October 30, 2022 – Sermon Transcript

Pastor Mike (00:00):

Because sometimes we don’t connect with needs at all. A lot of times we think we know what people need, we think what they know, what they need to say. We think they need to know what’s in their opinion in our head that we can fix them. But Jesus was not about fixing anybody. He responded to what was right in front of them.

Hannah Hunter (00:17):

Hey, beautiful people. Welcome back to you son with gathering. I’m Hannah Hunter, the director of Digital Reach here at The Gathering Place in Palm Beach Gardens. This week, Pastor Mike brings us a message on what it means to walk and love.

Pastor Mike (00:29):

We’re gonna be talking about addressing some dysfunctions, especially the dysfunctions that we have that really hurt our relationships. I don’t know about you, but in my family, we’re starting to talk about the holidays and we’re talking about where we’re gonna happen with Thanksgiving and what’s gonna happen with Christmas and all the little activities that are happening in between. And one thing that I’ve come become aware of more and more is that this season of the holidays, it magnifies everything that’s with inside of us, especially our dysfunction. So for example, our stresses that we have, it did they just seem to get a little bit more intense during the holiday? The work deadlines I mean, it just feels like we gotta end the year. Well, we gotta make sure that we can come out on top and start the year good. But also then there’s the family tensions.

(01:21):

Now we all have family detentions. I don’t care whether you’re our Christian or non-Christian or whatever you identify as. I think all of us have some kind of family tensions, but it seems like this time during the holidays, it really magnifies them. And in fact, we see kind of our behaviors that we know they shouldn’t be a part of our lives, but that yet they still are. And then also we see their negative impact on some of our most important relationships. And then we think about our mission. What does God called us to do? And as individuals, each one of us are called to extend God’s redeeming love. But I wanna tell you something, it it’s really hard to extend God’s redeeming love when you got all this junk still inside. And then also you’re not really as confident as, especially around the holidays because you know you’re more aware of your brokenness or more aware of your healing.

(02:19):

So here’s the journey that we’re gonna be going on just for the next four weeks, is to kind of give you a little snapshot. Today we’re gonna be talking about the major differences because let’s face it, when we come together, the holidays and all of our different events, we meet people that have very different perspectives from us. And what do we do? Next week we’re gonna talk about avoiding the ditches. No, it’s falling in the ditch because there’s some times that we get into these places where you’re like, I do this all the time. I’m gonna be on my best behavior. I’m not gonna screw it up this time. And we know what we’re walking into, but yet they just know how to push that little button and get the little trick. Oh, I’m talking about, So we’re gonna be talking about that next week.

(03:03):

And then on week three we’re gonna be talking about we acknowledge that there’s some big divisions among us and how do we cross over that so that we can be healed and connected? And then the last week I’m really excited about this one is what the heck do we do with these difficult people that just, they’re just there and they will never, they’re been there all the time and it’s like, God, what do we do with them? Those agitators in our lives. So that’s where we are going. So today we’re talking about our differences. And let’s be honest with ourselves as Christians, questions, we don’t really do well with people that have a different worldview or mindset than us. I mean, we struggle with this. And I think part of it is because we have the great commission in mind and we want to help people to know Jesus.

(03:52):

But sometimes in our efforts to do that, we just don’t do well with people that have differences with us. But then we look at our world in general, man, and I don’t know about you, but the whole world seems to be doing bad with differences. I mean, we got political differences. I mean, godly, I’m seeing people get divided right now about who they’re gonna be voting for. Then we got just lifestyle differences about how to live, whether what kind of trees you plant in your yard where you go eat I mean who you love, all these different things, how you’re raising your kids family, whether to have kids or not kids, there’s so many differences. And man, it seems like everybody wants to tell you their opinion. You don’t even have to ask ’em anymore, they just want to tell it and put it out for you.

(04:33):

And then of course we have religious differences too. And even among the same religion, when families even go to different churches, sometimes it gets little, just a little uncomfortable. And it’s like, how do we navigate? How do we talk about those things? Well, one thing that we have to really acknowledge first is kind of know what’s going on inside of our lives and heart. And this is when, why do we get so heated when we talk about our faith or why or when we talk about maybe our political views or other personal things that are very important to us. I think first of all we have to understand is that with a lot of those things that we hold they’re very personal. And so when we start talking about it, we have a hard time distinguishing about talking about issues or ideas and what’s a personal attack at me?

