I want you to think back, if you can, to what it was like walking into church for the very first time.
Maybe into this church, maybe tonight is your very first time in church.
Maybe walking into a new church because you'd moved areas or something.
And that moment as you wander through the door and you kind of take in everything that's around you and the things that you notice.
So you might walk in and think, wow, what a fantastic carpet colour.
Or you might walk in and think, I really love the height of this.
Who put that fan up there?
Like just the different things that you begin to perceive.
And then as the service begins, you think, oh, I'm so glad this music is being played properly on an organ with a choir.
Or, you know, I'm really glad there's a band here and it's not being played wrongly on an organ with a choir.
Or, you know, I'm really glad that the guy up the front understands how church is supposed to be done and is wearing one of those robes.
And, you know, making sure that we all know that he's clergy and he's official.
And you notice different things that stick out.
You might think, you know, I'm really glad that the people here understand that church is serious on a Sunday.
You don't just walk into church and like, you know, you're Birkenstocks or something like that.
Not singling anyone out, okay?
Just as an example, as an example, you come in and you notice things that you like or things that you don't like.
Things that, you know, make you kind of comfortable.
Maybe things that are weird, like why are we facing the wrong direction in the building?
You come in and you notice different things.
But the question is, as you notice those things, what do you do with that?
Do you then think, well, I guess I'm going to have to change?
Or are you already beginning to come up with a plan of how the church can change to get in line with your correct and holy desires of what is good and comfortable?
Or are you already figuring, I know there's another church just a couple of blocks away, so maybe I'll go there and they'll be doing it the right way.
I mean, the way I like it.
What should change?
You or the church?
In Galatians, what we're looking at, there is these two churches, two groups of churches.
Paul has written to one group of churches.
That's the group of churches that he started, the Galatian churches, which is made up of Gentiles.
That's basically shorthand for everyone who's not a Jew.
The point is, they were basically a whole bunch of different nationalities.
They were from different places, different backgrounds.
They were pretty free compared to what was going on in the other churches.
Because the Jerusalem churches, which is the Peter, James and John churches, they were the Jewish churches.
They were the churches that had literally thousands of years of tradition shaping the way that they did church.
When they'd become Christians, they had all these things that they used to do when they met as Jews
that had kind of influenced and carried into the way that they were doing church.
Influences on things like the way that they dress, the way that they ate, the way that they met,
who was up the front, all that sort of stuff.
If you've got these two very different churches and what's going on is there's this clash.
There's this clash of culture and the question of who has to change.
There's this pressure in both directions of we're more right than you.
We're more holy than you.
You should do it like us.
But particularly for the Galatians, the churches that Paul's planted,
there's this pressure coming from the Jerusalem church, the first church, the original church,
the place where the church started.
There's this pressure coming from them to say, you've got to be more like us.
You've got to be more Jewish if you're going to be a genuine Christian.
So what does the gospel do?
The gospel that Paul's been preaching, the gospel that Paul is fighting for.
What does the gospel do for these two different groups of churches?
I mean, how does it make it possible for two completely different groups to function as one church?
Because that's kind of the point.
They are the one church.
They're following the same God.
They're depending on the same grace that God showed them by sending His Son to die on the cross.
That's the goal when you read through Scripture.
When you get to the right of the end in the book of Revelation,
the picture we get is a unified church, a church from all over the world,
a church that is incredibly diverse from every tribe, nation and tongue, but that's unified.
That's one as it seeks to worship one God by the same grace.
Even us here at St. Paul's, we have a heart to be that church that God is building,
to be that one diverse church, to be transcultural,
to reflect the rich diversity that surrounds us here in Chatswood,
here in Sydney, here in Australia and throughout the world.
We want to be a reflection of that diversity as a testimony
to the power of the gospel to transform us.
But the question that remains is,
how does the gospel transform us so that we can be that kind of unified diversity?
Because it sounds nice.
Everyone together makes sense.
Sounds like a great idea.
