Everyday Community | Week 1 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

It was funny as I was watching her run around in circles, try to put these ducks away. It just kind of dawned on me. There's certain things in this life. It just doesn't

matter how hard you try. It's not an effort thing. It's not an education thing. It doesn't matter how much you try to get better. There are certain activities in life you just can't do alone. You can't run a three legged race by yourself.

Can't do a tug of war by yourself. Like, there are some things in life that were just designed to be done with other people. I wanna try to convince you over these next couple of weeks that I think a relationship with Jesus is one of those things.

And the greatest lie that I think that the enemy has perpetrated in the Western American church is that a relationship with Jesus is supposed to be private,

and I think it's it's been a lie from day one. I think a relationship with Jesus is personal to some degree, sure, but it was never meant to be private. And you'll see a theme to people that were used mightily by God, Jesus himself. Before Jesus ever does a single miracle,

he assembles a group of guys that he's going to live life with, a group of guys that are going to make him better, that are gonna help him

when he's weak. What I wanna do over the next four weeks is I wanna take a look at the life of a guy named David. Again, I've been studying his life for the last couple months, getting ready to do a series we're gonna do next year. David got a lot of things wrong,

But there's one thing I think that he got right, and it was the relationships that were around him. What what again, what I wanna try to show you over these next four weeks is a pretty simple but powerful principle that it's impossible for you and I to live the right life if we have the wrong friends.

Sometimes it's as simple as that. If you wanna know the reason why God is not moving powerfully in your life, it's often because you have the wrong friends in your life. There's one thing that I've seen take more people out of the church thing than anything else,

And it's not that the powerful encounter that they had with God was not real. It was real. It's that they never began to change the people that they spend the most time with. And none of us are the exception to the rule. It is literally impossible

to live the right life if you have the wrong friends. So first Samuel chapter 22, two verses that I have for you. I wanna zoom in on a a specific moment in David's life and take some principles from them as we talk about cruise that we're starting today.

So first Samuel chapter 22 verse one and two, it says, so David David left left Gath and escaped to the Cave Of Adullam. Soon his brothers and other relatives joined him there. Then others began coming, men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented until David was the captain of about 400 men.

Again, you go and look at the life of David, we don't know much about him. It's a it's an incredible story.

He's a king that goes down as the greatest king in the nation of Israel's history. Jesus himself says that he is a son of David. He literally is a direct descendant of the line of David. He's a guy that's recorded as a man after God's own heart, but if you look at his life, David made lots of mistakes,

but but he also got a few things right. If you go and look at the story of David's life, we're not exactly sure why,

but there was some major animosity between him and his dad named Jesse. We think that it was because his dad probably had an affair of some type, potentially with an escort, and David was the product of that affair. And so because of that, Jesse never really allowed him to be a part of his family like his other sons. And there's a couple moments in David's life that are pretty forming. And because he never heals this this dad wound again, we'll look at all this next year. Because he never heals this dad wound that he has, it causes some major issues for him. Well, there's a day in his life when he's 14 years old.

There's a prophet named Samuel that shows up to David's house, and God has told the prophet Samuel that the nation of Israel's next king is going to be one of Jesse's sons. Well, Jesse's dad kind of famously brings in every son that he has except for David.

Samuel goes one at a time through each of them and says, no. No. No. None of these are the guys. He says, do you have any other sons? He goes, yeah, I've got this runt son who's outside. He wasn't even worthy enough to be brought into the room to be considered

as the possible next king. David walks in, Samuel says, this is the guy who you thought was the runt, who you thought was the weird one out in the family. This is the future king of Israel. And literally, he pours oil over his head, and David at 14 years old has anointed the future king of Israel.

The problem is is it will take fifteen years from that moment to the moment where he will assume the throne. And in those fifteen years, David life David's life takes him incredible highs and goes through some incredible lows. Faces some betrayals, goes through some really difficult seasons.

Where we find him in first Samuel chapter 22, what we just read, is in arguably one of the lowest moments of David's life. He has just accomplished something where his fame is growing and the king that is in power, name is Saul, he can't stand David. And David didn't realize that his fame was going to cause him a lot of despair.

And he accomplished some things in life that ended causing him to go running and hiding, and he finds himself, the bible says, in the Cave Of Abdullah.

