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Colossians 3 | Community · The Salt Company - Denton

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome guys, welcome to Salt Company.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Hope you guys are uh doing well.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh just to highlight a little bit of what uh Owen and Ashley said, I'm only a hoot and a half, so no two hoots, just a hoot and a half.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh but there is a church in town uh who absolutely loves you guys called King's Church.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: We love you guys, we believe in you guys, we'd love to have you come out uh on a Sunday, and if there is one Sunday to do it, it would be our birthday Sunday coming up in two weeks.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you guys uh can come out for that.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh but hey, I'll say this that even though I am a pastor for King's Church, Salt Company is still my favorite place in the world to preach, okay?
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Salt Company uh literally changed my life, and I'm not just saying that.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Um I remember uh being a uh junior at Iowa State University, okay, roll colognes.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Um there we go, roll clones.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh and it was at Iowa State University when I was at a salt company just like this, uh, where I really realized that I had kind of settled for this watered down version of Christianity, had settled for the shallow kind of faith.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And it was my junior year where it really God revealed to me that all this head knowledge that I had for him, I didn't have any real heart affection for him.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And he just changed me in a moment and it completely changed uh my life.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but not just that, Salt Company is also the place uh that I met my beautiful bride.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so do I still believe God does miracles?
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Yes, okay, because uh about 15 minutes away, there are two beautiful baby boys uh who just got put down by a beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl whose name was Brittany Zimmer, but now is Britney Daniels because I hitched her up.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: So um, guys, all I'm saying, your future wife might be in this room, okay?
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And uh come home, come home, BK knows.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: BK knows.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Um there's a chance.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys are like, there's a chance for me.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Um and guys, also Salt Company is the place where uh every single one of the guys who stood up uh for my wedding, all six of them were involved uh in Salt Company at some point.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Many of them uh had been leaders in Salt Company.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Safe to say Salt Company has meant so much to me, so much of my best friends in the world uh came because of Salt Company, uh, which is a good segue for tonight because we are in week two of a sermon series that you guys started last week called Essentials, where we're looking at some things that we think are essentials for us as a salt company, but also things that we think are essential for you guys as well to win at faith in your college years uh and beyond.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's these three essentials of Bible, community, and mission that we want you guys to be a people passionate about the word of God, passionate about the people of God, and passionate about the mission of God.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: And tonight we are looking at that second one, this idea of community, people passionate about the people of God.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just say this is that uh, man, your community and your love of community is so crucial for you guys.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, John, John 13, 35 says this by all or by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so what that's saying is uh man, your classmates, your roommates, the people that you work with, the people that you daily interact with, they're gonna know that you are a believer in Jesus, uh, not primarily because of uh how often you read the Bible, not primarily because of your church attendance, not by what you do uh watch, where you don't go, all those types of things, it's saying people will know that you are a disciple of Jesus by if you love other people.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so so community, it's it's so crucial for us.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: It vindicates our relationship with God, but not just that, it also in many ways can predict your future.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and here's what I mean by that is that Proverbs 13, 20 says this is that those who walk with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so in many ways, I just want to make sure that you guys get the significance of this from the jump.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: Like your community, your friends, they impact more than just what you do, they impact who you are.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, your character, your heart, your integrity, who you are at your core will be influenced by your core group of people.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's why it's well said.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Show me your friends and I will show you your future.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so if there's one place that I could look right now to see what type of person you're gonna be when you graduate, because you're gonna graduate, when you graduate and you walk across that stage, the one place that I could look right now and determine what type of person is going to cross that stage, it's not gonna be your social status, it's not gonna be your church attendance, your diet, anything like that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: The one place that I can look for what type of person is going to cross that stage, somebody who loves Jesus more, follows after him, is obedient towards him, or somebody who's not, the one place I can look to most accurately see that is going to be your friends.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Because in general, you are the sum of your five closest friends, which should make you think, what type of friends am I running with?
4:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Because who you run with determines what you run towards.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Community is essential.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so if you want transformation in your life, if you want to make sure that you're headed towards the right marriage one day, if you want to make sure that you're not a fool as it relates to dating and to alcohol and to money and to future jobs, all these types of things, it will most be impacted by who your friends are.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: They are the epicenter of where you will end up.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so tonight, I mean, it'd be so easy for me to stand up here and just tell you guys, hey, you should find good friends.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that would be a great sermon.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I've even preached sermons like that before, but what I actually want to do tonight is I just want to lay kind of a theology of community out for you guys.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give us five biblical principles for community so we can holistically understand this idea of community.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: So five theological principles about community for tonight if you're a note-taker.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is this is that you were created by community.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you were created by community.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: And to see that, open up to Genesis chapter 1, very first page in your Bible, Genesis chapter 1, very first principle we see, you were created by community.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: And here's why we see this is that you were created by community because you were made in the image of God who has forever existed in community.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Genesis 1 26, here's what we see.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: And I should have had it up on the screen.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: I told the people that we didn't have any extra verses.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I was a fool.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, Genesis 1 26, though, says this.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Then God said, Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And so listen to this.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: So God created man in his own image.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: He created him in the image of God.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: He created them male and female.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's what we got to see is that God says, Hey, let us make man in our image.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, theologians are going to call this idea the Trinity.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that God, that the God of the Bible, has always existed in three persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom are fully God, yet we only serve one God.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you can fully wrap your mind around that, come talk to me.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Because I went to seminary and I still don't fully understand it.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but but guess what, guys?
7:16
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that I don't fully understand about God, but that's okay, because I'm not God.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm fine with it.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But but rather than unplex that unpack the complexities of the Trinity, here's what I want you to see is that the God who exists has forever existed in loving relationship within the Godhead.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, God the Father, who has loved the Son, who has loved the Spirit, who has loved the Father, and in this perfect harmony that they had, out of the overflow of love that they had for one another, has overflowed into the canvas of creation.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: That creation has come from their love for one another.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: And so when God says, I'm going to make man in our image, what he is saying is that I'm going to make man in this loving relationship and community.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, which is going to be crucial for us because I think you're going to hear it all the time.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, why did God create humanity?
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you this, it's not because he was lonely.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's it's not because he needed our praise and our worship or anything like that.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: No, he invites us to praise him, he invites us into a relationship with him, but he does not need us.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he is totally self-sufficient.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And yet, because of the love that he has in the Godhead, he has overflowed that love onto creation.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And so it's when it says, Let us make man in our image, we should see that we were created by community.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And yet we weren't just created by community.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: The second principle that I want to see tonight is that we were created for community.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, flip over.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: One chapter to Genesis chapter two, and here's what we see is that in Genesis 1 and 2, the beginning of our Bible, God designs everything and it is beautiful.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: He creates everything, it is beautiful.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Seven times in the opening pages of Scripture, we see this rhythm of God created and it was good.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: God created and it was good.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: God created and it was good.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: That is repeated seven times.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: It's very poetic in nature.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: But the very first time, when we get to this pinnacle of creation, mankind is that God creates Adam, and then there's this moment in the garden where it's just Adam and just God.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Adam has like this unrestricted access to God.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like the perfect quiet time with the Almighty all the time.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: And yet, after seven times of this is good and this is good and this is good, God looks at Adam with no companion and no community, and he says, This is not good.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: First time that God says that in all of Scripture.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 2.18, if you guys have your Bibles, said it is not good that man should be alone.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Why?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, because God, in his essence, made us relational beings because God is a relational being.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And so you guys need to hear this from the jump is that you were created by community and you were created for community.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: It is in our design.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And so I would even go as far as to say this, guys, you can't be fully you without us.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: You can't be fully you without us, the community.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And your desire as you're walking in here tonight to feel loved and accepted and seen, that's not by accident.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was put there by God Himself.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Like He created that in us.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I came across an article not too long ago about prisoners who were in solitary confinement.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I came across this article.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, but prisoners who were in solitary confinement.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: And what they said uh was that you put some of these criminals uh and make them be alone in a cell, that's actually unbelievably good for them.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Right?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: For you you do that for a few weeks and all of a sudden these hardened criminals uh they begin to soften up a little bit.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: They begin to do some introspection, uh, they begin to really start start to calm down in a life.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: You do that for uh a few weeks, you pull them away from community, and it actually really helps them.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: But then that same article said, but you do that for too long, you keep them in solitary confinement for too long, and all of a sudden, like not just weeks, but months, and all of a sudden those same people begin to completely unravel as human beings.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Like they begin to hallucinate, they begin to go in crazy, they begin to completely unravel.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And and so, like the idea is this is man, if you want to bring down the harden, the most hardest of criminals to their knees, the best thing that you can do is just leave them alone for a really long period of time.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Why?
