 I want to tell you the story of how I first started following Jesus. I grew up in church and my dad was actually the pastor and so I was there all the time. But when I was 15 years old, I was done. My butt was in the seat on Sunday mornings, but my heart was far from God. And I desperately wanted to fit in with the world and I began to turn my heart away from the Lord for that. And like most good stories, this one starts with a girl. And there was this girl I had a crush on at church and I was absolutely shocked one day where after church, as I was standing in the lobby, she came up and started talking to me. And I don't know if you've ever had a moment like this in your life. You know, I'm like kind of shaking on the inside, but it's like trying to smile and be cool on the outside. And she started talking to me and she invited me to come to this thing that was happening at her friend's house that night. And so I was like, yeah, sure, I'll be there no matter what. And I signed myself up for it. And so I showed up that night, not knowing when I was getting myself into. Because what had happened was a group of teenagers in the church had just totally, mostly guys had set themselves apart, totally to follow Jesus with every area of their life. And they had fully given their lives to him. And the Holy Spirit had began to visit this group in a powerful way. And so there was like these maybe 15 people and one of them, their mom had opened up their house, their living room for the kids to come over and hang out and worship the Lord. And so this is where I kind of showed up this night to hang out with this girl. And so I walk into this group and immediately as I walk into the group, I realized these people are different than me because just the, especially this group of guys, there was like this confidence and an absolute lack of the fear of man that was totally foreign to me. And even though I didn't know them at all and they didn't know me at all, they embraced me and brought me right into their group and were hanging out with me and loving me like I was a part of their crew. And maybe about an hour into the night after hanging out for a while, they all decided they were gonna go down, it was kind of a split level house. They were going down to basically the basement. There was this orange shag carpet down there and they had an entertainment system and they said, we're gonna worship Jesus. And so they pressed a button and out came the five CD changer. And they put it in these five different CDs into the CD changer and I'm like, I'm not sure what's going on right now. And they put it in and they started playing worship songs and they began to worship. Like just for context, there is no live music at all. Nobody's leading a Bible study. No one's there to speak or preach. They just start to sing with the CD player and the Holy spirit completely came and filled that room. Orange shag carpet and all. And I just began to experience the presence of God like I'd never experienced it in my life before. So real, so tangible, so present, even so heavy in that place. And everyone else is worshiping their heart out and I'm just kind of standing there not even knowing what's really going on as I'm experiencing the presence of God. But I just remember saying to the Lord, Jesus, I want what they have. They have something real with you. They actually know you. The way they pray and talk to you, they have a relationship with you and I want that. And I just felt the Lord say it back to me, me too. I'm so glad you finally asked. And the Holy spirit came right down in that place and he touched my heart and Jesus began to transform me and change me in that moment. And literally till today I'm a different person. Over the weeks that followed, more and more young people would come to this lady's house and so soon we had 70 to 80 teenagers packed three or four nights a week into this lady's house and we would just play the five CD CD player and begin to worship and begin to sing and Jesus would come and visit us. And every week people were coming to Christ. Every week people's lives were being changed. Every week chains were breaking off. Every week people were meeting with God. And that was the environment that I came to know Jesus in. God's presence poured out powerfully. Teenagers coming to Christ every week and a community of friends that loved Jesus and each other like nothing I had ever seen. When school got out that summer, we hung out every single day. Like every single day there was 70 people that would get together at this lady's house. We would play basketball outside and then we'd go into worship and then we'd drive downtown to the city and share the gospel with people on the streets and then we'd go back to the house and worship more and we just did it together every single day. And I look back at it now 42 years old that time when I was 15 and it was one of the most powerful moments, most powerful seasons of my entire life. What I didn't know is I had accidentally stumbled into something far too rare but exceedingly special that Jesus wants everybody in his church to experience. Something that was an echo down from history even from the first days of Pentecost when the church was born. And I wanna look together today in the scriptures to this thing that Jesus has intended for us to experience as a church, but for many of us it's been far too rare of an experience. So open up with me and your Bibles to Acts chapter two. We're gonna read in Acts chapter two and just for a little context, this is 50 days earlier Jesus had died and he had risen again and he had showed himself to many people and began to teach his disciples. And then 10 days before this moment he had ascended and gone back into heaven. And the disciples