What does First B Jackson teach about community?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on community starts with the great commandment and refuses to let it stay abstract. Both Pastor Brad and Pastor Josh worked through the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 to press the same point: the neighbor you are called to love is whoever you are already in contact with. The circle has no edge. Your neighborhood, your workplace, the sideline at your kids' game, all of it is the field. The love that is expected there is the Greek word agape, which Brad defined as a sacrificial, active outpouring of an inward desire to want the highest good for someone. If it costs nothing, it is not agape.
On evangelism, both messages pushed back against the idea that reaching people requires a formal strategy or polished arguments. The better path runs through real relationships, because people generally have to trust the Christian before they will trust Christ. Simple, honest questions open more doors than most people expect. But community inside the church carries just as much weight in this teaching. The New Testament contains roughly 45 one-another commands, and Pastor Josh was direct that these are not suggestions for the especially committed. Love one another, bear one another's burdens, confess your sins to one another, encourage one another, do not neglect meeting together: these describe what the church actually is.
A phrase that has stayed with Pastor Josh captures the whole thing: the quality of our lives is the quality of our relationships. Brad reinforced this from the other direction, noting that the world's version of love is transactional and short-term, and that distraction is the more likely enemy for most Christians than obvious moral failure. The answer to both is the same: show up for the people God has already placed around you, at real cost, without keeping score.
Taught from Luke 10:25-37 · Ephesians 2:8-10 · Matthew 5:14-16 · Romans 8:28 · Matthew 16:24
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 12
1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven.
3 I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows),
4 how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- April 13, 2025 Love Your Neighbor As Yourself Jesus defines neighbor as anyone in your path, and calls us to costly, sacrificial love for every person made in God's image, both inside and outside the church.
- March 9, 2025 There Are No Ordinary People Brad walks through the parable of the Good Samaritan to explore what it truly means to love your neighbor, from strangers on the street to brothers and sisters in Christ.
Mentioned along the way
- October 4, 2023 Women's Bible Study - October 4th, 2023 Natalie draws on her half marathon journey to explore what it takes to train, endure, and stand firm in faith for the race God has set before us.
- June 18, 2023 The Lord Is My Shepherd A Wyoming pastor walks through Psalm 23, reflecting on community, grief, and the God who searches for wandering sheep and restores weary souls.
- January 26, 2020 Strengthen the Weak, Pursue Peace Hebrews 12 sermon on pursuing peace, fighting bitterness, and accessing God's grace daily before, like Esau, the moment to act is irretrievably gone.