Our Responsibilities as the Community of God

Two weeks ago, I shared an email on a Friday describing and discussing an opportunity that I felt I wanted to explore with this congregation. It's not one that we're rolling out to all three congregations at this time. I wanted to kind of use Ann Arbor as a test bed to see if this produces fruit and if there's any modifications that would make this a little bit more helpful or even better for the congregations if we continue forward with it. We recognize that in life there's a lot of things that come across our plate, a lot of things that we see around us in society, a lot of the neighbor people we run into, whether it's at school. I know when Kelsey has been in different schools growing up, we'd get to know some of the other parents and we get to know the teachers. Then, as you get to know people, you learn their life story and you learn, at times, the challenges they're going through. As you get to know people really well, you can sometimes even see their disposition changes because maybe they're suffering a loss or they're going through a health trial. You can tell that something's not right because you've known them for a while now.

These people are normally not always part of our fellowship because this is a separate group or separate community that we have here that God has called us to be part of. Our other community outside of these walls, we get to know people and we get to see that they're good people and that they're trying to live their lives a good way and they're trying to raise their families in a healthy way and they're trying to make good decisions for their lives. We know that time and chance comes to everyone. We know that this is still our enemy's world. This is not God's world yet. His kingdom has not returned here. And so there's a lot of heartbreak. There's a lot of brokenness. There's a lot of suffering that goes on outside these walls. And we encounter people like this all the time. There's not always been a great way within our church community to foster ways that we can pray and we can think about others and we can sometimes even celebrate our highs and recognize our lows that we go through in life. And so I was trying to prayerfully consider ways that we can be more this way. That we can be more aware of what's going on not only in our own individual lives but also in those touch points that sometimes expand out into circles that go beyond who just who we meet with on a weekly basis here in our congregation. And so this idea of sharing what I've entitled at the top here, Voices of Praise and Prayer, is an opportunity that I hope we can share and get behind and see if this is see if God continues to bless it as it goes forward. But to provide an opportunity with our own voices to offer more praise and more prayer to our great God. We could offer praise and prayer to Him 24 hours a day and still not have enough to talk to Him about and to be thankful for because He is the author of creation. He's the God who sustains us. He's the God who provides always. And His love and His abundance and His grace can't be measured. And we recognize that. But sometimes people come across our path who are really struggling. And in our own personal prayers, we spend time praying for them, which is great. And in our own personal lives, we have moments that we want to celebrate with others. But it's kind of sometimes difficult to know how do we do that in a way without sounding like we're coming to church and then bragging about these great things that are going on or this thing that happened and monopolizing our time and conversation and making it about us. And so there's a balance in all things, right? Many times when we look at God's Word, there's either extreme, even if it's a good thing, and it could be too much. And God doesn't want us to go too far to one way or too far to the other.

And so I wanted to share this, not only in email form, but again, in kind of written form. And as you see, I wrote that this could be a submission form. This is just one way that you could share with me some different ideas, some different thoughts that you would like to include in what may be a weekly publication that I just sent out in an email. So separate from our normal prayer requests, but in an opportunity to expand out things that maybe you want to walk along with your brother and sister in and maybe pray about for things that people are going through, hardships, difficulties. And these could even be your own prayers that are not health-related, but things like maybe a job loss. I know this past year, one of our members was having a really hard time professionally and in their work environment. And they asked if we could pray.

And I found myself caught. I'm just going to be open here and vulnerable a little bit. I found myself caught because there's never not a good time to pray for people, right? Even if it's a work trial, something going on, we should always be willing to pray. And I told her I would pray personally, but she said, is this appropriate to stretch out and be to go beyond into like a normal prayer request? And the challenge is when we go there, where does it stop, right? Because so many people have all types of things that go beyond health. And I recognize already a lot of our email boxes are getting filled up with personal prayer requests. And so I told her, let me pray about this and see if there's an avenue because these things definitely are worthy of our prayer, right? God wants us to bring all things to Him, not just health trials, all things to Him. And my heart says we got to be praying for one another, and we got to be aware of what others are going through. But then, and so that was part of what went into this idea for this this publication that we can do. The other is offering more opportunity to praise God, because sometimes we can get overwhelmed with the problems. I'll be admit, sometimes my prayer life is focused on my problem list. Like, God, I need this, I need help with this, or I need guidance here, or I need inspiration here. And it's kind of like my task list for the week, my to-do list, my problems, my health trials, the people I'm praying for that have health trials. And sometimes that can monopolize or even encompass a large majority of our prayers, right? Because we are human, we have needs, God says bring those needs to us, and so we're fulfilling that calling and His instructions by doing these things. But then sometimes I recognize in my prayers, am I praising Him enough? Am I offering and focusing on how wonderful our God is, how wonderfully He looks after our lives, and how deeply He loves us? And sometimes I feel like maybe my prayer life struggles in that way, because I thank Him, and I acknowledge that He provides everything for me, but is it enough praise? And so I was thinking and praying about this, is this a way that we can offer in even more praise for God as we celebrate highs in other people's lives in our family here?

