Good morning, Watermark.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Eric,
and I am one of the guys here on staff.
It's great to be here with you today.
I want to start off by sharing with you a scene from one of my favorite movies.
I'm sure many of you have seen it.
It's called The Fellowship of the Ring.
Anyone seen it?
Yes?
Okay.
So in The Fellowship of the Ring, there's this scene, sort of close to the start.
They're in Rivendell, the home of Elrond.
It's okay if you don't know what these words mean.
But they have this meeting.
They have a gathering because they have a problem.
There's a ring, a ring of power.
And this ring is so powerful that whoever has it will be able to rule the world,
but it always draws that person towards darkness, and it is dangerous.
And they know that it is dangerous, and they know that this ring needs to be destroyed.
And they know that the job of destroying this one ring is far bigger than any one of them individually can accomplish.
And so they form this group of nine that will go to destroy the ring.
They call this group the Fellowship of the Ring.
And they form this Fellowship of the Ring to accomplish a mission that they have that is far too big for any one of them to accomplish on their own.
And I think when we look at the church, a lot of times we feel like, oh, you know, like, God saved us, and then he didn't want us to be bored,
so he gave us something to do to keep us from being bored for the rest of our lives.
And that's, you know, missions and evangelism and telling other people about him.
But I think when you look at the story of the Bible, it's actually the other way around.
It's a lot more like in the Fellowship of the Ring, that there is a mission that God has that is huge.
It's too huge for any one of us to accomplish on our own.
And so to accomplish his mission, God forms us as his people to go out and accomplish his mission in the world.
He forms us as a fellowship to go out and accomplish his mission in the world and sends us out, just like the Fellowship of the Ring is sent out to destroy the ring.
He sends us out into the world to tell others about him and to share about how amazing he is.
We call this mission, life on mission.
And last week, we started a sermon series on this idea of mission, looking at it from the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah, we saw last week that God sends out his call to the thirsty, to those who are looking for something to satisfy them.
God says, if you are looking for something to satisfy, come to me.
All who are thirsty, come to the waters and drink and find satisfaction.
And God calls us, if we are Christians here today, God calls us to go out to those in the world who are thirsty
and to offer them satisfaction in him.
And today we're going to continue talking about mission.
And we're going to look at it from another perspective, another group that God wants us to call out to.
And this group is the outsiders.
And so we're going to look at it, three points.
Number one, a call to missional holiness.
Number two, the mission of God.
And number three, a call to the outsiders.
We're going to start out with the call to missional holiness.
If we look at the first couple of verses of chapter 56, it says,
Keep justice and do righteousness, and soon my salvation will come and my deliverance be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Keep justice, do righteousness, keep the Sabbath, don't do any evil.
I think for a lot of us, when we look at commands like this,
there's this part of us inside that sort of bristles at this.
Because we, you know, we like God, we like Jesus, we like this message of love that he has.
But the idea of him telling us what to do in the 21st century can feel a little regressive to some of us.
It can feel a little oppressive to some of us.
Like, who is God to come in and tell me how to live my life?
Maybe we feel like John Lennon when he said, you know, Jesus was all right,
but his disciples were thick and ordinary.
It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
Basically, you know, this message that God wants us to love one another, that's great, I like that.
This whole stuff about having to obey him and live our life by a standard that he sets for us, not so much.
If we could just get back to that pure message that Jesus had of loving one another without having to obey,
then everything would be great.
But right here it says that he wants us to keep justice, do righteousness, keep the Sabbath, and keep our hands from doing evil.
And I think for a lot of us, we don't like God trying to tell us what to do with our lives.
But there's a problem with our way of thinking on a couple levels.
First off, this command isn't just about obedience.
It is about obedience in terms of not doing things that are wrong.
But it's much more than that.
When we see this phrase, do righteousness,
in the Old Testament, this idea of righteousness and this idea of justice,
it's not just an idea of avoiding what's wrong and punishing people who do wrong.
