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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Can We Be Too Inclusive?
Inclusion isn't just a theological concept—it's the radical reality of God's kingdom where everyone belongs because of Christ's finished work on the cross. We examine the stark contrast between exclusion and inclusion in Christian practice today.
• Inclusion means everyone belongs—not because of what they've done but because of what Christ has done
• Exclusion builds walls and puts guards at doors while inclusion throws doors wide open
• Jesus consistently sided with inclusion, sitting with tax collectors and touching lepers
• When criticized, it was always for including too many people, never for excluding anyone
• Jesus rebuked gatekeepers who shut people out of the kingdom
• The finished work on the cross makes exclusion theologically impossible
• Revelation 7:9 shows God's kingdom includes all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages
• Inclusion doesn't ignore sin—it announces sin has already been dealt with in Christ
• Traditional religion often contradicts Christ's message of radical welcome
• Inclusion reveals God's heart rather than lowering His standards
The message of inclusion invites us to live as though we truly believe what Christ accomplished. Let's make mistakes on the side of loving too much, welcoming too many, and forgiving too freely.
We have been talking for a long time on finished work on inclusion. There's a lot of people we're starting to see things on Facebook and I'm going to try to do this sitting down as much as I can. I may get up and start rolling or something, because it's hard to sit still, but some of these messages are starting to come together for specific reasons and I think sometimes I think I kind of got jumped ahead a little bit. Now I'm kind of slowing down and I'm backing up Because there's things that I see that I'm starting to see now that we really need to grab a hold of. We really need to understand you know what it means. For y'all that was here last week. I told y'all what I preached on last week was really focusing in on inclusion and a little bit about what it means and things like that, because we do have some people in the community who don't necessarily agree with the inclusion message and they've made comments that inclusion is not biblical and it's not of the Bible and all this kind of stuff. So one of the things I want to do this morning is we're going to break it down a little bit and I'm going to ask the question this morning that's on the screen. Can we be too inclusive? I want you to think about that a minute. Can we be too inclusive? I want you to think about that a minute. Can we be too inclusive? Again?
Speaker 1:We've talked about finished work and you know I could teach you a whole, probably an eight-week, sermon on this, or seven weeks, because the finished work is really broken up into seven different categories. That is considered finished on the cross. You cannot exhaust that. There's a lot of things that Jesus finished, but if you kind of break it down it kind of falls into seven different categories and we may teach on that one day. So the finished work is pretty much saying that what Jesus come and done on the cross and done on this earth is absolutely sufficient, it's done, it's complete, there's nothing else that needs to be done.
Speaker 1:When you move that over and start talking about inclusion and I call it inclusion theology, some people call it inclusion teaching what it means basically is inclusion means everybody belongs. Everyone belongs. That pretty much sums it up. It means that in Christ that no one was left out, no one was forgotten, no one was pushed aside and told they couldn't come because they weren't good enough. And some people worry and this seems to be the biggest controversy with it is some people worry that inclusion means ignoring truth or pretending that sin doesn't matter, and that's really the furthest from the truth. Inclusion is really founded and grounded in the finished work of Christ, and I kind of think about it like this If Jesus has already dealt with sin at the cross, now think about that. It says it in the Word. We could take you to Scripture after Scripture that shows you that If we believe that Jesus dealt with sin at the cross, that means sin doesn't disqualify people from being loved. Sin does not disqualify people from being welcomed and it doesn't disqualify people from being invited into the process of transformation.
Speaker 1:So I got thinking about a question last night and I just wanted to kind of pose it like this for those people that maybe might listen online as well what if I am wrong? What if I'm wrong? It's a good question. It's a legitimate question that can be asked. What if I'm mistaken about grace? What if my view of inclusion is too wide? What if what I've believed about God's mercy is bigger than it really is? Here's what I know If I'm wrong about what I'm teaching, then one day I'm going to stand before Jesus and here's what he's going to tell me you loved too many, you forgave too freely, you welcomed too openly and you showed too much grace. Can you imagine Jesus saying that to you? It ain gonna happen. He is not gonna say that. That's the focus of today's message. I don't believe that Jesus will ever tell me that I've been too inclusive. I don't believe it will ever happen.
