Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Love Like Jesus, Part 3: Breaks Bread

Episode Date: April 17, 2016

There’s so much pain and hurt in the world, sometimes it's hard to see anything else. But what if, when we looked around, all we saw was love? The greatest sacrifice in history shows us how to make it happen. Let’s learn to Love Like Jesus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world through church online. If you have any questions, or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always visit us online by going to life.church. Coming up today, we'll join our senior pastor, Craig Rochelle, as he shows us how Jesus loved others through breaking bread. And the final part of his message, love like Jesus. Well, I'm geared up and ready to preach.

who's ready to receive today. I believe that this message for some of you could impact your life in such a way that years later you look back and say, I am significantly different because of what God actually has done in my life. I want to talk to you about an idea that you've probably not thought about.

We have thought about this. Why did Jesus come? Why did Jesus come? Why did Jesus come? Jesus came that we may have life and life to the full. Jesus did not come for the righteous, but he came for sinners. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve others.

Why did Jesus come for a lot of amazing reasons to introduce us to the love of his father? We talk about why Jesus came, but very very, few people ever thought about how Jesus came to us. How did he come? We know why he came. Today, I want to show you how he came. You might argue, well, he came preaching or teaching or healing, and if you did, you would be right. But I want to show you another how that will help even bring context to the why that Jesus came. We know why he came. How did he come? Luke 734 tells us one of the ways that he came. The son of man came doing what?

The son of man came eating and drinking. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking. How, somebody helped me out again, did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking. In fact, he came eating and drinking so much that some people accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton.

That's how much he came eating and drinking. Some of you will think, I had no idea how much I had in common with Jesus, the son of God. He came eating and drinking. We know why he came, but few people stopped to think about one of the ways that he came was he came eating and drinking.

We are in a message series called Love Like Jesus. Week number one, we talked about the imagery that Jesus forgives sinners. Last week we talked about Jesus washes feet, and some of you still need to take that next step to say, yes, I will use my gifts to serve others in the church. Today, I want to look at the imagery that Jesus breaks bread. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking. Jesus breaks bread. and in fact, kind of an interesting and odd thought back when I was in seminary years and years ago,

I actually took a whole class called Meals in the New Testament. Meals in the New Testament, what I learned was really quite rich. It's odd to me to think about how just in our family, our eating has changed over the years. When we first got married, you might think that in our family, the four food groups were McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy, and Burger King. Some of you're like, amen? Isn't that what it is, right? And now it's like crazy health food stuff. If you open up our refrigerator, you're going to see cage-free almond milk with flax

wheat or something like that, you know. Sometimes I just want to rebel and go drink some 2% milk by a cow that was not treated humanely or something like that just to be wild and live on the edge. But this course I learned about meals in the New Testament. And what I learned is that in the New Testament meals were more than just something that you enjoyed because the food. tasted good or just to give you spiritual nutrition. Meals were an event that could last hours long. Meals were time when you would invite people that you loved, sometimes even people you didn't

know, and the purpose was to have deep fellowship with one another. And there was kind of a divine nature to meals. Many people believe that you truly experience God best while eating meals. If you look at Revelation, there's a lot of talk about banquets in heaven. We've got a lot to look to. Jesus came eating and drinking and in heaven will be a big party. Jesus broke bread and many of the first century believers really believed you could experience God best in the context of community as you were breaking bread doing life together. In fact, Jesus on the night that he was, before he was betrayed, he gathered together with his best friends and he broke bread with them. And literally that became the image of what we do when we look back and

Remember what Jesus did is we partake of the bread and the juice or the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. What I want to do today is look at the imagery of breaking bread, or we might say fellowship or community from a very powerful text in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47 may be the best picture in the New Testament of the community of the first century Jesus followers. And quite honestly, I could teach on this text from probably 30 or 40 different, different angles. And what I want to do today is just jump off of this and look at it through the lens of community or fellowship. And you'll notice the theme breaking of bread. Acts chapter 2, verse 42 says, they, meaning the New Testament believers, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the what? Let's all say it loud.

and to the fellowship and to what, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. You'll notice they were devoted. It wasn't something that happened occasionally or by accident, but they were devoted to the spiritual disciplines and to the fellowship and the breaking of bread. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were what? They were all together. Why? Because they were constantly breaking bread doing life together. They were all together. and they had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. In fact, if you read ahead in Acts chapter 4,

you're going to find out that the Bible said nobody eventually had need because why? They were meeting the needs of everybody there. Why? Because they were together. There wasn't just like some boy who had a need, but it was little Johnny, who is the son of Mary and Jim, who are in our community.