It's also an idea of identifying things that are wrong in the world and setting them right.
It's what we would think of maybe more as social justice,
a pursuit of what is good and what is right,
not just avoiding the bad, but pursuing actively the good,
chasing after loving one another.
And although we have this tendency to split the world into my private life where I can do whatever I want
and the public world where there's neighbors and stuff like that,
God doesn't dichotomize life in that way.
For God, we are one person.
We're not a separate person when the door is closed and when the door is open and everyone's around.
We are one person.
And the choices and decisions that we make in our private lives
are going to impact the way that we act in public.
And so this call that God wants us to keep our hands from doing evil,
to keep justice, to do righteousness,
it is a call to obedience,
but it's a call to obedience for the sake of love
because we cannot truly love our neighbors as God wants us to
if we are not living our lives according to the standard that God calls us to.
I'll give you a couple examples to illustrate what I'm talking about.
So, we look at the world and we see issues like sex trafficking.
And we're like, that's a bad thing.
I don't think anyone in here would say, like, that's a good thing.
And we say, we need to do things to stop sex trafficking.
Maybe we can have a documentary screening like we did here last week
to raise awareness and get people aware of what's happening in this world of sex trafficking.
And we need to have rallies to call for the stop of it
and to call for legislation to make it stop.
And we can fight for all these things and they're good things to fight for,
but if we go to these rallies and we host these documentary screenings
and then we go home and watch pornography,
we're actually helping spread sex trafficking
because the sex trafficking industry is spread and fueled by the pornography industry.
And what we do in our actions in public, saying we're against it,
and what we do in our actions in private,
doing actions that push for it to be spread,
they're opposite.
We can't truly fight for this justice
and try to love the victims of sex trafficking
like God wants us to
if we're not willing to live our lives according to God's standard
when it comes to what we're doing in the privacy of our own bedrooms.
And so God's call to us to missional holiness
is this holistic call for us to live all of our lives
as people who are in pursuit of him,
avoiding the wrong, pursuing the right.
And not just as a legalistic,
okay, I've done this, now I'm better than you.
No, not at all.
That's not the spirit of this at all.
The spirit of this is,
God gave this command to the nation of Israel.
And he said,
if you will follow me,
if you will live life the way that I'm calling you to live life,
the nations around you will see that.
And they will see this beautiful way of life.
He actually says that if you live according to the standard that I set for you,
he says this back in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, somewhere back there.
He says, if you live according to the standard that I set for you,
there will be no poor in your land.
They will be provided for,
they will be taken care of,
you won't have people starving on the streets,
and the nations around you will see that
and see that it is beautiful.
I want you to follow me because when you follow me,
the life that you will live is a beautiful life.
And the people around you will see that beautiful life,
and they will want that beautiful life,
and they will be drawn to me.
That's the heart of God when he gives this command to the Israelites
in Isaiah chapter 56.
And it's a call that applies to us today as well.
God wants us to keep justice,
to do righteousness,
to keep the Sabbath and avoid evil,
not so that we can check off a list and say,
I've done all these things.
But because when we do these things,
this holiness of our lives
actually serves as a way
of making the people around us
see how good and beautiful
the God we follow is.
Because it's a different way of life.
It's a pursuing of the good.
And it's something that people around us
will see as beautiful.
Yes, avoiding the things that are evil,
but also actively pursuing the things that are right,
identifying what's wrong with the world,
and actively trying
to set those things right.
There's a little story that I have
that I think illustrates this.
Back in the 1930s and 40s,
there was a mayor in New York City
called LaGuardia.
You've probably heard of the airport
named after him.
I don't know if he was a Christian or not,
but this story sort of illustrates this idea
of identifying what's wrong with the world
and seeking to set it right.
Mayor LaGuardia,
he was a very good mayor.
He fought against corruption.
He would join the police on their raids
to try and break up the mob.
