Isolation verses Involvement

Introduction

Well, a pleasant good morning to all. It’s good to look out and see so many people here with us this morning that are worshiping together in spirit and in truth. As was mentioned before, we have many blessings, and many times we do truly need to count our blessings. When I look and see all of you all, I count my blessings twice. For each one of you all holds in my heart a special special place because you have a soul, and you have your own unique individual characteristics, and as we work and worship together as Christians, we have something that we have that is special as Christians, and that is sharing a like precious faith. We have a camaraderie, we have a unity, we have a connectivity, we have united principles together, focusing after the scriptures and the chartered principles that are found within the scriptures that focus on following the Lord and his doctrine in spirit and in truth.

What could be better than to gather together on the first day of the week with those of like precious faith to talk about how it is important that we work together and be involved, that we work together for the common goal of the Christian purpose of seeking souls, of looking out in the community and trying to help people get out of the ways of wickedness and into the shelter of true righteousness and into the fold of safety of God. Our scripture reading this morning, prior to this lesson, was curious, as he mentioned, and he made a comment that he read it in a different version because some of the versions are different. But it truly says, if you were to look at the proverb that was of the first verse in that chapter, that he who isolates himself is not wise.

The one that isolates himself or separates himself from those around him rages against all sound judgment. We all must recognize that from time to time we like to get away. We like to step back, we like to have our own me time, our own time for personal growth and development. And yes, even Jesus meditated, but that’s not what we’re talking about. When we talk about isolation, it’s the idea of setting ourselves apart from others because we don’t want to be with others, and we don’t want to connect to others in the most meaningful way that we could gain from the connections that we could have together. Like I said, when I count you as blessings, I count you all twice. Because we together as Christians need to grow in our development to want to be connected together in the most holy faith.

Maybe we should set up a life that we don’t try to escape from.

With ourselves in other places. The writer wrote, What if success wasn’t about outworking everybody else, but creating a life you genuinely enjoy loving every single day? Could that be more than a dream or a motivational poster type of thing? Said another way. How do you set up a life that you don’t want to run away from? Hear me out. I’m not talking about family vacations. I love those, and that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about an occasional getaway with your spouse and you have a nice fun time going on an outing. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about fixing the mindset that essentially runs away from one’s own life. Might I suggest that one of the secrets to contentment is actually making a mindful transformation and the deliberate choice to seek involvement rather than isolation.

1. Non-Negotiables: Connecting With God, His Word, Brethren

This lesson was a requested lesson, so I hope I’m giving it the attention it needs to be delivered in both a candid and forthright way. Involvement for many is a highlight of transformation because for many to involve themselves with others demands change. One of the things we ought to do in our involvement with others is recognized there are some non-negotiables, some things that must be in place, and things that we must not deviate from. And I’d list three spiritual ones and then some other ideas that detail some things in life. But connecting with God, connecting with his word and connecting with my brethren. Those are very important, non-negotiables. Have you ever thought about what makes you truly feel alive? Maybe it’s your daily writing time. I know a lot of you have talked to you and your friends and your friendly, and you’ll say, Oh, I love writing.

I got this writing I like to do. And I said, Oh, that’s great if that’s what you like to do. They can enjoy that sometimes. Other ones you might say, Well, I like to draw pictures of things, and you’ve shown me some of them. Some of you have drawn me. It’s kind of funny to look out these pictures, you’re like, that’s pretty good. I couldn’t draw me. I draw like a straight line and with a smiley face and ears, and I go, hi. But I couldn’t draw. But for you, that may be something you enjoy doing. Or evening walks or getting together to visit with different people. If you are the type of person that recognizes you isolate yourself from others and don’t connect with others, please recognize one of the persons you need to connect with the most more than anybody is your Lord and your God.

Connect with him. Find ways to connect with him. Particularly pray. Make time to pray. Make time to read his word and study his word and recognize who his followers are, those of like precious faith. Make time to speak with God. Make prayer, as it says on the board, is a non-negotiable. Make that there. There’s a lot of brethren here who sometimes go over to John Allen’s house. He’s sitting right over here. He’s probably one of our oldest members of the congregation. You know what he likes to do? Puzzles. I’m not the biggest puzzle fan, but I like going over to his house. Why? Because when we go over there, we have fun. We do various things. Different ones go to his house from time to time and try to encourage one another and just have a fun time together as individuals.

