The Last Word for Christians - Pastor Kristin Mockler Young

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. [00:00:10] Speaker B: So check out our website. [00:00:11] Speaker A: There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Good morning, Mosaic. How are y' all doing this morning? Excellent. Excellent. Yes. We are ending our series on the Book of James. So this is week five, so if you missed any of the first four weeks, you can definitely make sure to go back to our YouTube channel and catch all of those where you have got weeks one through four of the Book of James, as well as previous past sermon series and our podcast. Did y' all know that we have a podcast? It's called Becoming Church. The host is very good. I've heard she's excellent. It is me. But that is a place also where we get to have all kinds of nuanced conversations that we don't necessarily have time and space for here on Sunday morning. So we hope that you will check all that out on our YouTube channel. But today we are going to go through chapter five of the Book of James, and James is bringing us his last. And I have a feeling that maybe some of the people hearing James words are like, oh, good, finally. Because have you ever been in a situation, let me explain it to you. Like this, where someone's telling you a story and you're like, mm, because you've heard it before. Like, maybe you've heard the story so many times that you start to wonder if you were actually there. And they're like, why are you telling me the same story again? And so then you tune out, right? And you start to have that inner monologue with yourself where you're like, do I interrupt and tell them? Do I just keep letting them go? Do I respond in the same way I responded last time? Does that make it more awkward? Like, what do we do? Or sometimes you're hearing the same story again while the story's being told. Because that person is just repeating their words, like over and over again. This happened recently to my family. My husband Peter and our two daughters were in the car and we were driving back home from just a family event and the girls had a question, something about something that was happening on the news. There's been a lot of things going on in the world. I'm not sure if you guys are aware. And our kids had questions. And so my husband Peter was like, okay, I can explain this to you. And so he was explaining to our kids, you know, kind of how the government works and systems and checks and balances and all of these kinds of things in a kid appropriate way, right? And so he gets to the end of his explanation and he's like, makes sense. And Margo, my nine year old, goes, dad, I tuned out a long time ago. She said, kids switch off if you talk too long. Which apparently is wisdom from the show, the TV show Bluey. That's where she learned that we did not know. We laughed. I think Peter laughed and maybe was a little bit offended at the same time, which is totally fine. Cause here's the thing. Peter was not trying to over explain, like he wasn't mansplaining her. Do you know what I'm saying? He just was really excited because there was something that he was passionate about and he was like, okay, we're gonna bond over this shared experience. I'm gonna impart wisdom to you. And it just didn't really go as he planned. Okay, maybe you've been in that situation. Maybe you are the one that you're like, I'm trying to get my point across. And you can see people's eyes starting to glaze over. Or maybe they start to go for your phone and you're like, hey, hey, hey, lock in, lock in. Right now, like this is super important, but you don't know how to get their attention. And so instead what you do is you just start repeating the really important words again, hoping that the stuff that matters will actually land and like somehow be absorbed through osmosis in their brains. Right? That's what I actually think is happening here with James in, in the last chapter. Cause at first glance, it looks like he's just kind of rehashing. And it seems to be that he's saying some of the things that he's already told us in the first four chapters. But we're gonna see that he's also not mansplaining or over explaining. But what James is actually doing is doubling down to tell all of these churches that he's writing to. Like, listen up, lock in. This is what's really important. So before we jump into his actual words, I want to remind you of the context because once again, we're gonna see James start by addressing the rich. He starts by addressing the rich people. And my Absolute favorite theologian, N.T. wright, says that it's super important that we don't overlook this detail and like move on from it, especially if it doesn't apply to us. So it's really, really important that when and where James was writing this letter, the religious elite at the were the Sadducees and the chief priests. So they had both the power and money. These were people who influenced not only the temple, but also ran like the social and the political systems of the time. There was not a super clear separation there of the systems of power and the church. But their attitude when it came to God was very, very pragmatic. Like, they kept his law because it was what needed to be done. And so they did what was required to stay in power, even at times using force when necessary to keep the peace. But while it seemed like maybe they were all about God and his law, they might have appeared religious. What was actually happening as they're, you know, running the liturgies and they're running the festivals and doing all these things, is that it was more about control than it was actually following God's law, as had been explained and taught to them by. See, if we look at the way they were running things, whether it was in the temple or socially and politically, and we look at what Jesus was all about. Jesus actually came to overturn these very kinds of religious systems that they were running and operating in. And so I wonder if James starts this wrap up to his letter, I wonder if he starts this wrap up with the same kind of language that we're gonna see him using from chapter four. Because he was afraid that the churches he was talking to were going to be tempted to fall in line with the same money and power that was happening with the people that were leading at the time. So we will jump right in with James and his strong language in chapter five. Look here, he says, you rich people weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags. Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth that you are counting on will what eat away your flesh like fire. This is like Halloween. I guess it's good we're doing this in October, right? What a horror movie. What's happening right now? This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the Day of Judgment. Now, listen, I am not the one to begrudge anybody of using dramatic language to make a point, okay? This is my M.O. like, I'm all about it. But dang, James, like, that is strong. And so he's talking about the Day of Judgment here because they believe that they were actually living it out. They believe that Jesus came and he opened the door to this next era, this next. That when he came and lived and died and resurrected, that he had started this next new phase that Israel had prayed and longed for for generations. So they truly thought that, like at any day, judgment day was going to be upon them, that finally God was going to come down and restore all the things and fulfill all of the promises that he'd made to make things right in the world. And again, they were just waiting on it. Any moment he goes on, he says, for listen. Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven's armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have fattened yourselves. He's using very sacrificial language that they would have been very familiar with for the day of slaughter. What a waste it has been for you, James is saying, for you to profit from other people and to hoard things when all of this is about to be worthless. Any day now, when this life ends and you can't take any of it. He continues on in verse six, says, you have condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you. And in this translation it does say innocent people. You've condemned and killed innocent people. But in other translations, I find it very interesting that instead of innocent people, it actually says the righteous one as in Jesus, he's saying to them, you have condemned and killed Jesus, who did not resist. You see, James, condemnation of the rich here is not so much that they were selfish and that they lived in luxury. It was that they killed Jesus and were now continuing to try to kill his movement through the oppression of innocent people. And so James first instruction to the church here in this chapter is, don't look away, don't look away. He says, we have to pay attention to both the rich and the innocent and see what is happening. And so for us, we might be in a Very different time frame, right? We're in a very different time, thousands of years later, after this was written. But we have to ask ourselves if we're seeing some of the same patterns still playing out, if there is a small group of people who is powerful and who has more than enough but is still collecting and hoarding all of these things while other people are begging and starving for human rights. As followers of Jesus, we cannot look away from what is happening. We cannot choose just not to see it. Henri Nouwen, who is another one of my favorite theologians, he was also a priest and an author, said that the temptation of power is irresistible because power offers us an easy substitute for the harder thing of love, the harder task of love. He says going and being tempted by power and control is actually the easy way out. It's easier to be God than to love God. It's easier to control people than to love people. It is easier to fall in line with that than actually living out the gospel. Because that Jesus says. He says we're tempted. That when Jesus says to us, hey, do you love me? Our response back to Jesus is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, but do we get to sit at your right hand? Jesus says to love, and we ask about power and control. The hearts of the religious elite that James is talking to were hardened. Their hearts were hardened against the need and the inequality of the lived experiences of the people that were right and there in front of them. Because when Jesus said love them, instead, they were tempted by power. These are two very different operating systems. And so James is saying, lock in church, don't look away. So in order for us to keep from becoming like the rich and the powerful with hardened hearts, we have to keep seeing people like Jesus and we have to address the systems that keep people in their place and remove the dignity from them. So we have to ask, who are we tempted to overlook? Who are we tempted to make assumptions of and either justify our treatment of them or possibly justify treatment that is received at the hands of other people. I don't think that that Jesus would say the unhoused person deserves to be there because they just are lazy and didn't try hard enough. I don't think Jesus would say to us that parents who find themselves with their kids in the foster care system deserve to have their kids removed because they're just not good enough parents. I don't think that Jesus would say to us that the people who can't afford healthcare should be denied care when they need it just because of a financial situation. There are lots of things. There are lots of places where we need to look around and see people as Jesus saw them. Here's the thing. Our compassion, right, our compassion, our action does remind people that God's love is big enough and expansive enough to cover all of it. But our compassion is the second step is step two. What comes first is our acknowledgement of the people that we see who are being looked down on and denied basic rights at the hands of others. The acknowledgement of seeing people has to come first, and so we can't look away. And once we are willing to see things as they are, once we're willing to look, then the second thing that James says is that we have to practice a patient faith. Practice patient faith. He goes on with verse seven. He says, dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to