(05:25):

And a lot of time when somehow the line gets crossed, we feel like it’s a personal attack, all of a sudden we get defensive, we get really hot. And then here’s the other thing, Sometimes we start trying to talk about some very deep and important issues with people that maybe the relationship is not really where it should be. And so what I’m talking about is when we start getting into these heavy topics, we have to start asking ourselves is what degree of closeness do I have with these other people? Is there trust wi with folks? And then also is the relationship safe? Cause I hate to say it, there’s some family situations where it’s not safe to bear my whole heart. It’s not safe to tell exactly what I really think because it’s not gonna be valued. And in fact I’ll just be hurt and wounded.

(06:15):

And so sometimes we just have to accept that maybe Thanksgiving dinner is not the appropriate time to talk about some of the biggest issues in life. We have to accept that. But then here’s something else. Because yeah, we try to start talking about these important things when we maybe don’t even see our relatives and family and friends maybe once a year. And we think that now we can just kind of fix everything when actually usually what we do is we mess everything up and then we say, Well, we’ll resume that next year. But then there’s this another issue that this is a particularly Christian problem and it’s something that we do, but also sometimes we’re perceived as doing a lot more. And that is this idea of Christian exclusiveness. So people who are not Christian, they see that what we don’t value, their opinion, their worldview the things that they hold dear.

(07:09):

And sometimes, and I’m gonna confess that there was a season in my life especially, I mean I can remember it very vividly or I didn’t, if someone was not a Christian, I don’t know, I just kind of devalued their opinion and lemme tell you why. Because I was like, they don’t know Jesus. And if they don’t know the creator, the universe, they don’t know the one that loves the universe or die the universe, how could they actually gimme something of value? And so here’s what happened. I got accused rightly so of being very narrow minded, judgmental, hypocritical. And then most of the time when people would want to talk me, and this is just Pastor Mike, come and clean here, people said, You know, don’t really care about me. You just want to convert me. And I said, Yes, cause I do care. And I would have this internal logic of why, to justify why I don’t really care about all the things that are important to you just cause I want to get you to that point of decision.

(08:13):

And I hate to say this, but it ended up wounding and hurting people more than doing any good. And I hate to say this, but sometimes even though we intellectually say, No, I don’t wanna be like that. No, I wanna be like Jesus. No. I want to be just love all people. Sometimes we really don’t care and we have to own that. So the question that we’re trying to answer today is how do we stay true to ourselves? How do we value and respect others? And how do we remain faithful to Jesus in all this? That we don’t lose our faith, that we don’t compromise our faith? And whether you’re a person of faith or not, maybe you’re just on the fringe and just interested in what Christianity has to say. I believe that what we’re gonna talk about today is very helpful. So we’re gonna dive into, if you have your Bibles, open ’em up open ’em, one of your phones.

(09:07):

I know it’ll be up on the screen, but we’re gonna dive into Matthew eight versus five to <affirmative>. Listen to these words. When Jesus had entered caper, a centurion came to him asking for help, Lord, He said, My servant lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, Shall I come and heal him? The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, go and he goes, and the one come and he comes. I say to my servant, Do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, Truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

(10:12):

But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there’ll be weeping and naing of teeth. Then Jesus said this to the centurion, Go let it be done just as you believed it would. And as servant was healed at that moment. I’m sure if you’ve been in the church a while, you might have heard this story before. It’s nothing new. But let’s just make some observations about this text. First of all, help me out. Who are the main characters here in this Matthew eight that we just read? Who are the Jesus is Centurion Well done. And this is a big thing because sometimes we forget who are we talking about? Okay, the centurion is as a Roman officer that is over at least a hundred different soldiers. And we say, Okay, yeah, that’s fine, but what does that really mean in Jesus’ time?

(11:15):

Here’s what it means is that we’re seeing a conversation between two people that had a completely different worldview, absolutely, completely different worldview. They’re just like you could be even further apart. Their politics were very, very different. Jesus being a Jew, living in Judea, saw that the Roman empire were occupiers. They had a very different religion, different faith, they had a different authority. Roman Empire is saying that, Hey Caesar is Lord and Judaism, they’re saying that we have a theocracy that we’re called to be this government that is led by God. We not only do they have different politics, we also see that there is different social status here because we don’t see any indicator that Jesus is a Roman citizen. So he’s just kind of the Romans. They see this as kind of a parasitic person that’s living in our land that we just tolerate you.

