First Things First- Together

Devotional

Day 1: Faith Was Never Meant to Be Lived Alone

The Christian life is not a solitary journey. From the very beginning, God designed us for connection and community, reflecting His own relational nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Isolation is the first thing God declared "not good" in His creation. Our walk of faith is intended to be shared, supported, and strengthened by others who are devoted to the same purpose. We are woven together into something far stronger than any single strand could ever be. [26:15]

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
Acts 2:42-44 (ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life have you been trying to live out your faith as an individual "fishing line" rather than as part of a woven net? What is one practical step you can take this week to more intentionally devote yourself to the fellowship of other believers?

Day 2: The Kingdom of God is a Dragnet, Not a Fishing Pole

The work of God's kingdom is a collective effort, illustrated by a large dragnet that requires many hands. It is not the work of a solitary individual with a single fishing line. This net, representing the gospel of righteousness, peace, and joy, is meant to be cast by the entire church working in unison. Its effectiveness and strength come from its many interconnected strands, each one vital to the whole. When we work together, we advance the kingdom powerfully. [31:00]

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.”
Matthew 13:47 (ESV)

Reflection: In what ways have you been carrying the pressure of "catching fish" on your own, rather than trusting in the collective work of the body of Christ? How can you shift your perspective to see yourself as one vital strand in a much larger net this week?

Day 3: Togetherness is Functional, Not Just Fellowship

Biblical togetherness goes beyond social gatherings; it is about functional unity for a divine purpose. Like a physical net that only works when every part is connected and held, the church functions effectively when every member is actively involved and supporting one another. This unity allows God to move in ways He cannot when we are isolated or disconnected. Our togetherness is what enables the harvest to be gathered without anything slipping through. [48:28]

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 (ESV)

Reflection: Are you viewing your church community primarily as a place for fellowship, or as a functional team you are actively joined to for a mission? What is one specific area where you can move from being a spectator to actively holding the net with others?

Day 4: Alignment with God Replaces the Desire for Isolation

The natural response to difficulty can be to withdraw from people, but Jesus modeled a different way. He withdrew not to escape people, but to align Himself with the Father. Isolation runs from people, but alignment runs to God. When we are connected to God first, we are empowered to be in healthy, life-giving community with others, reflecting His kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in every relationship. [56:43]

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Mark 1:35 (ESV)

Reflection: When you feel overwhelmed or hurt, what is your first impulse: to isolate yourself from others or to seek alignment with God in prayer? How can you cultivate a habit of running to God first, so you can then healthfully engage with the people He has placed around you?

Day 5: Our Role is to Cast the Net, Not Clean the Fish

A profound freedom is found in understanding our assignment. We are called to faithfully cast the net of the gospel through our words and our lived experience of God's kingdom. The sorting and cleaning of the catch, however, is God's work, which He accomplishes through His angels. We are released from the pressure to change people or judge their responses; we are simply called to be faithful witnesses who love others well and leave the results to God. [42:52]

“When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.”
Matthew 13:48-49 (ESV)

Reflection: Where have you taken on the burden of "cleaning the fish"—trying to change someone or manage the outcome of their faith journey? How can you entrust that work to God this week and simply focus on loving them and casting the net of the kingdom?

Sermon Summary

Faith was never meant to be lived alone; the Christian life calls for woven, functional connection. The kingdom of God appears in the image of a dragnet—widening, moving, and catching all kinds of people when a team pulls together. Scripture shows togetherness from the first “Let us” in creation through the early church’s devotion to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. That devotion produced awe, shared resources, and daily growth because the net was cast from a boat and held by many hands.

Isolation receives repeated warning: it breeds runaway imagination, fertile ground for lies, and spiritual drift. Instead of withdrawing to escape conflict, withdrawal must be for alignment with the Father. Alignment fuels steadiness—fixing eyes on Jesus, staying rooted in scripture, and practicing “one another” commands so the net will hold under pressure. Practical mechanics matter: every knot, line, and weight in the net contributes; one missed link creates a gap for the harvest to slip through.

The dragnet metaphor reshapes evangelism from individual effort to corporate advance. The net does not sort, clean, or judge; angels and God’s final judgment handle separation. Human responsibility is to get into the boat, cast faithfully, and maintain connection—faith first, kingdom first, prayer first, others first. Love remains the binding reality that makes righteousness, peace, and joy visible. When the church moves together—devoted to word, prayer, mission, and one another—the harvest grows, witnesses form, and the kingdom’s presence becomes undeniable in ordinary places.