The reason that it's important for us to look at the cave that David finds himself in is that all of us, at some point in life, all of us are going to find ourselves in a cave of some sort. Now it might not be a literal cave. Right? Some of us, it's going to be a cave of our own making.

But all of us are going to find ourselves in seasons where we look around and all we see is despair.

And we're going to wonder, man, maybe maybe God has left us. Maybe God has abandoned us. Maybe we've made such a mess of our life this time that somehow, someway, God has just completely forgotten us. There's some of you who are sitting here today that if you were honest, if you were willing to, you'd be willing to admit the truth is you find yourself in a pretty dark place today as well,

wondering why at 35 years old you're still not married or why eight years into marriage you still don't have any kids, wondering if you're ever going to grow up the corporate ladder, if you're ever going to accomplish and feel a sense of purpose, and if you're ever going to get into that school that you wanted to get into, that some of you sitting here today, you know exactly what I mean

when I talk about a cave season.

But the good news is when we find ourselves there, we we find ourselves in good company. If you go and study the idea of a cave, you'll find them all over the Bible. Some of the most important figures in the scriptures, they went through cave seasons just like David did as well. Remember we talked about Elisha last week. Elisha was a prophet that did some amazing things for God. We watched him call fire down from heaven. Well, a couple moments later, he finds himself in a cave on the run from a queen that he thinks is gonna kill him. There's a guy named Gideon that goes down as a a guy that wins a battle of insurmountable odds, but when we find him on the story, he's hiding out in a cave terrified that God's gonna kill him. All of that to say that it tells me that all of us in this life are going to find ourselves in seasons of despair

and what you have done, who you have built relationships with before you get into that season will potentially determine

how long that season lasts. See, wish I could tell you that none of us are going to ever walk through hardships again, but it's just it's just not true. But there are a couple things that I wanna show you. Why should you consider joining a crew? Now again, our language is intentional. We're not trying to get you to join a bible study or join a small group, though I know that's the church language. K? I don't think joining a bible bible study will change your life. I think finding a group of people that you can really pursue the things of God with,

where there's intentionality, where you were on the offense and we're not just sitting back playing defense, and we find a crew, man, that can change some things for us. There's two things in this story that I see that every single one of us need to understand if we're going to begin to grasp the power and the potential

of a group of people that can impact our lives as well. Here's the first reason to why all of us need a crew. The first one is that hardship is inevitable.

I wish I could tell you that when you bend the knee to the lordship of Christ that you'll never walk through hardship again, but it's just not true. K? Jesus himself said that in this life, you and I will know suffering.

Peter reminds us, first Peter chapter four, he says, dear friends, don't be surprised by the fiery trials that you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. Peter says, don't don't be surprised when difficult seasons come. Now why would he have to remind us to not be surprised?

Because something happens every single time when difficult seasons come. We get surprised.

We're like, God, what happened? Where are you? And we run to people and go, I don't I just don't get it. I thought that God was good and now my my marriage is falling apart. We've been going to church. We started tithing and now now I just lost my job And God, I don't get it. And Peter's saying, don't be surprised, but here's what he reminds us to look forward to. Verse 13, he said, instead,

be very glad. For these trials, they make you a partner with Christ in his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. Did you hear what he said? He said as a follower of Christ, we are not exempt

from difficulties and trials in this life, but here's what we are exempt from. We're exempt from difficulties and trials that don't produce glory. He says if you will begin to understand and lean in in hard seasons, you'll begin to watch the glory of God move in your life. There will be purpose

to your pain if you lean into it instead of running away from it, but what you and I will have to fight is the natural propensity that all of us have when life is difficult.

Whether it's difficult because of choices that we've made or it's just difficult because of choices that other people have made that are affecting us. David finds himself in this season of desolation and isolation, not because of his choices, but because of king Saul's.

Doesn't matter how you get there. All of us have the same tendency when life becomes really difficult and our tendency is to run and it's to hide. And if we're gonna learn anything from David, we've got to learn when life gets hard, don't run.

When life gets difficult, don't run. When you make mistakes, keep showing up to church. When you fall short in the things that you committed to do in your marriage, keep showing up.