Speaker 1:The problem is this I believe that the uh, most people never really take the time to think about what inclusion really means. They hear the word inclusion and they just naturally think that it means boom, this is the definition of it, this is what it means, without really diving into and saying okay, what does what are you really talking about? I've never had anybody come up from any of the churches and say when you're talking about inclusion or you're talking about finished work, what do you really mean? I've had them say something to other people about it's not biblical, it's not the gospel, it's from hell. It's not the gospel, it's from hell, all this kind of stuff. But I've never had them come up to me and ask me the question and give me an opportunity just to say you know, we're probably not far off on what we believe. We're probably just looking at it from a little bit different angle and if given the opportunity to do that, I think they would see that we're probably closer in what we believe than what they realize. So I don't think it's that.
Speaker 1:I think the problem is they just really don't take the time to think about what inclusion really means. They never really look at the difference between inclusion and exclusion. Okay, what most people attribute inclusion to when you hear that word is they automatically look at salvation. They automatically say, well, he's saying that everybody's saved. And they move from inclusion automatically to universalism. And boom, right there, that's where they want to shut you down at, because you know we don't want to believe in universalism. We cannot say that everybody's born saved and everybody. You know so and I don't agree with that. I would agree with them. No, I do not believe in universalism. As far as salvation, okay, but I also know that inclusion does not just talk about salvation alone. It includes so much more than that. And when we just attribute that definition to salvation, what happens is we send the wrong message and most people, when they hear the word inclusion, they are receiving a totally wrong message about it and rather than ask questions, they just go on what they feel like they already know and they say not biblical, you're not teaching the Bible, you're misleading people, all this kind of stuff. So I want us to take a minute this morning and take a detailed look Not a lot of detail, because we could spend days on this, but just take a little bit of a detailed look at what it is.
Speaker 1:Exclusion and inclusion. You've got to understand those two words. Either I include people or I exclude people. So basically, exclusion says that you don't belong here. It's looking at people saying, for whatever reason, because of your class, because of your race, because of your class, because of your race, because of your sin, because of whatever you do not belong. You're excluded. You don't measure up, you're not like us, you don't believe the same thing that we believe, so you're excluded. You've got to clean yourself up, you've got to get yourself right and then maybe we'll welcome you in. That's what exclusion is. It's saying you are not welcome here. You're not the same as us until you start thinking like us, until you conform to the way that we think. You're not like us. But inclusion says this you already belong, conform to the way that we think you're not like us. But inclusion says this you already belong.
Speaker 1:Inclusion says come as you are, you don't have to dress a certain way. Listen, if a Baptist want to leave the Baptist church and come over here and sit with us one morning, we're going to be okay with it. We're going to be okay if a Methodist comes in here. If a Catholic comes in, if an atheist comes in here, I'm going to be okay with it. We're going to be okay if a Methodist comes in here. If a Catholic comes in, if an atheist comes in here, I'm going to be okay with it. We're not going to exclude them and say you're not welcome because you do not initially believe like we believe. We're going to say come as you are. God chose you first. He chose you before the foundation of the world and transformation flows from that place. When I understand that he chose me to me, that is where transformation really begins at Okay. So exclusion puts folks behind a wall. It kind of builds walls up and puts them behind the wall and says you're not like us.
Speaker 1:Inclusion invites people to sit down at the table. Come eat with me, come sit down with me, come have a conversation with me, even if we disagree. You know it's okay to disagree with people. It's okay if you don't believe like I believe. Even you guys I say this all the time as long as you guys have been here I'm not dumb enough to think that you believe everything. I believe there's some things I may believe I probably haven't even said yet because I don't want to. You know you may look at it and say, oh, that's radical, I don't want to. You know you may look at it and say, oh, that's radical. I don't need you to believe everything I believe. I don't need to believe everything you believe. We can still come together even if we disagree on some things. We can come together with inclusion and include each other in the family in the kingdom of God and include each other in the family in the kingdom of God, even if we disagree on it.