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, because woven into the very fabric of humanity is this need for us, this need for community.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Like so much so that with those criminals, what they found is that solitude is considered torture now, right?
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Because woven into the very fabric of our being is a need for us.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: We need us.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: It's what we were designed for.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: That community, it isn't just this optional accessory to Christianity, it is essential for us.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I know that for many of us you may be thinking, yes, Drake, I know this.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Like I know that we were created by community, for community, I understand this, I even want community.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Why is community so hard?
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Why?
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, that brings us to principle number three is that sin.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Sin has distorted community.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Sin has distorted community.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And so I want us to follow the progression here.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1, what you see is that we are created by community.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: God is community.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 2, we are created for community.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not good for man to be alone.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And what we see in Genesis 3 is that Adam and Eve sin.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Sin enters into the cosmos and everything breaks, everything fractures, including our relationship with people.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and you see this kind of threefold brokenness in Genesis chapter 3.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: You see this upward brokenness that our relationship now with our Maker is broken.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: But now you also see this downward kind of brokenness that our relationship with the land and the world is also broken.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just an upward and a downward brokenness.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: We also see this horizontal brokenness as well.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Where uh we it like our relationship with other people is also broken now.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I mean you you completely see this with Adam and Eve.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Like Adam and Eve were literally made for each other.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there was Adam in the garden.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: It's not good for man to be alone, and so God said, Adam, go to sleep.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And what he does, he takes a rib out of Adam and he literally creates Eve.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Like out of his rib, God makes Eve from Adam.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: So much so that Adam literally wakes up and there's a naked Eve in front of him, and he just says, Woman.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: I think he said, Whoa, man, in that moment.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like this was awesome.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: It was like perfect uh harmony.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, if there was a match, it would be a match on farmers.com 100%.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Get married, like you guys are great for each other.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when sin comes into the world, what what happens?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: You see, sin comes into the world in this relationship where they were literally made for one another.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, Adam looks to God and says, This woman you gave me, she's the reason for this.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:15
SPEAKER_00: Like right away.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: And then we see that this Eve comes and she says, or like we see this idea that she wants and has this desire to rule over Adam right away when sin enters into the world, we see this relational brokenness, that there's going to be friction now between people.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just a romantic type of brokenness.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: You turn the page in Genesis chapter 4, you see brother murdering brother.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Cain murders Abel.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: And that's just a page over from Genesis chapter 3.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: And so, guys, what we need to see is that when sin entered the world, it didn't just break our relationship with God, it broke our relationship with each other.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and you follow the storyline of scripture from there.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: You just read the Old Testament, you read the Bible, and you're gonna see horrific things that people do to other people.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see murder and adultery and lying and stealing and cheating.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: All of these types of things is just woven into the storyline of scripture because of what sin has done.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: And so, simply put, guys, what we see is that sin destroyed what God created.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Like you were made for relationships, like we cannot live without them.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: It's what God gave us to thrive.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: In his kindness, God gave us relationships.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to give them to us, but he gave us relationships to thrive as human beings.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: But now all of a sudden, when sin enters into the world, the very place that we were meant to thrive, the very place that we were meant to find so much pleasure is now going to be the cause of some of the greatest hurts that we can see in the world.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: That relationships, not only now can they be such a positive influence on us, but but now they can actually be the place of the most deepest hurt that we can imagine.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you feel that tonight.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're sitting here tonight and maybe friends have hurt you deeply.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're walking in here and you feel like you can't even trust anybody anymore.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Or where you don't want to get close, that that to this idea to like put myself out there to be friends with somebody, that that feels like it would be too risky for me.