Better Together

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected]. we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Now, enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning, Met Church. Let's just say that together. One, two, three. Amen. Y'all ready? One, two, three. Amen. Oh, y'all are just awake this morning. Good morning. I am Mary Walls. If I have not met you, I am the community life pastor. So since y'all are seeing really like you're awake, I'm gonna give you a challenge here on the count of three, because I wanna be sure I know all of your names. Now with AI, we have this technology that can really tell me, each one of you that we're here by your name. I'm just kidding. Y'all don't freak out, but I do want you on the count of three to say your name so I know you and your neighbor will know you. 1, 2, 3. Nice to meet you. Good. Good job. I'm so glad that you're here with us this morning. And so many of you have been asked to get about Pastor Bill, so I want to start off with that. And I know you guys are all wanting an update on him, and in case you don't know, you may be visiting or not been here in a little while, but a few months ago, Pastor Bill was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and his doctor recommended that he just have it removed. So that's what he did. And it's been about 11 days, I think, today. And I have good news for you that he got the pathology report back and he is cancer free. Yes, we are all very, very thankful. We are praising God and we do ask that you just continue to pray for him. Pray for his strength and health to come back, which we know that he will. He'll be back soon. And if you want to email him and just flood him to keep him busy the next couple of weeks, his email is bramseyitchurch.com I know you're watching Pastor Bill. He's going to go, Thanks a lot, Mary. But honestly, we all need. When we're home alone and you guys know his kids are there, but he is by himself much of the time, so he would love to hear from you and hear about your life and what the Met has mean to you and I think it would greatly encourage him. So feel free to do that. I won't give his phone number so his text won't be blowing up, but you can email him and he will look at that as he can. So thank you for your concern. Y'all have been texting me and emailing and asking, and I know that we all love him so much. So we are just incredibly thankful. So we're continuing our Healthy series that we've been doing since the beginning of the year. You guys have gotten so healthy. We talked about healthy habits, healthy homes, healthy hearts. We just talked about all the things and now we're gonna start talking about healthy churches. And specifically, what is a healthy church? What does it look like? What do we strive to be as a church? So you are getting biblically fed and the things that need to happen because we know that as we talk about this, we're better together. So specifically, we're gonna talk about community and what that looks like for you today. But I wanted to tell you as I looked at some scripture and looked at some different things, what a few things of healthy churches look like. If you haven't done our Discover the Met class, I'm going to do a shameless plug here. We do it about every four to six weeks. I encourage you to do that because we talk specifically about how our church was created, what it looks like when Pastor Bill and Cindy created this church a long time ago, what his heart was and how we still live to that. Bill always says, you know, we're not anchored to the times, but we're anchored to the rock of Jesus in the Bible. But we want it to be relevant that people want to come and be awake during service. Right? So part of that is what we do. But here's some things. Christ centered teaching that is a healthy church and we are beyond blessed to have. Dr. Bill Ramsey, a lot of you don't even know, but he is. He's so humble. We don't say that. We just call him Pastor Bill, but we get to hear his teaching that is so biblically sound. And even during his sermons, he's quoting scripture. He's not saying references, but he gives us so much of God's word that helps build us up. So we're thankful for that also. Genuine worship and you guys get to hear the best of the best each and every week in this room that help us. What worship does is helps us take our minds off of ourselves and our worries and our cares. Starts us drifting towards, oh, yes, I need to be Praising God, thanking him for the good and the bad in our life. Cause it's all making us a little bit more like him. Prayerfulness, prayer. Both corporately, individually. We do it at the end of service in here. We do it many times from this stage as well. We do it in our groups. Our staff prays for you. I actually was standing back there as the music was playing, praying for each and every one of you. That God knows who's in this room and who's online. That he would move in your life. He would bring healing, he would bring hope and comfort. Because we love you guys so much. We want the best for you. We wanna provide an atmosphere and an opportunity for you to meet with God each and every single week. And with all the things that we do during the week as well. All right. Discipleship and spiritual growth. This is my realm. I'm pastor of community life. And this is what we focus on. How to help you guys grow in your relationship with Jesus. Sometimes it's Bible studies, life groups. I wrote a whole lot. We have serving groups. If you serve here. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for serving. But you're in a group. You guys pray before services. Whether you're in the big room or in the kids area or in the youth area, you are among a community of believers. We have courageous motherhood for those of you who are raising your children. God bless you. We pray for you. We know that this is a fun and exciting and exhausting time in your life. We have a grief share class that we do a couple of times a year to help those of you who are struggling with grief, to get past that and to see God and people around you in it. Financial peace. And we do that a couple of times a year as well, because we know how important your money is, that it helps you live the life that God would have for you. And Dave Ramsey is just funny. He makes. Who can make money funny, but Dave Ramsey can? So if you have not taken that, do that with us. We'll do that again in the fall. And we just started a new group for business owners, so I'll do a plug for them if you own a business. They just started meeting and they're talking about just best practices, how to encourage each other, how to love each other and pray for each other. So they would love for any of you to join them. And also mission and outreach. And we do that really well locally and globally. You guys, if you've been around, you know about our Cindy Ramsey center, where we feed thousands of people every month. And minister. And the cool thing about it is we also have an opportunity to share Jesus and pray for people who are hurting. Because as Pastor Bill always says, I don't know about you. My ears are really open when I'm going through a hard time and my life is a little bit difficult. I seem to pray more. I seem to read my Bible more. I seem to turn off the radio in the car and listen to God's voice for me. So we know that as we go to Uganda or Belize or wherever the Lord takes us, that we get to go share his word with them and just the saving grace of Jesus Christ, that he's our hope for the next generation. But loving community is what I wanna talk about today. Because we know it's so important for you to be with people who know who you are, who know your name, who care about you, who know when your life is going through something good and they can rejoice and encourage with you. They're not jealous about it. They're really actually so excited that something great is going on for you. And then when the difficult things happen, because they're going to happen, whether it's your health or a family member's health or a child or whatever it might be, we know difficult times are gonna happen. And we want people around you to help support you, for you to be able to build deep relationships with that are gonna outlive us, that are gonna help take us into eternity. So it's really about living out the idea of we're not meant to do this life alone. I know you guys know it. We're actually designed to thrive on relationships. In fact, 85% of the directives in scripture are in the context of community and people in there, the key to having a healthy and blessed life. Now, some of us love to be with people a little bit more than others. I know that you guys already know that. We prioritize it. It's easy for us to plan. Whether it's family or friends or neighbors or co workers. We just love being with people. Now, those of you that don't, I know you're going, oh, my goodness. No, I don't want that. Thank you. Because you're probably married or in relationship with the opposite, because that's what we do. So thank you for putting up with us and loving us and just engaging when we kind of make you go to places with us. I know that that happens one day. Derek. Not too long ago, Derek and I were traveling to Colorado to see our son, Garrison. And as we were getting off the airplane. And we were walking down to the rental car place. You guys know what that looks like. And you gotta get on a bus and you gotta go off campus and lug all of your stuff. And it takes a lot of energy by that point. You are really pretty tired by the time you get to the bus. And I saw this lady pushing this man. There was kind of a ramp going up uphill in the wheelchair. And I'm telling Derek, we need to help them. And he's like, mind your own business, Mary. You don't need to get involved in everything. And I'm like, no. So I go over to the lady and I say, hey, my husband Derek would love to help you. And so of course y'all know Derek, he's so nice. So he said, hey, I don't mind. So we're pushing him. And it ended up they were going to Enterprise, the same rental car place that we were. So Derek said, I'll help you. And so we helped get him on the bus. And as we were traveling there, we started talking. And she said that her husband had Parkinson's. Derek and my dad both had Parkinson's, so that's a tough one for us. And she's telling a little bit of the story of how their life had changed. And they were getting to go see their kids. And they were so excited. And I already see the tears in Derek's eyes. Cause he's so soft hearted. And I just keep talking, changing the subject. Tell me about your grandkids. You know, and as we were talking and I knew what Derek was thinking. You guys been married a long time? We've been married 38 years. So I know what he's thinking. And I knew he was thinking about his dad. And Derek's dad, Larry Walls, was such a great man. And he was a great dad, a great husband, a great pops. He was the guy that everybody knew. Every restaurant we went to, if he'd been there, they all know his name. Hey, Larry. Hey, Larry. And some of them had his jelly in the refrigerator. Cause he liked a certain jelly. And everybody really did look out for Larry. But Larry had this community that was like nothing I had ever seen. And he had some guys that were friends, and