Fellowship

One second everybody. Oh, man, that's a great video on my phone. Hold on. Hello?

That's hilarious. You see that video? I just sent you. Man.

That's so awesome. Yeah. I'll call you back. I got something really important to do.

Yeah, I got something important to do. For real. Yes. Give me a second.

I'll call you back in probably like five minutes. Give me five minutes. Yeah. All right.

This is a great video, everybody. You know what? I'm just going to save you all some time today. What I'm going to do is I'm going to send today's teaching on social media.

That's what we're going to do. So I'm just going to send my notes, all the things I've written today. I'm going to send it on Facebook, Instagram, wherever you're at today. Just like comment and share.

Put some hearts on it. You know? And have a great day. We'll see you next week.

Love you guys. Thank the Lord that that's not how we do church today, huh? Wow. Let me mute my phone.

But if we're honest with each other, this is how most people interact in the world. This is how they fellowship. This is how they friendship through social media, through their phones. Man, if I ever get up here and do that for real, please run for the hills.

Do not come back to this church because we have lost touch with y'all. Well, let me go ahead and introduce myself the real way today. Not like that. My name is Rob Hess.

I get to be one of your pastors. Our lead pastor, Ryan Beverly, is at Karis Canyon right now, and he is with our CRTC men. So you'll get to see him next week when he gets back. But I just have to say from the bottom of my heart, I'm one of your pastors, but that does not matter.

I still love you guys. Love y'all. Each and every person I walked in this morning, I love you. If you've heard that before, that word love, you're hearing it today.

I love you. Amen. Amen. Well, let's go ahead and jump right into today's message.

And you're probably wondering why did he do that whole charade this morning? Well, I'm going to dive into that in just a second. We have been in the spiritual gym talking about spiritual disciplines. And if you've been with us over the last seven weeks, we've been talking about fasting, prayer, the word of God, worship, solitude, Sabbath, and last week we talked about service.

How y'all liking the teachings as far? It's been pretty good, right? The spiritual gym, y'all working out, you getting stronger? I don't like that answer.

Y'all getting stronger? Come on. Come on. Maybe you need to take your creatine after you get done working out or your protein.

Well, today's spiritual discipline, and I already eluded to it in the first part of this message is fellowship. Fellowship. Thank the Lord that this church knows how to fellowship. And fellowship well.

I mean, there are things we can always do to improve, but our church does it well. I can't tell you how many times I spoke in the first time, yes. And they say, you can't get out of this church without meeting five or six people. And then loving on you and telling you how much they appreciate you being here, that is the beginning part of fellowship.

And fellowship is an incredibly important to this church. It's incredibly important to this church. It's in our name, Grace Community Fellowship. We love to fellowship in this church.

So what is fellowship? Well, thank you for asking everybody. I'm going to explain that to you today. So biblical fellowship is believers united in relationship with God and one another, partnering in faith, love, and the mission of the gospel.

And it's us united together with God and one another in faith, in love, and our mission is to bring more people and spread his name, the gospel, to all that want to hear it. Amen? In the New Testament, the word often translated for fellowship is the Greek word quinania. Simply put, quinania means doing life together in Christ.

What we do here at church, what we do here in this building. Now, in Acts 2, 42, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Yes, they devoted themselves to the teachings of what God had for them and to the fellowship of each other, breaking bread together. Look, quinania is a deep spiritual fellowship between believers.

Come on. Between believers connected through God first. Look, in 1 John 1, 3, it says, we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Look, true fellowship begins again with our vertical relationship with Christ, with God, the Holy Spirit, and then horizontally with each other. If we don't have this right, this horizontal stuff doesn't work. And we've been talking about it over the last seven weeks. We've been talking about the Sabbath.

We've been talking about getting into the Word of God. We've been talking about worship. We've been talking about fasting. All those things are great things to get into your life, to build a better connection with God and send it over the top.

Why? So we can fellowship better together. Again, that is that horizontal or that vertical and the horizontal relationships that God is wanting us to have. Amen?

So since we're in the spiritual gym, I equate fellowship to having a gym partner at the gym or gym partners. Because we are training ourselves to be godly, amen? Like it says in 1 Timothy 4 7, it says, train yourself to be godly. Look, I don't know about y'all, but when I'm in the gym working out, I love having a gym partner.