(12:12):

And again, Jesus sees the centurion. I mean he probably all his friend group, his family and everything taught that these Romans, they hate us just not really people. They’re just suppressing us and we need to rise up and come against them. I mean this is what the worldview was. Also, here’s what else we see different economic sta status. I am sure the centurion was a person that had some means that had some wealth. Jesus said that foxes have holes and birds have nest, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Extreme differences economically, there’s racial differences, instances ethnic differences. If we were to put it simply, we’re looking at two enemy people talking to each other. This is what it is. Here is the second part that I want us to ask about this story is that what is the story really talking about?

(13:09):

Now most of the time, and when I’ve preached this in the past, it usually kind of goes around lands where Jesus end and says about the faith of Centurion, that here we have this non-believer, that act that’s a non-Jew and he has this great faith and Jesus lifts him up. And we think that that is great. But today what I want us to do is to think about our differences in our relationships, family, workplace, wherever you find that you encounter people that have a different look on life, a different take on life than you. And let’s look at Jesus’s behavior, Jesus’s interaction with that person. So I’m gonna try to do it simple today I mind. So I’m gonna try to do things simple and I just want to give you some little life hacks, some little things that what would Jesus do, but really what would Jesus do in this situation that maybe would help you when you’re thinking about your family gatherings, when you’re thinking about those uncomfortable office Christmas parties and stuff that you have to go to.

(14:10):

I mean all those weird and awkward places that you really don’t want to go to but you are obligated to participate in. I’m hoping that this will help. The first thing that I see with Jesus in this text is that Jesus was fully present and emotionally available. And what I’m saying is Jesus was aware of what was happening in the other person’s life. Sometimes we talk this about active listening. So Jesus, this wasn’t in his own little bubble, this only about his own agenda, but he was available enough where the centurion could come to him, can approach Jesus and say, Jesus, my servant is sick. And Jesus connects with that need. Now I think this is something that’s so important because sometimes we don’t connect with needs at all. A lot of times we think we know what people need, we think what they know, what they need to say.

(15:02):

We think they need to know what’s in the opinion in our head that we can fix them. But Jesus was not about fixing anybody. He responded to what was right in front of him. And if you and I could just make that a discipline ourselves and say, You know what, when I’m seeing people, I’m not gonna be looking past the people and kind of say, Okay, you fit in this little category that I have, but I actually want to know you. I want to understand you. I want to see you, I want to value, I want to be fully present. In other words, have no hidden agenda. Now that’s really hard, dang, especially with our relatives because I don’t know about you, but when I go into some of my family gatherings, man I got a plan of attack. No, no, I’m serious because I know that they’re gonna push my buttons, they’re gonna tick me off. And there’s some things I’ve been wanting to say all year and I just got Thanksgiving to say it to their face.

(15:51):

And you know what? This is not what we’re supposed to do. So that means if you wanna be fully present, get rid of your agenda, get rid of your strategic tactics of how you’re gonna do and how you’re gonna get that relative on your side and then you’re gonna front that person together, get rid of all that kind of stuff, get rid of your scripts and actually start caring and valuing the people that are right in front of you. That’s what Jesus did. And I wonder what would happen if we actually just took this to heart and say, You know what? I’m actually gonna look at people that are right in front of me and listened to them and see them as human beings. Now here’s the other part, and this is honing into Matthew eight verses eight through 10. Jesus respected. Now this is hard for us the differences that the centurion had and even respected his no.

(16:50):

Cuz Jesus response was, Hey, I’ll go to your house. Hey, there’s a need. Jesus’s like default operation is when someone’s sick and someone says, Hey, will you come and do this? He goes to them and this person says, No, no, no, I don’t need you to come to my house. And he starts sharing a different perspective of what he did. And so I wonder what would happen if we would do that when we were fully present and we find out what’s going on and now we’re trying to make that bridge or that connection with people and we say to ourselves, Okay Jesus what would Jesus do? I think Jesus would allow that man, or he didn’t allow that man to be comfortable in his own skin. He listened and respected his position and he didn’t try to argue or convince me. He said, No, no, no.

