Levi Lusko - Power of Your Posse
Well, we are beginning a brand new collection of talks this week that we are calling Mad About the House. That's going to be the theme to the messages, really a season-defining kind of idea for us. And the subtitle is that we're going to care for, we want to care for, what Jesus died for. That's why we say we want to be mad about the house. We're not the least bit concerned with being too crazy or too passionate about what was worth the blood of Jesus as God sent His son to purchase the church, to buy us out of the world, to call us out of the world.
The most expensive thing that's ever been bought is the church, the blood of Jesus. And so if that's the case and we're a part of that, then we want to be mad about that. We want to be consumed by our care for what Jesus died for. And if you have a copy of the Scriptures, we're going to be in Hebrews 10 as we begin this series. And this theme's going to flow and be beautiful. It's going to touch Mother's Day. We'll talk about moms in this house. And it's going to end on Father's Day. It's just going to be, really, an amazing time, believing for huge things.
So come back and bring someone with you. It's going to be special. But Hebrews 10, the title of this first message is the Power of Your Posse. In Hebrews 10, here's what we find. Scripture says in verse 24 and following, "And let us consider how we may spur one another toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching".
And Father, we're so grateful for Your word. And we pray that what's contained here, this powerful encouragement that we find here in this letter would unlock new things in our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
The Power of Your Posse. Have you ever been in a situation where you just felt so alone, where you just felt so aware of the fact that no one was around you in that moment, and you just desperately needed them? What I'm really asking, have you ever been in a sketchy part of town, walking from a grocery store to your car and not had any weapon besides your car key? That's what I'm really saying. And why is it that we brandish our car key in those situations like we're really going to do something with it, right? What are you going to do with your key?
You think if someone musters up the courage to actually jump you, attack you, try and maul you, that they're actually going to back up when they realize, oh, no, they have a key. We weren't prepared for this. But these are just the things that we do. And now, the auto industry is set to sabotage our one and only weapon with these new fobs. No one's going to be intimidated with a fob. What are we going to do? I'm going to hit you with this key chain and run. But there's just moments where you just really feel aware of a lack of backup, where you just are aware of the fact that you don't have a squad, even if it's you just experienced something crazy with a group of people.
And then, later, you're trying to tell that story to people who weren't there, and you finally end up frustrated, like you're mad at them, like, you had to be there! But you weren't, right? But when you're telling that story, and there are people, you're like, Mike, Mike, you were there. Tell them, Mike. And Mike's like, oh, yeah. You're like, yeah. How you like me now, right? Because you've got your posse there. You've got your backup. You got your bros. You got your girls. You got people who can back you up in that moment.
Let me tell you something: God intends for you to feel backed up in this life, for you to live and feel like you have a posse, you have a spiritual squad up in your corner. It's called the church. And Jesus intends for you to feel like you got people who got your back as you follow Him. You never need to feel isolated. You never need to feel like you're rolling so low. You never need to feel like there's something you wish you could share with people and experience with people and hurts you could articulate to people and not have that for you, to not have people in your corner, to not have someone you can tap into the ring, man, I'm getting WWE all up in here, someone who can grab a folding chair and hit Andre the Giant for you, right? Like, what are you even talking about here? But that's really the flavor and the tone, though, of the text, isn't it?
As the writer of the book of Hebrews is telling this group of people, it is so important that you don't fall prey to what was happening in that day and happening in our day, and that is missing church. And he's telling them, let's not miss meeting together. It's a common thing. I know some people don't attend. And that, let me just tell you something, that's common in our day, too. It's been common. And there are those who talk about the mass Exodus from the church. And sure, there are reasons to believe that there is a secularization going on in our culture. But there's nothing new under the sun. And even back then, even when the book of Hebrews was being written, there were still people, even then, who were not showing up, not a part of the gatherings.
And Paul was saying, or whoever wrote this, I say Paul because it's just habit because Paul wrote so much of the New Testament, but whoever wrote, the artist formerly known as Paul who wrote the book of Hebrews, he was telling them, I know it's common in that day, but make sure you're there. Make sure you're a part of the gathering. Now, what are the rates of church attendance? That's a question that researchers asked. How often do you go to your church? They went around the country. And they just interviewed people and asked them, do you go to church: yes, no? Of those who said, yes, I do, I am a part of a church, and it wasn't just Christian churches, this was any religious gatherings, so mosque, synagogue, Christian church, what have you... but they said, OK, but how frequently do you go? I go to church, yes.
