# Rooted in Community

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Rooted and Ready
Date: August 16, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/rooted-in-community

## Summary

What does it mean to truly be rooted in community? Are we just lone trees swaying in the wind, or can we stand strong together? Discover how linking our lives with others can transform our faith and resilience. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

0:00 · and paul says a christian does the same thing with our character he says this is what we're putting on

0:05 · compassion kindness humility gentleness patience but notice something about all five

0:13 · is every single one of them requires another person think about this you can't be patient

0:19 · alone you're just bored you can't be kind alone you cannot practice gentleness in an empty room

0:28 · this wardrobe that god gives us only works in a crowd of people

0:35 · but hey as we start today i want to tell you a little about my hobbies um this last wednesday

0:40 · i played pickleball with the bros all right you know um kids asleep put them in bed and

0:47 · we played pickleball first four games started great because i won them all um that's usually

0:53 · how it goes mostly but then the last two games i was on pastor josh's team and i was like let's

1:00 · just do work and this should be an easy two games and we lost those two games which was

1:05 · 90% josh's fault the other 10% yes i do blame my teammates that's if you're wondering if that's

1:13 · the case but here was the real reason actually we lost is it started to rain and as it

1:21 · looked down at my new balance shoes i was wearing that time that had big old holes in the bottom

1:27 · of it so i could feel my socks getting wet i came to this point where if i tried to lift my

1:33 · foot it was sticking like a sponge if i started to plant my foot i would slide and i was like

1:37 · i don't think my acl is worth this win but as we're looking at the elements and trying

1:43 · to play the game around us all of a sudden we noticed a little tiny monsoon was rolling

1:48 · in and we're in the middle of monsoon season which is so fun because if you wash your car

1:53 · the next day it is full of dust and dirt when the big winds come through and you get a little

1:59 · rain for about two minutes and then it goes away the fun thing you get to do in the next

2:03 · morning on your way to work or on the way to the golf course or as you run your errands

2:07 · is somewhere between you and the 303 there are just tree splits turned over down around

2:15 · it's nothing like when you see a tree on the ground and its roots are straight up in the air

2:19 · and it seems like the opposite of what we've been describing here with being rooted and

2:25 · ready for what life has for us but any arborist that's a fancy word for a plant expert

2:33 · will tell you the reason those trees blow down those beautiful palo verdes that look

2:38 · so green and nice and give you allergies during certain times of the years but the

2:43 · reason they blow over is because they look great on the outside they look great above

2:48 · the surface they are nice and great and lush but they have these shallow roots that don't

2:55 · go down deep into the ground so that when the wind blows they just push them over

3:03 · but some of you are from places that have real trees

3:09 · some of you are from california we won't hold that against you all right

3:13 · but up north you have these trees called the redwood trees literally the tallest living thing

3:19 · in the world those trees can get as high as 300 feet high that's a football field above the

3:27 · surface and you wonder why you're like well a redwood if it is 300 feet above their roots

3:32 · redwoods must go down 300 feet but they don't funny enough they actually go down about 10

3:38 · feet which relatively is not very much but you know how a redwood doesn't fall over like a

3:43 · palo verde is they don't just go deep but they go wide and as they go wide they find another

3:50 · redwood roots and they start linking their roots in casting themselves around each other

3:56 · so when the wind blows and the storm comes it is not pushing against one lonely palo verde

4:01 · one lonely redwood tree but is pushing against the whole forest you see the funny thing is that

4:08 · a redwood tree cannot stand alone in church neither can you today as we continue our series

4:17 · kind of looking through the book of colossians and we're going to be in colossians chapter

4:21 · three verse 12 today we're going to see how we can't do this whole life thing alone

4:27 · how we need a community around us how we need a gospel presence that loves us and last week as

4:35 · we started this kind of rooted and ready path that we are taking we said we must be first

4:41 · rooted in our worship we must know who the god is that we serve and we said that here at

4:47 · cross church this is how we practice this is when you come to a service here you're going