Speaker 1:So exclusion what it does is it separates, it divides people and it kind of pushes people out and then it kind of sets a guard at the door. I think about the, you know, in the Garden of Eden, when they were pushed out. What did he do? He put an angel, he put a guard at the gate to make sure they couldn't get back in. I kind of look, that's the way I picture exclusion is pushing people out and then putting a guard at the door. And I think about that same thing. That Si was telling me that over in Morocco that they only have two American churches there in the city they live in, but he said they actually station police officers outside and the people who are Muslim or Islamic cannot go in to that church. They will arrest you if you go in there. So they have guards placed at the doors to make sure who gets in and who's allowed to go in. So I kind of think about that same thing with exclusion. We separate people, we push people out, and then it's sort of like we put a guard there to make sure that they're going to keep us separated.
Speaker 1:But what does inclusion do? Inclusion throws the door wide open. It just takes the door off the hinges and says whosoever will come, don't matter what you've been through, don't matter what your life has been like, don't matter what you might be going through right now in your life. You may not have it all together yet. You may not be perfect yet as the church wants you to be. You may still be struggling with some stuff, but it's okay.
Speaker 1:You're still included Because of what Jesus Christ done on the cross. You are included, and I believe that is the one thing that people miss. You're not included because of what you've done or because you've become perfect. You're included because of what Christ's done. That's what we miss inclusion at. That's where we get the definition of inclusion wrong is? It's not about what I've done or what I haven't done. It's not about my sin or my perfection. It's about what Christ Christ done on the cross.
Speaker 1:So here's the question when we look at Jesus in the Gospels exclusion, inclusion when we look at Jesus in the Gospels, which side do we see Him on? He's our model, he is our pattern. If we're going to try to live our life after the pattern of Christ, we have to ask ourselves this question where do we find Him at? Look at Luke 5 and 29 through 32. I've got a couple of verses here. I just want you to look at Luke 5 and 29 through 32. I've got a couple of verses here. I just want you to look at Luke 5, 29 and 32. It says Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house and there were a great number of tax collectors.
Speaker 1:Now you've got to go back and study in biblical history about the tax collectors. They were the worst of the worst, okay, but there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them and their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples. Think about it. They said why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? So he sits at the table with tax collectors and with sinners. He sat at the table with the people who were excluded In Mark 1, verse 40 and 41.
Speaker 1:Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him if you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and done what Touched Him Stretched out His hand and touched Him. Y'all know lepers were not supposed to be touched in that day. Right, he stretched out his hand and he touched him and said to him I am willing Be cleansed. He touched the untouchable leper, the one that was an outcast, the one that could not be around people, the one who was an outcast, the one that could not be around people, the one who was just isolated, the one who was rejected, the one who was excluded. Jesus said I'm going to include you. We ain't got to go to these verses, but just in John 4 he crosses ethnic and gender lines to speak with a Samaritan woman, which he was not supposed to, according to the people that day.
Speaker 1:In Luke 14 he tells stories about banquets where the outcasts are dragged from the highways and the byways and the alleys and all the bad places. He said bring them in, include them in what we're doing. From the highways and the byways and the alleys and all the bad places. He said bring them in, include them in what we're doing. So here's the other thing Every single time that you look in the Word and you see that Jesus is criticized, it's not because he's excluding people. He's criticized because he's including too many people. He's including the people that the religious people have excluded and because he's saying I don't care what y'all have said, they're welcome here. They automatically criticize him. The Pharisee says this man welcomes sinners and eats criticize them. The Pharisee says this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. And that's exactly what he did. He was proud to do that. I believe Jesus.
Speaker 1:When you talk about a rebel, I believe Jesus was a rebel and I'm saying that in a positive way. I believe Jesus was he, and I'm saying that in a positive way. I believe Jesus took pride and I do. I take pride in knocking down religious walls. I take pride in knocking down religion and things like that, not just because I want to cause a debate, but because I know it is not what Jesus called for. So I take pride in knocking down those kind of walls like that that do what, that separate people, and I believe Jesus was the same way back in His day.
