The Missing Link Inner Circle (Part 1) - Transformation Church

0:32 Amen. Amen. So we're going to go ahead and get started. I love starting brand new series because I believe that each series is like a puzzle piece to our destiny if we're here at Transformation Church. I mean, if you can just think about how many people have been here for over a year, how many people have been at Transformation Church over a year? Okay. Like if y'all think back to some of the series that we've done and how they build on top of each other and like God's working in us and working through us. I think this is another game changer. And this series is called Inner Circle. Everybody say Inner Circle. And I debated a lot about what to do for this month of February. But for the next three weeks, as we're gathering around community and what that looks like, I really want to talk about our personal inner circle. Like your inner circle.

1:28 I want to talk about like the people who are around you that really know you. Like not the Facebook you or the Instagram you. Not the enhanced you, not the perfect all the time you. I'm talking about the 4am you. like like when you mad you some of y'all don't y'all don't oh not him oh not her like like i want who knows you who knows what you struggle with like who knows in your life who's in your life that has the sit down and shut up card see see uh no no no i'm a grown woman hold on everybody has blind spots and needs people to speak things into their life even when they don't want to hear it the question is who do you have in your life that you can call when it's inconvenient for them and you know that you steal they would want you to call them and they would want to know who is that in your life and honestly as i begin to think about it and i look and i pry and i ask people questions most believers most christians do not have that and as much as we sit up here and we talk about it and we can be around church and me and my husband and all this other stuff Do you have other marriages that you can be raw dog ugly with?

2:57 You know what I'm talking about? Like, I am mad at her. I am mad at him. These are the reasons. Will y'all pray for us now? Because I'm about to cut him and cuss him. or is it y'all know how you do when you get you're arguing all the way up into your friend's house ding dong that opens oh hey and we pick it right back up when we close the doors of the car come on let's be honest who's in your inner circle and that's the question i want to start this series because before the next for the next three weeks we're going to learn the value of having right relationships that will lead us towards purpose. Because some of you are in here it's like, no, no, Pastor Mike, I got my clit. I got my dogs. I got my girls, my besties. Like that's how we do. But I'm not talking about people who have the same interest as you.

3:54 I'm talking about people who will point you towards the interest of Christ. see because we'll get it with people around makeup and fashion and games and and whatever else we like and there's nothing wrong with that but then when it comes to moral compass when it comes to us making the right decision when it comes to us deciding whether we're going to to stay in a relationship or not a lot of times people will give you advice based on their feelings and not based on their faith oh come on y'all all got that friend that if you ready to ride or die You don't even have no questions. They going to do whatever you doing. We going to say, he broke up with me, Susie. We're going to slash his tires. She ain't going to say, turn the other cheek. She going to say, wear my knife. Like, do you understand what I'm saying?

4:40 And some of y'all are those friends. Some of y'all are like, yep, yep, yep. Just let him do it. Like, okay. And what I'm saying to you is, but just because they would be down for wherever you are emotionally, that means sometimes that they're down for delaying your purpose, too.

5:01 Like they'll let you stay in a relationship and never say anything to you when God showed them that was a wrong person. You won't even say it to them like you want. I don't want her to do the same thing to me. Well, then y'all really aren't in each other's inner circle. like like like well i would never want anybody you you really don't care the bible tells us that better are our our our our cuts or slashes from a friend than kisses from an enemy and for some reason as believers we would rather kisses from from people who don't even know us than the truth in love everybody got that the truth in love because some of you I'm just telling it how it is you're mean that that's what you are okay the truth in love so that people can be able to move and this is what I'm convinced of is everybody needs a real inner circle everybody needs it everybody needs godly community I want you to write the word inner circle and then I want you to put equals godly community so that you can understand that this is what God wants for every one of us. And, and, and this is really why the passion of this has come in my heart is because the goal for every person should be to reach purpose. Like, why are you here? Like that thing that God placed you here for, you need to reach purpose. You need to do God's will for your life. And a lot of people don't realize that there are some ingredients to getting God's will done in your life. And today I want to share that with you. Go to Hebrews 13, 20, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. And this is my prayer for everybody through this series. As we lay the foundation today, it says may now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead, our Lord Jesus and the great shepherd of all the sheep and, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood. All that saying is now God is really big and really strong he even raised jesus from the dead this is the man he says this is where i want you to focus in verse 21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will like like that's why