4:51 · to be rooted in worship meaning we're going to pray through we're going to praise through

4:55 · going to preach through so that we can practice the word of god and this is what it looks like

5:00 · to be rooted in our worship well today we continue and we're going to see what does

5:03 · it look like to be rooted in community to have a community that is around us that we can link

5:09 · our roots in our trees together so that when life comes and pushes against us we will not

5:16 · fall over but we will stand firm and what i love is it continues to build on itself because

5:22 · over the next couple weeks we're going to see how we'll be rooted in discipleship and how that

5:25 · ready makes us ready for the mission and the leadership that god calls us to be but today

5:31 · as we land here in colossians chapter three we ask this question of what how can we indeed then

5:38 · be rooted in community and ask this question a little bit more is how can we have a christ

5:42 · centered community how can we link our roots with something that has shared values something

5:49 · that gives us life and does not take away something that reinforces how to live counter

5:54 · to the world around us and i love how paul gives us this roadmap in colossians chapter three

6:02 · starting in verse 12 and here's the very first point that we're going to see that comes right

6:07 · out of this is having this community that god has put is first we must put on the radical

6:12 · values that god has given us put on the radical values check this out in verse 12 it

6:17 · says this therefore as god's chosen one holy and dearly loved put on compassion

6:27 · and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience here as we start this passage and

6:37 · as you maybe heard those words you're like can you stop saying these words that are really

6:41 · hard for me to live out so that's how i felt as i was reading this passage but before we

6:45 · this list of these things that if we're honest maybe don't always characterize the way we

6:53 · portray our life in the character traits we sometimes wish we had all the time but

6:59 · before we get into there we need to first look at the order of this verse because it's so

7:03 · important the order of this verse is the gospel paul does not say put on these five things

7:09 · so that god will love you so that god will choose you so that god will bring you into his family

7:17 · instead he says you are already chosen you are already holy you're already dear loved these

7:24 · three titles are given to us before a single command you see this whole church thing is not

7:30 · about earning our way to god it is that god loves us so much that he sent his son to

7:35 · across for us to be raised again so that we can experience love and come to him and then our

7:42 · lives can start to change and paul as he starts this he's saying hey i know you don't

7:48 · have it all together but i still love you i have chosen you i have pursued you i have given

7:56 · you an opportunity to come to me and here's how this whole jesus thing works is we don't get

8:02 · dressed to get into the family is we get dressed because we are in the family

8:09 · then there's this verb that comes with it is he says put on the greek word here is enduo

8:17 · and is literally the word for getting dressed now i want to do a little quick poll here

8:22 · is how many of you pick out your outfit the night before all right

8:28 · dang really how do you guys operate in the morning

8:34 · i got my outfit laid out the night before because i don't have time in the morning and it's like my

8:39 · closet i'm using my phone light so i don't wake up my wife or something the next room

8:43 · all right so i'm a night before hopefully you're participating in this how many layer

8:47 · pick out your outfits the morning of all right that's crazy how many outfits do you pick

8:54 · out the morning of that's my next question all right one okay anyone like five you try

8:59 · some things on and hey she didn't look i hey i'm not bailing all right she wasn't looking

9:04 · when you did that but here's the deal is every night or morning you you stand in front of a

9:11 · closet and you look at your clothes and probably you wonder like why do i have these

9:15 · clothes i need to buy new clothes right uh but you're gonna decide what you're gonna wear

9:20 · and paul says a christian does the same thing with our character

9:25 · and now count the list he puts here as he says this is what we're putting on

9:29 · compassion kindness humility gentleness patience all the things describing the

9:37 · way we do not drive here in phoenix arizona

9:43 · but notice something about all five is every single one of them requires another person

9:50 · think about this you can't be patient alone you're just bored you can't be kind

9:58 · alone you cannot practice gentleness in an empty room though this wardrobe that god gives us

10:05 · only works in a crowd of people and look at the first two pieces of it he says compassion

10:11 · this is a heart that actually feels it when someone else is hurting the word here is for