open. You too must be what? Patient. Take courage for the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord is near. See, I think patience is a skill that we've actually lost as a society. Anybody else live through ye olden days of the 1900s? As my children like to tell me, the 1980s, the 1990s is so long ago. Right? But do you remember back then when maybe you were waiting on a ride and you just had to like wait like there was nothing to do? I remember being at cheerleading practice in high school and parents would come and parents would go and we would just be standing in the parking lot and sometimes I was last and there was no way of knowing. Did my parents get stuck at work late? Did they hit traffic? Were they in an accident? Did I roll my eyes for the last and final time this morning and now they're not coming to pick me up at all? Like we did not know. So we just had to be patient and wait. Now we have life360 and find my friends and all of these things. And so we don't have to be patient because we know exactly where people are and when they're going to arrive. Your ride to church maybe came in an Uber. Jesus is not going to okay, Jesus is not coming on any kind of app where we can track when he is coming and how long in the going to take for him to get here. Your answer to prayer is not coming on a trackable app. And so we have to be patient and just trust that when he says he is coming back to make things right, that it will happen and it requires humility, friends. It requires humility to admit that we actually don't know, that we don't know when things are going to happen. And so if by chance someone tells you they know the day of, like, a rapture or whatever and that God is coming, you can pretty much be confident that no one knows, okay? But it takes humility to admit that impatience is actually a form of pride because it says that the timeline that we've determined is right. The timeline that we've determined maybe even is better than God's timing. I think this is why Galatians calls patience a fruit of the Spirit. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit because we have to rely on the supernatural power of God to be patient and to find patience. And so we have to practice patience while we're waiting. And we also, how many of you know, have to practice patience with other people. And so that's what James says. And he keeps going in verse nine, says, don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For, look, the judge is standing at the door. Judge is here at the door. Remember that? He is talking to a whole bunch of churches. He is talking to the body of believers as one big group of believers. So he is calling them out for. For their chatter towards each other. James is like, listen, don't throw shade. Don't drag each other. No bad vibes chat. Where's my youth kids at? That was for you guys, okay? I'm getting that middle school brain rot with my oldest getting them down. See, infighting is a tactic of the enemy. It's a tactic of the enemy because when threats come from the outside, it is easier to let our anxiety and our fear turn us in. In on each other, pointing fingers of blame because it gives us a false sense of security. It gives us a false sense of control to replace the control that we feel like we're losing when the threats come in from the outside. So when James says, hey, look, the judge is standing at the door, it's not in a way of like, hey, hey, that guy's watching you and he's gonna get you. It's more, don't be trying to take his job thinking that you're the ones who get to decide who the judgment is for and when and who's at fault here. It's like your job is to be patient and to have grace and to trust that God will sort everything out. And isn't that so much easier said than done? So much easier said than done. And I think James actually knows this because as he goes on, it's like, okay, listen, I get it. It feels like I'm asking a whole lot of you, a whole lot of you. First of all, that's kind of on my brother Jesus. I'm just the messenger here, you know, relaying this information to you. But also, as he's going to show us, we've been gifted something to actually make it a lot easier. Verse 13 says, Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be. What? Healed? So that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. He's like, hey, get this. You get to pray to change what's possible. That's his third point. You get to pray to change what's actually possible. And these practices might seem silly, right? For people that don't get it, it's like prayer. Are you just talking to yourself? These can seem really silly to people that don't understand. But to people who take James and Jesus words seriously, we know that they are full of meaning and power because it's the Holy Spirit that is within you, that allows you to be part of changing what's possible. And yes, you can do all of these things on your own because you have a direct line to God. But also, when we come together as a body, there is so much more power in our collective faith. This past Wednesday, we had almost 40 people sign up for an event called the Table, which is something that we do here at Mosaic once a month, where we come together like old school potluck dinner style, and we dive really deep into a particular topic. And so this past week, Pastor Mike did a really great job of walking us through some misconceptions of the Holy Spirit. Like, what is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How do I know? We had a really great conversation around it. And we even practiced tapping into the Holy Spirit within us and listening to God and doing prophetic prayer over each other. And there was a girl there who hasn't really been involved in church for a little while. That grew up in it, but hasn't really been plugged in for a bit. And she decided at the very last second. Last second that she was going to attend. And so she came with her questions. And one of her questions was like, yeah, that's where I'm at. Like, what is it? Who is it? Like, I really don't get it. Is it God? Is it something different? Just really basic level, like, wanting to know more? So when the event was over, you know, everybody was