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[WW] The Art Of Neighboring: The Case for Community · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley World.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to wrap up our Art of Neighboring series.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: We looked the first week at Jesus' parable, looking at the Good Samaritan, and we said, what if Jesus really meant it?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: What if he really meant it when he said, Do this and you shall find life?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not inherit eternal life, right?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can't work your way to salvation, but that there's something that gives us life when we get to know our neighbors, when we are known by others and we get to know other people.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And last week we looked at sort of how that might happen.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we looked at the woman who was healed and she tugged on Jesus' cloak and he stopped and he's like, Who touched me?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we talked about how as we engage our neighbors, we should be approachable as Jesus was approachable.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that it helps to also be willing to receive help, right?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, people become projects and not a true community.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: And tonight, so last week, first week we looked at what does it mean to um is Jesus serious?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe some ways that we might approach our neighbors to kind of help connections.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And tonight, sort of want to make a case a little bit for um like not just to serve our neighbors, but this concept of community, right?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we're a very lonely country.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, college students, like all the statistics, so many students just feel lonely in the deep, deepest part of themselves.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so we want to look at how do we build community and what's the point of community, right?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we'll get through it and I hope we'll also have some time for discussion towards the end.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some small group stuff, kind of get your thoughts, let you kick it around just a little bit as well.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to start um when I was a freshman in high school, my very first day in Round Rock, Texas, the very first thing any teacher said to me, get in the truck.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Get in the truck.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, see, I didn't make the golf team, and my mom signed me up for this thing called athletics, and it was called cross country.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what cross country was.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I showed up my first morning.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I, again, this is way back like mid 90s.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I had my Timberland boots on, y'all.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Had my gold chain.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was not ready for this.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, get in the truck.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right, coach.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I'm like, we're going to check out the neighborhood.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is cool, right?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Drives us five miles from campus, and he says, Look, I'm not writing tardy pass and get back to school.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, What do you what do you mean, coach?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No, you're gonna run, right?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we ran five miles.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: I did not run, I jogged, I walked, I man, by the time I got back, I was late, right?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't write me tardy pass.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was late for my first class, my first day as a freshman.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember my lungs screaming at me, my legs burning.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was exhausted beyond belief that day.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this doesn't have as much to do with the sermon, but I thought you might appreciate checking out freshman Steve.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: I had to go find these like in the depths of the boxes today.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: You wrote that, Lauren, real quick?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: This that's like all five foot two of me up there, Round Rock Dragons on that far left side.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: You see that little guy?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you see this rock, go to the next one.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: We had to swim out to the middle of the river to take our picture, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's why this round rock right there.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's the rock.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you can't see?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is great podcast stuff here.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: The guy in the left corner, see the little short guy, freshman year, 1996?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, looks just like me, right?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was me.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that I think it might be all, I don't know anymore, but I don't need to worry about me.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: But that was me.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to find the one that had me like the Timberland boots in the chain, but that didn't that didn't happen.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Go to like a clear screen somewhere, Laura.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's embarrassing me just seeing that on there.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but our text this morning that Molly read for us or this evening um comes from Hebrews.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And they didn't have to run cross-country.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I mentioned how exhausted I was today.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you've been a runner, maybe you've been to that point.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the letter of Hebrews was written to a people who were exhausted, who were beaten down, who were at their wits' end, they were struggling to know, should I carry on with this faith thing?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I got nothing left in me.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that is who the author of Hebrews writes to, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Think of your most exhausted time, both physically and mentally.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Think about the times when you're kind of down the depths, and that is where the people that this letter was written to.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they receive that knowing that they are exhausted, knowing that they're just trying to put one foot in front of the other.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why he writes, as Molly read earlier, right?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: It talks about by faith.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he talks about the Red Sea, right?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: As the people of Israel trying to escape from the Egyptians.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're not sure what's going to happen, and then all of a sudden the waters part and they're able to go through it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking at the wall, there's the authors reminding you, remember about Jericho and how you weren't sure if you could get in there and how the walls came crumbling down.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Remember how Rahab, what she did, and was able to help the spies and was able to save her family by the ways in which she was faithful and helped those folks out in that spot.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so he goes on and they they continue.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I actually cut.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of verses that in there we could have read, right?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the author goes on and says, and I could just go on and on and on about this person and that one and this one and that one, and all these names of all these trials that they would have known about, right?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And saying, look, they did it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Life was hard.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: They took 85 exams in one week and they made it out, right?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: He talks all these examples, all the things that life would throw at you, and the author says, You've got this.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen these people do it.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's when they get these famous words, therefore, right, run this race with perseverance, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where community comes in, right?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as a cross-country runner back in the day, I don't run anymore.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You'll probably tell, but I don't run anymore.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: My knees hurt y'all.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't know like how to run back then, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what it meant to keep a pace.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that you should eat certain things to make sure that you were fueled up for your running.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all the different things I had to learn from upperclassmen who took me under their wing and taught me how to do it.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I also know, and I won't talk about running all night, but just a little bit follow this metaphor with me.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I got hurt almost every fall.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like my shin splints were like ready to explode all the time.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know why?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I didn't practice, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Coach would be like, here's your summer workout, go do it, Steve.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, all right, coach, you had no problem.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if a group of us got together and ran, I would run.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: But for me to be on my own runner, and I know some of y'all run on your own, I'm very proud of y'all, and I love the discipline.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I need accountability.