Today, we are going to look at the core four. The core four. Several years ago, I was having a conversation with kind of a well respected leader in the community that we were living in at the time, and I'll never forget what it was that he said to me during that conversation, because when I was talking to him, I was explaining all the different things that were going on in my life. It was just one of those seasons where there were so many different things pulling me in a number of different directions, and I was sharing all that with him, and he said, Jason, that is a lot. There's a lot of things going on in your life, and those are all good things. He said, they're all really important things. But he said, what I want to know is what is most important to you. I said, What do you mean? They're all important, and that's why I have to do all of them. Right? Said, Jason, what you need to know is that there are things that need to be most important. You've got to have a few core values, otherwise, you're going to find a way to determine that everything is important and do every single thing that there is to do out there. And then you'll spread yourself so thin and spend all of your energy upon those different things, rather than what the Lord is impressing upon you most to be doing, and spending most of your time doing that always stuck with me. But then we moved here a few years ago, and I'd see Michael Curtis over here, and Michael Curtis teaches a seminar called the leadership challenge on a book that was written called the leadership challenge, and he invited me to participate in it. And I don't know he handed me, and all these others, all these cards. I don't even remember how many cards there were. There's a lot of cards, and they had one words on them, and they were values, descriptions of values, and things like that. And we had to take all the 40 or 50 cards that there were and like somehow nail them down to the top 10 things out of all of those that were most important to us. And then we had to take those top 10 and narrow them down into like a top five. And then even when you got to that, it was like you got to narrow even those down and get rid of a few more until you get to the top three. And what he was doing, of course, is teaching us how to get to the core of what was most important to us, the things that the Lord had impressed upon us to be the most important things to give our time and our attention to. And while that is certainly helpful in all of our lives, it's also helpful in churches. Churches need to find things that are at the core what is most important to them, because there's a lot of things that we can say are important. The Bible is a big book. There's a lot of important values all throughout Scripture, things for us to expend our time thinking about and participating in and doing. But the Lord is actually leading each one of us as one of his local churches to focus in on what he's leading us to value the most, the things that will be the core of our makeup as one of his local churches, our DNA, if you will, the distinctives about us, and what he put us in this community to do, as opposed to the church right down the road or so, we all have a little bit of a distinct flavor, if you will, to us. And so for us here at Colonial hills, that's the core four. We're going to talk about the core four core values that we have at Colonial hills, why they're imported, and how that applies to each and every single one of us. And so for those of you who are kind of guests today, you're checking this thing out. This is a great day for you to be here, because you're going to find out who we really are and what we're all about and what's most important to us. For those of you who have been around here, some of these things, you're going to remember. Quite honestly, some of you may have forgotten that you ever even heard some of these things, and it's always really good for us to be reminded of them, because there's roles and steps for each and every one of us to take within these as his church, the very first core value that we always talk about is life in Christ. And the reason this is the first one that we talk about is because Jesus even said that this sums up the entire reason that he left the glory and the riches of heaven, and came here to suffer and die on the cross for our sins in John, chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus said, The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it. Faith abundantly. Jesus said, This is why I came, so that they may have life, so that we may have life. Satan, through sin, has stolen that life. He's robbed us of that life. He's destroyed that life that we were all created to have and experience in the first place, and as a result, we all feel that we feel that loss in our lives, which leads to the reason that we value performing so much and finding meaningful relationships and experiences things in our lives that will bring us that abundant life that Satan stole from us, but honestly, and you know this, no matter how much we perform or how well we perform, or the experiences we try to manufacture in our lives, we just can't ever seem to find that abundant and that satisfying life. And the reason for that is because that was only ever to be found in Jesus. John is quoting what Jesus said here, but when John wrote First John in this letter, look at what he says in almost the very opening few lines of that letter. First John one, verse two. John says this one, who is the one Jesus that we're talking about, right? This one? Watch this. Who is life itself. Wow, the one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him, and now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. This is who Jesus is. That's why we can't find the abundant, satisfying life in situations, circumstances, through our performance or anything that we're trying to manufacture in our lives, because it can only be found in Jesus, because He is the one who is life itself. And so when Jesus said in John 1010, that He came to give life and to give it abundantly, what was he talking about? Therehimself. He came to give us himself, not better situations, not better circumstances, to give us him self, right? And