7:09 we come to church is so that god can equip you with all you need to do his will or to complete purpose or to to finish the reason that you came here and i want to throw something out that i want to do a whole nother sermon series on, but somebody just needs to hear this. Jesus never reached his potential. Jesus finished his calling. and and and i want everybody to hear me say this very clearly is because if we do not get into purpose we will be ran around trying to fulfill our potential see see a lot of us are here like well i have this in me and i have this in me and i have this in me and i have this in me and yes god gave you all of that but why did he give it to you what are you supposed to do with it and i've been told all my life, you need to get that potential out of you. You need to reach your potential.

8:06 But if I look at the example of Jesus, he could have done anything. I mean, he could have been the Caesar. He could have been a Roman shoulder. He could have done anything. But when he climbed up on that cross and said, it is finished, everybody was like, what is finished? Rome's still in power. Your disciples have all left you. This looks bad. He wasn't finished with what he could have done, he was finished with what he was supposed to do. Oh, y'all didn't come today to hear nothing. And so that's why the enemy tries to get us caught up in potential. I could be a business owner and then I could, I could run for mayor and then I could do a crafting business and then I can blog and vlog and I can do all of these different things. But the question is, what did God call you to do? Because busy people can die never reaching purpose. And for our church, that's not going to be the case.

9:04 We're going to have keys that help us be able to reach purpose. And I believe godly community is one of those keys. And I'm going to explain it to you in the sermon today. God said, I want to equip you with all you need to reach purpose. So this is going to be very simple and very elementary, but I feel like it's going to be very powerful for you to see. Let me introduce you to the circle of purpose. This right here, as I begin to think about what do you need to reach purpose? Like, what do I need to make sure I reach purpose? Well, me, I go start studying people that have reached purpose and I go study secular people who reach purpose. And then I study biblical people who reach purpose because I always want to know, like, what's the difference? How do you do it? And this is one thing that I found out that a lot of times when people are disconnected to God, you don't know if they reach purpose. Success and purpose aren't the same thing.

9:59 And see, this is this is where we get. We think money or accolades or fame or the ability to do something that nobody else can do is purpose. No, that's something that maybe you contrived or you were good at or something happened at the right time in the right place and all that other stuff. And God's still looking at you saying you're completely out of what I called you to do. This is why we have to divorce American culture and pick up kingdom culture. And I know this is uncomfortable for somebody, but that's why he told the rich young ruler, go sell everything that you have and come follow me. And we never hear from him again because according to culture, he had everything. But according to God, he says, if you keep your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you'll actually find it. everything in the kingdom of God is upside down. And I know some of you who watch some of these people who are this big and all this other stuff. God says, that doesn't matter to me. Your heart matters to me. If I can get your heart to be open, to do anything that I say, I can give you that stuff. But when I give you that stuff and your heart is tainted by it, then I lose you.

11:07 And so what God's saying is I want you to repurpose, but I want you to do it in my will. So when I think about the circle of purpose, like how I'm going to reach purpose, I found that there's four things. There may be more, but there's four things in biblical people reaching purpose that everybody has. And I want to talk about them. The first thing they have is a relationship with God. And and we need an active relationship with God. Every person needs it. Look what the Bible says in John 14, six says, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. What he's saying is you can do good things without God, but you can't do God's will without God. I'm going to say that again because that was good. You can do good things without God, but you can't do God's will without God.

12:03 and a lot of people we we we mesh them together like man look how many how much meals they raise for the homeless and look look look at how they're impacting that community and look at how they're doing you can do good things without god people are doing good things all the time but i promise you they're not doing god's specific will for their life because if he's out of the equation he cannot be the center of what's happening and so what i'm telling everybody in this place is that for you to complete the circle of purpose in your life, you need an active, everybody say active Sundays to Sundays is not an active relationship with God. Like, like I know, I know it's like, but I'm coming to church, Pastor Mike, my job as your spiritual tour guide is to help you get the most out of this journey that you can. And what I'm telling you is if you've just started coming to church and you've been faithful with that, Let's go because this is about progression and not perfection.

