Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:10] Welcome back to a weekday podcast. My name is Bobby McGraw. Thanks for joining us this week. If you're listening to this in real time, this kicks off week two of our 21 Days of Prayer and fasting. And so if you're able to, I'd love to invite you live at 6:30am or at noon every single weekday this week. And those are Eastern times. And you can just go to Sugarhill Church 21 to grab the link. Then on Saturdays at 9am where you'll get a little bit of a devotion and some time of prayer with other believers. We'd love to have you part of it. And as part of 21 Days, we've been thinking about not only personally how this applies, but also this week thinking about how it applies to our church. And so today I want to think about community and why that's so important, because most of us don't wake up one day and decide, hey, I think I'll be lonely status. More subtle than that. We wake up busy, we wake up behind. We wake up with a thousand little obligations, and before we know it, it, our lives are full and often our hearts feel empty. In Acts 2:42, there's this beautiful snapshot of the church where it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles, teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to prayer. This is one of the clearest pictures in the Bible of what the church looked like when it was born.
[00:01:25] The idea behind today's episode is that formation follows faithfulness, that what you repeat is, is what you become. So when you hear this verse, and it says continually devoting themselves. The early church wasn't powered by hype. It wasn't driven by some big moment every now and then. It was steady, it was habitual, it was rhythmic. They built shared practices into their week teaching, fellowship, meals, prayer. And that matters because our lives are actually formed by what we repeatedly give ourselves to.
[00:01:57] This is why we say it this way. You do not drift into community.
[00:02:01] You drift into isolation. You drift into loneliness. You drift into being unknown. And that drift doesn't usually come from dramatic decisions. It comes from the absence of small, consistent decisions. Think about sort of like physical training. Nobody gets healthy because they crushed one workout in January. The people who actually change aren't the ones who went the hardest on day one. They're the ones who still show up in February. The and the goal for them isn't intensity. The goal is simply consistency. And I think in the same way, if you want a stronger faith, if you want deeper relationships. And you want a life that feels connected, not just crowded. Then you need a rhythm that helps, bringing you back into the presence of God and with the people of God.
[00:02:47] So what does that look like in normal life? It's more than attending a service. It's choosing proximity.
[00:02:54] Showing up in someone's world is letting other people have repeated access to you. Not the polished version of you, but the real you. And if you're thinking, but I'm busy, you're in good company. Most of us are. That's why community has to become a decision instead of a leftover. And here's a simple way to start.
[00:03:12] Choose one consistent touch point. Choose one this week and protect it. Not because you're trying to earn something, but because you're trying to be formed. So today, I would encourage you pick one consistent touch point. Maybe it's Sundays with us. Maybe it's a group. Honestly, I'd love to invite you to the table on Thursday nights. Or maybe some weekly check in with a friend. Put it on your calendar today and see if that does not help you create the community that you want. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.
[00:03:46] Sam.
