Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd 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 to 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.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: We're kicking it old school.
Kicking it old school at Mosaic. And I want to know who is actually old school, because you remember what these are.
Okay, what is this, friends? Cassette tapes. Cassette tapes. Anybody remember what their first cassette tape was?
Bon Jovi. Okay. Okay. What else?
You're like, what is this? I have no idea what this is. Okay, so this, my young friend, the cassette tape. This is how we used to listen to music, okay? In the 1900s, this is what we did. All right, so I have Amy Grant. Here was one of my first ones, Salty. The psalm book, anyone?
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: There is clapping and groaning happening in this room at the exact same time. Okay, Salty was a singing hymnal, in case you missed it. And we would do musicals at church for these. This tape right here, though, this cassette tape is a special one, because if you look closely, it says, kristen, take your daughter to Work Day, 1992.
So in 1992, I was 10 years old, and they decided to start something called Take youe Daughter to Work Day to empower girls to have, like, career confidence. And so what we heard as kids was we didn't have to go to school that day.
And so my parents. I had two working parents. My mom was a secretary in a law firm, and. And my dad managed radio stations.
It was not a hard decision if I was gonna go to work with my mom or my dad for Take youe Daughter to Work Day. Okay? So I did. I showed up to the radio stations thinking I was like, you know, hot stuff. I was Dennis Mockler's daughter, and I was there. Take your daughter to work Day. And he immediately dumped me into one of the studios. Now, I Was in the oldies studio. Cause I was not allowed to be in the rock station where those DJs were in the morning. Okay? And so I'm sitting there and whatever, just. I don't know, whatever a kid does, watching DJs do their morning show. And we go into commercial, and the DJ that I know very well, he was like, hey, so you're gonna do the weather when we come back from commercial? And I was like, yes, I am.
So I sat there for the whole entire commercial break, the whole commercial break. I just sat there thinking about all of my friends who were on their way into school and how they were going to hear my voice on the radio and realize that I'm maybe a little bit better than them, right? That I'm so special because I was chosen to do the weather. And I just. For however, three minutes or whatever, next thing I know, there's headphones on my ear, we're coming out of commercial, and the microphone is pushed over in front of my face. And I was like, I have to do something now.
I had to do something.
And so this tape is me.
One of my first performances in a very monotone reading.
The WIBM Weather center forecast. Showers ending high of 55. Temps dropping early. Currently it's 52 degrees in mid Michigan on WIBM. It was like the worst, most monotone thing ever. I think my performance has improved a little bit. I'm hoping.
I'm hoping that was my first go round. Okay, but has this ever happened to you? Like, I was chosen for something and I felt so special.
Maybe you've been chosen for a job. Maybe you've been chosen for a team. Okay. Sometimes I feel chosen. When your babies just reach for me, I'm like, yes, I am the best one. Come to me. I'm chosen. I'm so special.
And it makes us feel a certain kind of way, right? When we get chosen to do things.
Because we think that being chosen is about us.
We think that when we are chosen, other people should know that we're chosen and that they're not exactly like us, that they're different than we are. Maybe we associate being chosen with privileges of receiving things, maybe having things that other people don't get to have.
Because we think being chosen is about who we are. We think it's something that we have earned or something that we deserve.
But what I realized in that studio is that being chosen is not about recognition. It's actually a responsibility.
Being chosen is a responsibility of something that we are meant to do. And when we confuse Those when we miss that, I think we can also then miss what it was that we've been chosen for.
And so that's what we're going to look at today. Last week Pastor Naim told us the story of Abraham and, and his son Isaac and the promise that God had made to them. And so this week we're gonna stay with Abraham's family and we are going to look more at his family and why they were chosen and maybe what God's chosen family reveals about who God is himself.
Because early in the story, God did choose Abraham and his family, but they were not chosen because they were holier than other people. Abraham actually came from a family where his ancestors had worshiped other.
And what I love about this moment is that we don't know why God picked Abraham right away. And I kind of love that because then it doesn't give us a like step by step plan that we can try to imitate or follow.
