Insiders and Outsiders

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

I can remember being a kid before my mom remarried. It was just me and my mother and my older brother. And she would love to take us window shopping after work. So we would go, you know, we'd go to the best part of Lafayette, Louisiana, which was called the Oil Center. I don't know if that sounds like it's the best part of any town, but in Lafayette, Louisiana, it was upscale shopping. It was fine clothes, nice toys. So it'd be after work and after we ate, and so it'd be late. All these shops are closed. About, I don't know, the oil sun went dark about six or seven o'clock. And so we would just walk up and down the sidewalk at these, and look at these array of windows with beautiful arrangements. They were full of either clothes or shoes or my favorite, which is the toys. You know, man, I must have been 10. And so just being able to go up and down window shopping.

I didn't know it then, but my mom was likely dreaming of a better life. She knew that we could not afford most of what we saw. We grew up, I grew up poor, particularly after the divorce. But there was this simple joy that was there in shopping, just window shopping, just looking at things through glass, things that we could not have. Because when it came to high society, we were outsiders. We didn't have insiders' money. We didn't have insiders' connections. We didn't have insiders, really, anything. Just like window shopping, my mom and my brother and I, we were on the outside looking in for who the insiders were and who the outsiders were in society. Any given situation has insiders and outsiders. It's a fact of life. And sometimes that situation changes. Insiders and outsiders can change at the blink of an eye. So think about a group of teenage boys, right?

If those boys are playing a game of basketball, well then you're going to have insiders, those that are good at basketball, and then you're going to have outsiders, those that would rather play any other sport. So you're going to have insiders and outsiders, but then take that same group of boys and switch it to interacting with teenage girls. Well then you're gonna have some boys that are gonna be great and comfortable interacting with teenage girls and you're gonna have some boys that are outsiders. They are not good at interacting really with anybody. And so you see even with the same group of people, the insider-outsider dynamic can shift on a dime. It depends on what's happening. In religion, you also have insiders and outsiders. In religion, there is a way for someone to be a religious insider in that they take certain joy in following rules, in maintaining order.

And then there are irreligious outsiders who take a certain joy in self-expression or non-conformity, being an outsider, really. The reason we talk about religious insiders and irreligious outsiders is because there is a misconception that is widespread, particularly in Burleson, but I'm sure it's in a lot of other places, that many people believe that the gospel is tilted toward religious insiders or that Christianity is tilted toward religious insiders. That if you are a rule keeper, if you are a religious insider, if you like maintaining order, then your transition into Christianity is going to be easier. We believe, mistakenly, many people believe that the gospel is ultimately about following rules. That if I'm going to follow the Lord, if I'm going to be a Christian, then that means I need to follow certain rules all along the way and that if I don't do it, then I'm not

a true believer. This is nothing I'm just making up off the top of my head. These are conversations I have with people all the time, inside and outside church, that believe, truly believe that Christianity is about being a good person, or following certain rules. In fact, if you look in your Bibles at Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 11, and we're not going to be there today, so I don't mean to misdirect you, but, sorry, we're going to be in Romans 1 through 3 today, starting in Romans 1, 16. So if you want to mark your Bible, sorry, let's be fair. If you want to mark your Bibles, we're going to be in Romans 1:16. That's where we're going to be starting today. However, you don't really need to turn to Luke 15. You can if you want to check me, it's fine. If you look in your Bibles at Luke 15 verse 11, there's going to be a heading there, and that heading will say the parable of the prodigal

Son. That's right. The paracool of the prodigal? Son. Singular. Son. It's a very familiar story. In fact, most people inside-outside Christianity, most people know this story. They know this parable that Jesus told. It's two sons. The younger one, though, is way more famous than the older one. The younger one is the irreligious non-conformist. The younger one is the outsider who doesn't follow tradition, doesn't want to do what his dad wants him to do. In fact, he acts very foolishly and he realizes his error and he comes back. And it's this real big party and the dad kills the fattened calf, which was a huge thing to do. Killing the fattened, it's not like they had ten fattened calves like we do, you know, and they just kind of set one up for slaughter. That was a special thing. That was something that you could only do maybe once a decade, right? I mean, killing that fan cat for just some big feast was a huge deal.