Don't just throw in the towel because you made the mistake again that you swore you were never going to make. All of us in this life are going to face difficulties sometimes of our own making and sometimes because of things that we just can't control, but what you can control

is whether you show up or not. And sometimes what we do is we treat God

like this cosmic genie in the sky, and when things are good, then we'll go to church. But when things are not good, then we're upset with God, and we run away from the community of faith. And what we begin to learn in this like as you mature as a follower of Christ, you begin to realize like, hey, when life is difficult,

that's actually when I need the church the most. Like have you ever stopped to think like why did God why did he sell say that this thing, the ecclesia, the church, the local assembly of the people of God, why would this be the cornerstone for his plan for humanity?

Why would this be the thing that he says is the hope of the world? Because, yes, there's a part of it where we we are how God reaches people, and we've been we have been asked to steward the greatest message the world has ever heard, that there's hope available for all people through the resurrection of Jesus. Like, that's definitely a part of it,

but the other part of it is because we're gonna need each other. This life is going to beat you apart. It is going to be hard. You will not just stumble your way into glory.

You will need people to help you to help you get there, but we need to learn. We need to learn not to run and not to hide when things are difficult and not to show up to church when things are are great. Again, wrote it down this way. The days that you least want to be in church, those are the days you most need to be there.

If you make a decision to show up and sign up for crew, a group of people you're gonna meet with on a Wednesday or Tuesday night, I promise you if you only show up to that group when you feel like showing up there, you will be there exactly zero times.

I can't tell you how many bible studies I've been in, how many crews I've been a part of. I can count on one hand the amount of times at 03:00 in the day leading up to the night of that group where I was like, you know what I really wanna do right now?

I wanna go to Bible study instead of watching Thursday night football. That sounds way better. Right? It never happens. And I don't know why it is this way. I wish I could tell you that God made broccoli taste like ice cream, but he didn't. There's

a part of this life that we just have to come to terms with. There's a paradoxical nature to how God has designed this whole human experience. And sometimes it's in doing the thing that you don't necessarily want to do that you get the thing that you've always wanted in life.

Remember what Jesus said? He says, for those who are willing to lose their life, to lay down their life, those are the people that will really truly find their life.

That is when you lay down your own desires, your own ambitions, your own pursuits that you begin to understand, wait, as I walk in, not necessarily my desires but the calling of God on my life that I don't necessarily always want to do, I start to get the thing that my soul has always wanted,

purpose and meaning and satisfaction and value and worth, not on the surface level but at like the soul

level. And you begin to understand, okay, like, there there's a paradoxical nature to this whole thing. And so when I show up and do the thing that I don't necessarily want to do, I begin to get the thing that I've always wanted. It tells me that when life is falling apart, you've gotta figure out how to press in to community, to lean into the people of God, and not and not to run away

from them. Again, look at the story. We read two verses. Here's the first one again. David left Gath, and he escaped to the Cave Of Adullam. And then it says, soon his brothers and other relatives joined him there and then other people just began to come.

Here's what I love about the story. When David was in his lowest moment, how did God rescue him? By sending him people, by sending him you and I.

It means that somewhere along the line, David had built enough relationship with people that when his world began to collapse, there was people that he had relational equity with that were willing to lean in. This is why it's so important to build relationships

in the middle of seasons where life is good. Because when life is good, that's where you build relational equity that you can then deposit out of the bank account later. You can withdraw from the bank account later. What you're doing right now is you're making relational deposits.

You don't necessarily need it today, but I promise you there's a day that's coming. There's a phone call that's coming. There's a there's a death that's going to happen where you're going to get brought to your knees, and those are the moments where the community that you've invested your life into will be the ones that show up and run-in when everybody else is running away.

This

is who the church is supposed to be. We're supposed to be the people that when somebody in our circle of influence implodes their life, even it's because of their own choices, they've made a mess of it. I'm not saying we come alongside and we cosign it, but we need to be the people who are willing to run-in when everybody else is running out. That's what the church is. That's who we are. Every single one of us, what we need around us is the same thing that David had. Good

community. What what is good community? Good community shows up when life is crashing down. Good community is the type of people that don't they don't have a conditional relationship with you based on what you can do for them. And the moment that you stop being able to provide value to them, I'm out. No. Real

biblical community is people who are willing to show up when everything is falling apart. But it also requires that David had to have at least enough humility to accept the help.

And this is the problem that oftentimes that we do. We allow this false sense of pride to kick in and go, I don't need any help. I can do this on my own. Especially us dudes. We we are the worst at accepting help. David at least was willing to let people come in.