13:01 But some of us need to take another step. Like you've been doing this for too long. You spend hours on YouTube watching things that have nothing to do with your purpose. Watching people that will never speak into your life. Watching funny videos or doing all these other things that don't add to you but actually are taking the only commodity that we never get back, which is time. Like it's robbing you of time. and and what i'm saying is if you get an active relationship got with god a true devotion life and i'm not talking about an hour and a half every morning or everything i'm saying whatever you can start with but you're going to do it daily i we have this thing called the thirsty 30 where it's 10 minutes of reading the word 10 minutes of prayer 10 minutes of worship and i'm telling you if you just committed to the thirsty 30 every day for this year just just i'm thirsty for you god like as a deer panty i need to drink from you and every day i'm not going to get a revelation but i'm committing to thirsty 30 i'm committing to 30 minutes that's less than most of the shows you watch that's that's less than the time we can be on hold for for uber eats or do you understand what i'm saying like it's less than the time i'm asking you to commit to that because if you're going to reach purpose and God's will for your life, you have to have an active relationship with God. The second thing that you're going to need is you're going to need to discover and cultivate your gifts. Like anybody that has ever reached purpose, they were able to identify and start working on the specific gifts God has given them.

14:40 And some of you are saying like, Pastor Mike, you know, I don't really have no gifts. Yes, you do. I promise you, you do. And I'll prove it to you in the word. Let's go to Romans 12, six. It says in God's grace, he has given us a different gifts. Watch this for doing certain things. Well, what are those certain things you do? Well, don't be deep right now. Like, oh yes, I prophesy and I see into the stop. Some of you organize well, you have a better tendency to be more organized than other people. That's a gift. Some of us talk well.

15:20 So it's my gift and it's my job to cultivate and develop. And this is the thing. Many times we get so caught up in a profession instead of purpose that we think that our gifts are our profession. And we can't even see what God has gifted us with. Some of you are just gifted at giving. If you have three of something, your natural inclination is to give two of them away. That's a gift. Read in the Bible about all the gifts. And I just want us to start valuing what maybe we have put to the side because it's something God placed in us, but we're judging it in an undeveloped state. And what God is saying is stop judging your gifts in an undeveloped state. Start cultivating those things so they can become what he called them to become. I could stay there all day, but I got to get to the missing link today. So you got to have a relationship with God. You got to discover and cultivate your gifts. Let me give you the third one. You have to answer the calling of God. Now I'm going to explain this because I was confused on this for a very long time. I had a relationship with God. I knew I had some gifts, but I didn't answer the calling.

16:32 And the calling is the intentional use of our specific gifts to impact the kingdom. So what I'm saying to you is that no matter what realm God calls you to governmental education, sports and entertainment, God has given each of you a calling to make kingdom impact with your gift. See, a lot of people is like, well, my gifts aren't in church. They don't got to be. If you're in the workout arena, kill that. but God has given you a calling to turn what your gift is into something that impacts the kingdom and this is where most believers get messed up is because once they find their gifts this is where money comes and this is where people start knowing them and they never answer the call but if you're going to reach purpose for your life you cannot just be gifted and figure that out and and do something but you got to turn that gift and answer the call let me give you a practical example. I've always been able to talk. Like I could talk from the time I got whoopings for talking. I got in trouble for talking. I could talk my way out of something. I've always, that was my gift. My gift was talking, but it wasn't until I said yes to the calling of God. Cause I could be a radio host right now. Like I could be a sports announcer right now. I could, I could read audio books for people and just keep my purpose in the column of gifts.

17:59 But what I did is when God took me out of the music industry and said, I want to call you to speak to my people. I want to call you to represent. I had an option to say yes or no. And most believers, when it comes right here, God, I'm not ready for that. God, I've not been trained for that. God, it's too late for me. I'm so old. I can't even do that. And God said, if you would just say yes to the call I've placed on y'all. Some of y'all, there are books in you that you said, well, I've never written before. He didn't ask you that.