have been praying and waiting on him for what they're supposed to do next. And then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down and they were filled with power from the Holy Spirit. Miracles began to happen and Peter one of their leaders stands up to preach on the streets in the city of Jerusalem where literally just 50 days earlier they had killed Jesus. The crowd is the same people as he stands up there to preach and he preaches with boldness that Jesus actually died for them. And if they will repent and turn to him he wants to rescue them and give them the Holy Spirit too. And on that first day, the birthday of the church 3,000 people bow their knee. 3,000 people give their lives to Christ and are baptized and the church is born. And this is where we pick up in the scripture right here, chapter two we're gonna read in verse 41 to start. So those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And the author of Acts begins to describe now what this early church was like right after it was born. And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts and praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. What's going on with this early church that they're experiencing the power of God in such a powerful way that's transforming all of them? What's going on that people are getting saved every single day and getting added into the church? He tells us here in verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And when I first read this verse I thought it was describing kind of these four different things they were devoting themselves to. But as I read it closer I realized that wasn't actually the structure of the sentence. Did any of you growing up in English class have to diagram sentences? Give me your hand if you had to do that. I don't think they have to do that today anymore. I'm not sure about you but that was literally my least favorite part of my education. But for the first moment in your entire life since you were in high school it's going to pay benefits right now, okay? If it was listing four things that would have said and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching comma the fellowship comma the breaking of bread and the prayers but that's not what it says. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship. And then that comma is saying everything after that's describing what the fellowship is. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. It'd be like if you said they devoted themselves to vegetables and fruits to bananas and apples, okay? You're not saying those are four different things. You're saying there's vegetables and there's fruits and I'm describing the fruits. Now it's bananas and apples. And so that's what we see he's talking about here. And so when you're looking at this what are these two things that is saying the early church devoted themselves to? The first is the apostles teaching. These new Christians which had just begun to follow Jesus and form the church together are now gathering together regularly. It says even daily in this passage in the precincts of the temple and the apostles are standing up and they're teaching them who Jesus was and why he died for them on the cross and the things that Jesus had taught them and they're passing on to these new believers what eventually gets captured in our New Testament and the Bible and they says they're devoting themselves to this teaching, to being there and hearing it and obeying it and putting it into practice in their lives. And I hope that today, 2000 years later we're still devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching. We're still looking to the word of God and coming to listen and hear it and begin to obey it and put it into practice in our lives but it goes on to say something else they devoted themselves to. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship. The Greek word for this word, the fellowship is Koinonia. And for the rest of the morning I actually wanna use this Greek word Koinonia to talk about it. Why? Because sometimes a language will capture an idea better than English does. You know, my family lived in China for about 10 years and we learned to speak Mandarin Chinese during that time and there's one word that I've found when people move to China and study Chinese even after they move back to America afterwards they keep using this Chinese word in their language. And it's the word mafan. Can you say it with me? Mafan? Mafan. And mafan is a very special word in Chinese because it basically means it has the idea of kind of trouble and bothersome and hassle and annoyance and pain in the butt all tied up into one word. And so when I'm running late to pick up my kids from school and all of a sudden I'm stopped by a train going seven miles per hour that somehow manages to block every street in Kalamazoo at the same time you might utter a little profanity in that moment but I just say mafan. Pain in the butt, that's so annoying. You know, or you go to the Secretary of State and you're filling out forms or something and you realize they changed the rules so you need some kind of identification or some kind of form that you didn't bring with you. Mafan. Okay? And so it is this word that basically communicates the feeling of it is the verbal expression of that word. Okay? Mafan. Say it with me one more time. Mafan. Doesn't it feel good to say that word? And so when you come back from China you still keep saying that word cause it just captures that idea better. The Greek word koinonia expresses this important idea in the Bible better than English can. We might use a word like fellowship or community, cooperation, partnership or participation but it's kind of like instead of mafan saying bothersome. Like it touches on the idea