Well, how often do you go? What they said was, on average, in this country today, people go about three times every eight weeks. So every eight weeks goes by, three times they'll show up. Now, that's not frequently at all. As I heard that, I was like, that can't be true. Because anything you do three times in 60 days, that's pretty irregular, in my opinion. Like if you worked out three times every two months, you would not have abs, somebody, right? You think about eating healthy, you know. I look at eating healthy as I try to have more good eating days than bad eating days, right? So it's like the days are divided up. And was that a clean day, or was that a cheat day, right? Three clean days in 60 days is not great, right? Three cheat days in 60 days would be really great. You think about it that way. But the reality is that that's not just true in the country. That's also true here at Fresh Life, as well.
And as we run the numbers, we find that people, on average come about one time or two times per month, once or twice per month, or, in other words, about three times every two months. I guess the bigger question is why. Well, Barna did a research study and found out that there are reasons people don't attend church when they say no to the question. Do you come to church? No. The reasons people say no to that is:
1. Fhey say it's irrelevant
2. Full of hypocrisy
3. Full of moral failures
4. That God's missing in the gatherings
5. That doubt is prohibited. You have to believe in order to belong here.
Now, looking at that list, I don't think that's the reason people at Fresh Life don't come regularly. I don't think any of you are going, I only come three times every 60 days, or twice every two months, because God's missing or it's irrelevant. I think, genuinely, it falls more into a different kind of list. My friend Carrie Nieuwhof did a study on why people attend church infrequently. And I thought this was a much more telling list. He said seven reasons:
1. Because of a greater affluence in our culture. The middle class is shrinking. Therefore, the upper class is expanding, so more people with more money. And those with more money have more options, more toys, more distractions, more luxuries, can go to the lake, can use the jet ski, can go out here and do this. So more options because of a greater affluence.
2. Higher focus on kids' activities, just the craziness of soccer and this and that and got to get Billy here and Sally there and just more options for the kids.
3. More travel: cheaper airplane tickets, options to go for the weekend, go here, go there, drive here, drive there.
4. More blended families and single-parent homes, where, of course, there are weekends where you could not physically get your kids just because you don't have them at that situation or time.
5. There are online options. You can watch this podcast, listen to this message, download these songs.
6. A disappearance of guilt. Where there used to be just an expectation, a baseline, in our country that you went to church on Sunday, that's what you did, as the country becomes more secular, there's less guilt when you don't come, therefore, less of a motivation to do so out of a sense of right and wrong.
7. Because of self-directed spirituality. I don't want someone else telling me what to do. I don't need some book. I'll just do it myself, figure it out myself, go on a hike, go on a run, go do whatever, and hear from God that way.
Now, those are the reasons, perhaps, that are part of us not coming as often. And I'm sure the church at Hebrews had their reasons, as well. I think more important for us would be to ask the question, why would the author of Hebrews say it's so important that you don't let any of those reasons be a factor in you not showing up and not being a part of the gathering?
And I think what keys us in to the urgency of the situation is the fact that he uses the word "spur". I encourage you to spur one another on, urge one another on. That's drastic. When the spurs come out, you know that's something serious. When the spurs come out, it's like, oh, my gosh. This is attention. Because there are, they say, four ways to communicate to a horse. You can show a horse what you want with your intention, with just a movement, with just a subtlety. You can ask a horse to do something. Then you can tell a horse to do something. And then, you can demand the horse does something by digging in the spurs.
And the clear urgency of the situation is made apparent when the author of this book tells us, you need to spur one another to not miss these gatherings because of how significant they are. Why? Because God knows how much power is involved in the posse that is the local church. And to help us understand just how powerful the posse is, I want to invite up, at every single location, your campus pastor to take this message at this point. So come on. Give it up for your campus pastor. Come on. Up on your feet. Honor your campus pastor as they come to bring the rest of this message.
Pastor Chris Gwinn
Oh, thank you so much. And thank you, Pastor Levi. Man, you can go ahead and take a seat. If you who don't know me, my name is Chris Gwinn. I have the joy of being the campus pastor here at our broadcast location in Kalispell. My wife, Alie, and I absolutely love this place. We're mad about this house. And I am so honored to get to share the platform today with Pastor Levi. He and Jennie have honestly been such an impact in our lives. And so it is a great joy to get to share today and share about something that I feel so passionately аbout: the power of your posse, or, really, just the strength of the local church. This is why we're here. Because we know there's strength here.
