watching everybody worship here this morning. I was struck by just how special, right? These mornings, these times are. And I think there can be a tendency, right? To have some guy, maybe you don't know, maybe you know briefly a little bit, get up and talk can be a weird thing, particularly those who maybe haven't grown up in the church. And I just want you to know, man, my heart, my passion, my desire for this morning and every Sunday is that genuinely you wouldn't hear me. That as we go to God's Word you really hear God's Word speak to you. That tech would be great, yes, that the music's awesome, that the people that serve and kids and do all that, that they'd be great, that the welcome team's awesome, that the coffee is hot, maybe that's the big, that, you know, the highest bar, that's hot and it's good. But it would be too easy for just this to be, right another time where we come on a Sunday morning and we check a box. My hope is that, man, I hear from God's Word as much as anybody else in this room. And so I look around and I see stories. I see folks that are overcoming cancer. I look around and I see folks that I know have got the message that they were laid off, just in the last week. I look around and I know there are stories of hurt and stories of families that have lost a family member recently. And so as we come here this morning, again, I just, right, this is special, this matters. And so I'm just going to pray. I'm going to pray that God uses me. I'm going to pray that God uses all of us and that the Holy Spirit is here powerfully. And so again, watching online or here in the room, would you just take a minute and would you pray with me? Jesus, we thank you for this morning. Jesus, we invite you in. Your Word says that wherever two or more are gathered, there you are. And so because of that, we can know here, we can believe it. It can be true to our core that you are here in this space. You are with us. So Jesus, we all bring stuff. We bring baggage. Some of us bring in steamer trunks full of worries and concerns and weights and pressures. Relationships that weigh heavy on us, jobs that we don't understand or that we've recently lost, illnesses we're still trying to figure out how to move forward with, all of it. So oftentimes distracting us, pulling us away from you, from others, soaking us in stress and anxiety, fear. And I just pray, Jesus, that for the next little bit, would you clear that away? Would you speak through me? Would you speak into me? Would you open our ears, our minds, our hearts to hear from you, maybe like we've never heard from you? We ask this as your children. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. This morning, right, we're kicking off a new series, but I feel like I can't stand up and not comment on last week, right? 15 people who were baptized, who declared, "Man, I believe in Jesus' Lord and Savior and shared their stories." Man, if you didn't get a chance, you can go back to the Facebook stream, you can go back to YouTube, you can follow it on there. You can hear the testimonies, the stories of what God is doing in and through the people here at Harvard. Man, I invite you to go do that also here at the front. If as you are listening to those stories, you're like, gosh, I want to get baptized. I want to be obedient to what Jesus has commanded, and I want to celebrate with my local community here, with my decision to follow Jesus, would you go to harberchurch.life/knowJesus? You can sign up. One of the pastors is going to follow up with you, and we will get you scheduled for the next one. So please do that. Today, though, we're kicking off a new series called "Last Man Standing." Simple truths for a lasting faith. Simple truths for a lasting faith. And so right this last month, we dove into this series on purpose and this idea that when you believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, you began this path, right? You begin this pathway of discipleship is what we've called it. This idea that you begin to be a lifelong learner devoted to learning the deep truths found in God's Word, found in Scripture. You're going to be devoted to being a server, to serve as Christ has served us, right? Christ came not to be served, but to serve. So we're going to model our lives after Him learner, serve her, and then we're going to be givers. We're going to have sacrificially. We're going to give joyfully. We're going to give up our time, our talents, and yes, us of our treasure because Christ gave every bit of Himself on our behalf, right? That's the pathway of discipleship. And then it felt like as we've kind of wrapped up that series and we celebrated the baptisms, well, now we're going to go look at a gentleman, at a person that literally lived that out. We're going to sit and soak in the wisdom and the instructions of one of the original 12 disciples. And one of the 12 that literally was the last man standing. We're going to look at John. We're going to go there. We're going to soak for the entire month of July. We're going to sit in first John, this small letter that he wrote towards the end of his life from the city of Ephesus. Around that time, he would have been potentially around 80 years old. He's no longer even referred to as this disciple. All the other disciples have died. He's simply referred to as the elder, the pastor, because he's outlived them all. He's the last man standing. And to appreciate, I think John and what he has to say for us, for me, I go, okay, he's the last man standing. Sounds great, last man standing. How does that work, right? Last man standing of the original 12. I think it's informative for us to understand what happened to those 12. And so, generally speaking, according