10:16 · it is the word jesus used for jesus when he looked at the crowds and he had compassion on them

10:23 · and this is exactly how god has treated us but then we also see kindness kindness is the

10:29 · compassion with work boots on it does something it sees how people are hurting and then it

10:34 · tries to do something about it and i love it it does it for people who did not earn it

10:40 · but you look at these values and you might wonder well why do we say put on radical

10:44 · values why are these radical well here is why because this was written in a first century roman

10:51 · culture and the word humility was not a good word humility was not a virtue humility was actually

10:57 · used to describe it was an insult to describe low and servile and servants and slaves when you

11:05 · were called humble in the roman world that meant you were a doormat nobody who the original

11:10 · audience in colossi who would read this would see this as a good thing they would put on their

11:15 · resume but paul takes that word that rome used for a slave and he pins it on the family of

11:23 · the king of the universe like it's a medal and you think about what we are to put on

11:28 · what we put on tells us what we are preparing for you you tell you can tell what somebody

11:35 · is ready for by what they put on nobody wears 60 pounds of fire gear to stare at a fire

11:41 · firefighters wear that so they are prepared to go into a fire a police officer wears that

11:48 · uniform so they are ready for whatever they encounter i wear booker shoes and not boots

11:55 · because i'm going to bring you to the book and talk about sons right and you like that

12:00 · oh yeah that was fresh

12:07 · didn't even write that in my notes i'm gonna try to duplicate it for second service and it's

12:12 · not gonna go well all right also don't tell them but they don't laugh at any of my jokes

12:17 · the way you guys do here at first service and that's the one we live stream so people don't

12:22 · think i'm funny before they come to our church all right or when they go to second

12:26 · service anyway what we're talking about okay

12:31 · well this is exactly he shows us what we are putting on we're putting on these radical values

12:38 · that changes the way we approach our world but here's what i love because paul continues to

12:42 · build on this and this leads beautifully to this second point is we not only put on these

12:47 · radical values but we also forgive radical wrongdoings forgive radical wrongdoings

12:52 · in verse 13 he says as you're putting on compassion and kindness and humility and

12:57 · gentleness and patience he continues on this and says of bearing with one another

13:01 · and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another and listen to this

13:08 · caveat just as the lord has forgiven you so you are also to forgive there are two things

13:17 · happening in this verse the first is paul is telling us to we must be bearing with people

13:24 · and the second thing is he says and forgiving now i love where he starts here

13:28 · as he says bearing with and bearing with is in the bible because here's what paul is saying

13:34 · paul is assuming that the church would be annoying now here's what i mean by that

13:41 · because maybe you that feels like a little wrong to say the church is annoying well let's

13:46 · our theology the church is not a building a building cannot be annoying except for when

13:51 · acs go out that's pretty annoying right a building is not a church is not a property

13:55 · instead the church is the people and let me tell you the people that make up a church

14:04 · you and i especially guys we can be pretty annoying and people can be hard to deal with

14:13 · people can annoy each other only one guy was brave enough to say amen in that

14:21 · but what paul is describing here is not an easy fellowship he is not describing something

14:28 · we're all holding hands and singing kumbaya he's describing a community that is real but

14:34 · is durable in every community is going to have friction in it and if it is not honestly that

14:41 · they are lying to each other but this is a community he's describing as a working community

14:47 · but then he goes a little further and he describes what this bearing with one another

14:51 · looks like he says this if anyone has a grievance against another now listen paul doesn't say if

14:57 · anyone imagines a grievance he's like he's not just saying like if i think someone hurt me

15:02 · he's saying it's real he said someone actually did something to wrong you to hurt you somebody

15:08 · really did it and then the word he uses here is forgiveness should come into this

15:15 · the word forgiveness that he uses is charizome which is built out of the word charis which

15:22 · means grace and when he says forgive someone what he's literally saying is you need to grace

15:28 · someone you need to give them something they do not deserve because they have hurt you

