Especially if you're a guest, we're just so glad that you're able to come to us and be with us this morning for our preaching service. We would love to get to know you better, love to hear your story or answer any questions you might have about the church. for coffee, we can meet for coffee, or a phone call, or whatever works best for you, and you can contact us a couple of different ways. One is by emailing us at pastors at orchardbible.org, or you can pick up one of these cards that's by the back door, by the sound booth, in that little basket, and you could fill it out and put it in the offering box, and it will make its way to us. Also, if you're a regular attender, you can contact us via these same means if you have any information you want, or if you have a confidential prayer request, we would love to pray for you, so please do that as well. Again, this is our preaching service. We're continuing our series in the letter of First Peter. The last three weeks we've been camping out in the first part of chapter three, the first seven verses, as we dug a little deeper into the topic of marriage. And if you miss those messages or any message, you can always listen to them online on our website. Today we'll be moving on in chapter 3, 1 Peter, starting with verse 8. If you don't have a Bible, you're welcome to use one that's underneath the seat near you. You can also take that Bible home if you don't have one. We'd love to give that to you. In that Bible, we're going to start on page 1015. There's also an outline of today's message in your bulletin. And while you're turning there, I just have a few, a couple of quick announcements. First, the Orchard Youth. Thursday nights do not normally happen on the fourth Thursday of the month, the Thursday night meeting with the youth, but this week is an exception. The Junior Senior High will, in fact, be meeting here at 6.30 at Orchard. Second, starting tonight, we'll be starting a new Sunday Nights at Orchard class taught by Rick Carmichael on cultivating the Christian life. This is gonna be a great informative and practical class. We'll be starting tonight with the topic of spiritual growth through relationships. The time in the bulletin's actually wrong. We'll be starting at our normal time, which is 6.30, 6.30 here in the high school room downstairs. Now, if you're able, I invite you to please stand for the reading of God's word before Ben comes to preach it. 1 Peter 3, starting in verse 8, these are the words of the Lord. Finally, all of you, Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, we are thankful to be here in your presence this morning. We're thankful that you've given us your word that we're on this side of the old covenant, and now we have the new covenant, and we have a new covenant community as brothers and sisters. in your son, Jesus. Lord, as we ponder your word this morning, stir our hearts, teach us, guide us, God, for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. The giant redwood trees in California are a sight to see. If you've never been there before, it's a once in a lifetime kind of thing. They are amazing. The height of these trees is actually, for me at least, it was very difficult to comprehend as you stood underneath these trees. And the mass of the diameter of these trees is really something to behold. You get the sense, as you're standing in front of one of these trees, that you're in the presence of something special. I mean, it's just a tree, but it's pretty amazing. Now, the tallest tree alive today of these redwood trees is 379 feet tall. That's longer than a football field. And the widest in diameter is over 30 feet. And the oldest tree alive today is believed to have been 200 years old when Jesus walked the earth. So it was 2,200 years old, this tree. As far as we know, they are the tallest and oldest living things on Earth. One would think that with such a massive tree, you would find a deep root system. I mean, how else would you weather the storms that most certainly come by? But that's not actually the case. What we find is they actually have a very shallow root system, but it is intertwined with the trees around it. This mutual reliance upon one another creates a tree which can withstand the fiercest of storms. They are locked together. They do not stand alone. All the trees support and protect one another. What is true of the mighty redwood is true of Jesus' church as well. We are not meant to stand alone. We are meant to support and protect one another. I think John Wesley put it well, there is nothing more unchristian than a solitary Christian. As we minister the gospel to one another, we are built up, we are strengthened, we are supported, and we are loved. It is one of the primary ways God changes us. This is how C.S. Lewis says it. Jesus works on us in all sorts of ways, through nature, through our own bodies, through books, sometimes through experiences which at the time seem anti-Christian. But above all, he works on us through each other. We are mirrors or carriers of Christ to each other. Now, today's passage, verses 8 through 12, actually concludes a whole series of passages or instructions, really, that Peter gave, starting back in chapter 2, verse 13. As we move through, you see that Peter was talking about right relationship to government, and then right relationship to employers, and then right relationship to husbands and wives. and now we see right relationship to one another in the body of Christ this morning. This passage really describes what Christian community should be. And so I've titled today's sermon, Uncommon Community, because as we'll see, Christian community ought to be very uncommon. Now community is a word that is used frequently throughout the church, but I think we have to answer the question, what is community? And I think we know it, I think