I referenced in the email I shared out that this is similar to a concept that we do at camp, where each evening, as I've shared with you, we have dorm parent time, where as the evening closes, it's the last thing that we do before lights out in the dorms, but the dorm parents come in for the counselors' end-of-the-day meeting. And some of the counselors like to do an exercise with the campers, where they talk about their highs and their lows from the day, and the campers will voluntarily share, if they want to, what was their high, or maybe what was a challenge. Maybe it was something that they wish they would have done better at. Maybe something that they, in their mind, well, they were afraid to do, and so they didn't even try. Maybe it was a rock climbing activity, and they're like, I'm afraid of heights. I'm not even going to try. But then after watching the whole dorm go through it, they actually later on had regrets that they didn't give it a try, and they said, I'm going to, we're going to do that activity again, like in two days. I'm going to make sure I do it this time. And it provides an opportunity to share in that dorm's day, what things went great, what things could have gone better. And at the end of the day, we would, or at the end of that session, of every session that we have with him, we pray together, asking God for his blessing and sleep, and for the day, and thanking him for everything he did.

But it gives us an opportunity at the end of the day with the campers to reflect on how their day went. And in a simple answer, I feel like this is a wonderful opportunity and a tool that we could do the same in a way. If you're willing, and you would like to participate and share things, and this doesn't have to be a weekly basis that you send something in. But that if your heart is moved, if this is something that you feel would be worthy of a publication like this, then we can compile it together and send it out in just one email, maybe one time a week, or every couple weeks, if that's how it works out well. But it's an idea that I want to place in front of you, and place before God, and to see if this is a blessing for our congregation here. And I invite those online, if this is something you would like to participate in as well, that you can email me.

You're something that we could pray together collectively for, or that this is something to praise God, that we can collectively, in our personal prayers, be able to praise God. This is something that online you can submit to me via email, and I'll be able to include this as well.

And so I wanted to set this up and transition into a message about community today.

Because the concept of community is nothing new to us. We all live in areas around our home that we often refer to as our community, right? This is where our kids went to school, or where they're currently going to school, and we drop them off, or they get on the bus, and they go there, and and we go to sporting events, maybe, in our community at that school. It's a place where often our doctors and our dentists are located. It's where we do our shopping, and we know that mire or that Kroger store right by our house, like the back of our hand. We could, our spouse goes and they can't find something, and we tell them exactly which aisle it's in, what shelf, how high it is. You even know if it's at eye level, or if it's down by your knees, right? You just know this store like the back of your hand. The roads in your community, they're all familiar to you.

I've learned that I don't, with the GPS now, I don't learn all the names of the roads, but I know where they're at. I know about how long it takes me to get to one place or another. I even know the shortcuts that I prefer to take home, right? The ones that avoid those busy intersections, so you get home a little bit faster than if you got stuck in traffic. And when we see a new building or a new store start to go into our community, often we watch it grow. Because as we go and to work, or we go to different activities around our home, we drive by this location and we see this building going up. We see the storefront start to be crafted. And before they put the sign up, what it is, we all have our theories on what it's going to be, right? What we're hoping it'll be. Hopefully it's not another car wash. If in how we have car wash upon car wash, and I don't know how these businesses, we just do. It's a problem in Brighton and Howell, and on all the Facebook groups and everything else, it's either, what is it? It's either a car wash, what's the other one? Or a Mexican restaurant. Those are the two things that are in our community that just, it seems like the next one, and everybody's like, please let it not be another car wash. And then the sign goes up, it's going to be another car wash. We know these things because we are part and we're active and we're involved in our communities. And so when we share this idea and this word community, there's no question we know what this is. Just like our expanded out our local communities, this is a wonderful community that God has blessed us with right here in our congregation.

Very similarly to what we experience at home, we experience the same feelings and the thoughts here.