And so we see in Genesis 12 says, I will make you. God's talking to Abraham. I will make you into a great nation. And I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Now I'm gonna tell you right up front, I am not the type of person that uses the word blessed a lot. Okay? It just is a little cringe for me if I'm being honest. There are certain words, blessed, journey, like these are all words that if you use. It's great. I try not to because they just get a little like Christianese for me. Okay. This is my own hang up. I'm just letting you know. But today I'm going to use the word blessed a lot, okay? Because I don't have a choice.
Cause it is in the story that we're looking at. And also because I think scripture repeats what it is that it wants us to remember. I think scripture repeats the things that we are meant to keep. And so what I want you to know today is that God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.
That's gonna be one of the main ideas.
So we take that Blessing from Genesis 12 and then we see it again in Genesis 18. It says, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him.
So here it comes. Here's the why. I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him. To keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him. It's almost as if God is saying, I will bless Abraham's family so long as they uphold their part to pass that blessing on onto others.
And this passage tells us how, by keeping the way of the Lord, by doing what is right and just, we practice righteousness and justice, because that is the way of God.
See, God didn't choose Abraham to elevate him. He chose him to help him course correct a world that had already fallen out of alignment with God's heart.
And so we're gonna go back into the story before Isaac is born. And God would later change their names. But as Abraham and Sarah at this point in the story are Abram and Sarai, okay? And they are unable to have the children that they believe they need to have in order for God to fulfill his promise. And so because of that, we also meet Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian woman who belonged to Sarai as an enslaved person.
And so if Abram and Sarai are chosen, Hagar is the opposite.
She is not chosen. She is not picked. Even her name actually comes from a word that means foreigner. So right away, there is this communication, and we understand that she's different.
So Sarai has this idea that she is going to take Hagar and give her to Abram as his second wife.
And this was a bit of a common thing back then. In ancient Eastern culture, there was a common practice for arranged marriages as well as multiple wives. And even to see this kind of surrogacy happening, because that was the whole point. Sarai wanted Hagar to be Abram's wife so that she could then have the child that Sarai was unable to have.
But I want to be very clear about this process here. It does not mean that Hagar was volunteering as a surrogate, okay? Back in the day, she was an enslaved woman who was basically owned as property by Sarai. So bodily consent was not something that she would have had, agency to give or to not give. Her only value as a person came from what she could do for Abram and Sarai. So it's a hard situation that we're looking at, and it works. And Hagar does get pregnant.
And in the process, feelings come into play, which tends to happen, I think, when you bring other people into your marriage.
And Abram and Sarai mistake their chosenness for privilege. And so instead of blessing Hagar, they exploit her.
And so Sarai gets Upset. She gets really mad that her plan has actually worked. Okay? So she gets all angry, and she goes to Abram, and she's like, hey, I wanted this to happen, and it did. But now I'm jealous and I'm bitter and I have feelings about it, and so I want you to fix it. And Abram basically goes, she's yours. You deal with it.
And so what Sarai does is she mistreats Hagar so severely that Hagar runs away.
And while the text doesn't give us specific details of exactly what kind of abuse took place, Hagar thought that she had better chances of survival on her own as a foreigner out in the wilderness than she did in the protection and the financial security of Abram and Sarai's household and friends. Like I said, this is a hard story. This is not a fun story to tell. But I still think there are things in here with questions that are worth us asking today.
I think we have to recognize the same thing. Anytime we see someone leave their home and leave everything behind to risk the danger of the unknown, we have to acknowledge what kind of danger it must have been for them to stay.
What kind of danger must be so bad that it forces them to leave.
See, I think the wilderness is not often God's first choice for people.
More often than not, it's a place created by humans where people end up when God's people fail to pass on the blessings to other people.
That's what happened with Hagar. We don't see God telling Abram and Sarai to mistreat her. We don't see God celebrating their choices.
But because of their choices, Hagar ends up on her own in the wilderness.
And when people find themselves there, I do believe that's when God shows up for them in a very unique and personal way.
And that's what we see in Genesis 16.
Says, the angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, hagar Sarai's servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?