I love having the support of a gym partner. I love having somebody there to talk to and share my burdens. I hope y'all not. It's not just about being at the gym.

In this Christian life, I love having people around me to help me, to guide me, to give me support when I need it. It's a great thing to have because Christianity is not a solo sport. We need workout partners. Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, reminds us of that.

It says, and let us consider how we may spur when another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up, meeting together. Not giving up, meeting together. Let me say this one more time. Not giving up, meeting together.

As some are in the habit of doing. Oh, somebody offended me. Someone said the wrong thing. I'm just not going to go to church anymore.

Oh, you know what? I just feel tired. I feel I'm just not going to come to church. Oh, this thing happened in my life.

Financial situation. I'm just not going to go to church. Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. We are called to love each other.

We are called to challenge each other. We are called to pursue community and practice encouragement. You're going to find love here. You're going to find challenge here.

You're going to find community here. You're going to find encouragement here, but you won't find it if you don't come. You won't find it if you don't fellowship with the people that are here. So I'm telling you, I'm not trying to call anybody out, but if you are here today and you're one of the ones that dart out the door right when the service is over, do me a favor today.

Stay here. Let people love on you. Let them challenge you. Let them bring you into this community and let them practice encouragement with you.

Maybe you need to hear some today. Look, God never intended us to walk alone. The Christian life is a shared life. That's a quote by Dietrich Bonever.

But Rob, I'm an introvert. I'm an introvert. I just don't people. I don't like people.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed and sometimes I get exhausted by people. People just have all these things and I just don't want, look, you don't have to sit here and argue with me. You don't have to sit here and talk to me about it. It's not between you and Pastor Rob.

It's between you and God. I'm not the one you need to talk to. Fellowship is biblical. Are we not to be following the Word of God?

Look, I can tell you my personal experience and most of you probably won't agree with me here, but I was an extreme introvert. Nobody's saying anything because they're like, man, that's a complete lie-rob. That was me. I 100% did not like hanging out with people.

I didn't like people. But something changed to me when I met Jesus. Something changed in my heart. Something changed.

It was Jesus getting in there and saying, no more. You are going to people and you're going to love people and you're going to go out there and join a community. Look, God fully intended for us to have deep fellowship with each other and build community. Look, He is the one who said in Genesis 2, 18, the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone.

I will make a suitable helper for him. And most people are like, well, hey, I have my wife. That's all the people I need. I have my husband.

That's all the people I need. But look, I know this is talking about people who use this for marriage all the time. But look, this is the first time in Scripture that God says something is not good. It wasn't sin.

It wasn't brokenness. It was isolation. Before sin even entered the world, loneliness was already identified as unhealthy. We were made to fellowship, to have deep, meaningful friendships, not social media friendships.

We were only showing people what they want to see, the likes, the hearts, the comets, the filters. Come on. Believe me, I used to hide behind social media back in the day. I was depressed.

I had all these things going on in my life. But nobody would know the difference because all they saw was what I was putting out on social media, how happy I was, all the pictures with my dogs, all the food that I was cooking. But really inside I was a broken man and I didn't really like what I was doing in my life. Because I was alone.

I was lonely and it hurt. I said, I want real relationships with people, not social media relationships. I don't want to go off on a tangent on social media, but at the end of last month, God challenged me. He said, Rob, there's something that I'm preparing for you.

What's crazy for me to hear that is that when God does that for me, when he speaks into me like that, he says, I'm preparing something for you. What are you preparing for me, God? You have to wait for it. I'm like, okay, this is going to be something crazy, I guess.

But he also challenged me. I need you to get off social media completely. So me being obedient to God, I just deleted the apps off my phone. I was still on social media.

But I was like, you know what, I'll just log into the computer every once in a while and who goes on the computer to check Facebook and Instagram. It's really antiquated. Like you go in there, I'm like, what does this look like? All the kids in the room like checking Facebook and Instagram on a computer.

You can do that. So I deleted the apps and then the next day I'm sitting there and I'm on my computer and I'm like looking at some video again and God reminded me. I said, Rob, what did I tell you? Off completely.

All right, Lord. So I went in. It took me about an hour to figure out how to delete Facebook and Instagram because they don't make it easy for you. And finally, I deleted both my profiles and then it said, you have 30 days to reactivate your profile before we delete it permanently.