But how does the gospel actually enable people who like completely different things
to be church together?
Well, last week we were looking at the second half of chapter one
and Paul was working really hard to show us that his gospel message was separate,
not different, but separate from what was going on with the Jerusalem apostles in Jerusalem.
His ministry was different.
He got his revelation direct from Jesus.
And so it's strange that we begin this passage with him heading to Jerusalem
to meet with the apostles.
Last week he was really trying to make it clear,
I'm just doing my thing.
I mean, it's the same gospel, but I'm doing it over here
and they're doing it over there and I don't need them.
And then in this passage, we open up at the beginning there
and 14 years later, granted that's a bit of a gap,
but if the lack of approval was a badge of honour in chapter one,
it seems strange to now go up and present the gospel to them
as like needing some sort of stamp of approval,
some sort of official tick from them.
So why go now?
Let's have a look.
Verse one.
Ash read it out for us.
Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem.
This is his second visit.
This time with Barnabas.
I took Titus along also.
I went in response to the revelation
and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders,
I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.
I wanted to be sure I was not running
and had not been running my race in vain.
So Paul arrives in Jerusalem as a response to a revelation.
That's really important.
Paul's not being called into the principal's office here
because he's done the wrong thing.
This is not, you know, like a power move
where you've got to come in and justify what you're doing.
God's arranged this.
God has said, you need to go up there
and he's not there to defend himself.
I remember last week, the big shift for Paul with the gospel
is that he's not a people pleaser anymore.
The tick from these three men, Peter, James and John,
as important as they are,
doesn't actually matter for Paul personally.
So why is he going up?
It's right there at the end of verse two.
I wanted to be sure I was not running
and had not been running my race in vain.
Paul's not concerned that his gospel might be wrong.
He's already made it clear there is only one gospel
and his gospel came from Jesus
and the proof of it is in the transformation,
even in his own life.
The problem going on for Paul
was that as he's traveling around
to these different places preaching
that Jesus has died
and that he offers forgiveness for free,
that it's only by grace.
As he moves on to the next town,
to the next group of people,
there were these groups of Jews
that were kind of following him around
and they would come in just after Paul had left
and go, that message you just heard was fantastic.
It's changed your life.
This is what was going on in the Galatian church as well.
And go, it's great.
Jesus is great.
Now all you need to do to be really Christian,
to be proper Christians,
is be Jewish like us
because the church started with us.
So you want to be like us
because we're the original ones.
So just change a little bit.
Believe in Jesus,
but also be circumcised.
Also have your food laws like we do.
Also do the things that we like to do.
So they're preaching a grace plus gospel
and claiming that they were sent
by the apostles in Jerusalem,
claiming that they had their authority.
And so this little episode
that Paul's describing here in chapter two
is like this showdown
between those false teachers
that have been chasing Paul
and Paul's gospel.
And then you've got Peter, James and John
there to basically finally and fully tell us
which gospel is legitimate.
The result of this showdown, verse three.
Not even Titus who was with me
was compelled to be circumcised,
even though he was Greek.
This matter arose
because some false believers
had infiltrated our ranks
to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus
and to make us slaves.
This is why Paul bothers going to Jerusalem.
He doesn't care what these false teachers think.
He doesn't even care
what the real apostles think.
The issue is that if the gospel is lost,
it's the difference between freedom and slavery.
He cares for the church that he planted.
He cares that they don't lose this gift
that God has given them.
And so he goes up to present the gospel boldly.
And the result is
that not even Titus was compelled to be circumcised.
Now, Paul's kind of clever in what he does here.
He knows he's going up for a bit of a meeting
and he doesn't go by himself.
He takes two people with him.
They're there in verse one.
First, he takes Barnabas.
So Barnabas is another Jew.
So as soon as Barnabas walks into the room in Jerusalem,
everyone's like, oh yeah, he's a Jew.
Tick, he's one of us.
Fantastic.
And Barnabas can tell them
that he's witnessed the power
of what Paul has been doing in Paul's ministry.