And I want to talk about five things we're going to get to experience as we actually live this out and lean into these things that we're talking about in Hebrews, spurring each other on and continuing in this habit of meeting together. And the first is this, for you note-takers, that you're going to get to meet who you need to meet. I don't know if you know this, but we were meant for community. I don't know if anybody would deny that because we've seen it for so long, right?
Junior high, high school, if you can remember back that far, we see it starting, where we see the jocks hanging out with the jocks naturally, the nerds hanging out with the nerds, and the emo kids with the emo kids. I'm sure you fell into one of those categories. At my school, I don't know if yours was like this, but we had an anti-social group where all the anti-social kids who didn't like people somehow found each other and started their own social club. The irony was not lost on me. But it's because we know instinctually that's how we were designed. And I don't think we ever really graduate from that.
Right now, we cluster around socioeconomic status or where we work or the bars we go to or where we work out, what our kids like to do for fun. But we are meant for community. We're meant to be around people. We're meant to have a posse. But as Christians, the questions that we have to ask ourselves are, are these the right people, and are they helping us grow in our relationship with God? That's the most important thing. I've heard it said this way: show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. So think about it right now. Think about the people that you spend the most time with. What does your future look like if it's going to become like them? It can be a sobering thought. And for you parents, this may be something to consider.
Now, obviously, your kids are going to be impacted by their friends. We've all seen that. But they're also going to be impacted by your friends. I know there's some nervous parents in the house right now. How would you like it if your kids became like the people you hang out with? Now, Ali and I don't have kids yet. But this thought actually excites us because we have a friend here, Michelle Nolan, who oversees Fresh Life Kids here in Kalispell. She's amazing. And it excites me to think that someday, our kids are going to run down the halls of this church and get to rub shoulders with her and spend time with her and experience her exuberance and enthusiasm and affirmation, and they're going to become more like her.
And so we need to consider this. Because it will impact our kids. It'll impact our marriages. It'll impact our future. If you've ever asked yourself the question, why can't I find any good friends? maybe you're hanging out the wrong people. You need to get around the right people, and you're going to meet them here. And the second thing that's going to happen is that you'll hear what you need to hear. You'll hear what you need to hear. And full disclosure, this may not be what you want to hear. You know what I'm talking about? Those conversations you have, and then, you're just like, dang it. You're right. That's what I'm talking about.
And every week, we get to hear messages hear that convict us and challenge us, and they do spur us forward. But we have a bunch of people around us that can do the same thing even more personally, where we can hand out those baby monster hunting tags and give permission to people in our life to snipe out the things that are robbing us of joy. If you've not heard that series, for real, go listen to it because it's amazing. But really, the whole series just kind of speaks to what Solomon talked about. In Proverbs chapter 27, verse 17, he said, "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another". It's really just this idea that we were meant to make each other better. We're meant to help each other move forward.
And I was having a conversation with a friend of mine a while back. He's our Whitefish campus pastor now. He used to be my intern. And we were talking. I was sharing about something I'd been praying for for a while. And then, after months of prayer, God finally made it happen. And I was so excited and so enthusiastic and grateful until the newness wore off, and the difficulty set in. And I wasn't anymore. And it switched from like, this is the thing to like, you know what? Actually, I think there's something else on the other side, and this is just a season that I have to walk through for God to get me where I actually need to go.
You ever been there? OK, good. I'm not the only one. And I'm describing this journey that I've been on, and he can hear the discontentment in my voice as I'm talking about it. And what I wanted to hear was, dude, that sucks, man. Hey, you're way better than this. Just get through this season. There's bright things on the horizon. Everything's going to be OK. Poor baby. And that's not what he did. He told me what I needed to hear. And he reminded me how, just a few months prior, I had been praying for this, full of faith, and now, I was actually annoyed by the fact that God was faithful. And here's what he said to me. He said you need to stop complaining today about what you were praying for yesterday and just be where you are.
I am so offended that you're clapping at that. I didn't know if I should punch him or hug him or what. I was, boy, I brought you into this world, I can take you out. But here's the truth: he was exactly right. And even in that moment, I knew in my soul, this is something I need to hear. And we need those kind of conversations in our life. We need those kind of people in our life to be able to speak into us and for us to be able to speak into to say the hard things, with a spirit of love, that we need to hear. It's so, so important that we have this.
