City Life Church San Diego
Welcome to the City Life Church Podcast, where faith meets action in the heart of Mt. Hope. We are a diverse family of God, united by Jesus, led by Scripture, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are committed to caring for both the spiritual and tangible needs of the lost and hurting. Through inspiring messages and practical lessons, we seek to equip and encourage you to live out God’s calling in everyday life. Join us as we grow in faith, serve our community, and share the hope of the Gospel with the world.
City Life Church San Diego
Romans 12:9-21 Conquering Evil with Good
When a Crip gang member and a Blood sit side by side in worship, when accountants and former drug dealers break bread together, when people of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and political views truly love one another – that's when the world sees something revolutionary. But how is this kind of authentic community possible in a world so divided?
The Roman church Paul addressed was fractured by language barriers, cultural differences, economic disparities, and historical conflicts. Jewish Christians had been exiled and recently allowed to return, finding their church dramatically changed. Sound familiar? Our modern churches face similar challenges as we attempt to love across dividing lines of politics, ethnicity, and class.
"Let love be without hypocrisy," Paul writes – a radical call to move beyond the fake smiles and surface-level interactions that have caused many to reject church altogether. This authentic love isn't something we can manufacture through willpower or good intentions. It requires supernatural intervention: "the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of the Father, and the power of the Spirit."
What sets christianity apart is its unflinching honesty about how difficult sacraficial love can be. When the neighbor smoking drugs outside your house curses at you, when someone from the food pantry lashes out despite your help – these are the real-world tests of Christian love. We're called not just to love those similar to us, but to "bless those who persecute you" and "live at peace with everyone" as far as it depends on us.
The most powerful testimony to the world isn't our political influence or moral superiority – it's our ability to create communities where reconciliation and true acceptance flourish across lines that divide the rest of society. Join us as we explore what it means to love authentically in a world desperate for genuine connection.
So for those of you who have been with us for recent sermons, maybe you remember the current situation of our letter. If you're new, it's okay. I'm going to recap just for a moment. Okay, so the way that we go through the Bible is we tend to do an entire book of the Bible. Why do we do that? Because I really want to preach the things I want to preach to you, and when we preach an entire book of the Bible, I'm forced to preach things that I don't want to preach, like loving my enemies when they get up under my skin. So here's the recap.
Speaker 1:The city of Rome had Jewish Christians and they had formerly pagan Christians trying to figure out how to be a church together. There were divisions over money. There were divisions over their background, over their country of origin and their historical faith. Some people were dark-skinned and some people were lighter. There were multiple I said skinded. That was sorry, yeah, okay. There were multiple languages spoken in this community and there was no Google Translate. You know, I put my sermons into Haitian Creole because I got Google Translate. Like maybe, you know, the Holy Spirit could just hook us up, but he might want us doing some work on there.
Speaker 1:But many immigrants were being oppressed by the Roman government at this period of time. The Jewish Christians and the Jewish people had been deported for several years by the emperor of Rome, claudius, and they had just been back, allowed in the country, when suddenly they're back in church. And you know what's crazy is everything changed, right? New leadership. You're going to be gone for a season. The church is going to change, isn't it Like if I went for like four years and came back, things would change. You know, like what happens in the Marvel series right now is like Thanos snaps his finger. People come back after five years. Things have changed. People moved into their houses. So this is kind of what's going on. So there's multiple languages, multiple backgrounds, fights are happening and they're still challenged to love each other. Circumstances had changed. There were new leaders in power. It was a new church and they're being told to love each other still, man, that's difficult, and you know what? I'm going to say this too. Even the neighbor who's doing some drugs right in front of my house, it's difficult for him to love me, you know, because I'm not kind enough, I'm not peace giving enough. I'm still working on it. We are challenged to love each other friends. It was only, though, by the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of the Father and the power of the Spirit, though, that we can even do anything, and it's only by that that is our first point that we can love each other honestly. It is only by the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of the Father and the power of the Spirit that we can love each other honestly.