But then as well as Barnabas,
he takes Titus.
Now, Titus is a Greek.
He's very not Jewish.
He hasn't been raised with Jewish traditions.
He doesn't understand how Jews do life,
let alone Jewish Christians do following Jesus.
For Titus, he just heard the gospel,
heard what Jesus has done
and accepted the grace of God.
That's it.
That's his Christian story.
He doesn't have all these extra Jewish rules.
And for him to stand in front of this group of Jews
means what they're talking about
isn't just an abstract issue out there anymore.
We can't just talk about whether or not
some people have to do these extra things
to be proper Christians.
We have to look Titus in the eyes and say,
if you want to be a Christian,
you have to be circumcised.
See, suddenly this becomes a concrete human issue.
The gospel is not about some vague points of doctrine.
It's not bullet points.
The gospel saves people.
And Paul wants the apostles to look Titus in the eyes
and say once and for all what the true gospel is.
Now, a quick side point that I want to just make for us,
stepping out of this for a sec.
This is a really important and helpful way for us
to engage with the issues that we engage with in the world.
As Christians, as we engage with things
and we argue for truth
and we speak into our culture about what God wants,
it's really important for us to engage with the people
who embody those issues.
When we just engage an issue,
it's really easy to slip into being harsh.
It's really easy to slip into being unloving.
It's really easy to forget
that this actually has emotional force
and weight as we speak about things.
But when there is a person,
a face attached to the issue that we're engaging,
people we know are created in the image of God.
People we know receive compassion
when they encounter Jesus.
And we know as Christians,
we are called to show compassion to people.
Not at the expense of truth,
but truth spoken in love.
Now, I'm just going to leave that there.
That's just a little side point.
That probably speaks into a whole bunch of stuff.
That you might be engaging,
but we're just going to park that for a second
as just a little helpful model that Paul gave to us.
But we're back in here.
In the presence of these Jewish apostles,
remember these are about as impressive
and intimidating as it can get
to be in a room with James, Peter and John.
And in their presence,
Titus listens to these arguments
from the false teachers
about what he has to do to be a Christian.
He weighs it against the gospel
that he has heard proclaimed,
the gospel that has powerfully transformed
him and Paul
and all the people in the churches in Galatians.
And he is not compelled.
That's a really important word in this passage
and in the life of any Christian.
He is not compelled.
In light of the fact that he knows
Jesus has died for him.
He knows that he can only be in God's family
because of God's grace and mercy.
Because of that,
Titus knows he is free
from any extra requirement.
He knows there is no extra hurdles.
And so he chooses
to not be circumcised.
Chooses not to jump through this hoop
that's being put in front of him.
What the gospel has done for him
and for us,
if we're Christians,
is draw a line,
create a distinction between
what is cultural,
that is,
what is the way we see things,
the way we do things,
the way we think about things,
and what is gospel.
That is unchangeable truth.
A line has been drawn
between what we must do,
the non-negotiables,
and what we have freedom to choose.
It's kind of like,
if you think about the beginning
when you walk into church,
it's the difference between
walking in and deciding,
you know what,
I don't like the music
or I don't want to praise God at all.
Now, because of who God is,
he demands praise.
That's not up for negotiation.
That's not up for grabs.
If you're following him,
the one who created the world
in his mercy,
chose to send his son
to take your punishment,
he is praiseworthy.
That's what Christians are.
They're praise givers.
That's a gospel thing.
That's not up for grabs.
If we were to take a vote,
you know,
who wants to praise God
when we gather?
I don't care what you vote
because the Bible says we do it.
How we do it,
if we were to vote on that,
you know,
like whether we use an organ,
whether we have no instruments,
whether we insist on drums only,
whether we sing loud or soft,
whether we do the same line
over and over and over again,
whether we have a different song
every week,
whether we only do songs
that are written by certain people
whose names start with
some certain letter
or whatever it is,
those are cultural things.
They're not bad,
but they're issues about
how we like it,
how we're used to it,
what we're familiar with,
what's comfortable for us.