you know it when you see it. There's something in each of us that knows the beauty of being together. A piano concert is beautiful, but when the piano is joined by the strings, and then by the horns, and then by percussion, and then the vocalists, our soul leaps for joy. A solitary aspen changing colors in the fall is striking. but the entire grove glowing bright yellow against the deep green of the pinon pines and the Colorado blue spruce, that's another matter. It isn't for any reason or no reason that thousands of people clogged 285 at Kenosha Pass to take pictures of these beautiful aspens. We know the beauty of community when we see it. Now community can take place anywhere. It can take place at the gym, at the bar, at the office, at the stadium. Christian author Rosaria Butterfield was a lesbian who was saved through a friendship with her neighbor. She wasn't looking for community necessarily. In fact, she said that her friends from her former life were mostly from the gay and lesbian community and they were incredibly loving and supporting. So then, what makes Christian community so uncommon? Jesus. There is a deeper objective truth that exists in Christian community than in all other forms of community. Christian community is built upon union with Christ. In his book, True Community, Jerry Bridges puts it this way, It is not the fact that we are united in common goals or purposes, or you could even say, I'll add to this quote, interests, common interests. It's not common goals or purposes or interests that make us a community. Rather, it is the fact that we share a common life in Christ. When you trust that Jesus has died in your place and your sins are forgiven, you are united with him. Galatians 2.20 says it this way, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. By faith in Christ, we are united with him so that we die to our old self and are made alive as new creations in him. This is an objective fact. It is not based on how you feel on a particular day or even how obedient you've been on a particular day. If you have trusted Jesus in his death and resurrection as an atoning sacrifice for your sin before God, you are united with Christ full stop. And by virtue of being united with Christ, believers are united with one another. First and foremost, then community is built upon a shared life in Christ. Now, some of you who may have, like myself, been around the church for a long time are wondering, is there really, what's the difference between community and fellowship? I mean, I grew up going to the fellowship hall at the Baptist church that I went to growing up. We met in the fellowship hall. We didn't have a community room. So what's the deal? Why use community? What's wrong with the word fellowship? Well, the Greek word koinonia is throughout the New Testament, and it's translated in a number of ways. Acts 42 is one where you'll be very familiar. It talks about the new believers in Jerusalem. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and prayers. But here's the thing. Koinonia is also translated as partnership, in the gospel, as participation in the Holy Spirit, and in sharing of Christ's sufferings. So koinonia, community, is more than just fellowship. Community is more than just social gatherings around common interests. It is fellowship, partnership, participation, and sharing. All of these things make up koinonia. Mark Dever, in his book, Compelling Community, describes two types of Christian community. A gospel-plus community and a gospel-revealing community. Now, the gospel-plus community is one where most relationships are formed upon the gospel plus something else, like love for sports or concern for social justice. same age, the same marital status, and so on. For example, Bob and Jim are both Christians, but the real reason they are friends is that they love to hunt. There's nothing wrong with that. I want to encourage you, make friends in the church, share common interests. There's nothing wrong with that. But it actually doesn't say a whole lot about Jesus. In a gospel-revealing community, there are many relationships that exist based upon love for one another in Christ. And in fact, outside of that, those people have very little in common. We want to be a gospel-revealing community here at Orchard. Now note, when I say gospel-revealing, this isn't just about revealing Jesus to those who don't know Jesus. It's actually for that senior saint who's been walking with Jesus for 70 years. It's for them as well. We need each other for encouragement and mutual upbuilding. And as we do that, people who don't know Jesus will see what he is all about. That's what we're aiming for, brothers and sisters here at Orchard, a gospel revealing community, or if I may, a revealing Jesus in everything we do community. Now as we turn to our text this morning, these believers were suffering. We know that they were undergoing some type of suffering. And after Peter has pointed them to the cross in chapter 2, verse 21, he now points them to the mutual upbuilding that comes with Christian community. In fact, he gives them an outline of how to encourage one another as a committed community, and he reminds them how to relate to those outside of the fellowship of believers as a compelling community. And finally, he points them to their motivating force, the loving care of God himself, which drives them forward as a convicted community. So let's look at the first point in your outline. All that was intro, by the way. Your first point in your outline's here, a committed community. Now how we are to relate, how Christians are to relate to one another is such a critical part of what it means to be a Christian that really this theme of relationship to one another, right, it just courses throughout the New Testament. Romans chapter 