15:34 · but then he gives us a standard of how we are to forgive people

15:37 · and this is the standard that is tough the standard that is not easy is he says we are

15:42 · to forgive just as the lord has forgiven you about a month ago we did the math on this as

15:48 · we went through a parable and a parable as we solved a wicked servant of how much god has

15:54 · forgiven us compared to how much we forgive others is jesus used an unbearable number it

16:00 · was 12 billion dollars in today's terms literally more money that was in circulation at that time

16:05 · in rome and he uses his astronomical number that it would take 200 000 lifetimes to pay

16:11 · off your debt to god and then he does a comparison he's like the way people wrong you

16:17 · he said the ratio is 800 000 to one meaning you will never forgive someone as much as god

16:24 · has forgiven you and why this is so important is the forgiveness you hand out is measured

16:32 · against the forgiveness you have received and you receive a number that you can never pay back

16:38 · in 200 000 lifetimes and we've seen this over and over and over again throughout history

16:45 · in october 2nd 2006 there was this one room amish schoolhouse in nickel mines pennsylvania

16:52 · in one tragic day there was a local milk truck driver a man who was carrying years of anger

16:57 · at god over the death of his baby daughter he walked in one morning and he shot 10 girls

17:04 · in that little school five of them died and then he proceeded to take his own life

17:11 · that same evening the same day that this happened amish neighbors including the

17:17 · father of one of the girls walked up to the driveway of the shooter's families not with

17:23 · lawyers not with cameras not with police officers they came to comfort his wife a

17:30 · 28 year old mother of three little kids and to tell the family that they did not hold this

17:36 · against them as the story continues his days later a group of them stood at the shooter's

17:42 · funeral around and went over it throughout the course of this over film four million

17:48 · dollars in donations flooded into that small community town to help the families with their

17:53 · loss the amish family set aside a portion of it for the shooter's children that he left behind

18:01 · when the world asked how any of this was possible when people were angry they would even

18:05 · go do this their answer was essentially this is they said the forgiveness is not a feeling

18:10 · you find in the moment it's a way of life you learn in a community and i love this

18:16 · it says so that you never become in their words a hostage to hostility

18:23 · now hear me clearly because i think this matters is their forgiveness did not shrink

18:30 · the tragedy of what happened in that situation horrible evil was done horrible hurt was

18:37 · there are consequences for that those actions and some of you today come in here and you're

18:43 · carrying stuff you're carrying grievances against one another that are valid you're carrying

18:49 · hurts of people that have done things to you and you want to just hold on to it

18:54 · and they are not just small little things they are big in your world and the question is

19:00 · and so we do do we just pretend it didn't happen do we just let it go like it was

19:04 · no forgiveness is not pretending that the hurt isn't real

19:10 · but forgiveness is refusing to let the hurt write the ending of our story

19:16 · and as paul is engaging with this family's like guys you're gonna come to a church community

19:22 · and people will make you mad if they're not making you mad it's because you don't

19:27 · enough of them he's like life is gonna be tough and here's really how we live this out is people

19:36 · aren't gonna make you that mad on a sunday unless they sit next to you and sing super loud and

19:40 · maybe then this is and then you just need to be more joyful and love jesus a little more

19:44 · all right um it's like but it's hard for someone to make you mad on a sunday morning

19:48 · in a row but here's the thing is we're gonna we've been encouraging and we'll encourage you

19:53 · is people will make you mad in circles as you get in bible groups as you get in serve groups

19:59 · as you get in community with people as you learn more about people they will offend you and you

20:04 · will offend them in everything in between and paul here calls us to how do we keep forgiving

20:11 · and loving beyond this knowing that people are broken just like you are broken but we

20:17 · have a god who has forgiven us so much so that we can forgive others you see we put

20:24 · on radical values we we forgive radical wrongdoings against us but then it continues

20:31 · and it builds on this we also must love radical people as paul keeps going he comes

20:37 · to kind of this this hardest high point of this text and it says above all put on love

20:46 · which is the perfect bond of unity paul here says above all the last layer of clothes to put on