He was he was willing to let people into his world that was falling apart. You and I need to understand that all of us need good community. It's not just him. It's it's all of us. It's why the book of Ecclesiastes chapter four says that two people are better off than one,

for they can help each other succeed. If one person fails, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. He says, you and I are going to fall. We're going to have moments where we are brought to our knees, but if we have somebody else around us, they can pick us up.

But somebody that's alone, man, when they fall, they're in a lot of trouble. It's gonna be much more painful to figure this thing out again on our own. The first reason why I think every single one of us should join a crew, why every single one of us needs a community of biblical

people is because it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Hardships are inevitable. The second thing we see from this story

is that faithfulness fades without friends. Do you see how many f's I got into that sentence? Man, I was impressed with myself. Like, three in one sentence is a big deal. Yes. It was ChatGPT that wrote that, but it was me that asked ChatGPT to do it. So

here's what I mean that we learn from the life of David. Faithfulness fades in isolation.

When you are walking through a hard season, it's a lot like my kids. I don't know if your kids are like this at all. But we'll go on a super rad vacation. Right? Like, something where I'm like, I had a mortgage, my house, I'll pay it off for the next six years, so I take my kids on a vacation. Well, we get home from that vacation, and two weeks later, my kids are sitting there like, we don't ever do anything fun. And I'm like, I hate you. K? Like, I don't I don't like you at all. Right? You're like, you wanna see the pictures? Like, you wanna see the credit card statement, bro? Like, we just did something fun. Right? Like, they they just forget, and I have to not hold it against them. Right? Like, it's just something about the way that their minds are wired. And then I remember

how you and I are wired as adults as well, and we're really not that different. And this is the problem of desperation. This is the difficulty of hard seasons, is it will begin to be the loudest voice in your life. And if you're not careful,

your current hardship will drown out all the past faithfulness of what God has done in your life. You will forget all the miracles that God has already brought you through.

Here's what's amazing to me as I was studying this story, looking at, okay, where is this cave? I don't know why. Sometimes these things just pop up and I'm looking, where's the Cave Of Adullam that David's finding himself in? Now, again, most of these stories that we read in the Bible, they're they're in Israel. K? Most of us know that. But even inside of Israel, they're inside of a city called Jerusalem. K? So this is Israel. If you click in even further, you'll see this is Jerusalem. K? Most of the biblical narrative unfolds right here around Jerusalem.

Now if you look, here's where David is sitting in the Cave Of Adullam inside of Jerusalem. K? He's literally in a cave in a mountain overlooking a valley. Now this is mind blowing when you see this. You know the valley that he's looking at? It's called the Valley Of Elam. K. It didn't land. Okay? Here's

here's why that is so mind blowing. You know what happened in the Valley Of Elam?

You go back a couple chapters from first Samuel chapter 22. First Samuel chapter eighteen and nineteen records the story of David showing up to a battle when he was a kid bringing lunch to his brothers, and he listens to this big Philistine that's out there taunting the God of Israel, and David's like, could smoke this fool if you guys would let me. Like, I'm pretty good with a sling. Like, I'm I'm kind of a baller. And so he's like, alright, man. Go do your thing. He walks out there with a sling, and he defeats this guy named Goliath.

In the Valley Of Elam, David has arguably the most important moment of his life, a defining miracle with God. Yet here it is, don't miss it. Here it is just a couple chapters later, he's sitting in the cave of despair looking over the Valley of promise and what does he hear? What does he see? Nothing.

Because it's the problem with desperation and isolation.

It will become so loud it'll drown out everything that God has ever done in your life and you will be tempted to believe that God has left you and you will forget all the past faithfulness. When it says in John chapter 10 verse 10 that the thief is coming to kill, steal, and destroy the life that Jesus has come to give you, how does he do that? He comes in and he starts to slowly erode everything that God has done, all the miracles that he's done in your life to get you here. Some of you are here today with a marriage that's only together because of a supernatural move of God. Some of you are only here with a business that God literally moved mountains for you to make happen. And yet sometimes we will have the audacity

when life gets hard enough and difficult enough to sit back and go, God, have you just left me? And you'll forget about all the things that God has done because the past indication of God, the past faithfulness of God, it's the greatest indicator of the future faithfulness of God, and I'm telling you, it's the number one thing the enemy's gonna try to take from you.