He would ride around the city on fire trucks.
He would take orphanages to baseball games.
When the newspaper went on strike,
he went on the radio
and read out the comics to the kids
so that they could still have the comics.
He was loved and respected around the city.
And this one night,
in January of 1935,
he walked into the courtroom,
and he told the judge on duty,
you can have the night off.
Don't think you can get away with that today.
But in 1935, apparently you could.
And he told the judge,
you take the night off.
I'll sit in and hear the cases tonight.
So after a couple minutes on the bench,
this tattered old lady comes up to him.
She's on trial for stealing a loaf of bread.
And she says,
please, sir,
my daughter's husband left her.
My daughter is sick.
My two grandchildren are starving.
I was just trying to provide
a way for my family to eat.
Yes, I tried to steal the bread,
but I was doing it
because I care about my family,
and I don't want my grandchildren to starve.
The baker who had been robbed
was sitting there,
and he refused to drop the charges.
He said, you know,
this is a bad neighborhood.
This is one of the poorest neighborhoods
in New York City.
If we let her get away
with trying to rob me,
then everyone else is going to try to rob me,
and I'm going to be out of business,
and I'm going to need to rob people too.
You need to hold her
to the standard of justice,
Mayor LaGuardia.
And the mayor said,
you know,
this man is right.
The requirements of justice
say that you have to face a punishment.
You either have to pay a $10 fine
or spend 10 days in jail.
And as he said this,
he pulled out his wallet
and grabbed a $10 bill
and dropped it into his hat in front of him
and said,
here is the $10 fine,
which I now remit.
And additionally,
I'm going to charge a $0.50 fine
to every single person
in this courtroom
for living in a city
in which this woman
has to steal bread
to feed her family.
Mr. Bailiff,
please collect the fines.
So they sent around
the bailiff
to collect the fines,
and they handed the woman
$47.50
with which she could go out
and provide for her family,
including $0.50
from the shopkeeper
who she had tried to rob.
And the courtroom stood up
and gave Mayor LaGuardia
a standing ovation
because they said,
this,
what you have just done,
this pursuit of justice,
not just in punishing her
for doing what was wrong,
but trying to fix the situation
that required her
to do that in the first place,
that is beautiful.
It's not just about
holding people accountable
for the wrong things
that they do,
but also looking at
why did they do that,
what are the social conditions
that led them to do that,
and how can we actively work
to change those social conditions
so that they don't have to do that
in the future.
That is the lifestyle
that God is calling us to
in this passage.
Keep justice,
do righteousness,
keep the Sabbath,
avoid evil.
And when we live this way,
this lifestyle is beautiful
to the world around us.
You know,
we sort of probably
also look at this passage
and say,
what's the Sabbath doing in there?
But in reality,
the idea of keeping the Sabbath
encapsulates the rest
of these ideas
of keeping justice,
doing righteousness,
avoiding evil.
Because when we have
the type of trust in God
where we are able
to take one day a week
and rest
and count on Him
to provide,
that's going to spill
into other areas
of our lives as well.
And again,
this idea of keeping
the Sabbath,
I'm not going to go
too much into it
because Bernard spoke on it
two weeks ago
and you can go back
and listen to his sermon
if you want to learn
more about Sabbath.
But this idea
of keeping the Sabbath,
it's not just a command
for the sake
of keeping commands.
Again,
it's a command
to love our neighbors.
Why is that?
Because bosses
who check email
at 3 a.m.
and send out emails
to their employees
at 3 a.m.
expect their employees
to also be on their email
at 3 a.m.
bosses who never rest
expect the employees
who work for them
to never rest.
Bosses
or parents
or managers
who have the confidence
in God
to take one day per week
to just rest,
to just rely on God
to provide,
are going to allow
the people who work for them
to also take that
one day a week
to rest,
to rely on God
to provide.