However, that is not where the parable ends. The parable of the prodigal son continues with the second son, the older son. The older son is a religious rule keeper. The older son is the insider of the family. And the insider, the older son, acts just as sinfully as the younger brother. In fact, the parable ends without any resolution to his story. Because the older son, the reason he acts sinfully is that he is angry when his brother returns. And his first reaction is not to celebrate, it's not to go in and hug his brother, it's not to...he stays outside, he doesn't join the party. And it doesn't say it, but I imagine his arms are crossed, and then he's just thinking, this is not fair. This is not fair. In fact, what he says in the parable, it says, dad, I have never disobeyed you, which is probably not true. But the older son says, I've never disobeyed you,

and you didn't even give me a little goat to sacrifice for me and my friends. And the understanding is, You just gave this idiot brother of mine a fattened calf feast, and you wouldn't even allow me and my friends a little bit of fun here. Tim Keller in his book, The Prodigal God, which is where a lot of this, I owe these observations of the prodigal son to Tim Keller. He says this, he says, neither son, neither the older or the younger son, Neither son loved the father for himself. They were both using the father for their own self-centered ends, rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake." So you have the older brother who's the religious insider. You have the younger brother who's the irreligious outsider. Which of these two sons is more famous? The younger, by far, in fact, in your heading, in your Bibles, it says the pair of wool of the prodigal, son, singular.

The younger one. But both sons were prodigal. When we think of a sinner, when you and I, and everybody else in Burleson, when we think of who a sinner is, we think of outsiders. We think of non-conformists. We think of people that break rules, people that live selfishly. We equate being irreligious with being unchristian, even though they're not the same. And we do it on the opposite side too. we equate being religious with being a Christian. We do.

However, the gospel is not about being religious or keeping rules. Can I get an amen for that? That's right. That's right. Good. I'm glad. I was hoping I wouldn't get crickets on that. The gospel is not about being religious or keeping rules. The gospel actually breaks through, breaks past the insider, outsider divide, And it invites us into something deeper. It breaks through the inside or outside or divide, and it calls us into something deeper, and it does this in a very surprising way. And so today, what we're going to do, we are not going to do any kind of justice to Romans 1 through 3, but we will talk about Romans 1 through 3. We will fly over Romans 1 through 3 today, and it pains me to fly so quickly over it, but it's really helpful to understand the insider-outsider dynamic. And it's really helpful to see how the gospel breaks through both. Okay?

So again, we're going to be in Romans starting in verse 116, chapter 1, verse 16. In the Roman church, so this, the book of Romans is a letter written to the Roman church, in that church, there was a heavy insider-outsider dynamic. Okay? There were insiders and outsiders over Jewish heritage. Okay, so there were insiders and outsiders. You can see it in verse 16. It says, it says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Okay, that verse is enough. That verse can stop there, but the verse keeps going. It says, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, why would it say that? Well, it says that because inside the Roman church, there was a heavy, stark, well-worn line to divide people that had Jewish heritage and people that did not. The insiders here to Christianity in the Roman Church are the Jews.

Why? Well, the Jews, they had Jewish roots. Jesus was Jewish. All the disciples were Jewish. People that grew up in a Jewish culture had the Old Testament, which was early on that was the only Bible they had. The Jews, if you were a Jewish adult, you grew up hearing about the law, the prophets, all the signs pointed to Jesus. These were all embedded in Jewish culture so that they were insiders. When Jesus said, I'm going to come and I'm going to fulfill prophecy. Well, if you're a Jew, you already know what that prophecy is. You can go, oh, okay, I see where you're going. I got this. That's what Jews can do because they have all of that at their disposal. In fact, when you listen to a Jewish Christian today, give their testimony, and I've heard several, many of them will say, I grew up with all these traditions, but I didn't know what they pointed to. And then when I met Jesus, it all made sense.

