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Rooted in Community

August 16, 2026 37:51 Cross Church Surprise

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· and paul says a christian does the same thing with our character he says this is what we're putting on

· compassion kindness humility gentleness patience but notice something about all five

· is every single one of them requires another person think about this you can't be patient

· alone you're just bored you can't be kind alone you cannot practice gentleness in an empty room

· this wardrobe that god gives us only works in a crowd of people

· but hey as we start today i want to tell you a little about my hobbies um this last wednesday

· i played pickleball with the bros all right you know um kids asleep put them in bed and

· we played pickleball first four games started great because i won them all um that's usually

· how it goes mostly but then the last two games i was on pastor josh's team and i was like let's

· just do work and this should be an easy two games and we lost those two games which was

· 90% josh's fault the other 10% yes i do blame my teammates that's if you're wondering if that's

· the case but here was the real reason actually we lost is it started to rain and as it

· looked down at my new balance shoes i was wearing that time that had big old holes in the bottom

· of it so i could feel my socks getting wet i came to this point where if i tried to lift my

· foot it was sticking like a sponge if i started to plant my foot i would slide and i was like

· i don't think my acl is worth this win but as we're looking at the elements and trying

· to play the game around us all of a sudden we noticed a little tiny monsoon was rolling

· in and we're in the middle of monsoon season which is so fun because if you wash your car

· the next day it is full of dust and dirt when the big winds come through and you get a little

· rain for about two minutes and then it goes away the fun thing you get to do in the next

· morning on your way to work or on the way to the golf course or as you run your errands

· is somewhere between you and the 303 there are just tree splits turned over down around

· it's nothing like when you see a tree on the ground and its roots are straight up in the air

· and it seems like the opposite of what we've been describing here with being rooted and

· ready for what life has for us but any arborist that's a fancy word for a plant expert

· will tell you the reason those trees blow down those beautiful palo verdes that look

· so green and nice and give you allergies during certain times of the years but the

· reason they blow over is because they look great on the outside they look great above

· the surface they are nice and great and lush but they have these shallow roots that don't

· go down deep into the ground so that when the wind blows they just push them over

· but some of you are from places that have real trees

· some of you are from california we won't hold that against you all right

· but up north you have these trees called the redwood trees literally the tallest living thing

· in the world those trees can get as high as 300 feet high that's a football field above the

· surface and you wonder why you're like well a redwood if it is 300 feet above their roots

· redwoods must go down 300 feet but they don't funny enough they actually go down about 10

· feet which relatively is not very much but you know how a redwood doesn't fall over like a

· palo verde is they don't just go deep but they go wide and as they go wide they find another

· redwood roots and they start linking their roots in casting themselves around each other

· so when the wind blows and the storm comes it is not pushing against one lonely palo verde

· one lonely redwood tree but is pushing against the whole forest you see the funny thing is that

· a redwood tree cannot stand alone in church neither can you today as we continue our series

· kind of looking through the book of colossians and we're going to be in colossians chapter

· three verse 12 today we're going to see how we can't do this whole life thing alone

· how we need a community around us how we need a gospel presence that loves us and last week as

· we started this kind of rooted and ready path that we are taking we said we must be first

· rooted in our worship we must know who the god is that we serve and we said that here at

· cross church this is how we practice this is when you come to a service here you're going

· to be rooted in worship meaning we're going to pray through we're going to praise through

· going to preach through so that we can practice the word of god and this is what it looks like

· to be rooted in our worship well today we continue and we're going to see what does

· it look like to be rooted in community to have a community that is around us that we can link

· our roots in our trees together so that when life comes and pushes against us we will not

· fall over but we will stand firm and what i love is it continues to build on itself because

· over the next couple weeks we're going to see how we'll be rooted in discipleship and how that

· ready makes us ready for the mission and the leadership that god calls us to be but today

· as we land here in colossians chapter three we ask this question of what how can we indeed then

· be rooted in community and ask this question a little bit more is how can we have a christ

· centered community how can we link our roots with something that has shared values something