Speaker 1:So if we're going to use Jesus as an example, let's look at a couple things that he never said, because we have to look at what he did. If we're going to follow Him, if he's going to be our pattern, then we have to look and say what did he do? But also let's look on the flip side of it and say let's look at the things that he never did or he never said. Jesus never rebuked someone for being too nice or too kind or too loving. He never warned His disciples be careful, you're loving too many people. He never said you forgave too quickly. Those are things you'll never find in Scripture. He never did that, but in Matthew 23 and 13,. I want you to see this verse. Look what he did do, look what he did say Matthew 23 and 13.
Speaker 1:But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. Will you neither go in yourself, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in? What does he tell them? He's rebuking the gatekeepers. He's rebuking them, saying you are keeping people from being included. They are trying to come in. I've invited them in. I've tore down every wall, I've knocked down every door and I've said come as you are and you folks are excluding them and he rebuked them.
Speaker 1:So when Jesus took a stand anywhere in the Bible, it was never, ever against inclusion, never. So when I see people today take a stand against inclusion, I have to question. I have to question what they know biblically and I have to question how much power they're trying to keep for themselves. Because I don't think that. I don't think we can exclude people and call it biblical. I don't think we can do that. We can't exclude people and tell them they're not good enough and say this is the gospel. The finished work actually makes exclusion impossible. Think about that a minute. The finished work of Christ actually makes exclusion impossible. At the cross, jesus stretched out His arms wide and he said it is finished. That's John 19.30.
Speaker 1:We've talked about that verse so many times. You ought to know it by heart now. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 and 19,. You ought to know this one by heart too that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing our sins, not holding our sins against us. See, we know these two verses so well. These two verses right here in John 19 and 30 and 2 Corinthians 5 and 19, are the foundation of what we teach. So if you don't learn two other verses this year, learn these two verses. Know these two verses. And I ain't saying just memorize them. I'm saying understand what they mean, understand what they're really saying. But we have talked about these verses so many times, so often. So, with these two verses in mind, think about this If God through Christ, as it says right there in that verse, if God through Christ has already reconciled the world to Himself, that verse says it.
Speaker 1:Now I'm just going to sit here and look at that verse right now and say either it told the truth or it lied to us, okay. But if that verse actually says what it says and means what it says, then he has already reconciled the world to himself, not counting our sins against us. If that's the case, then who are we, or anybody, against us? If that's the case, then who are we or anybody else, any other pastor, to stand in the way of what God has already done? Who are we to redraw boundaries that the cross has already erased? Who are we to come back and try to redefine the meaning and purpose of the cross? And that's what people's doing every day. We are redrawing the boundary.
Speaker 1:If God has already spoken the word of reconciliation, declaring peace with the world, then who are we to contradict Him? Who are we to say he's wrong? Who are we to say not you, not them, not here, you're not welcome when God has already said all of you are mine, all of you are mine. That one I heard strung out right now, he's mine. That one I heard still struggling with the alcohol, he's mine. The one that's having other issues right now, that don't even go to church, that don't even go to church. That don't even claim to know me, he is still mine.
Speaker 1:Who are we to argue with what God has already said, if God has already embraced humanity in Christ, pulling down every dividing wall and every barrier, then who are we to try to rebuild these walls? Pulling down every dividing wall and every barrier, then who are we to try to rebuild these walls? If he's already tore them down and he's saying there is no wall, there is no wall of separation, why do we keep trying to rebuild them To separate people? Who are we to shut doors that heaven has already flung wide open? We keep trying to do it every Sunday. From most pulpits. We're doing that every Sunday.
Speaker 1:If the finished work declares the world is reconciled, then to exclude people I want you to hear this than to exclude people. I want you to hear this If the finished work of Christ declares the world is reconciled, then to exclude people isn't just wrong, it's actually unbelief, because it means I'm not believing in what the word said. Now some people get mad about me saying that. Ask me if I care. Because it is. It's unbelief. You can't say I believe his word and then deny what he said. He said the world is reconciled and then you're going to sit there and say, well, maybe this part of the world, but not you. And not you and not you, because you've done too much, you've messed up. You've went too far. We can't do that. It's unbelief. Who are we to put limits on a mercy that God has made boundless, limitless. And as a church we come in and we try to put boundaries and walls up around a grace and a mercy that he says is limitless?