And it gave me 10 reminders about that before I was able to submit to cancel. Then in the last couple of weeks, I've got reminders since I've done that. Hey, are you sure you want to get off social media? Yes, I want to get off social media.

It is so freeing, y'all. It is so freeing not being on there anymore. And it's so freeing because I want to have deep, meaningful connections with my people, deep, meaningful connections with y'all. I want real in-person connections with y'all.

And look, I love seeing babies on Facebook and I love seeing babies on Instagram. But you know what I love seeing more? I love seeing them in person. I love seeing y'all's pictures of what you're doing.

But I love hanging out with you in person. I love that more than getting onto this thing right here and saying, Hey, how are you doing? Let me give you a call. Hey, let's meet for coffee and talk.

I like that more. I love that more, amen? We need fellowship like that more than ever in this world. And we do that by interacting in person, not at home with a phone.

So having a gym partner in the spiritual gym is important. Would you say? It's important. Just like the real gym.

So in the real gym, a gym partner can help you have accountability and they can encourage you. So if you're not eating right, if you're not doing something right, hey, let me hold you accountable. Hey, what are you eating? What workout plan are you on?

Are you resting? Are you making sure you're doing these things? There's somebody that holds you accountable. Hey, you're doing a great job.

I see the results and the encouragement comes. In this Christian walk having people to fellowship with, they can hold you accountable too. Hey, what are you reading in today's... What are you reading in the Bible today?

What did you get out of Scripture? What's challenging you today? Hey, are you taking rest? Are you resting?

Are you fasting? Are you praying? Look, a gym partner can also give you correction. If you have bad form and you're sitting there and you're doing something on the bar and you're like, I'm trying to push this up.

Hey, stop doing it that way. You're going to hurt yourself. In this Christian walk, fellowship can do the same thing. Hey, how do you speak to your wife?

That's a no-go. Hey, how do you speak to your children? Hey, you're doing something on your phone that you shouldn't be doing? Hey, that's what we're here for, to help each other, to encourage each other and to correct when we need correcting.

And gym partners also help us maximize our gains. Look, I can't tell you how many times Pat is my workout buddy at the gym. Pat, Yoska, if you guys don't know him. And I'll be sitting there and I'm like, I don't think I can lift that, Pat.

I don't think I can put that weight up. And he's like, Rob, I got you. So I'm sitting there on the incline bench and I got it about this much. I can't do it.

And he comes over and he puts his fingers like this and he barely touches it. And all of a sudden I'm the Hulk. And I get it up and I get that last rep in and it burns and it feels good. And I'm getting stronger because he's pushing me.

In this walk, fellowshiping, friendships, those things can help maximize our gains. You know what? You're on the floor. You've had a bad financial decision.

You've made some wrong choices. Hey, let me get you up. Come on, I got you. I got you, my brother.

We need fellowship in our lives, amen? So now that we've talked about fellowship and what it is and why God designed it for us. And now that we understand what fellowshiping is, how do we actually practice biblical fellowship? How do we actually practice it in our lives?

Well, first point today that we're going to talk about is that we need to authentically love people. We need to really love people, amen? If fellowship is all about people, the question you have to ask yourself today is, do I really love people? And look, you could say, well, Pastor Rob, I love people if they vote the same way I do.

I love people that listen to the same music that I listen to. I love people that are in my circle. I love people that are so fun to be around. Pastor Rob, you are fun to be around.

I love being around you. Thank you. Those are the easy ones to be around. I'm talking about the ones that are hard to love.

Y'all know who they are. Inside and outside of the church, the ones that are hard to love. Look, in Luke 10, 25, there's something happens here with Jesus and somebody confronting Jesus. Let's go ahead and go through it.

On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? He replied.

How do you read it? He answered, love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. You answered correctly, Jesus replied, do this and you will live, but he wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor?

And then Jesus shares the parable of the good Samaritan. Now, you know that, please go look up the good Samaritan. It's a Jewish man was beaten down on the floor of Rob and a Samaritan man walks by and he takes care of him. Hence the good Samaritan.

Now, to the Jewish people that were listening to Jesus, that were in the audience listening to Jesus, you have to know what's going on here. The Jews hated Samaritans. They were religious outsiders to them and they were cultural traitors. Saying, love your neighbor was instructing the Jewish people to love somebody they hated.

And Jesus knew what he was doing. He wanted them to know, and that's why you turn your finger off. He wanted them to know exactly. You need to love people even if you hate them.