to historians and those that study this sort of thing, I'm going to walk you through. Here's the end of the 12 leading up to John as the last man standing, beginning with James, his big brother, right, the other son of Zebedee. First apostle to be martyred. Herod Agrippa ordered his execution by beheading. So John witnesses that. From Philip, we go to James. Sorry, from Philip, we go to, from James, we go to Philip. It's a long week. Right, Philip, who spreads the gospel throughout modern Turkey, he's then crucified. Some saying that after he's crucified, that doesn't quite take him out, so then they stone him to death. From Philip, we move on to Matthew. Matthew, who recorded his incredible gospel, right? The gospel of Matthew known for his missionary work in Ethiopia, he stabbed to death in Ethiopia. Why? Because he had the gall to tell people about the love of Jesus. From there to James the less, son of Alpheus, crucified in Egypt while preaching the gospel. To Matthias, Matthias, who was chosen to replace Judas after his betrayal, who's stoned, then beheaded. Because why do one when you could do both? From there we go to Andrew. Andrew, right, the brother of Peter preached in Ukraine, Southern Russia, Greece, who's crucified on an ex-shaped cross, today that we call St. Andrew's cross, and dies in Patris, Greece. Tradition tells us that it took two days for him to die, hanging on that ex-shaped cross, and during those two days, as people would walk by, he would preach the gospel of Jesus for two days. After Andrew, we go to Peter. Peter, who was brought to Rome, who so offended Emperor Nero, that he has Peter crucified in Rome, and tradition tells us that when they go to crucify him, he says, no, no, no, I'm not worthy of being crucified the same as my Lord, so they flipped him upside down. Then on to Thaddeus, also known as Judas, son of James, clubbed to death, around 65 AD. Bartholomew, martyred by being fled alive, then beheaded in Armenia. Simon the Zealot preaches the gospel in Egypt and North Africa, and then is so, and sawed in half. Finally, Thomas, traveling extensively, again, to preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus, reaching as far as India, then speared to death. You see, to a person, each man endured incredible hardships, and yet they preached unceasing the truth that Jesus was, is and always will be the risen Lord and savior of all, that all who believe in him would be saved, saved from their sins, saved from a purposeless lives, and saved from the ultimate dead end of death. All, all are welcome to those who would believe and receive Jesus as Lord and savior. See these men who immediately after Jesus' crucifixion, right, these 12, upon Jesus' crucifixion, they run and hide, total cowards. And yet, after witnessing his resurrection and his ascension, completely are transformed, right, willing to go anywhere, speak to anyone, right? They become courageous warriors of truth, love, and grace faithfully risking everything, all for the glory of God, for his kingdom and his righteousness. Why? Because they had seen the risen Lord and savior, and every single one of them paying with their lives for the crime of telling others that they are loved by the risen Lord, leaving John, the last man standing. John, the only disciple who Jesus entrusted his mother, Mary too, John, the youngest of the 12, one of the sons of thunder, John, who again, for his crimes of telling people about Jesus, was brought up on charges before Emperor Domitian, and then he was found guilty, and his punishment was to be boiled alive in oil. And so they take John and they put him in the boiling oil. When they dump him out, he's unscathed. They're so blown away, they don't know what to do with it, so they ship him off to the island of Patmos and have him stay there, 'cause they just can't deal with the guy anymore. Until Emperor Domitian, he finally dies, and then John travels to Ephesus and lives out the rest of his life. History tells us in Ephesus. This is where we pick John up. This is where he's at, when he begins to write. First John, he's now reached old age. Having watched, heard, or experienced the death of his Lord, of his brother, and of each of his closest friends that were murdered and martyred. John, who we might expect, I mean, I would expect this to be bitter, sad, angry, looking to lie to match on his way out the door. That would make sense to me. It would be what I would wanna do. Lashing out at everyone who wronged him and who murdered those he loved most. Yet that's not what he does. Nope. As the last man standing, he offers wisdom and love. He lays out in kind, simple detail, what it means to follow Jesus, to walk this pathway of discipleship. Connecting with God, with others, and with truth. Living authentic lives, choosing faith, over fear, and ultimately overcoming by believing in truth. And so for this entire month of July, we're gonna be anchored into this one book, this one letter, first John. It's five chapters, and we're gonna go through it, essentially a chapter at a time. And we're gonna see what John has to speak to us, what John wants to teach us, simple truths, for a lasting faith as the last man standing. But to kick us off, we've gotta understand, there's a problem that John is writing into right out of the gate. And it's a problem that actually is not just a problem there for the early church. As the elder, he's certainly speaking into a problem, but it's a problem that I think is universal. And the more I thought about it and prayed about it, I think the problem is this. I think it's true for all of us, we can fall into this, is that we have idolized independence at the expense of real connections. We have idolized