but it doesn't express it quite as well. And so let's explore this idea of koinonia. Let's say that one with me, koinonia. The Greek word koinonia means to share with someone in something above and beyond the relationship itself. It's a relationship that's built on something greater than the relationship itself that somehow makes the relationship deeper than a normal friendship. Koinonia is not focused on the relationship itself but rather on the something bigger that they share. You ever when your kid used one of those like magic eye books that has like kind of the pattern in it and certain people if you stare at it and kind of relax your eyes in a certain way there's like a picture that kind of pops out of the page to you. You know the key to those using those things is you don't actually stare at the page itself. You have to look at something beyond it for the deeper meaning to pop out to you. And this is the idea of koinonia. It's two people not that are hugging each other and focused on each other but have their arms linked together and are looking at something out into the distance. That's this idea of koinonia. You know have you ever seen like in a movie or maybe even in relationships or maybe even a relative? There'll be a man who when he was 18 years old joined the army and was in some kind of a war. And he goes through the next two or three years of his life this incredibly traumatic experience of being on the front lines of a war in a terrible situation, seeing people die and injured, this kind of thing. And then he comes back and he doesn't stay in the army anymore than those first three years. And he goes through the rest of his life, works a job, has a family, attends a church, is in different kinds of clubs. When he comes to the end of his life and he dies, who are the people he chooses to be as pallbearers? It's those people who were in the foxhole with him when he was 19 years old. That something was forged in the heat of that experience. That even in the 50 or 60 years after that time nothing else replicated the relationship he had in those moments in the foxhole. What is it? That's coinonia. They were about something that was bigger than themself and they experienced it together and something was forged in their relationship that actually trumps what's born in relationships for decades after the fact. But when I was in high school I went to a really, really small Christian school in Western New York and we had an amazing basketball team. Like imagine Hoosiers. And basically we kind of had this experience all through high school where we grew up together and when I was a senior that joined the league of all the other public schools in our city and we won the city championship in our senior year. It was like this incredible experience and now 25 years later some of my best friends are still people who were on that basketball team. When I was a missionary some of our biggest supporters were people that were on that basketball team with me. Just last week I went on vacation and I visited one of those people that was on that basketball team with me. What is that? It's Koinonia. We were a part of something bigger than ourselves and somehow that forged some kind of a relationship that endured and was more powerful than others. And the idea of Koinonia finds its highest expression in the church because we're brought together not by our sameness, not by our mutual interests but because we are a part of a spiritual family that goes back 2000 years. We're a part of an army that lays down our lives together to bring the gospel to the world. And somehow that forges something inside of us that is stronger than anything we get from a club or a team or in the military. It is this relationship we have together around God shared purposes that all of history is shaped around. And so there's something we get to tap into as believers that an unbeliever can experience even in the foxhole that God meant for us to have. You know that the greatest privilege of my life is that through my 20s and 30s I was able to lay down my life reaching China with the gospel alongside of a group of people who are around the same age as us. There is a closeness and a connection I have with that group that nobody else in this room could ever even understand that we share. And right now, here in Kalamazoo, there's at least seven people that served with me over the years in China even though none of us are from this area. Why? Koinonia. There was a friendship forged in the fires of laying down our lives for Jesus together that has spanned across continents and decades and kept us together. That's Koinonia. That's the kind of friendship that everybody's looking for. It's found in its highest form in the church and it's available to you too. Okay, I think I'm starting to get it, Tobio. Koinonia, what does it look like practically? When we look at this passage in the following chapters, we see that the church of Jerusalem is meeting in three different ways. One thing they're doing is they're gathering together in what's called Solomon's porch. In the temple in Jerusalem, there's kind of these outer courts and on the far eastern end of the outer courts was this long covered colonnade. It's about probably two football fields long and maybe like 30 feet deep and it has a roof over it. And so you can get in there under the sun and out of the heat and it's where people would meet in the temple area. And so different rabbis would meet with their group of 10 disciples there and they'd talk with them and share with them 20 feet down will be another group of 20 people. Couple 20 feet down will be another group of 20 people. Jesus himself taught in this very area of the temple. And it says that after the church is born, every day the