And what the gospel has done
has made sure
that those two things
stay separate.
Now,
that doesn't mean it's bad
to have an opinion
about how you like
to do praising God.
That doesn't mean
it's wrong to say,
I prefer
when we do it
a certain way.
But what it does
is stop us
from taking that preference,
that comfort,
that thing that we like
and dragging it over here
and making it an issue
that we can't be together over,
an issue that we expect
other people to meet,
a requirement
that people have to fit
if we're going to consider them
brothers and sisters in Christ.
See,
for the Galatians,
circumcision
is a culturally Jewish thing.
It's what Jews do.
It's not what non-Jews do.
It's not a bad thing.
It's not an unchristian thing.
But it's just not a gospel thing.
And so,
basically,
the point is,
Titus can get circumcised
if he wants to,
but he just doesn't have to.
It makes no difference
to whether or not
he's a Christian.
Now,
the interesting thing is,
if you go to Acts 16
and do this in your community group
during the week,
Paul is in another situation
where this circumcision issue
comes up,
but he's travelling with a guy
called Timothy,
another one of his ministry partners.
And in that instance,
he decides to circumcise Timothy
for the sake of fellowship
with the people
that they're trying to minister to.
So you've got the same issue
and on two different occasions,
Paul makes two different choices
because he understands
that he's free to do that.
It's not a gospel issue.
He's choosing to do it.
And the point here
is that Christian freedom
is not freedom
for you to do whatever you want.
Christian freedom
is not a get out of jail free card
that means you can just be like,
no one can tell me what to do.
I'm going to do it my way.
The gospel
is the good news
that God has accepted you
on no basis of your own,
but because of his mercy
and because of Jesus' death.
And the result is
that you are now free
to choose.
free to choose
what parts of
your own culture
and the cultures around you
you will embrace
and which bits you won't.
But the question now is
not do I have to.
I mean,
when our cultures clash
and I'm using culture
in a really broad sense here,
I'm not just saying
that the ethnicity
or the country you're from,
if you live on the North Shore,
you're part of a culture.
If you're uni-educated,
you're part of a culture.
If you're into a particular sport,
you're part of a culture.
The things that shape
the way we think,
what we value,
that's what I mean by culture.
And the gospel is saying
you're now free to choose
which bits of the cultural shapers
in your life
you're going to hold on to
as non-negotiables
and which bits
you're going to choose
to either embrace in others
or deny in yourself.
But the question is,
how do we choose?
How does Paul choose?
It's there in verse 5.
How does he make the decision
here with Titus?
It says,
we did not give in to them
for a moment.
Why?
So that the truth of the gospel
might be preserved for you.
The truth of the gospel,
that's what's driving him here.
Will exercising freedom
in this occasion
preserve the truth
that God accepts people by grace
or will it confuse it?
Will it make it muddy
for other people?
See, for Paul and Titus,
this isn't just a fight
for Titus to not be circumcised.
They're not just trying
to win the day
or win the moment.
This is a landmark fight
for the freedom
of all of the Christians
in Galatia,
for us as Christians now
to make it clear
that you do not need
to fit Jewish cultural requirements
if you're going to follow Jesus.
You just need to trust Jesus.
gospel freedom,
Christian freedom
is freedom from compulsion.
It's the removal of things
that you have to do,
which means not just
the external things
that other people tell you
you have to do,
but also the things
that you think
you have to do.
One of my favourite things
about our church
is the cultural diversity
that we have in our church.
You don't have to look far
to see people
who have had
different background,
different upbringing,
different experience
of childhood.
But one of the issues
when we talk about culture
like this
and we talk about gospel
is that we primarily
think of culture
out there.
We primarily think
you have a culture,
I'm normal.
So the way you do things,
that's your cultural stuff.
The way I do things
is the way everybody
should do things
if they knew as much
as I do.
We don't recognise
that we have cultural
things that shape us.
It just doesn't feel
like culture
when it's the way
we've always done it.
