This morning I want to look at, as I said before, connection. The invitation of the Christian faith to connect. We are created, I believe, for relationship. We are created to be in deep relationship. And that comes with both its challenges and its joys. Three years ago, we as a family decided to drive around Australia in a caravan. I was able to take some long service leave, and uh what a gift it was. We bought a caravan and all six of us piled in and we drove around Australia. And it was uh it was an incredible trip, a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We we uh we saw some incredible things, we we went to some amazing places and we took some incredible photos of nature and our faces uh in that nature. And um, you know, we're not really the social media type, I'm not really the posting type, but we took lots of Instagramable photos, you know, just photos that you just put up on your social media feed and just let everybody know how good our trip is going. You know, we see that, don't we? And that's it's absolutely fine, you know. Uh people who are out traveling around taking photos, and I I like vicariously living through those photos. You know, I look and go, oh, that's amazing. And uh we we didn't we wouldn't put on social media, but we created one of these coffee table books that we gave to our family so that they could look through all these Instagrammable photos so that they too could be jealous of our trip, and um and uh and and there are you know there's incredible photos in there, but that's not all the reality as it often is. You know, the trip was great, but there but there are also some real challenges, and uh the reality was it wasn't always easy because let's be honest, six people in a 19-foot caravan creates a whole bunch of challenges. There's a the the the the first challenge is literally the proximity, it's a tight space, and we're all jammed in there, and the kids don't always love being close to one another, and so they would annoy each other and wind each other up because they weren't happy with the way in which their sibling was looking at them. And because we're in tight proximity, it would be because the way that their sibling was touching them, and so the kids would wind themselves up as we're in this small proximity, and they would start fighting, they'd get annoyed, and then we would, Megan and I would get annoyed at them, and then we'd get annoyed at each other because we were getting annoyed, and the whole thing was just this combustible chamber within this 19-foot caravan. You know, relationship has challenges when you are in close proximity. And there's another thing, I know we've got a whole bunch of young families here, and so we know this right, is that when we're a young family in close proximity, we we tend to be sharing, don't we? Kids particularly are sharing, but it's not just just not kids, it's parents as well. And and we love to share our diseases. I uh I actually we actually delayed our trip two days because I caught a really bad flu. Uh, but everyone was so desperate to hit the road that we decided to go. And so here's one of the Instagrammable photos uh that we took a few days in. Uh, this is of me. The kids look lovely, and I am absolutely wiped out. We could have been in the most beautiful place, but I was so sick that I just had to lie back in the tower. I was just shocked. And I'm a sharing kind of guy, and so I gave it to Megan, and Megan was sick for about a week. We had to just stop in Townsville because Megan was was just so sick. And then about halfway through our trip, we're in the middle of the outback and a and a tummy bug. Yes, I know we know what that's like. Started with Olivia. Here's a photo of Olivia. We had to take her to Port Port Augusta-based hospital because she needed to be put on a drip, she was that sick. And then she passed that to Jacob, and then that got passed on to Maddie. And uh Eva claims that she got sick. I don't think she got sick, she was just so worried about getting sick that she might as well have been sick. You know, we had some wonderful moments traveling as a family, but we also had challenging moments. But actually, as I've shared these stories, we laugh about them because often it's the challenging moments that actually lead to deeper connection. You know, you probably think of those stories, those disaster stories right now, those hard moments when you're on holiday or with other people, and actually they created the context for deep memories, deep connection. The reality is that we go through hard times, and often deep connection is hard. It's hard because it requires risk, it requires vulnerability, it requires proximity, being close to one another, it requires time, requires patience, it requires nurturing. Real connection, deep connection, real relationship, deep relationship is well it's hard, but actually it's vital to a flourishing life. See, connection is the key to life. Connection is the key to a flourishing life. And as Christians, we know this. We can go right back to the beginning, we can go right back to Genesis, and we see that we have been created for connection. We see that in the first chapters of Genesis, God creates the world, and there are the trees and plants and animals, and there is Adam in the middle of the garden, and God says, It's very good. But there's one thing in the garden that's not that's not good. We read it in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. God says, It is not good that Adam, that man, is alone. It's not good, and so he creates a partner for Adam, Eve. Why, why, why does Adam need to be in relationship with Eve? Why does because he, like us, have been created in the Imago day. We have been created in the image of God. And I don't have time to go