Jesus gave us three imperatives:

Love God,

Love people

Love ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU!

However, we often want to operate as if our faith and hope can be experienced independently of people, without relationships, and without being connected and engaged. Many of you have been satisfied to walk in and walk out, or to watch online without any connection at all, and think that you can understand God’s desires and leadership, that you can experience Him, PERSONALLY, in isolation from experiencing Him with, through, and sometimes despite other people.

No HERMIT THEOLOGY exists in all the biblical instruction. Jesus Himself called 12 very different people who would never have connected with each other if Jesus hadn’t called them together.  But I also submit to you that they never would have understood Jesus fully without those connections. Our connections with each other are part of the GRIST of the Holy Spirit’s work in us!

You can’t understand the gravity of forgiveness if you have never tried to forgive someone.

You can’t understand the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ love if you have never expressed a sacrificial love for someone else.

You can’t understand or experience the honesty of Jesus if you haven’t risked the honesty of fellowship.

So for that purpose, God gave us gifts like Synagogue, Neighborhood, Church, and Circles of fellow disciples. Following Jesus is not a SOLO journey. It’s a TEAM SPORT!