together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then maybe you wanna fight or maybe you was a lover and you like the party.
[SPEAKER_01]: You say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna get dressed at 11.45 p.m.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you go out to the club at 12.15, and we're gonna shut the club down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we're gonna hit a wildfire house before we come back home and be in the bed before the sun come up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you would say, let's all meet and such a such house.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can pre-game together.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can you get friends and plot together and get friends and pre-game together between God two three friends you can get and pray together?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you know this life too real to be trying to seek the will of God for your life by yourself?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you know you need other men and women who can stand with you and seek heaven to get the answer you need for the season you in?
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't walk through the world alone, don't try to do it alone now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there any believe in the house who can give God praise for the two three people you know you can call?
[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel, chapter two tells the story of Daniel, he's at work one day, he's got a good government job, working for King Nebuchadnezzar.
[SPEAKER_01]: The king is a lunatic, he's a megalomaniaccal crazy person who makes up weird things every day to add pressure to the people who serve under him, sounds of air familiar.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Nebuchadnezzar said, Nebuchadnezzar said, I had a drain last night,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not going to tell y'all what I dream.
[SPEAKER_01]: If one of y'all don't tell me what I dreamed, and tell me what the dream means, I'ma kill all y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And don't lie to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Daniel stepped up and said, hey, hey, hey, when you say kill all y'all, hey, pretending to, yeah, you too, Daniel, hold, hold, you got.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be back tomorrow with your answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel tells the king he's going to give him an answer tomorrow that he don't have yet today.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes home to his friends all his roommate, Shabarak, Mishak and Abinda go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't not hanging out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, look, Shabarak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, put down their PS5.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can play Madden later.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Mishak, tell the girl you're calling her.
[SPEAKER_01]: You call her back in the Mar, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: You always kakin' it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Abinda go, bro.
[SPEAKER_01]: You always eat your man, put the food down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, I need the three of us to come together and pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the king said, he gonna kill all us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he will get the answer about a moral, all of us doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shattered, me shacking the bend to go pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: That night, God tells Daniel what the king dreamed then tells Daniel what the dream meant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the next day, Daniel could go back to work with his chest out and his head held up high.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when you bow before God, you can stand before any man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have anybody in the house who can give God praise for the two, three people who are help you seek heaven in a life or death situation?
[SPEAKER_01]: You lie around, that's a cute story, but I'm not in the life or death situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure?
[SPEAKER_01]: You see what's been happening in Gary, in the end?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure that you won't wake up one day and not have power for 10 days with no explanation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure you're not in a life of death situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure, you ain't never been to the doctor, thinking it was a routine check and got information and a diagnosis that you weren't expecting.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure it's not a life of death situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like you look good and you smell good, but let's just keep it above.
[SPEAKER_01]: How much money do you have between you and complete disaster?
[SPEAKER_01]: You sure you're not in a life of death situation?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't take for granted the stability of the day like it can't become instability tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: You better get two, three people who can call God for you now before you need them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You all know that many have three boys and we're taking our oldest son to college in three weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, we try to emphasize to the boys how close we want them to be regardless of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we want them to be best friends in this world as they go grow way beyond the limits of their bedrooms in our house.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if, you know, the lower sense of saying, if things go in the way that things have started, that means they would live a great deal of their life together without us too.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we try to emphasize to them now, listen, the friends that you saved with your friends, your brother, your friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I need you to have your brother back.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are accountable for you, are your brothers keeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes they don't get it, but it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna be patient for what you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I love is when one of my sons comes to me and they ask him for something and I just got to know him my spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any parent in the house you just love when you know you're gonna say no.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just like, get it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let me think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, no!
[SPEAKER_01]: No!
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a father.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just got to know in my spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my sons come and ask to me for something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Daddy, can I get some road bugs to give, Connor?
[SPEAKER_01]: Son?
[SPEAKER_01]: No!
[SPEAKER_01]: What I love is, before I can get the note out, the other two come behind them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they start telling me reasons why.
[SPEAKER_01]: I should consider saying, yes, even though they can feel the no oozing from my soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dad, you should say yes because he's been going to bed on time.
[SPEAKER_01]: This week, he's been doing his chores, and he's been doing everything we need him to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, that please.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I have discovered is, is when one comes along,
[SPEAKER_01]: I may hit him with a note or maybe, but when all three come together and they're unified and what they want Even if there's a note in my mind, it's a yes on my heart and some kind of way I'm gonna figure out how to make that thing happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have any parents in the house who can testify?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how God feels that's why I'm
[SPEAKER_01]: grateful for the people I can pick up the phone and say, bro, I need you to pray for me, sister, I need you to in a seat for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if I go alone, the Lord may say, no, but if we go together, he might say yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody grateful for the faith that you have received?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because in a friend, you got to pray with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm done, church.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you got three names,
[SPEAKER_01]: to pray with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, they hear from God, but number two, God here is when they pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've got three names, write them down, or think about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three names.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us like wherever, all got three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have two?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you don't have two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have one?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you got the right one, you only need one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us like Ralph, I don't have Zebra.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're praying to ask the Lord to sing you somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot make it through this life alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the Godly habits you want to practice to replace the ungodly ones, you need relational reinforcement.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's nothing great I've ever accomplished that I accomplished without support.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: My question for you is if, if I told you that, joining a live group or if, if, if, if, joining a live group would bring you healing, is that something you will be willing to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you join a live group, a smaller group of people who go deep in the word together, if, if you knew it would help you heal?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm going to do some of these serves I did in the last.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many people, far, you raise your hand on what you hear when I'm saying it.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many people by show of hands had the experience healing in your life or multiple levels as a result of a life group here in the way community church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hands down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody who hand was up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just an example for everybody who's hand was down.
[SPEAKER_01]: He helps you really be about that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody to grow together, give the God the love together, pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: He helps you to reinforce those good habits as you become the whole person God is designed in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I actually like them the day after we adjourn in the B-builden we'll have our life group campaign.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to invite you to go there before you depart.
[SPEAKER_01]: and to consider what it looks like for you to join and emotionally healthy spirituality life group.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man church.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man give him a little to handcuff a praise if you would.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise to you.