And it's going
to be a way
for us to serve
and love our neighbors,
another way
for us to show
the people around us
the beauty of the God
that we worship
and serve.
And so God
calls us
to live
this missional
holiness lifestyle,
a way of
taking
what He
has created
in the world
and showing people
a beautiful way
to live life.
And not just
a beautiful way
to live life,
but a beautiful way
to live life
that points them back
to the beautiful one
who gave us
that way to live.
He wants us
to live
as a people
who are known
for missional holiness.
But who does He want us
to take this message to?
Who does He want us
to reach out to?
That brings us
to point number two,
the mission of God.
In verse three,
He says,
let not the foreigner
who has joined himself
to the Lord
say,
the Lord will surely
separate me
from His people.
And let not the eunuch
say,
behold,
I am a dry tree.
He specifically says
right here,
he wants this message
to go out
to foreigners
and to eunuchs,
which to us
may seem strange,
but to the ancient Israelites,
these two groups
of people
were known
for being outsiders.
Historically,
if you look at each
of the groups,
we'll start with
the foreigners.
They were excluded
from the Jewish community.
Yes,
God wanted them
eventually
to be included.
He wanted Israel
to live in such a way
that their lifestyle
would draw the foreigners
to come and join.
But they were excluded.
There is a Jewish prayer
that's prayed
even to this day
by the men
when they wake up.
And it says,
God,
I thank you
that you did not make me
a foreigner,
a slave,
or a woman.
The women have
their own version
that basically says,
God,
I thank you
that you did not make me
a foreigner,
a slave,
and that you've given me
the joys of being a woman
or something like that.
But there's a standard
Jewish prayer
to this day
that says,
God,
I thank you
for not making me
a foreigner.
The foreigners
are excluded.
The foreigners
are looked down upon.
Even if you jump ahead
to the book of Acts,
you'll see a story
about the apostle Paul
being arrested
because the Jews
thought that he had
brought foreigners
into the temple.
Foreigners are excluded.
Foreigners are not
allowed in
to God's house.
Foreigners,
that's most of us
here today,
I'm guessing.
by the Jewish standards
of this day
when these words
were spoken,
were second-class citizens,
outsiders,
not seen as people
on the same level
as the Jews.
But God says,
that's going to change.
He says,
to the foreigners
who join themselves
to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name
of the Lord
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps
the Sabbath
and does not profane it
and holds fast
my covenant,
these I will bring
to my holy mountain
and make them joyful
in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices
will be accepted
on my altar
for my house
shall be called
a house of prayer
for all peoples.
He says,
you foreigners
who have been excluded,
you are going to be
welcomed into my house.
You who have been
looked down upon,
you are going
to be welcomed.
And he says,
this may not really
click with us,
the significance of this,
but he says,
their sacrifices
will be accepted.
Now why is that
so significant?
Because as humans,
we have this problem
of sin
that separates us
from God.
And in the Old Testament
under the temple system,
the only way
to have your sins
forgiven and taken away
was by going to the temple
and making a sacrifice
to God of an animal.
And when the animal
was sacrificed,
you would be forgiven
for your sins.
Which means that
if your sacrifices
are not accepted,
you don't get forgiveness,
you don't get acceptance
by God.
God's saying that
he will accept
their sacrifices,
our sacrifices,
I guess,
since most of us
are foreigners,
is God saying,
I will accept you.
I will bring you in
as part of my people.
I'm not going to look
down on you.
I'm not going to see you
as a separate group.
I'm accepting you.
I'm welcoming you.
Come.
He also speaks here
to the eunuchs.
Now eunuchs,
again,
are a group
that in ancient Israel
were outsiders.
Deuteronomy,
chapter 23,
verse 1,
bans eunuchs
from coming to worship
in the temple.
And there was a historian
around the time of Jesus
named Josephus
who wrote down
just a brief statement
about the way
that eunuchs
were seen in his day.