You know where you don't hear that? You don't hear that from like an ex biker. Okay, the ex biker has no heritage to pull from. I mean, unless they're Jewish. But they're not saying, oh yeah, hey, all these bar fights and all this getting drunk and all this carousing, it all made sense after I've had Jesus. It doesn't work the same way. They're not insiders. In the Roman church, Jews were insiders. And the outsiders, and there's several names for the outsiders, but we're going to go with Gentiles. So in Romans 1:16, it has Greek, several places in Romans, it has the Greeks. But the idea is it's just non-Jews, okay? a Gentile vocab lesson. A Gentile in the Bible is a non-Jew. That's it. That's the only definition of a Gentile. So if you are not of Jewish heritage and you're here with us today, you are a Gentile. Congratulations. Now you know. Gentiles in the Roman church

though had no root in Christianity. Gentiles in the Roman church, They came from a culture that was 100% naturalistic. So music, art, folklore, everything that's centered around the natural world. In fact, their gods, Greek and Roman gods, reigned over different parts of the earth, right? So if they could see it, if they could, you know, if they could kind of understand it, like visibly look at it, then they were like, okay, then there's a jurisdiction, this God goes here. the whole culture was oriented toward the natural world. And so when it came to following Jesus, it seemed like the Jews were the insiders to Christianity, seemed like they had the deck stacked in their favor. And as we continue to read Romans chapter one, it looks like it confirms that suspicion. And so I'm going to again, I'm apologizing as I go, we're going to fly over verses 18 through 32. We're gonna read 18 through 32, but I'm gonna summarize it for time.

I would encourage you to read it on your own. When we read verses 18 through 32, it is going to feel like the Gentiles are targeted here. Okay? Now, remember, a lot of these first century churches, when they received a letter, so when the Roman church received the letter of Romans from Paul, it was read out loud. The whole church heard it at the same time, typically, because you dealt with a lot of illiteracy. So they would just read it out loud. And so as we kind of go through, I'm going to summarize it, and I'm going to use a lot of quotes from there, but verse 18 through 32, starting in 18, it says, there are people that suppress the truth in their rebellion to God. They suppress the truth because they're rebelling against God. Verse 24, God gave them up to impurity. So they figure they could do whatever they wanted to do with their sexuality. God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

So they rejected the created order of male and female. They switched those. And then verse 28, God gave them up to a debased mind so that things like malice and envy and haughtiness all made sense. Okay. So in the Roman church, as they're reading this, surely there were Jews that were Leaning over in the you know in the pew like they had pews I don't know they were definitely make it eye contact with as many Gentiles as they possibly could be like Let's talk it about you Because Gentiles were used to doing whatever they wanted with their sexuality their culture celebrated it Their culture had no regard for male female roles

Their culture was naturalistic remember survival of the fittest they prized getting ahead, so things like malice and envy and haughtiness were good. That's the culture that they came from. And so to just think, you know, whenever they came to Christ, that all that stuff just magically dissipated is an error. The Gentile Christians are going to come to Jesus and go, wait a second, you mean I can't do whatever I want with my body? Interesting. And although we don't have today, we do not have a Jew-Gentile divide like the Roman Church. We do still have outsiders in our church. We have outsiders in our culture. We have people that are irreligious, people that don't like tradition, that are non-conformist. And these verses in Romans describe their situation too. Because outsiders, no matter what they are, if you're Gentile, it doesn't matter your culture,

An outsider is going to rebel against God by rejecting his rules. Outsiders rebel by running out and trying everything. No limits, no discipline. Let's just go and see how it feels and report back later. They rebel against God's structure and order. They really rebel against any structure and order. And what it says in these verses is that God gives them over to those consequences. It would be like, you know, if one of my sons tried to start smoking cigarettes, right? My inclination would be not to ignore it or not to just wag my finger. My inclination would be, and I don't ever want to have to make good on this, so don't hold me to this, but it would be to give them as many cigarettes as possible in one sitting so that they're sick and they would never want to smoke again. Okay? Can I have an amen for that? I don't know if I'd do it. I mean, that's, you know, I don't want to get called on for that.

However, God is the Lord of the universe, right? And he can say, okay, look, you want to do that? You want to try that? You want to go? You want to just run with your hands out and not observe any limits? Go right on ahead. I'll give you over to that so that you can see what that's like. That's what God does with outsiders. And this is the younger brother mentality. This is, honestly, this is celebrity culture writ large. This is what moms today worry that their children will get sucked into. Okay? Can I have an amen, moms? Yes, indeed. This is, again, this is what we typically define as sinful. Not that it's not sinful, but this is what we define as, we limit the definition to this kind of sensual pleasure, this risky behavior. That's what we think of when we think of somebody who's sinful. We think of the younger brother, we think of outsiders. And what does an outsider say?