believers are gathering in this area of the temple. So we know there's 3,000 believers. I'm sure not everyone there every day, but in this little tunnel area, you got 1,000 people every day packed into one little spot or 2,000 people every day packed into one little spot and all the little groups at 12 are like, what's going on over here? What's happening with these people? I can't stay in my normal spot because this group of 1,000 is down in my way. And the believers would come together and this is where they would hear the apostles teaching and the apostles would teach them how to follow Jesus. And this is where they would gather. And pretty much it's the equivalent of what we're doing right now. Where the church gathers together in a big group and we hear teaching from the word and we have these kind of experiences together. But you know what? This is not where the Bible says Koinania happens. The Bible actually talks about two other places where Koinania happens. It says that they would break bread together in their homes. The believers were getting together in their houses, eating together. This probably included the Lord's Supper, we don't know exactly. And they actually included spiritual conversation and prayer, but it was much broader than that. They were a people that were together as something that was bigger than themselves and they would get together and they would revel in that and enjoy each other and have fun together and eat together and be together. Just on this Friday, a couple days ago, one of our favorite families in the church spontaneously invited us over for dinner. We came over with a little dessert in our hands and brought our kids and we just had an amazing time. And after dinner, our four kids and their two kids were running around the house playing some version of hide and seek and we just sat around the table and we just began to share. We talked about challenges we were having with our kids. We talked about some really difficult stuff we'd gone through in the last couple months. We talked about incredible blessings we'd experienced just in the couple weeks before that. We talked about God and what he was doing in our lives and in our church. And every so often the kids would come in and interrupt with a costume to show us or to hide under the table or a crime because someone had just punched them in the face. But it was absolutely amazing. And I just walked away from that night feeling so full. Full of great food, yes. But full of joy and spiritually challenged and full of life. And Mikhail and I looked at each other as we backed out of the driveway in our minivan and we just said to each other, I am so glad that we did that. That's Koinonia. This happens naturally in the relationships of our church but it also happens in community groups at RSM part-time serving on Team Radiant together. It looks like time together both in the temple and house to house. That's how we see the church meet in the beginning. They're gathering together like this but they're also meeting house to house. Why? Because it takes meeting both in big groups and also in smaller groups to experience the fullness of what Jesus wants you to have in his family. And if the totality of your church experience is only on Sunday morning, I wanna challenge you today that you are actually missing out on the fullness of what Jesus has for you. If the only thing you experience is right here and the fullness of your relationships is turning around for 15 seconds and shaking somebody's hand, you're missing out on the fullness. Jesus has more for you. There is something to be found in the relationships of Koinonia that literally will change your life. Now I just wanna get practical. Literally today you saw it in the video, we have opportunities after service to sign up in the back to join community groups literally today. Do it, take a step, get out of the 15 seconds and experience the fullness of what Jesus has for you. But it's interesting because it lists another place where these early Christians were experiencing Koinonia too. It says they devoted themselves to fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. When I first read this, I kind of just skimmed over it fast and I just read prayer and I thought, oh, they're praying together. That's great. But that's not what it says. It says the prayers. And what it's talking about was there was three times a day at the temple where the Jewish people would gather to pray at nine o'clock, at 3 p.m., and at 6.30 at night. And the believers were gathering together and they were going to these Jewish prayer meetings and they were huddling up in the context of these Jewish prayer meetings and they were praying to Jesus and about the things that Jesus cared about and about the things that Jesus was doing in their life. And the Bible tells us this is one of the two ways that they were building Koinonia together. And when I was studying this, I literally got chills down my spine when I realized they were gathering around three daily prayer meetings just like God had called us to start downtown at the Radiant City Center. At almost the exact same times of the day, ours were eight noon and 6.30. And I understand community groups and homes, but what is it about the prayer meeting that builds this Koinonia? There is something about being together in the presence of God that builds and forms and forges connection like nothing else. I experienced that in that group I got saved in as a teenager, but I see it all the time. Just this past year at the School of Ministry we started a new program called Launch. That's for people across America who are working adults who feel called in the full-time ministry, but they can't move away to a Bible school. And so right now we have 22 