18:35 See, because the beautiful thing about God is he doesn't call people that are equipped. He equips people that answer the call. And so God's called you to start a fortune 500 business. Why didn't go to business school? He didn't ask you all that. I'm trying to because the enemy comes to give us excuses of why we can't reach purpose. And God's saying, I did not ask you for your resume. I asked you for your. Yes. Oh, somebody needs to hear that today. God did not ask you for your resume when he called you. He said, pick up the phone. say yes to me and if you're gonna reach purpose it was never it's never about what you can do at this place which you're gifting is just saying yes and then god begins to mold you and make you and change your desires and and and take off the rough edges if y'all would have seen me as a pastor when i was a youth pastor i was cussing i i would preach some of y'all was here i say the n-word I was rough. Y'all think I play all these white people like, oh, my God.

19:39 Hear me. I was rough around the edges, but I said yes. And what God has done over time is he put me on the potter's wheel and you can't do that. You got no, no, no, no. You understand what I'm saying? Like he kept molding me. And so what you see and what you eat of now is because I said yes to a calling a long time ago. and where I'll be five years from now, five months from now, and 50 years from now will be completely different because every day I'll wake up and say yes. So I'm asking you, if you're going to reach purpose, if you're going to get this circle of purpose, you got to have an active relationship with God. You have to discover and cultivate, take lessons, get around people who are better than you and in your gifts. But then you have to say yes to the specific way God's going to use it to expand the kingdom not your kingdom his kingdom so now we get to this last one after we get okay pastor mike i got my relationship i understand my gifts like i'm saying yes to the calling what's this last one and this it gets real complicated people try to make this real complicated they say man i can reach my purpose if i have a revelation So if I can get a revelation, God came to me in a dream last night and did.

21:00 No, no, no, no. You don't need a revelation. You don't need that. Well, Pastor Mike, what if I have the right networking? You know, I got to work the people who know me and I got to get on social media. I got to make a name for myself. That's how I'm going to reach purpose. You don't need networking. well pastor mike what i need because i got god i got my gifts i got my calling i know what it is i need ambition yeah i need to i need to come on i'm gonna show my family i'm gonna show everybody that i'm somebody god says you don't need that so what what do you need i begin to go through every giant in the Bible. And this is the missing link for them and for all of us.

21:55 And it's very simple. It's godly community. and some of you like no it's not i already see i already see you like no it's not i'll prove it to you three examples let's talk about adam the first man here we go so adam we know he had a relationship with god he was the first man the bible says that they walked in the cool of the day together so so so god and adam had a relationship. So this one's good. Okay. Gifts. He had the gift of management. How do you figure that? He had to name every animal. Um, yeah, big gray hippopotamus. That's what you're going to be like. Like he had, he had the, he had to manage the, so he had gifts right here. So that's good. He had a calling. What was his calling to subdue, dominate and rule over the entire earth as well as reproduce or multiply from Adam. Everybody was so he had a calling and he said yes to the calling. The first time after all the creation that God said it's not good was when he looked at Adam with his God, with his gifts and with this calling. And he said, it's not good for him to be alone. And so what did God do out of his side? He put him to sleep and he created godly community for him and her name was Eve.

23:25 And God, I thank you for creating Eve because if you wouldn't have created Eve, I wouldn't have gotten Natalie. And Lord, is she a blessing. And I thank you. what i'm saying to you is the thing that allows the circle of purpose to be fulfilled in our lives the missing link is godly community that wasn't enough for some of y'all because some of y'all was like ah okay adam okay that's let's go to david because everybody like david david and goliath the one who who slew and killed okay let's talk about it his relationship with god the bible talks about him being a man after god's own heart even when he messed up he would turn he would repent he would go from what he was doing so he had a relationship with god his gifts david was like some of you he had tons of gifts i mean he was a shepherd he was he was a warrior he could play a mean guitar. He was a musician. He was an expert with a slingshot and a stone. He'll kill you. Like, do you understand what I'm saying? He had tons of gifts, but what did David do with his gifts? He didn't start a slingshot company. Because I mean, after you killed Goliath, I mean, all I'm trying to do is start the first Amazon Prime. We'll have it to you in less than two days.