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe maybe you're just thinking, man, I I feel relational brokenness, but it's not because of those things.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: It's actually because I just feel completely alone and I have no friends.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, that's that's that's not an anomaly.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Because according to the most recent statistics, uh, about 62% of college students in America report feeling extremely and terribly lonely.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: That's over half of this room.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: I love author Maria Keegan.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: She said this after reflecting on her own life, she said, we don't have a word for the opposite of loneliness.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: But if we did, I could say confidently that that's what I want the most in life.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: You see, sin has distorted community, and we need a solution.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, guys, we look at some of the solutions that we see out in the world today.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Social media has promised so much, and what we see is that we are the most connected generation.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm putting myself with you guys because I'm young.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, is that social media is that we see that we're the most connected generation and yet we are the most lonely generation that has ever existed.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, or or maybe it's uh AI and chat and groc, whatever, whatever you would use.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And early on, uh the very first year for uh ChatGPT, they said that the most common use uh for chat uh was for information.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: It was to gather information, which is great.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: But they said by year two and on for ChatGPT, the number one thing that chat is used for is friendship.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: It's friendship.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: That's what people are going to AI for.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And I'll man, I'll just say this, and I think some of I think we all know this intuitively, is that man, uh AI, it can tell you like neurologically, maybe what's going on in your brain, what why you feel so brokenhearted after a breakup, but ChatGPT cannot sit with you and hug you after a breakup happens.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, chat and grok and all these things, they they can they can tell you an ingredient list to make a meal for somebody, but that but ChatGPT cannot bring that meal to somebody who is suffering in the hospital.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: It cannot do that.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And so we've been sold this bill of goods.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Hey, just do these things.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have friendship.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: You all want it, you're gonna you want community, and yet what what we see is that these things that the world promises, they don't actually satisfy us, and we're left, man, what is the actual solution that we have?
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Where can we go from here?
18:27
SPEAKER_00: How do we build the sense of deep community?
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, that takes us to Genesis or Colossians chapter 3.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: If you guys have your Bibles, that's where we're gonna be camped out for the rest of our time together tonight.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 3, and that's gonna bring us to our last two principles for tonight.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Colossians is gonna be in the back half of your Bible, written by the Apostle Paul.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3, verse 12, it says this.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 says this.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: So, principle number four, I'll recap is that principle number one, we were created by community.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Principle number two, we were created for community.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Principle number three is that sin has distorted community, and principle number four is that the gospel, the gospel alone creates new community.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: The gospel creates new community.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Look back at verse 12 with me, it says this therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Guys, Paul, if we didn't know, we're we're jumping straight into Colossians 3.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul has done, and here's what he does in the very first half of every single one of his letters is that Paul has laid out the gospel.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: He has laid out the bad news that every single one of us, we are all broken in our sin and stand guilty before God.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: But the good news of the gospel is that even when we were weak, Christ came and died for us.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we have to understand about that.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not that God just kind of like puts up with us now.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Right?
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Like some of you still think that to this day, like some of you still think that God thinks of you like that.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I guess like God loves me, but but it's only because he's supposed to.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Right?
20:34
SPEAKER_00: But but he doesn't really like me.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't really want to be close to me.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the reason that you feel like that is because when you look in the mirror, you also don't like who you see.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so maybe how you see yourself, you're projecting that onto God.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think God could actually like someone like me.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: But I just want you to see, notice how God thinks of us in Christ.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at those words there in verse 12.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Chosen, holy, dearly loved.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: I just have to think that if if some of us were written Colossians, were writing Colossians, we would have written that differently.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: What some of you still think that that we're not chosen by God, but we're just put up with by God.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Some of us think, no, I'm not really holy, I'm still dirty, I'm still an outcast.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Right?