Now, I do think these are questions that God does know the answer to. Okay? He knows where she came from. He probably knows where she's going. So what he's doing here is not like he getting information from her, but he's offering her attention, and he's offering her his presence, and he's offering her the chance to be heard. Because God is like, hey, I'm gonna ask you questions so that you will speak, because I'm Listening.
And the angel also said, you are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, which means God hears, for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her.
She said, you are the God who sees me.
So Hagar actually calls him El Roi, which means the God who sees me. Hagar is the only person in the Bible to name God, to give him a new name.
And that's because when God met her there, he saw her as a person. He saw her as someone with value and someone with worth, someone worth his time and his affection.
He did not see her the way Abram and Sarai saw her, as a person to just be used and rejected and discarded.
See, I love this series that we're in of old school and going through Old Testament stories, because I think for a lot of us, there are stories that we're familiar with.
They're stories that we know bits and pieces of, but we've been able to really kind of unpack them and dig into context to figure out what exactly is happening in these stories. And the Old Testament stories can be really hard to read because the Bible refuses to sanitize the failures of God's people.
And sometimes that makes some Christians uncomfortable because when we read the Bible, right, and we're looking to these people to try to relate to, we want them to be better.
We want to just look at the happy and the shiny parts of the people of God, especially because we're like. But we want to be happy and shiny. We want to only portray those parts of ourselves.
And so often what happens is we tell. We distract from the realness of it by only telling bits and pieces of the stories.
But the truth is that it is sometimes God's people who are the reason that someone runs.
Sometimes it is God's people that are casting others out into the wilderness again, not because God told them to, but because people have gotten confused in their minds and they become so focused on their image of making sure that everyone else understands and knows that they're chosen that they forget to represent the God who actually chose them to begin with.
And this is something for all of us to be. We have to be willing to look and to ask these questions. Am I just putting out the happy, shiny parts of me and my story?
And am I willing to let God in to all of the other stuff?
See, what happens is we mistake our chosenness for. For privilege instead of responsibility.
We focus on ourselves instead of Other people.
And I love the church. I hold no qualms about this ever. I love not just Mosaic, but the big C church, the global church. And I do believe that the church can be a place for healing. It can be a place where people are heard and seen and included, and where they can experience the presence of God. But we have to be willing to look at the unsanitized version of Christianity today and. And ask ourselves some hard questions.
What kind of wilderness have we created that makes people think it's safer for them to be out there than it is for them to be in here?
Are people experiencing God's blessings and justice through us?
Are we doing our part to help make things right again?
Or are people running out of our churches because they need God to rescue them from.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: From us?
[00:17:11] Speaker B: We have to be willing again in Mosaic. I'm not just talking about you. I think that you do a fantastic job of bringing people in and including people who have been out in the wilderness. But we have to still understand that as part of God's body, right? The body of believers, people that represent Christ. We have to be willing to have these conversations because it is not the responsibility of the people who were failed by the institution or mistreated by God's people to repair the reputation of the church.
It's on us. It's on the people who want the privilege of being special and being chosen to carry the responsibility that comes with it, to pass on the blessings to the people that are on the outside.
So, God, thank you. One person was like, I love that. D.
You're the best.
So in the story, God sends Hagar back. He's like, I see you and I hear you, but you do have to go back. And so she goes back, and she ends up giving birth to Ishmael. And they both end up living in Abram and Sarai's household. And 13 years later, God does then again have this promise for Abram that he will be the father of many nations. And at that point, he lets him know that Sarai is pregnant with Isaac. And that's when he changes their names to Abraham and. And to Sarah. And so then we fast forward again to Genesis 21, and Isaac is born. And it seems as though all of God's promises have been fulfilled.
But Sarah, still focused on her privilege, does not want Ishmael, Hagar's son, to share in any of her son's inheritance or blessings.
And so she goes to Abraham again. And even though it upsets him this time, they are still sent away once Again, Hagar and Ishmael are sent away, cast out from home with just a tiny little bit of food and water.
So we go to Genesis 21. We've got just Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness. Now, it says, when the water was gone, she. Hagar put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself about 100 yards away.
I don't want to watch the boy die, she said as she burst into tears.