We get to know people. We spend Sabbaths together. We may have spent feasts together and gone on trips even. We've supported each other maybe through some hardships, or maybe we've even shown up and went to maybe one of our teens sporting events or their graduations and things like that.

This is a place where we share food. We share meals together. We enjoy sharing recipes sometimes.

The church is one of those places where people usually don't have a secret recipe that they're unwilling to share. I have ran across it a couple times, but that's usually the odd occurrence, right? Because we are like, hey sure, I'll be happy to share this with you. It's also where we at times have come together with heavy hearts as we've grieved with one another or as we've lost loved ones over the years, right? But then we also have celebrated births. We've celebrated watching children grow up in our midst. We've made this our home. This is another community that we would definitely call home, and it's the same sense right here in our congregation. So, to no surprise, God's Word talks a lot about the concept of community and the blessing of being part of a community right here. But along with this blessing, there comes responsibilities.

There comes responsibilities. Now, you know, I'm a pretty big fan of the summer heat, and I think many of us are looking, even if you enjoy cold weather, there comes a point to where you're ready for it to move on. And so we're starting to have our vision on the springtime. We can now start to see spring on the horizon as the temperatures have slightly came up. We know this isn't we're not out of the woods yet, but our vision is starting to shift.

And this is part of how God built into his Holy Day system, this desire for his Holy Days to come and our desire for us to be able to celebrate in them. And as we begin transitioning to this next season, especially in regards to this Holy Day season, there's it's a time where we start considering several different aspects and spiritual aspects that we want to focus on.

And many times, at this time of the year, this focus is on a very personal nature of these items that we want to talk to God about. Because we recognize opening up this Holy Day season comes the first one that comes across is Passover. And we know how important that is for our lives. We know the dedication and the commitment we made to God at baptism and that personal relationship that we have with Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior.

He gave of his life not for his sins, but for my sins. And so there's a very intimate and personal relationship that at this time of the year we start to evaluate and continue to think upon. We think about our shortcomings. We think about those things that we would like God to help us with.

We think about those things that we would like him to bring to our mind to help our mind even think differently. It's not just physical sins, it's mental sins. Right? We have weaknesses in our body. And so we approach this time of the year with a spiritual personal focus on what God is doing and what it means to us.

And that's all normal and that's all natural. But when we also consider how God collectively brought his people out of Egypt at the beginning of that first Passover, these days also hold special meaning for us collectively as a group. As I mentioned, we're going to come together, those of us who are baptized, we're going to come together and keep Passover in one location, hopefully right here in Ann Arbor, right? And that evening we're going to wash each other's feet. We're going to partake of the symbols of the bread and the wine the one time we do it a year in the service. And so we don't do it by ourselves unless we're sick or unable to be here or something else happens and we have to take it at home by ourselves.

But that's that's the abnormally right? That's I can't think of the word now or I'm like I'm mixing two words together. But that's not the normal way that we try to go into these days. We want to do it collectively. We want to do it as family and that's one of these collective aspects.

We also collectively remove leaven from our home and those products that have yeast or baking soda or baking powder. We may each be doing it individually in our homes, but we know we're all doing it at the same time with the same purpose ending on the same day because of when God's holy days begin. We recognize and we're going to come together collectively in different forms and fashions on the night to be much observed as the holy days the days of unleavened bread began.

And we're going to share in a meal and we're going to share in story and time together. And then as we go through the days of unleavened bread, we will be collectively thinking about how we each put on more of Christ. We take in the bread of life and we let his life live within us as we put more of him on. But recognizing collectively, we should all be doing that and all growing as a tighter community and as a tighter group together. This focus on community and what we have in common closely follows in the footsteps of the early church as recorded in the book of Acts.

At the beginning of the book of Acts, the church was on fire. It was literally the zeal and the excitement you could feel in the air. The church was growing at a tremendous rate and God was the focus of everything that they did. And they didn't do this on just an independent level. Obviously, there's an independent level. Many were baptized after Peter's sermon that we see in the book of in chapter two. So that's in that's personal, right? But it says that many did it and then they all became a community and they shifted their thoughts from what can I do to get myself further ahead to what can we do together to benefit the whole.

And they were actively living out the gospel message and this message was spreading far and it was spreading wide.

But this wasn't always the way that it was. And we recognize ourselves that we weren't always a part of this community that we call home today. Turn with me to Ephesians 2 and verse 11.