Speaker 1:Exclusion doesn't just disagree with inclusion, it's not just the opposite of it. It actually disagrees with the cross. Exclusion actually disagrees with the cross and what happened on the cross. Exclusion actually disagrees with the cross and what happened on the cross. So let's look back at the original question. What if I'm wrong? If I'm wrong, I would rather be wrong for including too many than excluding. If I'm wrong, I would rather be wrong for including too many than excluding. If I'm wrong, I would rather be on the side of loving too much than condemning too much.
Speaker 1:Revelation 7 and 9 is we don't have to go there, but you can write that down and study it out. But it's not just a vision, and I'll just summarize it real quick, but it's a vision of heaven. Okay, it's a vision of everybody being brought together in one place around the throne. But it's not just a vision of heaven, it's a vivid picture of God's kingdom in all its fullness. If the kingdom is already reconciled, already redeemed, already inclusive, then exclusion is a human invention. It's nothing to do. It's not a divine mandate. It's nothing to do with the Bible. It's nothing that God put in place. It's man to do. It's not a divine mandate. It's nothing to do with the Bible. It's nothing that God put in place. It's man-made. God said you're included. Man said no, you're not. Whose side are you going to stand on If Jesus' work is finished? He would never tell us we've been too inclusive. That would never happen, because inclusion reflects the reality of the kingdom that he accomplished. Where On the cross, it's already been done.
Speaker 1:The vision that was seen in Revelation 7 and 9 becomes not just a hope but a present call. Now think about this. Ronnie, can you go ahead and pull that up? I hate to not pull it up. I'm talking about it now, revelation 7 and 9. So when we look at this, in just a minute you're going to see something here. It's not just about hope, but a present call to live in the reality of the finished work. Look what it says.
Speaker 1:After these things, I look and behold a great multitude which no one could number. That's key, right there. That knocks out your 144,000. No one can number. Of all nations, tribes, peoples, tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes. Ooh, there's a question. Who wears white? Surely all these people can't be wearing white because they're not all clean. Are they With palm branches in their hands? We can stop right there because we can preach on that, for I can keep you here a little bit longer. But this is a picture right here, not just of heaven, but this is a picture of a kingdom. This is a picture of inclusion. You want to know where inclusion comes from Right here. This is people that are included, every nation, every tribe, every people, every tongue. I don't know how you could define inclusion any better than that. That's what it's talking about. So it's not just a hope, but it's a present call.
Speaker 1:Live in the reality of the finished work and extend the same radical welcome to everybody else. Somebody wants to call it radical, that's okay, I'll call it radical too everybody else. Somebody wants to call it radical. That's okay, I'll call it radical too. It is. It means I don't care what color you are, I don't care what you've been through, I don't care how much money you got in the bank. I don't care what your education level is, I don't care where you've come from. You're welcome, and some people would say that's a radical call. It's a radical welcome. So be it.
Speaker 1:Let's be radical, because I believe Jesus was radical. I believe people looked at him in his day and said this dude is just, he's different. He is just so different and I guess that's something I know for a fact. That is, that's something years ago, that God spoke to me Be different. Everything I do, I want to be different at it, not to stand out, not to say look at me, but I want to be different because I want to challenge people. I want to bring a message that causes people to think, to really think about things.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying I'm not trying to change theology. I'm trying to get you, some people, to think. If we can get you to think, let the Word of God, let the Holy Spirit, change your theology, because the Holy Spirit's going to have to lead you to the truth of what you believe. All I want to do is get you to think that maybe what you've always believed is truth may not be, maybe what you always called gospel. It maybe is not good news. What you always said was Jesus said this. The Bible said this. It may not good news. What you always said was Jesus said this. The Bible said this. It may not be there, it may just be tradition that we've turned into theology. That's not Bible, that's not Word.
Speaker 1:We can get into a whole other thing right here, talking about the Bible itself. The word is Jesus. Jesus is the word. I can mess a lot of people up and tell you the Bible is not the word of God. Jesus is. I won't go no further than that because people will misunderstand what I'm saying right there and we'll get into that later. But Jesus is the Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is the Word. We take this book and we try to turn it into the Word and we put it above the Word and we get ourselves in some bad situations by doing that.