down the whole rabbit trail of Trinitarian theology this morning, but we see that intrinsic to God is relationality. God is a God who is in relationship, God is a God of love. And if we are created in the image of God, then we are created for relationship, we are created for connection, we are created for love. We see this embedded in the Bible, but we can look out just in our own experiences, we can just look at life and observe this truth. One of the longest studies that have been going has been uh a study at Harvard University, started in 1938, and it's the Harvard Study of Adult Development, and it's been investigating what makes people flourish. They observed a whole bunch of different uh people uh in different life stages and different backgrounds, and here are three things that this longitudinal study has revealed as it continues to this day, it's almost 90 years old. Three things. Firstly, social connections are really good for us, and conversely, loneliness kills. Secondly, it's not the quantity of your relationships, but the quality of your close relationships that matters. And thirdly, good relationships don't just protect our bodies, they also protect our brains. We're created for relationship, we're created for connection, and so that's the end of my message today. Go go and just be great friends and find yes, that is actually some people's really excited. Wow, this is the best sermon Andrew's ever preached. Strap in, I'm only just getting started. Why? Because there's this thing called the fall. So we continue to read through Genesis. We get to Genesis chapter three, and we see that Adam and Eve choose themselves over God, and they choose themselves over each other. It it's called the theological word is sin. Sin, this this move of selfishness and pride, which says, I want to be my own God and I don't need the other, whether that's God or others. And we can tell where sin is present because there is breakdown of connection, there is breakdown of relationship. So anytime there's a broken relationship between one another, between us and God, or us in the environment, there will also be the presence of sin. Sin leads to breakdown of relationship. And what happens with Adam and Eve when they realize that they've sinned, they've broken relationship? Well, they go and hide. They feel shame, they cover themselves up, and they isolate themselves. They hide themselves. See, broken relationship as a result of sin leads to isolation and loneliness. And we see that in our world today, perhaps more than any other time in human history. Loneliness is literally killing us. And we live in a digital world that is enhancing and facilitating epidemic levels of loneliness. Even though we have social media, so to speak, at our fingertips, we are more lonely than ever before. Jonathan Haidt, in his uh incredibly important book, The Anxious Generation, says this this is the great irony of social media. The more you immerse yourself in it, the more lonely and depressed you become. And we are observing and seeing that this is becoming more and more an issue. Let me just take a few moments to acknowledge the challenges that we currently face with artificial intelligence. Because this is on our horizon and we're all aware of it, whether we understand it or not. And I'm sure many of us are using artificial intelligence right now as an aid to answer questions, as a guide, as an assistant. But there is more power and more danger that is ahead for us when it comes to artificial intelligence. Research, recent research by Common Sense Media, uh did research in in America amongst American teens, and I think that this would translate in some way into other Western countries, including Australia. They found that 72% of teenagers have tried AI as a companion, as a companion, not as an aide to help with homework questions or answering uh uh questions or image generation, but as a companion, as someone to talk to, as someone to start a relationship with, 72%. 31% of teenagers prefer AI to in-person. This is the world that we are walking in. This is the world that the next generation is surrounded by. And we need to take it seriously. It's real. Maybe, maybe this is your story, maybe this is the world that you're in. I I make no presumptions. I was talking to my mum the other day, who's a a chaplain in a shopping center, just connecting and talking with people as they walk through the shopping center. She was telling me how that a number of months ago she she's been building a relationship with one woman, and and this this woman actually is in relationship with an AI bot. And um, and so very excitedly she came up and said, I want you to my mum, I want you to have a chat, I want you to introduce you to my to my companion, my friend. And so my mum was having a conversation with this woman and the her AI bot as if it was a relationship. This is this is the world that we now are in. The reality is that the physic physical relationships are being replaced by virtual ones. And the danger of digital virtual relationships is that it is relationship without resistance, it's connection without consequences, it's intimacy without cost. This is our world. And if it's not you, it's our children, it's our grandchildren, it's our work colleagues, it's our family, it's our friends, and it is our looming future. And I think that it will not deal with the deeper pain and longing that we confront of isolation and loneliness. Virtual that can never replace physical. It is not good, but there is hope, there is always hope, and I think that's why many of us are here today because we find hope in the God who didn't come down in a virtual sense, the God who did not come down in a digital sense, but the God who chose to come down by putting on skin and bones and