Summer In Rome | Romans 15:8-13

In this message from Romans 15: 8-13, Pastor Ben explores what it means for the church to embody the reconciliation it proclaims. Paul’s call to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you” challenges believers to move toward people whose backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences differ from their own, even when doing so feels difficult or uncomfortable. A reconciled life does more than communicate the gospel; it allows others to witness its transforming power.Ultimately, this message reminds them that reconciliation is not achieved through perfect performance, but through the grace, joy, peace, and hope found in Jesus.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to Downtown Community Church. We are so glad that you decided to listen today. At DCC, the mission is simple to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors. And one way that we get to live this out is by generously offering our resources, time, and gifts. Whether that means giving financially, serving with a ministry, or simply taking the next step and becoming more connected, every act of generosity helps DCC serve the church and the wider community. For anyone interested in serving with DCC, they can learn more at our website, downtowncommunitychurch.com. And to stay informed about upcoming opportunities and everything happening here, follow DCC Tally on Instagram or Downtown Community Church on Facebook. With this, the next church family meeting will take place on August 9th, immediately following service, with a back to school cookout beforehand. This will be an opportunity for the DCC family to gather and hear important updates about the church, so be sure to mark the date. Today's message is part of our summer series, Summer in Rome, and teaching from Romans 15, Pastor Ben Kempfer explores what it means for the church to embody the reconciliation it proclaims. Paul's call to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you challenges believers to move toward people whose backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences differ from their own, even when doing so feels difficult or uncomfortable. A reconciled life does more than communicate the gospel. It allows others to witness its transforming power. Ultimately, this message reminds listeners that reconciliation is not achieved through perfect performance. It grows from the grace, joy, peace, and hope found in Jesus. Now here is Pastor Ben Kemper with today's message.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Please stay standing for the reading of God's word. As it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again it says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him. And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Alright. There you go. Yeah, you can go up for that. Kidddos, you may be dismissed. We love you guys. Have a wonderful time back in kids' ministry. What's up, young fella? Hi. Hi, hi, hi. Bye, bye, bye. All right, church. Hey man, how are we feeling this morning? Everybody doing all right? Thank you for this section. Kind of sprawling out this way. You guys, we'll get there in a couple minutes. Um, my name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving as a lead pastor here at uh at DCC. Let's pray together. Uh that Jesus would speak to us this morning. Jesus, I pray and I ask that no matter where we are in terms of our relationship with you, our walk with you, our our thoughts, our desires, um, some of us, again, we walked in this morning and and we have been faithfully following and serving you for a long time. For some of us, God, it's it's uh we just have recently started to figure out and see what this life looks like lived after you, King Jesus. Um and I pray that that most of all, for those of us who are trying to figure this whole thing out, um, what is Jesus God, church, Bible, that you would just speak clearly to each one of us. Jesus, we know that when you were around, you connected, met with people from all over the spiritual map. And you changed their life as they saw you. No matter what their level of faith, no matter what their level of belief, when they encountered you, it changed their perspective. And so we pray that that would be true of us this morning, King Jesus. And it's in your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, so we are in um a Romans series. Romans uh is one of the more um phenomenal books, I think, in the Bible. It's um chapters 1 through 11 go through this really robust, complex theological framework that Paul, the apostle, is writing and creating. And I want to talk about where we are today just for a split second, because for the last two weeks we've been building this on this idea of welcoming others, welcoming the other, welcoming for them it was Jew and Gentile together to come together in this kind of new, beautiful, reconciled community and humanity. And in a second, what he's gonna do is zoom out. But we kind of have to really have a good sense of what is zooming out from. So it's almost like if you've ever um, if you've ever been with a kid on an airplane, um, for the first time last summer, we traveled with our, well, we traveled with our family. My wife had taken our kids on a plane, and I drove later to catch up to them. Um but the first time I've I traveled with, uh, and we all went to Boston together. And it was amazing. Uh we caught a couple of different airplanes on the way up, and my kids their entire life, they're now nine and eleven at the time they were eight and ten. And they had never really had that perspective before, right? Everything that you're doing at that age until you've been on an airplane, if you have been, and if you haven't been, and this is a perspective for you that you can imagine. Maybe you've seen in videos and things like that, but but all of life