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[803.38 --> 808.94] of this passage in a strange kind of way. About 10 years ago, when we lived in Burnaby, and you should |
[808.94 --> 813.22] know there was a time when Brittany and I were like those Burnabites who looked down on Surrey, |
[813.66 --> 817.62] but not anymore. We're with you all the way. Who needs the people on that side of the bridge, hey? |
[817.62 --> 822.36] Okay. But there was a day where I went in our backyard in Burnaby, and I saw a mound of dirt. |
[823.28 --> 826.86] And then a few days later, I saw like six mounds of dirt. You know what this is, don't you? |
[827.78 --> 833.56] A mole. And my neighbor, my Taiwanese neighbor, he leans over the fence, and he just says to me, |
[833.72 --> 839.86] you have a mole. You have to kill that mole. And so I was like, mission accepted. And so I googled |
[839.86 --> 845.02] very briefly on how to kill a mole, and then I proceeded to do things that did not work. I put |
[845.02 --> 848.82] Zacto knives down some of the holes. I was told that worked. Filled gruesome. Didn't work. |
[849.26 --> 853.48] One afternoon, I wasted a whole ton of water and time trying to put a hose into the hole. |
[853.90 --> 857.26] Someone told me I could like flush it out, and that actually made things worse because I think |
[857.26 --> 861.88] it got so angry, like punched up like 10 of the holes the next day. And I was feeling very discouraged. |
[862.10 --> 866.76] My wife probably remembers this. And I went to church one of those Sundays, and I was telling one of |
[866.76 --> 872.34] the young adults in our church how hard it is to kill the mole. And he's like, oh man, we got this. |
[872.34 --> 877.02] Let's do this together. And the next Saturday, there was like eight or nine of us gathering in |
[877.02 --> 882.36] my backyard. We go to the Canadian Tire on Low Heat Highway, and we buy all these like sulfur sticks. |
[882.58 --> 886.68] I don't even know if they're legal anymore. They were very effective then. And we went to all the |
[886.68 --> 891.70] most recent holes we saw, lit these things. We felt like we were in the trenches of war. We like threw |
[891.70 --> 897.28] these sticks down the hole, and we smoked that thing to death. The best part of it was the next morning, |
[897.28 --> 902.86] I looked in my backyard. No moles. It was a good day. I don't celebrate killing animals, |
[902.96 --> 907.04] but I was happy for that mole to be gone. Now, why do I tell this long story about moles? I think |
[907.04 --> 913.96] this is an excellent metaphor of your and my battle with whatever it is we battle. By yourself, |
[914.30 --> 920.14] you are pretty much destined for failure. Name your vice of choice. Name the thing that trips you up. |
[920.40 --> 924.44] When you are by yourself, and you are isolated, and you try to fight that thing by yourself, |
[924.44 --> 930.54] it's not going to go well. And you know this, don't you? You know how hard it is to grow in faith |
[930.54 --> 938.64] and obedience to Jesus alone. And I'm convinced, by the way, that Satan knows this. I think Satan |
[938.64 --> 941.96] is delighted when believers are like, no, no, it's good. I don't need other people to help me. I don't |
[941.96 --> 945.60] need the prayers of people. I don't need the encouragement of people. I got this by myself. |
[945.78 --> 951.82] And he's like, no, you don't. And we hate to admit this as Western people who are so self-sufficient, |
[951.82 --> 959.70] but we are so vulnerable, so susceptible to temptation, and so painfully weak on our own. |
[961.10 --> 966.52] You have to believe that to know why this passage matters. But it's when we gather with other |
[966.52 --> 972.06] believers, when someone comes to you in church and say, we got this, then you see the stuff happen. |
[972.96 --> 976.74] You know, for the last eight weeks, we've been preaching on being a community of justice, |
[976.74 --> 983.28] being a community of selfless servanthood, being a community of peacemaking, a community of rest, |
[983.64 --> 987.96] a community of all these different dimensions of generosity. And now we think to ourselves, |
[988.08 --> 994.88] well, how do we do that? We need to do it together. Most of your growth and mine comes from seeing other |
[994.88 --> 1002.18] people living out their faith. Most of our maturity is by being in community. And the way that we grow |
[1002.18 --> 1010.00] is together. The way that we remain weak is isolated. A question that I've asked in our |
[1010.00 --> 1013.98] membership classes for years now, and some of you who are signed up, you're going to hear this |
[1013.98 --> 1020.30] question. You can share about it this week. But the question is, think of a time in your life where |
[1020.30 --> 1025.68] you were really growing, and you could sense it, right? Where you were sort of catching your stride in |
[1025.68 --> 1029.74] your walk with Christ. You felt like you were maturing and gaining faithfulness in whatever |
[1029.74 --> 1035.00] dimension that you're working on. Think about that right now for a second. What time is that for you? |
[1036.08 --> 1040.52] Is there a season that comes to mind? An experience that comes to mind? |
[1042.40 --> 1047.52] Based on all the years that I've been asking this, I have about 90 percent certainty that that season of |
[1047.52 --> 1054.78] maturity was a season of community. Am I wrong? Is that true for you? Maybe for you is the serve trip that |
[1054.78 --> 1058.66] you went on with friends and you served together, and you just felt the meaningful nature of Christian |
[1058.66 --> 1064.00] community gathering around an important project. Maybe it was the first time you got invited into |
[1064.00 --> 1068.54] a young adult small group, and you felt yourself opening up about vulnerable things and finding |
[1068.54 --> 1074.44] relationship and love. Maybe it's someone inviting you to their home, and you found a bit of relationship |