starting to leave the room and exit out. And a guy that she had never met before, never interacted with, who was also at the event, came over to her and just said, hey, as soon as you asked that question, I felt like I was supposed to come over and talk to you about this. And so he said to her, he said, you know, for me, the way that I experienced the Holy Spirit for the first time was as a comforter. And so maybe God just needs you to know that, like, if you're in pain or you're grieving or you ever just really feel all alone, that. That sense of peace, any kind of calm that you get, that's the Holy Spirit. That's God's way of comforting you through that. And as I'm watching this conversation take place, I'm getting goosebumps. Cause I'm like, first of all, this is exactly what Mike just taught us to do. It's the exact same thing. And also, as I watched her face change, I knew what this man that came and talked to her had no way of knowing, which is that she had lost her mom a few years ago. And as he was talking to her about the Holy Spirit being a comforting presence in grief and pain and isolation, I knew in that very second that it was the exact thing that she needed to hear. And the emotion on her face revealed exactly the same thing. Because she came in willing to seek God and. And be open to pursue who the Holy Spirit is and how God was talking to her. She was able to get exactly what she needed in that moment. Now, was God talking to her before she came? Of course. Could God have delivered that message to her in a different way? Of course. But maybe it was just her willingness to come in and be here with other people that God was like, I'm gonna honor that, and I'm gonna meet you in this moment, and I'm gonna speak to you right now with not only an answer to your question, but the thing that you didn't even know you needed to hear. That's what can happen when we come together. And so she didn't have to miss hearing the specific words that God had for her, because she came in with a willingness to be with other people and to pray and to listen. See, prayer and forgiveness and worship and following the prompting of the Holy Spirit, these are the things that open the door to a fresh start. These are the things that make change possible. Prayer puts us in a really unique place, a unique place where heaven and earth kind of overlap. And when we pray, we get to be in a space where we can present our needs and also find God's promise of restoration overlapping and coming together. So when we come together and pray for each other, we get to stand in the middle of that overlap. We get to stand in a place where we maybe have one foot in sickness and one foot in healing, where we have one foot in despair and one foot in hope, where we have one foot in sin, maybe of our own cynicism or. Or bitterness against other people in the body, like James is saying. But we can have our other foot rooted in forgiveness and in grace. When we pray, we get to see two things come together to be true at the same time, and we get to be present in the place where God holds it all together and where God does the impossible and God does the supernatural for through us and our willingness to be a vessel and a voice for Him. Friends, this is the good news that people need. This is the good news that the world needs and that people that, you know, need. There are a lot of people out there right now who want to love God and they want to trust Jesus. But the Christians in their lives are maybe not doing a super great job of standing in that tension and holding that middle space where they can see both the hope of heaven and the honest reality of what is happening here on earth. As believers, as representations of Jesus, we have to stand in the overlap where we can acknowledge that both are true at the same time. And so there are people that, you know that even though they maybe have previously followed Jesus and might even feel a pullback to the church or to some kind of Christianity, they don't know what to do. They don't know what to do or where to go anymore. And so they're just out there trying to live their faith on their own, trying to figure it out on their own. And James makes it very clear that that is not the best case scenario for experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. And so everything that James has been teaching comes down to this culminating last point. In verse 19. He says, My brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back. You can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering, not from being lost, but from wandering, will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins. When we have to make the effort to see those who are wandering from the truth, which I do think means both the disoriented as well as the people who are certain that their path is the only one that leads to righteousness. As their brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to go after the wanderer. This is James last point. Go after the wanderer, which, by the way, let me just check up here, does not say arguing them into submission. Okay. It's very weird being a pastor right now. It's kind of hard, if I'm being honest, because there are a lot of people that are coming to me because they trust me and they're confused and they're looking for guidance, and they're like, what is happening with the church and Christians and Jesus and, like, what's real? And I'm trying to help. There are other people that are not coming to. Maybe you would say you're coming for me, I don't know, because they don't necessarily agree with what I'm doing and what I'm saying. And they maybe think that I'm actually part of the reason that people are wandering because I'm leading them astray. And when I have conversations with these people as they're trying to get me to change the message that I'm preaching, be it here or on social media, one idea that they like to present to me a lot is this idea of preaching the truth in love. Okay. Preaching the truth in love. Anybody ever heard this phrase before? Okay, good. It's in the Bible. You should have. It's fine. It's in the Bible. Here's the thing. Let's talk about it. Okay. Preaching the truth in love is in