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Some of us don't think that we're dearly loved, but but that God just kind of welcomes us from a distance.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: That he kind of stiff arms us and leaves us on the sidelines.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel completely flips that, it completely shatters that type of thinking.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we got to understand that.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is, guys, you and I can only enter into God's presence, not because of our own good works, but because of what Jesus' work on our behalf.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And here's why that's absolutely incredible is that nobody can come into Saul Company with a strut.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, nobody can come into Sault Company with some type of swagger, right?
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Because nobody comes into the kingdom of God with that type of swagger.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Like nobody gets into heaven and just looks around and is like thinking, Hey, how did you get in here?
21:55
SPEAKER_00: I got in here because I'm awesome.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: God just thinks I'm immaculate.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: No, nobody.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's going to be able to say that.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, the only reason that any of us, the basis for any of us to get into heaven, not because of how good we are, but only because of the work of Jesus, that the only thing that we had to offer, you're thinking, man, I'm pretty cool.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Like I do a bunch of good things.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Guys, the only thing that you had to offer to your salvation was the sin that made it necessary.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Outside of that, you've done completely nothing to earn salvation.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And so nobody can come into Saul Company with a strut.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can come into the kingdom of God with this type of swagger thinking that you've done something you didn't.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: But God in his grace completely showed how much he loved us.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that is the gospel.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just show us how broken we once were.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Now it shows us how beautiful we are in Jesus.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: How beautiful we are in God's sight.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: And guys, what I love about that is that we see throughout the Bible that sin, it's not just something out there.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: No, sin is something in here.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And yet what we see in the gospel of Jesus is that Jesus is taking people who were formerly enemies of his, formerly people who were broken in the outcast of society, people who were formerly far away from each other.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: And what he is doing is he is making them alive together in Christ.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Like God's goal in the gospel, it's not just to individually rescue you out of sin.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: No, God's goal is to rescue people and bring them together to form an us, to form a family, to form one another.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he didn't just save us from something, he saved us to something.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: He saved us to a family, he saved us to a people.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: All right, and here's where Saul Company can stand out.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because when you understand that, when you understand that God has chosen us and loved us and called us to be in us, the love of God for us can actually set you free to embrace a gospel community.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, because when you realize how deeply loved you are by God, you can actually now begin to be a source of love to other people.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: It's only when you like understand this unshakable love that God has for you in the gospel that it cannot be taken away.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: It is firm, it is sealed, it cannot be taken away from you.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: When you understand that type of love, guess what happens?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: You can walk into a room like Saul Company and you can be completely confident because all of a sudden you're not looking for other people to try to validate you.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: You're not looking for other people to give you some type of self-worth.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: You're not walking in here hoping that people like you.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: You have an unshakable confidence in the love of God, the King of heaven, and what he thinks of you.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: You're not looking for other people to do that.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: You can now be a source of love to other people to know I am loved by the king of the universe.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Now I can freely love the people around me.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: That's what the gospel begins to do for us.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think what you might be thinking is, man, I get that.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Like the gospel changes us, it forms us into community.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: But man, church is still messy.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: I still get hurt by Christians.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: My connection group is weird.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, how in the world?
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is going on here?
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, why doesn't the gospel community just happen automatically?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Did I just hear an amen from somebody?
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, it's like my connection group is weird.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Um guys, the last principle that we need to see tonight is this is that gospel community must be cultivated.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Gospel community must be cultivated.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look how Paul starts this section.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Paul doesn't start the section with, okay, now that I've created the gospel community, now everything's just gonna go great.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: No, what Paul does is he lays out the gospel, this new community, and then he gives us some action steps.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay, look at all the commands in those few verses.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: He says, put on.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: That has this idea of clothe yourself, put on compassion, put on kindness, put on humility and gentleness and patience.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Bear with one another, forgive one another.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: What is that implying?