Speaker 1:Verse nine says let love be without hypocrisy. Hmm, hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means acting, faking, wearing a mask. You know, early on in like 2019, our church used to advertise take off your mask, come to church and don't wear a mask. And you know, like, that was our thing, right, like, be yourself. And then, in 2020, there were a lot of other churches advertising the same thing, but they meant something totally different than us. But we were saying let your love for each other be without pretense. Let your love for each other be real. Don't just fake the funk. Feel it in your heart.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the reasons people don't love the church is because we often love with hypocrisy. Right, like we smile at you and then, a minute later, we talk about you. We smile at you and then, a minute later, it turns into a frown. Right. It's like when you take the picture of somebody and they smile real big and as soon as the picture turns off, it goes bad. That's what we do right, and it's all of us right. We all struggle in this. Churches on Sunday are more segregated than any workplace. They're more segregated than our communities. They're more segregated than our sports fandom. But to truly be together like this is love without hypocrisy. One of the reasons people don't love the church is because we are hypocrites. Right, we're actors. We love Democrats in one church and we hate Republicans Hypocrisy. We love Republicans in another church, but we hate Democrats Hypocrisy. We love rich people but make things harder for the poor in that church Hypocrisy, guys, when we only show love to the poor or we only show love to the rich, that is love with hypocrisy. But God has gifted us and called us to something better. Now we had our Easter egg this last weekend, right, and people who went to our Easter egg said they felt like the people were a family to them. Man, is that not the biggest compliment? Like when someone said your church people felt like they were family members. You showed love to so many different people. I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 1:Now here's what Paul continues to in verse 9. He says detest evil. Cling to what is good. Now, if you want to detest evil, always remember who the real enemy is. It's not people, okay. It's not humans. Our enemy is unseen. You cannot see our enemy, and one of his goals is to cause you to see people as the enemy. Our enemy is a deceiver. Our enemy is called the accuser of the siblings. It actually says brethren, but that sounds old school for me. If you ever hate evil in anyone, make sure it's the evil in us first. Right, he goes on Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that's the one we're gonna talk about. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence and zeal. Be fervent in the spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer. I want to talk about all of these. I won't be able to, but I will say our prayer night is April 7th. You could come here and pray with us. It's actually a beautiful thing, and I think that still us Christians are not persistent in prayer. Want to know how. I know this.
Speaker 1:At our Easter egg hunt, we were trying to set up those bounce houses. We were trying to set up the shaved ice machine and the popcorn machine, but they needed the generator, and so what happened is like there's like eight of us dudes out there, click, click, click, pull. Oh man, you're not strong enough. Click, click, click, pull. Oh man, you're not strong enough. Click, click, click, pull. Oh, I got this. And it was just all of us like trying to get that stupid thing. Did you guys see everyone working on that dumb generator? Oh man, you can't do it, you're not pulling hard enough. It didn't work. For like an hour we didn't have the generator work. And then this 10-year-old kid comes up to us. Did you guys pray about that? Yet First pull it worked. Is that crazy, though? Like be persistent in prayer. You've got like 20 church leaders surrounding a generator. I just don't know what the problem is. We can do this ourselves. I'm strong enough to pull this thing. We're not being persistent in prayer.
Speaker 1:So I tell you that as an admonition, or as an admission that we, as your leaders, sometimes aren't persistent in prayer enough. In verse 13, he says share with the saints in their needs. Pursue hospitality. Sounds like our pantry over there. Verse 13, he says share with the saints in their needs. Pursue hospitality Sounds like our pantry over there. Now we understand. The background of Rome was messy, right, like you know. It's messy too here, isn't it? It can get messy here, right Like this week.
Speaker 1:I was cussed out several times by someone that we were helping, by someone who was struggling, and at some point they said you know what, stop talking to me. And then they were yelling at me some more and I was like why are you yelling at me? And they're like I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to myself. But I will tell you, it's difficult when someone's cussing you out, isn't it To maintain peace, to maintain kindness? Because you know what I want to do. Sometimes it's like I'm helping you. I want to lash back at you. I'm trying to help you. Why are you so mean to me? But is that truly the godly way?
Speaker 1:Guys, it's not easy being a true church that seeks to love each other in times that are wrong. There are going to be people in this room that will suffer with addiction. Some of them are suffering from addiction right now. There are going to be people in this room to suffer from mental illness. There are going to be people in this room who are going to get depressed. And, guys, we are going to be people in this room who are going to get depressed. And guys, we are called to love each other in the midst of it, not lash out. It's not easy being a true church that seeks to love each other when things are hard. It's not easy being the church when everyone is different, everyone comes from a different background and everyone thinks that they know the right way.