· that gives us life and does not take away something that reinforces how to live counter

· to the world around us and i love how paul gives us this roadmap in colossians chapter three

· starting in verse 12 and here's the very first point that we're going to see that comes right

· out of this is having this community that god has put is first we must put on the radical

· values that god has given us put on the radical values check this out in verse 12 it

· says this therefore as god's chosen one holy and dearly loved put on compassion

· and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience here as we start this passage and

· as you maybe heard those words you're like can you stop saying these words that are really

· hard for me to live out so that's how i felt as i was reading this passage but before we

· this list of these things that if we're honest maybe don't always characterize the way we

· portray our life in the character traits we sometimes wish we had all the time but

· before we get into there we need to first look at the order of this verse because it's so

· important the order of this verse is the gospel paul does not say put on these five things

· so that god will love you so that god will choose you so that god will bring you into his family

· instead he says you are already chosen you are already holy you're already dear loved these

· three titles are given to us before a single command you see this whole church thing is not

· about earning our way to god it is that god loves us so much that he sent his son to

· across for us to be raised again so that we can experience love and come to him and then our

· lives can start to change and paul as he starts this he's saying hey i know you don't

· have it all together but i still love you i have chosen you i have pursued you i have given

· you an opportunity to come to me and here's how this whole jesus thing works is we don't get

· dressed to get into the family is we get dressed because we are in the family

· then there's this verb that comes with it is he says put on the greek word here is enduo

· and is literally the word for getting dressed now i want to do a little quick poll here

· is how many of you pick out your outfit the night before all right

· dang really how do you guys operate in the morning

· i got my outfit laid out the night before because i don't have time in the morning and it's like my

· closet i'm using my phone light so i don't wake up my wife or something the next room

· all right so i'm a night before hopefully you're participating in this how many layer

· pick out your outfits the morning of all right that's crazy how many outfits do you pick

· out the morning of that's my next question all right one okay anyone like five you try

· some things on and hey she didn't look i hey i'm not bailing all right she wasn't looking

· when you did that but here's the deal is every night or morning you you stand in front of a

· closet and you look at your clothes and probably you wonder like why do i have these

· clothes i need to buy new clothes right uh but you're gonna decide what you're gonna wear

· and paul says a christian does the same thing with our character

· and now count the list he puts here as he says this is what we're putting on

· compassion kindness humility gentleness patience all the things describing the

· way we do not drive here in phoenix arizona

· but notice something about all five is every single one of them requires another person

· think about this you can't be patient alone you're just bored you can't be kind

· alone you cannot practice gentleness in an empty room though this wardrobe that god gives us

· only works in a crowd of people and look at the first two pieces of it he says compassion

· this is a heart that actually feels it when someone else is hurting the word here is for

· it is the word jesus used for jesus when he looked at the crowds and he had compassion on them

· and this is exactly how god has treated us but then we also see kindness kindness is the

· compassion with work boots on it does something it sees how people are hurting and then it

· tries to do something about it and i love it it does it for people who did not earn it

· but you look at these values and you might wonder well why do we say put on radical

· values why are these radical well here is why because this was written in a first century roman

· culture and the word humility was not a good word humility was not a virtue humility was actually

· used to describe it was an insult to describe low and servile and servants and slaves when you

· were called humble in the roman world that meant you were a doormat nobody who the original

· audience in colossi who would read this would see this as a good thing they would put on their

· resume but paul takes that word that rome used for a slave and he pins it on the family of

· the king of the universe like it's a medal and you think about what we are to put on

· what we put on tells us what we are preparing for you you tell you can tell what somebody

· is ready for by what they put on nobody wears 60 pounds of fire gear to stare at a fire

· firefighters wear that so they are prepared to go into a fire a police officer wears that

· uniform so they are ready for whatever they encounter i wear booker shoes and not boots

· because i'm going to bring you to the book and talk about sons right and you like that

· oh yeah that was fresh

· didn't even write that in my notes i'm gonna try to duplicate it for second service and it's

· not gonna go well all right also don't tell them but they don't laugh at any of my jokes