This would be telling, this would be the same thing today if I told a cowboy fan to love the Eagles. Oh, that perks him years up. This would be telling a Yankee fan to love the Red Sox. Not going to happen.

This would be telling my wife Madison that she needs to love cats. She's very allergic. That's why she doesn't like them. We are called to love people even if they're difficult.

Amen? And the story of Paul who was Saul at the time and Ananias in Acts 9, 10 through 19 is a powerful example of this. Saul had been persecuting Christians and approving their arrests. And Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and he blinds him.

And he sends Saul to the city for three days and he says, go and pray. And then God speaks to a disciple named Ananias. And he tells him, hey, I need you to go and pray for the man Saul. Ananias clearly had some reserves about this.

He was like, Lord, you know who Saul is? He kind of has a bad reputation. He's the murderer of Christians. I don't think that's a good idea, but God told Ananias, told him that Saul was his chosen instrument.

His chosen instrument. And even though Saul had harmed Christians, Ananias obeyed God and went to him. And when Ananias arrived, he said something. He could have walked into that room and said, hey, Saul, murderer, betrayer?

I hate you, but I'm here. No, he walked into that room and said, Brother Saul, this moment shows something truly incredible. Saul had been an enemy of the church, yet Ananias called him, Brother. He loved him.

Just imagine if Ananias chose not to love Paul and he walked in there and said, hey, murderer. Or maybe he didn't walk in at all. Maybe he's like, yeah, I'm not going to listen to God today. You know, God probably would have, I mean, that probably God would have forwarded the church.

But imagine how this would have hurt the church in the beginning. People wouldn't have trusted Paul as quickly as they would have. This was the bridge that he was building. God knew what he was doing.

And Ananias, all he had to do was be obedient and show love. Sometimes one act of love and obedience can change the course of somebody's life. Look, Ananias didn't preach the sermon. He simply obeyed God and loved someone others feared.

That moment helped launch Paul's ministry and the man who would be known to everybody as the Apostle Paul, and who was the author and author of much of the New Testament. Man, that's a game changer, right? Just loving somebody? I think about my life.

I've talked to you guys numerous times about this, but I was a very bitter man at the beginning of my Christian life. I was bitter. I had a lot of anger in my heart. I had a lot of things that God was working out at me.

A lot of things. And I was angry at the world. I had a lot of issues coming out of the military. A lot of issues dealing with my dad's death.

I just had so much hate in my heart. And I expressed it to people at work. And I wasn't nice to my employees. I wasn't nice to my coworkers.

I was the complete opposite of the man that I am now. And I was very hard to love. And I met this man named Ryan Beverly. Y'all know him as our lead pastor.

Ryan loved me and showed me that no matter how I acted or treated him, it did not change how he treated me and how he loved on me and how he cared for me. He said, hi to me every morning. I was like, what's wrong with this guy? I've been mean to him and he's just loving on me.

He's just loving on me. This wasn't an act for Ryan. He wasn't trying to manipulate to get me to church. He wasn't trying to manipulate me because he was a pastor.

He was like, oh man, I'm going to try to change. No, he just genuinely loved me. He didn't care. If I believe in God or not, he just wanted to show, hey, I'm a Christian, which I didn't know at the time.

And I'm going to love somebody. Y'all want to know the reason why I love the way I do. The way I act. The way I just bring people in.

Well, there you go. I love all God's people. I love all of you because somebody that barely knew me loved me. I can only imagine where I would be if it wasn't for Ryan.

Couldn't imagine. Thank you, Ryan. He's not here today for being obedient on God's call on your life and loving people. Your love could be the difference in someone's life that changes their path for the kingdom or pushes them towards the world.

So are you pushing people towards the kingdom through your love? Are you pushing people towards the world? Are you closed off? And people are like, man, that's what Christians are really like.

And you're pushing them back to the world. Are you so open, so loving that people are like, man, I want to get to know this person. So we're called to love our neighbors, not just the ones in our church. We've talked about that, but the ones that are outside the church.

Inside the church is important too, but outside the church is also very important because we're here to transform lives for Christ, amen? So a neighbor is any person we come near to. So the good Samaritan, seeing a wounded man, he stopped and he loved on that person. How many times do we walk inside and outside his church and we hear things?