And so that's the second thing. You'll get to hear what you need to hear. The third is that you'll be able to give what you need to give. And I don't know if you know this, but we were not made to simply receive. And if you need any example, riddle me this? What happens when we consume more calories than we expend? Yeah. Hesitantly, you get, uh, buff? No, you get fat. That's what happens. And we all have a little bit of hibernation weight left over. This is probably too close to home. I'm looking down. Yeah, we'll do something else. The Dead Sea. Have you heard of it? Geography class was not failing you? OK, good. It is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth. And it's actually nine times saltier than the ocean, if you can believe it. And it is that way because it has inlets, but it has no outlets.
And so water will flow into it. The water then evaporates. The salt stays. And over time, it has become so salty to the point where it's completely inhospitable to any significant forms of life. And so no birds live there. No fish live there. It's crazy. And that is what happens to our souls when we only receive, and we never give of ourselves. When we hoard the blessings that God has given us, we actually become like a dead environment where, even when He wants to, He can't grow anything of substance. Because we're only receiving, and we're not allowing those blessings to flow through us. And it quenches transformation.
And if you've experienced that, maybe you're here right now, and you're like, man, there is something in my life. I want to see growth in this, I want to see change, I want to see progress, but it's not happening. And I don't understand. Because I go to church. I'm here. I go to church and hear messages. I go to church and get inspired. I go to church maybe three out of every eight weeks. I won't make you raise your hand. I go to church out of obligation, maybe, but I'm here. But I'm not seeing that life change. If that's you, my advice would be to stop going to church. Is he allowed to say that? It happened. Here's my advice: Stop going to church. Instead, start being the church. Because God's not building an audience. He wants to build an army. This isn't a spectator sport.
And once we realize this, everything will change. All of a sudden, we can start viewing all of the gifts and the abilities and the finances and the time and the energy that He's pouring into our lives, not just as something that's meant to bless us but that's meant to bless others through us so that more people can go to heaven and less people can go to hell. That's why we exist. The blessings in your life were not simply meant to make your life more awesome. They were meant to flow through you, yes, to make your life awesome but also to make the Kingdom of God more glorious. That is the point of why God gives us all of these things. We're meant to give of ourselves.
And I love how Peter put it in 1 Peter, Chapter 4. It's so beautiful. He said, "Each of you", someone say, each of you. Now say, that means me. "Each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength that God provides so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen". That's the kind of life we were meant to live, one that responds from generosity to generosity to other people. And we will see transformation and vibrancy in ourselves as we do it, as well.
So the fourth thing that we get to experience as we're doing this is that you will develop the habits you need to develop. And that's natural, if you think about it. That's what happens when we have rhythms in our lives. Habits naturally form. And so it's crazy. As you actually do this, you want to be at church more. I know it's a novel concept. You actually want to be here. You actually want to show up to your Fresh Life group, even when you're tired after work, and all you want to do is go home and watch Netflix. That one's just me. You actually want to get in the Word and see the character of God and pray and develop that intimacy with Him. You want to develop these habits. And as you do, those habits bring exponential growth to your life. But not only that, they actually bring a form of protection for you when life doesn't go how you thought it would.
And my wife and I have been experiencing this recently. We've come to this church for four years. And really, since we started coming, we've been in Fresh Life groups. We serve. We give. We absolutely love this house. And over the years, we've developed habits that have planted us here. This is our posse. And I am so thankful that we have done that. Because it is right now getting us through the hardest season that we've had to walk as a couple so far. A few months ago, we found out that we were pregnant, and we were so excited and full of anticipation. And we scheduled our first ultrasound, and we were so eager to get to be there and hear the heartbeat for the first time and see our baby for the first time. And that's not what happened. We showed up.
I can remember it like it was yesterday. We showed up. Ali laid on the table. And we watched as the technician's face dropped, as she's searching. And she said, there is no heartbeat. And what should have been a nine-week-old baby only made it to five weeks. And we found out that we'd be having a miscarriage. And what has followed has been a roller coaster of grief and of sadness and of confusion that we're still riding right now. It comes in waves.