Key Takeaways

1. Faith is never meant to be alone Communal faith resists spiritual drift by creating shared practices that test and refine belief. Loneliness amplifies doubt and invites imaginations that do not submit to scripture; shared devotion disciplines thought life and preserves witness. Choosing connection means choosing accountability, consistent spiritual formation, and the steadying presence of others in struggle and victory. [25:47]
2. The kingdom is a woven dragnet The kingdom advances not by lone lines but by many strands bound and pulled together; its power depends on interdependence. A woven net distributes strain, holds larger catches, and sweeps where the harvest lies—metaphors for shared ministry, diverse gifts, and coordinated mission. Reimagining evangelism as a communal dragnet frees individuals from performance and centers attention on the Holy Spirit’s movement through a connected body. [27:25]
3. Isolation endangers spiritual life Solitary faith magnifies anxieties and permits unchecked thoughts to rule decisions; the Bible commands bringing every thought captive to truth. Distance from the body corrodes obedience to “one another” practices and obscures correction, prayer, and prudent counsel. Recovery from isolation begins by re-entering covenant relationships that expose distortion and restore wisdom. [50:14]
4. Get in the boat; cast together Participation begins with the simple act of commitment—getting in the boat—and continues in steady, collective action: cast, pull, and hold. The net only functions when anchored, weighted, and pulled in concert; likewise, mission requires consistent, coordinated discipleship rather than sporadic solo efforts. Trusting God to sort and cleanse the catch releases energy to proclaim the kingdom and embody righteousness, peace, and joy. [45:29]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[20:40] - Family moments and dismissals
[22:16] - Together: the core theme introduced
[25:47] - Acts 2:42 — devotion and common life
[27:25] - Parable explained: the dragnet
[33:48] - Creation: “Let us” and togetherness
[36:07] - Two are better than one
[43:33] - The net demonstrated: woven strength
[50:14] - Why isolation is dangerous
[60:16] - Move toward the harvest
[72:20] - A fixed church becomes witness
[77:25] - Corporate declaration and charge
[80:59] - Dismissal and final blessing

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
Matthew 13:47 (ESV) - “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.”

Observation questions

According to the parable in Matthew 13:47, what does the net gather from the sea?
In the early church described in Acts 2:42-44, what four things did the believers devote themselves to doing?
What is the first thing in creation that God declared "not good" according to Genesis 2:18?
What does the illustration of the dragnet show us about how it functions compared to a single fishing line? [31:00]

Interpretation questions

The dragnet parable reshapes evangelism from an individual effort to a corporate advance. What does it mean that the net does not sort, clean, or judge the fish it catches? [42:52]
Why is isolation repeatedly warned against as being so dangerous to spiritual life? What specific dangers does it create? [50:14]
The early church's shared devotion produced awe, shared resources, and daily growth. What is the connection between their "togetherness" and these powerful outcomes?
Jesus withdrew from people, but not to escape them. What was the true purpose and motive behind His withdrawals according to the passages in Mark 1:35 and Luke 5:16? [53:10]

Application questions

Faith is never meant to be alone. What is one practical step you can take this week to move from isolation into a more "woven," functional connection with other believers?
A woven net distributes strain and holds a larger catch. In your current season of life, where do you feel the "strain" the most, and how could sharing that load with others in the body of Christ provide strength? [44:13]
The net only works when it's connected; every knot, line, and weight matters. What is your unique role or "knot" in the net, and how can you ensure you are firmly connected to those around you? [47:48]
We are called to move toward the harvest, not wait for it to come to us. Who is one person in your relational "sea" that you can begin to pray for and intentionally love with the righteousness, peace, and joy of the kingdom this week? [01:00:16]
Withdrawal must be for alignment with the Father, not to escape people. When you feel the urge to pull away from community, how can you redirect that impulse into seeking God first for realignment? [56:43]
Love is the binding reality that makes righteousness, peace, and joy visible. How can you actively demonstrate this kind of selfless, binding love within your small group or family to make the kingdom's presence undeniable? [01:04:15]
Getting in the boat is the simple act of commitment to cast together. Are you fully "in the boat," committed to the mission of your local church body? If not, what is holding you back from that commitment? [45:29]