You know, like you, let's just say you're having a conversation with an outsider and you say, hey, you know, like you don't, essentially you're pointing out that they're an outsider. What they would say in their defense is that, hey, this is who I am. What you see is what you get. I'm being authentic. I'm being true to myself. It's my life, and you don't need to tell me how to run it. If you've ever uttered that statement, you are probably an outsider. It's my life and you can't tell me how to run it, or some version of that, you're probably an outsider.

Don't tell me how to live my life. Every single one of us, we are either naturally drawn to this way of thinking, or we are naturally repulsed by this way of thinking, okay? Everybody. And this right here, being outsiders and the Lord describing how he's going to hand them over to a debased mind and impurity. This is where a lot of people in Berlus and get it wrong, including us. We stop reading at Romans 1:32 and we say, look, look, see the gospel, people that are antagonistic to the gospel, they're going to point that and go, see, the gospel is just about following rules. God says, you broke my rules and now I'm going to hand you over to all those limits that you didn't obey. I'm going to hand you over to all those consequences. See, it's about following rules.

However, Romans does not stop at chapter 1, verse 32. Thank the Lord. Let's keep reading. We're going to summarize again, summarize the first five verses of chapter 2. So we're just going to keep right on going. And in the first five verses of chapter 2, this is where insiders seem to be targeted. Again, I'm summarizing for time. Verse one, that hypocrites will be condemned because they are doing the same thing that they're judging other people for. The reason they do this is because they believe that they will escape God's judgment. They believe they will escape God's judgment because they presume upon his kindness, not realizing it should lead them to repentance. Consequently, their hearts are hard and impenitent. It means they don't repent.

I imagine, again, I imagine the Roman church reading this out loud, right? And these portions are back to back. I imagine that the Gentiles, upon hearing these five verses, are leaning over, pointing that finger at the Jewish friends of theirs and going, that's you, buddy. That's you. Got you. The Jews, the Jewish culture, the Jews in the Roman church were likely to judge hypocritically. They were likely to believe that their heritage would excuse them from God's judgment. You feel me yet? The Jews were given all manner of kindness from God, but they presumed mistakenly that they deserved it. And when you live that way, you tend to become hard-hearted and impenitent because you think compassion and repentance is for other people. Okay. Again, let's take away the Jewish-Gentile divide. We still have insiders today. We have outsiders today and we have insiders today.

Now outsiders rebel against God by breaking his rules. rebel against God by assuming his role, right? They assume God's role. Just, I don't know if you're repenting or not David, but I'll hear it brother. Or if you're pointing the finger at somebody else, I can't tell, but I'll take it. What do insiders do? Well, insiders pass judgment on other people's sin, but they excuse their own. Insiders lose touch with God's kindness and forbearance. I'm not going to point anybody out, but some of you are nodding so hard, your head's about to fall off. Bless you. You believe it is for other people, right? You believe God's kindness and forbearance is for other people and that you don't really need it. And this is what we see this all the time. This is what outsiders accuse insiders of all the time, daily basis. I would bet money on it. They accuse insiders of being hypocritical, of living a double life,

of pretending to be spiritual, of being cold, of being uncompassionate. Have you ever talked to somebody who was burned by a church? What did they say? That church is full of hypocrites. The church is full of hypocrites. What I would assume is that that person is an outsider, and that church is full of a lot of insiders, right? Now, when you actually would confront an insider on this, and I would not recommend it, but if you were to confront an insider on being an insider, they would say in their defense, hey, I'm maintaining order here. I'm keeping the peace, buddy. You want me on that wall? You need me on that wall. That's exactly what an insider would say in defense. You don't wanna do all the hard stuff. it's going to take to maintain everything going, but I will. I'm the one sacrificing for all of this stuff. I'm the one making sure that everybody else is okay.

So on one side, you have outsiders, worldly, slave to their appetite, no limits, no discipline. On the other side, you have insiders, hypocritical, two-faced, cold-hearted judgment. And here's the ironic thing. Both sides are totally smug, totally smug. Because all they have to do to feel better about themselves is point the finger. They say, well, at least I'm not cold-hearted and judgmental. Oh, at least I'm reliable. At least people can trust me. So you have this huge divide. And if you've ever been in the presence of outsiders and insiders pointing fingers at one another, another. Then it can seem like it's this layered complication mess, no way out. So how does Romans then address this kind of divide? How does Romans do that? How does Paul do that in the book of Romans? This is where Romans 3 comes in. And we're going to start with verse 9. It says, Romans 3 verse 9,