What I'm not saying is that your posse is going to take the pain away. Our posse, our people, didn't take the pain away. Because that's not the reality we live in in a broken world. But what I am saying is that, even in the midst of the tears and the heartache and the grief, God has surrounded us and been close to us and wrapped us up in a way that I can't even describe. And He's done it through His people. This is why we need each other. Listen to me. This is why we talk about consistency. This is why we talk about community. Because it matters. Because life's not always going to go how you think it will.
Sometimes life will come and knock the legs out from under you. And you feel like you don't have any power to stand on your own. And in those moments, you need to tap into a power that's not your own, the power your posse, to be able to pick you up and carry you forward. Because we need this. We need each other. And these habits of being together are going to be able to cultivate relationships that can sustain us through that. The truth that we've experienced and we've gotten to see the benefit from is that when you develop your habits that are fixed on heaven, you have a strength and a hope to sustain you even when life hurts like hell. And it does sometimes. That's why we need this.
And as we live all of this out, the most beautiful thing of all of this isn't just the growth and the protection. It's not just hearing the right things. But the outcome of this is that you become who you were born to be. That's the fifth thing that you get to experience. You become who you were born to be. And I'm talking about the person who you know you're capable of being. You know, in those quiet moments, you can picture who you're capable of being, the character you can live with, and the humility and the wisdom, if only you weren't sleep-deprived and dehydrated and hangry and have annoying people at your job. You know what I'm talking about?
In those quiet moments, you know exactly who God created you to be. And so if that's what you want, my advice, it would just be a summation of this whole thing. And that's this: to surround yourself with people who are going to call you by your real name and speak to the true identity that Christ has put inside of you so that when you're insecure, you get to have people that are going to remind you that you've been fearfully and wonderfully made. When you're afraid, they'll remind you that God hasn't given you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. When you treat yourself with less dignity than you deserve, they'll remind you the price that He was willing to pay to have you. We need this.
If we are going to become who we were meant to be, you need people to remind you that you're forgiven, that you're a child of the King, that you're cherished, that you've been loved intimately and chosen specifically and called for a glorious purpose and then equipped with the same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead to help live this out. We need each other. We need our posse. As we put our roots down here and meet the right people and hear the right things and let our life be an overflow of generosity and develop these habits, I believe that you will become who you were born to be. But more importantly, we will be the church that we were meant to be. And if we do that, I believe we will shake the gates of hell. Do you receive it? Amen. Hey, back to you, Pastor Levi.
Pastor Levi Lusko
Come on. Let's thank God for this great gift of getting to hear from these amazing people. And I think those things, those wonderful attributes of hearing what we need to hear and meeting the people that we need to meet, the habits that will develop and the opportunities that we'll have to give and to serve, all those things are the reasons that God says to us, let's not forsake the meeting of ourselves together and that we should spur one another on. Come on. Spur one another on towards them. You think about digging this into the stomach of a horse. And I did a little research, found out that it's actually something that doesn't hurt them. But like you saw, it's a last-resort thing. We've already tried to show the horse. We've already tried to ask the horse and tell the horse.
And then, finally, it's a loving thing to bring the spurs out. Because a horse that's not listening can put itself and its rider into danger. And so we think about all these reasons why God wants us to live not in isolation but in cooperation with His people. All the things that come as a result of it are things that you want in your life, every one of us. And like I said a minute ago, I don't think that for most of us the reasons that we're not coming is because we think the church is bad or because we're bad but just because we're busy. And so what it takes is a prioritization, to prioritize it and say, this means something to me. This means enough to me that I'm not letting it be last on the schedule. I'm not letting it be last in the priority. But it's an as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, where you're putting it first.
I've heard pastor Brian Houston put it this way: you'll never come in second putting God first. He just has a way of blessing you as you prioritize Him and let those other things fall where they may. Because the reality is all the things that God wants to give us through being a part of the church, and not being infrequently a part of the church, and really, that's really where we're beginning, that's that word that God's speaking to us, that we wouldn't just come but that we would come frequently, that we wouldn't let weeks pile up where we're not coming, that we make that commitment for our kids to be here in the house, that we're here in the house, all those things. The truth is the things that we'll miss if we're not doing that are things we're going to crave and look for somewhere else.
And as I was listening just a minute ago, I was just thinking about how, in our day, the self-help industry is so massive, so many billions of dollars. You walk into any bookstore and, literally, it says self-help, self-help, self-help. And no wonder, in a world where so many of us are missing out on this opportunity, that we're looking to other places, like a self-help book or to the community we would find somewhere else, at its best in a spin class, at its worst in a gang. But you even think about how there is a desire to find a group of people to do life within and that God has that. God gave us what we're looking for, what we would look for other places, right here, in the house. And He wants us to be mad about it, just like He is.