Sermon Clips

We don't have to do that. God does that. The kingdom of God. So many times, we're trying to change people. We don't change people. All we do is just be the kingdom. We just cast the net. And and what you see on this one is the net. This drag net. It says drag net. It's a drag net. It's not a single net. A drag net. A drag net cannot be used by one person. It is not designed, and it will not work. A drag net is won't work unless it's in a boat. So so therefore, you gotta get in the boat, and the only way that drag net works is when it's pulled behind the boat, and that boat is not a one man rowboat. [00:42:52] (36 seconds) #BeTheKingdom

A drag net is not passive. It's not passive. It's moving, and it's moving because it is moved by the spirit of God, by the power of God. It's not by our strength, but by the power of God because of the boat and the line is how the kingdom is propelled. That's why Jesus said, hey, all of you, y'all gonna do greater works than I am. Greater works than I do because all of you are gonna go into all the nation, all the world and minister, re give the good news. [00:58:49] (30 seconds) #SpiritPoweredNet

You didn't catch them. The kingdom caught them. Righteousness, peace, and joy, and the holy ghost. That's what caught them. It's not you. It's the kingdom of God, but we gotta cast the kingdom. We gotta get it out there. But here's what's neat about it all. The the net only works. This only works if it's connected. This net does not cast itself. If they are not here, it is laying on the ground, rolled up, and it's in the bottom of the boat. [00:47:12] (32 seconds) #KingdomCatches

The angels are separating the wicked from the righteous. They're the ones who sat down. They're the ones who pulled it up. They're the ones who get to do that. God has that figured out. They got that. You don't gotta sort them. You don't gotta clean them. You don't gotta tell them you're going to hell. You just gotta get in the boat, grab on, cast it, and just keep on walking in faith. And they're gonna see the peace. They're gonna see the righteousness. They're gonna see the joy. They're gonna see the love. [01:12:00] (34 seconds) #LetAngelsSort

Church, we are not individual fishing lines. I know I said it, but I'm a say it again. We are not individual fishing lines floating in separate boats or separated by separate boats. We are all in the same boat. I like, I'm just gonna go do this bank. I'm gonna go do that bank. We're in the same boat moving the same way. We are in the one boat, one accord, one gospel, one word, woven together in one net. [01:02:44] (26 seconds) #OneBoatOneNet

Jesus said it gathered fish of every kind, different sizes, different shapes, different backgrounds, different species. The kingdom isn't uniform. It's unified. The kingdom is not a uniform. Unified. The only uniform that the kingdom is is the armor of God. And that the what's unit that that uniform brings unity, but that is salvation, righteousness, peace, word, faith. I mean, that's that's all that is, and that's what brings in unified. [01:07:26] (46 seconds) #UnifiedNotUniform

Satan is gonna go against whatever God is saying, and if he can isolate you, he's gonna grab you, take you, and he's gonna hurt you. But when you get out of isolation, you see this. This is what this is how important it is. Genesis seven nine. Go ahead. See, if the animals doors are designed to go two by two, do you not think that you were designed to go two by two wherever you're going? See, if you if you think if the animals can do it, I think we have to be able to do it too. [00:34:13] (35 seconds) #TwoByTwoCommunity

in the beginning, when I wake up in the morning, in the beginning, my alarm goes off. What? God. When I get in the shower, in the beginning, what? God. In the beginning of me going to my place of business, what? God. In the beginning of me going into my house after work, what? God. In the beginning before I eat my meals, God. Before I lay my head down, in the beginning of me getting in my bed and going to sleep, what? God. In the beginning of every aspect of your life, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning of your heavens. In the beginning of your earth. In the beginning of your world, not just this physical world. Spirit, soul, and body. God first. [01:18:59] (46 seconds) #GodFirstAlways

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First Things First- Together

Devotional

Day 1: Faith Was Never Meant to Be Lived Alone

Day 2: The Kingdom of God is a Dragnet, Not a Fishing Pole

Day 3: Togetherness is Functional, Not Just Fellowship

Day 4: Alignment with God Replaces the Desire for Isolation

Day 5: Our Role is to Cast the Net, Not Clean the Fish

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

First Things First- Together

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