Speaker 1:Now I want to read to you from a professor, dr Jarvis J Williams, as he recounts what it's like for him. He says this. He says as an African-American Christian, new Testament scholar with a multi-ethnic heritage, a multi-ethnic family and a multi-ethnic church, I am constantly in contexts where I am an ethnic minority within majority cultural, christian and non-Christian contexts. He sounds like a professor. As I seek to live in pursuit of multi-ethnic vision of the gospel, my reality can be and is exhausting. He goes on to say Spirit-empowered love moves ethnically diverse Christians to live sacrificially for one another, to consider each other to be more valuable than ourselves and to consider the best motives of one another.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, guys, that idea of considering the motives of the other person as good man, anybody who cuts me off in their car is only thinking about themselves. But you know what I think they're thinking about. I think they're thinking about me and I think they're coming to get me, and I think they just wanted to be a little bit faster than me because they don't like me, and that's that kind of thinking, but we do that in interpersonal relationships too. Yes, being a church like this can be tiring, but God has called us to truly, truly love each other. Verse 10 says love one another deeply as brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Guys, what does it look like to love a sibling, though? When I was young, you know what it meant to look. You know what it looked like to love my sister. It meant to fight. We had a shared room, right, and we actually had a piece of tape down the center of our room. Did anyone else have a room like this? Anyone, just me, okay. We had a piece of tape down the center of our room and every night, as my sister was going to bed, I would get out of my bed, sneak and just take all the trash in my room and put it on her side of the line. Now, that was really her trash. Is what I decided. It's not mine, guys.
Speaker 1:I am infamous as a brother. I am infamous because I threw a D battery at my sister, which she will never stop talking about. I threw a D battery and I hit her in the eye, gave her a black eye. I was a little kid and my parents didn't see fit to put me in Little a black eye. I was a little kid, um, and my parents didn't see fit to put me in little league right away. I don't know why, but but guys, uh, I, I also had what seemed to be like permanent fingernail marks in my arms and in my neck from my sister Um, which I know my wife she has those still. I can see those from her sister Um.
Speaker 1:But guys, as time went on, as time went on, as time went on, I truly grew to love my sister in many ways and we came to love each other in deep ways. You know, my sister, who does not not believe what I believe, will call me and say she's proud of me. I like to call my nephews and tell them I love them because I love my sister. I have a actually an alarm that goes off on my phone every Friday that says call your sister. Why? Because we've matured in what it means to love each other as siblings. We've matured over time. Now she'll still call me names rightfully but we love each other in a new way. So it's a special bond between siblings and I think that that bond can only come with time and maturity.
Speaker 1:So maybe you're new in the church and you're trying to live out what it means to be a sibling and you look more like me trying to throw my trash on the other side of the tape in the room. You look more like me throwing D batteries at people. But we're all maturing, aren't we? We're all maturing. It's a special bond. You are maturing because you belong to Jesus. God's Holy Spirit is doing things in your heart that you could never imagine and over time you will find yourself capable of a love for your fellow siblings, who maybe don't look like you, don't talk like you, don't come from the same background as you, but because of God's Spirit you may find yourself loving him in a new, profound way. Guys, when you have the Brimps and the Coasters and the Neighborhood Crips and the Lincoln Park Gang in the same room as Serenios and Nortenos, in the same room as Piru, with Market Street Gang and Canto Gang, when you have them all in one room and you also have accountants and maybe white cops and Asian cops and folks who engage in prostitution and drug use and drug dealing. When you have all those folks in the same room worshiping Jesus, loving each other well, that is biblical, brotherly love, that is kingdom living, and when someone sees that, it changes the world.
Speaker 1:Dr Tony Evans says, contrary to what our culture says, love is not primary of feeling. Love is an action Meeting the need of someone else, even at personal expense. He continues. Love is associated with emotion, but it starts with the decision to compassionately and righteously seek the well-being of others. When you come in here and your background is all from a different gang and you love someone from the opposite gangbeing of others, when you come in here and your background is all from a different gang and you love someone from the opposite gang, what does that tell the world? It tells the world that God is bigger than our divisions.
Speaker 1:2 Peter 1.3 shows us how we can love others even when it's difficult. He says this. He says his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and goodness. So basically, he's given us the power to do this. By these, he's given us great and precious promises so that through them, you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is the world because of evil desires. So you can get past some of the crazy hard stuff in your life because of the world because of evil desires. So you can get past some of the crazy hard stuff in your life because of him, because of his power. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness we say, you know like, try to live it out Godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Now I got to tell you some of you had terrible brothers, some of you had terrible sisters, terrible families. But I'm not even talking about the relationship I have with my sister. I'm talking about a bigger and better one. About the relationship I have with my sister, I'm talking about a bigger and better one. Okay, Brothers and sisters, when you see an ancient text telling us to love each other like siblings. It means something much bigger than me and my sister. We're not talking about Western siblings in the 21st century. We're talking about something many of you have never experienced. I never experienced this kind of thing. You have to understand how radical this idea is that Paul is trying to give us.