12, Philippians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 4. and on. They all speak to what Christian community is to look like. It's critical because as a believer, it's important that you know you have been moved, picked up and moved from the domain of darkness and moved into the kingdom of light. You are a new member or now a member of God's family with a new identity as a child of the Most High God. You are siblings with Jesus, the God-man who even now is bringing his kingdom to pass. You are an heir of the most outrageous fortune one could ever dream of, eternal life with God in his presence. That's why the apostles Peter and Paul make such a big deal about how to live out the Christian life. Again, Peter knows the suffering these believers are experiencing and will experience, and so he encourages them with these verses. Commentator Scott McKnight said it this way, Christians relate to one another in a certain way both because it is right for them to relate this way and because it provides them with a family of acceptance in the face of a hostile world. What follows is not going to be hard for you to understand. It really won't. I would say there's actually nothing here that if you've been in the church for any amount of time, that will be new to you. But what I will say is that if you try to do this on your own, outside of the strength of the Holy Spirit, it will be very hard to actually do. So let's look at these five characteristics. There's five characteristics. For those of you who are taking notes and like to keep lists, there's five things right here in verse eight, that you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. So I'm just gonna pick these off. We're gonna move down the list. So we need to be unified. In the Greek, you could kind of directly translate this as together thinking. together, not thinking together, but together thinking. Of one mind, like-minded, harmonious. Easy to understand, but this may be the most difficult of all the commands that follow. I mean, it is easy to disagree. Think about all the things that it's easy to disagree about. What's the best diet? How to school your children? Your position on certain doctrines? Even the type of music that you prefer to worship with. We all have preferences and beliefs that are important to us. So what do we do? Well, Puritan Richard Baxter, I think, provides a helpful framework for this. He said this, in essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charity. Now, I'm not going to deal today with what's essential and what is not. That's cause, even that is cause for debate in some circles, but I want you to hear again what he said at the very end of that quote. In all things charity. When we disagree with a brother or a sister, it is imperative that we give them grace and are charitable with them. Said another way, we assume the best about their motives. We assume the best about them. Unity requires hard work and sacrifice. I mean, to be able to do this way, to be able to be charitable about something you care about, that means sacrifice. It means that we set aside personal preferences for the sake of others. This is hard to do, especially when it really matters to you. But that is the heart of the gospel, sacrificing one's rights for the sake of another. Another commentator said this, truth is not sacrificed on the altar of unity, but personal feelings belong on that altar. So we're not saying sacrifice truth, but what we are saying is set aside your personal preferences for the sake of the unity of the body of Christ. That takes hard work and a committed community works at unity. Number two, a committed community has sympathy for one another. This is like saying we have fellow feeling for and with one another. We are able to or we are to be compassionate toward one another, bearing one another's burdens. One of the defining characteristics of koinonia, as I said earlier, is sharing. True Christian community will share with one another in the highs and lows of life, the joys and sorrows. Now, as we think about Jesus and what defined how he kind of related to other people, I mean, I'm sure many words come to mind. We think that he was loving, he was challenging, he was patient. But maybe the defining characteristic of how Jesus related to other people is compassion. He was so often moved with compassion for people. The gospel record many times where this happened. He healed the blind and the leprous out of pity. He provided food for crowds that had been following him for days. He looked upon people completely lost and without God and had compassion on them, calling them sheep without a shepherd. Now we are reminded and encouraged by the Apostle Paul to carry one another's burdens. In 1 Corinthians 12, 26, it says this, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. And then in Romans 12, verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. A committed community is sympathetic to each other's sorrows and weaknesses. A committed community is loving. This is much more than warm feelings. In fact, the Greek actually kind of brings to mind sort of this feeling in your gut, like you are moved in your inward being with love for one another. That is love that results in action. I mean, think again of Jesus. What did he say? I want you to know people by what? I want you to know them by your love for one another. Joy and pleasure in one another is not the motivating force for loving one another. I'll say that again. Joy and pleasure in joying one another is not the motivating force for loving one another. At the heart of love in the Christian community is understanding the depth of love and forgiveness one has received in Jesus. Mark Dever, again from Compelling Community, said, our love is proportional to our understanding of forgiveness. A cold heart that does not love suggests one of two things. Either it has never been forgiven or it does not appreciate the depth of its forgiveness. A committed community is tender-hearted. This is a refrain of the call to be compassionate towards one another, because a tender heart sees each other's needs, sees the pain, the suffering, and is moved by it, is empathetic towards it. Like love, here is one that moves you and your inward parts. This tender-heartedness is is one that feels generous in the depths of your being. This is the person who weeps with you, doesn't just feel sorry, but feels your pain as well. For the deeply grieving, words of comfort can actually be a lot like the teacher in Charlie Brown. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. It's hard to hear when you're really suffering. Instead, tears shed alongside, in genuine sorrow, speak a better word than a thousand spoken words. A Christian community, a committed Christian community, lastly, is humble-minded. Now, humility is often considered a vice in the local community, but in God's community, it is a virtue. It's not a vice, it's a virtue. So what does humility look like? in the Christian community. First and foremost, a humble person enters into relationships to see how they can build up other people, not to be built up themselves. A humble person avoids a business, a sort of a transactional mindset when it comes to relationships. Now, that business mindset thinks about, what am I going to get out of this relationship? What am I going to have to give to get something back from this relationship? That's not humility. That's not the way of Jesus. They avoid, a humble person avoids that type of mindset and instead thinks about what they can do for the other person. It's a supernatural, a gospel mindset even that thinks about things in that way. This type of humility speaks to what drives the Christian community, the power of the gospel. And I'll also tell you humility, so that's one thing, one side of humility, right? One side of humility moves out into relationships to look, to seek, to help. and to see what they can give and not what they can receive. There's another side of humility that says, I need help, that has the ability to reach out for help. I was listening on the radio the other day, I listened to a lot of sports talk and In Denver, all they talk about is the Broncos. There's been a lot of change. They fired their head coach. They hired a new head coach. They're trying to figure out what the deal is. At quarterback, who's going to start? What are we going to do? And the guys on the radio were saying, you know what? John Elway. John Elway is the general manager for the Broncos. He's really in charge of everything. You know what John Elway should do? He should call Peyton Manning. He should call Peyton Manning and get Peyton Manning's opinion on what needs to be done at the quarterback position. They said, there's no way that John will ever do that because John can't say, I need your help. We don't want to be like that. We want to be humble people who are quick to say, I need your help. And then let's help one another. As we kind of sum up this section here, this first section, before we move on to our second point, I came across this quote by Charles Spurgeon, who's a famous preacher from the 19th century. And he said this, I thought it was very striking, and I think it gets at the heart of, where are we seeking relationship? Where are we as believers seeking community? It really ought to be here. Not in this building, obviously, but in these people, with these people. This is what he says, I would rather be chained in a dungeon, wrist to wrist with a Christian, than to live forever with the wicked in the sunshine of happiness. Wow. So that's what it looks like to be a committed community. It's a loving community. It's a humble community. It's sympathetic. It's unified. It's tenderhearted. But a Christian community is uncommon, not just in how it's committed to one another, it's also uncommon in the way that it relates to those who persecute it. So point two in your outlines now, a compelling community. Peter writes in verse nine, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Now, the natural response to those who hurt you is to do what? It's to fight or to flee. Psychologists call it the fight or flight instinct. But here, in the scriptures, we see something different, something that actually isn't contemplated by contemporary psychology. Peter says that we are to bless those who attack us, that we are to treat those with love and to bless them. who have evil intent towards us. I have to think that the words of Jesus were certainly in Peter's mind when he penned this letter to the churches in Asia Minor. This is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verses 38 through 45. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." Peter remembered not only these words, I'm pretty sure he remembered Jesus' words in the cross. Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. That is returning blessing for cursing. Now this is a very counter-cultural way to move out into the world, to return blessing for cursing. Let's say it's even a very counter-human way, at least in our fallen state, it's a very counter-human way to move out. And it's nothing new. John Calvin writes in the early 16th century, and though it is commonly thought that it is an instance of a weak and abject mind not to avenge injuries, yet it is counted before God as the highest magnanimity. What was true 500 years ago is true today. Now if you aren't sure how you could apply this, maybe you're not actively being persecuted, you can't remember the last time somebody reviled you, that's good, that's great actually. But I think if you spend any time on social media, if you're on Facebook, if you're on Twitter, you can see how you actually have an opportunity