adults from around America that are being mentored by their local church pastor doing online classes, but they also gather three times a year for a four-day retreat here in Kalamazoo. And I honestly felt a little nervous when we started this because I just didn't know, are these guys gonna be able to connect and bond like I'm able to see with young adults that all live here in Kalamazoo? It's mostly online. Is this gonna work? And I had all these kinds of questions and insecurities inside. But just this past weekend, we had the second retreat with them. And God came powerfully during this weekend. Many of them were baptized in the Holy Spirit and touched by the Holy Spirit in ways they never had been before. And as I watched these powerful moments in the Lord's presence, I watched them praying over each other, encouraging each other, I watched them hugging each other and weeping with each other. And I saw God's presence begin to forge Koinaniah and these working adults from all across the country. And by the end of the weekend, these people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are literally staying up till 3 a.m. together like college kids hanging out, talking about what God's doing, cooking pizzas in the oven, having all kinds of fun doing this. And I began to see, hey, I thought that only happened with high schoolers, but it doesn't matter how old you are. When you experience God's presence together with other people, it begins to forge relationships, the kind you've been looking for, the kind the world's been looking for, the kind of friendship that you always wanted, get birthed in the presence of God. Koinaniah is forged by time together in his presence. And that's what these early believers were doing. And we see the Bible emphasizing one other aspect of Koinaniah here. The Bible describes that within this community, these people were literally laying down their lives for each other. When someone would have some kind of a financial need, the normal thing was someone would sell extra property that they have or some of their possessions and provide money for that person to meet that needs. And when one was weak, the strong would use their resources to help them. And then when the other person was weak, then those who were weak before would use their resources to help them. And they're serving each other, loving each other, erratically, sacrificially in this kind of a way. Some have described this as like Christian communism even, but that's not really what's going on because they have their own possessions. They're just willing to let go of them at any time to help anybody who has a need. My wife's parents are some of the most generous, serving, sacrificial people that I know. They love their friends, their neighbors, strangers, even to the point of hurting themselves sometimes. And four years ago, they were in their house. My daughter had just been visiting them and she'd just come back home with us. When all of a sudden, they started to hear this weird bubbling from the drains in their house. And all of a sudden, sewage began to backflow into their house, came up out of the toilets, came up out of the sinks and began to just flow and cover the entire first floor of their house and the entire basement of their house and six inches of sewage. And your first response to this is that's so disgusting and it is, but it was absolutely devastating because it destroyed their entire house. Everything, the floor, the walls, everything would need to get replaced for a human to live in a house again. All their possessions in the basement on the first floor totally destroyed, totally ruined. Basically, their entire financial lives completely destroyed by what happened. And in one of the most infuriating situations of my life, their home insurance and also the insurance of the town which had the backed up sewage line that crawled to the problem but did not give them one dime. Can you imagine paying insurance every month and then paying your property taxes every month and this happens to you because of the town and they don't give one dime to help you? And I was so frustrated. I mean, my fund did not even cover this one. And as they faced this tragedy, I started to watch as Jesus' coin in EO went to work. One family from the church had an extra apartment on their property and they set everything up and invited my parents in law to come live in there and set them up in this beautiful property for them to live while things were taken care of in their house. Others just randomly began to give money and resources and construction supplies to them. Others did a fundraiser in the community for them. And then all these tradesmen from the church just began to gather together with a bunch of other unskilled labor like me from the church and they basically began to rebuild their house from the bottom up. They tore out the whole floor of the first floor and the walls all through down to the studs and they just rebuilt the thing from scratch taking care of this incredible couple. And just as my wife's parents have constantly laid down their lives to love those around them and that moment of need, those around them laid down their lives to love my parents in law. That's coin in EO. I think of Gage, one of the young men in our church who came to the Radiant School of Ministry just a couple of years ago, a year and a half ago. And as he was moving down here, he knew God had called him to come to the Bible school. He knew God was really wanting to serve him his life but he had no resources, anything. So he took the last of his money before he moved down from the Upper Peninsula and he bought a van and he was just planning to live in the back of his van while he obeyed what God had told him to do and coming down