is lived on the grid of we're gonna go down Thomasville Road, right? And then you're gonna take a ride on Magnolia, and then you're gonna maybe go to Chick-fil-A, and which Chick-fil-A are we gonna go to, and and where's the game tonight, right? It's all on the the altitude for them of about maybe four and a half feet and under, right? That's their perspective. Now, what's undeniable is that perspective is real. That perspective is right, and that perspective is not false. And when you get up to about 30,000 feet, that perspective is almost unrecognizable. It's funny because as we were flying back in, we were trying to determine like where are we in town? Anybody know where the mall is? Anybody know what street that is? Can you is that Monroe? Is that Thomasville? You really just kind of, for me, I look down half the time and I'm like, man, all I see is a grid of humanity. I don't know if you ever tried to look. I tried to index if you're flying into a TLH, you try to maybe find um Dope Campbell Stadium in a golf course. You might have better geographical frames of reference, but for me that's it. Now, now, why do I say that? What Paul's gonna be about to do is make a really interesting jump. Because for the first 11 chapters, he was dealing with this church conflict. He was dealing with a conflict that you don't have to be along around churches for very long to know that this conflict is still, frankly, ubiquitous in church, which means it's everywhere, it transcends everything. It's almost in some ways the fabric. And it was, they were dealing with church conflict, segmentation, differentiation, differences of thought, differences of opinion, and especially for them, because they had this Jew Gentile kind of coming into this, and for them, and I don't want to go into all the details of it, but let's just say it was an incredibly tense think, think, both an ethnocentric, a cultural, and a religious issue all at the same time. So they were like, we don't like your nationality of people, we don't like your brand of God, and we don't like the things that you do in reflection of both of those things. And for a while, because of the tension between Jews and Gentiles, in fact, it had gotten so bad again in Rome that they had kicked all of the Jews out of Rome. Some Christians that were Gentile converts were still left around, and all of a sudden for about five years they were running things. Then the Jews come back in, and well, who does this? Well, who does that? Well, we've always had these functions, and now they're trying to figure out how do we get along? How do we get along? With mass differentiation and disagreement. And here was the biggest problem. They didn't have Second Baptist Church, Third United Methodist Church, or fourth non-denominational church that starts with the letter E. Somebody like that. That's an inside church joke in Tallahassee. Right? Like you just couldn't choose and pick up and say, okay, I'm gonna go somewhere else. Now think about this. Think about this. If you're gonna live out the gospel in your city, it has to be with this same set of people. And think about if all of us who believed in Jesus were all in the same kind of group together. Can you imagine? I mean, we literally create denominational separation so we don't have to walk that difficult tension a lot of times. And that's not anti-denomination. We do that same thing the non-denomination, it just it just is. They dealt with it just like we dealt with it. And what Paul has been pushing, what Paul has been pushing is if you see that Jesus has come, that Jesus was God, that that all of the prophets were pointing to this Messiah that was going to come, and he was gonna do what the entire system of the temple had done. All of those sacrifices to try to make us right with God, they really didn't make us right with God. They were just a foreshadowing, so we would have the framework. So when Jesus came, we would say, Oh, because there needs to be a sacrifice for my sin. Because I'm distant and far from God. And how Jesus, not because I was acceptable, not because I was good, not because I was right, but simply because he loved me, he gave himself to be the ultimate sacrifice that all the sacrifices in the Old Testament were pointing towards, there was going to be a need for. And when he did, he reconciled the craziest thing, which sounds normal to us because in 2026 you've heard this message a hundred times, a thousand times. But God all of a sudden reconciled humanity to divinity. And he says, and here is the outer working, here is the outer working, here is the display of when you have received that, when that has so transformed your life that your life is now a living sacrifice, that your mind is being renewed, that you're no longer conforming to the patterns of this world, but you're being transformed by the renewing of your mind. And you know what that radical renewal and transformation is? It's not that when you were stepping on a lego late at night and you didn't see it, you are such a morally superior person that you stepped on a lego and you didn't even cuss. Like the angels in heaven are like, Wow, did you see Bill? That was a real Lego. And he stepped on it in the corner with his little pinky toe, and it was awful, you know? And he just said, Dang it, wow, you know. Now, is that okay? Sure. But that's kind of not the point. He starts and he says, I want you to think about yourself. In fact, I want you to think about yourself less. I want you to think about yourself more appropriately in the in the things, the gifts that you have. Chapter 12. I want you to use those to build one another up. Not build yourself up. I want you to constantly look, constantly serve, constantly defer to the other person. In fact, when it comes to the things that are happening corporately in the state or just when it's to the terms of