We're going to get back to the book of Acts here in just a moment. But first, I want to go to Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus because he gives them and us a reminder that it wasn't always this way for you and me. But then something changed and that change wasn't us. It was God. Something changed on his side, as Mr. Bryant mentioned and referenced in his sermon at Ephesians 2 and verse 11. Paul writes, therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh and he's saying, so this is our past. This is who you once were. Verse 12. That at that time, you were without Christ.

Many of us can think back to what that time was like in our lives, at time when we felt distant, or we didn't understand God, or that we didn't know him, or that maybe we even rejected him and said, nah, he's not for me. He says, that time you were without Christ. He said, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But then he pivots and says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And that is the differentiating factor here, is that now through Christ's blood, we can be atoned and we can have a relationship, a full relationship with God. He goes on in verse 17, and he, speaking of Jesus Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This community that God has brought us into, he's saying, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So Paul is writing here to remind the reader and all of us in turn that we once had a past that separated us from God, but that God, through his grace and mercy, brought us forward into the light of his truth and his love. So because of this, we are no longer, as Paul wrote, strangers and foreigners, but we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. He could have said, you're now part of the community of God. We are a new building, a new family, a new community, and this is where we find the early church in the book of Acts. Let's turn there now to Acts 2 and verse 42.

Acts 2 and verse 42. So what we're about to read is kind of the next steps. Where do we go from here at the end of Peter's sermon on this day of Pentecost? The Holy Spirit had come upon everyone who was there. They were speaking as many thought, possibly having a demon or something else is going on, because these words are just where they come in from, these ideas. And it's not. It's God's Spirit that they pointed them to. And Peter gives this amazing sermon that convicts and motivates over 3,000. It says Scripture about 3,000 people to become baptized in that day. If that ever happens to me, that's the mic drop moment. You just quit there, right? If I give that powerful of a sermon, 3,000 people say I got to get baptized, then I can't top that. I just know I'm trying to be silly. But this is what occurred on that day. And then immediately following, we read, how did this community operate? How did this church go forward? Acts 2 and verse 42. And it said, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayer. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and they had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all, as any one had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. There is so much that we could unpack from this passage, but I want to take the remainder of the time that we have together and focus on some specific responsibilities that you and I have as part of this community that God has placed us in.

This church in Acts was on fire, and they had a singular focus on God. They had a singular focus on what is best for each other. Now we read a little bit later there were some challenges that came in, right? It wasn't a fully converted and perfect church, right? Why? Because it was still made up of people. That's just what it is, right? But they said, this is the mindset that we should have towards one another. This is the way that God wants us to operate. This is the zeal in which He wants us to live our lives. This is what a passionate life for Christ looks like. And then they started working towards that and living this way as they became closer to one another and continued forward. Again, they recognize that just like we do today, that God takes us out of our mess.

He takes us out of our Egypt, per se. And then He says to each one of us, He did, and He said to this group in Acts, I've got something much better for you. I've got something much more important for you. And I want you to receive everything that I desire for you to achieve and to be able to have in your life. And He says, and this is your new community. This is your new home, and I want you to be part of this group. So as individuals of this community, what responsibilities do we have?

We first have a responsibility to recognize that this is our community. This is our community. This isn't just a place that we come once a week to socialize or to be entertained, but this must be our home. A place where we have roots and we want to make it our home.

And when this becomes our mindset, everything else changes. When you go on vacation or you go some place away from home, your mind knows this is not permanent. It could be the nicest place you've ever stayed at, but your mind knows this is just temporary. This is not, this is vacation. This is maybe the feast, right? This isn't permanent. But when you know where your home is you know it's your home. When you know that this is where I've decided to buy a house and make this my community, then your community is not halfway across town or in another state. Your community is here. Lauren, I was talking to her about it. I think she feels a similar way. But you know last month or in December we were in Cincinnati at the end of the month when my dad had heart surgery, and it flowed into the beginning of January. And there were some nights we were there for about two weeks, and there were some nights where we, Laura and I went out to dinner or we went to the local grocery to pick up food and or like grocery items to take back to my mom's house. And one night I was sitting, we were sitting at the restaurant waiting to be seated at a table, and it just occurred to me I feel a disconnect with all these people here. I mean they're human beings, they're fine people, nothing bad happened. But I felt like a stranger in their midst. And granted, I mean, I didn't know anybody there, and even when I go to restaurants here in Michigan, I usually don't know anybody at the restaurants either. But there was something about the people in Cincinnati, a place I grew up in, a place that used to be home that wasn't home anymore. And I said to Laura, I said, what's interesting is I feel closer to those in Michigan now. I feel even the people that I don't know, even the complete strangers. The news that we watch is our community news. The teams that we're rooting for in the sports, it's our community teams, right? You see people in Michigan garb, and those are my peeps now. And this is not because I don't like Ohio State or anything. Sorry, Cheryl, I know you're too close to the Ohio line there. But there's a different feeling that I had never truly recognized that where my mind is, is where my community is.