24:53 Like, do you understand what I'm saying? I would have started a business off of that. But what did David do? He submitted his gifts to his calling. And what was his calling to be the king of Israel? Like, and he had to go through years of being persecuted. He had to go through years of being on the run. He had to go through years of people hating on him. So what are you saying, Pastor Mike? Somebody needs to hear this right now. Just because it's not working out doesn't mean that's what you're not called to. like just because you got opposition and haters doesn't mean God saying no he's saying yeah you got to go through that to build up the stamina to withhold the position that I've called you to because it's bigger and it oh come on and it's higher and it's more than what you thought opposition does not mean that you are supposed to detour that's a whole nother that's that's something completely different so so he answered his calling but the bible talks about Jonathan and David that he had godly community with the son of the person who was trying to take him out like like so what I want you to understand is the bible you can go read it later for yourself because there's so much there it's like so much there but but when you start looking at David's life and you start looking at Jonathan it says their hearts were knit together it said they looked out for each other let me let me help you understand how much they looked out for each other Jonathan was supposed to be the heir to the throne He was the one that was supposed to be in the position that god called David to And jonathan was so in tuned that he recognized that he wasn't even the one for the position Do you have people in your life who will say this is what i'm supposed to step into?

26:37 But you're the one god called to do it Woo! The answer is no. Look, everybody just neck is stiff. Like, uh-uh, nope, uh-uh, no. That's what Jonathan, Jonathan saved David's life several times. There's one specific instance where Jonathan and David, they were going to invite him to a party and David was like, bro, I mean, Jonathan said, bro, don't come. My daddy crazy. He's trying to, well, I don't know if he's trying to kill you. I'll let you know if he's trying to kill you. I'll do some things. I'll say, oh, and if I say, oh, that means get out of here, bro. And this man put his life on the line for his friend so that he could reach his calling or his purpose and ended up dying before his friend ever reached his calling. But it was because he had somebody in his inner circle who truly cared about him that he was even able to be the King David that we know about. See, he wasn't able to reach purpose until he completed with the missing link being godly community. One more person, because some of y'all still sitting there just looking at me. Let's go to our example.

27:55 His name is Jesus. Now, if anybody could have done this thing without godly community, Jesus, I'm the son of God. Are you blind? see i mean do you understand what i'm saying like like you lane arms like d like like the son of god okay so so we already know it's not like he had a relationship with god he was god okay so that one's taken care of but i just want you to see how powerful this is when they were sitting at the beginning before creation in genesis he said he said um they were already in community this is how you know this is god's plan for us the father looked at the son and the son looked at the holy spirit and said let us oh come on y'all let us make man like it wasn't just one person they they literally were in community at the beginning so then when jesus comes to earth he said i only do what i see my Bye.

29:04 so now jesus is god jesus gifts are everything like i mean come on there is not water in the wine they invited him to all the parties do you understand what i'm saying like he he could do walking on water like anything but what was his calling to save the world to die on the cross and and i mean if it was me because y'all know jesus didn't want to do that he was human and so it means that every every way out that a human would want he wanted it too he even asked he said is there um is there any other way i mean we can and he said but nevertheless not my see i got gifts but not my will god i can make money with this or i can do this or i can but not my will, your will.

30:05 What you called me to be done. And so if it was me and I knew I was going to the cross, as soon as I got released into ministry, I would have just walked straight up to the cross. I ain't about to delay this. Y'all come on, I'm about to die. Like if it was me, I would have gone straight up. Come on. I'm coming back in three days, don't worry. but he didn't why because he had to complete the circle of purpose and so he chose godly community oh y'all missed it he chose it he he chose godly community he literally was walking past people hey bro i like you follow me me. Fisherman, hey, follow me. Walk with me. Do life with me. Let's walk together. Well, Jesus, I'm not perfect. Like, it don't matter. We're just going to walk together. We're going to do life together. We're going to struggle together. We're going to eat together. We're going to pray together.

31:10 We're going to go to worship together. We're going to celebrate together. We're going to fight together. I'm even wash y'all nasty feet. I'm going to get vulnerable before you. I'm going to let you see me in a place that nobody, the regular people could. I'm going to let you into my inner circle. And he decided, he chose to walk with people. And even out of the 12 disciples, see, cause some of y'all don't even realize that God's plan, this is God's plan for all of us. He, he, he began to walk with these gentlemen, but he had three guys that he even let even deeper into his life. Peter, James, and John, they knew that Jesus had doo-doo streaks in his, in his, uh, in his road.