to apply these things. You've seen how easily things devolve into virtual shouting matches. name calling, and shouting down are the norm. The latest trend is shaming, where the anonymity of the internet allows a mob mentality to steamroll people who have been deemed immoral, have not done something that's in keeping with whatever the virtue of the day happens to be. As a result of this, people lose jobs. They've got to move. They lose their community. It may be tempting. The anonymity, I think, makes it tempting to hop into that comment section, light a fuse, and walk away. But we must not do that. That is not the way of Christ. His community of people don't act like that. And in the same way, we avoid gossip and slander, cynical and sarcastic attitudes that speak lies about God's community. And that can happen anywhere. It can happen at home, with your family. It can happen in the workplace. Instead, Jesus calls us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, of our new identity. If we love him, we will obey him, and his command, as hard as it is, is to not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but to bless, because this is the life to which you have been called. Now here's the thing. A life marked by this characteristic is noticeable and compelling. People will notice when you don't slander, when you don't gossip, when you don't laugh at off-color jokes, when you don't return reviling for reviling, when you don't pay evil for evil, when you bless in the face of cursing. That looks a lot different. People will notice. They may never actually open the door for you to talk about Jesus, to share the gospel, but they will see because it is just so different. And it is compelling. Now, before we move on to the last point in the outline, I just want to note what the end of verse nine says, that you may obtain a blessing. What is this blessing that Peter speaks of? It is the favor of God in your life. Now let's transition to point three in the outline, this convicted community, because that's where Peter really expands on the blessing that God gives to those who walk with Him. So point three in your outlines, convicted community. Peter shows us what the blessing is and how to attain it by quoting from Psalm 34. So actually the rest, verses 10, 11, and 12, actually are all directly quoted from Psalm 34, which David wrote. And so I'm just going to kind of walk through these verses for you and provide you just kind of a little bit of context as I go along. So, in verse 10 then, whoever desires to love life and see good days. This is really just saying, who wants to be blessed? Who wants to receive God's favor in their life? Well, that kind of person will do what follows. Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. I think how remarkable that the first admonition that David gives is about speech. It's not about pride. It's not about lust. It's not about power, envy, control, or money. It's about controlling our speech. James called our ability to destroy with our words a fire. And not just a fire, but a fire that can set the whole world ablaze. Imagine what James would have written if he had known about Facebook and Twitter. The power of words for both good and evil is frightening. And so the one who desires God's favor will speak words that are true and are life-giving. Next, let him turn away from evil and do good. If we are truly born again, like Jesus talks about in John 3, we will bear fruit. The fruit of our lives will be to turn away from evil and to do good. Obviously, this is not perfection. That's not what we're talking about. But the pattern and the direction of your life will be one of increasing obedience and a more and more spiritual fruit. And lastly, Peter, quoting David, says, let him seek peace and pursue it. Now, if you're kind of tuned in, by the way, amongst the elders, I call myself the pop culture elder because I'm always making pop culture references. So here's another one. For the last 10 or 15 years, post-apocalyptic literature and film has been very common. It's all over the place. And it's interesting to me, at least, how these directors kind of depict what this post-apocalyptic world looks like. I mean, highways, sidewalks, buildings, everything is overgrown with weeds and vegetation. In the way they depict it, it's like it happens overnight, too. It's very fast. Gardens and lawns that were once manicured beautifully look like a toddler was put in charge. They look terrible. And to a guy who enjoys a well-manicured lawn like myself, it's pure horror. But like nature, without active care, relationships also move toward chaos and entropy. Peace does not come naturally. This ties back into the theme about unity. You've got to work at it. It takes active pursuit and maintenance. There are many occurrences of the exhortation to peaceful relationships. The one that came to mind as I prepared were Jesus' words again on the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. No doubt Jesus calls out this blessing because of the difficulty that comes with maintaining peaceful, healthy relationships. So Peter really here with these by quoting from Psalm 34 has really summarized for us kind of the ideal Christian life in the context of Christian community. And he concludes with verse 12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. Now some say this is God watching over our lives to make sure that we obey. Kind of like Santa Claus. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. But that's not obviously what this is about. Others would say that this is the opposite, that it is God's caring watchfulness over His people. God is watching and listening so that He can attend to their prayer. I actually think that there's both things happening here. There's both things. You see, God sees us and He knows us. The problem is, too often we act as if the opposite is true. It's like we work in an office building with a reflective covering on the glass, and we're able to look outside and see everything that's going on outside, but the people walking by can't see in and see us. But here, we see that God sees us, yet we act as if we are the ones behind the reflective glass, and God is unable to see us. But God is watching, and nothing escapes his gaze. Second Corinthians 5.10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Followers of Jesus will give an account at his judgment seat, which is sometimes referred to as the Bema seat. Now hear me on this. This is not a judgment of guilt or innocence. That was settled at the cross. When you put your faith in Christ to be right with God, all of your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. They are all forgiven. At the cross, a believer's sin is put on Jesus, and he atones for that sin by his death, and in that same moment, you receive his righteousness, just like we talked about in the first service this morning. That's called justification. But the Christian life doesn't end there. That's actually the beginning of the Christian life. It continues in sanctification, where we change more and more to be like Jesus. We have God's word. We have His church, His community, and most importantly, His Holy Spirit to change us. What happens at the Bema Seat Judgment will be, what did you do with those? It will be a time of reward. And we want to be rewarded when we get to that place. But God's eyes are also upon us because He cares for us. And His ears are open to our prayers because of His loving concern. This is the love of our Heavenly Father who knows us, who hears us, who desires that we would obey Him and love life and see good days. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts, the desires that are from Him and the result of the indwelling Holy Spirit. a result of the new birth in Christ. This is our heavenly father who gave up his son for us. His eyes are upon us. His ears are open to our prayers. As the popular worship song says, he is a good, good father. And it is his desire to bless his people and to show them his favor. And as a community of His people, we not only believe that He has given up His Son for the forgiveness of sins in His favor upon His people, we are convicted that this is true. It has been said that a belief is something that you hold. But a conviction is something that holds you. And we are held, we are gripped even by the conviction that we are not our own. but have been bought with a price, even the blood of Jesus Christ. As such, we live lives that do not look like they once did, but we walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Men and women, boys and girls, bought by the blood of Christ, are transformed and being renewed daily, united with Christ and with each other. This is what gives rise to uncommon community. So uncommon Christian community is only possible with relationship. We must be in relationship with each other. Pursuing peace, pursuing unity, practicing love, bearing with one another and patience and gentleness, moving out into relationships to see what we can do for others and not what can be done for us, not how somebody else can make us feel. And there are many, many ways to do that here at Orchard. There are many ways to get involved. And I urge you to talk to me or to any of the elders, to look in the, go to the greeter's desk, look in your bulletin. You can get involved. There are many ways to find community here at Orchard Bible Church. And all of this, true, all of this, this need for relationship, the understanding and the conviction that we are held by, that Jesus has brought us together, all of that is true. But the most important thing is that we must have a relationship with Jesus. There is no way we can be unified with each other if we are not first unified with Christ. If you're here this morning, you're a guest this morning, or maybe you're somebody that comes every week, and you've been here a long time, but maybe you're hearing something different this morning than you've heard before. If you have not put your faith in Jesus and submitted to His Lordship, Accepting His forgiveness, we read at the end of verse 12, that God's face will be against you. His eyes are towards those who do His will. His eyes are towards those who have put their faith in Jesus for salvation. But for those of us who have not done that yet, God's face is against you. Submitting yourself to someone else is very, very scary. But I pray that you will do so because you will find a loving father and a gracious master in Jesus. Aslan the Lion from the Chronicles of Narnia is a C.S. Lewis series. He meets a horse in the book, A Boy and the Horse. And the horse is kind of confessing but he's not quite ready to take that last step of faith in Jesus. And Aslan says to the horse, do not dare not to dare. Do not dare not to dare. And that is my word for you this morning. If you are here, you're on the fence, Do not dare not to dare. He is a good, good Father and a great, great Savior. Please stand with me as we pray. Heavenly Father, we are so blessed to have you as our Father. We are so blessed to have this community of people with which to reveal Jesus to one another. with which to reveal Jesus to an onlooking community outside of these walls. Lord, we pray that at this church, that we would be a gospel revealing community, that it wouldn't be about common interests and common stages in life, but Lord, spur us on as you reached out to us, help us to reach out to one another in relationships that defy what we would expect to see. Will we do that by the strength of your Holy Spirit? Father, we love you, we thank you, we ask you to bless the rest of this day and our weeks, in Jesus' name, amen.