And Ishmael would have been 16 or 17 at this point. Okay, he's not a baby that she, like, tucked up under a bush. She's 16 or 17. But I'm pretty sure that every mother would agree that when you watch your child in pain, all you see is your baby.
So this is her boy.
She was afraid that she was gonna lose him once God intervened, and now she's finding herself again, not knowing if she's gonna be able to provide for him.
But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid.
God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation.
From his descendants.
Once again, true to Ishmael's name, God heard their pain and their need. And he not only provided for them in the moment, and. But he promised to make Ishmael a great nation, which means that that is a projection for his future, indicating that not only would God continue to provide for him, but that he would even flourish in the future.
And the parallels in this story are so astonishing to me when we look at the chosen people and the people that are cast out in this story. First, God promised Abraham to have a lot of descendants.
At one point, he tells them, look at the stars. And if you can count them, that's how many descendants you're going to have. Then God promises Hagar descendants. And he tells her, I will multiply your descendants so they are too many to be counted.
God promised to make Abraham a great nation.
Then God promised to make Ishmael a great nation.
And while Abraham is often referred to as the father of God's chosen nation, Hagar also becomes the mother of. Of a great nation.
I don't know why we never tell that part of the story, but that's what happens.
And then, hundreds of years later, Abraham's descendants, still God's chosen people, would face their own exodus. And we see the same parallels playing out again, where Hagar was an Egyptian woman who got oppressed and sent out into the wilderness.
Israel gets oppressed by the Egyptians and then is sent out into their own wilderness.
It's almost as if Hagar experiences the Exodus story before the Exodus story even happens.
And what we see here is that the pattern of God stays the same in all of these stories. With Hagar, with Abraham and Sarah, with Moses and the Israelites in Exodus. God sees, God hears, God promises, and God blesses.
God sees, God hears, God promises, he, and God blesses.
And friends, I just need you to know that if you feel like you're in your own wilderness right now, if you're watching other people receive their blessings and you're wondering if you're ever going to get yours, if you feel like you've been cast out because maybe other people of God have failed to pass on the things to you that God actually has intended for you, I just need you to know that God does not change. And the pattern is the same. And God still sees and still hears and still promises and still provides and still blesses. You are somewhere in that story. But the pattern has not stopped.
So as the Exodus is ending, just before the Israelites enter the promised land, Moses reminds them again what kind of God they serve and what their responsibility as God's chosen people is. So we go to the book of Deuteronomy, and he's saying, look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God.
Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love, and he chose you, the descendants, above all other nations, as is evident today.
Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.
He's like, yes, you are chosen because God chose your ancestors because he loved them. And, yes, you are chosen because God loves you and you are special. But I need you to get it together.
I need you to stop resisting what God is asking you to do.
And so we see in verse 17, he goes on and says, for the Lord your God is the God of Gods and the Lord of Lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. There's that same word again.
He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too must show love to the foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.
So God's people now have been on both sides.
God's people know what it's like to be chosen, and they've experienced being cast out. But I want you to notice that God does not give new commands to each new set of people.
God did not ask them something different when their circumstances changed. What God asked of them is still the thing that he was trying to accomplish when he talked to Abraham in Genesis 12.
To do what's right, to bring justice, to bless other people by showing love to all nations without partiality.
See, what we learn about God through all of these stories is that God stays faithful to his mission even when his people aren't.
God is always going to stay faithful to his mission. He is always going to ask us to continue to do the same things. Friends, he's asking us to do the same things today, to do what's right, to bring justice, to bless other people by showing love to to all nations without partiality.
And a foreigner to us might mean something different than it did here. But basically you can just think of it as anyone kind of outside of your group or your circle.
And we see the same parallel in the New Testament as well. Because I think maybe God knew that humanity would never be able to do what only God himself can.
Because eventually God steps in to fulfill the responsibility Himself.
We see in Galatians 3, Paul is writing about doing just that. He said, through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles, again representing just anyone outside of Abraham's family, with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
And so Paul points out all throughout this chapter how all of God's promises for Abraham's descend, or in other translations it says seed, were singular.