We know things. We see people with those looks on their faces and we just walk right by them. How simple would it be? He's like, hey, brother, how are you doing today?

Oh, well, Rob, you don't understand. I have lunch plans to go to. The kids got to do this. I got plans today.

And I know if I stop and I talk to this person, I'm going to be there for 40 minutes. And I know I...we're called to love people. Perhaps a neighbor is somebody with more money than you, more possessions, and you sit there. They don't need anything.

They got a big house. They got new cars. They're always doing it. They're fine.

You don't know what's going on in their lives. Love drives out envy. Hey, I'm so happy that you got that new car. I'm so happy that God has blessed you with that home.

Hey, how's everything going? Love that person. Maybe they're not as well off as you. Maybe it's a person on the street, the beggar that we walk by all the time.

Come on, if you go to Austin, you see it all the time. And how many times do we look out and discuss outside our window when we're called to love people? I can't tell you how many times I've rolled down my window and I said, hey, can I pray for you? And they usually say no.

Can I have a dollar? But I'm still making the offer. I'm still letting them know that somebody loves them enough to care for them and pray for them. Perhaps a neighbor is a coworker or a boss that you don't like.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, pass a rub. Now you're meddling. You're meddling. You don't know my boss.

You don't know my coworkers. They're really, really bad. Love honors others. It doesn't matter how your boss treats you.

It doesn't matter how your coworkers treats you. Be the one that's a game changer in their lives. But you don't know, Pastor Rob, they spit venom at me. We'll spit love back at them.

Maybe in a few months, a few years, however long you're there, that love starts to change who they are. Amen? Maybe it's somebody wallowing in sin. They have a deep sin issue.

Look, nothing will change if we don't love people first. We love the person, but we hate the sin. Look, that person's sin issue is going to be dealt with justly and appropriately. God will take care of that.

But you will never be able to approach somebody and share the gospel in their lives without letting them first. You'll be so surprised when somebody just walks up to you and says, you know, thank you for being there. Thank you for loving me through this. I need your help.

That will never happen if you don't love somebody first. Well, I just got to call out their sin, Rob. I got to call out their sin. Well, maybe you can call out their sin when you build a relationship with them and you love them first.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in conversations with people and we've talked and had challenging conversations. And that conversation is a lot easier because they know my heart for them. Man, this guy loves me. He's not trying to tear me down.

He's trying to remind me what I'm doing here. And he's telling me not to go down this path because God has so much more for me. But you'll never get that opportunity if you do not start with love. And when you do that, you start to see change in people because you genuinely love them.

And they start to encounter Christ either for the first time or for a new way, an invigorating way. They're like, man, what is going on with me? I'm changing in my heart. And all because you love them.

Just love people and let Jesus do his thing, amen? Perhaps a neighbor is somebody with a different religion or belief. Maybe they have no religion. Maybe they're a self-proclaimed atheist.

You know, when you love people, when you generally love people, when you generally have godly fellowship with them, you start to see past all that clutter. You start to see past all those things and you get to the person. And then you can just love them straight on. Because we have all these barriers.

All of them are atheists. They don't believe it. They're Democrats. They're Republican.

They have different beliefs. So why am I going to even try? Stop all that. Just love people.

Just love people. Get through all the clutter and go straight on with love. Madison's brother is a quote unquote atheist. He hates god.

He has said that to us multiple times. He is not the kindest. He said bad things to my wife. He said things to his mom, who's a Christian.

But you know what? It doesn't change how my family loves him. We love him. We pray for him every night.

Our kids are included. We pray for Uncle Hayden's heart to find Jesus. And for Jesus to infect his heart with love and to let him know that he has cared for. All that depression that he has.

And we pray for him every single night. And when he comes around us, we love him. It doesn't change how we feel. And he may say something off or say something that we don't agree with, but it doesn't change how we love him.

Hayden, if you ever watch this message, if you ever get to watch this message in the future, I just want to know, we never have stopped loving you. And one day I hope that it changes your heart and you end up in heaven with us. We love you, brother. But you'll never get to have those conversations if you don't genuinely love people.

Charles Spurgeon said it this way in a story. He says, someone may say, Sir, I cannot love my neighbor. You may love yours perhaps because they are better than mine, but mine are such an odd set of neighbors. I try to love them, and for all I do, they only return insult.