(17:39):

If you could just let me in the door, your servant would be made. Well, Jesus didn’t do that. And I wonder what would happen if we would actually see and value someone else’s opinion, seriously value and say, you know what, that could actually work. And said, Oh man, you more on that was was not the response to say to Jesus but actually say, Okay, you have that kind of faith. I’m gonna respect that. I am gonna honor that. You see, and this is what Jesus did so perfectly and when I say he did it so perfectly he modeled it so well. It shouldn’t be so hard for us as Christians. We believe that Jesus is fully man and fully God, right? Some of God, I mean the whole mystery trinity thing that we have a hard time explaining, but we just accept it by faith.

(18:35):

But do you see how Jesus interacted with the centurion? He came to him as an equal, as one human being to another. He didn’t come in and say, Hey, who I am do who you’re asking this of. He didn’t do any of that. But what would happen if we Christians? Cause I’m talking to a primarily Christian audience, but then anyone else that’s different. If you see someone that’s different, you approach them as your equal one human being talking to another and put aside all the superior knowledge and all the stuff that we think that we have is put that aside and say, You know what? I just want to just have a meaningful relationship with you. I wanna spend this time, this dinner, this party, this thing, this with you and just enjoy being your presence. What would that look like? Even as church folks, man, we have a hard time with this.

(19:27):

I remember I was consulting with a church that was doing mission work in Africa and they were in Kenya and they go and they start working with this pastor and they get excited. They say, You know what? We’re gonna build this church for you. And the pastor’s like, Oh great, thank you for building this. This is a true story. And they say, Yeah, we’re gonna build this church, so thank you. I receive it brother. And so the church leaders go back and they just drew up the whole plan, very little communication with the pastor and say, And they purchase a steel building and they work out all the logistics, get the steel building sent to Kenya. Then they bring in all these people and they erect the building and they’re like, Praise the Lord man. We did this. We built a building, a church building in Kenya, Africa.

(20:07):

We saw the need of a pastor that had a congregation that didn’t have any building and now they have it. A year and a half later they go to the church and it’s empty and it’s clearly not being used. And they say to the pastor, he’s like, Where do you, what’s going on? He’s like, Oh, we meet at this building over here. And they go to this other building and it’s just like this building that’s made out of mud bricks and it’s packed. And they’re like, What’s going on? We built this church, this steel building with all the fancy stuff and everything that we fully paid for it. And yet everyone’s worshiping in this little hut with the mud bricks. And the pastor said, Well the primary occupation for all the men in this villages, that they’re brick makers and that steel building over there gets really, really hot.

(20:52):

But this brick really does good with the heat. And so all of a sudden this church who spent, I mean literally over a million dollars of all the logistics, everything to get this facility built, never asked what did the people need? Because they thought that they were the Americans, that they had all the answers and they knew what was best for the other person. They did not come as an equal. So what about you? Do you believe that you’re morally or spiritually superior than others? And are you quick to dismiss an idea or an opinion from the wrong kind of people? Let’s be honest. I I know how you talk. I’m your pastor. I do the same thing. I mean sometimes we have the wrong people in mind. We say there’s like them and I’ll hear from everyone else but this kind of person, what would happen if we truly respected the other people just as Jesus did with the centurion?

(21:56):

And then here’s the other thing that I think is really important that we don’t highlight enough. Conversion was not a requirement for the Centurion servant to be healed. In other words, Jesus said that you have to be a follower of me. He didn’t say that, you know, have to be a follower of Judaism. That was not a requirement that he was okay of just let that person say, Okay, you know what? I’m not here to fix you. And how many times we get into the people fixing business and then we wonder why people don’t like us and we wonder why we don’t get the invitation to the cool parties and why we gotta sit at the kitty table at the Thanksgiving thing. You know what I mean? We, why is that happening?

(22:43):

No hidden agenda. I think also I believe that Jesus surrendered to God’s timing and God’s timing is not our timing. And Jesus knew what his mission and purpose and focus was, which was to bring the gospel to the Jews first. But also Jesus knew the bigger picture, this gospel will be available to all people. Cause what we see is later on in the acts of the apostle, what we see, we see Roman officers come into faith. And so that, I think that’s a sobering reminding to us to say, You know what? I have to be fully available to God and to God’s plans and not my own. That means it’s kind of letting go of my agenda and saying, God, I trust you God, I trust that you’re working in that person’s life. And if they don’t convert and believe in Jesus under my watch, that is okay.