And I was sitting there with Laura saying, these are fine people. There's nothing wrong with them. They haven't done anything to me. Nobody upset me. But this is not my community. This is a place that is temporary right now. We're visiting family. We're going to be going back home.

It had never really hit me. I guess I have to admit I'm a Michigander, right? This is where my heart's been. And because of this is my home, this is my community, and this is you're my people. And I hope that I'm your people as well. And it just never hit me in that way, just how that felt and how even though we may be strangers with many people in our community, this is our community. This is where we live. I've noticed I also in a similar way, when you're in a community, you adopt a different mindset about your community. You become maybe fans of a team you never envisioned you'd ever be rooting for or supporting. You like the certain aspects about certain things that operate, how people do certain things in your community. You may even protect your community more than you protect other people's community. I don't know about you, but when there's a strange car driving, if I'm out in front doing yard work and a strange car drives by, usually I pause and I start giving them more attention than I do other cars that I recognize and see through the neighborhood. Sometimes I even do it because I want the driver to know I'm watching you. I don't know if you've ever done that or if it's just my passive-aggressive.

No, you kind of want them to know, listen, you're coming into my backyard and we look after each other and this is home and I want you to know that I'm watching you because I don't know what you're doing. And it's most of the time fine, right? It's harmless. Somebody's dropping somebody's kids off or it's usually Amazon, right? It's something weird, whereas something's just their home. But I stop and I stand there with the shovel or the rake in my hand and I kind of let them know, I got my eye on you, right? This is what we do in our own community and I don't go to your community and I don't go into Detroit or I don't go to Lansing and then stand there with my shovel and look around and it's not the same, is it? This is the community that God has brought us into and so we look after our community. We have a different mindset. It's important to us, but this is home. And so God wants us to have this mindset as we continue to go forward and as we continue to make this our own home. Again, from what we read in Ephesians, Paul wrote, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners to this community or to this area, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, this is our community. And having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So he's the mayor in a sense, right? He's the one that we all look to and he's the one that's leading and making decisions and guiding our community. And so this is home. So we recognize that this is our community and we have a responsibility for it. Another responsibility that we have is to declare that God and His Word are the foundation of truth. It's going to tie in beautifully with the sermon that we heard that we have to declare as part of our responsibilities in this community that God and His Word are the foundation of truth. As we operate as a community, this is critically important because many communities that we know do not regard God and His way of truth.

Just as there are many different communities and some value certain items more than others, our community requires that we operate within certain values. So we don't question the common bond that binds us together, which is God's Word and His Spirit. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14.

1 Timothy 3 and verse 14. This is one of Paul's epistles. They call them pastoral epistles, but they apply to all of us because of the training and the service that God is calling us all to do.

But he's reminding Timothy to remind the members and the brethren in the community of what God expects of us all collectively together as well. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14. He says, These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. There's a way that God expects us to interact and conduct ourselves. And then he goes on to say, Which is the church of the living God? And notice the pillar and ground of the truth.

This collectively is truth. This is what we know to not only be true from God's Word, but he says the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. Not just what we say here behind the lectern, but more importantly, how we interact with one another and how we interact with others outside of these walls. How we treat our neighbors, how we show kindness, how we show love, because we've been shown love, we are to love our neighbors. And so the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. He goes on to say, And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by the angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Again, all pointing back to Jesus Christ being that chief cornerstone, the representative of our community.

This is why we have a responsibility to operate our lives where they intersect with other believers in certain, God-ordained and commanded ways. This is His truth for us. This is why we have a responsibility to point others to Jesus and this truth because He Himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's from John 14, verse 6. So God is the source of all truth, and this truth is a critical part of our community.

