"New Mercy" (Lamentations 1:1-6; 3:19-26)

            It was a Sunday morning.  Just as we have gathered here today, the folks at First Baptist Church came together.  You know what you expect on Sunday.  Maybe you’ll see friends you haven’t seen all week and church is a happy re-union.  Maybe you’re seeking truth and you hope church is where you’ll find it.  You hope church will be where you meet God.  Maybe you’re struggling and not sure what to do next.  You hope church might provide some hope, or at the very least, a friend to pray with you.  Sunday morning is so many things.  That’s true every Sunday at HillSong.

            It was just as true on November 5, 2017, at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX.  The people there came for the same reasons we come every Sunday.  Devin Patrick Kelly entered the building with an assault rifle.  He killed 26 people, the youngest 5 years old, the oldest 72.  Sunday morning would never be the same. 

            Questions arise from survivors and from people who hear the story and are horrified by it.  How could there be a God who would let this happen? There must not be a God.  Or this: if there is a God, He must not be good.  If God were good, he would prevent such an atrocity. Thus, there is no God; or, if there is a God, that God is not good and cannot be trusted.

              Elie Wiesel, the great 20^th century writer, was a teenager during the holocaust when, like so many European Jews, he was taken into a concentration camp by the Nazis.  He witnessed unspeakable horrors including the hanging of three prisoners, one, a young boy.  Watching it unfold, he heard another prisoner behind him say, “Where is God now?”  Deep inside himself, Wiesel heard this response.  “Where is God?  Here he is, hanging on the gallows.”  Elie Wiesel believed, in that moment, that God died.   He writes, “That night the soup tasted of corpses.”[i]

We have no right to judge worshipers at First Baptist of Sutherland Springs, TX if like Elie Wiesel, they decided that God is dead after the shooting.  The Biblical book of Lamentations allows no place for judgment.  People in great pain need mercy. 

We all need mercy.  Most people will never experience the sudden shock of a mass shooting or the unthinkable agony of genocide.  But every person is hit with loss and deep disappointment at some point in life.  Hurt and sorrow visit even calm communities, and sometimes people give up on God. 

The ancient Israelite who wrote Lamentations lived in inconsolable grief.  The Southern community of ancient Jews, Judah, which included Jerusalem and the great temple built by King Solomon, had been completely and finally defeated by the Babylonian Empire.  The Babylonians destroyed the city walls and razed the temple, leaving a pile of ash and rubble in its place.  They took the leading citizens, Jerusalem’s best, youngest, and brightest, into slavery, driving them to live in exile in Babylon.

The book of Lamentations comes out of that exile.  It is a collection of five poems.  Many Bible readers attribute authorship to Jeremiah, but the book itself does not claim any author.  This book is not from a single writer.  This book comes from a community; the chosen people of God.  

They knew it was their failure to live faithfully and abide by God’s laws that brought the exiles.  The Babylonians tried to crush Judah’s spirit.  Their house of worship was destroyed.  Their priests and royal officials were reduced to slavery.  The Babyonians tried to unmake Israel.  But the Jewish people knew it only happened because God allowed it. 

Rejecting God was not an option for the Jews.  There is no Hebrew word for atheism.  Conceiving of an existence apart from God was impossible.  They could only understand their plight in relation to who God is.

We can learn from this.   I don’t know how things are in your life right now.  Maybe you love your job, your relationships bring happiness, and everything besides the past 10 minutes of hearing a downer of a sermon is looking up.  Or, things in your life are neither bad nor good.  For you, right now, life is an unremarkable Tuesday; not bad, not great, it just kind of is.  Or, maybe, you can relate to stories of sorrow because that’s what you’re living.  I think that whether life is good, bad, or boring, we can only truly face if when we stay connected to God. 

“How lonely sits the city,” reads chapter 1, verse 1.  A God-focused life is relational.  Cities become lonely.  “She weeps bitterly in the night; … she has no one to comfort her” (1:2).  “The roads to Zion mourn” (1:6).  Majesty has departed.  Have you walked the weeping road, or lost so much that you feel unmade?  Lamentations ring heavy because sorrow weighs so much. 

If abandoning God is not an option, what does the suffering person do?  If we cannot cry out, either God is not God, or God is not good, then what can we say?  The only course is to bring all the emotion to God’s throne.  No matter how life is going, there’s nowhere else to turn.  Good, bad, or boring, we have to deal with God. 