You and I have to make a decision that we are we are not gonna let our current hardships, we're not gonna let them rob us of the faith that was built from our previous history with God. You have to make a commitment. This is what community can do for you that you can't do for yourself,

to say I I am not letting my current circumstances rob me of all of the faithfulness of how God has proven himself to me. But if it was possible for David to forget defeating Goliath, I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how big the miracle was that you and I have walked through. On our own, I'm telling you we're host.

But with community with community, we've got a shot. And here's again what's so mind blowing to me about David. David is the guy in multiple moments in his life. He's the one reminding

people about the faithfulness of God. Go with me again. First Samuel chapter 17. This is right before he goes out and defeats Goliath. King Saul was trying to tell him, bro, you're just a kid. What are talking about? You can't go fight this guy. And if you're gonna fight him, you you gotta fight like me. Wear my armor. And look at what David says to to Saul in first Samuel chapter 17.

He says, the Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine. And then Saul finally consented. Alright. Go ahead, he said, and may the Lord be with you. At the end of David's life in Psalm chapter 77, he records again another powerful prayer. He says, but then I recall all that you've done, o lord. I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. Do you see it? When he was young, he was remembering, god, you delivered me from the lions. You delivered me from the bear. Your past faithfulness is proof to me that you're gonna do it again. As an old man, what is he reminding himself of all the amazing things that God has done in his life when he was young and when he was old, he could see it.

But there was a moment in the middle where life got so difficult that he was blinded to all of it. Without community, David never would have made it. He never goes down as the greatest king in Israel's history.

He's not recorded as a man after God's own heart. He doesn't go down as a person who Jesus says, I come from the line of David. He's just another guy that had a lot of potential to miss his opportunity. I'm telling you, community is the difference maker for you and I.

If But we just think it's like, it's just another thing that I have to do. It's just another obligation. I'm already my life is already so busy. I'm telling you, you are believing the lie that the enemy is laying for us. Convincing us that what God wants to do is just give you another thing to do and make you more busy.

I'm not asking you to join a crew because I don't think you have enough stuff going on during the week. If anything, you're gonna have to remove things from your life to make this a priority.

It's why we're doing them in 10 sprints. I'm not saying hey, do it for the next fifty years, but I'm saying do it for ten weeks. Commit to ten weeks to showing up. Why? Because I think your calling is dependent on the crew. Before you can step into the calling, you've gotta get the right crew, and you've gotta understand that it's remembering the past miracles that fuels my faith to believe for future miracles.

You know why almost every single time the nation of Israel, when they were wandering around and God did something supernatural in their midst, he would tell them to stop. And he'd say, I want you to build a monument here. I want you to remember what I've done. Why was he doing that?

Because he knew the day was coming where the nation of Israel was going to forget. I'm I'm so thankful. I literally brought up here with me. I'm so thankful that two years ago when I started praying and dreaming about planting a church that somebody said, you've gotta start a journal.

You And gotta start to write down all the miracles that God does during this season. And I have a journal today that is probably 25 pages full of incredible miracles that God has done to get us to this place.

Most of them, only my wife and I know about. Most of them, we were the only ones that were witness to, but I'm telling you there are seasons, there are moments, and there has been a few in this journey where I'm asked to meet with a family and they're sitting down telling me why they're leaving the church because of decisions that we've made. Or you look at something, you make a decision, you're like, no. This is supposed to work out differently, and then you go, wait. God, have have you left me? I'm telling you, I go back to this journal and I open it up and I remember, no, God, you you were with me then. And God, the greatest indicator that you'll be with me in the future is that you were with me in the past. I'm telling you, the greatest thing that the enemy wants to take from you is this. He wants to take all the past faithfulness that God has done for you, and you and I have to remember.

We have to hold on to the things that God has done if we're gonna have any shot of finishing this race well, but I promise you, we'll never we'll never be able to do it alone. So what do we do?

Practically, what do we do? We've gotta look at the life of David, these two verses, and go, man, God's giving us a model here if we'll see it. Before he could ever step into the calling of becoming a king, the thing that got him out of the cave was a crew. So you can't go from cave to kingdom. You've gotta go from cave to crew,

some season, some time, and then you step into the calling. You step into the anointing.