Another responsibility we have is to stand as the light of the world. This is a responsibility as participants of this community to stand as the light of the world. In Jesus' life, He came to bring light to the world. He did this in all forms and fashions, and it left a tangible impact on those around Him. In John 8, verse 12, He says, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. We know Jesus Himself is the light of life, but He says, He who follows Me will have the light of life. Early into His sermon on the Mount, Jesus shared our responsibility and the blessings of being lights in such a dark world. Notice Matthew 5 in verse 13. Matthew 5 and verse 13. In 2, early into the sermon that He shares, He says this, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? You are what makes the world taste good.

You are the flavor. You're the zest. And you're what brings the food alive, because you can have boring broccoli, or you can have some fantastic broccoli with the right seasonings, right? He's saying this is you. You have an opportunity to just bring flavor to the world. But then He says, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. He says, You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. In my mind, when I read through this passage and I consider what am I to be, the example of a lighthouse often comes back to remembrance. Here in Michigan, we have a lot of lighthouses through, and we've read books and stories about lighthouses. You may have even visited a lighthouse. We've watched in movies where they're in complete darkness, sailors on some body of water, and they have no way through the storm and through the darkness to know which direction to go. Things are failing. Their maps are failing. The compasses are all askew, and then all of a sudden there's that light in the distance, right?

And that light is leading them to safe harbor. It's a place that is their community, their home, and it goes around in a circle, and they lose it for a little bit, but then it blinks in front of them as it, again, lights up their path. And that's when everybody says, that's the course to take.

And so God says, be this beacon in your community. Be this beacon in other people's lives. When they see something different about you, they see that piercing light through the darkness of life, through the darkness of society, through the darkness of sin. They can see this light.

And we know that this isn't our light, right? This is God's light shining from within.

But we have an opportunity, as he said to them, you are the light of the world, not that I'm the light of the world and that everybody just only... He said, you have this ability to be a light. We read that just earlier as well. When he said, in John, in that passage in John, he says, he who follows me, they have the light of life. And I just love that illustration, because we can all put ourselves on this body of water at night, unsettled seas, storms all around and if you use that as a spiritual analogy to what so many people in our community is going through, we can easily say that would be a hard place to be. And some of us have been there.

But then when you can see that light and you know that is a safe way home, that's a place I want to be. And they see that light shining in us. And then they say, where's this light coming from? You're such a nice person. You're such a kind person. You're such a thoughtful person.

Thank you for being that way. But why are you that way? Because you know what? I haven't treated you very nice in these years working together with you. I haven't been your number one fan, but you've never changed who you are. And I'm at a point where I just I'm tired of myself.

And then they want to go in a new path and they may come up to you and say, tell me about this light. Why are you different? And they're looking for a safe harbor. They're looking for a place home. They're looking for a community because their community is broken. And God says that we can be this light. This is part of your and my responsibility as we live in our communities outside these walls to be a light and a representative of the community of God.

Let's turn to 1 Peter 2 and verse 11. Just quickly. 1 Peter 2, verse 11 and 12.

Because while we have this as our community, God and Jesus Christ and the apostles recognize and tell us this isn't our only community. We recognize we go outside of these building walls here and we interact with others who are not in this community that you and I are part of right now.

And Peter, in his message here, says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, reminding them that this is not our home. He says, But this is how you should carry yourself, abstained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. This is the daily battles we face when we interact with others outside these walls. Maybe when we're having a bad day, when we're not treating others as we should. He says, remember that this is a battle that you're going through. But he says, Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, and these are people who were outside of their walls at this time, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. He's saying that when they reflect back and realize, wow, this is who Mike was. This is who, why he did what he did. This is why he treated me the way he did. And now I understand because he sought after God.

He wanted a relationship with God. And this is why he did the things he did. Why we can be this beacon of light, we can be this lighthouse in a storm. So being a light to the world is another responsibility that we have in this community. Another responsibility we have in this community is to function as one. We must function as one. The Bible often speaks of our need to seek humility and then to work to maintain this state of mind. Not to think too highly of ourselves, but rather put others' needs ahead of our own. Because when we don't, then we quickly become a community of one. I'm going to say that again. Because when we're not allowing humility to come into our hearts, we go from becoming a community of many people into a community of one. And that's because selfishness rises up, prize rises up, and then we start making decisions based on what we want, how we want it, when we want it, and everybody else better comply. Anybody who operates in this mindset quickly finds themselves where, I think, by themselves. Now, if we have spouses who really love us and I have a spouse who's amazing, she will not, she will stay with me. But is there ever a time where we feel separated out that from our, even our spouse, we feel separated out from our community? We feel separated out from the other relationships because other people are putting a distance between us and them. Is that because? Maybe? We've gone off track?