The singer in Lamentations shows us one way to do this.  “See, O Lord, how distressed I am,” sings the poet in 1:20.  “My stomach turns; my heart is wrung within me.”  Complain!  Hand God all the frustration.  And the responsibility!  In chapter 2, the poet asserts that the calamity is from God.  “How the Lord in his anger has humiliated daughter Zion!  He has thrown down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; The Lord destroyed without mercy” (2:1a-c, 2a).  The book of Lamentations, woeful cries, ends uncertainly.  “Restore us to yourself; O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old – unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure” (5:21-22).  That’s the last word in the final poem.  Unless …

The singer doesn’t know how the story ends.  Yet, suffering as he is, unsure of resolution, he is certain of this.  He must deal with God. 

Pain destroys our perspective.  We can’t see the big picture.  Wrestling with relatively minor anxieties, in the midst of worrying, I forget to see the entirety of life.  We all do.  The poet, in the midst of his laments, discovered clarity.  Lamentations 3:21-22:  “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never end; they are new every morning.”  Speaking directly to God, he declares, “Great is your faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion.  I will hope in him.”

The poet sings these words in the middle of his suffering.  It would be as if a worshipper at First Baptist Sutherland Springs sang of hopeful faith on that afternoon, a few hours after the shooting.  Imagine someone in a concentration camp remembering this scripture in the middle of the horrors.  The Lamentations poet can only speak such hopeful faith out of memory and relationship. 

I have suggested that the God-focused life demands that we deal with God in all circumstances including of great sorrow.  We can only deal with God when we remember God and are in relationship with God.  Faith can only be hopeful faith when we remember that we know God and God knows us. 

God’s mercies are new every morning?  Mercy is given in the context of relationship.  Even if the giver is a stranger to the one receiving the gift of mercy, once the gift is given and received, they can never be strangers again.  The offender deserved to be punished.  The offended party deserved justice.   But, he says, no, I forgive.  I will put away the punishment and instead extend mercy.

That’s God when God puts away our sins.  Our sin brings death, but God says, no, I give life.  On the cross, Jesus took all the death on himself.  Through Jesus, God, gives life and presence.  Because of the cross, we know God identified with the Jews wallowing in Babylonian exile.  God stood beside his people in the concentration camp.  God embraced each worshiper that Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs.  God was there.  God takes the sorrow on Himself. 

God is here.  Because of the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus, the giver of new mercies knows what we’re going through.  Whatever you face, you don’t have to face it alone.  God is with us and loves us.  God has mercy for us, mercy that never fails.

So, when we come to the table to take the bread and drink the wine, we bring everything that is in our hearts; every regret; every disappointment; every shattered dream.  We bring it all to God who can takes our losses and gives new mercy.  He turns every death we die into new life.  Jesus said, take this bread and drink this cup “in remembrance of me.”  We remember that in Christ, God understands us and knows us.  And in Christ, we live in relationship with God.  Christ is the guarantee of the hopeful faith of Lamentations 3:22.  His mercy is new every morning, exactly what we need to face the day.  His mercy exceeds our pain. 

You are invited to pray as we sing, and then to come to the table. 

In the midst of a great, happy season of life, come for bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ. 

In a season of blahs and boredom and sameness, come!  Your ennui will not lull your faith to sleep.  God’s mercy will spark you to life. 

If you are in deep pain, God loves you and walks through the dark valley with you and never leaves your side. In your pain, come!  Yes, it is heavy, but drag yourself to the table of forgiveness, hope, and new life.  Don’t let sorrow turn God off.  Come to the source of new mercy.    

Everyone, come, to new life in Christ.

AMEN

---

[i][i] E. Wiesel (1960), Night, Bantam Books (New York), p.62.

"You are ..."

"You are ... "

In the movie "Overcomer," the main character is a high school runner who comes from a troubled family.   She has to overcome her tough background as well as asthma in order to succeed both in cross country meets and in the relationships in her life that are so broken.

At one point, her high school principal suggests that she read Ephesians.  She tells her she will discover who she is by reading Ephesians.  

After seeing the movie, I decided to read Ephesians to discover who I am.   Here's just a little bit of what I came up with:

I am loved  (2:4).

I am saved (2:5, 8).

I am created for good works (2:10).