25:46
SPEAKER_00: People are annoying.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, put on, above all, put on love.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice, guys, Jesus has created the community.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus creates this type of community, but now Christians are called to cultivate the community, that we have a role to play in this new type of community.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's crucial, right?
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Because I think most of us are thinking, man, like when we get to college, like, oh, is anybody gonna like me?
26:09
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what people will think of me.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Is my hair okay?
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Or are my clothes, you know?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, are they gonna actually like me?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna be there for me?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, am I gonna have cool friends?
26:16
SPEAKER_00: All this type of stuff, which I don't think those are bad questions.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice that's not where Paul starts here.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Paul's concerned, he's not looking externally.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Paul turns the mirror and flips us around, flips it around on us.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And so, Paul, he isn't primarily concerned with what kind of friends you can find.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: He's primarily concerned about what kind of friend you will become.
26:38
unknown: Right?
26:38
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe before you spend your college years looking for all of these amazing friends, maybe before you do that, maybe you should be concerned with what type of friend you already are, what type of friend you're becoming, to become a good friend before you try to find a good friend.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: You see, one of the best ideas that I've heard about this is that great friends, great communities, they are forged, not found.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, great communities.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: You look at the best communities in the world, they are not just stumbled upon, they are strained towards.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: The great relationships take work.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's just like it's just like any marriage.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let me just like burst the bubble for you for marriages and everything, what you're thinking about, uh, is that the honeymoon stage does not last forever.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and you may be with like a boyfriend or girlfriend tonight, and you may be looking like not us, baby.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: We're always gonna be there.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me just tell you, you're gonna get back from your honeymoon, it's gonna last two days before all of a sudden, guys, you're gonna realize that you married a girl, and she overthinks everything, right?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: She has to verbally process every single thing that has happened in her day.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Girls, you married a dude, okay?
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Just go watch one for a little bit.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: We need some help, you know.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: God literally looked at Adam and is like, goodness gracious, you need some help.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, and so what we realize is, I mean, like great relationships are gonna take some work.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Every single good relationship that there is in the world, it takes some work.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: You don't just stumble upon a great marriage.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Right?
28:15
SPEAKER_00: What do you see?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: The people who are the happiest in 50 years of marriage, they say it take work, it takes work.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take some accountability, it's gonna take some integrity, it's gonna take you fighting for some things.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Great relationships, great marriages, great friendships take work.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: And so let me just show us what type of work that Paul the Apostle would call us to to try to cultivate this new community.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, just look at that list again.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try to kind of rapid fire go through these things, and I just want you to see, am I this type of person?
28:45
SPEAKER_00: And so the first one is just gonna be uh compassion.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Guys, compassion looks like moving towards other people who are in the midst of pain.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: It sees someone who is hurting around you and it moves towards them.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just like a text like, hey, bro, praying for you, and then disappearing later and never following up on it.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: No, it's actually moving towards those people who are hurting and broken and sitting with them in the midst of brokenness.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Kindness.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Guys, kindness isn't just being nice.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, kindness is noticing people.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, kindness looks like inviting the person who nobody actually really wants to invite, but you see that they are an image bearer of God and you want to invite them into your community.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Kindness looks like buying someone the coffee.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Coffee looks like sending that text, remembering the thing that this person told you about last week and actually following up on those types of things.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Guys, kindness takes initiative.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but humility, guys, humility looks like going low for someone else.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay, humility looks like thinking of others more and thinking more highly of other people.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay, humility on a really practical level looks like celebrating other people's victory even when you didn't get that same victory.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay, humility looks like when when when somebody else gets the job and and you're still struggling with finances, you can celebrate them.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Humility looks like when somebody else gets the boyfriend or girlfriend and you're still single, it looks like you can celebrate them.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: Why?