All of his promises were singular, meaning they would only ever be fulfilled through one person, which is Jesus.
Jesus is the one who embodies Israel's calling perfectly.
Jesus is the one who opens up the family. He is the one who brings blessings to the world, just as God directed from the very beginning.
While Abraham's family was trying to narrow the blessing and keep it just for a particular group, Jesus opened up the family to not just the Jews, not just the Israelites, but to everyone.
See, this story isn't about who gets to be in God's family.
This story is about why a specific elitist group begins and is formed to begin with.
And what we see is the reason there is a specific group is not just for them to receive blessings because they are the one chosen to bless other people.
There's a guy outside of the Starbucks that I frequent by my house and his name is Paul. And Paul is usually outside of the Starbucks because only customers are allowed inside of the Starbucks. And so often, depending on the weather, I'll get him a water or a coffee when I'm there. And, and recently I was there and I just went in to get him something and I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to get him a gift card. And I was like, okay, so I'm standing at the checkout and I went to get the gift card and God was like, ma', am, you can do better than that. I was like, ah, just kidding. I actually mean like, can you put a little more on that, please? Thank you so much. And so I took the gift card out and I gave it to Paul.
And he didn't, I don't think he knew what to do with it necessarily. And so he just was like, thank you, that's very kind.
And I just, you know, went back inside and went back to my laptop and kept working. And a little while later, Paul came inside and I was sitting there and I looked up and I caught his eye and he just kinda, you know, gave me one of these and I just like give him a little wave behind my screen. Didn't make a big deal about it. And he went over to the counter and I was, he was like directly in front of me. And it just hit me in that moment as I was standing there watching him order the power the that was in that gift card.
Because in that gift card he actually did so much more than feed him. It actually gave him the power to choose what he wanted instead of relying on what someone else assumed that maybe he might want or they had leftover.
That gift card actually honored his humanity because when he went inside, he got to hear his name called out.
In the midst of everyone else's names went his order.
It gave him accessibility as well, because once Paul was a customer, once he was in there buying something, he was able to come inside and sit down and use the restroom without being harassed or asked to leave.
And see, Paul's not big on conversation, which is okay with me.
But because of that, I've never talked to Paul about Jesus, okay? I've never invited Paul to come to church with me. Paul doesn't know that I'm a pastor. He probably doesn't even know that I'm a Christian.
And friends, that's because being chosen is not about other people knowing that I'm chosen. It's about internalizing that responsibility until I live in a way that blesses other people.
People who are chosen by God should be making life better for all of the people around them, not harder.
We should be making Life better, not harder.
And we overthink it. We overthink it, right? Probably because a lot of you were taught, like I was, that there has to be some, like, form of evangelism. Everything has to be evangelism. So if you do a good deed, like, it doesn't really count unless you pray a prayer of salvation with someone or you, like, offer to bring them to church. Can you imagine if I took that gift card to Paul and I was like, do you want this? You gotta come to church first.
Okay, now you can have it on Sunday. Awful.
No, we overthink this. It's really not that hard. Friends, all we have to do is what God is asking us. He's not asking us to save people. God can do that. That's his part.
What he's asking us to do is to pass on the blessings.
And it doesn't mean we walk around with, like, blessed on all of our stuff, you know, our shirts and our bumper stickers and our coffee mugs. It's okay. If you have one. It's okay.
Okay.
But here's what it means, all right? We pass on our blessings when we learn the name of the person at work who's always being interrupted, or we make sure to give them credit when their idea is stolen and passed on by someone else. We pass on our blessings when we get to know the person that we're actually tempted to compete with.
We pass on our blessings when we're the first person to apologize, when we're kind and we're patient with cashiers and baristas and. And other people in traffic.
We pass on our blessings when we freely give of what we have for someone else.
And scripture says that we are to use our financial blessings to bless others as well. And sometimes that does look like buying someone gas, and sometimes that does look like the ministry of a gift card.
But scripture also is very clear that that also looks like contributing to the church with our tithes.
Not just when we've purchased everything, right? Not just when we have everything that we could want or need and then have surplus to give leftover.