20:56 · now as i was thinking about this i'm like this kind of breaks down in phoenix arizona

20:59 · because we don't put on layers of clothes all right um we're not one of those places that

21:03 · you have to shed layers as you go it's just either hot or not hot not cold just not hot

21:09 · right but here if you're in a place where you have to wear layers the last layer you put on

21:17 · is this love it is the coat that goes on over everything else the wardrobe is not finished

21:23 · without it and look at what paul calls it he calls it the bond of unity that word

21:31 · it's a body word is the word for a ligament it is the same word paul uses one chapter earlier

21:38 · for what holds a body together you ask any athlete and it's funny as i already had this prepared

21:44 · in here and then i watched an episode of the new ted lasso and they talked about how ligaments

21:47 · are so small to put together big muscles i'm speaking theoretically not my muscles because

21:54 · they're a lot smaller than some muscles that ligaments hold together but but ligaments are

21:59 · so tiny so small and somehow holds our body together and one little tear in a ligament ruins

22:07 · everything you tear a ligament and all of a sudden those muscles that body part is useless

22:12 · and here he says and he shows this that love is the ligament that holds it together

22:18 · is what holds parts together that otherwise would come undone and come apart and this

22:24 · is exactly why love has to be radical for us because you look around this room

22:31 · and here's what i love about church is throughout your life is you pick friends

22:37 · but when you come to a church family you don't always know all the people you're picking in a

22:43 · church family like you pick the church and and the people are all there with it and sometimes

22:49 · you're like oh all these people are part of my church oh and it's this beautiful conglomeration

22:54 · of people from all different walks of life but when we come together united by one ligament

22:59 · of love and the love of jesus christ all of a sudden this thing works somehow a retired

23:05 · factory worker from the midwest and a 20 year old who has ai code them their entire job

23:10 · overnight can come together somehow a widow who has been here since before this building was

23:17 · built before we had six locations across arizona all of a sudden they can lock arms with a

23:24 · family that just unpacked boxes in a new build three weeks ago somehow a 30 year old mom

23:30 · running on four hours of sleep and a 75 year old who wishes anything to have a little bit

23:37 · more noise in the house can make this special bond and church this is what i love about the

23:44 · big church and honestly this is what i love about cross church in general is this

23:49 · multi-generational people from different walks of life with different interests

23:53 · in different hobbies we have ropers and cowboys who want me to go like rope a bowl or something

23:59 · and know that i would die doing that and we have nothing in common

24:05 · except for the love of christ that brings us together

24:11 · and this is the beauty of the church of how all this thing works and i love that paul as he

24:19 · continues to build this he shows how man we need to put on these radical values

24:26 · how we need to forgive and we need put on this forgiveness for those who have hurt us

24:32 · in big ways but then we also need to this last thing we see is we need to thank our radical

24:37 · god keep going in verse 15 as it continues he says this and let the peace of christ

24:44 · to which you are also called in one body rule your hearts and be thankful

24:52 · look at the verb he uses there this verb of rule the the greek word here is baraboo

25:00 · and this is the only place it appears in the new testament it is not a king word it literally

25:06 · means to umpire it's the official at the game who makes the call in a close play that says

25:13 · balls or strikes we have humans that do that in baseball right now pretty soon it's all gonna

25:17 · be robots and baseball will be better for it all right because these umpires are terrible

25:22 · but they're there and they're calling balls and strikes and he says in letting this rule in

25:28 · our hearts is it's calling what is right and what is wrong and paul chose this on purpose

25:34 · because in any real community there will be close plays you will hear things and be like

25:40 · was that comment rude or was i oversensitive about that like no they were rude right that

25:44 · was rude that was totally rude and then they're like oh i i someone just do i say something or

25:50 · do i just let it go is this a something to make a hill out of or is this something to

25:54 · just let pass and those things will go on in your head you will have those things you got

26:00 · to look for and think about but here is when we let god rule in our hearts all the

26:05 · paul says on the close place let the peace of christ make the call not your pride oh that gets