(23:30):

Again, it’s about judging what the appropriateness of this is. The other thing about respecting the differences of the centurion and respecting is no, I think this is really important. Matthew eight, verse 10. Now this is the middle of the passage that we read. It said, when Jesus heard, heard the centurion’s response, he was amazed. So when you encounter somebody that has a totally different worldview, I mean you think what the solution is, you think how to fix that problem is, and all of a sudden what they just come at you sideways. You’re like, Man, I did not see that coming. What do you do? What’s your reaction? Do you get defensiveness defensive? Do you get argumentative and say, No, no, no, no, no, no. This is how you’re supposed to do it. But what Jesus does is Jesus says, Wow, I’m amazed at this and I wonder what would happen if when we encounter a different idea, a different opinion, a different worldview, a different culture, whatever, any different that we would approach it with wonder and curiosity and appreciation.

(24:38):

What would that look like? You see, sometimes we get so thick in that our way, our flavor is the flavor is not the flavor of the month. This is the flavor of the lifetime and we forget there’s other things going on. And so one of the things that we talk about in our emotionally healthy courses is about, hey, with the wonder, if you encounter somebody that has a totally different opinion, maybe a totally different reading of scripture than you or a totally different practice, and you say, I wonder how they came to that conclusion. What would that look like? Actually have some curiosity, which means go ahead and have some dialogue about it. Start asking some questions. Show some genuine interests, not so that you can get some ammunitions to prove them wrong, but to really say what I want to know, How did you come to this?

(25:30):

What was your experience? I promise if you start doing that, if you start having some true wonder and some true curiosity and actually show some true appreciation of what’s value, what is happening in that person’s life, I guarantee you, no matter how far your differences are, it will bring you one step closer to each other. I promise you this will happen. If you have a difficult person right now in your life that you never see eye to eye, I guarantee if you start approaching them with wonder, curiosity, appreciation, things will change. Last thing that is I think is really important that we need to bring home is this, is that Jesus was able to recognize and celebrate God’s work in their lives. What Jesus did was Jesus actually expanded the boundaries of the kingdom of God. Think about it. I mean right now in this part of the Bible, he’s dealing with this in an Israelite crew.

(26:19):

You know what I mean? They have a very limited perception of salvation. They see that salvation is for us because salvation comes from the Jews. We’re waiting for the Messiah. We’re waiting to be free from the Roman empire. This is where it is. And what Jesus does is he broadens that. And it’s something that you and I should mean, this should be part of us. Because what we see in the gospel is this, is that all people are made in the image of God. And we believe that God’s grace is at work everywhere in our world. God is actively at work moving in the lives of all people. And so what Jesus did was when it is appropriate, and I think that’s the key thing to hold onto when it’s appropriate, name it, celebrate it. So here’s the problem, the temptation that we fall into, man, and I mean we fall into it a lot and this self confession is that we think that the Christian way of thinking or the Christian brand of whatever it is, whatever opinion in the world is, we think that that’s the only one. Or we think that God only works through the established boundaries of the church.

(27:36):

And why I say that is because usually when we think about church work, our default is we think the end game is to get people into church. Where for me my default is yeah, coming to church is part of it, but it’s so that you can go deeper in God so that you can go out and be the church out in the world. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, we think we limit everything to the church, to the building, to just the gathering. And forget that Jesus said, when you gather in my name out there, I am already there. I am already working. I’m already ministry again. The truth is that we’re all made in the image of God and the seeds of God’s kingdom has already been planet and scattered throughout the entire world. And so what we have to do then I believe is now recognize that and be willing to be a bridge with other people connecting the grace of God and talk about what is happening.

(28:32):

What Jesus did was, I mean Jesus in this case, he was planting some seed. I mean he was plowing some land because he gives this example the Roman centurion as a way of expanding their understanding of how far this kingdom of God’s gonna go because they had no vision for gentiles or pagans, idle worshipers to come to faith. There’s no vision of that. And Jesus starts the last words. He started saying it’s like, Hey, you know what? There’s gonna be a change here. Something’s gonna be different. And the things that you and I do a lot is a lot of what Jesus’s audience do did at that time. They alienate themselves from the outsiders cause they’re not like us. And Jesus was all about bringing down those walls of division and saying, Come on, we gotta connect. So I guess the question that we have to ask ourselves is this is what can we learn about life?