But in all seasons, tithing is a way that God has asked us to own our responsibility by passing on the blessings that he's given us.
And so for some of you, maybe that's the thing that's been missing where you've maybe thought of tithing as more like a tipping. You're like, if the message is really good, then I'll throw some in the box.
Right? Worship was, like, banging today. So I'll Put a little bit through the app.
Okay? I work here.
I know how it goes.
What God is actually asking of us is to own the responsibility with tithe financially. Okay? And so for some of you, maybe that's something you need to pray about this week. Also, Mike would come for me. If I don't tell you there's a tap tag on your seat right there and you can start giving today. That way you can also use that tap tag to volunteer. So maybe for some of you, you come in and you realize that the blessing is actually being in this room.
The blessing is walking in and being able to just like, disconnect from the world for about an hour so that you can come in and get some free coffee, maybe hand off your children so that you can come in here and receive the peace or the wisdom or the direction or whatever it is that you're looking for from.
And if you have gotten that in this room, you can pass that blessing on to someone else by just volunteering for a couple hours a month.
You can provide the same thing that you are receiving in blessings here for other people, friends. If we're hashtag blessed, that's great. Okay? It's good. There's nothing wrong with that. But we interact with the outside world 100 times a day. Who are we passing those blessings onto?
Who do you know that feels like an outsider looking in?
And maybe you are the one. Maybe you're in the room for the first time in a long time, or you're watching online or you're listening later because you do feel like you are the one on the outside.
Either because you left on your own or you felt cast out. Maybe you're watching everyone else receive the blessings and the promises and you're wondering if maybe any of it is ever going to be for you.
Maybe you've assumed that this invitation isn't even for you anymore.
But I want you to know that because of Jesus, humanity's categories of who's in and who's out are not strong enough to keep you from God's blessings, and they're not strong enough to keep you from being included into the family of God.
It does not matter what nationality you are, what race you are, what gender you are, where you live, the way you live, who you love, it does not matter. You are invited and included into the family of God. And it's because of Jesus that you have that invitation. You have been chosen.
You have been chosen and you are invited into the family. Not because you earned it, not because you did something to deserve it.
Because God fell in love with you the moment he created you.
And he wants you to understand who you are in him. And it grieves his heart when you believe the lie that you do not belong or that you are unwanted.
Because, friends, that is just not true.
So here at Mosaic, we would love to help you to experience that. For those of you in the room, I believe that you're here because you are experiencing that God is doing something. He's working in your life. He's maybe even changing your life. And we're so glad that you can find that here. But who do you know on the outside that you can invite in?
Maybe that's the only blessing that someone is looking for right now is the invitation into a church where they can belong.
Friends, we can't pass on blessings to other people until we're willing to receive them for ourselves. And so my prayer is that you would be able to accept the grace and the forgiveness and the love and the acceptance that God is offering to you so that you then will be able to have it and take it into the world.
I would love to pray that for you this morning.
God, we thank you, Lord, for who you are.
God, we confess that sometimes, Lord, we believe things that are not of you, God, we believed versions of you, Father, that are not true.
And so, God, we pray that you would help us to let those go.
God, would you help us to forgive the people that have misrepresented you, even as you're forgiving us for the wave that we have also missed you.
God, we want to accept your invitation into God's family. And so, Lord, I specifically pray, God, for the person who maybe has never really felt like they were part of your family. God has never fully said yes to the invitation that Jesus is offering.
And so, God, for those people this morning, whether they're in the room or watching or listening online, at whatever point, God, I pray that your presence would just be so clear with them right now.
God, would you help them to understand that you loved them before they did or accomplished anything?
God, that you chose them before they were able to even do anything to earn or deserve it?
God, would you help them to understand that all they have to do is believe in you and believe in the promise of Jesus, God, that life is better with him?
God, and so I pray for those people, Lord, that are right now saying, yes, God, I do want to be in your family.
I do want to be in a relationship with Jesus. God, would you help them to know what that looks like and what that means and God for the rest of us. Would you help us to pass on everything that we've already received from you, God, so that we would make the world better for the people around us as we learn to become better and better reflections of you in Jesus name.
Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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