31:56 Some of y'all are so offended right now. It's just like, y'all know all of them things was cream. And so Jesus passed gas. Y'all know that, right? that was holy flagellation do you understand what i'm saying what i'm trying to paint the picture is god was really human in jesus like he had to use the restroom he he had to go to shower he had and he allowed people to see him in his state of becoming.

32:35 My question to you is who gets to see you while you're still becoming? see because because if you're just showing everybody the finished product nobody even knows if that's real like what y'all come and present to us like y'all don't even know that that's real like like like like but my wife just prime example so over this past few weeks my wife is in my inner circle and over this this past year i've gained a couple lbs a couple pounds you understand what i'm saying and i had this outfit put together and and i mean this outfit I mean, I think it looks great. You know what I'm saying? I came up here. I was like, this is going to be the... And so my wife came up to me today as I was leaning. I was like, how do I look? And she said, the shirt's just a little tight around the tongue. And I said, that's how she said it. I was like, girl, please, this shirt ain't that tight around my tongue. But it was.

33:28 And so she said, come here. And I said, what? She said, I'm going to cut a slit up the side so that it doesn't pull. You see, I'm good now. I'm good. But I want you to see the power of this. That in my vulnerability, my inner circle just saved me from an hour of embarrassment. And I let her into my life enough to be able to see things that nobody would see unless I showed you. that's a practical example but in in your life who are the people that can say come here your attitude's bad come here we gotta cut we gotta cut we gotta leave room you're too busy and so you're stressed out and that's when you fall into sin and and how do i know because i've been your friend for four years i've watched these cycles and i'm not gonna stand by anymore and just to let it happen. Like who are those people that y'all would have never known that.

34:55 But my inner circle does. Like when I take my, when I take my shirt off in my, uh, my office, my brother, Aaron, who's in my inner circle, he sees everything. He knows when I mess up, he sees when I come off this platform and just like, that didn't make no sense. They didn't get anything out of that. He's, he's seen because if you don't have godly community, you cannot complete your purpose and and and so i so this is my thing if jesus needed godly community what's your excuse well i'm busy he had to save the whole world come on well i just don't like people like that maybe that's why you really do need godly community because you had bad examples of what relationship really looked like and it's a dysfunction in your heart and you need godly community and somebody like well i got community i didn't say community i said godly community people who are not perfect but whose direction is set towards jesus because if you don't have those people, then we're only, we're moved by our emotions and what we feel today and what we don't feel. And the vibe is wrong. Forget a vibe because the vibe can be wrong at any time. Jesus is the only thing that's the same.

36:19 His joy will be made perfect in our weakness. His strength will be made perfect in our weakness. He will be the one that lifts us. We need people who are set on the thing that we are set on. And so my question is, Jesus had all of this. My question is, where are you? And I'm not talking ethereal. Can you name your godly community? no no no i mean suzy i mean yeah suzy she suzy when if your last time talking to suzy was seven months ago she's not your godly community well i mean my sister like my sister you're still lying to her though you never told her what really happened so you can't have godly community with lies. Some of y'all are so fake with your best friends. Come on, let's be honest. Like they're my bestie, but you have not told them what really happened and what's really going on and that you keep them that close because you're really jealous of them. And so you get to see things before them so you can try to compare yourself and outdo them. Come on, let's be honest.

37:33 All I'm saying is it may be time to reevaluate our community. And this is this is the only reason I say that is because this is God's plan for us. This is God's plan for expansion in your life. And it's God's plan for the church. I'm going to take you right now to Ecclesiastes four, nine. And you know this, but I want you to see this Ecclesiastes four, nine. And it's so strong because it says two people are better than one. Period. Like that's the whole sentence. And it says then for they can help each other. What's that last word? Succeed. What I'm telling you is your success is wrapped up in this missing link right here. You need godly community. And I know you're quiet and you're shy and all these other excuses and lies that the enemy has Has tried to convince you of so you don't reach purpose But today we have to divorce that because the bible says two are better than one if one person falls The other can reach out and help them. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble I heard somebody say there's no I in team But there is a I in isolation And that's where the enemy would like to keep every one of you. Yeah, you pray. Yeah, you worship Yeah, you but you're alone. And if you're alone, according to the Bible, you're in real trouble.