authority, I want you to empty yourselves and submit so far as you can and still having good conscience with God and loving other people. Because you can't change a group that you aren't willing to be a part of, minister to, love, to serve. And he continues. And he just pours it on. And he just got done in this whole section saying. I want you to not only see people with difference, then you can kind of in terms of where you are and how you see Jesus, brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, when you're with somebody else, and religiously, in terms of not what isn't is not sin, but in terms of we have a have a have a universal kind of view of what God's called us to. What I'm gonna do, what you're gonna do, is when we disagree, I'm actually not going to say I'm right. What it says in 14, chapter 14, is keep it to yourself. Instead, make space for the weaker person, the weaker brother, the weaker sister, which simply means the person who has not fully realized the manifestation of the imitation of Jesus. You understand Jesus in terms of salvation, sure. But there's places of imitation of Jesus where it falls short. And here's his point. Here's why I say all this. Can I tell you how low we set the bar in church regularly? We're like, hey, can y'all sign up to serve? Jesus is like, give your life. Make intentional space in the inner circles, in the places, be uncomfortable. You know that tension? I know it's difficult, but I want you to lean into it. Now, you have to know that because what he's about to do is zoom out. And I think the reason he's gonna zoom out is incredibly important. Because to us, we know conceptually that we ought to try that, we ought to oftentimes do that, but what I think he's he's zooming out to help us to see is there's actually much something much bigger at play here. Because here's what I'm convinced. Most of us don't find serving difficult. We don't find it too difficult, we don't find it too costly to sit with that tension. It's not that we find that thing to be too difficult. What we actually find is, man, this thing is just too insignificant. If you got your Bible again, you could go to the book of Romans, chapter 15. This is what he says. So again, verse 7, chapter 15, verse 7. This is where he came from comes from. He says, Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. He says, For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. Now, let me just pause. If you're reading your Bible, you're kind of new to reading your Bible, this is the part that can throw you off because he let me get in the light somewhere over here. There we go. We got a spotlight that's struggling right now. He pauses in the middle of this. And it's weird because he's like, okay, so here's what I want you to do. I know it's gonna be tough, I know it's gonna be difficult. But in the same way, in the same way that Jesus welcomed you, he would talk to the Jews and to the Gentiles. Jews, I know this is gonna be difficult for you because all the Gentiles, I mean, their theme song is Young, Wild, and Free, and they're trying to figure out how to how to put that under the umbrella of Jesus. You know. Gentiles know it's gonna be tough for you because if your you know, theme song is young, wild, and free, the theme song for the Jews is, you know, you know. Well, there's a couple of things. I call it, I call it the uh, well, I'll just call it the. I don't want to dog a denomination, but let's just say there's this song that I learned a long time ago. You know, Jesus loves all the children, all of the children of the world, red, yellow, black, and white, they're pressing the side. Some of us, it feels a little bit different. It's like you think Jesus loves some of the children, some of the children of the world, right? Red and yellow, he'll select only those who are elect. Shout out. Now, there is absolutely a sense of the sovereignty of God and the autonomy of man. And the point of that is not to say it's problematic in and of itself in its view of God. It becomes incredibly problematic because we could become incredibly narrow-focused. That these are the only people that God loves and the only people that I'm called to. We use that as an excuse to not love, to not serve, to not be missional, to not actually embrace, not actually encounter. And not holistically, because there's always variations and versions, but his point was for both of them, that's difficult. Right? It's difficult when you're sitting in both camps. It's difficult when you have Daryl coming over to dinner, and Daryl doesn't eat meat because it's violating his conscience. And so, what he does he do? He says, All right, let's remember Abraham. It's like, what? Why are you pulling out and saying, remember what Jesus did? Let's remember the patriarchs, let's remember this promise that was made. But he continues. In fact, he does a brilliant job as he continues. He says, For I tell you again, Christ became a servant of the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. In other words, he's saying there was a two-parter to this. That God was doing something both with the people of God, the Jewish people of the Old Testament, and he was doing something for the Gentiles. That they would receive mercy. As it is written. Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the people extol him. And the root of Jesse will come even. Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, and him will the Gentiles hope. Now, that progression might not seem terribly significant, but there's two big things I want us to pull out of this. The first one is what you see, he's pausing, he's saying, okay, God was doing something. That when Jesus came, in the nation of Israel, the Jewish folk initially thought it was just exclusively and specifically for them. The problem was, they would kind of just, again, push everybody away. And God's saying, okay, you know, Jewish folk, you guys gotta see, this was the plan of God the entire time to love, to serve, to save, to include, to show mercy to the Gentiles. So don't so don't push them away. Now, here's why that matters. Let me say this better. Did you know that every time we welcome somebody that makes it difficult, uncomfortable, in Christ, not in Christ, whoever it might be, when we welcome in with the love of Christ together, here's what he's saying: that you are participating in the reconciliation of God. You are participating in the reconciliation of what God is doing on this planet. In other words, did you know that you are painting part of the picture of what God is doing globally? You see, one little thing, one little act, one little part, one little component of service might not make that globally of a difference. But what he's saying is this is that God is actually on a purpose, on a mission. And to zoom out, what I want you to see, he's saying, is that is that this, this, I know what you're doing in the individual slices and pieces of church is difficult. I know it's tough, and I know that you're constantly going to ask, is it worth it? Is it significant enough? Does it actually matter? Ah, you know what we call that? Faith. Faith is not, and this is why I think that we get the idea of faith and belief mixed up. Faith is the act of trust in. Right? Faith is saying, God, this feels painful in the moment, but I'm going to trust you that it's worth it. I'm going to trust you that when I do this, when I, when I, when election season comes around and there's a Republican in my group and I'm a Democrat, or there's a Democrat in my group and I'm a Republican, and everything inside of me wants to not go back next week. When I come and there's someone from a different socioeconomic background or makeup, someone from a different place or space or country, when I when I go to a group and there's someone who just disagrees with me and we have we have a sense of I don't know, that makes me feel weird, that that there's a lot of tension in that. He says, when you decide not to see the differentiation and push them away, when you actually embrace them, here's the thing: you are doing what Christ has done for you. In fact, you are doing the reconciliatory work that Jesus has been doing on the macro level this entire time. You are living the message. What does it mean to live a life that's fully sacrificed? It's no longer I that live in He that lives in me. It's to participate and realize that God has called us to embody and to display this life of reconciliation. The church. Is supposed to model reconciliation. Just as much as it's supposed to preach reconciliation. For many of us in our world, the reason why preaching reconciliation doesn't really resonate. Because, I mean, come on, you know this. If you're in here and you don't know Jesus, or you're kind of trying to figure this whole God, church, Christianity thing out, this is your problem. You look at the church, you look at church folks. And you say, you only sacrifice when it's helpful to you. You only serve when you agree. You only embrace to settle differences. Not to live reconciled lives and light of differences. In other words, you see the church and you don't think it looks a whole lot like Jesus. Paul does another thing in this. He wants to prove this to the Jewish folks, I think. So interestingly, he when he pulls these four, he pulls them from four different places in a progressive sense. Here's what I mean by that. The first quote. If you know kind of the structure of Old Testament, there's there's the writings, there's kind of the history, right? There's the wisdom literature, then there's the prophets, kind of broadly categorically. First quote, he pulls both from 2 Samuel and Psalm 1849. Second quote from Deuteronomy. This is Moses. Third quote, Psalm chapter 117, pulling in from wisdom literature and saying, Here, here you got to see this. This was the writings, this was Deuteronomy, this was Samuel, this was Psalms, and in fact, not just that, the third one, the root of Jesse will come even he who arises to rule the Gentiles and him with the Gentiles' hope. In other words, he's saying, okay, and that's also from Isaiah. It's as if he's talking to a Jewish audience and saying, okay, you have to see this. This was not accidental. This was not accidental. This was the plan of God. And God was calling it from all the different corners of what they would call the Hebrew scriptures, what we would look to as the Old Testament. And not only that, but see the progression of how the people of God interface with the Gentile folk in, especially the Old Testament. Look at what he says again. Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles. He starts, I will praise you among. Right? So the people of God are worshiping God, and the Gentiles are among the people of God, experiencing the people of God, worshiping the people of God. How do we worship God by living a reconciled life? And again it says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. So the Gentiles move from a people in a group of people who are who are being worshipped amongst, right? So there's this person who's worshiping, I don't really know. Then all of a sudden they're with. They're more around it, they see it, they understand it, they experience it. They're kind of with why it's happening. Goes from among to with. And then verse 11, and praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. And let the peoples extol them. That's that's like rejoicing in praise, but it's like more than that. That was one of those words when I was looking up. I was like, man, why? Like every version I looked into said extol. I'm like, zero people I know have used the word extol in the last month. Bible, what do you mean when you say that? I don't say I was a little bit frustrated at