that's why the apostle John could write this just a couple of chapters later. Then, as a result, whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life. It is that simple. If Jesus is in your life, you have abundant life. If Jesus is not in your life, you don't and will never experience the abundant life that you were created to have notice that John does not say here, whoever does their religious duties has the life. That's what we often hear in different messages and from different people, is you find life through the things that you're doing, through all the religious duties that you are supposed to be doing. But Jesus says, I'm the life, and there is no other life except through me. And so this is why we talk about this so often. This is why this is core value number one. And if you've been here for any length of time, you know we talk a lot about life in Christ, and Christ as our life and and this identity of being a new creation in Christ as we receive his life. Why? Because if you don't know you have it, it's really hard to experience Jesus as your life. I mean, for a long time, I thought I was a mature Christian and leading people in different things within the church, and I didn't know this. I didn't know it. I could never really experience Jesus as the life, because I didn't know that he was the life. I kept trying to find the life through the way that I was performing the Christian life, but I never could get there. But once I understood it and I knew the truth, then I can begin to experience it, and my life has never been the same since. And so that's why we talk about this so often, because you've got to know it in order to begin to experience it. I've even talked to some of you who sat under teaching on this same kind of thing, and identity in Christ and life found in Christ, in Christ as life for years, and then all of a sudden, one day in the future, the light bulb went off and go, Oh, that's what they've been talking about this entire time. So that's why we continue to talk about it so much. We don't want anyone to miss out on Christ as their life in confusion. It for being found in something else. The other reason that we talk about this so much, and would list it number one, is because it's the one that drives all of the other ones, which we'll continue to see in just a moment. But the other thing with this is, with each one of our core values, as I mentioned earlier, there is an action step, if these are core values that we're going to share as colonial hills, Baptist church together, then there becomes an action step for each one of us to participate in them. And that first action step, then is if life is found in Christ, to discover that life is found in Christ. And for some of you, that may mean initially that you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus to receive his life in the first place, and taking that initial step, step of faith for salvation, for him to be your Lord and Savior. But for many of us who have taken that step of salvation, it's discovering more about the life that we do have in Christ. And there are a number of resources that we have on our website in different places and through sermon series that you can continue to discover more and more about your new life in Christ now that, as I said, the life in Christ is core value number one, because it leads to each one of the next three in the life that we receive in Christ leads to authentic community, and therefore we value authentic community. Here we talked about this a little while ago, but one of the things that we see in the Gospels is that Jesus experienced authentic community with his disciples and in his relationships with them, he ate with them, he spent time asking them questions, and he traveled with them, and he taught them, and he allowed them to ask questions, and he even allowed them to express doubts. Sometimes we see this in a number of different places, and I don't have time this morning to highlight many of them, but in Luke chapter eight, for example, Jesus is telling the parable of the sower, and Luke tells us that as he said these things, that he Jesus would call out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear, but his disciples, Luke says, began questioning him, Jesus, that doesn't make any sense. What are you even talking about with all of those soils that you're mentioning in this different stuff here? We don't get it. In other words, they were just being real. They were being authentic. They didn't feel like they had to hide and go, that is super great teaching Jesus man, we get it all, and it's so good, you know? And just hide the fact that they didn't really get it. They could be real and they could be authentic. Alright? The other time that I just want to highlight, I mean, many others that I could highlight, but one came after even Jesus's death, after his resurrection, and he was appearing to different people. He appeared to the disciples. But Thomas was not there. And this is what we're told in John chapter 20. The other disciples told him, Hey, we have seen the Lord. And Thomas said to them guys, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, unless I can put my finger where the nails were, and I can put my hand into his side,I will not believejust telling it like it is right, just being real, just being authentic. And then guess what happens? Jesus shows up on the scene. He didn't scold him for doubting. He didn't scold him for his disbelief, for being real or authentic. He just said, here you want to touch the side. You want to touch the holes in my hands. I'm going to offer you the proof in this moment. And so this is what we see all in the life of Jesus and with His disciples in His earthly ministry. And then we said that that life of Christ comes to dwell in us. And so if the life of Christ is dwelling in us, and Jesus himself lived an authentic community, then guess what that will lead to in our own lives, authentic community, which means, if that is the case, then what is our action step in that? Well, to connect in authentic community, to connect many of us are learning about that right now on Wednesday nights, after our Wednesday night meal together, we're reading through a book