You ever have awkward moments in church? Any time you gather a bunch of people you can create awkwardness, because people are awkward. It gets weird because people are weird. And there are competing ideas around what church should look like and be about. How do you make sense of all that, and learn to trust a group of people that you don’t know very deeply yet? We're going to err on the side of love. We grow stronger together. We practice the greatest, because without love none of it works. We live out the hope and love we’ve experienced. We’re a church for your friends who don’t go to church.

Healthy community gathers around Jesus with other people that are trying to follow Him. It’s a place to connect on a deeper level with God and others. It’s a place where you are known. They know your weak parts, they know your strong parts, they know where you need encouragement, they know what junk you’re walking through life with, they know what hurts you, and they help you walk through it. Healthy community is an oasis in the chaos.

You take the power that you had in your life and instead of placing it where it should be, you give all of your power to a past, to a wound, to someone who victimized you or who hurt you. It's time to take the power back to those who have offended you and it's time to give it to God.  Every kind of malice, every kind of bitterness and anger can take root in your heart when you are unwilling to let go, when you are seeking payback, and you won't forgive. When you cling on to those things, you make space for it to grow in your heart, then your heart becomes a breeding ground for bitterness.

While pride will weaken everything, you can beat the trap with humility. Humility leads to strength. Humility reminds me that God is God and I am not. Humility reminds me that it’s not just about me and my strength and what I can accumulate, but that there’s a God who loves me and who wants to pour blessings into my life.

Money and the stuff money buys is no safe place for your identity. You’re way more important. Who you are matters so much more than what your bank account says about you. Your identity is based on what God says about you.

Discomfort can be better. And there are some uncomfortable steps we have to take and some uncomfortable roads we have to walk that lead to way better places. They lead our souls to life, and they lead us to the life that God has for us.

The best way to beat the apathy trap is to look at your deeds. If the “I don’t care trap” starts to sneak up on you…you will spot it in your action. How much effort you’re putting in. How hard you’re working. How much you’re willing to be uncomfortable to get to a better spot. You have to make a choice to fight off apathy in your life to buy something better.

It’s such an easy trap to fall into, the comparison game. And we start looking at people and comparing their lives to our lives. And we think either (1) I don’t add up or (2) I’m better than them. But every time you play the comparison game, it starts a downward trajectory in your life.