He says,
let those that have
made themselves eunuchs
be had in detestation.
This is a big word
you don't hear very much.
And avoid any conversation
with them
who have deprived themselves
of their manhood.
Let such be driven away
as if they had killed
their children
since before the children
were born
they lost the means
of having them.
He says,
if someone is a eunuch,
you should avoid
talking to them.
You should treat them
like you would treat someone
who has killed
their own children.
Quite a harsh statement
against people
who are eunuchs.
And the even worse part
is that not only
did they have this shame
to carry around
during their lifetime,
but as eunuchs,
obviously,
they were not able
to reproduce.
Which means that
there was no chance
of their memory
living on.
There was no chance
of there being
future generations
to carry on their name,
to rewrite their story.
They lived their one life
in shame and disgrace
and when they died,
that was it.
And God says,
that is not going to be
the story for the eunuchs
anymore.
He says,
to the eunuchs
who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things
that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house
and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons
and daughters.
I will give them
an everlasting name
that shall not
be cut off.
He says,
I'm going to give them
a name better
than children.
I'm going to welcome
them into my house.
They're not going
to be banned.
They're not going
to be excluded.
They're not going
to be outsiders.
They're going to be
welcomed.
And he says,
they will not be
cut off.
I don't know
if you noticed this,
but this passage
right here has
some amazing promises
to those in the church
who live as singles
and commit themselves
to celibacy
or to those in the church
who are married
and unable to have kids.
Because God's telling us
that our standing
as his people
is not dependent
on our ability
to reproduce.
It's dependent
on our relationship
with him.
And so the fact
that we don't have kids
doesn't make us
second-rate Christians.
No, we are all
the people of God.
We are all
a family of God.
And God has
a unique place
in his family for us
where we are able
to serve in ways
that people with kids
can't serve.
And God welcomes us
as his people.
God is excited
to have us
in his family
if we are single
or if we are married
with no kids.
That's just a side note.
But God welcomes
the foreigners.
God welcomes
the eunuchs.
God welcomes
the outsiders.
He says,
the people
that society
has rejected,
I want them.
The people
that historically
have not been able
to stand before me,
I want them
to come.
I'm not out
just for the worthy.
I'm not out
just for those
that everyone looks at
and thinks they're great.
I'm out
for those
who are outsiders.
Which brings us
to point number three,
a call
to the outsider.
Because if God
is interested
in reaching out
to the outsiders,
that means
that God
is interested
in us
reaching out
to the outsiders.
My question
for us today
is who are
the outsiders
in our world.
It's really tempting
to just give a list.
There are certain groups
that the church
generally looks down
upon today
that we could
roll them off
of our minds
of people
who are ostracized
by the church,
people who
have a hard time
fitting in
if they show up
at church.
I was really tempted
to list off
a couple of these groups,
but I received
some good wisdom
from some friends
who said,
Eric,
remember,
if you do that,
you make it seem
like some group
is worse
than another group.
And that's not true.
The reality
of the situation
is that all of us
are outsiders
before God.
All of us
have chosen
sin
that separates us
from God
in our lives.
All of us.
sin
and there's no one group
that's a little better
or a little worse,
a little more severe
or a little less severe sin.
The fact is,
sin is sin.
Sin makes us guilty.
Sin separates us
from God.
And in God's eyes,
all of us
are born
as outsiders.
And if we're honest,
we can all see
glimpses of this
even just in the way
that we live our lives
on a social level.
Right?
If we're in middle school
or high school,
we feel like we need
to have the best
social networks,
profiles,
so the people around us
can look to us
and say,
like,
that's a cool guy.
If we're new in a job
or new in a social group,
we try and find
the influencers there
and get on their good side
so everyone else
will like us.
Maybe if we feel like
friends aren't
including us in stuff,
we'll get really
passive-aggressive.
You know,
you're a jerk!
I hate you!
Is something wrong?
No!
You're my best friend!