· the way you guys do here at first service and that's the one we live stream so people don't

· think i'm funny before they come to our church all right or when they go to second

· service anyway what we're talking about okay

· well this is exactly he shows us what we are putting on we're putting on these radical values

· that changes the way we approach our world but here's what i love because paul continues to

· build on this and this leads beautifully to this second point is we not only put on these

· radical values but we also forgive radical wrongdoings forgive radical wrongdoings

· in verse 13 he says as you're putting on compassion and kindness and humility and

· gentleness and patience he continues on this and says of bearing with one another

· and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another and listen to this

· caveat just as the lord has forgiven you so you are also to forgive there are two things

· happening in this verse the first is paul is telling us to we must be bearing with people

· and the second thing is he says and forgiving now i love where he starts here

· as he says bearing with and bearing with is in the bible because here's what paul is saying

· paul is assuming that the church would be annoying now here's what i mean by that

· because maybe you that feels like a little wrong to say the church is annoying well let's

· our theology the church is not a building a building cannot be annoying except for when

· acs go out that's pretty annoying right a building is not a church is not a property

· instead the church is the people and let me tell you the people that make up a church

· you and i especially guys we can be pretty annoying and people can be hard to deal with

· people can annoy each other only one guy was brave enough to say amen in that

· but what paul is describing here is not an easy fellowship he is not describing something

· we're all holding hands and singing kumbaya he's describing a community that is real but

· is durable in every community is going to have friction in it and if it is not honestly that

· they are lying to each other but this is a community he's describing as a working community

· but then he goes a little further and he describes what this bearing with one another

· looks like he says this if anyone has a grievance against another now listen paul doesn't say if

· anyone imagines a grievance he's like he's not just saying like if i think someone hurt me

· he's saying it's real he said someone actually did something to wrong you to hurt you somebody

· really did it and then the word he uses here is forgiveness should come into this

· the word forgiveness that he uses is charizome which is built out of the word charis which

· means grace and when he says forgive someone what he's literally saying is you need to grace

· someone you need to give them something they do not deserve because they have hurt you

· but then he gives us a standard of how we are to forgive people

· and this is the standard that is tough the standard that is not easy is he says we are

· to forgive just as the lord has forgiven you about a month ago we did the math on this as

· we went through a parable and a parable as we solved a wicked servant of how much god has

· forgiven us compared to how much we forgive others is jesus used an unbearable number it

· was 12 billion dollars in today's terms literally more money that was in circulation at that time

· in rome and he uses his astronomical number that it would take 200 000 lifetimes to pay

· off your debt to god and then he does a comparison he's like the way people wrong you

· he said the ratio is 800 000 to one meaning you will never forgive someone as much as god

· has forgiven you and why this is so important is the forgiveness you hand out is measured

· against the forgiveness you have received and you receive a number that you can never pay back

· in 200 000 lifetimes and we've seen this over and over and over again throughout history

· in october 2nd 2006 there was this one room amish schoolhouse in nickel mines pennsylvania

· in one tragic day there was a local milk truck driver a man who was carrying years of anger

· at god over the death of his baby daughter he walked in one morning and he shot 10 girls

· in that little school five of them died and then he proceeded to take his own life

· that same evening the same day that this happened amish neighbors including the

· father of one of the girls walked up to the driveway of the shooter's families not with

· lawyers not with cameras not with police officers they came to comfort his wife a

· 28 year old mother of three little kids and to tell the family that they did not hold this

· against them as the story continues his days later a group of them stood at the shooter's

· funeral around and went over it throughout the course of this over film four million

· dollars in donations flooded into that small community town to help the families with their

· loss the amish family set aside a portion of it for the shooter's children that he left behind

· when the world asked how any of this was possible when people were angry they would even

· go do this their answer was essentially this is they said the forgiveness is not a feeling

· you find in the moment it's a way of life you learn in a community and i love this

· it says so that you never become in their words a hostage to hostility

· now hear me clearly because i think this matters is their forgiveness did not shrink