Speaker 1:Okay, I read this great book. I love this book. I'd love for us to all read it. It's by a scholar named Joseph Hellerman and he says this oh, the book was called when Church Was a Family.
Speaker 1:Now listen to Dr Hellerman talk about the cultural climate in the time of the early church. He says while marriage was important, the closest same generation family relationship was not the one between a husband and a wife. Can you believe that? It was the bond between siblings? Wow. So what is Paul talking about here? He's talking about a tight relationship, like.
Speaker 1:If you look back at these ancient documents and letters, you find a love between siblings in their letters that was bigger than the love between them and the person they were married to. Now that sounds crazy and it's not sexual or sensual. It's beautiful. And in the same way, god is now saying that's us now in this room, and you're like no way. God is now saying that's us now in this room and you're like no. Once again, in that other text it says you're empowered to do this. You don't have the ability to do this. Your pastors do not have the ability to do this. Nobody on earth has the ability to do this without God and his spirit. Guys, this is why God calls us to treat people as more important than ourselves.
Speaker 1:One of the ways we love each other is when we serve each other. If you are in a family, you can welcome others at your dinner table, people who may not have a dinner table to go to. I've heard many of you helping to babysit children in your city group so that mom and dad can have a date night out. That is a brotherly love. See, jesus delivered us from death. Now we can respond sacrificially and prayerfully by loving others. Now, some of you don't have a child, but you serve others by volunteering in our kids' ministry. Thank you. That is such a huge need. It's only increasing. Some of you don't have a lot to eat, but when you have extra, you bring it to the food pantry for others. I can't tell you what it means to have somebody on WIC that has a couple extra cans of something. That is the most generous act that I've seen. It's beautiful. Oh, we don't need this one can, so we're going to bring it. Dang it. That's amazing love for your neighbor. I'm proud of you that is treating your church members like siblings.
Speaker 1:Now, guys, you also may have a love for one service. Here you get to see everyone, even if you don't actually get to talk to everyone. You get to talk to like one or two people on Sunday. But here's the thing One day we may have to have two services and it will be a sacrifice on your behalf for the people who aren't here, and the people can't make it here as easily without us doing that. Guys, there is less of a need for volunteers when there's one service, but we can sacrificially move to two services if we have to, because we love those people, and we love those people who drive by our parking lot and say it's full, I'm not going, but you can set aside your preference so others might come to know Jesus, because Jesus delivered us from death. Now we can respond sacrificially and prayerfully by loving others. Guys, we need that room in the parking lot. If you've been coming for a long time, maybe you could walk a little bit further on Sundays so someone else feels there is room for them in the parking lot.
Speaker 1:I know that my family has made the decision that as often as we can, we're walking in from home. I'm not telling everybody. You got to do that. If you're like man, I can't make it to church because I can't walk, drive okay, like it's fine. But we're challenging you to set aside your preferences so someone else might get to know Jesus. Maybe we can show up a little earlier on Sundays or be willing to greet people so others can feel the love of God. Perhaps you can host a city group in your home so people can have one closer to where they live. Selfless love. Are you willing to have your house messed up a little so someone else can hear the word of God or feel welcome or feel like they're part of a family?
Speaker 1:Okay, so Paul continues in verse 12, rejoice in hope and be present in a patient in affliction. Excuse me, guys, we are people of hope. We are meant to be people of hope. When bad things happen to us, we have hope. Nobody ever said that bad things won't happen to Christians. Guys, this is us. How do we do this? See, your life is still going to be hard, things are still going to break. Weeds still grow in gardens I said weeds, okay. The world is still at war, there's still darkness and hatred. Floods and fires still destroy, marriage is still difficult, diseases still tear down immune system. Friendships and work are still difficult.
Speaker 1:So how do we have hope in the middle of all this? How do we show hope in the middle of this? Friends, you've been rescued from darkness and death. This is the beauty of the gospel. And the gospel is this In your pain, in your struggle, in your suffering, jesus made a way for you. Jesus made a way for me. He looked down upon us and said I'm going to save my kids, I'm going to make them my siblings. Actually is what he said. So Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life as a sacrifice for us, spilled his blood for us, was killed for us and then rose again on the third day, showing that he was bigger than sin and death. That's what we call the receipt. Right, he has receipts. I'm bigger. I conquered sin and death. Know how? I know Because I'm standing in front of you and he did that for you.
