WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:01.439 Good morning. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:04.000 It's good to be with you. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.439 I'm here with my daughter Ginger, is here, and my wife Naomi will be here for the second service. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:14.240 Also, Clement Tendo is pastoral intern with us at One Voice Fellowship. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.320 He was helping lead the Praise team. 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:18.960 I hope you get to meet him during fellowship time. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:22.960 I was on staff for 20 years at Alexandria Prez. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:26.079 If I haven't met some of you, I see a lot of new faces. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:35.600 But after serving in APC for 20 years, we launched out of APC to plant One Voice Fellowship two years ago. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:44.640 And if you take your second light, turn right at the second light here, and go four miles, you'll find us right there on Route 7. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:51.200 It's only four miles away, but if you visit One Voice, you feel like you have traveled very far away. 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:56.320 80% of our church are refugees or recent immigrants. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:01.039 And so we translate the sermon every week into 15 different languages. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:04.239 We sing and pray in all those different languages. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:06.879 We have dinner together every week at 5 p.m. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:09.280 with food from all around the world. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:11.439 It's a highlight for sure. 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:18.799 And I hope you could stop by downstairs afterwards before you go into the fellowship hall. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.400 There's a countertop and there's some information about the church. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.920 There's a prayer list, ways that you can be praying for us. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:34.000 I've also put together every verse I can find in the Bible that mentions all language, all tribes, all people. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:46.000 And you might enjoy that for your devotional time, just reading through how from Genesis to Revelation it has been God's vision from the very beginning to make one nation of all people. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:57.280 There's also an article there that was published by the Gospel Coalition about APC and One Voice, about how One Voice became a church out of this church. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:06.239 And so we are grateful for the support, for the prayers, for the oversight that APC provides over us as we plant the church. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:07.840 There's a clipboard down there. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:12.000 You could sign up if you want more information, if you want to be on our prayer list. 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:14.639 Also, if you want to donate a car. 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:30.560 Donating a car has tax benefits, but it has enormous benefits for people in our congregation who are new in the U.S., who are taking buses to get to work and riding Uber, sometimes spending a third of their income to take Uber to work. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.840 And so if you have a car that you want to donate, we would love to hear about that. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:38.879 You can talk to me or Clement, you can put the info on the clipboard. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.560 So that's the missions update part of why I'm here. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.479 But my real role is to open God's word to us. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:49.840 We're going to be looking at the book of Deuteronomy. 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:55.759 Deuteronomy is a book that contains three long sermons by Moses. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:03:01.520 These sermons were given to the Jews while they were in the desert after they escaped from Egypt. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.240 Now, when God's people first arrived in Egypt, there were 70 of them. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.199 Same size as One Voice Fellowship, actually. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.800 And Joseph's family, they were refugees. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:20.080 They had escaped starvation to go to Egypt, and they received food and help when they were in Egypt. 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:25.599 They settled down as permanent residents, got their green cards printed on papyrus. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:30.080 But then the Egyptians enslaved them. 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:40.400 And so after 400 years, God's people fled to escape persecution, and they became refugees once again, on the move. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:51.039 And it's there in the desert that Moses wrote Deuteronomy, telling his people that they're going to go to the promised land, but their residency there will be conditional. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.599 It will be dependent on them keeping God's law. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:05.599 So Deuteronomy is a covenant document, a contract, making clear what God expects of his people because of what he has done for them. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:12.159 So let's look at God's word beginning in Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 11. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:26.639 And the Lord said to Moses, Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:31.759 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:48.959 But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding you today, for your good. 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:57.199 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:10.160 And yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers, and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are to this day. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:15.839 Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:27.360 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial, and he takes no bribe. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:37.759 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:45.279 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:46.959 Let's pray. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:06:03.839 Jesus, thank you that you have the kind of heart that would leave safety and security to seek out the lost and the hurting, but also the rebel and the one who wants to be far from God. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:08.959 Thank you for that other-centered, stranger-seeking kind of love. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.120 May it captivate our hearts. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:17.279 May we understand how you gave a proactive welcome to bring us into God's kingdom. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:23.199 And then may we, empowered by that love, show the same love to those around us. 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.519 We ask in Christ's name. 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:28.879 Alright, so four points for today. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:33.600 God loves strangers, but strangers are strange. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:39.439 You were a stranger, so love as you have been loved. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:45.519 So, verse 18 of our text, God loves strangers. 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.879 Verse 18 says, God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:55.279 He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:07.199 Moses is making sure the people understand that God has a special heart for three categories of people: the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:08.240 Why those three? 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:14.560 Because none of them could own land in the promised land that they were headed towards. 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:17.439 God is saying he cares about vulnerable people. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:20.800 He cares about those who do not have assets. 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:33.120 He provided his people with this land flowing with milk and honey in the expectation that his people would share what he had given with those who were more vulnerable. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:41.519 Now the word sojourner can also be translated foreigner, alien, stranger, or immigrant. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:43.439 It's not tourist. 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:49.439 A sojourner is someone who goes somewhere to stay for a period of time. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:52.639 Abraham was a sojourner in Hebron. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:56.399 Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:02.319 Moses left Egypt and went to Midian as a sojourner for 40 years. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:10.240 And as Moses points out in verse 19, the Israelites were sojourners in Egypt. 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:18.160 The Bible is full of examples of sojourners, people who have been forcibly displaced. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.319 I want to just go through these slides quickly. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.240 I'm not going to read all the texts. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:33.120 But we see in the very beginning Adam and Eve, Cain and Israel, people who are displaced because of their own sinful choices and actions. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:38.159 We also see displaced by natural disaster. 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:44.080 People like Noah, Abraham, Sarah, famine displacing Naomi. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:50.159 We also see people displaced because of conflict or human trafficking. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.159 Hagar because of how she was treated by her mistress. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:59.679 Joseph sold into slavery, human trafficking. 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:14.000 We also see people displaced by war when Israel was conquered by Assyria, when Judah was conquered and people were taken off to Babylon, including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:22.639 We also see in the Bible people displaced by religious, political, and ethnic persecution. 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:28.240 Jesus himself fleeing to Egypt as a child, the early church being scattered. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.919 Achilla and Priscilla, leaders in the church. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:49.360 What I want you to see is that there are refugees today fleeing their homes for all of these exact same reasons that we just saw: famine, war, conflict, persecution. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:53.279 The world hasn't actually changed that much. 00:09:54.559 --> 00:10:02.240 Today we have the opportunity to help Afghan allies who fled their country after the Taliban took over. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:13.440 Girls like these who escaped to northern Afghanistan when the Taliban take over, and now more than 12,000 have relocated to the DC metro area. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:17.519 And God's people are stepping up and serving them. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:26.240 And there's a lot of ways you can do that, but my task isn't to talk about that, not to talk about what you can do to help. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.720 The heart of this message is why we should care. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:36.080 And why we should do something for the refugee and the stranger. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.240 Deuteronomy 10 is all about God's heart. 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:43.840 But it continues in the ministry of Jesus. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.679 Think about Jesus who came as a Jew to the Jewish people. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:52.480 But then he would hang around with Samaritans and with Gentiles. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:56.240 He exercised a demon from a Gentile girl. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:01.679 When he fed the 4,000, it was in a Gentile region called the Decapolis. 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:13.120 And then later in Acts, Jesus tells his people that he wants them to take the gospel beyond Jerusalem to Samaria and to all the ends of the earth. 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:22.320 But before the gospel could go to all these other people and cultures, God had to shake Peter out of his comfort zone. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:39.279 Peter had to be told three times in a vision, because he was kind of hard-headed like me, three times Peter had to be told, yes, I really want you to go to a Gentile's house and go inside and eat his Gentile food. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:41.840 Because that's how he's going to hear the gospel. 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:56.799 But after Peter gets over his discomfort, the gospel spreads rapidly among the Gentiles until Gentile Christians outnumber the Jewish Christians who first received the gospel. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.639 That was Jesus' vision. 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.799 We see it in his final command to the apostles in Matthew 28. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.519 He said, Go make disciples of all ethne. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:13.360 That's the Greek word there, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:21.679 Ethne means a body of persons who are united by kinship, culture, and common traditions. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.159 This is the leadership development group. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.080 We were together with APC for the leadership retreat just a couple weeks ago. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:32.240 So these are the guys who are being trained to be leaders at one voice. 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:35.679 Jesus gave the mission, gave the church. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:40.480 We have a mission, and it's to share the gospel with all ethne. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:44.480 And sometimes we do that by going to them. 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:46.879 We send missionaries around the world. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:51.360 But God also relocates people from around the world right here. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:13:01.519 And we have the opportunity, the responsibility to love in word and deed the strangers among us. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:06.720 And this mission is going to come to fulfillment one day in heaven. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:13.679 One day in heaven, we will worship with people from every part of humanity. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:24.000 This is our praise team at One Voice Fellowship, band members who are from Ethiopia and Puerto Rico and Pakistan and China and Korea and Congo. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:42.799 And so it's a little taste of heaven, a little taste of Revelation 7, when all nations are going to worship together, crying out with one voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:44.799 So that's where we're headed. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:51.279 If you're going to heaven, that's how you will worship for eternity with all of humanity. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:58.399 But while we're on earth, language and culture tend to divide us. 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:00.000 They tend to separate us. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:07.039 We're all more naturally drawn to people who are like us because we value our comfort. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:10.399 I value my comfort and security. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:12.639 So that brings us to point two. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:14.639 Strangers are strange. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.879 We like to be in our comfort zone. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:32.960 So even after Peter went to Cornelius' house and learned that the Gentiles could receive the gospel, we find out in Galatians chapter 2 that Paul had to confront Peter to his face. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:39.519 Peter was once hanging out with the Gentiles, he was eating with them, which is this sign of fellowship. 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:45.039 He became comfortable with these strangers who became brothers. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:51.919 But then these guys from Jerusalem show up who were not on board yet with the whole Gentile thing. 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:57.120 And Peter suddenly stopped hanging out with his Gentile brothers. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:58.799 Why? 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.080 Because he cared about what people thought of him, he cared about his reputation. 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:12.480 And so he shunned his Christian brothers for his own selfish reasons. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:20.639 And that's why Paul says in Galatians 2.14, he says Peter's conduct was not in step with the gospel. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.200 It's the gospel that's at stake. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:38.399 Peter was struggling still to understand that, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, God arranged the parts in the body, each of them as he chose. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:52.720 Peter was struggling to understand that God was going to expand the church primarily through strangers, through people who did not share Peter's language and culture. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:16:04.159 And many of us are concerned today about the decline of Christian values and church attendance in the United States. 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:08.240 The church is actually growing if you look globally. 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:18.320 You see in this chart, 1910, 82% of the Christians in the world lived in North America, Europe, or Australia. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:20.159 So Caucasians. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:28.080 100 years later, only 39% of Christians in the world lived in those parts. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:34.080 Now 61% of Christians are in Africa, South America, Middle East, and Asia. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:38.480 And this same demographic shift is happening in the United States. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:45.519 In the next 25 years, they project that the population of the United States will grow 100 million people. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.039 So 25 years from now, 100 million more people. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:55.279 80 million of those will be first and second generation immigrants. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.679 80 million first and second generation immigrants in the next 25 years. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:00.799 Dr. 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:12.559 Tennant of Asbury Seminary says 86% of immigrants in North America are likely to either be Christians or become Christians. 