We go over there sometimes and do that. The teens. They sometimes like to get together and do various things on their own. Sometimes we have Bible studies, I get that. But other times we have times where we just get together just to be together, to show what it’s like to have the common faith that we have. Because the world that we live in, the challenges that we live in, the place that we live in in this world is dark. It’s challenging, and it fights against the spirit, and it fights against the light of God, and we need to grow in our faith, but also grow in just the simple acts of being together. Remember the teen boat ride, we had like 18 people on the boat.

2. Eliminate the Excess

You guys remember that? Teen boat ride out on the uh uh winter park waters of the canals and stuff, ducking our heads to go through these canals and seeing these big mansions was kind of fun. But a lot of the teens were on the boat ride together. That was really cool. That was really neat. If members of the church are getting together somewhere, make it a priority to be there if you can be there. Plan for those times as non-negotiable times, if you can. I know sometimes you’ve got to work or you can’t be there. But make the priority to really try to be there. Here’s another thought. Eliminate the excess. There are a lot of things that we do in life that is trivial. And there’s a lot of things that people do with their trivial life that they focus on in the wrong way.

For example, if your workplace goes out for drinks for happy hour to team build, that’s not going to team build, but you can say no. Chances are most stuff like that won’t be remembered anyways by the people that are there. If you’ve been invited to a friend’s birthday party on a Sunday, remember if it’s during a worship service and you’re a Christian, you’re under obligation to partake of the Lord’s Supper. There’d be many more birthday parties you can go to. I’ll tell you what. Well, a person’s born that their day of the uh of the year changes through the calendar. It’s not always going to be on a Sunday. It doesn’t work that way. And so we need to connect meaningfully with fellow Christians. I’m gonna say something, and I don’t want it to come across as incorrect.

I want it to come across as forthright. As a preacher, we talk to the lost, right? We talk to the lost as a preacher. As a Christian, we talk to the lost, right? As a Christian, we want the lost to be saved. I know a Christian, though, who hung out with the lost so much that the Christian became lost themselves. They thought they could help steer the soul in the right direction and focus so much time with them that little by little they stopped coming to worship services. They still have faith in God. They still believe in heaven and hell. But they didn’t eliminate the excess that came with what we might call a displaced priority. They believe in heaven and hell but aren’t worshiping God.

3. Shape Your Thinking Spot

It’s sad, but what happened? They took that time where they didn’t realize that person might lead them astray. And so we need to make sure we are striving to teach what’s right. So to curtail isolation, make sure when you’re connecting with people that you’re eliminating the excess baggage if the person is gonna drag you away from the faith and find people that’ll bring you to it. And now the next part, shape your thinking spot. I know it’s gonna sound a little bit like Winnie the Pooh. I have no other way to put it. Here’s my thinking spot. This over here is where I go. I know no other way of place to put this. Jesus often would meditate in the mountains. He would often get up and go out in the distance, and he’d go someplace far away, and he’d pray and he’d be with his God and he’d be there.

Other times it was the Garden of Gethsemane, which is mentioned in all four gospel accounts, where he would go there and he would pray in that place named Olive Press, where the little olive trees were there around the place on the rim of the temple outside the region of Jerusalem. He would sometimes go up there and pray. So shape your thinking spot. Find a place that you know you can connect, but then get back with everybody else and connect with everybody. In this lesson, we’re describing isolation versus involvement. So by then we would probably say, well, J.R., give some definitions. What are you defining as isolation? Well, I’m going to define it for this lesson. I’m going to define it in this way. Isolation is going to be defined as pulling away from others with the intention to purposefully disconnect and or not reconnect with others in a loner or a reclusive sort of way.

So I’m going to come over here and isolate over here. Well, I get that if someone’s doing something sinful, yeah, stay away from the sinfulness. But if there’s a good activity and good people trying to do well, maybe they’re a little louder than you or a little more bombastic or talking more. Mingle, socialize, get out of your bubble and go there. It’s different from meditation. Meditation is not isolation. Meditation is carving out a time of solitude away from others for a time with the intention to reconnect with God during that solitude and more spiritually with more intention, return to others to dedicate a sense of involvement and interaction there was a study I read in preparation for this lesson entitled doing the Tuesday test I thought to myself what in the world is the Tuesday test for the preacher we’ll call it the Thursday test.