Ephesians 4:15. That's the verse that it's from. But what happens when we cherry pick just a slight little phrase, just a couple little verses out of the Bible and use them to mean kind of what we want them to mean? We end up losing the context and the actual meaning of what that scripture is there for. And so since Ephesians 4:15 starts with the word instead, we have to go back one more to Ephesians 4:14 to find out what the instead is that Paul's talking about in his letter to the Church of Ephesus, which, by the way, this part is on Spiritual maturity and. And the unity in the body of Christ. So let's read that in Ephesians, it says, then this is Paul. Then we will no longer be what, infants, babies, youngins, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Paul says, we're not going to do that. Here's where the instead comes in. Instead. Because we're not doing that instead. Speaking the truth in love. What's this word? The next word. We. That wasn't clear. Sorry. We. Very important. Speaking the truth in love. We. Not me, not you. We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. Nowhere in scripture does it say that as we are going after the wanderers, that we should berate and argue and strong arm them back into the church or their faith. You might potentially know people who are trying to do that. And I would just lovingly ask you, like, is it working? It's probably not working. It's probably not working. Speaking the truth in love means that it happens in the context of relationship. And if you have not previously had a relationship with a person where you can just publicly call out their junk like on a social media platform, this might not be the way that you want to start that relationship going. Okay, probably not the best idea. What we see in that very sentence with the phrase speaking the truth in love is that it is meant for the good of both parties. Speaking the truth in love also leads us to stop being reactive, to stop being swaying one way and the other and swayed by scheming people. That's what Paul said. We are not going to do that. So speaking the truth in love is just as much about us growing in maturity as it is about bringing the wanderer back into the maturing body of Christ. Does that make sense? It is just about as much about our maturity and how we grow in our faith in speaking about our faith and how we treat other people in the faith as that is about trying to like, chalk one up on the scoreboard for bringing back another one. It's not what exactly he means. There's another passage in Romans that I have been really praying the last few weeks, honestly, and it applies here too. I'm gonna read it to you in the message paraphrase because it just sounds a lot more like the language that I use, at least when I'm talking to God. It's in Romans 10. It says, Everyone who calls help God gets help. But how can. How can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the one who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them unless someone is sent to do it? That is why Scripture exclaims a sight to take your breath away. Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God. Friends, that is what it should look like. That is what we are meant to be. Grand processions telling all of the good things of God. Showing people by our lived lives that God is the one who can be trusted. We have to establish trust in a relationship if we have any hope of bringing the wanderers to back to Him. Listen, I love Sunday mornings here at Mosaic as a staff. We all love it. Being with you guys is genuinely my favorite time of the week, hands down. And also, are we content being a church that just gathers and keeps like our own people and our fam? Or will we step out into obedience to reach those people who who are still looking for a God that can be trusted? We are the ones that have to be called out. We are the ones that are being sent. And this passage in Romans continues, it says, but not everybody is ready for this. Not everybody is ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another. Does anyone care? God? Does anyone care? Is anyone believing and listening to a word of it? The point is, before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ's word is preached, there's nothing to listen to. It's not up to us whether or not other people will listen or believe what we're saying. The point is, Paul says that unless the good news is preached, unless, unless we are willing to go out and talk about our faith, unless we are willing to go out and tell people about Jesus, unless we are willing to go out and talk about this church right here where we are seeing God come in and change people's lives when he does the impossible. There is nothing for those people to listen to without our message. So yes, it starts with trust. But going after the Wanderer also requires our invitation. I know there are lots of you online who join us on Livestream every week and I'm so glad that you guys are here. But if you are in driving distance of Mosaic, I want to invite you to come and be in the room. I know that our livestream community all across the country, across the ocean, even loves having you in the Chat room. But if you can get here on a Sunday morning and you watch online instead, it's kind of like having free tickets to a concert or a comedy show. And just like, I'm gonna just watch it from my house. It's the same thing, right? You're gonna see the same thing, but you're gonna get a completely different experience. And you're gonna miss so much that you could get when you're in the room. You're gonna miss the energy of the other. When we all come together and we're gathered in the same room because we all love the same thing. We all are here for the same reason. You're gonna miss the feeling of the presence of the Holy Spirit filling this room during worship. You're gonna miss the human interaction and the hugs and the smile when you see somebody else's face light up in recognition when they see you and they're just so glad that you're here. You're gonna miss that spontaneous prayer, the words that God has specifically for you that he gave to someone else to give to you that morning. You're gonna miss being known. And I