they would go out to breakfast once or twice a week. And they called themselves Romeos. Regular old men. Eating out. That's the acronym. And Larry thought it was the funniest thing. And he would call and tell me where he had eaten breakfast. And everywhere you can imagine, to Joe's breakfast place, to Cassandra's to all just anywhere, not just the ones that we might think of. My daughter would be going snooze. Is Papa going to snooze? No, they're not doing that kind of stuff and spending that kind of money. Kids, these older guys are going to a place that's reasonable. And it's not even really about the food. It's about the fellowship and the laughter and talking about their lives and the things that they had been through. And Larry was a Christian. He came to Christ later in life and raised his kids to know Jesus and was so excited when his grandkids and our kids had accepted the Lord. And he wrote them each letters about the great decision that they had made and just all the great things that God was going to do in their lives. Besides being a Christian, probably the most important thing. He was a naggy from Texas A and M. Yeah, where's my Aggie friends? So I have to put that up there, there with him. He was a Boy Scout leader, took his boys, all of you that know Derek and his brothers are all Eagle Scouts, and they all went to camping and all of the things that his dad poured into them because he didn't have that growing up in his family. And he wanted to make things just a little bit different. But when we talk about community, I want you to see that picture. That's the healthy picture. That's a picture of people who are praying and caring and serving with nothing to come back to them. Larry would pray for them, but he really couldn't go take them to the restaurant. They were doing things unselfishly that really made such a big difference in his life. And when Larry passed away, those guys were all there, lots and lots of their friends were there saying the impact that Larry had had on their life. And scripture in the New Testament calls this kind of community koinonia. And it means. It's a Greek word meaning fellowship. And it means that we as Christians have communion with one another. Not only that, but we have communion with God and we participate in his life and mission. When we do community together as believers, being in relationships and community, it's biblically healthy. When we look at scripture, it's something we should strive to do. And if you're thinking, I don't have time for one more thing in my life, I ask you to pray, to pray to God and ask him, do you have a biblical community? Do you have a faith community of people who are not just listening to you brag about yourself, but are also pushing you to see yourself in light of Jesus and the things that you need to do to be more like him each and every day. The primary way as Christians we do is by belonging to a church. You're here. I'm so proud of you. You're already in the right place. You are in a place where community is valued and you're in a place where we want to help you find that in a way that honors him, because we know you become like those that you spend the most time with. Young people. I will tell you, when I look back in my life, from school to college to young adulthood to marriage, all of the things my life really was lifted or lowered by the people that I was around. If I was around people who complained a lot, I started complaining a lot. If I was around people who really wanted to be healthy and their lives to be fit so they could live long lives, then I strived for that. It's just not natural for us that the people around us are making an influence on us. So you be sure that those closest to you, yes, we need to reach out. I have tons of friends who aren't in church, and I love that. But those closest to me that I spend the most time that are pouring into me, that are calling me, those people love Jesus and are making sure that I am staying on path. And even if I say in, one of my good friends said this to me recently, you're getting kind of negative. You used to be really positive. I'm like, I know what has happened to me. I get a little more cynical as I get older. But she's right. So that means I need to spend more time in God's word. I need to be spending more time with positive people, pouring God's word and ideas into my mind. Maybe a little less social media, something that actually I'm getting to see the person of Jesus who I'm striving so much to be alike. There's a great passage in the Old testament in Ecclesiastes 4, 9, 12 that explains this wonderfully. And it says, starting in verse nine, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie together, they will keep warm. But how can one one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. So you've got two friends, Jesus in the middle. It's just not easy to break that apart right when you look at a cord of three strands, meaning there is strength and mutual support in community. It's important. We need to have it. Proverbs 27:17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Emphasizing the benefit of relationships, positive interactions and learning from others can refine our character and make us more Christlike. I see Derek, my husband, is here today. I just saw him, and I thought of this because every time we talk about this scripture, he's like, yes, after 38 years, we have sharpened each other. I'm a machete. I am so sharp. I don't need any more sharpening. Yes. You guys know that have been married a long time. After a while, you just rub the rough edges off of each other, don't you? And keep each other focused on what you need to