what then are we Jews any better off? So Paul is a Jew, right? So it's another mark on the board for Jews. They've got Paul too. What then are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, Gentiles, are under sin. So in Romans 3, what it does is it helps everybody understand that everybody's a sinner. And this is reiterated in verse 20. Romans 3, 20 says, for by works of the law, No human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So,

if insiders lack justification because following rules doesn't work, and then outsiders lack justification because being true to yourself doesn't work or being authentic doesn't work, right? Then nobody gets justification. No one is righteous. Everybody's a sinner. This is the bad news that we really should understand. If upon reading scripture, if upon hearing the gospel and understanding what is true, if you think, oh man, I'm really glad the gospel is there for other people, then friend, you have missed the gospel. The gospel is first bad news.

It's bad news before it's good news. Everyone is condemned. It doesn't matter how good you are. It doesn't matter how authentic you are. It doesn't matter how much you care for people. It doesn't matter how much nonprofit service you've done. It doesn't matter. You can stack up whatever kind of resume you want, and it will not give you righteousness before God. God will not look at you and go, nah, I'm not really gonna do it. They're fine. I'll let them do whatever. No, that won't work. No one is righteous. And this is the bad news we have to understand. So if the gospel is Christianity is bad news for insiders and it's bad news for outsiders, then who in the world is it good news for? If it's bad news for both, then who's it good news for? The gospel is good news for the broken. The gospel is good news for the broken. Jesus in Luke 5 said, I'm not the doctor for people who deny their sickness.

I'm the doctor. to heal those who see their sickness. The gospel is good news for the broken. And if you aren't broken, it's not good news, because you're about to get broken. It's good news for the broken. And the gospel, righteousness comes not by keeping rules, not by authenticity or being true to yourself or being better than other people. It comes when God offers true righteousness through faith. And we see this in verses 21 and 22, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested or made available apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there's no distinction. True righteousness, truly being at peace, truly, truly having an open and honest relationship before the Lord and being right, being made right. This is what insiders are looking for by following rules.

This is what outsiders are looking for by being true to themselves. But Romans 3 says, resoundingly, you cannot find this on your own. It must be given to you. Insiders and outsiders alike only receive righteousness, only through faith. Romans 3, 23 through 24 beats this home for us. It says, for all of sin and for all short of the glory of God, We just covered that. And are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption as in Christ Jesus. This is, in summary, these two verses right here, this is the message that we call the gospel. This is the good news. This is good news for those that aren't convinced that they need to try it on their own. And no matter how you come to God, if you come to God as an insider, if you come to God as an outsider, if you're religious or irreligious, What the gospel always does is it always knocks you off your feet, and at the same time, it touches your deepest need.

The gospel knocks you off your feet, cuts you off at the knees. You have no way to support yourself, no justification, no excuses for your behavior, nothing. And at the same time, the exact same time, it touches your deepest need. You are rejected and accepted, all in the same swoop. It challenges your thinking but invites you to joy. How? How does the gospel do this? Well, the gospel does this in a specific way for outsiders and in a specific way for insiders. Let's look at that really quickly. Because we have religious insiders and we have irreligious outsiders. So we'll do outsiders first. Irreligious outsiders, how does the gospel challenge irreligious outsiders? Well, it challenges them because it doesn't break the law. The gospel doesn't break the law. The gospel actually upholds the law. There is a standard there that is not abolished, and behavior is still being condemned.

I mean, you read Romans 1, 18-32, behavior is still condemned. There is still truth that we are going to be held to, that we are either going to accept or suppress. And being true to yourself, being authentic, it's a farce. It doesn't hold up. You actually shouldn't tell people, hey, as long as you're being true to yourself, as long as you're explaining your truth, then you should be good. Because that falls apart when you begin to acknowledge evil. For example, nobody says, hey, Hitler was just being his true self. Even an outsider would say, no, no, no, that guy's a monster. That guy's evil. Oh, so you're telling me you have standards. Not everybody is just about self-expression, right? No, self-expression is not the end of the story, right? And what the gospel does, it just punches that in the face. Who you are, your true self, it's not good enough. And for an outsider, that's soul crushing.