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:19.519 The immigrant population actually presents the greatest hope for Christian renewal in North America. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:46.400 And people who work with unreached people groups say that someone who comes from a closed country, a country like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or even Japan, where Christians are just in very small numbers, someone is 20 times more likely to become a follower of Jesus here than in their home country. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:52.720 And so maybe God is bringing some people here so that they can meet Jesus. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:56.240 People like this man who is a Muslim convert. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:18:04.799 He was a refugee who was tortured and persecuted in his home country, and he was the first adult baptism convert at our church. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:07.759 Yeah, praise God. 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:29.759 I believe one reason God is bringing people from around the world is because many of them are already followers of Jesus, who we can learn from and be encouraged by, and many of them are coming because this is the place where they will hear the gospel. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:45.680 But I want you to know this: even if Afghans and other new neighbors don't become our brothers and sisters in Christ, we still have a responsibility to love them in word and deed, because they were made in the image of God. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:53.759 In Deuteronomy, Moses did not say, if the sojourner among you converts to Judaism, then you must help him. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:55.279 That's not what it said. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:04.079 But there's also a reason to help our new neighbors that is more for our benefit. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:08.160 We have so much to learn from our new neighbors. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:11.359 My brother DDA, um, in this picture in the red, right? 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:27.599 DDA and CFA are from Congo, and when DDA and Sifa moved into their new home about 10 years ago, DDA called me and he said, Pastor, before we sleep in our new home, would you come and pray a blessing over the house? 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:35.039 And I said, Well, I can come on Friday, and DDA said, okay, we'll stay with friends until you come pray a blessing. 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:40.640 And I thought, I'm gonna have to talk to DDA about this superstition of his. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:53.599 But before I ever talked to him about his superstitions, I noticed that night that I didn't want my children to eat dinner until we prayed a blessing over the food. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:20:02.079 And I thought, if we don't eat before we pray, maybe DDA's not superstitious. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:09.039 This is a man who was dragged out of his home by soldiers who intended to execute him. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:13.599 This is a man who understands that home is not necessarily a safe place. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:23.119 This is a wise man who taught me to not take for granted my security or safety in any context. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:34.640 And I was grateful to learn that lesson because then when a Pakistani brother at One Voice Fellowship got his first car and called me and said, Pastor, would you come pray a blessing over my car? 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:36.400 I said, sure. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.079 Because I had learned from DDA. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:21:00.720 Friends, we can all learn from our immigrant brothers and sisters because they have faced hardship and persecution and danger in ways that many of us have not and yet have learned to trust God's protecting hand every day. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:08.640 Professor Andrew Walls says this about the metaphor of the body that we find in Ephesians. 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:16.960 The Ephesian metaphors of the temple and of the body show each culture as necessary to the body. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:20.160 But each is incomplete in itself. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:24.880 Only in Christ does completion and fullness dwell. 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:29.920 Only together, friends, are we complete in Christ. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:38.640 Our brothers and sisters help us see God through different lenses. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:43.279 You ever wonder why there's four different gospels in your Bible? 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:45.839 I mean, Matthew's pretty long, pretty complete. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:47.440 Why do we need four? 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:54.880 Because each author had a little bit different perspective on the ministry and person of Jesus. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:59.839 They're all true, but they give us that same truth from different perspectives. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.160 Through different lenses. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:15.119 We need the different lenses and perspectives because in my own selfish way of seeing things, strangers seem like danger. 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.920 They're threatening rather than an opportunity. 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:23.839 But a citizen of God's kingdom derives his or her safety from another place. 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:29.279 Your safety and security come from the fact that you are a child of God. 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:35.759 And when that's the source of your security, you form different circles. 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:42.160 You don't necessarily wall yourself off from the difficult neighbor or coworker. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:45.680 That brings us to point three. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.599 You were a stranger. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:54.960 In our teenage years, we all try to figure out what tribe we belong to, right? 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:57.440 Am I a jock? 00:22:57.839 --> 00:22:59.359 Am I the straight A student? 