clothes and walked amongst us, the person of Jesus. And Paul writes in 2 Corinthians about the life and the joy and the power of the God who has come down and put on skin and made relationship with us, who has reconciled himself to us. And we read it in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. You want to read it. If you've got your Bibles, feel free to open up. Uh, and I'm gonna read this, and I've just got two points to draw from this passage this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 14 to 21, we read this for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. From now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Two quick points I want to sit in as Paul gives us some keys this morning. Firstly, Christ shows us the way to deepest connection. Christ shows us the way to deepest connection. And secondly, Christian community creates the context for deep connection. Firstly, Christ shows us the way to deepest connection. We see here that Christ came. Paul writes that Jesus steps down from heaven to earth and comes, he humbles himself. We read this in Philippians chapter 2. Jesus, the King of the universe, the one who spoke creation into being, humbles himself and comes and walks upon the earth. What's more than that, he didn't live like a king or a prince. He lived amongst the broken, the marginalized of the poor. You know, if I was the Son of God, oh I would have had servants and people, you know, it would have just been, I would have been lived in palaces and it would have been, but but God humbles himself and lives amongst the broken and the poor. It's an act of absolute vulnerability. God humbles himself, makes himself vulnerable to the point of becoming sin. Did you pick that up in this passage in verse 21? God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. Jesus, God, becomes sin. An anathema. Impossible to get our head around how the pure God could become sin. And what's more than that? In verse 15, we read that He died for us. Can there be more no more vulnerable position than outstretching your hands and hanging on a cross, bleeding, gasping for breath, and dying? That is what God did for us in Christ. Absolute vulnerability. But this is the beauty and the picture of Christ, the beauty of God, that God becomes vulnerable for us. He shows us the way to connection. God becomes vulnerable for us in order that He can reconcile us to Himself. Christ shows us the way to deepest connection. He models it for us. And vulnerability is the key to deep connection. There's no other way. Vulnerability is the key to deep connection. Kurt Thompson, in his fantastic book, The Soul of Shame, he's a Christian psychologist, says this vulnerability is the state we must pass through in order to deepen our connection with God and others, given our condition. There is no other way. I mean, you look at Christ, it was hard. And it's hard for us as well. To become vulnerable is difficult. I don't know if you remember your first day of school. Can anyone remember their first day of school, primary or high? I can't remember my first day of primary school, but I I remember my first day of high school. I remember my first weeks of high school that I started. I was I was prompted the other day. I took Jacob with the kids to their first day at school at their new school, and I remember standing there with Jacob as he stood outside the classroom and all the kids knew each other. It was he was starting at grade four and and they're all talking, and I'm standing there as Jacob just doesn't know anyone. And uh and I'm feeling for him. I'm like I'm dying inside because he's just lost. And I'm going, and but I knew that he had to walk through it. This was just part of his journey, and I was being triggered because I remember my own journey. I remember turning up to high school. I arrived at a high school which was a prep to grade 12. I didn't know anyone. And I remember after a couple of weeks, I just I hadn't made any friends. Now, believe it or not, I'm more introverted than extroverted. And um, and I was really struggling. And I remember sitting on a bench at the school, and I had no friends. It was lunchtime, and and one of the one of the the C I think it was the prefect from grade 12, whose job it clearly was to go and look out for all these lonely grade eighters, came up and sat next to me. But this poor guy, he didn't know what to say. He's he's 17 himself, and he just sat there and looked across me and said, So um, you've got no friends, hey. And I literally burst into tears. I just I I was like, I have no friends, I feel so vulnerable. It was okay. I I eventually made gr made friends by the age of uh by uh grade 11, I think it was uh it's vulnerable, isn't it? It's a vulnerable place. Maybe some of you are sitting here in church today, and you've made the vulnerable step of turning up. Turning up for the first time, turning up for the first time in a long time. I tell you, there's it's a scary thing walking into the church for a first time. Particularly if you don't know all the weird things that we do in church. I mean, I do and I still find it scary walking into church. It's just worth being reminded of that for all of us who've been in church a long time. It's a vulnerable thing to walk into the church into any space for the first time. Why? Because it means rejection or judgment. May that not be the case here at New Hope. It means when you step into a relationship giving somebody else the power to hurt you. And vulnerability challenges our identity, right? Because we're asking these questions. Am I good enough? Am I lovable? Will people accept me? Will they embrace me? And what I love about the gospel is it makes a way. Particularly in a time, and we live in a time where we are losing