And that's especially true
if you're the majority.
And so the risk is
we don't take our culture
and hold it up
to the gospel.
We don't take our culture
and look through
the lens of the gospel
and decide
what we need to keep
and what we need to let go.
And instead,
we take our preferences
and we elevate them
over into the gospel
issue category.
And so you need
to love Jesus
but you need to love him
the way that I love him
with a full band
or in a church
that faces sideways
or dressed a certain way.
The best example
I could think of
with this
and I'm no expert on them
but the Amish.
The Amish
are a particular
strand of religious group
that have kind of
identified themselves
culturally.
They dress a certain way
and they all dress
the same way.
They've decided
to reject certain things
like various technologies.
They don't shave
some of them.
There's all these
really specific
cultural distinctions
and those cultural markers
are what mark you
as in with them
or out.
If you don't tick
those boxes,
you're not in.
And these people claim
to be following Jesus.
And look,
some of them
might be trying
but the issue is
they've missed
this gift of freedom
in the gospel
that God has provided.
The gospel has set us
free from the compulsion
and instead
replaced what you have to do
with the choice.
That's what freedom is about.
He's given us the choice
to forego,
to give up
our own cultural entitlements,
to give up the things
the way we like them,
the way that makes it
most comfortable for us
and to accommodate
and embrace
the cultures around us
for the purpose
of preserving
the gospel truth
and proclaiming
the gospel truth.
It's not even about
how comfortable
it is for us.
The reason
we choose
to sometimes
let go of what we like,
to be uncomfortable,
is so that the gospel
truth might be clear.
Clear for the people
around us
who maybe get something
the way that they like
for a change.
Clear for us
because we can begin
to realise
that the way we like it
isn't necessarily
the best thing.
Jesus is.
Jesus anyway
is a good thing.
This is what
transcultural looks like.
We all bring
our cultural background
with us
and then we let
the gospel dictate
which bits stay
part of who we are
as a community
and which bits
we need to get rid of
and which bits
we choose.
That's the key word.
Which bits
we choose
to get rid of
for the sake
of being unified
in the gospel
of grace.
Which bits
will I let go
so that grace
might be obvious?
The gospel
set the Gentile
Christians
free from the
requirement
of becoming
culturally Jewish.
It basically said
you don't have to.
There's no compulsion
and therefore
what it did
was set them free
to choose to.
So someone like
Timothy can choose
to out of love
not just based
on what was convenient
but based on
what would preserve
the truth of the gospel.
What would declare
to the people around
what would best
show the security
he had in Jesus?
What would best
show that Jesus
is completely
satisfying?
And the answer
was giving up
what was his right.
The gospel
sets us free
so that our
diversity
might be an
opportunity.
The gospel
sets us free
so that when
our cultures
do clash
when we have
different ideas
about how things
should be done
how people relate
how we do church
whatever it is
we have an
opportunity
to choose
sacrificial love
and in sharing
discomfort
preserving the
truth of the gospel.
First thing
the gospel does
is set us free
from compulsion
the second thing
is it prioritizes
grace.
What the gospel
doesn't do
is remove
difference.
The gospel
is not
this big
steamroller
that just
gets rid
of any
difference
of opinion
and turns
us into
like you
know
vanilla
flavoured
church
community
where we
all like
the same
thing
like it
the same
way.
The parts
of you
that are
unique
and different
are an
expression
of God's
creativity
they matter
to him
but what
the gospel
does
is when
we find
these areas
of difference
it enables
us to focus
on what
matters most
what's most
important.
So remember
in this story
Paul is
visiting Jerusalem
to get the
gospel that
he's been
preaching
vindicated
against the
false teachers
he's there
to ensure
that his
churches
won't be
dragged away
from this
one good
news message
and he's
there to
connect
with the
Jerusalem
apostles
with Peter
James and
John.
Now on
what basis
does Paul
connect
with those
three guys?
I mean
let's just
think about
how much
they would
have had
in common.