And so they cared so much about people if there was a need. They would literally sell something they had to meet that need and all the needs were met in their community because they had this awesome, deep, committed fellowship. It goes on to say that every day they continued to do what. Every day they continue to do, what every day they continue to do, what they continue to do. Meet together in the temple courts.

What did they do? They broke bread in their, where in their homes, and they did what? And they ate together. See the fellowship, the commitment, the loving nature of this first century community of Jesus followers. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And what happened?

The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Does that look like your life? Because it can. I mean, honestly, does that look like your life? Devoted to a community of other people, committed to spiritual discipline, so much so that there's this overflowing presence of God and other people look on and say, we want a part of that, and you're so committed to someone else that you really don't have needs.

Why? Because you're meeting the needs of one another in the name of Jesus. Does that look like what you have? Because if not, you can. Now, I asked that question, knowing that for most of you, the answer is no. I don't have that type of community. And the last thing I want to do is go, shame on you. you know, if you were holy like me, you would.

That's not the message at all I want you to hear. In fact, years ago I read a book, I wish I could remember the name. I'll reference it once or twice today. But in the book, the author did a study that really showed why it is that it's more difficult today to have community than it was in the past.

And I'll just list the things I can remember. The author said one of the things that changed relationships for the worst was actually the air conditioner. Now, some of you may be old enough to remember this or certainly your grandparents could. Before the air conditioner was a reality, where do you think people sat in the hot evenings? They sit on the front porch, and they would wave at their neighbors and they had committed relationships because they actually knew one another.

When the air conditioner came, everybody said, oh, now we can stay inside and we don't have to interact. The author said there was also the change from the detached garage to the attached garage. Years ago, the garages were separate from the houses, so you'd pull into the garage, and then you have to do what? Doot, do, do, do, do. Walk inside. And you, oh, hey, neighbor. With the attached garage, you could just drive it and go straight into the house.

Then came the garage door opener, which made things even easier to drive into the Batcave, close the door, and never have to see anybody at all. Then they wrote about the fence, because years ago, people didn't fence their neighbors out. Then they fenced in their yard so you didn't have to see neighbors. Then if you had enough money, you gated them out. You lived in a gated neighborhood to keep those people out and fenced the rest of them out

and drove into the back cave, into your air conditioner home. So you didn't have to see anybody. Then technology continued to bless us, and these are all blessings. I love them. I remember when the answering machine came out, who remembers that? You never had to pick up a blind call ever again. You can wait. You know, we're not a home right now.

Please leave a message after the... Hey, Craig, we all, not answering that one, okay? And you could screen the calls. Then came caller ID. Now, it used to be you had to go out shopping and actually interact with people to get things. I don't think I've shopped in years. I buy everything online. And now you don't even have to see people.

You can just look at their Instagram photo, double tap to let them know you still care. And you can text your friends, hey, let's do lunch, let's do lunch. And never have to do lunch, because everybody. knows you don't want to. Right? I read that type of imagery of the Breaking Bread community. Do you have that?

And the answer would be for most of us, no, we don't. So what I did is I actually wrote a newer version of that same text I just read from Acts chapter 2. Now, just to be real clear, this is not really in the Bible. I call it the NCV,

the new current version or the more recent version. or something like that. And I want to read this to you, and this is the one that I made up of how things actually go today. The Christians were devoted to themselves and occasionally got to church when they had time.

No one was filled with awe because there were no signs and wonders performed by the believers. Very few of the believers were together, and they had almost nothing in common because they had no real time for each other. If they sold something, they used the money to buy something better for themselves. They ate on the run, kept to themselves,

and were too rushed to enjoy one another or give praise to God. They claimed to love God, but they didn't really love each other, and they felt very empty and alone. As a result, most people disliked them, and very few people were ever saved. If you want to say, ouch, you can. Okay? but that's maybe a slight exaggeration, but not too far from where so many of us live today.