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: I need someone to push me, I need someone to set my pace.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where community comes in as we seek to be a people of faith, as we seek to grow in our discipleship, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Discipleship is near impossible to do on your own.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: To grow in your faith is near impossible to do when you're singled out and you're just hoping I'll just keep myself accountable.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: We gather together in community to be pushed.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: We gather together in community to be held accountable and to be told and taught how we might train.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's like 35-ish people here in this room tonight, right?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Each one of us has our own race that we have to run.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: None of our lives are going to look the same.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: We are blessed that we get to come here tonight and be one group.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: We come back next Wednesday, there'll be a different group.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you will graduate this semester and next year, people will come in.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's always this constant ebb and flow.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: But each and every one of us has our own individual race that we have to run.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: God gave you individual gifts that you can give to the community that you find yourself in here now, and then also when you move on wherever it is that you might find yourself next semester or next year or 20 years from now.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: But even though you have your individual gifts and you have your individual races to run, it's a lot easier to do that when you're surrounded by a community, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I joke I told you like I didn't I didn't practice on my own.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And even in the races, I learned that when I was running fastest was not when I was in the woods and no one could see me, but it's when you would come out of the woods if you were ever did across the country and everybody's like cheering you on and telling you go, go, go, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think about my my coach Cox, who I loved.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Every time you come out, he'd be like, Steve, that one, go get that one, go get that one.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: He'd point to the next person in front of me, and I'd run, you know, I'd get them and they'd say, all right, go get the next one, go get the next one, right?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Part of this idea of community and what they're getting at here in the book of Hebrews, and while they mention all the people that have done it, one is sort of that me too thing of, in the positive sense of, hey, they did it, I can do it, right?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: We do perspectives here every now and then.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: We let senior uh seniors and sometimes other underclassmen share throughout the semester, um, just sort of share a little bit of their testimony, what God has taught them.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we do that so that we can hear each other's stories and say, oh, they went through, oh, they struggle with change.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't know what their major wanted to be.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that God moved in their life.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I can hear God moving in my life.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: We do this so we can encourage one another.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, as we want to grow in our discipleship, and I hope that's everyone's goal, that you want to grow in your faith.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it requires like people surrounding yourself with people that will speak into your life.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have voices go in your head and you're they're starting to take over, and they're not the thoughts that you want, or they're not the voices that you need to hear, there's someone to say, that is not who you are.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're a beloved child of God.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you get into stuff that you don't know how to get out of.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: You need someone in your in your life to hold you accountable and say, that's not what you're about.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let me help you find a better way.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll check in with you, I'll be there for you.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or you're going through a down time.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: You need people to speak into your life, you need people to walk with you in your faith, and you need people who are have gone ahead of you that can kind of carry you along.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some folks that have been doing this Christian thing a little longer, have a little bit deeper faith, maybe.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And at the same time, you should be looking behind you and saying, Who can I bring along?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: How can I lead?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: How can I be a mentor to someone?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we do this together in a community.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Life gets hard.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Semesters get hard.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Things happen that we sometimes cause, things happen that sometimes we don't have like we didn't plan for, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: But we come together to tell our stories, just like in the letter of Hebrews, we talk about how the Israelites were able to cross through the Red Sea.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about how they were able to conquer the big walls of Jericho.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about the ways in which when we were deep in our deepest valley, that we remember that God walked with us hand in hand.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we tell those stories to one, remind ourselves, but also to remind others, right?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that when we're staring at the Red Sea and we feel like our enemies are coming down, we know that God will walk with us through this.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: When we see an obstacle in our life that looks like the big walls of Jericho, we remember that the obstacles have been overcome in the past.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we hold on to that and we live to that and we cling to that faith.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Everything that I've done in my life, I have been better when I have done it around people and then when I've been around folks that can do it better than me, right?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love to play the game of golf.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: I trade in cross-country for golf, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I play better golf when I play with people who are better than me.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: They show me things, they encourage me, they inspire me, whether they know it or not, to be a better person, right?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a better father when I hang out with with other dads who are trying to get it right and trying to love on their kids and not be absentee.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: They spur me on to be a better father, a better husband.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a better preacher when I listen to other preachers who are trying to do this do this word thing and you know, better preachers listening to them and learning from them.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a better cook because I spent time with my dad and my grandmother who were awesome, incredible cooks, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: The more time you spend around folks who are trying to do what you're trying to do and achieve higher things, it starts to rub off on you.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: It starts to become sort of who you are.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would encourage you, I'm encouraging you, I'm gonna get you into small groups in just like two minutes, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I would encourage you, right?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Seek out your community.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think Wesley has a great thing going.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've been a part of this, I came my freshman year in the year 2000, um, and I went away for a while and I came back, right?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: But this place shaped me.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: The people here shaped me.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it shaped me not just coming on a Wednesday or Sunday night, but going to a small group, but a group called the GMB.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, can't tell you what stands for Secret Brotherhood.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: But like those five guys, we were in everybody's weddings, we still hang out, we're still connected, they helped shape me, iron shop sharpening iron day in and day out.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Find yourself a community.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think Wesley has a great thing going, but if it's not here, find one somewhere on campus.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Find a small group, find somewhere that you can plug in that people are gonna know you, that you can be known, that are gonna challenge you to grow in your faith, and they're gonna help you love God and love neighbor in real extravagant ways.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm telling you, if you try to do it on your own, it's gonna be tough.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I know the semester's kicking up, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of folks here that are heading out, they got a, you know, they got exams going on, they got other things going on.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you, if you if you start isolating yourself, it's gonna be hard to grow.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you just start shrinking, right?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so I encourage you, even as the semester gets tough, even as you start saying, I've got too many commitments, I've got too much stuff going on, I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's here, whether it's a small group, whether it's getting together with two or three in discipleship groups, find some way to stay connected to other brothers and sisters in Christ so that you might indeed be rooted, you might be planted, and that God might continue to bear fruit in you.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.