38:59 Nobody even knows what you're struggling with. They don't know how to pray for you. They don't know. And they can't they can't force their way in. You have to let them in. That's why this whole Christian walk is about about being courteous. That's why Jesus doesn't pry his way into our life. You have to invite him into your life. And we need godly community. Verse 11. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can you be warm alone? A person standing alone, look at this, can be attacked and defeated. That's why pornography has been able to wear some of y'all out because nobody even knows you're fighting it. And so you go and you fight alone. That's why your marriages are falling apart in some ways because you don't have any other couples that can speak life into your marriage. That's why many of us are dealing with comparison because we're always so perfect and nobody even knows we're struggling it says a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated but two can stand back to back get that picture in your head they can stand back to back and they can they can fight brother scott come here real fast i want you to realize this image and this picture right now if i'm alone the enemy can get me because i can't see something but if i have somebody that's back to back with me and stronger than me and ball head and fight and has a police uh training when the enemy comes he's got this side and i've got this side and if he comes and we got to start turning i'm not blind to what is happening because i got somebody that's got my back i need you to hear me say this there are people that god is trying to assign to your life that you can stand back to back with but see what we want to do is stand face to face with people i want to just tell you about all my problems and I want to tell you this and tell you all of that. And God's saying, that's not what you need to do. You need to stop talking so much and get back to back and say, do you got me? Okay. And I got you. So it's not about us seeing eye to eye on everything.

41:00 Oh, you missed it. That was good. That was good. That's good. All right. I'm gonna run back. I'm gonna run back. I'm gonna run back. It's not about us seeing eye to eye. Well, this is what I feel about this. This is what I feel about. It's a seeing what each other doesn't see. it's about realizing that my blind spots are things that you can see clearly so so what's coming on that side am i dealing in pride am i dealing in anger has my attitude changed am i becoming money hungry i need somebody that can see what i don't see does everybody understand that somebody say i need an inner circle see see church as i end today i want you to realize one thing that we're not we're not going to be a church that just preaches the the message of jesus we're going to be a church that follows the method of jesus see a lot of people preach the message but do what they want but god gave us a clear instruction for godly community. This is my last scripture in Acts 2 42. It literally is titled in my Bible, the believers from a community, like doing godly community. And it said, all of the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's supper and to prayer. Those are four things. A deep sense of awe came over all of them and the apostles look at the atmosphere that miracles were performed in the apostles performed many miracles signs and wonders and all of the believers met together in one place and they shared everything they had they sold their property and possessions and shared their money with those in need they worshiped together at the temple each day like we're doing today they worship together in large group settings but then they met in homes for the lord's supper and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity.

42:55 All of the while they were praising and enjoying the goodwill of every person. They weren't in competition. They were completing each other in purpose. And each day, look at the result of them doing this. Each day, the Lord, not their publicity, not their networking, not all that. The Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved every single day. we would have to do less evangelism if we would do community oh y'all didn't like that if you wouldn't have to tell people about jesus because they would see how your life is and the people you do stuff and they're gonna ask what must i do to be saved the lord added to them every day so this this is what i want you to know there are five elements to to what grew the church and what grew people they worship together They chilled together. They prayed together. They transformed together and they multiplied Period I want everybody to get this As a church i'm here to set the culture straight as transformation church If you're going to be a part of this church i'm telling you My preaching is good, but small groups and community is way better Because this is where you get touched guys. Our church is getting better bigger Everybody's not going to get to touch Pastor Mike.

44:16 And I ain't got nothing for you. I'm just going to point you to Jesus. But healing happens in community. A lot of people want to come up to the altar and get prayer from me. Sorry, boo, I'm not the healer. I only can point you to the healer. And God gives us direction. He tells us in James, he says, if you need to be healed, confess your sins one to another. And ask each other for healing. Ask each other for prayer and you'll be healed. See, the church has gotten it backwards. It's been glory to the man. Let the man of God touch you. No, tell your friend, pray together. Healing comes. Like, I want you to realize this is not, I'm just up here using my gift, submitted to my calling, trying to reach my purpose. But I can't heal you from your emotional wounds and all that. But being in a small group and telling those people and walking with those people and daily asking them to pray for you and healing. God says, that's where healing comes. Your marriage is broken. Get around some other married, broken people.