I have been drawn close to God by the blood of Christ  (2:13).

I am a member of the household of God (2:19).

I am strengthened (3:16).

I am called (4:1)

That's just a taste, and that which is true of me is true of you too. 

Do you go through periods where you are really down on yourself?  I do.  I beat myself up pretty good.  Sometimes, I believe that voice in my head that tells me, “Rob, you’re a failure.  Rob, you’ll never do any better than mediocre.  Rob, you best days are way behind you.”  Those voices nip at my heels and I hear their sinister whispers and believe the lies.

Reading Ephesians, I rediscover who God says I am. God gets to be the authority, not those voices.  God gets to say who I am and who you are.

            Who will you believe, God, or those voices? You are a beloved child of God.   Read through Ephesians and rediscover who you are. 

"A Disciple named Tabitha" (Acts 9:36-43)

Sunday, September 29, 2019

            “Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha.”  Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, does not go out of his way to explain why a woman could be a disciple.  Yes, he knew that the 12 were all men.  But we know, because we’ve read his two works, Luke and Acts, that there were many women who followed Jesus with devotion and at great personal cost.  They were among the most crucial in his circle.  It was this way from the very beginning.  Luke offers no qualifiers or any word that minimizes what he’s said.  There was a disciple; a passionately devoted follower of Jesus.  Her name was Tabitha.

            Luke does tell us she was “devoted to acts of charity.”  When I started at HillSong, our mission statement was “we exist to make passionately devoted followers of Jesus.”  We understand devotion.  The word Luke used that is translated “charity” literally means “good works;” works that help people who need help.

            The picture comes into focus.  In Joppa, this disciple stood out for her care for people, especially the most needy of people.  She did not do it to be recognized and admired.  No one seeks glory by devoting their time to serving the poor.  No, Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, followed where Jesus led.  Jesus led her to poor widows, among the most vulnerable people in a society without any form of social welfare.  Once Jesus led her there, she loved with action, out of her own abilities. 

            Then, the story takes a drastic, unwelcome turn.  Dorcas the Jesus-following caregiver died.  The heartsick community so blessed by this disciple did what we’d expect them to do.  They washed her body and prepared her.  The women who followed Jesus intended to do the same thing with his body upon his death.  They went to the tomb with spices to clean him and bury him properly.  These women around Dorcas, the Jesus follower did the same – except, they knew the story.  They knew Jesus rose from the grave.  So, after the washed Dorcas, they didn’t bury her.  They laid her body in an upper room.

            Then they sent for the disciple, one of the 12, Peter, the miracle worker.  They knew Peter’s power came from the Holy Spirit.  These Joppa Christians had been in Jerusalem and seen the Spirit’s power themselves.  Or, if they weren’t present at Pentecost, they came to faith in Jesus through the preaching of some who were.  Either way, they knew Peter was connected to the Spirit of God.  And they knew whatever Peter did came not from himself but from the power of God.  So they sent for Peter.

            He was, Luke tells us, going here and there among the believers.  His agenda was whatever God set before him.  Oh, a disciple devoted to acts of love for the poor has died and the grieving community wants me to come?  Peter went.

            He was greeted by weeping widows.  The text says they showed Peter the tunics and clothes Dorcas made with her own hands.  The English doesn’t indicate as clearly as does the Greek: the women were wearing these clothes.  They reason they could be dressed in nice garments instead of filthy rags was Dorcas made the clothes herself.  They didn’t show the wardrobe to Peter.  They displayed it on their bodies thus giving witness to how much Dorcas had blessed their lives. 

            Having taken in the scene and absorbed the sorrow, he put the mourners outside.  Then Peter did what he had seen his Lord do.  He knelt by the body of the deceased woman and channeled the life-giving breath, the Holy Spirit of God.  “Tabitha, get up,” he said.  She opened her eyes and he helped her to her feet.  When he expelled the weeping widows from the room, it was not done out of insensitivity.  He had to do God’s work, just as Dorcas had done God’s work by caring for them, and they had done God’s work by calling him. 

            The final act in the drama is verse 42.  The raising of Dorcas, verse 42 says, became known throughout Joppa.  We tell stories from scripture to testify that the power of God saves us.  The church has been testifying in this way from day 1 of its existence.  As followers of Jesus, as his church, we are a story-telling, testifying people.