the capacity and the ability to be vulnerable. Because I think of the digital world that we're in, it's so easy to hide. It's so easy to not put ourselves in vulnerable places we can just hide behind a screen or not go out or stand in the corner or whatever it is, we can hide. But the beauty of the gospel is we look at the person, the work of Jesus Christ, we we don't even we don't just see a God who models vulnerability, who models the way to relationship, but we see a God who makes a way for it to happen. Christ makes a way for us to feel safe. Christ makes a way for us to be vulnerable. Verse 21, we read it: God made him, Paul writes, who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We need to get hold of this. This powerful, beautiful truth. That the God of the universe came and died for us in order that he could clothe you and me with a new identity, that we could be clothed with a new grace, that we could be clothed with righteousness, so that no matter who we are, no matter what we've done, no matter our background, our faults, our failings, our past, our insecurities, our shame, we can walk into any room. We can walk into any space, we can be anywhere and be clothed in the identity that is spoken over us through the work of Jesus Christ. Can I hear an amen? Changes everything. And maybe some of you are sitting here, you just need to hear that this morning. Maybe you just need to be reminded of that, that you are enough because what Christ speaks over you and what he gives you. You might be sitting here inadequate, feeling inadequate, not religious enough, not put together enough, not worthy enough, not good enough, whatever it is, and perhaps that's your lifeline this morning. Take hold of this truth is that Jesus speaks life over you if you are to receive it. You have a new identity in him. He speaks righteousness over you. Receive his identity, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here, we are made new, we are children of the King. Christ created the context with a deep connection. And it is this community, the Christian community, the creator the context with a deep connection. The church, the body of Christ. As we gather here, is the context that we work out our identity. This is the context that we work out connection. This is the place that we work out how to be vulnerable. That is the gift of the body of Christ. This is where we work out who we are. This is where we learn to forgive. This is where we learn to mediate Christ between one another. This is where we learn who we are. This is what Paul says. All this from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself and Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are reconciled to God. We are in relationship with God. We are part of the family of God and we carry the message of reconciliation. And it starts here. This is the context, this community, the body of Christ is the place that we get to practice forgiveness. We get to practice reconciliation. Where we get to walk through the hard times, the difficult times, the close times, the props, you know, proximity and sharing and all of that. This is our caravan. All jammed in together, being forced to confront one another. I mean, I'm looking out here at a full church. We're all jammed in together, and we are so diverse. We're so different. I mean, I there it we're we're sitting amongst people that we wouldn't normally hang out with. Let's be honest. You know, we're in a community here where you you probably have people just down the row a bit that you would never invite them over for dinner. Don't look. Now, don't don't. Some of you love Aussie Rule, some of you don't, some of you love soccer, some of you don't, some of you love going out for dinner, some of you don't, some love the country, some the city. We're all very different. Yet we are gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ, and we are forced to work things out. Can I be honest? Close proximity, we're going to offend one another. We're different people from different backgrounds. We will offend one another. We're going to hurt one another tragically. So often, and I hear the stories of people who have been hurt by the church, and I understand it, I get it. We leave, we walk away hurting bitter. It breaks my heart, it breaks the heart of Christ. Because we should be a community in a church that is able to stoop down to vulnerability and say, I'm hurt, or stoop down and say, I'm sorry. Because we have been gifted from Christ the message of reconciliation. And as Jesus prays for his disciples and he prays for us, you know, Jesus prayed for us, we read it in the Gospel of John, that would we would be known for our love. See, this is the message of reconciliation as we carry this out, as we learn as the body of Christ, as we learn as new hope to love one another, to look out, as we learn as new hope to forgive one another and to bear each other's burdens and each other's grievances as we learn what it is to be in the caravan. That will shine out to a world that is desperately, desperately, desperately longing for hope. David Kinnerman, a researcher from the Barna group in the States, says this in his fantastic book, Faith for Exiles. The church has a unique opportunity to break through this loneliness and introduce real vulnerability by returning to our roots as a confessional community. When we talk about our sin that so easily entangles, we create connections with others that transcend the transaction of posting a selfie in exchange for a few likes. In a digital world, may we be a church that presents something radically different. May we be a church that proclaims Jesus Christ in how we reconcile with one another and how we love and serve the world around us, the community around us. I was