be. But as we look at community, one of my favorite passages we're looking at in the New Testament real quick before we go home is in Mark 2, 1 12. And it's the healing of the paralytic in Capernaum. And it's one of the miracles in the synoptic Gospel. As you guys know, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the Synoptic Gospels because they're most the same. That's how I kind of remember it. John's a little bit different, Has a little bit. It's still the gospel and it still talks about Jesus, right? But he has a little bit different view of it all. But in the synoptic Gospels, all three tell this story about the paralytic. In Mark, it's chapter two. If you just want to write this down. Matthew, it's in 91 8. And in Luke, it's 5:17 through 26. But I like Mark's version because it shows Jesus in action. I'm an action girl. How about you guys? Okay, let's talk. Let's get to work. More action. That is always my gear in life, where I'm going. So I love the way Mark sets it up for us and lets us see exactly what his friends did. And we're gonna start reading it in Mark 2, Chapter 1 and 12. If you have your Bibles look there, you can look up on the screen. And in this passage, four men are taking their paralyzed friend to see Jesus. That's what's going on. They hear Jesus is here. He's been healing people. And they're like, all right, let's get our friend, and we're gonna get him there. So verse one says a few days later, when Jesus, again, he had already been there, entered Capernaum the people heard that he had come home. So he had been there. He had lots of followers, lots of likes. He was trending. Can you even imagine all that good was going on when Jesus was on the scene? And they had this friend, and they're heartbroken because he's paralyzed and he can't move. He can't get off of his mat. So they had this idea. I'm not sure they're gonna talk about four of them go. One of them comes up with the idea, we're gonna get them to Jesus. So they gathered in such large numbers to hear Jesus that there was no room left, not even outside the door. But he preached the word to them. Verse 3, Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Can you see them? Each on each side of the mat, and they're carrying him. And they knew there was no other choice. And I'm gonna say that because this is what happens, right? We call a friend. We Google it. They had done all of this, and they knew there was no other choice apart from a miracle of Jesus. So they come and they're ready. Verse four says, they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. So they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it, and they lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith. Isn't this interesting? This is plural. When Jesus saw their faith, he saw the faith of their faith. Man, I would love that so much, too. For all of us to have people around us who have such faith that people see the faith of our friends, not just us, but the faith of our friends. And he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. So there was something holding this man captive. And Jesus didn't go straight to the paralyzed. He looked at his heart and knew there was something going on. Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, Jesus, in his spirit, knew what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Kind of scary, right? Jesus, he's God, 100% man, Bill always tells us, and 100% God. So the God in Jesus knew what they were thinking. And he asked them a question which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or, get up, take your mat and walk. But I want you to know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the Man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, go home. Jesus doesn't just change circumstances when he comes into our lives. He also wants to change our spiritual lives. Sometimes we get a little past that, don't we? I'm thinking, you know, when Derek and my dad both had Parkinson's and we cared about the spiritual life, but somehow when you're in the midst of it, if you've ever taken care of anybody, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not always easy, is it? The physical demands of helping take care of somebody. We just want them healed on the physical side. But Jesus knew on the eternal side, spiritually was what was going to be the best for him. And he actually did both. So verse 12 concludes that he got up, he took his mat, and he walked out in full view of them all. And this amazed everyone. And they praised God, saying, we have never seen anything like this before. I'm thinking, do you have some faith, some faith in God that people see? That is the most inspiring part of this whole story to me is, was there faith? Because life is gonna be hard and we can get depressed and discouraged, but really, when the rubber meets the road, it's our faith and our faith in Jesus that is gonna inspire us to keep doing what God is calling us to do. So here's the deal. God didn't intend for us to live in isolation. He just didn't. When we look back at the beginning of Scripture, at the very beginning, when he's talking amongst the Trinity, that he's saying, let's create them in our image, God was already in relationship and community. So that's why we are wired that way. That's how we were created that way. So it is within us. We know it is the best for us. We know we're designed to crave and thrive best in that. Here's what happens when we're in community with other people. It's a little scary sometimes. I know it can be. But we allow them to get to know us. We allow them to speak into our lives and to see things that we may not see. Because when you are