26:13 · me in trouble all the time not your preferences which are differing depending on who you are

26:19 · not not your lawyer because we know they just want to sue everyone right is his peace gets

26:26 · the final word in the room and here's the thing a community does not fall apart over the

26:32 · place it falls apart over a hundred close calls that nobody ever let the empire empire call in

26:39 · the first place i told you i like to play pickleball and one of the things i'm trying to do

26:43 · and be better at and i think i've really improved is i only call whether it's in or

26:48 · out when i know for sure and i'm pretty fair about that don't laugh josh i'm right you're

26:56 · ninety percent in time cisco knows what i'm talking about but i try to like i here's what

27:02 · 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

27:08 · like three seconds or even two seconds to call it like it's too late like there was doubt in

27:13 · your head and you called it and now you feel like you cheated so it's like it has to be

27:17 · clear this was wrong and i'm calling them on it not because i just want to win the game

27:22 · because i'm right and i want to ensure the integrity of the game yeah thought you guys

27:30 · would be on my side on this one but paul says in our life let the peace of christ be the one

27:38 · making the calls but then he builds on it and catch this phrase he says there we are called

27:42 · in one body as he says you were not called to jesus and then offered a church like an

27:48 · warranty that came with it the body is in the call to coming to him is belonging to a church

27:56 · family belonging to a people group is not something we add on to our relationship with christ it is

28:01 · part of the whole package of coming to jesus and following him and here's this is exactly

28:07 · why we build our church around this this is exactly why next week we have things like

28:11 · pizza with a pastor where we get to share the heart of our church and we get to ask you

28:15 · this is exactly why we do bible groups where we say hey you get to do life in community with

28:20 · one another because we can't take jesus and reject his people his people come with the

28:26 · whole jesus thing and then the last three words he uses of this passage is he says and be

28:34 · thankful if we look at this verse in this passage continuing into verses 16 and 17 that

28:42 · we looked at last week in verse 15 he uses the word thankful and verse 16 he uses the

28:48 · word gratitude and in verse 17 he uses the word giving thanks three times in three verses

28:57 · where it says we must be thankful to god but the question is be thankful to what kind of god

29:03 · we'll look back up through this passage because we've already seen the answers to this four

29:08 · times and he shows it in here in verse 12 it says we have a god that we serve that he chose us

29:16 · that he loves us that he made himself known to us through his word so that we could see him

29:22 · and we could choose to follow him as he revealed himself because of his love

29:27 · in verse 13 it says he forgave us despite how much we have messed up he has forgiven us

29:33 · over and over again and verse 14 it says he loved you that he doesn't hold things against

29:39 · you he just keeps loving and pursuing you and in verse 15 as he called you he said hey come be

29:46 · a part of this family a part of this community that will change everything about your life

29:53 · and i love that every command in this passage that when we talk about putting on when we

30:03 · talk about thanking all of this is already an echo of something that god already did first

30:10 · for us this is a radical god that we serve hey see all this points to this central truth

30:21 · that we see over the text this morning is that if we want to have a christ-centered community

30:28 · if we want to be a part of a church family that makes a lot of jesus and doesn't make a lot out

30:34 · of the garbage of our world and into the petty things that will we'll fight over that we will

30:39 · get annoyed over if we want a christ-centered community that says i'm gonna love and forgive

30:45 · and pursue people no matter how annoying they are because i know i'm annoying too and god

30:51 · loves me despite my annoyance that none of this will happen if we don't apply this text

30:59 · and here's how we apply it is that a rooted christ-centered community only happens when you

31:05 · know god and people know you this is a hard thing to put into practice first you need to

31:14 · god you need to know the god of the universe who i love the imagery of this passage that it says

31:22 · that we are to put on this character put on these clothes that make us different and here's

31:29 · what's so amazing is you cannot put on kindness and gentleness and forgiveness on your own

31:35 · because you are a sinner and you fall short of doing those things all the time and if