            In recent weeks, we have looked at the S.H.A.P.E acronym, originally found in Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life.  S= spiritual gifts; H = your heart’s passion (what really motivates you); A = is your abilities; P = personality; E = experience; it all comes together to describe each of us as disciples.  Furthermore, as we live into our shape and then out of our ministry shape, we serve God and love people and do so working out of our strengths. 

            Peter possessed spiritual gifts that are easy to see.  In Acts 2 – 5, he preaches with transforming power.  He exhibits leadership and clarity of vision.  Now, here in Acts 9, he demonstrates miracle-working in the most dramatic way, bringing someone back to life.  Spiritual gifts are very important.  We can see Peter’s easily.  Yet, Spiritual Gifts are just one facet of the S.H.A.P.E. picture. 

            Peter’s experience also comes into play.  He was willing to hang around the city Lydda, being present to the nascent church there.  He was then available when believers from Joppa called him.  We know Peter was married.  We don’t know if he had children.  We don’t know if his wife was back in Jerusalem or traveled with him.  Whatever happened in that aspect of his life, his experience made him available to God. 

            What excites me more than just Peter in this story is the way God speaks through Tabitha’s shape.  Tabitha, Dorcas, had a heart for God.  We become devoted to something when it grabs us.  That was Dorcas when it came to caring for the needy.  She was a disciple, active in the church.  When she met poor members, she didn’t need the pastor or anybody to tell her how to care for them.  She just knew and jumped in.  There’s some aspect of church life or ministry or community life that just comes naturally to you.  Susan Dunn and record-keeping and history is something that immediately comes to mind for me.  She just knows how to keep the minutes and keep track of the church’s story.  If I had a dime for every time I tapped into her institutional knowledge, I’d pay off our mortgage.  That’s one example of a passion matching a ministry need.  I could offer many other examples.  And that it certainly not Susan’s only passion.  Dorcas was passionate about helping the poor.  That’s the ‘H’ in her shape.

            We also see the ‘A’ displayed on the bodies of the women who loved her so much.  Can you sew and make your own clothes?  Some of you absolutely can.  You can identify with Dorcas better than me.  She used her ability to meet a very practical need for impoverished people. 

            The story of Dorcas is not important because she was raised by Peter’s miracle. She would go on to die again and, then, like all of us who are in Christ, be raised when Christ returns at the end of time.  The importance of this story is the way we are invited to retell it in the living of our lives. 

            Acting out of her heart’s passion, Dorcas offered what she had and God’s church was blessed.  What do you have to offer?  What is your ministry shape?  This summer on the youth mission trip, some of our teens were exceptionally outgoing.  They easily befriended kids from other groups.  Others in our group were shy and falling into isolation.  I am glad I was there to witness what happened.  The kids with the outgoing personalities almost literally dragged the shy kids into interactions with other students.  By the end of the week, those shy students sat at the center of the crowd, enjoying the ministry.  They got there because their fellow students loved them enough, acting out of their outgoing personalities to include them.

            Recently, we had families with teenagers visit and our youth group went out of their way to welcome these families.  One of our members commented to me, “I was so glad to see our youth go over and speak to those visitors.”  That’s an example of a young person leading the way by living out of his ministry shape, specifically his personality. 

So, what do you have to offer?  What are your spiritual gifts, your heart’s passions, abilities you’ve developed in your life, your personality, and your experience?  Put this all together.  It’s not for the sake of you or me brilliantly leading people to Christ and building up the kingdom.  It is God’s kingdom and God doesn’t need us.  We bring our ministry shape to God as an offering.  The story of Dorcas invites us to do what she did. We offer ourselves to God for God’s use in the kingdom.    In Philippians 2:17 Paul writes “Even if I am poured out as a drink offering … I rejoice.”  We offer our very selves to God to be poured or used as God sees fit.

One of the ways churches are critiqued is with this question: if the church disappeared would anyone notice?  If HillSong suddenly stopped existing as a church, would Chapel Hill notice?  I think so.  When Dorcas died, the people around her noticed.  Dorcas was caught up in serving God and people wept at her passing.  Our Chinese Pastor, Hong Zhou puts it this way.  When she’s trying to get people involved in ministry, she incredulously asks, “Don’t they realize this work of God is the most amazing thing they’ll ever be part of?” 