Then there's all the room for heroism. Would you rather be a featherbed warrior instead of facing the rough side of love? The one who dares the most will win the most. If the path of love is rough, then walk it boldly.

Keep loving your neighbors through thick and thin. Keep coals of fire on their head. If they are hard to please, do not seek to please them. Seek to please your master.

And remember this, if they reject your love, your master has not rejected it. Your deed is just as acceptable to him as if it had been accepted by them. Thou shalt love thy neighbor. If they are hard to please, do not seek to please them.

Seek to please your master. If they are hard to love, if they reject your love, remember your master has not rejected your love. He sees it. He sees it.

He knows, Rob, they hate me. I have family members that say I'm weird, and they don't like that Christianity thing. Love them. Continue to love them.

Why? Because you're not doing it to please them. You're doing it to please your master. Remember what we're driving here for.

Fellowship with love, and it's not just any love. It's authentic love. Romans 12, 9 through 16 says, love must be sincere. Hate what is evil.

Clean to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faith in prayers. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. mourn with those who mourn.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. This is what love is.

Bring them into your house. Bring them into your lives, amen? Fellowship is not just an event. People, we're not coming to church.

Just a love people. We're not going to these coffee meetings just to have this love. Potlox or chili event. This is a relationship that we continue to build on here, starting here, but throughout our lives everywhere we go.

To have relationship, deep relationships with each other and with others. This is how we are supposed to love. So we have the access to do life with them and then be on a mutual path of growth together. Do you hear what I just said?

When we love people, when we genuinely bring people into our houses, when we bring people into our lives, and they feel that love, we get to bring them closer to us. And when we bring them closer to us, who do they get closer to? They get closer to the Father. And when the Father gets involved, that starts to change their life and sets them on a mutual path with you to build this kingdom.

But if you never do it, you won't get that opportunity. So we have to genuinely love people. And that starts here in this house and then it spreads out through the community, amen? Amen.

And that pastor really loves love. Oh, yes, I do. Let's genuinely love people. And I'm going to have one more point here, but still, these are long points.

So I don't have two points for you today. It's a two point sermon. Lastly on how to practice fellowship, well, we need to be vulnerable. Today's culture teaches us to live independently, extremely independently, and to walk alone.

This trend in our lives has created self-focused and shallow relationships. Instead of walking shoulder to shoulder with each other, we live our lives more spread apart, protecting ourselves, guarding ourselves. People tend to hide out in their houses. You know what?

This is my safe space. I'm going to stay right here. I'm not going to go out. I'm not going to do things.

People hide out in their work. Oh, man, I got too much work to do. I'm going to hide out here. People hide out in these phones.

People hide out in social media. And yet there's so much depression in this world. So much anxiety in this world. What that tells me is that people are desperate for real closeness with each other.

They want deep, meaningful relationships. They just don't know how to do it. They don't know how to do it or know how to create that. And look, the answer is simple, but it's not always the easiest.

It's be vulnerable. It's open up your heart. We talked about loving people, but if somebody's trying to love you and you don't have an open heart to be vulnerable, it's going to go nowhere. Many of us make excuses to not fellowship or open up.

They say, well, you know what? My schedule is way too busy. I got so much stuff. So you know what?

I'm going to change this for life group. I can't go to life group tonight because I just got this going on. I got this and the kids got this. I got work tomorrow.

I just can't do it. Oh, well, Pastor Robin invited me to lunch or coffee. I really want to say yes, but I got all these things going on. Oh, man, they invited me to CRTC this year.

I have all these things going on. I wish I could get away. Feminine appeal. I got all these things.

The house needs to be taken care of. You know what? I think it might be afraid that you have to open up and be vulnerable. Man, if I go to life group, I'm going to have to talk.

I'm going to have to be real. If I go have coffee with Rob, he's going to ask me questions because that guy just asks questions and he doesn't stop until he gets the answers. CRTC, they have groups. Man, if I get a really great small group leader, which all of them are, they're going to make me talk.

Some make excuses. Somebody say, well, I just don't need it. I just need to come to church. I don't need the fellowship.

I don't need to open up. I just need to hear the pastor and I need to go. I just need the meat. I don't need the potatoes.

Some people say, well, I just can't trust people. I've been hurt at multiple churches before. I've been hurt by other people and all these things in my life. I just, all these things going on.

There's so many things going on. I just can't trust people. So I'm not going to open up. Maybe you're just not willing to try.

