Friends, Cheers and Life Groups Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip That started from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship…. A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty heigh ho Silver… Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane… Here's the story of a lovely lady, Who was bringing up three very lovely girls…. I'll be there for you, when the rain starts to pour. I'll be there for you, like I've been there before. I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me too. Where everybody knows your name…   Recognize all of them?  How many of the theme songs can you sing?  We remember them because they touch a place in our hearts.   They have they bring memories, they bring images.  But the two I want you to look again at are the last two. “I’ll be there for you” and “where everybody knows your name”.  These are two memorable phrases that convey what Life Groups are about.   We get up, go to work, after work get to one child’s practice then off to the other child’s game.   Hang around after the game to talk with other parents.   After that a quick bite of dinner (or ice cream) then home well past dark.  Wrestle with the kids to get them to unwind and into bed before you collapse in exhaustion to start the whole thing over in too few hours.  Oh, yea, sandwich into that time with God and your workout.  But when do we have time to be with people?  When do we have time to let loving people see us, love us, hug us?  When do we have the time to do the same for others?   That is where Life Groups come in.  Life Groups are a place “where everybody knows your name.”  It is a place where we say to each other “I’ll be there for you.”  Not just when it is easy, fun, happy times group members are there for each other.  It is those times when you get the phone call, “You need to come to the hospital right now…”  or  “Son, your father has cancer.” or “Mom, I have a problem….”  It is those times when that phone call that wakes you up at 2:00 am is for you.   Life Group members say to each other “I’ll be there for you” in these times and in every time.   We live in a world that easily makes us feel like we are Tom Hanks living alone on that island (the movie Castaway).   This is the culture of our day—loneliness amid the crowd.  Life Groups are counter cultural.  It says it is better to live life together.  It is the constant reminder that we a community and that God’s original intent was for us to live together with him and each other.  Life Groups are a testimony that it is better to laugh together, cry together, sit at the hospital together, share life’s struggles together, together share the victories.   Life Groups are the living out of the community, the body of Christ into which the Father has brought us.   You and I both know that the television shows I referred to above aren’t reality.  It is the fantasy world of the writers put on film.  It makes for good entertainment (in some cases).   But the joys and the trials we face are real.  Life Groups are real.  It is the way we are there for each other.  It is where “everybody knows your name.”   The themes are from: 1)Gilligan’s Island, (2) The Lone Ranger, (3) Beverly Hillbillies, (4) Superman (5) Brady Bunch, (6) Friends, (7) Cheers