Do we see that?  Do we see that when we serve God, especially when we serve out of our shape, who we truly are, we will know the greatest joy that can be known?  They noticed when Dorcas was gone.  God worked through her.  She was passionate.  And lives changed.

Her story begins “A disciple whose name was Tabitha.” 

Now, it’s time for your story and mine.  What we’ve read in the Bible comes to life when we walk of here following Jesus, serving him out of our shape.  We are passionate.  God works through us and people are blessed.  And lives are changed as they turn to Jesus.

The opening lines of this story are “A disciple whose name was _________.”  

Your name fills in that blank .

AMEN

“All In” (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Sunday, September 22, 2019

            Who’s heard of Korey Cunningham?  Anyone?  How about Joe Thuney?  Ok, who’s heard of Tom Brady?  The Quarterback out of Michigan is widely considered the greatest player in the NFL at his position.  But if his left tackle, Thuney, his left guard, Cunningham, and the rest of the offensive line didn’t block, he would not have time to throw all those touchdown passes.  He needs his line’s protection.  He needs his receivers to catch the passes.  He needs his defense to stop the other team.  Brady may be who people know, but there are many essential roles on a football team.

            Take another example, the presidency of the United States.  Everyone around the world knows President Trump, President Barak Obama, President George W. Bush, and so on.  I’ve been reading the autobiography of Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State.  She gives an insider’s perspective of everything required to make things run in the executive branch of the U.S. government.  There’s one president, but how many people work in the executive branch? There’s the vice-president, 15 cabinets heads, and 4 million employees.  In order for the president to be successful, those unknown workers need to do their jobs well.

            In church we aren’t trying to perpetuate the New England Patriots’ dominance or cement Tom Brady’s place in the football Hall of Fame.  We aren’t trying to support the leader of the free world.  Our calling is much higher.  We’re here to glorify the one true God whom we know through Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.  We want to worship and exalt him, love one another in his name, and draw to Him all who do not know Him. 

            I keep saying “we” because we can only be God’s church when individuals comes together to form one body.  First Corinthians 12:12-26 is about the church – the church universal, all Christians everywhere; and, it is about the local church, our specific congregation.  We discover unity and show the world Christ when we celebrate our diversity as each of us brings our unique qualities together for one work, building one community, and giving testimony to the one God.  The church is diversity because Christ is diversity; the church is unified because Christ is one. 

            As verse 13 indicates, “all-in” means all people are welcomed into the body of Christ.  Jews or Greeks; ethnicity does not matter.  We could just as easily say, North Koreans or South Koreans; Jews or Arabs; black or white; Tar Heels, Wolfpack, Demon Deacons, or Blue Devils; well, in that last example, we might need to check some nicknames!  Verse 13 also says, “Slaves or free.”  In other words, just as unity transcends ethnic and racial backgrounds, it also transcends socio-economic classes.  In Christ, black and white, rich and poor, stand side-by-side as brothers and sisters.  The church will not be its full self until it is open to and full of people from all expressions of humanity.  All are invited to (1) repent of sin, (2) die to self, (3) receive forgiveness, and (4) begin new life in Christ.

            Once you are in church, in the body, it quickly becomes clear that all have an important role to play.  The left tackle is as important as the magazine-cover quarterback.  The government worker matters as much as the president.   In a church that has 4 or 5 services per weekend, with thousands attending each service, the pastor is recognized, maybe even famous.  Media outlets rush to interview him.  From a Biblical perspective, the front door greeter matters just as much.  No one will remember the usher’s name, but in God’s way of seeing he is just as valuable to the church.  In fact, verse 22 says, “The members that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor.”

            Everyone matters.  You matter because you are you.  Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback church authored The Purpose Driven Life an immensely popular book that talks about what it means to be a Christian.  I find chapters 30-32 to be the most helpful.  In that portion of his book, he says everyone has a ministry “shape.” 

            S = Spiritual Gifts

            H = Heart (your passion)

            A = Abilities

            P = Personality

            E = Experience

            Last week the sermon was about spiritual gifts.  You can listen to it on our website, get the text by reading my blog honesttalkwithgod, or email and I can send the manuscript to you. 

            The ‘H’ in the acronym is ‘heart.’  This is your passion, what truly motivates you.  Some believers are fired up about worship.  Others get excited when they are involved in justice ministries.  In our church are attendees who faithfully do the tutoring ministry on Saturdays and they love it.  What is your ministry passion? 