know some of you are like, that's exactly why I'm watching from home. Cause it's really scary. And it can be very, very scary and intimidating, especially when it feels like you're completely starting over. But if you think about the people that you love and you trust the most, my guess is that at one point, they were probably strangers. And that relationship was able to develop and take place because you risked letting yourself be known by someone else. If you're in the room, if you call Mosaic your church, you know these people. You know the people that have been pushed out. You know the people who are confused and scared to try church again because of what they've experienced. And it was real and it was painful. You know the people that have walked away because they didn't know that a church existed, that would see their humanity and get to know them first instead of focusing on trying to call out their sin as quick as possible. Even if right now you're like, I don't know. I don't think I know these people. You. You do. We all do. And I think they're watching us, and they're just waiting for an invitation. These are the people that you work with. You go to football games and tailgates with these people. You work out with these people at the gym. You talk to these people. When you're waiting for soccer practice and dance class to be over, you live by them. What if they're just waiting on an invitation to. Into something that would actually change their lives? On the way out this morning, you're all gonna get one of these Mosaic cards. And it's just an invitation card. And I would love for you to pray about who God wants you to invite to Mosaic and who you wanna give this to. So don't leave it in your purse or your wallet. Make sure it doesn't stay in your car or your back pocket. But think about it and pray about it. And my challenge is that you would give this out to somebody and invite them to come with you before next Sunday. Let's not let the fear of being turned down keep us from seeing people that are in need, people that are in need of hope and peace and truth and grace. People that are in need of an invitation to show up right here in this space exactly as they are, so that they can come into a place where. Where they can let go and release anything that is dragging them down and begin to live in a healing of their soul, a healing in a restoration where they can reconnect to God with people who are willing to see them and grow with them. I know you're these people, because I know you. I already know you're these people. So let's go get the wanderers. Amen. Amen. Let me pray that for us you stand, if you are able. God, I thank you for who you are, Lord. I thank you for the fact that you begin speaking to all of us, God. Not even this morning, not just yesterday, Lord, but that you've been speaking to us our entire lives, God. I pray for anything that's blocking us from hearing your voice, Lord, whether it's something in our ears or a filter that we're. We're hearing things through God. A filter that we're seeing things through, God. Whether that's other people or what your gospel actually is, or what it means to be a reflection of you in this world as a Christian and as the church. God. I pray that right now you would just let those fall off, God. That they would be removed. And that as we walk out this week, we would feel a renewed sense of your presence within us, God. That we would see people differently, God. That we would see you differently, that we would see ourselves differently. Because we're looking through your eyes, through the gospel of love instead, God. Show us the people, Lord. Give us the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, to know things that we cannot know as we tap into a supernatural knowledge and discernment, God. To know who. Who it is that really needs to be in a place like this. God that really does need a different kind of community and a church that accepts them and includes them to every level. God, to be able to reconnect with who you really are instead of maybe the version of you that they've always believed you to be. God, we're honored that we get to partner in this work with you, that we get to enter into the story, the things that you're already doing. God, give us the courage. God, give us the inspiration. Lord, give us your strength to be able to do that and to carry it out. Amen. We are going to actually do something a little bit different today. We are going to have our response time, and our regular stations are there, as always. There's private prayer rooms online on Livestream. There's a cross over here where you can put a prayer request if you'd like. There are candles on either side of the room to represent someone you're praying for, as well as communion stations. We were supposed to sing a different song right now. And just following that prompting of the Holy Spirit, what we're actually going to do is go back into the second song that we sang in our set earlier, because I just really feel like it. It speaks so much to calling on the name of Jesus and. And being able to find healing for all of the things that we've been praying and the needs that we've been praying. And I want to say, too, that I know for some of you, you're like, you know, Mosaic has been an answer to prayer, and I'm so glad that someone invited me. I also want y' all to know that you're the answer to our prayers, and it goes both ways. And I got messed up this morning. Morning, actually, standing over here in worship. And I won't call any of you out, but, you know, I know your faces and your names and you probably know who you are, but we have been praying for you to come back. We've been praying for you to find a church home. We've been praying for you to be able to step into a community that embraces you. And I want you to know that when I stand there and I watch you come through this door, it is not just like a yay, we're glad you're here. It is like, thank you, God. Thank you for allowing us to be a community and to be a place where people genuinely know that they can show up and be seen and connect to you. So in the spirit of all that, let's respond. Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.