called The Cure, which is helping us understand more about our life in Christ and our new identity that we have in Him, and how that ultimately leads to us being able to live authentically in community and not have to wear masks and just pretend that everything is fine. And I really just want to share. With you. One thing about this. This actually doesn't come directly from the book, but it came from the authors or the leadership of the organization who was responsible for writing the book. In a blog post, just to help you see more about what we're talking about here, it says the incredible work of Jesus allows us to be vulnerable the more and more that we know we are fully transformed new, maturing creations, and that our true identity is as a beloved saint, we can have the courage to allow another to see into our mess. We know that our house or our new self is truly beautiful, beloved, new adored, righteous and holy, but we've still got some mess and piles of broken furniture that Jesus is working through. This is the work of maturing. Jesus is sorting through these things, but he tells us to ask other humans to help us to his immovable, unending love allows us to have the courage to open our doors.Have you opened your door?Are you living in authentic community? Haveyou invited anyone else into your mess, or do you keep showing up and saying, everything's fine, everything'sgood here, we're all good, I'm good,you're good too. We don't need to talk about that.This is the invitation for us to connect in authentic community. I've got to tell you, as Natalie and I have sat in authentic community just even the last couple of weeks or so in just just for a moment, just being able to pause and just think deeply about these things, to listen to other people speak and what Jesus says through them. For us, having the opportunity to share about things that he's done in our lives. Related to this, we both looked at each other after last Wednesday night, and almost at the same time, said that was so life giving. Was so life giving. We just needed that time with other people to talk about these things. And we said we need this in our lives, and we've got to be doing more of this in our lives. We all do, and so that's the Action Step. Connect in authentic community, if you haven't been the third core value is unity, and this, again, flows from the life of Christ that we have in us, one of the places that we see this is what the Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus, right? He's writing this group of Jews. He's writing this group of Gentiles. They've said yes to Jesus, the spirit's come. They've received new life in him, but they don't know any of it. They don't understand any of it. They don't know what really happened to them, and Paul's having to write to explain it to them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so they'll know it, and then they can begin to experience it. You gotta know and believe so that you can begin to experience and walk by faith that those things are true.What did he say to them?He says, Guys, Jesus himself is our peace. Who has made the two groups, the Jews and Gentiles, one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Listen to this. His purpose was to create in himself, one new humanity out of the two. Did you know that you are part of onenew humanitythat's the work of Jesus, the life of Christ. Now in you to unite you to different people. You have brothers and sisters in Christ. The Life of Christ united them together as one new group of people, family. They were brought together in unity. And then watch this, out of that union that Jesus purchased for them through his finished work on the cross, there becomes these practical expressions of the new humanity, the oneness, the unity that they now have with other people. One of the places we see that is what Paul was writing to a church at Philippi. He was talking to some different people about some different divisions and things going on and and look what he says at the beginning of chapter two. He says, Guys, if you have any encouragement from being united in Christ, or united with Christ again, which leads to the uniting of to each other, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing of the Holy Spirit, that's what brought them into unity, is the sharing of the spirit, right? If any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by what being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one. In mind, this is the practical outworking and expression of the unity that he had already established for them, but this is the way it gets lived out when you're living in that unity. As I said a second ago, Paul was writing this to a church that was experiencing some division. There were actually two ladies that Paul calls out in the letter, yodia and senti, that were having a disagreement, they were having an argument, and it perhaps was causing people to take sides. Well, I'm on yodia side, I'm on senti side. She's right, and you were wrong and all this. I'm going to use all of my time and injury to prove it and this, and there was all this division that was beginning to happen. And Paul says, No, you are one in Christ. So stop focusing on all of those things, and focus again on what you have in common, being like minded, the same love, one in spirit, in of one mind. In other words, Paul saying, unite together around the core things that Jesus has called you to focus on the core things as Jesus works in you and through you, together in the union of being his church and his family. When we were at country Friday night, last night, some of you who were there heard Jerry say this. I've I've heard Jerry say this a number of times, and I love when he tells the story of how he was at a previous church and and one of the pastors, when he was a young pastor, was saying something to the effect of, you know, Jerry, great pastors don't make great churches, but great churches make great pastors, and I really think that's true in a lot of ways, and colonial Hills is a great church. Why? Because this is what you tend to do. You focus on being like minded and having the same love and being one in spirit and of one mind, and when there are disagreements, and