Speaker 1:But some of us are still trying to do it on their own. I got people that come up to me all the time. I'm a good person, I do this, I pray every morning, I do this, but do you belong to Jesus? If you belong to Jesus, it's not going to be about what you do to earn it. It is going to be what you do to respond to the fact that it was a free gift and that he died for you and that he loves you. Guys, it is beautiful, the gospel is free. You don't got to do anything to earn it, but you have to respond. And then what we do? The reason we love people, the reason we do things like this, is because we've been loved and we were kind of unlovable, let's be honest. We've been rescued from darkness and now we bring God's light wherever we go. Jesus delivered us from death. Now we can respond sacrificially and prayerfully by loving others. You dropped your phone. I thought someone was about to clap. I was like, yes, let's go.
Speaker 1:So, guys, when someone wants you to lose hope because of the things happening in our government whether last year with Biden or this year with Trump we don't have to despair, because our hope is not in what we see. Our hope is in Jesus and we are patient in affliction because of our hope in Jesus, the hope that is an anchor for our soul. Today and tomorrow may be awful in some ways. I'm not promising you anything about the things around you. I'm promising about what's in here. But we don't have to have our hope tied up in politicians. We don't have to have our hope tied up in pastors who can be skeezy. Right, our current situation is not based on our finances. You don't have to have your hope in your success or the success of your kids. If we belong to God's family, our hope is anchored in Jesus, even when we are attacked. Hebrews 6 says that our hope in Jesus is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. That's what we said earlier, right, and that's what our second point is.
Speaker 1:It is only by the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of the Father and the power of the Spirit that we can love our enemies well Verse 14,. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse Verse 17,. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone's eyes, if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not avenge yourself. Instead, leave room for God's wrath, because it is written vengeance belongs to me. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for in so doing, you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil. Do not be conquered by evil. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
Speaker 1:Now, before I want to move us any closer, I want to say something. You should never stay in a physically abusive or sexually abusive relationship. I want to say that out loud. Okay, if you are being abused, tell someone, and I'm going to move on from there. We had to get that out of the way. But it says to do things for your enemy. It says to help them. It says to seek peace with them. I didn't see anything here that says if your enemy is jerky, thou shalt ghost him. It doesn't say that. It says to seek reconciliation.
Speaker 1:We seek the love of our enemies and we seek to love the enemies, even the enemies who drive us insane. And when someone tries to get under your skin and they cannot, that drives them insane. If they can't make you mad and angry and mean like them, that will drive them nuts. They feel guilt and hopefully it's guilt that will lead them to Jesus and it will lead them to repentance. Now, in my research, I've learned that there was an ancient Egyptian practice that Paul would have surely known about, where a person who had wronged someone would actually show their sorrows by putting a pot with burning hot coals on top of their head to show that they were repentant of their actions. Wow See, it's okay to detest what is evil. It's okay to have boundaries. Friends, I'm not telling you not to have boundaries, but just make sure you don't give up on loving others because it's hard. The only way to love our enemies is by the forgiveness of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:I have found the most difficult and treacherous paths often have the most beauty and fruit when God redeems them for his glory. Easy or difficult are not the barometer of which is God's way Like. I just think God's leading me this way because it's easy. Well, I got news for you. Stop imagining. God's call for you is easy. Jesus says he is the narrow path. The devil offers the wide road, the easy way. Jesus gives up his rights to save others. The devil offers power. God calls us to hard things sometimes, and loving our enemies has to be one of the most difficult right. Can I get an amen on that one?
Speaker 1:And if you remember earlier in our text last week, all this stuff that God is calling us to do is not out of fear. It's not out of fear, it's in light of the mercy of God. When we belong to Jesus, we don't do things because God's going to punish us anymore. We do them in light of God's mercy. We are living, breathing sacrifices, and sometimes for God it means we're going to bleed and feel pain so someone else might be able to draw closer to God.