Speaker 1:So understand this Jesus will never tell you that you've been too inclusive. I don't believe that. I don't believe he will ever say that. He will never say that you loved too much. He will never say that you forgave too freely. He will never say that you welcomed too many people in. But he might say this you shut the door when I opened it. You withheld love when I was trying to pour it out. You pushed people away that I chose in the very beginning. So if we're going to make a mistake, let it be this one. Let's love too much. Let's welcome too much, too many too often. Let's forgive too much. Let's welcome too much, too many too often. Let's forgive too freely, because the cross has already included every single one of us, and Jesus will never tell you you went too far.
Speaker 1:Inclusion is not lowering the standards of God. I want to say I added this in at the end because I want you to hear this Inclusion is not lowering the standards of God. It's revealing God's heart. It's revealing who the Father really is. It's not about ignoring sin, and that's the whole thing about it. That's why people turn against it. That's why people don't like it, because they say, oh that people over at the rock. They're just ignoring sin. They think you can just live however you want to live and do whatever you want to do. Listen, it is not ignoring sin. It's about announcing that sin's already been dealt with in Christ. It's the foundation of inclusion. That's again, the finished work. That's why these two, when I talk about them, I talk about them together. I say the finished work slash inclusion teaching, because inclusion cannot be understood outside of the finished work of Christ. You will misunderstand it every single time, you will put a wrong definition on it. Every single time you will make it into something that it was never meant to be if you don't understand the finished work of Christ. So it's not ignoring sin. It's not saying go out and do whatever you want to do, you're okay. It's actually announcing that sin has already been dealt with according to Christ. It's already been dealt with.
Speaker 1:Inclusion is what it looks like when the love of God refuses to stop at man-made rules and traditions. It keeps coming. It don't matter about the rule, it's going to bust it down and keep going. It don't matter what tradition is there, it's going to knock it down and keep going. The love of God refuses to stop because man tells it to. The love of God refuses to not welcome people and include people because tradition says it's not right. That's what inclusion is. It's not going to stop because man wants it to. So the question is not whether people are included. We already know what the Word says the cross has already answered that question. It's already talked about inclusion, so the only question left now is whether we're going to live like it or not. Are you going to live as somebody who understands inclusion and wants to include people, or are you going to live like somebody who's going to exclude? You can live with tradition and religion, or you can live with finished work and inclusion, and that's not. It's not taking these two and trying to pair them up against each other. There's good traditions out there, but tradition cannot become my theology. Tradition cannot take the place of Christ Religion.
Speaker 1:What do I mean when I talk about that? Because some people take offense to that. Religion simply means those rules and regulations that's put out there, that's man-made, nowhere in the Bible is simply made by man To do what? To control the people. That's it. That's what I mean by religion. I hate religion. I've confused so many people over the years because they'll say, yeah, you're a pastor, aren't you? I'll say, yeah, yeah, I hate religion. They're like what? You're a pastor, but I hate religion. I do not like man-made rules that puts people in a box and tells them you don't belong because you're not like us. I'm going to do everything I can to try to flip that thing upside down, don't matter who it makes mad, don't matter who don't like it. Listen, I'm not in a popularity contest because the fact is I would never win it. I'm not going to be the most popular pastor in Bacon County because we come with a message that's different and it does.
Speaker 1:It takes a little while to grab on to this and really understand it, to the point that you start seeing it and saying you know this actually makes sense. A lot of people will hear it and they'll say I like that. But then they go back to what they always believed. We've got to stay on it long enough to let it get on the inside of us and go back again to the Word and go back and say what's the context? What's Jesus saying?
Speaker 1:Listen, if what I'm preaching is contradicting Christ, it ain't the gospel. I don't care how many times I stand up and say it's the gospel. It's not Good news. This is good news. You're included. Your past is gone. Sin has been dealt with. He is not holding and imputing your sin against you. Salvation happened at the cross. Now you have to wake up to it. You have to receive it.