It's hard to hear. But then at the same time, like I said, same time it invites. How does the gospel invite an outsider? Well, the gospel, and just outsiders love this, It stands against pretentious behavior. It weeds out, the gospel does, people who are pretending to be spiritual. It says, look, look, look, you can obey whatever religious law you want to obey, but the Lord looks at the heart. And that is wildly attractive. There is an invitation within the gospel to a candid vulnerability, to a soul-varying transparency that the Lord looks on and rewards. The Lord rewards that. And to an outsider, that's heaven. That is wildly attractive to an irreligious outsider. To say, look, you can be honest with everything that's going on in your life. Outsider's hands are going up. Yes, sign me up for that right now. Oh, but you got standards. Dang. Thought this was gonna be easy.

Outsiders do not come to the gospel easily, but neither do insiders. How does the gospel challenge and invite insiders? Religious insiders are challenged by the gospel because it goes outside the law. It doesn't break the law, but it goes outside. So remember the grace of the, yeah, the gospel is manifested, God righteousness has been manifested apart from the law, Romans 3:20. It's apart from the law, it goes outside the law. so that insiders then lose the moral high ground by being obedient or compliant, however you want to say it, right? In other words, if you obey enough religious rules, then you might be able to shut some people up, right, and stand on your own integrity. However, all of that will crumble very quickly in the presence of God. You can't shut him up. And his finger pointing at you, you can't change that. They lose the moral high ground for other people.

And that the gospel then, in that way, it uncovers self-justification. It uncovers this kind of this evil, selfish life that they are living in. It's a lot like the parable of the prodigal sons. The older son, the older son is angered by the grace that is shown to the younger son. When the older brother crosses his arms says that's not fair, the answer to that is yes, that's exactly right. It's not fair. Older brother, insider, it's not fair.

It's not, it's not even fair to you. If you want to be fair, I mean, then we're all condemned to hell. You don't get like, you don't get first place and like a runner up to heaven. It's all hell or nothing, right? Heaven or hell, there's no in between, despite what you might've heard. When an insider says that's not fair, the answer is yes, correct. It's not fair. It's God's grace all the way through. And that, boy, that is challenging for an insider who likes structure, order, rules, and knowing when they're winning.

A telltale sign of an insider is they won't play a game they cannot win. So if you know anybody like that, guilty, they are insiders. The gospel is also inviting though to insiders. It doesn't just punch him in the face. The gospel also calls insiders in that the gospel stands against injustice. The gospel beats bullies back. The gospel protects the vulnerable. It maintains order. Because what the gospel says is that God is taking account of every action, every careless everything you've ever done, the Lord sees it, knows it, and you will answer for it. Either Jesus is gonna pay for it on the cross or you're gonna answer for it at the judgment, but it will be reckoned. Everything will be made right, and when an insider hears that there's gonna be ultimate justice, that every little slight that they were given is going to be answered for, that makes an insiders heart sing that justice will prevail not just between the weak and

the strong but every little thing that is so attractive to religious insiders because they care about what is good and what is right and what is fair and what is order they see that they care about it they want it and that the gospel what the gospel says is that God cares about that stuff infinitely more than you and God will usher it in come hell or high water literally he will usher it in no matter what. It will all be answered for. And so the gospel then in summary is God going outside the law without breaking it to deliver to us a true righteousness. And that true righteousness absolutely every mouth is stopped. Everyone doesn't know what to do. All they can do, all we can do is just stand there and believe it or not. Stand there and receive it or not. And so today, as Noah comes up and leads us, just sings over us, we're gonna pray together as a church.

Today, I want you to consider, first I want you to consider if you're an insider or an outsider, right? How are you coming to the Lord? But secondly, I want you to consider the people in your life. I want to consider people that you are praying for. How are they coming to the Lord? What's their situation? How are people in your life hearing and wrestling through the gospel? Are they dealing with shame and guilt? Are they dealing with frustrations or things that don't make sense?

And are you praying for them? The Lord put us on this earth to see his kingdom come, to see us make disciples. So we pray toward that end. So as we pray right now, I want you to bow with me. We're going to pray together as a church. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, you are the king. We come as insiders and outsiders, but before you we are all the same. We are broken before you.

I pray that our church, that everybody here that we would walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, and that is a manner that is broken, that is vulnerable for you, that is transparent before you. Lord Jesus, we love you. We love you so imperfectly, but you still receive that. We thank you for it. It's in your name that we pray.