first. I was like, just use normal language. And looking at that, I was like, oh, that actually makes sense, because that's not a normal word. It's like, okay, we have like things of good, things of praise, things of rejoice. It's like this goes beyond that. So what he's saying is the Gentiles are going to go from a place, right, where they've seen it, they've been proximal to it. And then they kind of go alongside and they accompany with it, and they get to a point where actually the Gentiles are now worshiping God. And what does that actually mean? Well, the final one, he has a progression in this the root of Jesse will come, and even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles will hope. In other words, as and this was the call of God on the people, especially in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, he's drawing a map and drawing a pattern. That when we lived reconciled lives, you gotta see that you've got to see this on the macro. It's easy as you're driving down the street, you're getting lost, there's a stop sign, where do we turn? What do we do? I don't know, is it worth it? He's saying you've got to see this from the macro. That this is what God has been doing in the inclusion of the Gentiles, number one. That this is the embodiment of the message, but it's also the means for the mission. That as the people are doing this, they're living with people, amongst people. The people start to walk alongside in a closer way. Then eventually, they themselves are praising God and put their hope in Jesus at the root of Jesse. Let's be honest. Isn't that a different version of evangelism than most of us have been taught? Most of us have been taught. You have an awkward, awkward conversation with someone you slightly know, where you present new information, specifically my testimony and the gospel. But they haven't seen a reconciled life. They haven't seen this become difficult for you. They haven't seen the times where you had to pray through this. They haven't looked at us and said, wait, why do you serve that person? Why do you constantly give up yourself? Wait, y'all are y'all believe very different things. Why are y'all having dinner together? Wait, I don't even believe what you believe. Why are you inviting me over for dinner? His challenge is to see the world and to serve. His challenge is to say we need to live out this ministry of reconciliation. And as we do, the moral authority of the church grows. And then when we talk, our words actually mean something. I had a list of ways that I thought, this is just different ways to kind of phrase the same thing. This is to look at areas and say, okay, now that we see this, that God has called us to embody this ministry of reconciliation. That on the Mac on the micro, when we're in the weeds of it, it looks difficult. There's so many challenges. And should I or shouldn't I in cost and benefit? But he says, I want you to see the global picture. That you're participating, you're creating this beautiful tapestry, this beautiful artwork, this beautiful picture of the gospel. Reconciled, living with people. So here's the question. Here's the question. Where have I decided that someone isn't worth the effort? Where have I decided that someone who was made in the image of God isn't worth the effort? What relationship have I quietly stopped investing in? What relationship have I quietly stopped investing in? What relationship have I known that God has called me to lean into, but it's just difficult, it's just uncomfortable, it's just tough. Where have I concluded? That faithfulness won't really change anything. Right? Because if it's not worth it, if the cost is not worth the benefit, if we don't see the express, this is not just what this requires, but this is actually what this produces, and if the squeeze isn't worth the juice? I love this one. This one, this is one of those where I could ask this every single day, and there would be answers to this question every single day. What act of obedience feels too small to matter? What act of obedience, you just it's just it's one of those things where it's like, again, it's just it's not that significant. What act of obedience and loving somebody else or serving somebody else? Where am I protecting my comfort instead of pursuing reconciliation? Who have I written off because the return of investment seems too low? And just in general. What sacrifice have I decided that isn't worth making? Now, there's two ways to interpret those questions. Some of us, when I said them, I mean there was individual things that we were thinking of. Some of us, you just heard that and talk collectively, oh gracious. There's a lot. Can I tell you this? The message of Jesus is not that God needs and requires your perfect performance in these areas. But here's the question Does this capture our heart? Right? It's not that we've done perfect in any or all of these areas. But it's simply to see the grace that that despite the fact that I have not done this perfectly, I have not loved perfectly, I have not served perfectly, God, you still make space for me, you still welcome me, you still love me, you still care about me. And that's the thing that gives me the hope. That's the thing that gives me the joy. That's the thing, is because the only reason that we do all of this is not because we're good people. It's not because we decided, man, I'm so strong, I'm so smart, I'm so wise, I'm so powerful. It's because I come to the overwhelming realization that that's what God has done for me. Therefore, that's the thing that I do because his spirit lives inside of me. And if that's who he is, that's his character, and I want to embody his character. And there's tons of ways that we fall short of that. And when you see yourself in this sermon, falling short inevitably, because we all do, because none of us loves perfectly. The point