And I want to present to you an opportunity, an opportunity for something so much better. A committed community of people. We break bread together because we love what we love. one another. And we truly want to celebrate the presence of God and God is so good that we just can't do that alone. We need other believers to join hands together, to join our voices and to worship our good God because that's just how good he is. So as we talk about breaking bread, the image I want you to have in your mind is sharing Jesus. Break bread, the body of Christ. You enjoy Jesus.

I enjoy Jesus together. And I want to give you just two simple thoughts about sharing the love of Jesus. Before we look at the first one, let me just kind of introduce this thought to you. We live in a world today that highly values independence. How many of you would agree? Independence?

Okay, I want to be financially independent. I want to be relationally independent. I don't want to need you. I want to be. Our country almost worships independence. Problem. To be a follower of Jesus, is the direct opposite of being independent.

Okay? To be a Jesus follower, to be a Christian, is actually to be dependent. Do you recognize that? You cannot be a Jesus follower and be independent. You cannot save yourself and you cannot make it yourself. To be a Jesus follower means you are completely dependent on the grace of Jesus,

the presence of God, and truthfully we are to be dependent on one another because we are incomplete without each other to be a Jesus follower is to be dependent upon God and upon His people. You can say amen anytime you want to because this is actually really, really important. And the challenge is, and I embrace the positive movement of what's happened in my lifetime, but it's still a challenge. In my lifetime, there's very positive teaching about you need to have a personal relationship

with Jesus. This is so important. Why? Because you cannot inherit your grandma's faith. You cannot inherit your dad's faith. It has to be your faith. I celebrate that. You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

And this is language that's more new in the last 20 years or so and wasn't really a common part of our Christian language years and years ago. So I celebrate that. But, but a more biblical phrase would not be a personal relationship with Jesus, but a more biblical phrase should be a shared relationship with Jesus. That we really, really, really need a shared relationship. with Jesus because we best experience the presence of God together in the context of community. Two thoughts, thought number one.

I want to encourage you to share the love of Jesus with others at church. Hebrews 1025, the author to the Hebrew said, and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Stop there for a moment. Do you have a community where you get together and go, hey, how can we help people? how can we show love? A lot of communities like, hey, hey, let's go fishing, let's go to the game. Hey, let's go shopping together.

Let's have some fun. Let's go out to eat. Imagine being a part of a community where you got together and said, hey, how can we make a bigger difference? Hey, where can we serve in our church? Hey, how can we go and make a difference in town? How can we together show the love of Jesus? That's what the author is saying to do. He goes on to say, and let us not give up doing what?

He says, let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching. One of the biggest challenges today is that people are giving up on meeting together in the corporate worship of church. And we have to agree. We have to agree. Presence matters. Presence, there's power in presence.

For example, if I tell you, hey, I'll be praying for you. There's some power in that, right? I'll be praying for you. I'll be praying for you. but it's different if we lock hands and we seek God together, isn't it? Why? Because there's power in presence. There's power in presence.

There's something about being together that makes something more meaningful. Let me explain it this way. Imagine a new movie comes out on Netflix and you're Jack to see it. Okay, I'm going to watch with our family, and so here's what I could do. Okay, we're going to watch this movie tonight. Amy, I want you to watch it in the living room. I'm going to watch it in the bedroom because I like the TV better.

Buki, he can watch it on his phone. Sam, he can watch it on his iPad. Joyce, she can watch it upstairs on the computer. Let's all watch it at 7 o'clock tonight in different rooms. Now, it sounds ridiculous, right? That wouldn't be nearly as fun. Would it? Why?

Because there's something about experiencing something together that is incredibly powerful. Now, can I? I'd be honest with you, and the answer is yes, because I'm going to be whether you want me to or not. Okay. Perhaps the biggest concern I have right now, and the biggest challenge that we have as a church, is that according to studies across the board, the average American, and I know some of you at church online are not Americans, the average American Christian attends church about one time a month right now, the average, about one time a month, okay?

and let me just tell you right now, I don't know what to do with that. You can breathe a sigh of relief because you're actually at church right now. And I'm, yeah, that's good, okay? And I, and praise God, because you see value in that. But let me just unpack this for a minute, okay?