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Because humility, humility doesn't need someone else for some humility doesn't need someone else to lose for you to feel like you're winning.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, gentleness.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Gentleness is strength under control.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, gentleness, it's looking around knowing that there are there are people all in this room, people all in your connection group, people all over campus who are going through things that we don't even know about, that people are bringing in all types of baggage, people are bringing in all types of insecurities and fears, and what it's doing is it's choosing to meet them where they're at.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: To know that, man, this friend confessed some sin to me.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna use that as ammunition later on.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Gentleness looks like uh knowing something about somebody, their insecurities over here, and not using it as a joke later.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Gentleness is strength under control.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: Patience, man, you want to be a good friend, show some patience towards people.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, everyone wants patience with their own weaknesses.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants patience with their own sin, but so often we are so slow to give patience to other people, but patience understands that every single person is a work in progress.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay, guys, your roommate is going to annoy you.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Your connection group leader isn't going to do everything that you think that they should do.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Your friends are going to disappoint you.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: People are going to grow slower than you want them to, and guess what?
31:23
SPEAKER_00: So are you.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: And so patience says, man, I'm not going to demand that you become something tomorrow of what Jesus is trying to create in you in a lifetime.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to command, it's not going to demand that people are a finished product by the end when Jesus is trying to form something in them that's going to last over the course of a lifetime.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Guys, gospel community is a bunch of people who have received this undeserved grace, this undeserved merit, and is now trying to learn how to give that same undeserved grace and merit out to other people.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: That's what it looks like.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: But but another aspect of gospel community that we need to see is in verse 16 of Colossians 3, it says this.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: In all wisdom, teaching and monishing one another through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your heart.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, again, guys, I love that idea.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Let the word of God dwell richly in you.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: This idea to take up permanent residence in it.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: That the word of God, scripture, God's words, should so fill us.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: It's not like an Airbnb or a verbo or anything like that.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: It is like a for sure permanent residence.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Right?
32:31
SPEAKER_00: It's the type of person who knows scripture so well that you are so encapsulated by scripture that it just naturally flows out of you in the midst of conversation.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then I love that idea.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: It says that we should teach one another.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: It has this idea of coming to other people and reminding them of the truth of scripture, reminding them of the gospel and who they are now in Christ.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: But then on the flip side, it has this idea of admonishing one another, which is the harder aspect, guys.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: That means warning other people.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: It's correcting, it's confronting.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, guys, I'll just be honest.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: When you admonish one another, when you bring God's word to bear on other people's life, there might be friction.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Proverbs 27, 6 says this Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: Guys, what that's saying is a friend is going to say some hard things to you, even when it stings.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Because they care about you.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Right, let me let me say this.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Is that if you are asking, even here tonight, if you are asking for a friendship with zero accountability, with no desire for other people to speak into your life, what you're asking for, according to the book of Proverbs, is an enemy, not a friend.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: You see, real friends will say the real truth even if it stings, while an enemy is going to compliment you and say that you're doing great as you fall off a cliff.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: You see, when John was asked to summarize Jesus, he says that Jesus was full of grace and full of truth.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And guys, Jesus, he is the best friend.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: He is the friend of sinners, and that he was so filled with grace and so filled with truth, and we are called to be like that as well.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I love the story of Francis Schaefer.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: He was like this amazing evangelist out in the 1960s, and he would always be invited to do some debates with people.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I loved it because he said, No, I'm not going to debate people, uh, but I will stand on a stage and talk about people, talk about like people's philosophies with them in front of a group of people, which is a debate.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: But he just didn't want, he just didn't want this idea of uh of a debate.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Like he wanted his his philosophy was this.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: He said this.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: He said, My goal is to strongly oppose the wrong philosophies of people on stage, but so respect them as a human being in the process that it would feel odd for us not to grab dinner afterwards.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: And guys, that's what I want Saul Company to be like, because that's maturity.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Man, so often community falls into one of those two ditches.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: It falls into truth without grace.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: That I'm just I'm just gonna pour out everything on you, and that's gonna exhaust them, it's gonna ridicule them, it's gonna lead them away from truth because they're not gonna be able to hear it.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: Or it's grace without truth, and that's actually just never communicating the hard things and just letting people go down potentially dangerous paths of destruction.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: But notice, guys, the Christian community, we are called to be a people who love each other so much that we bear one another's weaknesses, that we celebrate other people win their victories, that we we are encouraging them and bearing with one another.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: But then we're also the type of people that can say, Hey, man, I think you're wrong.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: I think that you're believing a lie.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that you're going down some dangerous paths of sin.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's good for you.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: And I've committed to bringing out the best in you even when it's not fun for me.
