Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:00:00]: Good to see you all here and good to see everybody in the house. Welcome. I'm glad you braved the brave, the weather and I'm glad you are joining us online wherever you are streaming, joining us on the stream. We're so glad you made it. You joining us here at New Hope Couple A for another I call it a great, exciting, positive message and it's really a learn something that I get to share from personal experience what it is to be, you know how they say, a lone wolf Christian or a member of the pack, member of the team. And there's a very big difference. Anyway, Pastor Glenn last week he started a series called Better Together. And that's true. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:00:44]: We are better together. And it reminds me of the Jack Johnson song better Together, right? Better when we're together. It's a nice little tune, very mellow, very chill. And we are actually better together, believe it or not. But we are not made to just do life alone. Remember when God looked at everything, it was good. He created the sun and the moon and the fish and everything was good. But then he saw man and he said, it's not good. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:01:09]: You're just by yourself, you need a woman. So he made women. And then man and woman, that's better, better together. See, so that's what we're going to be talking about today. Let's open in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace, your mercy, for covering us, Lord God, with your sovereign hand. Even though you know the rains, you've seen the rains, you've seen the storms, Lord, you've been right in the middle of them and you've calmed them, Lord God, a few days back we were wondering what's happening. But we know you have it all in the palm of your hand, Lord God, you speak and the winds and waves obey. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:01:45]: So we just thank you for that. We ask that you blow the storm away and let it clear up, let it dry up and let those who are affected just get back to normal and power and all that gets back to regular. We ask in Jesus name, Amen. All right, guys, so like I said, we're going to start to take a look at this principle of being together. And we're actually going to take a look at the Book of Acts. I remember a long time ago I was interested and a friend of mine and I went and did a class on the Book of Acts. We were just kind of curious and yeah, we studied the whole Book of Acts. And if you know, and we're walking our way Towards Easter right now, the resurrection Sunday. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:02:26]: And you know, that's the. That's the pinnacle of our, you know, Christian faith. We had Christmas, you know, Jesus was born. And then Easter, when Jesus, you know, goes through the Good Friday crucifixion, and then the Saturday, the quiet Saturday. And then the amazing fact that he rose again from the grave on Sunday. And a lot of people after Easter, great, celebrate. And then we forget that there's another part of the story, right? And if you want, read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that's, you know, the story of Jesus life. And then there's a little more in the book of Acts. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:03:03]: So if you're not familiar with Acts, we're going to take a look. Not a super deep dive, but we're going to focus in on this one key verse. Okay? So first chapter of Acts, you're going to see some amazing things. You'll see Jesus come around and he have a barbecue on the beach. I don't want to spoil it, but he has a fish, fish barbecue. And he calls some of his disciples. This is after his resurrection now. Very interesting. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:03:26]: You should read a book of Acts. Okay? And then we're going to take a look at Acts, chapter two here. And it's after Peter's sermon at Pentecost. Is my belt open? Pardon me. I gotta go like this. All right. Nobody saw nothing. Okay, we can edit that out later, I think. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:03:45]: All right. I just felt a little sketchy. Anyway, where were we? The book of Acts, Peter, the sermon at Pentecost. Okay? A thousand came to faith. Okay? Thousands came to faith. Now what is Pentecost, you ask? It's 50 days after Easter. So we remember, we walked through the life of Jesus, right? So after Easter, 50 days after is when the Holy Ghost descended upon the believers and in the upper room. So this is a big. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:04:17]: A big thing. After this, Peter was empowered. Peter wasn't feeling that great. You know, he lost his master and, you know, everybody's down. But after Pentecost, 50 days after he got fired up. He got fired up, literally, the Holy Ghost came upon him. Holy Spirit. Read about it. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:04:37]: It's awesome. So this was after the trial, all of this. Like I said, Jesus was now gone. Okay? And they're on their own, the disciples and the apostles, they're on their own. Just like. So how are we going to. How are we going to do this? They got empowered by the Holy Spirit. And this is what we're going to take a look at. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:04:54]: Okay. Before, you know, church as we know it, now, there was, of course, the tabernacle. We read about it in the Old Testament. There was a temple. That's where Jesus was. Remember? He did. He said, I'm going to be about my father's business. When he was a young boy, he was in the temple, Jewish temple. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:05:12]: But now this is it. This is where we start to build the church, the church that we know today, the Church of Jesus Christ. Right? Christ Centered Church. Okay, Notice what happens here as we read Acts 2:42. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. These are the believers, right? The believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Okay, Acts 2:42. Now, in that you notice what happens next. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:05:47]: They devoted themselves. So this is the blueprint, really, of church and life groups and the way we know how we operate church today. This is the blueprint right here. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Right? So we gather, we hear a word from somebody, brings the word of God to us, right? And then there's some fellowship, and then there's the breaking of bread and then prayer. Okay? Notice that it's devoted. Okay? They said they devoted themselves. It wasn't a casual attendance, you know, kind of thing. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:06:24]: It was an intentional commitment. It's like, man, we gotta study this stuff because we saw, and these people were close enough to have seen what happened with Jesus when he was walking the earth and the miracle, the fact that he, you know, rose from the dead. Wow. So, like I said, it's not a casual thing. It's so ironic that we have this message and, you know, we asking people, well, you know, the weather is gnarly outside. Maybe better if you stay safe and secure. But then at the same time, we say, you know, we want to have fellowship. So it's weird, but, you know, sometimes things call desperate things call for desperate measure. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:07:06]: And that's how we. How it landed today. On Sunday, we're going to get together. Hallelujah. It's going to be bright and sunny. Not like on Thursday. On Thursday, we're questioning what's happening, if we're going to stay or go or what. But God is good, okay? So there are, you know, things that we have to commit to. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:07:25]: We have to let our yes be yes and a no be no. And we have to make a time for it. We have calendar, calendars we want to put it put aside. This is a time for prayer. This is a time for church. This is a time we're going to do Bible study. And then the rest of it, you Know, do however you want, but we should really make it an intentional thing to be devoted to Christ and to his teaching and breaking of bread and prayer. And so there is four. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:07:53]: If you follow along in your notes, there's four things we want to take a look at learning together. These are called the four rhythms of growing community. Okay? Growing community. There's four rhythms. Number one, we want to be learning together. Learning together. You know, it's one thing to just study on your own and kind of, if you are introvert, that's fine. But it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:08:24]: And faith grows through truth. Okay? And it's always, again, like we said, it's better together, right? To study, have a study partner. You can ask questions. I know my wife and I, we study things together. We question, we learn and we wonder. And it's like an organic little Bible study. We study together, okay? So we learn together. That's why we're here today. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:08:48]: The. That's why we come to Wednesday night or life groups. We want to learn together. Not just, you know, gain content. Gain content up in our head, but we want to talk it out, right? The push and pull. It's the beauty of pushing and pulling. Time to ponder, time to ask questions. Time to say, you really think that this is the way? Because sometimes in scripture, we'll find that some of the topics are still mysterious. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:09:15]: And we're looking at what happened in the Old Testament, what happened in this book or that book. So it's really good to just. We call it also sharpening iron. Sharpening iron. So this is when we're learning together. Discussion, of course, question and answer. And then encouragement. Just encouraging. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:09:36]: Hey, I was just speaking to a sister. She's like, man, I want to learn how to play the bass guitar. That's one of my goals. Really awesome. Just get on it. And she's practicing. She's learning how to play bass guitar. She had these list of things that she wants to do, and I encouraged her, right? Learn how to play the bass. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:09:53]: That's awesome. And learn. Do these various things and you know, somebody's going through something, you want to encourage them, right? So encourage them. And so not just sermons, right? Sermons are fine, but it's the shared learning, it's the shared interaction with one another that's so beautiful in community. And again, why it's better together, right? Some of the applications is, like I said, small groups. I still remember when I first, when I was at church, I joined a group. Let's see, back then, my first church but in my second church, somebody challenged my wife, and I said, can you make a. Can you start a small group? Start a small group. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:10:33]: Remember that? Well, okay. So we did. And we did. It turned into 20 people eventually. And some of those people are still friends now, even 20 years later. 20 years later, we're still friends today because of a small group. A Bible study. Like I said, I was curious about the Book of Acts, so I looked into it. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:10:52]: You see Apostle Paul's journeys and all of these interesting things in the Book of Acts that we should study. We should know these things, right? And then discipleship, relationships, discipleship that's so important, is to help each other grow in Christ to be men of God. To me, it's so impressive to talk to someone and they'll come back with some scripture or some knowledge of God's word or practical things. And they are actually men of God. Right? You can see it. You can hear it in their language. What goes in is what comes out. And, you know, everybody's at a different level. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:11:32]: I get it. But that's one of my goals, is to constantly learn and grow so I can become more of a man of God, to try to be a good disciple of Christ in relationships. So that's the first one. Learning together. That's one of the first rhythms of a growing community. And please take notes, because that's why we have these gaps. So. So they devoted themselves to the apostles. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:12:01]: Teaching is point number one. And then we're going to get to point number two. They devoted themselves to fellowship. Okay, fellowship. This one is. Let me see. Remembering Jesus together. Isn't that where we're at? Number two, doing life together. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:12:24]: Oh, here. Doing life together. Living. Living life together. This is a good one. Number two, devoted themselves to fellowship in the Greek word is koinonia, if you ever hear of that word, koinonia. It just means a shared life, Sharing life together. Okay. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:12:43]: And, you know, we do it in small groups and mutual participation, of course. Same thing. And spiritual partnership, partnering with each other, partnering with the Holy Spirit. You know, doing life together means, you know, seeing each other's ups and downs and their transparencies or, you know, whatever. They're working out some bugs in their life, walking through life together. It's really. It's really better when you can share your ups and downs with people. I remember praying for people. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:13:17]: They wanted to have baby, and so we prayed. Then we had the good news. They're going to have a baby. It seems like just this small little span, but now they're Bringing the baby to church, and he's smiley and what's up, Nathan? How you doing? I don't know how old he is, but how old is Nathan now? Like a couple months. But it's such a trip. Six months. Oh, six months old. You know who you are, Nathan. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:13:42]: God bless you. But just seeing this progression of life, right? It's so beautiful, right? And then kids are growing up, right? Changing the grade level, walking with people. And then, of course, in the good times as well as the hard times, the good times, maybe somebody's going to get married. And the excitement of that, you walk through that. And I want to know some. What is it called? Tips. Marriage tips. Whatever. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:14:08]: We always say there's the three rings, right? When you get married, it's the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. But they don't believe that. I don't know who said that. I'm not gonna buy into that. But anyway, it's just a part of life. That's the part that you walk together, right? And we have to vent with one another every now and then. But that's number two. Devoted themselves to fellowship, okay? Koinonia and fellowship, by the way. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:14:38]: And it's being known how many times, hey, where's so and so? Have you seen so and so? Then it's like, get on the text. Hey, bro, how you doing? You okay? I haven't seen you at church. It's not, like, super invasive, but just want to know if you're okay. I'm good. I've been busy doing this and that. Roger that. And then we have a connection right there. Yeah, that's like. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:15:01]: That's the light end of it. And I don't know, the ladies might go have lunch or whatever, and, you know, the guys can have lunch, too, but, you know, being known, being known. The key thing on this one is fellowship is not just coffee in the lobby. You know, that's not fellowship. That is fellowship. But we want to get a little deeper. That is sharing life, right? It doesn't happen automatically. We need to take steps, action steps towards it. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:15:27]: And, you know, that's really super important, doing life together and having fellowship. I remember, you know, I think it was high school time when I wanted to kind of try church on my own and get into my own church. We had talked about it in high school. There was this. These guys came around having free hamburgers if you listen to the gospel message. And I was down with that. And I said, I listened to it twice if I get two hamburgers. But anyway, it's called Burger Bash or some kind of a campus crusade. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:15:56]: And they really did a great job. They shared the gospel message. So afterwards, I wanted to find a church. So I would listen on my little transistor radio to this one. It's called Church on the Beach. And so I thought, if I go to any church that sounds like a good church, church is on the beach. How can you lose? So I would catch the bus all the way down to Waikiki beach, and it's still running today. Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:16:20]: And I would listen to the word because I was hungry for God's word. But then. And then the worship. And then after it was done, I would just leave because I was kind of shy and I didn't really know how to interact. I guess I was just a high school kid and there was no high schoolers. But the consequence for that is I didn't have any growth or fellowship, so I didn't really grow in my faith. So that's something that we don't want to happen. We want you to join in and don't just come and listen and split real fast, hang out and talk story with people. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:16:56]: This is a community, okay? Don't be like me, okay? So I could have got, you know, done it better. And then the third one here is remembering Jesus together, okay? And this is when we have a communion, breaking bread, you know, remembering Jesus together, okay? This is important. And sometimes I know I have a friend who, whenever we do communion, wherever he is, he'll stop and he'll just grab whatever he has available and he'll show me a picture. This is my communion for today. I'm glad. But, you know, we hear it called breaking bread, right? Breaking bread. And so interesting how Jesus in his communion time, he says, this is my body broken for you. So when you eat this, do it in remembrance of me. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:17:44]: And if you recall, we were talking about Christmas time when he was born. He was born in a place called Bethlehem. Bethlehem in the Hebrew is the house of bread. Very interesting. So these are the little things that you can start to piece these puzzle pieces together and make sense of things, right? Jesus is the bread of life, right? Give us this day our daily bread. Not just, you know, the Costco Big Giant, 3, 4, 5 loaves. He gives you the bread for today, right? So breaking bread together, you know, that's really. In Hawaii especially, the food is good food and then good conversation, right? Meals. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:18:26]: The early church did both at the same time, really. The meals create connection, right? Having a lunch, having a Dinner, having a potluck. Oh, you brought that. Oh, what's your secret recipe for your potato salad or whatever it is? And, and then you chit chat and you talk story and you know, it's fun to get all the ethnic groups right. You get somebody's proud that they made their own kimchi. And it's usually good if you come Saturday, but maybe not tonight, but. Or whatever it may be, right? So remembering Jesus together and then, you know, it's talking about Jesus in the day to day life, right? And you know how people, they can drop a F bomb here and there. If you. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:19:07]: But I drop a PTL bomb, I'll say praise the Lord. You know, out in public, people would be like, whoa, who's this religious fanatic over here? Like, bruh, I just said praise the Lord. If they can drop the F bomb, I can do the ptl. Okay, we talk about Jesus, we testify, man. When I was working at this one thing, I saw God move. And that's encouraging to the next person. I've seen God move mysterious ways and I didn't know this was going to happen. But he worked it out like this and like that, and like that. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:19:38]: And then everyone else is like, for real. Wow. And you encourage one another, right? As you, as you move, as you remember Jesus together. He's not just something we talk about on a Sunday or whenever it is, right? We should talk about him every day. Amen. All right, amen. And then we have another number four point is seeking God together. Seeking God together. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:20:04]: You know, devoting themselves to prayer. So seeking God. Seeking God, Lord, what is yous will for this situation or this challenge that we're going through or decision that we have to make? Right? Seek him together. Doing it alone is fine. Don't just pray privately though. Pray together. The disciples prayed together. Yeah. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:20:25]: And really this is our life group model. The four things being devoted to the teaching of the Word, Fellowshipping, breaking bread and prayer. Very simple. But if you combine these, that's really church, right? That's really a little church. And you don't have to have an elaborate thing. Sometimes my wife and I, you know, talk about the other countries like that, man. You know, they have it in just, you know, dirt floors, but they just get down and they're just serious about studying the Word or praising, praising God wherever you are, you know, seek God together. What I love sometimes is especially the islanders, South Sea Islanders, when they sing, they sing together and there's a choir and a harmony man. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:14]: So beautiful because they're singing Together. All right. Corporate prayer. Corporate prayer. We all agree to the same thing. We want to the storm to blow away. We all can agree on that. It builds our faith, really, when we do that. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:30]: And then the next one, remembering Jesus together. Breaking of bread. That's the. That's the key point. Breaking of bread. Number four, seeking God together. They devoted themselves to prayer. Okay? And so Wednesday night, we have a time of. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:43]: We have a word here. Somebody gives the word of God, and then we pray either together or, you know, on our own or. And then at the end of time, we have a corporate prayer where we read off. This person wants to pray for this. And we're going to lift this up and then highlight whatever the message was. So that's awesome. And it's really aligning our hearts. That's really what it's about. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:22:06]: And invites God's power in. Invites God's power in. Okay, so here we've done the four steps now. And then it says, we ask the question, what happens when people live this way? When you do this, see what happens? Okay, number one, it's the rest of the passage, Acts 2, 46 and 7. 46 and 47. Awe came upon everyone, right? They were in awe. Like, what's happening? And then generosity increased, right? And then the needs were met, right? People's needs got met. People were added daily. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:22:48]: And we've seen that already happening in our church. Thank you, Jesus. That people are coming. People are being excited to join in our fellowship. And there's lots of little fellowships all around the island, all around the world. You know, you choose one, look. Look at one and join it and be. Make yourself known, okay? If you're watching online and just kind of curious and just weighing it out, go over the fence, right? If you're on the fence, just come on to the side of fellowship or community. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:23:19]: And it's great. You know, you can't beat it. What happens is the needs were met. People were added daily. This was not because of better programming or fabulous singing and, you know, like a light show or whatever it is. It's because of authentic community. It's because you could sit down and talk story with somebody. So, you know, the church grew not because of events, but because of shared life, right? Because we're sharing life. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:23:52]: And when we do have events, events just allow for relationships, okay? Events allow for relationships. And just like I've seen a thousand times when we're setting something up for some, you know, outreach, it's logistical, right? It's moving things around. There's a Lot of work sometimes to get some stuff up and running as a portable church. But God always provides someone to complete the task. And as I always say, the task will always get done no matter who does it. But it's about the relationship that's created when you're doing the task. That's the fun part. That's meeting new people. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:24:33]: All right. This is sharing life together. Right. The next one. You know what happens sometimes the challenge for churches is functioning more like just the weekly gathering and just, you know, structured for that seven day window. Right. Spiritual content delivery. Spiritual content delivery, worship attendance, they're all good. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:25:01]: But that's never the design. Right. And we can have lots of content and especially now with our phone. I really love to watch a few certain podcasts and I gain content from it. Yeah. But if that's all I was getting and I'm just a lone, lone wolf, it just stays up in my head all the time. That's not doing anybody a favorite. Right. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:25:21]: Nobody knows who I am. I cannot share any of my, you know, my gifts and talents, nor can I enjoy somebody else's gifts and talents. Right. I'll just be in my little car listening to this. Good. Oh, this guy's good. And I've grown a lot. I've gotten a lot out of radio broadcasts and stuff, but that's not all that it is to it. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:25:42]: Yeah, there's more to it. They say seven days without prayer makes one week, you know, makes you weak. Seven days, it's a play on words there. I don't want to have to draw the picture. You get the idea. Seven, seven days without prayer. So don't, don't miss a, you know, don't wait for seven days to get, you know, we don't eat only once a week. Maybe I should sometime, but I don't. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:26:10]: I'll do a fast maybe, but we should, you know, spiritual food every day. What's the word of God for today? And you'll be surprised. You share with somebody. And, you know, I'm going through something like that and I need, that's a great word for me, an encouragement. Right. When we walk through the day like that. So we say the church was meant to be a family, right? A family. Not just a weekly event. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:26:35]: And that's why we call each other brothers and sisters. Some people call me uncle. I say, hey, watch out. As a brother, just call me brother. Just call me brother. But uncle is fine. Whatever. Once you hit a, you hit that certain age, right, you become the uncle. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:26:52]: We used to do events Sorry. Whatever events. We have to grow as a family. Yes. Any event that we have, we want to grow as a family. We had an event at our school that we were at hookele school. We partnered with them. They had a hoolau lea. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:27:11]: Somebody asked me, what's a ho' o laa? It's kind of like a makahiki. And they said, what's a makahiki? I said, it's kind of like a pahina. But that was a joke that I had. It's going around and around and around. And then I was like, come on, man. It's a gathering of people, okay? Like a luau, like the Hukilao. But anyway, I digress already. Al's true story. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:27:33]: You remember Chris, right? What's up, Chris? If you're watching, he was honestly asking me, what's the. And I couldn't resist. It's like a makahiki, you know, when you have those things, you get. You get family, you get connection, right? And we. Some people went to that, and then they came to church because of those kind of things. So that's awesome. You know, it's not a weekly event, just a weekly event. We go. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:27:59]: And then. That was my joke before. A quick story from my past when I first started to go to this good church, this, you know, first Christian church that I was going to as an adult, I would go, and then a friend of mine would go with me. And our joke was just like, we go to church, we get the donut and the coffee, we hang out for a little and scram, right? And then that was kind of our M.O. but then somebody asked me, hey, you. Or ask us. You. You guys want to be ushers? You know, they needed ushers. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:28:30]: And we looked at each other and we were kind of still a little bit on the fence. Like, not fully committed Christians yet, you could say, you know, still not walking the super fine line. But we said, okay, if you'll. You know, we felt almost like inadequate or not worthy. But the guys there at the church looked at us. Here's the thing. You know why God uses broken people? Because that's the only kind there are. In other words, everybody has something, right? Everybody's going through something or has something. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:29:02]: So we said yes to be ushers. And so after that, I felt like this, I guess you could say responsibility, you know, to, hey, now I'm on the, you know, Usher team. I'm on a team. And now I have to show up and fulfill my obligation, whatever it was. And so they showed us what to do and the protocols that we have, what to say, what not to say and various things. And we got a shirt, you know, a nice polo shirt with the word Usher on it, and it was awesome. Then I felt, you know, then we would have the donut and whatever, and then we'd get to meet more new people. And this was back when they had a softball league. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:29:46]: Softball, yeah, league team. So we joined the softball team. And that was great fun and. Yeah. But, yeah, really, really important to stay into community. And there's one thing that we have to ask ourselves is who really knows you? Does anybody really know you? And the next one is who would notice if you disappeared for a month? My gosh, don't do that. Disappear for one day and then, you know, that's enough. Come back. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:30:28]: Who speaks truth into your life? Is there somebody who can speak truth into your life? Or you want to ask them something and you know you're going to get a good answer. So these are some of the things that you want to take a. Take a look at. Okay. On your notes, maybe you can, you can read that. The practical steps for that. So think about this. Okay? Think about these things. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:30:49]: Who really knows you? I remember serving on church one time and some people were saying, you know, I see this guy every Sunday because we were serving in ministry, but I forget his name. I don't know his name. Really? Really? Yeah, I don't know his name. His name is so and so. Like, they never met. They just crisscrossed. They were serving on the same church team. You know, this was for maybe a few months, six months, and then they didn't know who each other was. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:31:19]: So it's really important that we know each other. So you can say, you know, that that's. That's a big thing to be known, to know each other and to be known. Right. The danger is God's design is life shared and faith shared. Right? Share life. Share faith and growth. Share growth, right? So that's really a key thing. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:31:48]: Key elements in here, some practical steps. We're going to take a look at step number one. Move from rows to circles. That's one of the key steps here. That's the fill in the blank. Practical steps to shared life is move from rows to circles. So basically rows, you'll look forward, right? And we all sit on a Sunday or tonight we're looking forward, but really it's efficient. You know, rows are efficient, but community happens in circles, right. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:32:19]: When you sit at a round table. And that's why, here at New Hope Kapolei Waipahu, we have round tables so we can sit. Sit one another and chitchat and have a good meal on a Saturday night and just talk story, have a coffee and see how each other is doing. And believe me, we've shared ups and downs of life together by doing that. It's awesome. Everyone shares, everyone listens. And yeah, even just a simple hello or a quick text does wonders. Okay, really good if we join a life group, but, you know, join when you're ready. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:32:59]: Look, look for a good one and you can try a few, see if it's a good fit. Number two, choose vulnerability. People cannot know the real you if you only showed a polished version. Okay, so choose vulnerability. Hey, you know, some people say this is me, warts and all, basically. You know, this is. This is what you see is what you get and stuff. But, you know, really, don't be shy. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:33:25]: We're all going through stuff like I said, but choose vulnerability. That's the way we can be honest. And it's in a small group context, right? Not like up in. For all the world to see, but a few trusted friends, just, hey, you know what? I'm walking through this thing. I'm struggling. That's why the men's group is so good. You know, the 33 series is exactly for that. Just the men only dealing with this and that or whatever it is that men do. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:33:49]: Women have different things, too. We're very creative, very differently. And then a third one is make space for people. Make space for people. And this is called. A lot of people talk about IQ intelligence quotient, but there's EQ is emotional quotient. It's basically how to read the room, right? You know, if you come in and everybody's all very somber and chill, and you come in, whoop dee doo like this, bro. You just kind of too much energy for the room right now. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:34:20]: Or if the room is all up, you know, and happy, and you kind of come in with your, you know, the cloud hanging over your head, you know, hey, you want to have some of this? You want to have some of this chicken? Well, you know, I'm allergic to that. And I heard they put pesticides in that food. It's like, okay, my friend, thank you for bringing us all down. You know, I'm saying read the room enough to make space for people means, hey, you know what? Just accept everybody where they are, right? Everybody, Like I said, everybody's going through stuff. Everybody was that quote I said everybody is fighting a Battle that you know nothing about. Remember that, okay? Myself included. Okay? And we all can, you know, we got to get through the day, so we're going to put a. Put a happy face on it and try to get through the day. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:08]: But maybe inside stuff's going on. Stuff is hurting. That's why we take it to the Lord. We take it to friends, we take it to our brothers and sisters, make space for people. Okay? That's step three. Meals. I remember in the COVID time. Remember Covid? People used to bring meals. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:25]: They used to say, oh, I heard you got the COVID So we're going to bring you. We're going to have a meal set up. You know, the twisted and the devil. He's a twisted guy. Because I couldn't taste anything. They would bring, like, nice ribs, barbecue ribs, and like, bro, I lost my taste. And so I was like, I bet you this is good. I bet you it looks sweet, but I can't taste anything. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:53]: Thank you very much. Why you wait till I finish with the COVID and bring me some ribs? They brought me all kind, good food, and I couldn't taste. Remember that? That was so sad. That was a twisted, twisted trick from the devil, man. I swear. But then, you know, I lost my sense of smell. But I got it back, man, with a vengeance, because I can. I'm sensitive now. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:14]: Boy, you know, you better watch out. You walk by me, I'm like, okay. Had a long day in the sun today, huh? Just kidding. Just kidding. Anyway, I get the axe already. You know, the axe spray. Just a little hit. For free, bro. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:32]: For free. Nah, just kidding. But anyway, I lost my place already. Meals, conversations, and praying together. Okay, so that's really what my whole message for tonight. Pray for me, because I gotta do it again tomorrow. But anyway, I'm so glad I got to convey this. Was this kind of helpful? You got your notes? Okay. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:58]: Praise God for the notes and really get into. Get involved. Get involved with something. If you want to jump in a team, let us know. Let. Let the, you know, leader of the team know or text us. You have QR codes and we'd love to pray alongside you, but I just want to close this portion now, and then we'll turn it over to Dr. Hale with the tithes and offerings. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:37:20]: Lord God, I do pray that we can find enough courage to join a team and make ourselves known and make ourselves vulnerable, Lord, because that's what you did. You called all your disciples, Lord Matthew, you said, hey, come follow me and be fishers of men. You called them Lord, and they answered. And 12 men. And you, you started to change the world and turn it upside down, Lord God. So we just pray we can have the same boldness and courage and just fearlessness, fearless faith to follow you, Lord, wherever you call us, wherever you lead us. So we ask all of these things in Jesus mighty name, and everybody say amen. Hey, good night, everybody. Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:38:03]: Thank you so much.