These studies, I mean, there's something we're all talking about as pastors. I don't, I don't, listen, one hour a month, okay? One hour a month. Most of you spent more time on social, media today than one hour. Okay. And I don't know what to do with that. I don't even know, I don't even know how to help transform a life in one hour a month. Okay. I understand why, because everybody's busy, right? I understand. And let me just say this, okay,

we have six children, we're busy like you. This is a slow weekend for us, slow weekend. One kid a leadership event, two high school events, one out-of-town soccer game, one slumber party, one birthday party, I had one hour and a half meeting with a buddy who needs help. I have a meeting after church. I'll teach all weekend long, and our daughter just got engaged a week ago, and is getting married in two months, and Amy's planned the wedding, and the reason it's only in two months is because we don't have sex, you have a short engagement. Did that just, as I say that out loud, I think I did. You gotta give me to myself!

Okay, so that's, and everybody said, Amen, thank you. Oh, you're with me. So, we're busy this weekend, and this isn't even a busy weekend, and guess what? We will all worship God at church, and all of my children will serve

at one service in church. Why? Why? Because it's a priority. Because it's a priority. And let me just say, and again, you guys are here, so, you know, so I'm kind of yelling at somebody else, not you, okay? But here's the deal.

If you often trump church for something else, well, the weather's bad this weekend, we're going to sleep in. Weather's nice this weekend, we're going to do yard work. We're tired, okay? The game went too late. We're out of town. If you always trump church for something else, okay? And you never ever trump something else to be in the presence of God. Don't be surprised. when your kids grow up and don't value community and walk away from Jesus. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. Okay.

So I believe that presence matters. And I know you know that. And so if you want something better, you have to choose something better. And I believe there's something better to worship God, to share Jesus together and be committed to worship him together. To hear his word together, do not reduce church to listening to a podcast. So much more than that is community, is worshiping with others, praying for others, hurting with others, serving others, being involved in the lives of other.

And Jesus broke bread. He came eating and drinking. They thought he was a party guy because he was always in relationships celebrating other people. Share the love of Jesus with other believers at church. Number two, I want to encourage you to share the love of Jesus with a community of people, with a committed community of people, with the ongoing community of people that we do life with. I am honored to teach leadership in different cities throughout the year, and we always do Q&A, and at the end they ask questions, and so I'm on the spot in front of a lot of people,

I never know what they're going to ask. And I'm always surprised sometimes at the questions, and my answer is the first thing. that comes to my mind. And a guy asked a question that was kind of a compliment. And I received it. So she said, you appear to have a great marriage with Amy. You're leading a church and you don't appear to get burned out or too overwhelmed. Your kids are on the right track. He said, what's your secret? What's your secret? No one had ever asked like, what's your secret? And so I didn't have a planned answer. So the first thing that came to my mind that I just said was, well, I honestly think it's long-term committed relationships. It's an ongoing, consistent community. And I said,

15 and a half years of age, Scott Schreller was my closest friend. I'm 48, still my closest friend. John Bullard I worked out with for 23 years, we do spiritual work as well as physical work. My directional leadership team at the church, top four men that I serve with have all been with me for 17 of the 20 years and we're still together to this day. And then I said, and I have a community of people that 15 years ago or so, there were eight families that just decided we're going to raise our kids together. We all, home-educated our kids, which I know some of you think that makes them weird. They grow up and make their own butter.

The butter's delicious. I'm just telling you right now the butter is delicious, you know. And so we just decided we're going to do this together and create a community where we'll support each other. And we didn't even know how to do that, what it looked like, but just 15 or so years ago, the eight of us now totaling 40 kids involved, because when you love each other, there's a lot of kids being born, if you know what I'm saying. And we're talking a lot about that tonight, today.

So anyway, I made a list of what we've done with that community of eight families over the last 15 years. And here's a short list that I put in my notes of what we've done. We have remodeled each other's homes. I think we've all made an investment into the property of each of the family's homes. We've landscaped each other's yards. We've helped clean up after storms. We have funded mission trips. We've given cars to one another when one family was in need.

We funded several adoptions. We've chipped in to provide for each other during funerals. We've cared for each other's kids so much so that they call the dad's dad, all of them, like your dad and dad and dad, and I've got multiple dads because that's kind of the way we are. We've provided more meals for one another than we could count. We've taken trips together almost every year, some degree or another. Every Valentine's Day, we have a banquet, every Thanksgiving, we all get together to break bread. We bring cakes to the good times, and we cry during the sad times.