We've lost some of our humility. We've lost some of our love. We've lost some of our kindness.

I don't know, in our community, and not so much here, but in our last community in Ohio, we had a neighbor who didn't have a lot of friends because she went around telling everybody else how their house and their life should be in this community that we lived in. I've shared some stories with you before about her. It was hard because you saw her and immediately you didn't say, oh, I want to go say hi. I want to go hear how their grandkids are. I want to go see how their trip on vacation went. You're like, I want nothing to do with them. That's just human, right? That's human nature coming up. I want nothing to do with them because they don't do anything. Everything's about them and everything's about what they want and everything's about them controlling everybody else and telling them everybody else how they should live their life and what they should do and how they should do things to make them feel better. And that's not somebody we naturally gravitate and say, hey, I want to go invite them over, right? So when we start to operate with a similar mindset, we may be here on the Sabbath. We may be sharing food afterwards, but could people kind of be put in their distance because they're like, I don't want to be told how I'm supposed to live my life. I don't want to be told what I'm doing wrong. I don't want to be told fill in the blank. I just I want to be encouraged. I want to I want to walk forward. I want to be one.

And when we lose that humility and we lose that ability to serve one another with that humble spirit, we may find ourselves in a community of one. And that's not a place we want to be in. But the opposite is when we see the role that we play in our community, and we recognize that we are just one part operating in a much larger body, then this leads us to do our part really well because we recognize that the other parts are depending on us to do our part. Right? And it also leads us to recognize that the other parts will operate a bit differently from us, because that is their role in serving in this community. And when this is working correctly, we build unity through all of our actions and all of our services, because our focus is on the greater good for the community rather than just ourselves and our community of one.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12.

This is a little bit of a lengthy passage that we're going to read through here, several verses.

But God inspired Paul to capture this beautifully, and so I'm not going to try to add to it, but I want to read through it in the fullness of what God inspired here, because this is who we are in this community and how we're supposed to be one. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 4.

Paul writes, there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. There are differences in ministries but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all.

He goes on to say, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the workings of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works in these things distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. When we operate as one unit, when we operate as one community, we're reflective of Jesus Christ and the fullness of who He is.

He goes on to say, for as the body is one and has many, oh I just read that, many members, but also the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slaves or free, whether you're from Ohio or Michigan, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear should say, because I'm not the eye, am I not the body? I am not the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. God has placed you and me, every one of us, in this community with our specific gifts and talents, likes and dislikes, in this community for service of the whole. Verse 19, and if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you, no much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpleasant parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. This is another tie-in back to that voices of praise and prayer, right? That we recognize that if one of us is suffering, we're all suffering, we all should be suffering. If one of the members is rejoicing, we should all be lifting up praise to God for that member who's able to rejoice. This comes back to that Genesis idea of where I hope that we can consider and build out and maybe work towards sharing more openly our highs and our lows from our weeks, that we can share our opportunities together where we can praise God, or where we could offer prayer for one another for the difficulties or the challenges maybe they have in their life. So scripture, oh, and finishing up in verse 27, he says, now you are the body of Christ and members individually. So scripture is very clear that we all have a responsibility to operate as one in this community, and this is a responsibility we have.

As we consider these responsibilities, and with the short amount of time I have left, we have in this community, there are two more I would like to look at that tie back into the Voices of Praise and Prayer initiative. As part of this community, another set of our responsibilities is to praise God and to offer prayer together for others. Paul wrote to the church in Rome that we have a responsibility to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. That is in Romans 12 and verse 15. To rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. And this serves as a grounding scripture again for the voices of praise and prayer. You'll notice, let me find mine again, if with a handout that you received and those online I'll share, try to visually share it for you, you'll notice on the top of this submission form that I've included a couple of the passages, or one of the passages that we already looked at here as part of our grounding set of scriptures. And there's many that we could choose, and maybe I'll switch these out from time to time just as a reminder that this isn't the only place that God says these are how we are to be. But notice the passage there again in Acts, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayer. This coming to God in prayer and to recognizing what we're going through collectively and to be able to offer praise and prayer to Him is what the early church did, and they were on fire. There was a passion. There was a zeal in everything they did. These scriptures highlight our responsibility to one another in this community.