asked by one of our youth leaders, they had a great time with our youth leaders a few weeks ago, and uh one of the leaders asked me a great question. They asked, how can we lead and serve the next generation that are overwhelmed with anxiety? And I didn't have all the answers to that. That's a great question. But my first response was this: I said, We have a gift as a church. What a joy it is as a youth group. What is it a joy as a generation? What a joy it is as a church, that we can create community, that we can create a context where anxious people, where people from outside or people from the inside can calm and be with others and understand and know who they are in Christ. I don't know about you, but I reckon that's a pretty powerful thing, and it is a gift to a world that is longing out for pro longing for presence. An anxious world that is longing for meaning and purpose. What we have here is a gift if we can understand it and if we can see it. But to be it, to do it, requires vulnerability. Just as Jesus stepped down from heaven to earth, put on skin, and humbled himself, so too we as a church need to walk in vulnerability. That's the invitation that Christ gives us, that Paul gives us to be reconcilers is to walk in vulnerability. And as we walk in vulnerability, as we open up our hearts and our lives, and we go to the other, that is when we become reconcilers. I think that's the invitation for us as a church, the invitation for you and for me today. How are we doing with that new hope? How can we grow in that? Let me suggest that it starts here. Starts in this place. The vulnerable step for many of us, the first step might be walking across the aisle. It might be going, lifting our eyes and seeing that person that we've never met before, that person who may look new, or that being vulnerable and having a conversation. That step of vulnerability that spills out into our community. That is how we become people of connection, people who are reconcilers. One very practical way is you could join our welcome team. What a beautiful picture of embrace as people walk through the doors of the church often for the first time here in this place. And I know we're needing more people to join our welcome team. We're hitting a reset button, you're going to experience that and feel that next week, and we're needing more people. If you think you could play a part once a month in being vulnerable and welcoming people through the doors of the church, we'd love to hear from you. Use your QR code, come and speak to one of the staff, go to the next next step steps. We'd love to have you part of part of the team. Whatever your response is today, whatever your journey is, wherever you are in your faith today, the invitation for us all is to choose connection. By being filled with Jesus Christ, clothing ourselves in Him, walking in His way, and choosing connection. It will set you free. It will set me free. It'll set us free from the shame and the guilt and the anxiety that we carry as we walk in the ways of Jesus Christ. Hey, I want to speak to one final one final practical response, and then we're going to stand and we're going to sing together. In a couple of weeks' time, we're going to uh invite the whole church to participate, as I said earlier, in our series through Colossians. And as part of this, we're creating small group um material and we're going to be running some open small groups here on Tuesday night. We're calling uh small group connect nights. And we're going to run it through the term for eight weeks as we uh as we go through this book. And we're and if you are not part of a group, if you're not yet part of a small group, if you're not part of a community yet, then this is a really easy way for you to come and enjoy some food together and join in uh for a small group, just to taste it, just to trial, just come for one term, see how it goes. There's no compulsion after it. In fact, there's no compulsion after one word. We're not gonna make you come back. But it's just one simple way that you could take a step of vulnerability and saying, yeah, you know what, it's time for me to join a small group. We've got a whole range of great small groups, and we can we can we work hard to get you into any small group. But here on Tuesday nights, we'd love for you to come and join us. And so we'll be talking more about that over the coming weeks. But if you're not part of a small group, that is one practical invitation that you can be part of. I wonder whether we can stand in this place. Depending on where you're at right now and what you're walking through and what you're experiencing, what you're feeling, what your connections, a whole bunch of things. But as we sing and we worship, we're gonna pray for us in a moment, but as we worship, the invitation for you and for me again is to receive the truth of who Christ is. To be clothed in what he says over you and me. That we are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come, and that we are made righteous. Come on, I love I'd love to pray for us, and then we're gonna lift our voices and we're gonna take hold of this truth afresh. Come on, let's pray together. God, I thank you for the reminder. The reminder of how much you love us, that you've you made yourself so profoundly vulnerable in order that we could be restored into relationship with you. And right across this room, God, I pray. I pray for every person here, whether they are of faith, whether they're on a journey, wherever they're at right now, Lord God, that they would know something of your presence, that they would know something of your embrace, that they would know something of your love and your grace in this place right now. Come, Holy Spirit, calm, Holy Spirit. We take hold the truth of who we are.