35:44
unknown: Right?
35:45
SPEAKER_00: So I remember even as assault director, I had, you know, sort of uh operated uh when I was out in in Colorado out in a way that was like a man, it's my way or the highway.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, like I I had thought I had known some things as every 24-year-old does, and I was just like, man, so prideful in how I was trying to lead staff and lead other people, and and things were going well.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Like in Salt Company, Salt Company was was blowing up in a great way out in Colorado.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, man, like even if I'm like not treating people uh with respect, my staff I just I just was uh not treating them in the ways that that Paul would have uh asked me to treat them.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: And yet I was like, man, but God must be on my side if Salt Company is doing so well.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember getting a call uh from one of the leaders in our network, and he said, Drake, I'm sure you're right.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that you're leading really well in these ways.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Well, I'll tell you this, Drake, is that you will never be a great leader until you learn to be led well.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you, that's stung in the moment.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a dude who I have so much respect for, and yet what I appreciated about that in that moment is he was willing to tell me hard truths, he was willing, and he was more concerned that if I was loving Jesus than if I had to love what he said in that moment.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: But that's what gospel community looks like.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let me wrap this up.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: I've gone too long.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: It says this, and whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Guys, here's here's what I want is that you should be asking yourself the question Am I the type of friend that makes following Jesus a lot easier for the people around me?
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this, guys.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: I I can't I can't promise you that if you do a lot of these things and you're just gonna have 15 people in your bridal party, you're gonna be able to experience the best friends ever.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: I can't promise you those things, but I will say this is that if you never put out the risk of trying to form real friendships, you'll never get the real reward of actually having real friends.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: You actually have to risk, you actually have to put yourself out there, you actually have to do some certain things, you have to be the type of good friend that you would want.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And if you're the type of good friend, then you at least have to risk it if you want the real benefits of having a friend.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll say I'll say this uh to close, it's not in my notes, but it's in my heart, is even just as I was thinking about this and praying about this beforehand, is I think that there's probably a lot of people in here that even before you need a best friend in Sol Company, what you actually need is a real savior.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm thinking about how Jesus is the friend of sinners.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just thinking about that right now.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: And I and I bet there are people in the room who have not actually bent their knee to Jesus.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: That that you just kind of you may want this like, you know, um, fire escape, like get out of jail free card type of relationship with Jesus.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: And what he's asking for you tonight is to put that card away and actually bend your knee to him and say, Jesus, you are the greatest friend.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: You are full of grace and truth.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: And that grace and truth was embodied on the cross.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: That you are so full of grace that you are willing to go to the cross, but also so full of truth that you would say in John 14, 6, that I am the way, the truth, and the life.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: No one can come to the Father except through me.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: And I just gotta believe that there are people in here tonight that before you even get a friend in Saul Company, you need to actually come to know the Savior who would allow Saul Company to exist.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the friend of sinners, and guess what, guys?
39:04
SPEAKER_00: The greatest news in the world is that nobody is out of reach of God's grace.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: His arm is not too short to save, that he can save anybody in this room.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: You may think that you are too far gone, but you're not for a savior like him.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: And the good the greatest news in the world that we've already said is that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Nobody in here can come to the throne with a swagger because we're all broken.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: And so if you think that you're too far broken, you're too far gone, guess what?
39:29
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the gospel is to come.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: To come to him, to come to experience him, come to experience the greatest friend of sinners that the world has ever seen.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: The one who went to the cross, who lived the life you couldn't, died the death that you deserve, and now has uh opened up his arms and said, Hey, come to me.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: And when you come to me, you can also come to us as well in Saul Company.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And so to that end, let me pray for us.