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:00.559 Am I popular? 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.160 Am I the rebel? 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:04.240 Am I the band kid? 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:06.960 Am I the student government kid? 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:13.119 My family moved from Chicago to Buffalo in eighth grade, which is a terrible time to move. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.000 I did not know where I fit in. 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:22.160 I didn't, I was sure I didn't like who I was, and I didn't think others would find me likable. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:25.200 Um I I got a perm in eighth grade. 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:30.400 I got my hair, I thought maybe having curly hair would make me more attractive or something. 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:32.960 It's a bad idea. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:38.000 But I wanted to be welcomed by a tribe. 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:41.279 I wanted to be welcomed. 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:47.680 I want to ask you right now, can you think about a time in your life when you have been the outsider? 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:54.240 When have you been scared about what people would think? 00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:58.960 When have you felt unwanted? 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:07.599 I felt that way all through middle school and high school. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:12.640 In college, I found a tribe in a fraternity. 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:25.279 So I discarded the Catholic faith of my childhood, decided I was an atheist, and sought comfort for my empty soul in beer and women and pornography. 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:31.839 Where does your heart go when you feel unwanted? 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:34.319 When you feel like the stranger. 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:36.799 Where does your heart go? 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:49.200 Augustine said, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.359 We're all hungry to be welcomed. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:58.880 Jesus said, Come, you are welcome. 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:04.799 Come to me, because only I can give you the rest your heart is seeking. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.759 So have you abandoned every other false idol? 00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:15.519 Have you seen the emptiness and the lies of anything else that's promising you? 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:19.599 Comfort, joy, peace, a welcome? 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:30.240 The welcome of Jesus is freely offered to anyone who will churn from those false idols and walk into his loving arms. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.319 Look at verses 14 and 15 again with me. 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:42.160 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, the earth, and everything in it. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:48.640 And yet, or but this is great, this is grace. 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.920 Yet the Lord set his affection on your fathers and loved them. 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.640 And he chose you. 00:25:58.160 --> 00:25:59.599 He chose you. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:05.759 If you are a child of God, it is not because of anything you have done or could do. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:08.960 You were chosen. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:12.960 You were saved by grace alone. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:15.680 That's the only one anyone is saved. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:18.720 I remained an atheist for ten years. 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:21.759 I was a stranger because I wanted to be. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:25.680 But Jesus brought me in. 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:29.440 Jesus came out of the sheepfold to bring me in. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.680 And that's how Jesus builds the family of God. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:46.000 To Jesus, it doesn't matter if you're a hard-partying fraternity boy, if you're a Samaritan, a tax collector, or a Roman soldier, or a hard-headed hypocrite like Peter. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:27:11.200 Jesus says to everyone, if you will see the lies that your idols are telling you and believe that my death and resurrection can set you free from the addiction to self and the lies that the world offers you for security and comfort and peace, then my blood will cleanse your heart and I will make you a new creation. 00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:19.039 And then you will become one stone in this household of faith that I'm building. 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:26.640 A household of faith of many different kinds of stones that are built into one household. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.920 Listen to what Paul reminds the Gentile believers. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:32.400 These are the Gentiles he writes to. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:35.920 You were at that time separated from Christ. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.119 You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:41.599 You were strangers to the covenant. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:53.440 You had no hope without God in the world, but, there's a grace word again, but Christ Jesus came and preached peace to you, so you are no longer strangers. 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:59.279 You are fellow citizens, saints, members of the household. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:09.519 Friends, Jesus sought you when a stranger, wandering far from the fold of God. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:16.720 He to rescue you from danger interposed his precious blood. 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:18.559 That's the gospel. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:30.000 And the more we understand that the gospel brought us from being strangers into God's household by grace alone, the more we will love other strangers well. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:34.400 So point four, love as you have been loved. 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.519 Philozenia is one of my current favorite words. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:42.079 It's the opposite of xenophobia. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:45.519 Philozenia means love of strangers. 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:50.720 We find it twice in Scripture, Hebrews 13, 2 and Romans 12, 13. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:56.000 Paul says, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:01.200 So we often think of hospitality as having our best friends over for dinner. 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.119 That's not what Paul meant. 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:06.240 It's love of strangers. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.920 Next week is the Thanksgiving service for APC, right? 00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:21.200 Many years ago, at that same service, we were all praying and I was holding hands with a guy that used to be at APC. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:22.319 I'll call him Bill. 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:28.880 And after we finished praying, I asked Bill, you know, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:32.799 Common small talk question the Sunday before Thanksgiving. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:38.000 And Bill said, you know, I'll get some takeout, watch a movie. 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:47.359 Now, my hand was still kind of clammy and sweaty from holding Bill's hand. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:51.920 And Bill did not have very good hygiene. 00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:55.039 Bill was very socially awkward. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:00.319 Bill would not be my first choice for the Thanksgiving table. 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.039 He wouldn't be number 40 on my list. 00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:12.160 But when my brother said he was gonna get takeout and watch a movie on Thanksgiving, I said, no, Bill. 00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:14.319 You're gonna come to our house. 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:16.079 You're gonna be with us. 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:22.720 What else could you say to your brother or sister in Christ? 00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:26.160 Because we were strangers. 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.279 We are the ones who understand, right? 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:34.720 I hope you can remember what it feels like to be unwanted, unwelcome. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:44.079 But to practice philosynia, we have to see ourselves as strangers who have been brought in. 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:55.359 The good news of the gospel comes only to us through proactive, sacrificial love of Jesus. 00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:10.640 That kind of love motivated him to leave his safety and security in heaven, to come down into a world where he knew that he was going to be persecuted, beaten, tortured, and rejected. 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:14.240 And he was attracted to you. 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:17.839 He was drawn to you. 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:25.119 We who were once far off have been brought near by Christ alone. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.640 We who are strangers have been welcomed into a family. 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:39.440 And so at the heart of the gospel, we find an outward-looking, stranger-seeking kind of love. 00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:45.759 The gospel is about an outward-looking, stranger-seeking kind of love. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:49.119 That's how you were loved by Jesus. 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:56.240 And so, friends, who is the stranger around you? 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:04.240 Who's the person who's a little bit off on the margins around you? 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:12.480 When you take your children to practice, is there another parent who's always alone? 00:32:13.279 --> 00:32:15.279 No one seems to interact with? 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:19.839 You have a coworker who just seems discouraged? 00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:24.720 Who's kind of on the fringes, who nobody likes? 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:27.680 How about at school, children? 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:29.440 How about at school? 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:31.599 Who's the unpopular kid? 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:32.880 Maybe it's you. 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:33.920 It was me. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:38.400 But who's the one who's always sitting alone at lunch? 00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:39.599 Who's the reject? 00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:41.119 Who gets picked on? 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:52.160 What would the heart of Jesus have you do for the stranger and the unwelcome person around you? 00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:55.759 Them or the new immigrant, the refugee? 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:09.200 What I'm asking you to consider is what a proactive, stranger-seeking kind of love might look like in your life, in your family, and in our churches. 00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:18.160 Because God's word to all of us today is love the sojourner who is among you, because you were sojourners. 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:20.079 Can we pray together? 00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:25.920 Jesus, we thank you for your proactive love. 00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:36.319 You did not wait for us to clean ourselves up, to get our act together so that we could earn our way to heaven, because that's impossible. 00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:41.279 But you proactively moved into the world. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:54.000 You took on our sin and our death and our shame, and you have made us sons and daughters, children of the living God. 00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:02.799 May we never forget where we once were because of our own sin and where we have been brought by grace alone. 00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:09.760 And may we have the kind of hearts that welcome others as we have been welcomed by Christ. 00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:11.119 Pray in his name. 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:12.000 Amen.