here. And so, well, in the notes to me, the first night that he's down here, after we have our orientation, he parks his van in the Portage parking lot at the church so he can show up for church the next morning. And so the parking lot team shows up at church and there's this conversion van sitting in the parking lot and they see it, you know, it seems like it's like those windows are steamed up. You know what's going on here, right? As they walk over to the thing and knock and Gage pops his little heads up and they're like, what are you doing? You can't sleep here like this. And in most situations, that would be the end of the story. You would just kick them off the property. But one person on the parking lot team says, do you have a place to live? And Gage is like, no, I'm just, I'm gonna be staying on the back of my van. And this guy, Chris from Portage says, you can come live with me. And he brings them right into his house, gives him a bedroom. Another guy says, I'll help you get a job and he gets them set up with a job that week. And the church begins to gather around Gage. And for this young man who had never had a spiritual family, all of a sudden in one moment, Jesus has given him one. And he's adopted by the church and set up. And over the last year and a half, I don't know if I've ever seen anybody grow as fast as I've seen Gage grow in this last year and a half. And now he's serving in the students ministry here at church and he's discipling and pouring back into your young people. And many of them are getting touched and radically changed as Gage has radically given his life for Jesus. And just a couple of months Gage is getting ready to launch out on a traveling team that's gonna cross America preaching the gospel and churches and on the streets all over the place. And I know that God has raised up Gage is gonna use him powerfully in his generation. But it started with a church that said, I got a room for you. I'll help you get a job. I'll take care of you, young man. Come with me. He was given a family and the church was able to look like what the church is supposed to look like. Look what happens in this passage when the church is devoted itself to Koinonia. It says that the people looking at the Christians are feeling two different things. First, awe. They recognize there's something different and powerful about these new Christians that are meeting in Solomon's porch. And then also favor. It says they like whatever it is that's different about these Christians. And the result is that people are getting saved every day. People are being added to the church every day. Chains are breaking off people and they're being set free every day. People are meeting God every day. Koinonia is a magnet that draws a lost world to Jesus. People are being brought in. And Jesus himself said this would happen on the last night before he went to the cross. As he gathered his disciples together he began to pray over them. And he prays this in John chapter 17. He says, I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their words. I'm not just praying for these 12 anymore. He's praying for us. Those who are gonna believe down the road. That they may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you. That they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you've given me, I have given to them that they may one even as we are one. I and them and you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. And Jesus tells them that our oneness, our togetherness, our Koinonia is actually the thing that will declare to the world that he is real and that he came from God. Our Koinonia preaches the gospel just as loud as your words ever can. Our together witness is our witness. There is something about us loving each other that draws a lost world to Jesus. Our Koinonia preaches the gospel in a way people can't ignore. And in a world today where people are more fragmented, more isolated, more friendless, more lacking in community than ever before, Koinonia actually preaches louder than ever before. Our witness is our witness. When we lived in China, we were starting churches there. We would train the new believers to go out and share their new relationship with Jesus with their friends and their families so the gospel could go further. But we began to notice the Chinese people weren't doing what we were challenging them to do. They were doing something a little bit different. Instead, they would invite their unsaved friends to come hang out with them and the other Christians. And at first we were watching this and we were feeling frustrated, like, no, you need to preach the gospel to them, you need to bring it to your friends, you need to bring it to your family. They said, no, Toby, we feel the Lord leading us to do this. And they would just invite unbelievers to come hang out with them in their crew of Christians. And as their friends would see this group of believers and see the love and relationship they had with each other that was literally different than anything they'd ever seen before, one by one, their friends started to give their lives to Christ. Their withness was their witness. But how do you get Koinonia if it's this powerful and this important? It tells us right here, you devote yourself to it. Koinonia costs you something. In this passage, they're literally spending every day together, it says. That seems impossible in our modern world. I got four kids, I'm very busy, I get it. But if you want the fruits of Koinonia in your life, if you want the fruits of Koinonia in this church, it's gonna cost us something. We have to devote ourselves to it. You know, something might rise up in you and you say, I don't really like small groups. I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the