31:39 · you want proof of that just ask your spouse or ask your kids and they will tell you

31:45 · but we serve a god who did put on humanity he put on all of those character traits and he

31:53 · walked it to the cross to die in our place to raise again so when we put on those things

31:59 · we don't put on our own clothes of us trying harder instead we put on the robe of christ

32:04 · that covers our sin and lets us live in light of him that is the god we know that is the god

32:12 · we serve that is the god we love and honestly a lot of us we're all on board with that part

32:19 · so many of us we know that god and maybe you don't know him yet but you're like man this

32:23 · jesus dude he sounds awesome i love the fact that he wipes my slate clean that he

32:30 · 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

32:36 · him but others knowing me oh that's the hard part it's the hard part when you say i don't

32:46 · know if i want to be vulnerable i don't know if i want people speaking into my life

32:52 · i don't know if i want when the storm hits and my tree starts to get uprooted i don't

32:58 · know if i want people to see how truly shallow i am how truly rotted i am how truly much i

33:05 · am struggling but here's the deal church we're missing it is the purpose is not that our roots

33:09 · go so deep that we are so close to jesus and we are better than everyone else it's that they

33:14 · go out and we start linking our roots with other trees that aren't deep either but they're

33:21 · deep enough to get to the ground of christ and to lock arms with one another so when that wind

33:26 · blows it doesn't blow one tree but it blows a forest and here's how we can practically do that

33:35 · today how do you be a part of the forest and not just a lone tree standing out on bell road

33:44 · getting blown over by the monsoon well the answer is not to bring redwood trees to california

33:50 · i'll tell you that

33:54 · but the answer is to spiritually put your roots in a place where there are trees already planted

34:05 · and let me tell you at the corner of 175th and bell there are spiritual roots here

34:14 · there are men and women who know jesus who are already connected to other roots around them

34:22 · and they are pleading with you and asking hey come plant by me come sit under my shade

34:29 · come get some water here and see that when life gets hard you have some people you can lean on

34:38 · and that you can love with that they will help you withstand life's trials so that you can know

34:45 · something greater and that your life doesn't have to fall apart when things are tough

34:51 · let me give you two practical steps of how you can start that journey

34:55 · this one is next week if you're new here if you haven't said this is my church if you

35:00 · haven't put your roots in the ground yet come join us for pizza with a pastor

35:05 · this is all we do is we share who we are as a church and we give you very practical steps

35:11 · on how you can get involved what does it look like to know other people not just show up for

35:18 · an hour on sunday morning and leave but how can you know a community that can grow around you

35:25 · and that you can know god and you can know other people and maybe you've done that

35:32 · maybe you've been through that what your next step is you need to be in a bible group

35:39 · or if you're in a bible group you need to see someone who's not

35:42 · and you need to get them in one so they can experience this community

35:47 · they can experience the love that christ has for them so we don't have to go through this

35:54 · alone man i'm super excited as we start back our groups up in september 13th as

36:02 · football will be depressing and i'm gonna put that to the side

36:08 · but the highlight of my week every tuesday will be that we get to open our home and we get

36:14 · to have a bunch of young adults who are single not married yet 18 to 30 are full

36:22 · of joy and promise and have no idea how hard life is gonna be and we just get the love on them

36:30 · we get to show them what a family looks like we get to learn from them and they teach me

36:35 · cool slang all the time it's great but we just get to do life together

36:43 · and my encouragement for you is don't leave this place without taking your next step

36:50 · sign up for pizza the pastor right wherever you are you can scan the qr code you can

36:54 · sign up right there or right after this service go to our table for our bible groups

36:59 · find one sign up online don't leave this place today without making sure you know the god of

37:07 · the universe and that you have people in your life that know you that will hold you

37:13 · accountable that will love you that will annoy you but that you will grow closer to each other

37:20 · and closer to god as a result church let's be rooted in community

37:27 · this week let's be rooted in community over this next month and watch

37:35 · how no matter what storm life gives us how we can stand firm in what he is doing

37:45 · you