But for everybody else we’ll call it the Tuesday test where you got Monday everybody knows it’s a little chaotic getting back in the work week it’s a Monday but then Tuesday is kind of about your average day if you work fry if you work Monday through Friday in a nine to five Tuesday is kind of like your average day. And it says go through the average day and make two columns in a paper and one write down all the things you do in that day. Just listen literally put it that way all the things you do in that way. And then on the other column of the paper look for those places where you isolated where you withdrew where you fell back where you weren’t connected where you weren’t interconnected where it was all loner time things you were doing all alone they may have been bad they may have been good they may have just been things you were doing the isolated and then on the next column write your ideal day like if you had the perfect Tuesday write out how you would fix that.

4. It Is Not Good for Man to Be Alone

See it gives what you’re doing and then it gives a solution. I like that. Granted I know life I’m not going to be able to have that perfect Tuesday every week but I can have a goal I can have a standard and I can recognize that this idea of interconnectivity and this idea of involvement, it’s not just something people in the world talk about. It’s something that God talked about. And in the scriptures, God talked about connection and involvement and connectivity and being together often in the scriptures. From Genesis to Revelation, almost every book talks about the idea of being involved and connected with people. Involvement is the opposite to isolation. What did he say in Genesis? At the very impetus of his writing of the scriptures, it is not good for man.

What does he say next? To be alone. In Genesis 3. We learn of the dangers of isolation very early on in the scriptures. All alone is not good. Man left to his own devices, that is not good. It’s not good for man to be alone. What’s good is for man to be with his woman, with his wife, and to work through life together. I love how one of the phrases in Genesis puts it in the some versions put this better than others, but it basically says that she was a suitable helper comparable to him. Notice it doesn’t say woman was lesser of man because she was created of man. No.

So he needed her and her womanliness, her wonderfulness, her being who she was to help complete him. Man and woman were meant to be together. From the dawn of creation, God has intended one woman for one man for life. And that’s what he wants. And he’s glad for that. Procreation, the idea of having all of civilization grow and develop, and there being lots of people on the earth. Fill the earth and subdue it. Well, that’s what he wanted to happen with Adam and Eve, but that was a secondary command or a secondary point to the first part was it’s not good for man to be alone. Procreation is important, population is important, that’s good. But the first part was that it was important for man to be with woman and for Adam to be with Eve.

And he said, I will make for him a suitable companion for him, a helper, a help meet for him. In Ephesians chapter 5, verses 5, verses 25 through 30. Do a little reading here, followed by 1 Corinthians 7. In Ephesians 5, our good scriptures written by the Apostle Paul. In verse 25 through 30, say, husbands love your wife, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. He’s basically saying, sacrifice for her, do things for her, help her, do what you can do to lead and love. Christ loved the church and he gave his life for her. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. And then he says in verse 30, we’re members of his body, and of his flesh and bones. What in the world is he talking about? Well, let’s turn over to uh 1 Corinthians 7, in a previous book. Look at verses 1 through 5, where he says, Concerning the things of which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her.

If she wants a hug and a kiss, give her a hug and a kiss. That’s simple. And then it says here, and likewise he says, the wife to her husband. We could recognize the intimacy there that goes both ways. Verse 4. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and like the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. And then he says, Don’t deprive one another, except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. He’s basically saying there should be some times in your relationship that you’ll recognize we need to pray. We need to fast. There’s some challenges in our life, and there’s some specific moments. This is what we need to be dedicated to.

But he does say not to deprive one another, and that those times should be for a time, and he doesn’t want Satan to tempt you because of the lack of your self-control. And so there in that context, he’s basically telling us very clearly, it’s not good for a man to be alone. And we need to recognize that the proper relationship for intimacy to continue in is in the marriage relationship and the marriage relationship alone. And in that context, it’s important for us to recognize it’s not good for us to be alone. In Galatians, he makes it really clear. I mean, really clear. Sometimes we get a little bit, you know, y’all blush on the cheeks, maybe. I blush on the ears, right, Rachel. She’s smiling. Yeah, when I blush, it’s my ears.

They turn all red. But here’s the thing. In Galatians, he makes it plain. The works of the flesh are evident, which are sorcery, uh, revelries, drinking parties, and he just lists all sorts of things. But he says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. He’s basically saying God’s spirit, when you look at the fruit of the spirit, how God is, he is in such a way going to give the illustration of what’s not a work of the flesh. What is the opposite of the work of the flesh? And so when people socially or even in their relationships, when they isolate themselves, the propensity or the continuance or the beginning of the works of the flesh often commences.