is not to beat yourself up, the point is to fall more in love with Jesus. The point is to be renewed, the point is to be restored, and the point is to say, God, would you transform me so that I naturally become the type of person who does this, that I see these cost benefits, and I say, Jesus, whatever you think, Jesus, whatever you want, because Jesus ultimately you're what this whole thing's for. That's why I think he ends it in verse 13 by saying this. He says, or in this kind of this section, he said, so may the God of hope, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing. He says, and so I want you to see this that in following God, man, it's this joyful, it's this peaceful thing that you're walking into, that you're living into. So that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. It's that internal place where you look and you say, okay, God, I see that what's happening right now is so easy to get lost in the micro, but God, on the macro, you are doing a reconciliation, and you are doing a reconciliatory work in our lives, in humanity. And you have asked me, you have called me to live out that expression. And when I do, I am both embodying the characteristic, and I am living into the mission. I am embodying the reconciliation that God has done for me. And when people see how I embody that reconciliation, they'll be more apt to hear, see, know. They will experience among, they will come alongside, eventually worship with, and put their hope in Jesus. Church, can I just tell you this? The greatest lie of the enemy is that on Tuesday, the thing that you do to serve somebody, that person that you invite in your home that's difficult on Wednesday, that group that you attend that's more difficult than other groups would be to attend because of the fact that it has more people different than you might be the most spiritually significant thing you do all week. The greatest lie from the enemy is that it doesn't matter. The greatest lie from the enemy is that it's an insignificant little dot that is not important. The person of great spirituality is not the missionary in the hills of Kenya. They are one of them. But they are not thee. The greatest person, the missionary, is not the person who's going afar, or the person who has left their life and moved to a different city or a different state or a different place, it's the people who regularly and consistently embody the reconciliation of Jesus through embracing one another. But it calls from a different perspective. Because if all we're doing is making these cost-benefit decisions, but he's saying, I'm calling you to obey not because of how much of a difference it makes, but because I've invited you to participate in my reconciliation, that you would experience reconciliation through this, your neighbor would experience reconciliation through this, and the world would see a picture of Jesus. Come on, can you imagine? Genuinely, in 2026, a church that actually did this. A church that says we are gonna radically embrace and love and serve. Sometimes that embracing and loving and serving is being and telling somebody the God's honest truth and looking them dead in the eye, and sometimes it's having the softest heart in the room. It's both. Can you imagine a church that actually did this? Man, I think it would change our city and our world. In fact, I think it would be this thing that Jesus talked about in Matthew 5 when he's talked about, you know, man, you've got a light, and you don't cover it. That's silly. But when we all do this collectively, makes this city on a hill that everybody sees, the world sees. That's who we want to be. And this is the type of thing it takes. But not because we're good. It's because we're so convinced that's what an amazing God did for us. Let's pray. Jesus, I ask and pray that you would make us this type of people. People who embrace, who love, who serve. Jesus, we know that it's easy for us to be a group of folks who, man, the honest reality of our heart is we decide obedience based on what feels like the benefit of the blessing. Does it seem useful? Will it matter? God, we know that serving isn't too difficult. The warm just roar just doesn't seem significant. We get up every day, set our alarm clocks, bend our lives around to work, going to work, sacrifice, because it's worth. We get paid for it. But Jesus, we know the ultimate, the ultimate place is not what we get, but that we have already received you, King Jesus. We have been reconciled to you through your blood, through your work. It's only by your blood, only by your death, only by the pain of the sacrifice of the cross that you brought us close to you. And God, though we do similar work, we will never endure what you endured. But but since your spirit is alive and dwelling inside of each person in here who calls you their Lord and calls you their savior, has given you their life, God, would you continue to do that? Would you continue to help us to see to lean into the difficult places, the messy places, the tough places, the places where there's not a clean and a clear answer, where we don't really know how to live with one another, but we embrace and we live reconciled. God, would people see that? Would the world see that? And when they not see how great we are, but see how great you are, the only reason we can do this is this is what you did for us, and your spirit is alive inside of us, giving us the strength, the power, the will to desire, not what is the best cost benefit, but to participate and to join you in what you're doing in this planet. Reconciling us to yourself and the world to you. Jesus, I pray that you give us a strong sense of lack of comfort.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

As you help us to be more like you, reconciling us to you, you to the world. A picture of the blood that was shed. And say your name we pray.