And I was thinking this week that it's not only for us to prayerfully resolve, to personally schedule and commit and prioritize being a part of the church together but that we would also ask God who is in our lives that we might lovingly encourage to do the same? I was thinking about the Tour de France. And if you've been coming to the church a while, you know I like professional cycling, and I just think it's amazing. And I was thinking about the peloton this week. This is a photograph of a peloton. A peloton's just a bunch of bicycle riders riding in unison, in formation, as a pack. And what's amazing about the fact of the peloton, there's a lot of things amazing about it, but they eat while they're on here. They can change their shoes while they're riding.
It's ridiculous. But one of the things that's really amazing is the fact that they don't have to work nearly as hard together as they do alone. In fact, it's estimated that you save as much as 30% of your energy by riding in a formation like the one that you just saw, as much as 30%, whereas if you're riding by yourself, you just have to deal with all of the wind. You have to deal with all the hardship of what's coming. But when you're a part of something bigger, when you're a part of a group like that, there's just a power in it. Because you can rotate who's in front, and it makes it a lot easier to do.
But what I was thinking about is how, in the large pelotons, like at the Tour de France and other races, it's common for people to end up dropping off the back, dropping off the back. And they just can't hang on to the peloton. And there's actually another group of slower moving riders on some of the hillier stages, the autobus or the gruppetto, depending on how you describe it. But in these groups, sometimes people won't even be able to hang on to that group. And so they'll end up falling off the back. And that's professional cycling vernacular for not being able to hang on with that group, even with the energy savings, just don't have the gas.
And so they'll end up falling off the back and end up by themselves, where it's absolutely critical that they stay in contention with the team. Because at a certain point, they can get eliminated if they don't finish within a certain amount of time of the first rider to cross the finish line. And so teams who know they have a rider who's fallen off the back that they need to stay in the race, they'll send a couple other riders to go back and get them and actually tow them back to the group.
Within the team function, there's a position of those who are more like lieutenants, or domestiques, they might call them, and their position within the group is to serve the head. And as a role of their leader that they would be assigned, they would go back, at a cost to themselves. Because now, they're going to have to use all the coal in their legs to get that person back. And they're not doing so so that they would win. They're doing so to get that person back so that their leader can win, so that the person in their team who's actually in contention of winning in the overall standings can actually win.
Now, I think you see where we're going with this. Because all of us here are here in this church to serve the head. And the head is Jesus Christ. And He's the one who's the leader, and He's the one who calls the shots. But all of us should see the call on our lives to go out and to be willing to get those who have dropped off the back. Now, would we normally talk like this as a church? We talk about this culture of invitation. Let's bring people who don't know Jesus. Let's bring people who don't know the gospel and don't know God and get them here.
And I think as a church, we have it pretty well in our veins to be a people who go out and want to bring people in who don't know God. But what I feel like God is calling us to in a new season. And maybe I just need to repent that I've never really just led the way in this culture within our church and talking about it, is celebrating and affirming the call of God in our lives to go out and get those who have just dropped off the back, people in our church who have come to know Jesus and have been walking with God, but you just look up one day, and it's like, where were they? They used to serve all the time. They used to be around here a lot. And they just have dropped off the back.
And maybe it'll be successful for us to try and get them, and maybe it won't, but that it would be in our hearts to reach out to people and say, hey, haven't seen you in a while. What's going on? I just want you to know that I care. I just want you to know I have noticed you haven't been at group, or I've noticed you've been attending super infrequently. We haven't been seeing your kids here. My kids miss your kids. We just miss you. We just love you. We'd love to have you back. We'd love to have you here. Haven't been coming for a while?
I think sometimes the enemy builds judgment into people and fills this sense of, well, because I haven't, but now I can't. And for us just to be those people who are leaving the peloton, leaving the autobus and riding back to those and saying, come on back. Come on. Draft on me. Draft on me. I love you. I care for you. Come on. There's power in the posse. And God wants it to be in all of our hearts, that we would have that within us and all the more as we see the day approaching, all the more. Oh, the country's getting so bad. The country's getting so dark. Well, guess what? The darker it gets, the brighter we need to shine. And that's the call that God has on all our lives. In Jesus' name.