They're
four Jewish
men
all in the
ballpark
of the same
age
all with
Jewish
upbringings
all probably
living in
roughly the
same area
trained in
Jewish
tradition
eating the
same foods
familiar with
kosher diets
certain holy
days to be
observed
and so
what basis
of their
commonality
does Paul
use to
establish
this
connection
with all
those to
choose from?
Grace.
Have a look
at verse 6
as for those
who are held
in high esteem
whatever they
were makes
no difference
to me
God does not
show favoritism
they added
nothing to
my message.
Now it
sounds a bit
like Paul's
having a
crack at
them there
but really
what he's
doing is
he's saying
unlike the
false teachers
who take
all their
authority from
these three
guys what
matters for
him is
the message
of the
grace in
the gospel
the message
of grace
in the
gospel.
On the
contrary
verse 7
they
recognized
they
had been
entrusted
to the
uncircumcised
just as
Peter had
been to
the
circumcised
for God
who was at
work in
Peter as
an apostle
to the
circumcised
was also
at work
in me
as an
apostle
to the
Gentiles
James
Cephas
and John
those
esteemed
as pillars
gave me
and Barnabas
the right
hand of
fellowship
when they
recognized
the grace
given to
me.
They agreed
we should
go to the
Gentiles
and they
to the
circumcised
the gospel
of grace
they didn't
add to
his message
the message
of forgiveness
offered by
Jesus to
people who
don't deserve
it that's
what mattered
most and
therefore
keep it
verse 9
James
Cephas
and John
those esteemed
as pillars
gave me
and Barnabas
the right
hand of
fellowship
when they
recognized
the grace
given to
me.
The official
warm embrace
because they
recognized
the grace
of God
in Paul
in his
ministry
they could
see God
at work
their ministries
were completely
different
one group
is trying
to unreligion
Jewish people
so that they
can discover
Jesus
Paul's walking
into people
who have no
idea about
who God
is and how
that works
and introducing
them to
Jesus
you've got
the quite
religious
church
over here
you've got
the kind
of free
church
who's trying
to figure
out what
they're supposed
to do
and how
they're supposed
to do it
there was so
much that was
different about
it but their
unity was
established on
what mattered
most
they both
received God's
grace
God was at
work in both
of them
personally
and in their
ministry
and so they
could see
in Paul
in his
life
transformed
and in the
fruit of his
ministry
that he
was a
brother
now
that's not
to say
that Christians
don't and
can't have
other things
in common
you know
these guys
had a whole
lot in
common
but what
came first
was grace
what the
gospel does
is prioritize
the most
important bit
grace
what the
gospel does
is create
the opportunity
for someone
like me
to have a
deeper
connection
with an
80 year old
retired woman
who was never
married
born in Africa
spent time
as a slave
never graduated
high school
but has been
transformed
by grace
the gospel
creates the
potential for
a deep
eternal
connection
with that
person
more so
than the
35 year old
father of two
who lives
next door to me
goes for the
giants
but doesn't
know Jesus
because
the gospel
is the
most important
bit
it doesn't
delete the
fact that
we're
completely
different
but it
prioritizes
grace
it brings
grace to
the front
and draws
unlike people
together in
the joy
and freedom
of being
forgiven
the gospel
frees us
from needing
things to be
the way we
like them
because Jesus
is enough
and so I
can delight
in singing
a song
that I've
never heard
of in a
weird tune
that makes
no sense
to me
with my
brothers and
sisters in
Christ
because it's
about Jesus
I can delight
in sitting
in a funny
direction
I can delight
in going and
talking to
somebody who
is nothing
like me
but who
shares the
same grace
of God
to be
forgiven
the gospel
frees us
to be able
to choose
to endure
discomfort
out of love
for God
and love
for our
brothers and
sisters
it sets
us free
from
compulsion
it
prioritizes
grace
so that
in our
diversity
the truth
of the
gospel
might be
preserved
and
proclaimed
I've
shared
with you
before
about an
older man
that I
was in
church
with once
he'd
been part
of that
church