45:08 And y'all keep pointing to Jesus and pray together. And he said, healing will come. I just want you to see as a church, this is what we're going to do. We're going to worship together in large temple courts. That's what we're doing right now. But then we're going to meet and chill together from house to house. That's what we're even pushing today and offering to you today. I know it may be difficult for you to find godly community. This is the main thing that our church does. Is that we do large group worship and then we do house to house. and we call it belong groups because everybody needs a place where they belong. Y'all, this church is only going to get bigger. Thousands of people are going to be coming to this church, but why do I go to a big church? It's not a big church when you're in a small group.

46:00 Like, who knows your name? Who can you start developing relationship? I know it's going to take time for some of us to open everything up to everybody, but God wants you to have godly community. And listen, that means you may have to divorce some of the friends that you've had. I'll talk about the roller coaster of a relationship next week, but you may have to divorce some of those relationships because you can't stay in a relationship because of time served. oh y'all know like we've been down since second grade we learn how to spell together we'll spell bye bye do you understand what i'm saying because this is this is no longer because it's not taking me towards purpose and so we have to get into that and and so so what i'm saying is this is jesus's plan and his method so so it's our method too and this is what i really want everybody to know. Cause I know you're saying, well, pastor Mike, that's not really what I want to do because that's not, that's not how I do it. This is, this really, I really want it to be all about me. Like my comfort, me being, me being in control of the relationships, me knowing. And God said, my plan was never for it to be about you. It was never to be me focused.

47:18 It's time. Remember the kingdom of God turns everything upside down as a church. We're not going to be me focused. We're going to be we focused. And from now on, as a church, if you're going through anything alone, it's because you've decided to reject godly community. Well, nobody's here for me. Pastor Mike wouldn't answer my phone call. I'm not going to answer your phone call. I'm not. Because my primary responsibility is to lead the leaders and feed the sheep. and and and above all of that it's to natalie ava bella and mj i have to be the pastor of that home before i pastor anybody else and listen i'm figuring that out right now in my inner circle last night till midnight we we are talking about my schedule with people who are in my people who don't have to to call me to come over people who have garage openers to my house see who has access like like can say i'm coming in oh i wasn't expecting you it's okay i'm here and we need to talk about this because this is an issue and you were acting like it wasn't but it is well it is an issue i was just mad at y'all and i just didn't think that this was gonna work out so i was gonna act like it didn't exist well let's talk about it this is how i feel this is how you feel and now we got to get this thing together and let's pray about this and let's move forward in this. And literally, I'm telling you from last night to this morning, as I stand here and preach to you, I am better because I have godly community. If you don't have that, you are missing out on the circle of purpose that God is trying to give you. There is a missing link that today God wants you to begin to fulfill. I want to pray for every person that this concept, you wouldn't just brush off because some of you are going to be three months from now. I'm like, Why is everything not working?

49:16 Because you can't complete purpose. Remember, you can have all of these other things, everything else. Relationship with God, your giftings, your calling, but without godly community, doesn't complete the circle. True life change happens in small groups. I'm challenging every person today. Get in a small group.

49:40 Oh, I'm busy. I bet you are. but you may be busy with things that aren't pushing you towards purpose and this can be another year of cycles or you can try something different and break these cycles well I have a huge company you still need community well I've been hurt in community before God is a God of second chances well I just don't know if I'll be hurt I promise you if one group doesn't work another one will But I'm just asking us not to just listen to the message of Jesus. Why don't we participate in the method of Jesus? Even those watching online, you may need to find a godly community within the internet circle or go to a local church wherever you are and tell them, I need community. You need to be in community with other people. I'm going to pray for every person in this room. Father, I thank you that today we heard your word.

50:35 God if adam needed an inner circle and david needed an inner circle and even jesus our example needed an inner circle Father, we believe we need one now help us find them Lead us and guide us your word says that you delight in the details of our life And so god i'm thanking you for every person who's having a hard time with this father That you would open their hearts and you allow them to take the next step father Let this church be known for godly community. Let us do life together Let us meet in temple courts and worship you, but then meet from house to house and share father God, let us be able to pray together and chill together and walk together and and suffer together Father God and see victory together father God and transform together and see more people come to you together We trust you. We believe you and we thank you for it in jesus name. We agree Amen