5. Social Isolation Isn’t Good Either

And so there is a battle between the works of the flesh and the works of the spirit. And God is saying, follow after the works of the spirit, which will save you. Now here’s another thing. Social isolation isn’t good either. This goes back to Proverbs 18.1. You look at social isolation, we’re looking at an idea that it doesn’t make any sense. Okay. If you look all through the scriptures, you find instances where Jesus just over and over and over lavishes upon us illustrations of connectivity. But he does it in a very careful way. He doesn’t say, you know, I had three good friends. They were Peter, James, and John, and I hung out with them most of the time. He doesn’t say it that way. Because that’s not how he lived it.

When Lazarus died, he cried. He wept. That was his friend. Mary and Martha, he had friends that were ladies. And it was in a pure relationship, young people. It was in a holy relationship. He cared about those ladies. They were his good friends. He cared about them a lot. But I want to make another comment, recognizing something vital to Jesus’ connectivity with others. His connectivity with others wasn’t based in a social tier status. In the concept of basically saying, Well, the Pharisees are here, so I have a friend. And one of his friends was Simon the Pharisee because he ate in his house, remember? And he talked about Mary and the feet and everything. So he’s in Simon the Pharisee’s house, but he didn’t only stay in communication with this upper tier Simon the Pharisee realm of people.

Nor did he say, well, um, I’m gonna go one step further and not hang out with the Pharisees. I’m gonna go up to the elite Sanhedrin council and only talk to men like Gamaliel. Gamaliel, he wasn’t for or against, but he was kind of being neutral. He could have talked to him. You could read passages in the scripture where it might talk about Jesus’ interaction with Joseph of Arimathea, but they’re not there. He could have talked to him. Evidently, Joseph of Arimathea and other ones took him off the cross. And they cared about him, and they were on the council. What you read about is him mingling with all social classes, people of the low estate, the middle class, the upper class. He just mingled with everybody because he loved everybody.

He’s gonna die for everybody. He’s not gonna die for a select few. Mary and Martha and Lazarus in the crowds note their social circle and where they live, and then note Jesus. Matthew the tax collector, note his social circle, pretty up there. But Jesus still interacted with him. Zebedee’s family. I don’t know about you, but they kind of they kind of have this view in my mind of like the quintessential blue-collar worker. You’ve got Zebedee and Siloam, who own a fishing business enterprise, and their two sons, the Sons of Thunder, James and John, are working with them in this business fishery business. And they’re workers. They’re always out on the lake, they’re always working, they’re always doing this. So you look at these social circles, Jesus just mingles them all.

And he says, you know what? I am the king of what was that? Loves the world that he gave his only begotten son. He’s the king of love of the world. God gave Jesus because he loved the world. He loved people in the world. He didn’t have the love of worldly things, but he recognized people are people. And when he counted his blessings, he counted them all twice. Next point.

6. Willing to Communicate: Come to Me

It’s just simply not able to be seen and devolved and developed by taking notes. I love how you guys take notes. It’s wonderful. It’s great. But if you want these charts, just see me after the sermon. I’ll be happy to print them off or email them to you or however you want to get a hold of them. This is a study that was developed in a different way than some. Sometimes people talk about like communication studies. This is an interesting one. This basically talks about how people interact with people and basically build friendships. And it starts by the understanding of the going from the top of the uh pyramid down to the bottom. It says the communication behavior of layer one has to be first, a person has to be willing to communicate.

If we’re talking about people that isolate themselves from others and don’t want to talk to people, this is pretty important. They’ve got to be willing to communicate. Their behavioral intention must be something that they’re willing to do. I was out and about, and you guys know I like to walk up to people, go, hey, would you like a Bible study? Hey, we worship at South Mombe. Hey, I’m glad you’re here. And I do that all the time. I was out at Panera the other day, some of you all were with me, and uh, I said, Hey, the guy, the minute I said hey to him goes, I’m here to eat alone. I go, Okay. I mean, I can’t change that. That’s what he I’m not gonna force myself to have a conversation with someone that doesn’t want to have a conversation.