in the middle of something and I am in the middle of something, sometimes my mind rationalizes and just sees what I want to see. How about you? Right? And it takes somebody else near us who really knows us, knows the whole story that can be able to say, mm, I think you're probably not thinking of this, right? I love you and I want the best for you, but have you thought of it this way? Maybe if you tried this or that. Maybe this would help your relationship, maybe this would help your marriage, maybe this would help you in raising your kids, or this would help you with the situation at work. It takes somebody outside of us who can see clearly, who's not involved in the emotion, that is able to guide us the best way to go. And I'm gonna encourage each and every one of you. You find that person, you find a mentor, you find somebody who cares about you. Not somebody at work and not somebody in your family, but somebody who will say the hard things to you, who want the best for you and will love you enough to tell you the hard things. I don't like hearing those things either. I would rather just hear the things my sweet mother would say. Mary, you are beautiful, Mary. You can do anything that you want to do. That's what my mother would be saying, right? So she's not my accountability person. She's never going to say anything hurtful to me. But I do have people like that in my life and I encourage you to do the same. It just helps us be able to see God clearly. And especially people who will take us to Jesus, especially people who will help us see the long game, the eternal game of what God is up to. Because God is always up to doing something in our lives, always refining us. Whatever situation you're in right now that you might be thinking, I don't think this is a good place for me to be, it is. Nothing's by accident. God is never late. He always shows up right when we need it, maybe not when we want it. Maybe he's wanting us to learn something. We do that as parents and grandparents, right? We allow our kids and our grandkids to try things even if they're gonna fail, because that's where we actually learn. So if you're not convinced yet, you need a community of faith. I have three points for us that I wanna talk about to help us realize the importance of it and hopefully inspire you that you will actually wanna do it. Number one, a community of faith will take us to Jesus. Right? That's what his friends did in verse three. He was helpless. He couldn't get to Jesus on his own. He needed somebody to help him. And his friends didn't just pray from a difference. Sometimes we do have friends like that. Hey, how can I pray for you? Yeah, that's great. Sometimes we need friends to show up and be in the flesh and maybe even help us get somewhere or maybe even just sit with us. Not even say a word, just to say you're not alone. I'm here and I love you. It makes such a difference. But we see in this that true community is active. It's not passive. It's active. It does things to help us get to where God wants us to be. Just like when you're in a sports game and someone's injured, the teammates don't sit on the sideline and go, hey, best of luck to you. Usually they run on the field, right? And they're helping get their player up and get him back into the dugout or to the doctor, wherever they need to be. That's what we do as friends. We take them to the doctor, we take them to Jesus. We take them, we bring them to church. We get them involved in a group we're in, serving with us. Just say, hey, come serve with me. You would just be surprised how when people walk into this building, because I hear it all the time to go, there was just something different. I walked into this building. This is the friendliest church. We hear this all the time. This is the friendliest church. People, like, want to be here. We're like, yeah, come on in, the water's warm, right? But if you hadn't been in church, it can be a little bit. So invite people to come with you. That really does help people. Number two, a community of faith prays and believes for miracles. When Jesus saw their faith, right? That's what a community of faith that maybe your co workers who aren't believers aren't really expecting miracles for you. Maybe your family aren't Christians. Maybe you don't have anybody in your life who's pointing you to Jesus. That's what we want to be as a church. We want you to be able to come on a weekend, feel the presence of Jesus, be inspired to go out and make a difference in the world that you're in and have some other opportunities during the week to be fed as well. All right, number three, last one. A community of faith points us to forgiveness and healing. Real community doesn't just help with physical needs. It helps with the true healing of the soul. True friends care about your heart, not just your comfort. That's a tough one, isn't it? Because sometimes we need people to help us be a little bit uncomfortable, to be what God wants us to be. And in closing, I want to show you another biblical character that really just personifies a loving community. And it's in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament, and it's such an incredible example of support and love. You guys may know the story. But Naomi, Ruth's mother in law, had lost everything. She lost her husband, she lost her home, she lost her sons, she lost her hope. Like nothing like she like Job. She had lost everything except her two daughter in laws who really did love her. And she loved them so much, she told them they were in a land that wasn't their own. Hey, just go home. Go be with your family. I have nothing left to offer you and I feel like I'm not