· the tragedy of what happened in that situation horrible evil was done horrible hurt was

· there are consequences for that those actions and some of you today come in here and you're

· carrying stuff you're carrying grievances against one another that are valid you're carrying

· hurts of people that have done things to you and you want to just hold on to it

· and they are not just small little things they are big in your world and the question is

· and so we do do we just pretend it didn't happen do we just let it go like it was

· no forgiveness is not pretending that the hurt isn't real

· but forgiveness is refusing to let the hurt write the ending of our story

· and as paul is engaging with this family's like guys you're gonna come to a church community

· and people will make you mad if they're not making you mad it's because you don't

· enough of them he's like life is gonna be tough and here's really how we live this out is people

· aren't gonna make you that mad on a sunday unless they sit next to you and sing super loud and

· maybe then this is and then you just need to be more joyful and love jesus a little more

· all right um it's like but it's hard for someone to make you mad on a sunday morning

· in a row but here's the thing is we're gonna we've been encouraging and we'll encourage you

· is people will make you mad in circles as you get in bible groups as you get in serve groups

· as you get in community with people as you learn more about people they will offend you and you

· will offend them in everything in between and paul here calls us to how do we keep forgiving

· and loving beyond this knowing that people are broken just like you are broken but we

· have a god who has forgiven us so much so that we can forgive others you see we put

· on radical values we we forgive radical wrongdoings against us but then it continues

· and it builds on this we also must love radical people as paul keeps going he comes

· to kind of this this hardest high point of this text and it says above all put on love

· which is the perfect bond of unity paul here says above all the last layer of clothes to put on

· now as i was thinking about this i'm like this kind of breaks down in phoenix arizona

· because we don't put on layers of clothes all right um we're not one of those places that

· you have to shed layers as you go it's just either hot or not hot not cold just not hot

· right but here if you're in a place where you have to wear layers the last layer you put on

· is this love it is the coat that goes on over everything else the wardrobe is not finished

· without it and look at what paul calls it he calls it the bond of unity that word

· it's a body word is the word for a ligament it is the same word paul uses one chapter earlier

· for what holds a body together you ask any athlete and it's funny as i already had this prepared

· in here and then i watched an episode of the new ted lasso and they talked about how ligaments

· are so small to put together big muscles i'm speaking theoretically not my muscles because

· they're a lot smaller than some muscles that ligaments hold together but but ligaments are

· so tiny so small and somehow holds our body together and one little tear in a ligament ruins

· everything you tear a ligament and all of a sudden those muscles that body part is useless

· and here he says and he shows this that love is the ligament that holds it together

· is what holds parts together that otherwise would come undone and come apart and this

· is exactly why love has to be radical for us because you look around this room

· and here's what i love about church is throughout your life is you pick friends

· but when you come to a church family you don't always know all the people you're picking in a

· church family like you pick the church and and the people are all there with it and sometimes

· you're like oh all these people are part of my church oh and it's this beautiful conglomeration

· of people from all different walks of life but when we come together united by one ligament

· of love and the love of jesus christ all of a sudden this thing works somehow a retired

· factory worker from the midwest and a 20 year old who has ai code them their entire job

· overnight can come together somehow a widow who has been here since before this building was

· built before we had six locations across arizona all of a sudden they can lock arms with a

· family that just unpacked boxes in a new build three weeks ago somehow a 30 year old mom

· running on four hours of sleep and a 75 year old who wishes anything to have a little bit

· more noise in the house can make this special bond and church this is what i love about the

· big church and honestly this is what i love about cross church in general is this

· multi-generational people from different walks of life with different interests

· in different hobbies we have ropers and cowboys who want me to go like rope a bowl or something

· and know that i would die doing that and we have nothing in common

· except for the love of christ that brings us together

· and this is the beauty of the church of how all this thing works and i love that paul as he

· continues to build this he shows how man we need to put on these radical values

· how we need to forgive and we need put on this forgiveness for those who have hurt us

· in big ways but then we also need to this last thing we see is we need to thank our radical