But so the person has to have the behavioral intention to willingly want to communicate. The layer, third layer there is, is the desire to communicate with a specific person or a state of communicative self-confidence. These types of situations work in such a way where sometimes the individual will say, This person I want to talk to. This is so important. Jesus did this, Jesus did this in the scriptures. There were times he said, Simon, Simon. So the Lord is sift the Lord wants to talk to you, Simon. You know, Satan is trying to sift you like wheat. There’s other times Jesus went to people and says, like in Mark 9, what were you guys discussing on the road? I want to know, apostles, what were you guys discussing?

And so there’s times he does that as well. But this layered type of conversation must grow. Then it grows into layer four, which is interpersonal motivation, inner group motivation, and self-confidence. I believe, and I’ll show you this chart if you really need it or want to develop it more. This layer four is the key to getting someone out of isolation concepts and into interpersonal communications. They have to be motivated to actually do what they know they need to do. So they need interpersonal motivation, which would be like us helping them out, saying, You can do this, you can do this. They need inner group uh motivation within a core set of people that they can depend on, they can trust on, and they don’t feel like there’s pushback from them because some of us we may not know as much as they’re really close-knit circle, and then they need the self-confidence.

That’s the layer, a small core network of people that they’ve already established as good communicators with them. Then they need the other group working, and then they need themselves. Jesus modeled some of these things, brethren. Layer five and six is a little bit different. Intergroup attitude, social situation, communicative competence, and then intergroup climate and personality. You want to find out someone’s personality? You first got to be with the person enough to know what their personality is. They got to you got to communicate with them way before that. You want to know what someone’s climate is? When you talk about a congregational climate, was there any place in the scriptures to say anything about that? Yes, 1 Peter. For we are his own chosen people, his own special people, proclaimed out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We are his own. If you technically put the word in the in the Greek word, it’s we are his own ethnos. What is that? His own ethnicity. We’re his own cultural people. We are his own climate. It’s amazing when you look at the scriptures how that connects with that. And everybody is not the same. Everybody’s going to have a different personality. You might say, where did this study come from? Where did J.R. get this? I know. This previous chart was based on research of Canadian development of English as a first language speaker, branching out to interact with those who speak in different language sets across the world. But what’s interesting is they were in another country. The Canadians did the research in the Middle East in a different region to find out what would these English speakers do if they’re over here.

Can we get them to talk to other people? Can we get them to associate with other people? Can we get them to not isolate but be involved? Now think about this for just a minute. What are we supposed to do as Christians? Seek and save the lost. Are we supposed to be of the world? No, not of it, but we’re in it. Well, then how do we develop the right relationships? How do we develop the right thing in this regards to doing this? We need to recognize first and foremost, Jesus sought to save and stayed the course of keeping his father’s commands. For those who love me will keep my commandments, and my commandments are not burdensome, saith the Lord. How do we do this? How do we develop this?

There may be some of you who are saying, well, I’m kind of a loner. I’m kind of more of I isolate myself a lot. How do I do this? I want you to pray to the Lord to help you make meaningful communication connections. Take three times a week to devote to worship, minimum. I’m saying that means all the service is here, but it also means worshiping, finding time to pray, finding time to sing, finding time to do things that are worshipful. Take three times a week to call a friend. You say, why is why the standard so much? Because maybe if I can set the bar high enough, you’ll at least do it twice. Number one, take one time this week to ask someone if they can get together and do your utmost to keep the appointment.

Next, for everybody else, there may be some people out here who are kind of like me, they’re kind of like uh really chatty, bubbly people. If receiving the call from one seeking interaction, realize this little step for you might be a big step for them to recognize that. You know what Jesus said regarding all of this? To every level of communication that he mentions, to every point, this is water, and it’s got lemon juice in it, because my throat is really sore.

Stephanie, I’m gonna come pick on Stephanie. She said, speak softly, but carry a big stick. I thought. So here we go. Jesus said so beautifully in Matthew 11. Listen to how he describes connectivity, not isolation, and religion and focusing on the faith and following the gospel all together in one big scripture that’s all in one place. Come to me. Okay, well, what’s that supposed to mean? You and me. Come on. Well, he doesn’t say, okay, you’re gonna walk this road alone. No, that’s not what he says. He doesn’t say you’re gonna tow the line alone. He says, come to me. Okay, so now you got Jesus and you. Come to me, some people. Yeah, just the guys I like. No. Come to me, all of you.