(29:36):

Or wait, let me even and rephrase that. Can I really? And you have to ask yourself this. It’s not your, I’m not gonna cuss today. You gotta ask yourself, I mean this, pull off all the facade and really ask yourself a real question. Can I really have a no stringing attached relationship with someone who does not have my beliefs? I think that’s the challenge. Cause if you really wanna be effective at extending God’s redeeming love and getting past that wall, that people say that you only care about me if I eventually come to faith or not, Can you get past that and get to the point of valuing every human being? Because every human being is made in the image of God and they’re deeply loved by God. And that means, I mean this is the litmus test. Can I really have a no stringing attached relationship with someone who does not or may never have my beliefs?

(30:34):

Am I still willing to be their friend? You gotta ask yourself that. Now, here’s the big reversal in this text that it should scare the hell out of you cuz it does me. The big reversal is, this is in verses 11 to 12, Jesus says, I say to you, many will come from the east and the west and will take their places as at the feast of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of God. So I mean all that audience, they heard this, Yeah, we’re gonna come, we’re gonna have our inheritance in that great banquet. Many are gonna come from all over the place, all the scattered Israelites from all over the world. And in verse 12, this is where Jesus just kicks you in a place you don’t wanna be kicked. He says this, He says, But the subjects of the kingdom, in other words, those that feel, that see themselves as citizens of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness where they’ll be weeping and naing of teeth, Many will come again.

(31:34):

All those that were coming, they thought that they were in, they thought that they were secure. They thought that they had everything. And this is the audience that was watching Jesus’ conversation with this centurion. And we see that the centurion had something right, even though he had everything wrong in terms of his race, his religion, his financial status, everything else was wrong. But on this point he had it right. Many will come, but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown out. We’re not Jewish, but we relate to this text a lot and we believe that we’re gonna be part of God’s big banquet. But how does that make you feel that many will come and those that think they have the right and have done everything, they’re the ones that have really missed everything. To me this is an invitation to humble myself, to really humble ourselves and realize where we are in the great scheme of things, that we’re all God’s children and we need God to save us. We humble ourselves and we surrender, but surrender to a place that we trust really, that God is working in the lives of others

(32:55):

And to trust that God’s grace is out there and it doesn’t have to be my way or my particular way of doing things. I just have to be available to make that connection and to see it, to affirm it, to appreciate it. Can I do that? I will tell you this as self confessions. I can’t do this on my own. It’s only by God’s grace working inside my soul.

(33:26):

And whether you’ve been a believer all your life, whether you had that moment at the altar, wherever it was, But let’s face it, sometimes we put some walls up in our soul and we get a little hardhearted and we don’t wanna listen to what God is saying. And I think God’s saying today, just come to me, humble yourself, surrender. Remember that? Yes, I did a great work in your life, all right up to this point. But there’s still more work to be done and I wanna shape you and make you into the person that I want you to be. Not who your family planned for you to be, not who your neighbors did or not who, what some Christian book told you to be, but you’re made the image of God. You’re called to be like Jesus. And you know what? There are people out in the world that maybe will never believe in Jesus, but they still have a right to encounter him and to know that they’re loved and valued. And that’s our first priority. That’s what we’re called to do. But you can only do that when you know that you’ve been loved and you’ve been valued and that God gave a no string attached offer to you and said, Hey, I’m giving you my life. So let’s just do some humbling God work right now and surrender and say, God,

(34:40):

As the holidays are approaching, I see <laugh> and how messed up I am. I see the brokenness in my family. I see the selfishness in the workplace and just the greed. God, I see just how judgmental I can be when I think about and talk about politics or voting and God, I confess that all that stuff that I think are so great and so important that I strive to uphold, they all fall short of your radical love and grace. And so today, Jesus, I come to you and I ask you to please forgive me. Jesus saved cause I can’t save myself. Jesus helped me to live cuz I can’t make these kind of choices and do what you would do on my own power. I need your Holy Spirit to fill me and transform me. Jesus, today I am yours and I thank you for saving me.

Hannah Hunter (36:06):

Hey beautiful people. This is Hannah Hunter. I’m the director of Digital Reach here at The Gathering Place in Palm Beach Gardens. Thank you for joining us this week we’re we love getting to share our journey in Christ and community with you. And if you’re in the Palm Beach area, we’d love to get to connect with you in person at our Sunday worship service at 1115. For more information about our community and faith, check out our website at thegatheringplacefl.org. Thanks for listening.