Look, the truth is we don't like exposing ourselves to being vulnerable. Man, this is us. I'm not saying ladies, you don't have an issue with this, but men, we have a huge problem with this. Specifically, young men and older men.

For whatever reason, my generation, we have no problem sharing stuff. But older guys and younger guys, there's this pride thing that sets in. I don't understand. Maybe it's because we don't like to admit that we're weak.

Maybe it's because we don't like to admit that there could be a problem. You know, we let fear influence our responses. And we're afraid of questions like, man, will they accept me if I lay this on the table? If they know this about me, if they know this sin issue about me, if they know what I have done, will they accept me?

Will they still be my friend? Believe me, I ask those questions. Casey Christie said I went right to his life group the first time and back in 2016 and I said, hey, this is all of my mess. And I had those questions and I was like, watch, he's going to kick me out of his life group because he knows all the things that I've done in my life.

And the man just pulled me in and loved me more. I was vulnerable with him and he opened his heart to me and his family to me. A man that had no family here in Austin, he brought me into his family. So now he's my spiritual father.

His kids are my spiritual siblings. That's real love right there. But if you're afraid of those questions, if you're afraid, well, you know, if I don't open up to this person, what do they think? I'm this bad person now.

You got to ask yourself this question. Who are you trying to please? Who are you trying to please? Galatians 1, 10.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. If you are still trying to please people, hear me.

You are not a servant of Christ. Again, that's not a problem you and I have. That is a problem that you and the word of God have. That's the big man.

If you have a problem being open, if you have a problem trying to, if you're still trying to please people, you are not a servant of Christ. Stop trying to please others to show them a version of yourself that you want them to see. Be open. Be vulnerable.

Take a bold step. Being vulnerable is biblical. James 516 says, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Notice something important in this verse.

James is not saying to hide your struggles. He is saying, he's not saying to deal with it all on your own. To be alone. He's saying confess your sins to one another, pray for one another.

That's where the healing begins. But isolation keeps people stuck. I just can't say this, you know, hey God, I'm going to confess to you, which is great. You need to be talking to God.

But who are you trying to? I'm going to confess this to you. But nobody else knows my stuff. And I'm just going to, no.

Ask for forgiveness and then go share it with a brother so they can pray for you. And real healing is going to begin to start. Being vulnerable opens up doors to healing. Galatians 6.2 says carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Let me tell you something. People can't carry your burdens if they don't know they exist. For someone to help carry your burdens, you must first be willing to share it. Again, this requires an openness.

This requires a vulnerability. Larry Krab said it this way. God never intended us, or intended for us to face life alone. Deep change happens when we courageously open our lives to others.

Real transformation happens through real relationships, not surface level ones. It happens when you go to somebody and says, I'm struggling. I'm really struggling with this. I need prayer.

I don't have all this figured out. See us, Lewis, describe friendship this way. Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, what? You two?

I thought I was the only one. That moment happens when someone is brave enough to be honest and be vulnerable for the first time. So let's be vulnerable. Amen?

So today in the spiritual gym we trained ourselves in the spiritual discipline of fellowship. And we learned something very important today. Fellowship is not just being in the same room with somebody. It's not just about attending church.

It's not just about showing up on Sundays. It's about biblical fellowship, doing life together in Christ. Loving each other authentically and being vulnerable with each other. So I have a challenge for you all this week.

You guys up for a challenge? I have a challenge for you. I have three simple steps this week. This week I want you to love someone intentionally.

I want you to call somebody. I want you to invite someone to lunch. I want you to encourage somebody. I want you to serve someone.

Don't wait for someone to come to you. You go to them. You love them. Next, I want you to open up to somebody.

Not the surface level stuff. Real stuff. Ask for prayer. Share your struggles.

Invite someone into your life. That's where the real healing begins. And the third thing I want you all to do this week is get connected if you're not. Join a life group.

Life group leaders that are here. Raise your hand. Go to those people after service today and get connected. Grab somebody for coffee or take that invitation for coffee.

Invite someone into your home. Remember, church isn't meant to be a place where we attend anonymously. Nobody knows your name and you dart out after church. It's meant to be a place where people belong.

Because when people are fellowshipping well and loving each other well and being vulnerable with each other, that's when we start to experience something very powerful in the church. Real fellowship. And when that happens, lives start to change. People start to heal.