All of you who just socially connect with everybody, no. All of you who are weary, heavily burdened, all of you who are facing the load of life that’s tough. Or you go, yeah, I want to escape from reality sometimes because reality I don’t like. So come to me, all you who are weak and heavily burdened, and I will give you a fun? No. I will give you an escape route. No. I’ll give you rest. Rest is the solace or the peace or the temperament by which one may find an escape from the chaos through the scriptures and through the love of Jesus. Come to me, all you who are weak and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. What is a yoke?

Little kids, it’s not the little thing in an egg I’m talking about. You know, you’ve got an egg yolk when you have the boiled egg and you break the little shell and you open it up and it’s got the white and the little yellow thing, and most kids go, I don’t want the yellow, I’ll eat the white. No, that’s not a yoke. That’s one type of yoke, but that’s an egg yolk. There’s another type of yoke called a yoke that is a big wooden apparatus that they put on two animals. They hold it out like this, and around one side of the neck, they put uh uh a wooden holter, halter, something like that, and then it has a little more space. It’d be like here.

You got a space here, and then you got a little space over here, and then they have a second animal, and it brings that altar over there, and it together. So Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weak and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, which means something. That means the yoke he’s going to give you is different from every other yoke. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. So Jesus essentially says, Whatever I tell you is going to be the route to help. Follow that. Whatever I tell you is doctrinal truth, follow that. There are some people that will go through life not caring about doctrine, but whatever their preacher says, they’ll just do.

There are some people that’ll go through life saying, Whatever the catechism says, I’ll follow. Some people say, Whatever the creed says, I’ll follow. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, John 14, 6. No man comes to the Father except by me or through me. And he says, That’s the yoke, the following of Jesus’ path, his way, his doctrine, his principles, his experience of what is right. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He’s basically saying, if you take the route that’s with Jesus, it’ll be a whole lot better than if you’re trying to tow the entire field by yourself. You need Jesus. You need him with you. You need him to be your yoke fellow.

And I’ll tell you what, he’ll tug more of the load than you. Yeah, you’ll still work, you’ll still do what you can do. He’s a stronger ox, if you will. He’s a stronger beast of burden. He’s carried the cross. You’ve carried just this side of this life. He’s carried so much weight. And he says, For you, come to me, all of you who are weary. If you’re heavily burdened, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The context in which he speaks is filled with information that should help us understand that this is a great invitation that Jesus makes for us. He says, Be my yoke fellow. Be my yoke fellow.

Conclusion

Be one that is connected with me. Recognize in the faith there will be challenges. There will be times we want to isolate. He says, connect with Jesus first and recognize, connect with your brethren, connect with those who love you, and do what you can to work along with one another. Like the scripture reading, it is a little curious scripture reading in Proverbs, it says what we read, but it is true. For the one who isolates himself is not wise.

Well, so let’s put that on the other foot. The one who connects with others and makes the right connections that works with one another and builds one another up in the most holy faith is very wise. And he doesn’t fuss.

And once again, I have much more information if you’d like to discuss with me some other things, but I hope this has been at least uh uh presented with a modicum of help, but also with a scriptural understanding that Jesus wants us to work together, to lean on one another and build ourselves up in the most holy faith. What if you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, or you’re lost. You’re doomed. But you don’t have to be. Past couple weeks we had a couple people baptized. That was great. Zoe, baptized, that’s great. Keep on the same path. You’re going to heaven. Ryan, baptized, good. Keep on the same path, you’re going to heaven. Here’s the thing, though. If you’re out there and you’re not saved, you’re doomed.

God doesn’t want you to be doomed. He doesn’t want you to be lost. He wants you to be yoked with him so that you can go to heaven. That’s what he wants. He doesn’t seek for people to be lost. That’s not his style. Granted, many will be, but that’s not his style. God says, hear the word of God and believe it. For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Believe Jesus is the Son of the living God. John 3.16. We studied that this morning. Confess the name of Christ, for with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Confess the name of Christ. Repent of your sins. Get out, sin and get in Jesus. And be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Spirit. For the promise is to you and to those who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. If you want to become a Christian, I’ll tell you two things that’ll happen. One, you’ll be saved and the angels will be rejoicing in heaven. Two, you’ll be instantly connected to a family of God. And that family wants you to be so interconnected with one another. Because you can be involved. You can be connected. And you can be brought into the fold of safety. We’d like that for you. You want to become a Christian? Please come forward and sit on the front row while we stand and sing.