when there are mistakes that are made, or things that cause confusion, and going well, who's right and who's wrong, then you enter into authentic community, and you ask the questions, and you put it out there, and then you go, Okay, I understand it better, or I don't know if I really understand it, and get it, and I'm still a little bit upset, but I'm still going to be like minded. I'm still going to have the same love. I'm going to focus on being one of the Spirit in a one mind, because we're still brothers and sisters in Christ, and we've got a mission to accomplish, and that's who you are, that's what you do, and that's the expression of this unity and this value of unity that we see within the church. Now that's just one expression of the unity. There are others. I mean, Jesus brings us into union, not just to focus on those things and live that way, but but also to use each one of us in that union and through the diversity in the unity to accomplish his work in the church. Look at what Paul says here in Ephesians. He says, from him, who we talking about, from Jesus, right from Jesus as the head, the whole body. That's you and I joined, held together. Look at that language again. Think about unity here. Union right by every supporting ligament. Did you know? I mean, you are holding on. You're a person sitting next to you is a supporting ligament of yours, right? And what happens from him, it all grows, builds itself up in love as what each part does its work. I've put you together in union with each other. You are held together as one and joined together in all these different way. People from the outside can look at you and go, that's one. There's a unit there, but that unit is made up of individual parts, and as each part is doing its work, as I lead and guide and empower them to be able to do so my church, Jesus said, is being built up in love. This is how Jesus builds up his church. And so we each have a role in the church, and in that role, Jesus uses us to serve in his church and to build each other up. As I mentioned, I'm sitting in a class on Wednesday nights. I'm not teaching that class. Brittany and Aaron Dickey are teaching that class. They're stepping into their role. They're doing their part in the work, and they're teaching me and the others, and we're allowing us the opportunity to talk about various things. Some of you are serving in your part in the pre K wing or the children's wing every single Sunday, and allowing Jesus to use you to build up the church and teach kids about life in Christ. Some of you are leading adult Sunday school classes. Some of you, like Nathan Barron, are showing up almost every. Every other week, in cooking on Sunday nights and leading a kitchen ministry team so that we can enjoy a meal together and we can get in community with each other around that meal, even that is a part of Jesus working in and through us to build itself up in love. And I love seeing this practical expression of this value that we have around unity. So the action step to invest in that unity. What is I mean? You know what investing means? When you think about that in financial terms, you invest in something so that it it grows, and there's something that comes out of that. Or you invest in people so that they grow and they mature and they are encouraged and moved further along down the path. And so our action step is to invest in the church that he's united us to now you don't do that. Jesus does that in and through you when you make yourself available to him, for him to show you what your role is and to empower you to be able to carry out that role.The life in Christleads to a life of authentic community. We open people into the mess. The Life in Christ leads us to live in unity and focus on the things that are most important, the core four, above and beyond anything else, so that we can continue to move and he can continue to build us up in the church as he uses our gifts. And then finally, the life of Christ leads us to value the city and the people in this city that we live in. Why does this life in Christ lead us to that because of what Jesus says about himself, right? Mark tells us that Jesus said this in Mark 1045, For even the Son of Man, referring to himself, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Luke tells us that Jesus said, For the Son of Man, came to seek and to save the lost. This is who Jesus is. This is what he came to do, to seek and save the lost, to serve people, to meet their needs, to give of his time, to teach grace and truth and to ultimately give his life as a ransom for many. And if this is who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and the life of Christ came to dwell in us, then guess what gets expressed through us? The Life of Christ, who has a heart to seek and to save the lost. This is an expression and overflow of the life in Christ to lead us to serve people, to meet their needs, to share the gospel with them, to invite them into the things that we are doing here. And so what's our action step? Well, to allow the life of Christ to be expressed through us out in the world, right? To be aware of the things that he's wanting to do in and through us as we leave each and every Sunday, right? You guys are the church. I am the church. This building is not the church. The Church showed up to work in this building today, in just a few minutes, Jesus is going to send the church out of this building to go be the church in the community, in the city, in your workplace, in your school, in your neighborhood or in your family. It's what he's going to do, and as an expression of the life of Christ in us sent out as his church, one of the things that he's going to do is lead us to value the people in the city and use us to seek and save the lost in that and as we say yes to those opportunities, that's what he's doing. Jesus shows up, and he meets us there, and he begins to express his life through us to seek and save the lost around us. You're not going to save anyone, and it's not your job to our job is to just be aware that he is leading in these areas, and when we sense that he's asking us to step in that to go, Yes, I'm going to trust that was from you. And as I take this step that