independence at the expense of real connections, hang with me here. You see, in John's context, there was a growing dispute. There was a splinter minority of those who said they believed in Jesus, but they were disconnected from true believers. And in their independence, they were pushing a false narrative, they were pushing false truth. And the lie that they were pushing was that Jesus was not fully man and not fully God. You see, they allowed themselves to be infected by cultural views. And the Greeks at the time, they believed that the spirit, the supernatural was perfect, pure, and right. They believed that the body, the physical, was always broken and fallible. Therefore, Jesus couldn't possibly be both fully man and fully God. Well, this was a big deal to John. This was a big deal. This is a core tenant of belief, not just then, but now that he is fully man and fully God, that he's a manual, God with us. And because it's so important, right, we can trust him. Because he's fully man, we know that he has endured all the suffering that we can do. He's been tempted in every way that you and I are tempted so he can relate and connect to us. And because he's fully God, he can now pay that perfect price, the price that none of us could pay. No, he has to be both. The gospel is not the gospel if he isn't fully man and fully God. And what had happened was you had this handful of believers that had separated, valued their own independence. No, we're right, and all the rest of y'all are wrong. And it valued their independence rather than the connectedness of staying connected to truth, to Jesus and to fellow believers. And out of the gate, John speaks against this. So pick it up here in verses one and two. He says this, he says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life, the life appeared. We have seen it and testified to it. And we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. Again, John goes out of the way, out of the gate to highlight both the natural aspects of Jesus and the supernatural. He's addressing this independent thought that is leading others astray and wanting to pull people back to the truth of Jesus. Fully man, fully God, right out of the gate, he says that which was from the beginning. Meaning read, he's highlighting Jesus' supernatural truth. He has always existed. And then from there that we've seen, heard and touched the physical, the word of life, the grant's eternal life. Again, the supernatural, preeminent with the Father. Physically though, practically appearing to them, touching them, interacting with them. Again, fully man, fully God, fighting against the lies of those who had decided to go astray to be independent from God, independent from fellow believers and independent ultimately of the truth. And then he gives a solution, goes to verse three. He says, we proclaim to you what we've seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. See these folks had separated, right? They had left the fellowship and leaned into their own independence rather than trust in the value of fellowship with Jesus, fellowship with believers and fellowship with the truth itself. And this was creating issues. This was creating division where God meant for unity. And this is what happens. It happens to every one of us, you go, okay Joel, great history lesson. What does it have to do with me? It has everything to do with me. I bet most of us like to go our own way. How many of us were either the toddler or parents of a toddler that stands there and goes, I do myself, I do myself, yes, thank you. It's just Jenny and me, that's fine. Yes, I do myself 'cause that's baked into all of us. See, all of us do this and we do it so many things because we overvalue independence. Right, we live in a culture that all these narratives about, right? The lone wolf for overcomes everything all on their own, somehow that's more valuable than the one overcomes because of the strength of their community. We celebrate those living their own truth. What? Separated from the truth found in God's word. We value self-sufficiency, individual achievement. We romanticize solitude, right? Media, popular culture, frequently celebrates, right? The self-made hero, overcoming obstacles through tear, determination and independence. Reinforcing this idea, the connectedness is somehow a weakness, idolizing independence over connectedness. And all of this is as destructive now as it was then. When you value independence over connectedness, you end up isolated and alone. When you value independence over connectedness, you become susceptible to lies and distractions from the truth. And when you value independence over connectedness, you end up burning bridges with those you were meant to have fellowship, connection and unity with. Thankfully, the answer, the solutions for John's original audience are the same solutions for us today. John makes it very clear. It's that the antidote to idolized independence is embracing the truth that connection matters most. It's connection that provides protection. It's connection that promotes deep relationships and it's connection that guards against falsehoods. And John recognizes this and at the very opening of his letter of this book, first John, he lays out the three-step process to fight against idolized independence and return us back to connection. First step is this, connection with God the Father and Jesus. Go back to verse three, last half of verse three, John writes, and our fellowship is with the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, fellowship. Now fellowship is the best effort in English to capture what is meant in the Greek. The Greek word in here is called Koinenea and we just don't have the shades of meaning