· god keep going in verse 15 as it continues he says this and let the peace of christ

· to which you are also called in one body rule your hearts and be thankful

· look at the verb he uses there this verb of rule the the greek word here is baraboo

· and this is the only place it appears in the new testament it is not a king word it literally

· means to umpire it's the official at the game who makes the call in a close play that says

· balls or strikes we have humans that do that in baseball right now pretty soon it's all gonna

· be robots and baseball will be better for it all right because these umpires are terrible

· but they're there and they're calling balls and strikes and he says in letting this rule in

· our hearts is it's calling what is right and what is wrong and paul chose this on purpose

· because in any real community there will be close plays you will hear things and be like

· was that comment rude or was i oversensitive about that like no they were rude right that

· was rude that was totally rude and then they're like oh i i someone just do i say something or

· do i just let it go is this a something to make a hill out of or is this something to

· just let pass and those things will go on in your head you will have those things you got

· to look for and think about but here is when we let god rule in our hearts all the

· paul says on the close place let the peace of christ make the call not your pride oh that gets

· me in trouble all the time not your preferences which are differing depending on who you are

· not not your lawyer because we know they just want to sue everyone right is his peace gets

· the final word in the room and here's the thing a community does not fall apart over the

· place it falls apart over a hundred close calls that nobody ever let the empire empire call in

· the first place i told you i like to play pickleball and one of the things i'm trying to do

· and be better at and i think i've really improved is i only call whether it's in or

· out when i know for sure and i'm pretty fair about that don't laugh josh i'm right you're

· ninety percent in time cisco knows what i'm talking about but i try to like i here's what

· i do is like i only call it if i'm sure and i only if i had to call it right away if you wait

· like three seconds or even two seconds to call it like it's too late like there was doubt in

· your head and you called it and now you feel like you cheated so it's like it has to be

· clear this was wrong and i'm calling them on it not because i just want to win the game

· because i'm right and i want to ensure the integrity of the game yeah thought you guys

· would be on my side on this one but paul says in our life let the peace of christ be the one

· making the calls but then he builds on it and catch this phrase he says there we are called

· in one body as he says you were not called to jesus and then offered a church like an

· warranty that came with it the body is in the call to coming to him is belonging to a church

· family belonging to a people group is not something we add on to our relationship with christ it is

· part of the whole package of coming to jesus and following him and here's this is exactly

· why we build our church around this this is exactly why next week we have things like

· pizza with a pastor where we get to share the heart of our church and we get to ask you

· this is exactly why we do bible groups where we say hey you get to do life in community with

· one another because we can't take jesus and reject his people his people come with the

· whole jesus thing and then the last three words he uses of this passage is he says and be

· thankful if we look at this verse in this passage continuing into verses 16 and 17 that

· we looked at last week in verse 15 he uses the word thankful and verse 16 he uses the

· word gratitude and in verse 17 he uses the word giving thanks three times in three verses

· where it says we must be thankful to god but the question is be thankful to what kind of god

· we'll look back up through this passage because we've already seen the answers to this four

· times and he shows it in here in verse 12 it says we have a god that we serve that he chose us

· that he loves us that he made himself known to us through his word so that we could see him

· and we could choose to follow him as he revealed himself because of his love

· in verse 13 it says he forgave us despite how much we have messed up he has forgiven us

· over and over again and verse 14 it says he loved you that he doesn't hold things against

· you he just keeps loving and pursuing you and in verse 15 as he called you he said hey come be

· a part of this family a part of this community that will change everything about your life

· and i love that every command in this passage that when we talk about putting on when we

· talk about thanking all of this is already an echo of something that god already did first

· for us this is a radical god that we serve hey see all this points to this central truth

· that we see over the text this morning is that if we want to have a christ-centered community

· if we want to be a part of a church family that makes a lot of jesus and doesn't make a lot out

· of the garbage of our world and into the petty things that will we'll fight over that we will

· get annoyed over if we want a christ-centered community that says i'm gonna love and forgive

· and pursue people no matter how annoying they are because i know i'm annoying too and god