Every single one of us has a calling on our life. God wants to do something massive through your life. There's a purpose and a reason why you're here, but maybe the reason you're not walking in it yet is before God can send you, he's gotta first surround you. And you've gotta get the right people around your life because I promise you, it's it's impossible

to live the right life with the wrong friends. You you can't do it. And I know what some of you are thinking. You're like, Daniel, I I've tried this before

and people are crazy, bro. Like, I just I don't like the people that I've been around and I'm I'm not gonna sit here and tell you people aren't crazy because they are. K? And if you've been to a small group and you're like, I've never found any crazy people in them, gotta break it to you. That's because you are the crazy person in the small group. Okay?

Everybody has a crazy uncle. It's just a part of the world that we live in.

I'm not sitting here saying, hey. Go sign up for a crew and just magically find the right people. I want to remind you who God sent David in his moment of desperation. The second verse that we looked at, we read it quickly so you probably didn't see it, but look at who God sends David in his darkest days.

It says in verse two, then others began coming. And notice who it is, men who were in trouble, men who were in debt, and men who were just discontented.

He sends him guys that are broke running from the law and guys that are so frustrated. They're like, I don't know. I just checked the box that said discontented because I'm mad with all of it. Right?

That's who God sends on the rescue mission to save the most important king in the nation of Israel's history. He sends a bunch of jacked up broke people. That sounds a lot like us. Right? He sends you and I, but it shows us something powerful. It says that eventually David took that, and that became a group of 400

mighty men that he was leading, and it tells me something. Here's the principle.

You will never just find the right friends, but I promise you, you can form them. If you begin to go into a small group, not going, oh, I just hope I find the right people. I'm telling you right now, you won't find them. But you can form them. You can begin to create them.

If you walk into a group and say, you know what? I'm committed to this thing. I'm showing up every single week because I understand that when it comes to spiritual things, intensity is is trumped by consistency. I don't need intensity. I need consistency. I need to show up and be with the same people for an extended period of time. I'm willing to be somebody that's gonna open up my life. I'm not gonna walk in and try to just impress people with my resume. I'm gonna walk in and go, you know what, man? Here's my scars. Here's what I'm struggling with. And again, for you over sharers, wait till like week three or four to do that, not week one. K?

Build some relational equity first. But if you want a group and again, hear all the time. I just a group doesn't go deep enough. And I always go, well, did you model it? Did you show what you were hoping to create? Did you show what you were hoping to find?

I promise you, you can form the right group. I've been in multiple small groups in my life, and every single one of them, the first few weeks, they're always awkward. But, eventually, the moment comes where this group of strangers transitions into going, this is family.

And when life is falling apart, I've got a group of people that I can call that will come running in when things are falling apart for me. Here's my ask for you. Again, every single one of you, you guys got one of these on your way in.

This has the practical ways of how you can join a crew. These will start in essentially three weeks. We will run them for ten weeks. Again, I'm just asking you to commit for ten weeks. You can show up and hang out with the weirdest people for ten weeks. K? It's a ten week run. We'll stop before the holidays. We'll go again in the New Year. We'll do three seasons a year of small groups, and here's the why behind it, because it is impossible

for you and I to live the right life with the wrong friends. But maybe maybe the calling, the destiny, the potential of your life could be unlocked by just getting the right people around you. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father, God, I thank you, Lord, so much

for what it is that you're doing at Echoes Church. Father, we thank you for the supernatural move of your spirit that we're experiencing here. God, we watched over a 100 people get baptized last week, and let us not just grow comfortable in that being another Sunday.

Father, we exalt you in this place. And, father, I ask right now that you would, with the power of the holy spirit, that you would move powerfully in the hearts of every single here. That God, you would show them as they pull up the the list of small groups and they filter them by areas and nights of the week and married or not married. That God, I pray that you would, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, show people the exact crew that they need to join. And then, father, I pray you give us the courage and the boldness to show up and to do it consistently,

and that, father, you would give all of us a deep conviction in our soul that says if we have any shot of getting this life right, we gotta get our community right. So father, we love you. We thank you for the example we have in scripture to model our lives after. It's in Jesus' mighty name that all God's people said. Amen

and amen. Well, thank you for letting me yell at you for a couple minutes. You guys are awesome.