that this word in the Greek had then. It encompasses, yes, fellowship, but it goes beyond that. It goes to communion, participation, and to sharing, it signifies deep mutual bond that goes beyond mere interaction. No Koinenea is about sharing lives. We're believers engage in mutual support, encouragement, accountability, it means sharing joys, sharing burdens, sharing resources and our gifts with one another and it all begins with fellowship with God and with Jesus. It involves a shared life with God characterized by prayer, worship, and obedience to his will. So the first step, right, John lays it out. You wanna overcome independence in your life, you wanna guard your life, then be connected to God the Father and Jesus. From there, he goes on, connection with fellow believers. The first half of verse three, we proclaim to you what we've seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us so that you may also have fellowship with us. Those that would have read this were absolutely picking up what John was putting down. See, everyone would have understood that John is calling out the dangerous independence of those who have split away from the truth found in their fellowship, their Koinenea with fellow believers. I read those words and I gotta believe that John is even referring in his own mind back to Proverbs 27, 17 where it says as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. See, there is protection, security, and confidence that is found when we willingly remain connected to fellow believers. See, I think this is true. Anyone or a few of us led to our own devices will be led astray to embrace crazy sauce things. I mean, just a couple. So this is personal, again, I grew up in Indiana, but I would hear stories of this, right? Left to ourselves, left without a connection to God, the Father and Jesus, connection to fellow believers, helping to moderate us, to help point us to truth, we can believe crazy sauce things. There's a passage in the gospel of Mark, right? Mark sits down, writes the gospel, his gospel, his story of Jesus' life. Well, there's a passage in there where Mark uses the literary device of hyperbole, right? He's exaggerating for effort, right, for emphasis. And he talks about how, man, if we're following and obeying Jesus, we can even hold serpents. We can hold snakes. Well, of course, he's using hyperbole. And yet, there are a handful of believers, particularly in Kentucky, true story, that have created like dogma and doctrine that literally they're, this Sunday, there's a church in Kentucky where they're holding up a rattlesnake as a proof test on whether or not you believe and follow Jesus. That's bananas. That is valuing independence over connection with fellow believers. I think about, right, there's a block of people that have separated out, they go, "Well, we just don't believe in instruments in church." Well, you don't see it in the New Testament, right? You don't see, well, there's a lot of things that I don't see in the New Testament. I don't see the internet in the New Testament. I don't see all kinds of things. And they make a case there, but you're, it's because you've gone rogue, right? You've gone independent. You've separated from fellow believers, and then the one that I think is the most insidious, the prosperity gospel, the prosperity gospel. And I get its appeal. Oh my goodness, I like the idea. If I just put in this much obedience, I'll get out this much return. And not just any return, literally, the decimal point will move to the right in my bank account. You follow me? Right, I'll just get more money. I'm always blown away by that. Do you know that in the 2000 plus years of those who have faithfully been following the Lord Jesus Christ, this is a very new idea. No, this isn't true, right? Just a simple reading of the lives of the 12 disciples. Did they all end this life rich and high on the hog? No, do we believe they weren't faithful? No, and yet every one of them died horribly for their faith. And Jesus literally says, he says in this life, he doesn't say you will have some trouble. He doesn't say, well, you have a little bit of trouble, but praise God, if you follow me, you'll get a bigger bank account. No, he says in this life, you will have much trouble. But take heart for I've overcome the world. No, we are doing the disservice, and we are separating from the true gospel, and from followers throughout history, when we say anything otherwise. When we get up there and go, no, it just follows Jesus, and life will get easier. Baloney, if you've ever heard that, run screaming. It's not true, but your life will become more meaningful. It will matter for something beyond yourself. And God will use you in ways you could have never imagined, but it will cost everything in your life. And give you the promise of eternity. Again, when we separate from that, we can run into all sorts of problems. I just, I'm always leery of those who have independently discerned a new revelation, a new truth that is clearly disconnected from over 2,000 plus years of faithful Christian service and belief. Always worried about that. See, here's what's true is that our fellowship with fellow believers is a protection from idolized independence. So connection to God, the Father and Jesus, connection to fellow believers, and the third thing, John says this toward the end of the chapter, verses six and seven, connection with truth. And I intentionally do this, right? Capital T truth, not your truth, not my truth, not some truth, no, the truth found in scripture. Look at this, verses six and seven, John says, if we claim to have fellowship with him, with Jesus, yet walk in the darkness, we lie. We do not live out the