· loves me despite my annoyance that none of this will happen if we don't apply this text

· and here's how we apply it is that a rooted christ-centered community only happens when you

· know god and people know you this is a hard thing to put into practice first you need to

· god you need to know the god of the universe who i love the imagery of this passage that it says

· that we are to put on this character put on these clothes that make us different and here's

· what's so amazing is you cannot put on kindness and gentleness and forgiveness on your own

· because you are a sinner and you fall short of doing those things all the time and if

· you want proof of that just ask your spouse or ask your kids and they will tell you

· but we serve a god who did put on humanity he put on all of those character traits and he

· walked it to the cross to die in our place to raise again so when we put on those things

· we don't put on our own clothes of us trying harder instead we put on the robe of christ

· that covers our sin and lets us live in light of him that is the god we know that is the god

· we serve that is the god we love and honestly a lot of us we're all on board with that part

· so many of us we know that god and maybe you don't know him yet but you're like man this

· jesus dude he sounds awesome i love the fact that he wipes my slate clean that he

· he just calls me to give up my sin i can do that to pursue him i'm all in this jesus i want to know

· him but others knowing me oh that's the hard part it's the hard part when you say i don't

· know if i want to be vulnerable i don't know if i want people speaking into my life

· i don't know if i want when the storm hits and my tree starts to get uprooted i don't

· know if i want people to see how truly shallow i am how truly rotted i am how truly much i

· am struggling but here's the deal church we're missing it is the purpose is not that our roots

· go so deep that we are so close to jesus and we are better than everyone else it's that they

· go out and we start linking our roots with other trees that aren't deep either but they're

· deep enough to get to the ground of christ and to lock arms with one another so when that wind

· blows it doesn't blow one tree but it blows a forest and here's how we can practically do that

· today how do you be a part of the forest and not just a lone tree standing out on bell road

· getting blown over by the monsoon well the answer is not to bring redwood trees to california

· i'll tell you that

· but the answer is to spiritually put your roots in a place where there are trees already planted

· and let me tell you at the corner of 175th and bell there are spiritual roots here

· there are men and women who know jesus who are already connected to other roots around them

· and they are pleading with you and asking hey come plant by me come sit under my shade

· come get some water here and see that when life gets hard you have some people you can lean on

· and that you can love with that they will help you withstand life's trials so that you can know

· something greater and that your life doesn't have to fall apart when things are tough

· let me give you two practical steps of how you can start that journey

· this one is next week if you're new here if you haven't said this is my church if you

· haven't put your roots in the ground yet come join us for pizza with a pastor

· this is all we do is we share who we are as a church and we give you very practical steps

· on how you can get involved what does it look like to know other people not just show up for

· an hour on sunday morning and leave but how can you know a community that can grow around you

· and that you can know god and you can know other people and maybe you've done that

· maybe you've been through that what your next step is you need to be in a bible group

· or if you're in a bible group you need to see someone who's not

· and you need to get them in one so they can experience this community

· they can experience the love that christ has for them so we don't have to go through this

· alone man i'm super excited as we start back our groups up in september 13th as

· football will be depressing and i'm gonna put that to the side

· but the highlight of my week every tuesday will be that we get to open our home and we get

· to have a bunch of young adults who are single not married yet 18 to 30 are full

· of joy and promise and have no idea how hard life is gonna be and we just get the love on them

· we get to show them what a family looks like we get to learn from them and they teach me

· cool slang all the time it's great but we just get to do life together

· and my encouragement for you is don't leave this place without taking your next step

· sign up for pizza the pastor right wherever you are you can scan the qr code you can

· sign up right there or right after this service go to our table for our bible groups

· find one sign up online don't leave this place today without making sure you know the god of

· the universe and that you have people in your life that know you that will hold you

· accountable that will love you that will annoy you but that you will grow closer to each other

· and closer to god as a result church let's be rooted in community

· this week let's be rooted in community over this next month and watch

· how no matter what storm life gives us how we can stand firm in what he is doing

· you

Part of Series

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