even really good for you anymore. And so one of them, Orpah is her name, and she left and went home to be with her family. But Ruth couldn't leave and she loved her mother in law so much. And this is what she said to her in Ruth 1, 16 and 17, where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. And Ruth shows us how to be a true a friend, a family member, a co worker, a neighbor. She didn't abandon Naomi in her grief and loneliness, which might have been easier to do right. She chose to stay when it would have been easier to leave when so many bad things were going on for her. And together they survived the famine, heartbreak and uncertainty. And ultimately Ruth became part of the family line that led to Jesus. So her loyalty and her faithfulness to her mother in law ended up being God honoring and to the generations behind her that came. She didn't know God, Yahweh as we know him, but through her mother in law, that's why she stayed. She wanted to know more about this God that she had and ended up at the end of it being who we are today because we know Jesus. Ruth shows us that true community isn't about convenience, it's about commitment. And we aren't called to walk away when life gets hard. We're called to stay, love, and to walk others home to Jesus. So Mark 2 shows us some friends helping their friend physically and Ruth 1 shows us how she helps somebody emotionally and spiritually. Real community shows up, real community stays. And we are always better together. We need people who will fight for us, to carry us and to stay with us all the way to healing. In a world where people are canceled easily, they don't wanna talk to people. You don't believe like I believe. You don't think like I think. You watch shows, I don't watch whatever it might be, it's easy to walk away from people, but that's not who we are called to be. As Christians, we're called to be People who love, who stand in the gap, who love people a little bit different than us in hopes that we can lead them to Jesus. So my challenge for you today is find your people. We, as a church have tons of opportunities for you to do that. We want to help you. We have all kinds of plans for the fall to help you get involved, to find people. We do events, we do all kinds of things in the hope of getting you connected and finding some people who you can love, who will love you back and help us be the church that carries people. Maybe you're thinking, I don't necessarily need people, but I got a lot to offer. You know, I've been through some hard times. God wants to use your mess for ministry. He wants to use what you, you have been through to help somebody else. In all reality, when we look back on our lives one day, and I've been through a lot of people in our line of work who are helping with funerals and talking to them when they're with somebody at the end of life, nobody's saying, oh, I wish I had another house. I wish I had more money. I wish I had done this. Or literally, all they care about at that point is their family and friends. That's it. At the end of the day, they're saying, I wish I would have not worked so much and I would have spent some more time with my kids or my parents. My parents aren't even here anymore, and I was so busy, I didn't even spend time with them. So sometimes let's stop and recalibrate. Let's pick out what's the most important things in our lives. Because if we let life run us, it's called the tyranny of the urgent. You guys heard that before. The urgent thing will always keep you busy. It will always keep you, oh, I have a crisis. I have to help. I have somebody that needs me, but we need to be able to stop and say, okay, Lord, what do you have for me today? I would love to do everything that I want to do, but if you are going to take me off path and you want me to minister to somebody, whether it's at an airport or a grocery store or whatever it is, I'm going to be open to share the love that you have given me. So as we close today, I want you to be thinking about what God has for you, who he wants you to influence, who someone you can be pouring your life into. Maybe if you don't have anybody to help you find somebody who's positive and loves the Lord and will continually point to that. And I know God. You're gonna start seeing texts and phone calls, and somebody's gonna come to your mind. God's going to bring you those people. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you so much. Thank you for the gift of community. Teach us to carry each other's burdens well. Lord, we want to be people that are honoring of other people, that love other people, that care about other people. We know that's who you are, and we know that's what you have called us to be. And we know we are better together. And Father, if there's anyone in this room, here or online that has not made a commitment to follow you, Lord, that's always our highest hope. That through our services today, they've heard about Jesus. They want to be a part of that. They want to have Jesus inside of them, Lord, to be the Lord of their life. As they look at these people with baptisms to say, oh, I'm a little nervous about that, but I want to do that. I want to be closer to God. I want to know him better. And I pray they'll pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you are a savior and that you died on the cross for me and bore my sin and rose again from the dead three days later, I turn from my sin and I choose to follow you now. And thank you for hearing my prayer and coming into my heart through your spirit and in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. [00:36:14] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.