[1074.44 --> 1079.04] over whatever job you're facing, whatever job they're facing, but you found yourselves relating and |
[1079.04 --> 1086.28] growing together. But our growth is found in community, and we desperately need it. |
[1086.28 --> 1091.56] Now, if you've been around Hope for a while, you'll know that one of the things that we try to |
[1091.56 --> 1095.94] prioritize is our small groups. And Valerie, who led our service, she's our pastor of discipleship, |
[1096.32 --> 1099.88] she oversees all the different small groups and discipleship ministries of our church. |
[1100.16 --> 1106.06] And last I checked, just about half of our church is involved in some intentional discipleship |
[1106.06 --> 1111.48] ministry. And when I talk to other churches, that sounds like a good number. But, you know, |
[1111.48 --> 1118.70] if you put that on a grade for a paper, 50% is like a D minus? What is that, an F plus? It's not a good |
[1118.70 --> 1125.54] number, is it? I'm looking for teachers to get me on the right number. Is that a D minus? C plus? I don't |
[1125.54 --> 1130.16] know. We'll put it on a bell curve. It's a bad number, though. And so I want to share a bit about |
[1130.16 --> 1134.34] our small groups, and then I want to make some specific challenges for all of us, regardless of |
[1134.34 --> 1140.62] our situation in the church. Last summer, this past summer, Val put out an email to all our small |
[1140.62 --> 1144.76] groups saying, I want some feedback on how it's going, share what's going well, share some of the |
[1144.76 --> 1148.68] struggles. So now I'm going to share what you have shared, those of you who are in small groups. Here's |
[1148.68 --> 1152.94] some five things that were encouraging about the small group ministry of our church. Number one, |
[1153.30 --> 1158.96] it was noted how good it was to have new believers in small groups who ask the hard questions and |
[1158.96 --> 1164.34] invite some of those basic things to be sorted out together. Number two, people celebrated the |
[1164.34 --> 1169.12] different ages, stages, and cultural diversity of small groups. And I thought, that's one of the |
[1169.12 --> 1173.30] beauty of the church, by the way, right? You're not just around people like you, you're in the diverse |
[1173.30 --> 1180.64] body of Christ. Number three, support and prayer through crisis and difficulty. Number four, seeing |
[1180.64 --> 1185.38] God answer prayers. Isn't that such a gift? When you come together as a small group, and you're praying |
[1185.38 --> 1189.30] for somebody, you're praying for something, and you see God answer that prayer, what a gift in small |
[1189.30 --> 1194.82] groups. And then finally, praise the Lord for this. Number of people wrote accountability. |
[1194.82 --> 1202.28] That there's somebody, or there's a group of people who've got their eye on you, not with judgment, |
[1202.50 --> 1206.76] but with love. Where you're journeying together in prayer, and reading the scriptures, and growing |
[1206.76 --> 1211.42] whatever battles you face, there's people who are alongside you in the journey so that you grow |
[1211.42 --> 1217.48] together in accountability. That's where the magic happens. Now let me name the things that they said |
[1217.48 --> 1220.60] were not great. And if you're in a small group, I think you're going to resonate with these. |
[1220.60 --> 1228.66] The number one challenge that was named in this word is flaky. Flakiness. Do you know what the |
[1228.66 --> 1234.02] definition of flakiness is? You say you're going to come, but you don't. You say you'll be there on |
[1234.02 --> 1238.88] Thursday, but you're not. And then this is related to it. This is hilarious. This is the cascade of |
[1238.88 --> 1243.48] cancellations that happens when one person says they can't make it. Is that true of your group? |
[1243.96 --> 1249.76] Some resonance there? Yeah, knock it off. Just go anyway. But these are the challenges, and I just want |
[1249.76 --> 1256.02] to name them and say, stick it out. Sometimes we can idealize small groups, and you kind of want the |
[1256.02 --> 1259.58] perfect group with the perfect people with the perfect food, but you're not going to get the |
[1259.58 --> 1262.74] perfect group. You might get good food, but you're going to have people who are different than you, |
[1262.82 --> 1266.60] who think differently than you, who speak differently than you, and that's the gift of small groups, |
[1267.20 --> 1271.32] that you don't get the ideal group. You get the real group of humans who you get to grow with. |
[1271.32 --> 1279.92] So stick it out. Commit to it. Carve up the space for it. But here's now my shift of gears to talk to |
[1279.92 --> 1285.12] those of us who are not in small groups, the other half of our church. And my challenge is simply, |
[1285.34 --> 1291.92] in obedience to this passage, take the time to find the people you can grow with. I get that some of us |
[1291.92 --> 1296.10] have shift work, and it's very hard for us to be in a weekly small group. I get that some of us have |
[1296.10 --> 1300.50] very young kids, and it's not easy to have babies in small group at the same time and all the rest, |
[1300.50 --> 1308.50] but you do have to find someone, some people, some space to be encouraged and to encourage, |
[1308.70 --> 1312.10] to challenge and to comfort. And by the way, if you're interested in the Greek, that word |
[1312.10 --> 1317.54] encourage in Greek has all the meanings from challenge and exhort all the way to comfort. |
[1317.70 --> 1322.32] And so it's this whole range of relationship with one another as we grow and we sort out the faith |
[1322.32 --> 1327.74] together. But you need those people. And I say that partly because it's obedience to this passage, |
[1327.74 --> 1334.04] but here's my pastor's heart now. I want you in 20 years to be surrounded by people who have matured |
[1334.04 --> 1340.00] you in the faith. I don't want us to be isolated and segregated and feeling lonely in 20 years when |
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