you're going to be the one who begins to give me the words to say and whatever it is that I'm going to do next, it's a walk of faith. And as you do? You get to watch Jesus show up in his life, to be expressed through you, to reach people in your context. I love hearing stories about this. Some of you share that with me, and what the Lord is doing in your opportunity, through your business, or through you at school, or whatever it is that you are doing in your neighborhoods and that kind of thing. One person just a few weeks ago I was talking to was, was Andy Vaughn, many of you know Andy here at our church, and he kind of has his own handyman business, and he was telling me about that and how he's got all these opportunities now to go into. To the city to go into people's homes that he doesn't even know, and he's going to be used by God with the gifts and abilities that he's been given to fix whatever is going on in their house and to be a blessing to them and as a way that the Lord uses it to provide for him and his family in those ways. But guess what else Andy is doing? He's praying every single time he goes in to be able to get into conversations with people, to get to know them better, to see where the Lord leads in those opportunities. And he was telling me about so many of them. Oh, I met this person or that person, and so and so, and the spirit opened up this door to talk about these kinds of things, or to invite them to church, and he's not forceful, and he's not pushy. He's not going, Hey, you better turn or you're going to burn that gum it right? I mean, he's not doing any of that. It's just, I'm going to be used by Jesus to get to love people and serve them and get to know them. And if the Lord opens up an opportunity, or they ask me questions now I've got the opportunity to answer. And Jesus wants to do the same thing in your context. He's doing it in and through any that's his context. But what's your context? You teaching, you coaching at school, you running your own business, you're going home today, and that neighbor that's next to you, someone in your family. What's your context? And as you enter into your context, just like Andy's doing, are you praying and asking, Lord, how do you want to express your life through me to seek and save the lost in my context today, when Andy's doing that, guess what's happening? That's colonial Hills Baptist Church that Jesus is seeking and saving the lost through because Andy is colonial Hills Baptist Church, and so are you, and so am I, in every time one of us are stepping into those things, we're allowing him the opportunity to actually be the church. So these are the core four, the value of life in Christ that leads to authentic community, that leads to unity and leads to us being for the city. And as I mentioned, each and every one of these, of course, have action steps. And quite honestly, the Lord is always leading us to take next steps in at least one of these four areas, or all of them at different times throughout the week for Natalie and I, as I mentioned earlier, it's that one right there. That doesn't mean that he's not leading us in some way to discover more about our life in Christ, that he's not leading us to do invest in the unity at the church, that he's not leading us to be for the city, and anyways, we're open to all of those, but I'm just saying He's calling us to be more intentional and more open about what he's doing in this area than the other three right now. And we're looking for what that next step is, and we're trusting him to take that step. Whatis it for you?What next step is he asking you to take this morning. Is it to discover life in Christ for the first time, you've never said yes to Jesus, you've never trusted Him as your Lord and Savior. Or is it if you have to discover more about your life in Christ through some of the resources that we have on our website in different areas that we can point you to here as a church, if it's not that is it to engage in authentic community like He's calling us, to do more of to show up on Wednesday nights as a start there, to learn more about it and what it is, and to begin to participate it in that way, or to take that into your Sunday school class. Many of you are involved in groups, and maybe, maybe you experience that in your Sunday school classes or a small group that you have, or maybe you don't, maybe you're a part of a group, you're part of community. But you couldn't put this word in front of it, because what happens every single time you show up? It's just nothing. But how you doing fine? How are you doing fine? We're all fine here. We don't get into the mess. We don't open up our doors to invite people into our mess. In this group, we all just talk about how fine we are, and we just nod our heads that we pretend that we understand everything that someone's teaching us, right? But I'm involved in community. Are you? So whatever step he's taking you in that area, is it? Is it unity? Is it okay? I've been going this way and that way. He's calling me back to focus on what it is that these four are and to be about those things, or is it? Is it to serve? Right? If you go to colonialhills.com, I was going to show you on this, but it wasn't prepared and ready. And take me forever to go to our website, colonials.com at the tab at the top, it says Connect, it'll say serve, underneath that whole list of like 15 different ministry teams that you can be a part of to find your role in colonials Baptist Church. It's got contacts for every single one of those ministry teams that are on there, and you can email them about finding ways to serve and invest in colonial Hills Baptist Church, allowing Jesus to build up the church in and through you as he does. So through other people, or is the next step? What he's trying to do outside the walls, is he laying someone on your heart and mind, a neighbor, a friend, a coworker, a teammate, a schoolmate, something. What does it look like for Jesus to reach and seek and save the lost through you in your community? I believe that Jesus is asking all of us to take a next step in this moment, which is why I'm going to give you the opportunity to say yes to Him and to trust him in that right now you.