Speaker 1:There's the difference that some people are so ignorant that they won't ask enough questions to figure out. We're not saying everybody's saved, we're saying salvation happened at the cross because of what Christ done. And then every single one of you has to wake up to that fact, and there's some people that never will. But guess what? Don't change that. It don't change it. Just because I'm naive to something, just because I'm ignorant of something, does not make it untrue. It's still true. It's true of us. But what we're trying to do here is make it true to us so that we can walk it out, so that we can live a life worthy of the kingdom, so that we can live a life and be who God called us to be Include people, welcome people, love people and show them that it's finished, that it truly is and that they're included in the finished work. That it truly is and that they're included in the finished work. You can stand, I can't. You can't. Actually, I can too.
Speaker 1:We say this so often, but I want you guys to hear this Ask questions If you've got questions. You're not going to offend me or anybody else. You're really not Ask questions If you don't understand something, if you just need more detail on something, need more explaining on something? Ask, because we want you to get it, we want you to understand it. There's many times me and Ronnie are sitting and talking and we'll disagree on things. We'll disagree on, maybe, the way we're looking at it. That's okay. I mean, usually I look at them and say, dude, you're wrong, and we go from there. No, it's okay to disagree. It's okay to look at things from different angles. We all got different backgrounds. We all come from different places, different denominations, different upbringings. It's okay.
Speaker 1:This is not a court. I'm not here to try to make you believe everything I believe. I'm just trying to get you to think a little bit differently and come to an understanding of not what I say, but what's the Word say. What does the Word actually say? So if you have questions, if you have disagreements, hey, disagree with me. Because when you disagree, when you say and I've had somebody in here do that say I don't agree with that. And it pushed me to start studying it more Because I wanted to see okay, why do they disagree? What is it that they're seeing differently? And I started really diving into it more. So even your differences make a difference and it helps. So you're not going to offend me, you're not going to offend anybody in here Ask questions, get an understanding, because I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:We're in a time, right now, to where this message is going to go forth. People want this message. People's tired of religion, people's tired of tradition, people's tired of being cast. People's tired of tradition, people's tired of being cast out because of their past. People want to know they're included. They want to know their love. They want to know that, no matter what I've done, christ died for me, he loves me, he's forgiven me, he's redeemed me and sin is not being held against me. That's what they want. And we got that message and we're teaching that message. But we got to understand it so we can share it with more people. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:Father. God, we thank you. We thank you for your Word this morning. We thank you for what You're doing in this house, at this ministry, father. We thank you for the Rock Worship Center and what it means in this community. We don't see the extent of it yet, father, we don't see completely. I know your Word says we see in part, we understand in part, but, father, I thank you for what You're doing with this ministry and this community, even though we don't see the whole thing yet, we don't understand how it's going to play out. We don't understand how it's going to play out. We don't understand how that building is going to be built on that property out there, but I believe, with everything in me, it's going to happen. I know it's going to happen, father, because you've spoke this, you've showed it to me, I've seen it. So, father, we thank you for what you're doing. We thank you for the impact that we're going to have in this community. We thank you for the ones right now, father, even the people who disagree with us, the ones who don't understand the message that we're bringing, who don't understand what we're saying.
Speaker 1:Father, god, I pray right now that you open up doors. Let them know there's not a door that's closing them off right now, and if they ever want to discuss it, if they ever want to talk about it, that this door is always open. So, father, we just thank you for what You're doing in us and we'll just always be just turn to you in everything that we do. We'll always turn to you in everything that we say, father, everything that we do in this community. We're not going to do it just to say that we did it, but we're going to do it because it's going to impact the kingdom in a way that it needs to be impacted.
Speaker 1:Father, we want to change hearts, we want to change minds in this community, we want to love on people, we want to welcome people in this community and I pray, Father, I know there's people out there right now that are searching for exactly what we have, and I pray that you'll lead them to us. Whether it's seeing us on Facebook, whether it's seeing us on some other page, whether it's just riding around and seeing this building, father, I pray that You'll guide them to this location, that You'll lead them to us, father, so that we can begin to impact their lives. Father, we just thank you for everything. We'll be careful to always give you the praise, honor and the glory In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.