whole point of this was to actualize your personal preferences. I thought we were giving our lives to glorify Jesus and save a lost and dying world. I got things mixed up. Please don't do anything that would mess with your preferences, especially for something so small as answering the prayer of Jesus himself that he cried out his father so that a lost world would be drawn back to him and the Son of God who deserves all glory would receive the reward of what he suffered for. My priorities were all screwed up there. Listen, it's bigger than you. It's bigger than you. It's bigger than me. The way we love each other, the way we build our relationships together is a magnet that draws hundreds and thousands of people who need Jesus desperately and don't have him yet, back to him. I don't go to small groups so I get warm, fuzzy feelings. I go to a small group that I can love you guys and then we can join together and draw lost people back to Christ. You joining a community group, it's probably gonna be really good for you. You're probably gonna experience the gladness and friendship in Coyna Nia we see in this passage. But even if it doesn't, it's still worth it because our Coyna Nia, our love for each other actually draws a lost world back to Jesus. And so here's my question as we end today. Are you devoted to Coyna Nia? In your life, have you been devoted to Coyna Nia? And if not, let's repent today and let's align our lives with what Jesus is inviting us into in this passage. You can invite another family of believers over to your house for dinner. Like literally, today you can just call them and invite them over. That's Coyna Nia. You can begin to serve at church and build relationships with a team of believers you serve with. That's Coyna Nia. You can invite a friend or an acquaintance who's a believer to pray with you this week, maybe one of the meetings downtown. That's Coyna Nia. You can reach out to the church and find if there's someone who has needs in our family that you can help meet financially. That's Coyna Nia. You can literally sign up for a community group today. But I don't really like someone, don't even say it. Mafa, you know? Our witness is our witness. Our Coyna Nia is the catalyst for revival. Let's devote ourselves to it. And so I wanna challenge us today, not just to think about this idea but to actually respond and obey, to take a step of obedience to his word. So I just wanna invite you just to close your eyes with me where you are right now. Let's just take a moment to listen to what Holy Spirit is challenging each of us to. Maybe it is joining a small group today. If that's it, don't hesitate, just obey, do it. Maybe it's starting to serve in the church or join our SM part-time or something else like that, whatever it is. Maybe it's just making that phone call and inviting someone over for dinner. Whatever you're feeling in your heart from the Holy Spirit right now, just be willing to take a step, obey, and do it. Would you all just stand up with me today? As I was praying for us today, I really felt the sense that for many of us, we know we want to step out in this way. We know we wanna join a small group. We know it would be good for us and our family, but there is just this sense inside of I am so overwhelmed. I am so tired and exhausted. I am so busy. I just don't know how it's possible for me. And if that's you, I just felt the Lord say so clearly this morning as I was praying that he wants to release strength and grace to you and wisdom to you for what you need to do. And so if you're here today and that's you, you're saying, I wanna do it. I know it's the right thing, but I just feel so tired and so busy and so overwhelmed. I don't know how to do this on my own. Jesus wants to help you today and give you what you need. And I just wanna invite you, if that's you, just to kind of come up right to the front right now. We wanna pray for you. And I just feel like God's gonna release strength and he's gonna release help for you right now. So if that's you, you're feeling that, you're feeling stuck and you need strength to actually obey. Just courageously just come up to the front right now and just have our prayer partners come up to pray with us as well. Don't hold back if you need strength. Step up, man up, admit it. I can't do it on my own. This Christian walk was not meant to be done in our own strength. We need help. I am too weak on my own. As you're up here in the front or even if you're in your seat still, but you know you need help, just kind of lift your hands up into this little receiving posture like this. Just getting that receiving posture like that. Holy Spirit, I just asked that you would come right now and that you would release grace and strength to every person who's humbling themselves to ask for it. Supernatural grace and strength would be released to them where things have felt overwhelming in the past. All of a sudden there would be a strength and a courage that fills them in their innermost being. Where they haven't known what to do or how to even arrange things to make these kind of commitments possible, Lord. I just ask you to release divine wisdom right now to know what the steps are to do. Holy Spirit, just come right now and fill them up. Fill them up with strength and power right now. Give them everything that they need. Lord, I just pray for all those that are out here, Lord. I just ask, just courage, Lord, to take steps into Koinonia today. Well, whatever that step is, if it's signing up for a group or something else, Lord, encourage to take steps of obedience into Koinonia today that they would experience the joy, the gladness, the fullness that comes when we step into your community. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.