truth, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship, there's that word again, coin in the eye with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. This is the natural result of lives lived independent from Jesus and independent from the community of faith. You end up walking in darkness. And though John is using a metaphor here, again, it's not lost on his audience, what he's saying. If I had to sum it up, make it even more clear, I'd say it this way, to walk in darkness is to live a life of sin, believing the lies of Satan, culture, and our own fallen flesh. And we can do it, right? God gives us the option, it doesn't force it. We can choose to walk independent of Jesus, independent of fellow believers and independent of the truth. But to do so is to walk in darkness and to embrace lies. That is not the pathway of a true disciple. No, as the last man standing John offers an antidote to this way of living. He says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. To be clear, the light John refers to is God's word. It's what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 119, 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path because daily connection to the truth of God's word protects us from the dangers of idolized independence. So that's it, that's John's three-part strategy. For those of us, when we've gone astray, those of us who have gone independent, gone rogue, who have idolized that independence, he says, no, this is what brings you back, connection to Jesus, connection to fellow believers and connection to the truth. How do we apply this? What's that look like for us today? Because I'm a firm believer, whatever we wrestle with on Sunday has to matter on Monday. So I'm just going to give you three things. And they're simple, right? Simple things are often hard. And they're things all of us, man, I have been walking with Jesus for decades for the majority of my life. And I need to be reminded of these. For all of us, whether you have just started that journey where you've been on it for a while or it's just a lifelong journey. Man, we need to be reminded of these things because life is crazy, right? Struggles are real and they can pull us away and say, no, I got this. I got this on my own. I firmly believe favorite thing a parent not can hear from their children, I got this. Do you? No, let's work together. And so how do we apply these truths in our lives? It's first, number one is make a plan for consistent prayer. Make a plan for consistent prayer. John would say, stay connected to God the Father and the Son, and I know no better way to do this than by being connected to Jesus in prayer. And it doesn't have to be mysterious. No, it's simply stopping in your day wherever you're at in your car, at your desk, in the carpool, on the bleacher watching your kid sitting in that folding chair while you're baking under the sun while they sort of play soccer, right? Whatever that looks like, you can stop at any minute. It doesn't have to be complicated. There's no prerequisites for prayer. He's not too busy, and he's never distracted. You just need to begin. And maybe that step for beginning is beginning by belief. Maybe if some of you in the room are watching online, you've never started that first prayer of Jesus. I believe in you. I believe you are the Son of God that you paid the price. I could never pay to forgive me for the sins of my life. Wash me clean, and welcome me into a life of purpose that will matter beyond myself, and welcome me into eternity. That can be your first prayer. And then every other day afterwards, understanding that no one is going to set time aside for you. Right, nobody's gonna walk up to you and go, oh, I see you're busy. Here, let me block out some prayer time for you. It's not gonna happen. No, you need to schedule it like you would any other meaningful appointment in your life. I can tell you, I've not been awesome at this a lot of my life. I kind of find, hit or miss times, take a little time in the morning, maybe it's up to the around lunch. God bless this burger, amen, right? And shove it in my face. And I wasn't intentional and I wasn't strategic in my time. Really, it's been over the last several months. I have determined that I want to encounter Jesus more. And so I have consistently been getting up an hour and a half earlier than I need to. I get an hour and a half. It is widely known here at the church. I'm not a morning person, amen? And so I get it. Some of us are like an hour and a half. Other people like, you know, Ryan's working at 5 a.m. messaging me. I don't get that, right? That's just him. No, I have to discipline myself to do it. And I can tell you, man, I have seen a change in my heart. I've seen a change in my relationship with my wife. It matters. So make that plan. What does it look like for you? It doesn't have to be beginning, it doesn't have to be end, but make that plan spend that time with the Lord. Number two, seek out healthy, biblical community. Seek out healthy, biblical community. See, if one of the antidotes to idolize independence is found through fellowship in Christian community, then be intentional to seek it out. It's why we beat that drum of groups, connection, QR code, QR code, welcome wall, all of those things, because it actually is a protection for us. It blesses us when we do this. Go to the next men's grill and chill on the 29th. Make that connection. Go to the next ladies' night out. Make that connection. Attend one of the men's studies. Either Tuesday morning, Tuesday night. Right, join, get apart, seek out, biblical community. Right, as we're pushing towards the end of the summer here, we're gonna relaunch, right, groups. We're gonna have group studies. It's why