            The ‘A’ indicates your abilities.  Last year when we built a ramp for a family with a family member in a wheel chair, David Seng and Tom Ross both used their construction and carpentry abilities from their professional lives to lead on that project.  Next week, we’ll look at the story of Dorcas in Acts chapter 9.  We’ll pay attention to her heart’s passion and her abilities and the way God blessed others through her life. 

            The final two letters in the acronym are ‘P’ for your personality, and ‘E’ for you experiences.  In July we took the Growing Young congregational survey and in October we’re having everyone in the church take a spiritual gifts inventory.  We don’t want to wear church members out with questionnaires and surveys, so we won’t do this now.  But at some point it really would be helpful if everyone involved in our church took the Meyers-Briggs personality type indicator. 

            I used to hate personality tests, but now, I find it useful in understanding myself and in understanding those around me and how I relate to them.  The Meyers-Briggs assigns letter combinations based on how you answer the survey questions.  The last time I took it, I came out as an ENFP.  I’m slightly extroverted and more inclined to intuition than to sensory data.  I’m going to respond more to feelings than thought, and I pay more attention to how I perceive the world in the moment than to judgments that are made.  The fact that I am a P and not a J has really helped me understand why some leaders in the church find the way I plan to be frustrating. 

            This matrix that is unique to each person, as understood by the S.H.A.P.E. acronym, has the potential to make our church life vastly more enjoyable, efficient, and effective.  Take the final letter, ‘E.’  When I am talking to someone new in the church, if he’s into sports, I can draw on my experience playing college football, even though I only played on season.  It’s a point of contact.  I can draw on my experience in army basic training to relate to someone with a military background.  Last week we had a first time guest and I as heard his experiences, I realized one of our members had similar experiences.  I introduced them and within seconds they were talking like they had known each other for years.

            We all have Spiritual Gifts.  Every one of us has a passion, a heart for some aspect of God’s truth.  We all have abilities we’ve developed in our lives be it video gaming, cooking, or design.  Everyone has a personality and everyone has experiences.  You have a unique combination of these five that no one else has.  Paul’s metaphor in verse 21 is apropos.  The body needs ears, eyes, hands, and feet.  The church needs the outgoing greeter, the quiet servant working in the background, the devoted pray-er, the committed small-group attendee, and the on-stage personality.  Paul cannot be clearer.  Each and every one is a valuable member of this body.  “All-in” means use what you have to glorify God, lead others to Christ, and build the church.

            At the end of verse 24 we realize that when we’re part of the body, we’re not just doing our share, meeting our responsibility.  We also enter God’s joy.  God’s hand guides the diversity in the local church.  The second phrase in verse 24 says, “God had so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member.”  When we are humble and give our best, each one of is that inferior member honored by God. 

            All are included.  All are important.  All are honored.  In verse 25, we realize all in the church must be invested in faith and the work of the church.  God has arranged things “that there may be no dissention within the body” Paul writes in that verse.  We don’t come with our own agendas.  We don’t participate in church in order to assert our rights and have our voices heard.  Our mission is to follow Jesus, love others, and share hope.  In the final words of verse 25 we read that church members “care for one another.”  Disagreements are O.K.  When we have passionate, respectful debate over topics of great importance, we all get smarter and stronger.  As long as in the end, we agree to glorify God and build up Jesus’ church.  We welcome healthy disagreement but allow no place for dissention.  All-in means we believe God has a purpose for this church and we are committed to advancing the mission of this church.

            Finally, all-in means we are connected to each other.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, we rejoice together.”  That’s verse 26.  America has promoted individualism from our nation’s very beginnings and American churches are plagued by this individualistic mindset.  When we are in Christ, we belong to one another.  We are accountable to each other in love. 

            If we are all in, what exactly does the church look like?  Hopefully, we’ll find out.  I close by inviting you to consider Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 12.  Are you all-in with Jesus?  Are you all-in with the church universal?  Will you be all-in with HillSong Church, soon to be Hillside Church?  Serve God with joy, out of your gifting, strengths, and experiences, and enter into intimate relationships of trust with other church members.  If we have enough people committed to that, then we will be the church God wants us to be.  If we are the church God wants us to be, we will hear God say to us, “Well done, my faithful servants.  Come, enter the joy of your Master.”  That’s really what I long to hear from God.  How about you?

AMEN