for a
long
time
decades
and
decades
he'd
been an
elder
or a
leader
in the
church
for pretty
much
that
whole
duration
and he'd
been there
in the
days when
the church
was bursting
at the
seams
you couldn't
get a seat
and he was
around long
enough to see
the church
nearly closed
down because
it didn't have
enough people
the reason I met
this man and we
crossed paths
was because I was
part of a team
that got sent
into this church
to try and
revitalize it
and get it
going again
I was 25
and he was
about 75
spiritually
there was not
a lot of overlap
in our experiences
of following Jesus
and being fed
as Christians
except of course
the grace
that we both
discovered
when we heard
the gospel
he was a suit
and tie man
in church
I was a
jeans and
thongs
he preferred
hymns
on an organ
I prefer
newer songs
with guitars
and bands
we were more
different than
the same
but I learned
a lot about
grace through
being at church
with that man
I watched
as week in
and week out
he chose
remember
he was one
of the leaders
who invited
this random
group of young
Christians
to come and
change things
up
he chose
to forego
things that
had been part
of his
spiritual journey
things that
he'd loved
ways that
he was used
to doing
things
he chose
to give
up
comfort
in the way
church happened
every Sunday
to sacrifice
things that
he liked
so that
the truth
of the gospel
might be preserved
for people
like me
who were
nothing like
him
and for
people who
were all
around that
church
but had
never heard
of Jesus
he just
longed to
see them
walk in
the door
and encounter
Jesus
encounter the
grace that
he had
discovered
the gospel
set him
free
from having
to do
things a
certain way
and it
prioritized
grace
we are
a diverse
church
full of
cultures
and sub
cultures
and that
could be a
source of
tension for
us
that could
be a
source of
difficulty
in fact
if we're
honest
sometimes
that is
a source
of tension
for us
we want
things done
differently
we want
them done
more our
way
even if
we don't
use those
words
but our
diversity
could be a
gift from
God
because what
it does
is it
forces us
to be
transformed
by the
gospel
in how
we love
and serve
one another
what it
does is
force us
to recognize
hey I've
got a
culture that
I'm bringing
here
I've got
my way
of doing
things and
I need to
hold it up
to the
gospel
and until
somebody
challenged
me and
goes I
don't like
it like
that
I'll just
assume it's
the right
way
that's
why it
is a
gift from
God that
we are
surrounded by
people who
are nothing
like us
so that
maybe just
maybe we
might discover
that there
are things
that we
do and
think and
say that
are non
gospel
things
cultural
issues that
we have
elevated and
now we
expect of
one another
our diversity
is God's
gift
because
against
this
varied
backdrop
of
people
this
one as
well
we
might
see the
grace of
God more
clearly
and then
because we
see it
get to
live in
the joy
and freedom
that can
only be
found in
that grace
let me
pray for
us
Father God
we want
to acknowledge
that it's
easier when
we're all
the same
it's easier
when we
get it the
way that we
like it
it's easier
when people
want to do
things the
way we're
used to
having them
done
it's easier
to fall
into the
trap of
thinking the
way that
we've done
it is the
right way
God please
use the
diversity that
is in this
room and in
our church
to help us
to see
ourselves
through a
gospel lens
help us
to recognize
that grace
matters
help us
to see one
another with
grace first
help us to
not look for
hobbies to
connect over
but to begin
with the
truth that we
have been
forgiven by
the blood
of Jesus
God we
thank you
for setting
us free
for removing
compulsion
for giving
us the deep
security of
knowing that
we are
irreversibly
loved
God we
pray that
as people
encounter
our church
community
that the
truth of
the gospel
will be
loud and
clear
because of
the way
we choose
to sacrifice
out of
love for
one another
thank you
for Jesus
thank you
that he's
better than
any particular
way of doing
things better
than any
comfort or
familiarity
God help us
to hold on to
him to let
go of everything
else and to be
more satisfied
than we've ever
been
amen