Speaker 1:See, when you have God's spirit in you and you seek to love others, the first step is understanding others, I think, empathizing with them. Why are they that way? Do you feel sorry for them? What would you have done in their situation? See, personally, people who smoke sherm and lovely outside my house get me going. But you know what I do when it gets cold outside, when I have extra soup, when they need a blanket. I'll tell you what I don't want to do. I don't want to share it with them, but God has called us to something more. People who come out of the food pantry and they're cussing me out a minute later. Man, it's so hard for me not to want to fight them. Sometimes I might start, but God is constantly working on this evil heart. If you're like me, you will try to please people. You will try to please everyone. You can't do that. You cannot please everyone. Just try your best. When some people treat you like an enemy, when some people don't buy the vision of this church, it's okay. You're a still beloved child of God.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to hear what Congolese pastor David Casale has to say. He says that Paul tells Christians to live in peace with everyone, because this does not depend on us. But believers should not be the ones responsible for any lack of peace in their communities or in their relationships with unbelievers. See, jesus delivered us from death. Now we can respond sacrificially and prayerfully by loving others, and it is only by the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of the Father and the power of the Spirit that we can point three. Humbly live at the bottom. I'm closing down, don't worry.
Speaker 1:Verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Now I want you to hear from Nepali's pastor, dr Ramesh Katri. He says Stoic philosophers of Paul's day taught people not to show any emotion, whether joy or sorrow. But Christians are to rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. Jesus shared in the joy of a wedding and wept at a friend's death. Mourn Jesus shared in the joy of the wedding. Oh, I just said it twice. Sorry, friends, we mourn.
Speaker 1:And then verse 16, it says live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud. Instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. See, in order to live in harmony with people, guys, we have to be willing to listen to those around us. We have to be okay, even being wrong. Remember what I told you about the most mature Christians that I know last week they are more and more aware of their own sin. They apologize more than immature believers. They repent more often and they always think they have something to learn from somebody else.
Speaker 1:Now we talk about harmony. What is the key to harmony in music? As a musician, it's not my voice. As a guitar player, it's not my fingers, although I got perfect guitar fingers Big old, long, creepy ones.
Speaker 1:The most important key to musical harmony is your ears. It's your ears. A person who sings off key doesn't sing off key because they got a bad voice. They have ears that cannot hear. They got a bad voice. They have ears that cannot hear. In the same way, we need to be people who listen. We need to be people who suffer with those who suffer, people who rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. You cannot harmonize if you are just a noisy instrument. You cannot harmonize if we think that it is only our voice that's important. We can't harmonize without listening. You have to know your own voice, but you also have to listen. In the same way, in the kingdom of God, we have to listen, we have to reach down low. We have to listen to those who suffer. We have to seek to understand those who hate us or disagree with us.
Speaker 1:Remember the sacrifice of Jesus. We had nothing to offer him. We were dead in our sins and yet he died for us. I got nothing to boast about. We were dead in our sins and yet he died for us. I got nothing to boast about there. I don't need to know the good things you've done, friends. I just need to know you belong to Jesus. All your awards and your trophies don't matter to God. He's done it all and it's because of that grace that we can respond with grace. For others. We may not think someone deserves grace, but God gave it to us when we didn't either.
Speaker 1:If you're ready to acknowledge your need for Jesus, perhaps today is your day to give your life to him, not because you're afraid of him, but because he has had grace on you. When we take the communion elements next, find me or one of our prayer helpers in the back and they will pray with you. Give your life to Jesus. Tell the world be baptized, then start loving the church, then the world be baptized, then start loving the church, then the world, and then your enemies City, life, church and guests. Jesus delivered us from death. Now we can respond sacrificially and prayerfully by loving others. The only way to love our enemies is by embracing the forgiveness of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. Won't you pray with me, father?
Speaker 1:We thank you that you forgave us and we know that sometimes we can not be humble about it. We know that sometimes we can say well, you forgave us, but we're all right. But God, if I recall, I can't think of a teacher or a girlfriend back then that really thought it was all right. I can't think of a family member that thought it was all right. I don't want to be humble, I just want to be humble. God, help us to remain humble. Help us to understand our sin and our need for you.
Speaker 1:Father, it is in the silence of this moment that we silently confess our sins to you. Father, we thank you for loving us with a love that is unselfish. We thank you for loving us with a love that is compassionate and welcoming and kind. And, god, we ask that you would make us by your Holy Spirit. The same way. We thank you for forgiving us of our sins. That as far as the east is from the west, so our sin is from your sight. That when you look upon us, you see the righteousness of your son, jesus. We don't take that lightly. We thank you and we love you and we pray this all in Jesus name, amen.