We do life together. We do life together for 15 years. And here's what's amazing to me is of those people, those eight families, every one of them loves God. They're all committed to the church. They're all tithing to the church. they all are serving in the church. All of the kids are serving God, all 40 of them. Now, let me just say that sometimes one will kind of get a wild hair.

And guess what happens? 39 and we're there going to come back in here, little lamb, come back in here, little lamb. I mean, they're not perfect. But you couldn't pick eight couples at random and 15 years later see them all married and serving God together. The odds are just stacked against you. It's just not going to happen. And that's what we have. Now, I want to take a moment and say, I told you the positive side, now I'm going to tell

you the behind the scenes. You ready for me to get real? Sometimes we get on each other's nerves. Sometimes I'm grumpy on Sunday afternoon, because a lot of the parties are on Sunday afternoon, and I'm tired, and if I get some idea that someone didn't get anything out of the sermon, I can be a smart aleck on Sunday afternoons. Sometimes a woman gets overlooked for something and gets her feelings hurt. Sometimes a kid will do something that's inappropriate, and we have to kind of deal with that.

There have been marriage issues that look like the marriage may not make it, and there have been really tense and difficult times. There have been times when we've gone and done other life groups because, honestly, we wanted some time with other people. But guess what happens? We always come back together. As imperfect as it is, we always come back together. Why? Because we're family. We're family.

And we're raising each other's kids. And we're helping each other become better. And we are encouraging one another toward good work, good deeds, and spurring each other on spiritually, as imperfect as it is. It's family. And that's what we do. I'm telling you what. We were all better because of this imperfect community.

Now you say, well, of course, Pastor Craig's group's going to be like that. He's Pastor Craig. I'm not the leader of the group. Brian and Marla Hill are the leaders of the group, and they invited me into their community. You don't have to be a pastor to have this. You just have to love Jesus and love people. And you can have something very, very special. Let me read this to you again.

X2. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved. A couple things I want you to notice. This is the life group. This is what we have as a life group.

First of all, this never happens by accident. It only happens on purpose when you decide to pour your life into someone else and commit to them. The second thing is when you do this, other people look on and want what you have. And the Lord added to the number daily those who are being saved. And Amy can verify this story. It was one of the most meaningful compliments we've ever had. We were at dinner together, having a date, and the guy who was waiting on us was really nice. We didn't think he knew we were pastors of the church or whatever. And so we're having good conversation at the end. He leans in and evidently he does. And he leans in, we've already signed.

and we're heading out and he said, you guys are very, very lucky. And I said, thank you. Why are we lucky? He said, because you're a part of the most loving community I've ever seen. I said, so are you a part of our church? He said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, what do you mean? He said, your community, your community, life church. He said, it's the most loving community I've ever seen. I said, what do you mean? He says, well, you all come in here each week, and I see you, and I see how you treat each other. And then he said, I work at a gas station, you come in there with those bumper stickers. They're everywhere.

They're everywhere. And you're always kind to me. And you're always kind to each other. And he said, you are so lucky to be a part of such a loving community. And I could just sense that there was like a longing in his heart, like he was missing something. And I said, hey, I don't want this to come across weird or anything, but could I invite you to be a part of our community? And he kind of stepped back. I'm thinking he probably was not a Christian.

you didn't have any of the language that would refer him to be. And he's like, oh, no, no, no, no, I would never be welcome. I would never be welcome. I said, you see, that's what you don't understand. Because of Jesus, you're absolutely and completely welcome. This is a place that you can belong before you even believe. And I would love it if you would consider becoming a part of this community. And you could be lucky just like we are.

You're so lucky to have this. So, why did Jesus come? Jesus came that we may have life and life to the full. He came to pay the price for our sins. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking. He came doing life with other people. He brought his best friends together and he broke bread

because it's impossible to worship God as God deserves alone. We need each other. We don't just have a personal relationship with Jesus. You see, we have something so much better. We have a shared relationship with Jesus. Because Jesus followers, as Jesus followers, we break bread together. Father, I ask today that you would stir up hearts out of our comfort zones, out of our garages, and fenced in air-conditioned houses.

And God, we would do life together with others, finding the benefits of serving you and loving those around us. And all of our churches, as you take a moment and just kind of reflect in prayer, I want to just ask a couple of questions. Those of you who say, you know what, I really want deeper and more meaningful community in my life. I recognize that I would genuinely want more. And I'll think what?