Julian and I, we're gonna be teaching a parenting class, 'cause evidently we're amazing at it. I'm just saying, I've read some things. No, it's gonna be great, right? You need something for that? Because community matters and it becomes that antidote to the independent spirit in us. So please go do that. You can go to harborchurch.life/groups, and you can see the stuff that's out there and then push towards the fall, 'cause we're gonna relaunch those. And then number three, develop daily scripture discipline. Daily scripture discipline. Can I tell you, that's not very sexy. Can I just own that? I can remember as a young man, really, I gotta get up, or I gotta make time to read the Bible. Yes, it actually matters. Why? Because truth is daily under attack. Truth is daily under attack. And now there are those who would tell you that's a recent thing, right? The media would want you to believe that no truth is only recently under attack, to which I say that's a lie. No truth has been attacked from the very beginning. It's saying approaching Eva, she stands under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And where God has said, no, you shouldn't eat that. It's not good for you, it's not healthy. To which Satan looks at Eva and says, did God really say that? No truth has been attacked from the beginning. Now, when Satan says that, Adam and Eve should have both just jumped up and declared loud and proud. The truth of what God had said, but unfortunately they were not anchored to the truth deeply enough. So they were led astray. And so we can all be led astray. Therefore we must develop a daily scripture discipline. Write a daily time set apart for study in God's word. Because how do you combat lies with the truth? How do we know the truth? By spending intentional daily time soaking in his word. So I got three ranges here, I'm gonna give you. Beginner, intermediate and advanced. Recognizing that all of us right, we're on a spectrum of faith and we're on a journey in our own faith. So for the beginners, I'm gonna challenge you to do this. I want you to take your phone. I want you to go to your app store or whatever the weird thing is that Android does, right? Whatever that is, I want you to download the YouVersion Bible app. YouVersion Bible app. And just begin with the verse of the day. Just make that your discipline. Make that your first thing. I'm just gonna get up and I'm gonna read that verse and then reflect on it. Ask yourselves, okay God, what do you want me to see in this? What do you want me to experience? How do you want my life to realign with the truth in this verse? Ask those questions and begin there. That's for beginners, for intermediate. I'm gonna challenge you to read all of First John. It's five chapters, they're short, right? And here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to, you know, all the rule followers in the room are gonna go, I'm gonna leave church, I'm gonna read all five chapters. Check, please don't do that. And I don't want you to do it on Monday and I don't want you to read all the book in the first week. No, here's what I want you to do. I want you to sit and soak in it. I want you to read a little bit of the time, allowing the words from the last man standing, the elder, the only disciple that was described as the beloved of Jesus. I want you to spend time this month, sitting and soaking in his simple truths and asking yourself, how do I align my life to match up to that? That's the intermediate. For the advanced, I'm gonna challenge you to do this. I want you to memorize all of chapter one. That which was revealed to us in the beginning. I want you to memorize it. I want you to etch it on your mind. So there you go, those are those three things. And these are the three steps. These are the antidotes to idolized independence in our lives. We're gonna make a plan for consistent prayer. We're gonna seek out healthy biblical community and we're gonna develop daily scripture discipline. Will you join me in that? I'll even take a patronizing yes. That's fine. I'm gonna welcome the band up. We're gonna wrap up here this morning. You see, on the pathway of discipleship, connection matters most. Connection with Jesus. Connection with feel at fellow believers and with God's word, it's the antidote to independence. It solves it in all of our lives. And now we do this traditionally the first Sunday of every month. We get together and if you're new, new-ish, this is what we do. We remind ourselves of anything of our connection back to Jesus himself. Connection back to his sacrifice. Connection back to his forgiveness. The power of his blood shed on the cross to forgive every one of us and wash us clean from the sin in our lives. And so we do that by taking communion together. And so here at Harbor, what we're gonna do is we're gonna, I'm gonna pray and then Jordan's gonna lead us and the band and some worship. And during that time, I want you to get up, move around. There's four different tables here in the room. Take the bread, right? Representing Christ's body. Broken for you, the truth of that. The cup, again, representing his blood shed to cover all of your sins, the truth of that. And we do it to stay connected to him. To stay connected to fellow believers and to say connected to truth. And so I want you to just get up, move around. If you wanna take it individually, you wanna take it as a family, you wanna sit, you wanna kneel, you wanna stand. I want you to have the freedom to do that. But to remind yourself, you don't got this. And you can't do myself. We must stay connected. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for the truth of your word. Meet us now in these next moments in Jesus' name. Amen. (music)