Or maybe we'll drop
hints about it,
like,
you know,
you really,
you really sound like
you're going to have
a great birthday party.
You know the one thing
that would make it better?
If I was there.
Too bad I can't be.
Didn't get an invitation.
Right?
We know
from the way
that our social interactions go
that all of us
at times
feel like outsiders
and feel like
there are things
that we need to do
to be accepted
and to be on the inside.
And the thing is,
all of that
social pressure
and feeling
of being an outsider
is merely a shadow
of the fact
and the reality
that in
the relationship
that we have
with God,
we are alienated
and we are
outsiders.
it's not just
a figment
of our imagination,
it is the reality
of the situation.
That all of us
have rebelled
against God.
But the good news is
that God
wants us
as his people.
God calls
to each of us.
You know,
the Bible tells us
in Isaiah 53
it says that
each of us
like sheep
have gone astray
and we've chased
after our own desires
rather than God.
And yet Jesus comes
and listen
from Isaiah 53
about the things
that he said,
just three chapters
in front of the one
that we're looking at today,
the things that Jesus
went through
so that we no longer
have to be outsiders.
in chapter 53
verse 3
it tells us
that he was despised
and rejected
by men
so that we
can be accepted
by God.
In 53
5
it says that
he was wounded
for our transgressions
and pierced
for our iniquities
so that we
don't have to be.
In 53
9
it says
they made
his grave
with the wicked
although he had done
no violence
because we had
and someone
had to pay
the price
for us
to be accepted.
You know
we talked earlier
about this idea
of missional holiness
Jesus is
the ultimate example
of what it looks like
to live
this life
of missional holiness.
Not only
perfectly obeying
every one
of God's laws
his entire life
but also
at the end
of his life
laying down
his life
to set right
what was wrong
in our relationship
with God.
When we want
an example
of what it looks like
to live
with this missional holiness
Jesus is
our perfect example.
He did
what was perfectly right
but didn't settle
for that
as if it was enough.
No,
he also pursued
setting to right
what was wrong
in the world
so that God
can welcome in
us
the outsiders
into
his family.
God
if you're here
today
and you're
not a Christian
my encouragement
to you
is that God
is calling
to you
today.
You've spent
long enough
being an outsider
from his family
and he wants
you
to come
to him
today.
He wants
to welcome
you in.
Despite your sin
Jesus has come
and paid
the price
so that you
can be
accepted
by God
and you
no longer
need to be
an outsider.
Will you
come running
to him?
If you're here
today
and you're
a Christian
God is also
calling you.
See you
were once
an outsider
but now
you have been
welcomed in
to God's
family
and now
God wants
you to go
out and reach
out to the
outsiders
in your
world.
So who
are the
outsiders
in your
world?
Maybe a
good first
step
question
to ask
yourself
is just
who are
the
non-Christians
that I
interact
with
on a
regular
basis?
Maybe
co-workers
maybe
friends
maybe
people
from
your
club
or
your
sports
team
the
people
that
you
just
see
on
a
regular
basis.
But
then
let's
take it
one
step
further.
Who
are
the
people
that
you
see
on
a
regular
basis
but
you
don't
really
see?
Maybe
it's
the
janitor
at your
office.
They
come in
and they
take out
the trash
every day.
You
see that
same
face
every
day
and you
still
don't
know
that
person's
name
even
though
you've
seen
them
every
day
for
five
years.
Maybe
it's
the
person
after
church
standing
at the
table
by
themselves
just
waiting
for
someone
to
say
hi
and
welcome
them.
I
don't
know
who
it
is
in
your
life.
But
God
has
placed
people
in
each
of
our
lives
so
that
we
can
connect
with
them.
And
when
we
look
at
people
like
janitors
and
say
you
know
I'm
on
a
different
level
socially
than
them.
They're
an
outsider
I'm
in.