I hope everybody says yes, because who wouldn't want more genuine authentic? loving community with others. If that's you today, would you lift up your hands right now to say yes? Let's lift up your hands. If you put them down for a moment, there are some of you right now that God's been speaking to you for a long time. You should be leading a life group. I'm just going to call you out just between you and God and me.

You know you should be, would you lift up your hands right now? You lift up your hands right now. Lift all of our churches, to lift them up. Others of you, you recognize, this isn't going to happen by accident. I want to take a step of faith. You walk into someone's home for the very first time. It can be intimidating, but you can walk into a home that becomes family. and 15 years later you can look back and say, guess what?

My relationships are better. My children are stronger. I'm closer to God. Why? Because I didn't serve him alone. I served and worshipped him in community. We break bread together. We do life together.

So, Father, I pray for these people today. God, I thank you for so many who long for more intimate relationships. God, may we be so committed to one another that we meet needs all over our community. communities and beyond. I pray that just like that waiter at the restaurant, others would look on and say, I would love to be a part of something like that. And because of the love of Jesus, we can welcome them in. God, give us a great desire to show your love. Help us to love one another, to break bread, and do life together in a way that changes lives and honors you. We come like Jesus,

eating, celebrating, worshiping with other believers, God, because you're too good for us to worship alone. We have to join our voices to celebrate who you are. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, I used a phrase earlier, a personal relationship with Jesus. That phrase completely changed my life because when I was growing up, my family went to church and I believed in God, but I did not know him. Jesus actually said this. He said, this is eternal life that they may know my father. That's what he said. He defined eternal life that they may know him.

Following Jesus, serving God, it's not about knowing about God. It's not quoting Bible verses. It's not joining a church. It's not trying really, really hard. It's born out of a true relationship. It's knowing him. Why did God send Jesus? Why?

To reveal who he is. That we could see the love of the father. Who did Jesus hang out? the lowest or the low, the biggest sinners, the partiers, the people that religion rejected. That's who Jesus loved, but he didn't leave them there. He loved them into a relationship with God. Even the religious people that didn't know God, he helped them to know him in a very personal way. And all of our churches, there may be those of you, you recognize, I don't know God personally.

You can know him by the power of His Holy Spirit and your one prayer away from changing the course of your eternal destiny and your time on earth. What do you do? You just say, God, I'm turning away from my sin. I'm turning toward you. Let me tell you why Jesus came. Again, he came to pay for your sins. Our sins block us from knowing God. When you call on Jesus, he forgives your sins, he makes you brand new. Your spirit comes to life and you can know God, talk to him, hear from him, and serve him every day of your life. At all of our churches, those who say, that's me. I need to know him. I'm turning to him. Today by faith, I'm giving my life to him. I want to know you. Jesus saved me. I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now all over the place and say yes. That's my prayer right back over here. God bless you others today.

At Life Church, we are honored to play a very small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, just go to life.church slash next. Here at Life Church, we believe that true transformation doesn't happen in rows, but rather in circles. And sometimes those circles look very different. And such is the case for Robert Dukes, an overnight truck driver who found community in a very unique way. Well, I'm a truck driver, and I drive at night.

We have a life group on the phone on Monday nights at 10 o'clock. Just kind of hang out and talk a little bit about everyday life, kids, wives, basketball, football. start talking about God. Just questions start going around the table. Or you can hear positive instead of all the negative in the world. Actually get prayer at work.

We need that. Robert Dukes, how you doing, man? Doing good. Doing good. How you doing? Man, I'm doing good. That's a family. Everybody's good, man. Everybody's good. All the trash made it to the curve, everybody's good.

I believe, and I believe that my friends on the phone believe that we just believe that the Bible says that where there are two or three gathered together, whether that's in person or on the phone that God is in the midst of us. It's not just church. I get to have relationship with my whole city. with the state I'm in, with the states I go to, with the people at the truck stops, it doesn't matter where I go, I get to just be me. If you're not in the life group, you're missing out on everything Life Church has to offer.

Get into community where you start walking with other Christians. I think it will really change your life. It's changed mine. At Life Church, we never get tired of hearing how God is using our ministry to change the lives of people around the world. And if you have a personal life change story that you'd love to share, we'd love to hear about it. All you have to do is send us an email to Stories atlife.church. It's our mission and our passion here to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ, and we do it all because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.