We have a large responsibility to carefully consider and to be active in how we use our voices and our words with one another. That's why I felt moved to title it voices, because it's not just one voice that's doing this. This is multiple voices that God has placed here together, multiple voices that have an opportunity to offer praise and prayer to our God for one another, and then it goes that direction, right? It goes into what our family needs. What can we do to be involved in this community? And I hope, as I shared earlier, this initiative can be helpful in bringing us all closer together as we share our highs and lows, because ultimately we want to praise God, but we want to grow closer as well. We want to know what's going on more intimately in each other's lives. This is what community does. This is how community operates, and this is why I'd like us to consider if this is something that we would like to participate in, because I can't force anybody to send items to me, and I'm not going to. I'm not going to be dragging things out of people, because that's not how it should be. We should want to share. We should want to participate in this. And again, I'm not saying that we have to, every week, somebody has to have a high and a low, because in the dorms, some people have highs, and they share them. Some people have lows, and they share them. Some people don't share anything, and that's okay, because then the next day, one of them who didn't share would share something, because that day was different than the previous one. The previous day, it was an average day. The next day was a fantastic, fantastic day. Let me tell you how great it was, because I prayed about something, and it happened. And so that person who didn't share anything the night before shared something the next night, and then sometimes we don't have people who... it's just how it goes. It changes from day to day, and so I'm not expecting everybody to send me a high and a low from every week, right? If that's how it goes, then great! But I don't want everybody to feel like I... this is something I have to do, or I have to make anything up, or I have to really work at it, or I have to overshare. This isn't the heart of it, and I share this just because I want you to feel my heart of it. But if God puts into your mind that, you know what? Like, this is something that would be wonderful to praise Him for, and I'm praising Him personally in my life. Maybe this is something I can submit, and others can be aware of the positive things God's doing in our lives. Or if we run into a situation where some of those things that we traditionally don't send out in a prayer request, that is usually health-related, maybe it's I'm having a rough time at work. I got a new boss, and he doesn't like me, and I don't know why. But can we all pray about this? Because I want this to be a good relationship, and I want this to be profitable. These items sometimes, I know we've suffered pet losses.

We've suffered losses of neighbors who have been supports for us. These are opportunities that maybe it's not a prayer request that we would pray for health, but maybe it could be an opportunity that we could include in an item that, as we want to individually, receive this list, work through it or look at it, and then include that as part of our prayer time with God. Because we know how important prayer is to God, and we know how He looks at prayer that we carve out for others, not just for ourselves, right? That's, like I said, that's an easy list. I can pray about all the things going on in my life, all of my needs, all of my wants. But when we pause and then we shift that prayer to others, God recognizes that as special, because we could just keep it all about ourselves, but we're deciding to operate as a body, not as a community of one, but if a community is many, and when you do that, then you offer time and you share with others. So I'm going to ask if we can try this out for the next six weeks. In case it isn't what the community wants, in case it's not bearing the fruit that you want it to bear, then we can have a stop point. But in six weeks' time, we'll be through the spring holy days. Passover will have come, days of unleavened bread will have come, and six weeks from now will be the first Sabbath after of unleavened bread, the holy days of unleavened bread. And so, again, I'm not asking to make things up. I'm not asking to overshare. I'm not asking you to just look and try to manufacture items to submit. But if you have something that comes up in life, something that you would like to offer praise or prayer for, submit it to me and we'll see where this goes. We'll see where God wants us to go. I would encourage us to take, as we approach these days of unleavened bread and Passover, I'd pray that we will take some time and maybe consider these aspects, these responsibilities that I've outlined today. Personally, I'm going to pray about these things. I'm going to pray about, in regard to my Passover prep, I'm going to use this as one of my tools this year. I'm going to say, am I holding up my responsibility to this community that God has placed me in? I'm going to do this just myself. We all have our own Passover and holy day prep that we do. But maybe this, if you're thinking of, like, I don't know what to study this year, I don't know what to reflect on, maybe consider if this is something that you could reflect on.

Our responsibilities that we've discussed today as being a member of this community.

Let's close in what is the second passage on the form we handed out today. Let's go to Philippians 4 and verse 4, and we'll read the context of the passage and read through verse 8. But Philippians 4 and verse 4, and we'll use this as our closing scripture because it's a beautiful close to the sermon. Philippians 4 and verse 4. Paul writes, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Voices of praise. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. So he's wanting this relationship. He wants to know. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you have learned and received and heard and saw in me do these, and the God of peace will be with you. And I hope the God of peace can be with our community.