I
can't
interact
with
them.
what
we're
saying
is
God's
desire
to
welcome
the
outsider
doesn't
matter
to
me.
I
care
more
about
my
social
status
than
I
do
about
loving
my
neighbor.
But
the
truth
is
that
God
reached
out
to
us
when
we
were
outsiders
and
he
wants
us
to
reach
out
to
the
outsiders
around
us.
One
more
step
further
in
this
idea
of
reaching
out
to
the
outsiders.
Who
are
the
people
in
your
life
that
you
feel
are
beyond
salvation?
Who
are
the
people
that
you
look
at
and
you
say
oh
them?
Yeah
I
don't
think
God
would
really
be
interested
in
them.
Because
the
truth
is
that
those
are
the
people
that
God
is
calling
us
to
reach
out
to
today.
Jesus
died
to
welcome
the
outsider
there's
no
group
that's
more
or
less
worthy
of
his
love.
All
of
us
are
unworthy
and
all
of
us
are
welcomed
freely
only
as
a
gift
of
grace.
And
when
we
put
ourselves
in
God's
shoes
and
say
this
person
is
unworthy
of
hearing
the
gospel
what
we
do
is
we
say
I'm
better
than
you.
I'm
more
deserving
than
you.
But
let me
ask a
question.
who is
the
worst
sinner?
The
prostitute
who comes
and sells
her body
because that
is the
only way
she knows
of to
provide
for her
family.
Or the
Christian
who looks
at her
and based
on her
profession
decides that
she's not
worthy of
hearing the
gospel.
who is
the
worst
sinner
in that
situation?
Jesus
calls us
to reach
out to
the
outsider.
He did
it.
He set
the
perfect
example
of it
in his
life.
And now
he calls
us to
do it
as well.
And he
gives us
a promise
that as
we go
we don't
need to
be afraid
because the
success
of our
going
is not
dependent
on the
expertise
of our
presentation
but on
the
faithfulness
of God.
When we
share the
gospel with
others we're
not going
as experts
who have
all the
answers.
We're
going as
outsiders
who have
been welcomed
in and
are offering
someone else
another
outsider,
another chance
to be welcomed
in in the
same way
that we
have.
And in
chapter 56
verse 8
God promises
I will gather
yet others
to him
besides those
already
gathered.
He says
I'm going
to take
care of
this.
People
will come
when you
share the
gospel.
My family
will grow.
Outsiders
will be
welcomed in
as long
as you
are willing
to go
and share
with them.
And so
if you
are a
Christian
here today
God calls
you reach
out to
the outsiders
in your
life.
Don't
ignore them.
Don't
overlook
them because
you think
you're better
than them.
But go
to them.
Share
with them.
Show
them the
beauty
of
Jesus.
He has
promised to
take care of
the results.
But he calls
us to live
on mission
as a group
that he has
formed for the
accomplishment
of this
mission.
He says
go.
Live lives
of missional
holiness.
Reach out
to the outsiders
because I love
them and I want
them to come
to me.
I want you
to be my
hands and
feet.
Welcome
them into
the family.
Will we
do that?
Let's pray.
Father we
thank you for
your love for
us.
We thank you
that you
are good
and you
are faithful
and that
you give
us grace
that we
don't deserve
that when
we are
outsiders
you called
to us
and you
welcomed us
into your
family.
God I
pray that we
would be a
people who
live lives
of obedience
to you
not just for
the sake of
keeping the
rules but as
a way of
showing the
world around
us how
beautiful of
a God
you are
and of
inviting them
in to
join your
family.
God I
pray for
those who
are here
today who
don't know
you that
they would
come running
to you that
they would
find a
place of
welcome and
a place where
they don't need
to be an
outsider anymore
in you.
I pray for
those who
are here
today that
know you
that we
would live
lives of
faith telling
those around
us about
you and
how great
you are
trusting you
to be
faithful with
the results.
God we
love you.
In Jesus
name.
Amen.