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Good morning.
I'm Julie Brown and I'm part of the Tuesday Night Community Group and Women Reading Women.
Today's scripture reading is from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, verses 1 to 4, 8 to 13, and 23 to 34, as printed in your liturgy.
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
Rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness,
shown to a man who is lame, and are being asked how he was healed,
then know this, you and all the people of Israel.
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead,
that this man stands before you healed.
Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,
they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people
and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.
You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.
Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in the city
to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Lord of God boldly.
All the believers were in one heart and mind.
No one claimed any of their possessions as their own, but they shared everything they had.
With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.
This is the word of the Lord.
Good morning, Christ Church.
It's a joy to start with some good news here that Ali and Tyler Britton have brought home their baby boy,
Matthew Thomas Britton.
And so we give thanks to God and we praise God for the gift of life,
the joy of walking alongside Tyler and Ali and helping them raise this child up in this church.
Well, we're exploring the Acts of the Apostles, and why are we doing that?
We're doing that because we want to get a sense of genuine Christianity.
What is authentic, original, real Christianity?
And last week, we met this man who had been lame since he was born for over 40 years,
but he was healed.
He was made whole by the power of Jesus, resurrected and reigning in heaven.
And we're told that he began walking and jumping and praising God.
And then Peter began to proclaim the power that had healed him from his lameness.
And what we see at the beginning of this text is kind of following on that story,
is that this message of Jesus, the message of the power of the resurrection,
it creates two basic responses.
We can see in verse 4 that many people heard this message and they believed,
and they committed themselves publicly to the life of the church as an expression of their faith.
And then there's this other group in verses 2 and 3,
they responded to this message in the opposite way.
They responded with unbelief.
It says that they were disturbed by the message.
They were annoyed by it.
And so they began to act, in this case, they began to act to stop it
by seizing Peter and John, throwing them in jail, putting them on trial.
I think we all know that if you're trying to get to know who someone really is,
if you're trying to get to know what a group of people is really like,
it's one thing to be with them when the sun is shining and all is well.
You're on vacation.
There is no stress.
But it's a totally other thing to see the real heart of a person,
to see the real character of a community when we're put under pressure,
when the heat is dialed up and the stress is piled on.
How do we respond?
Well, like squeezing a toothpaste tube, something's going to come out.
And the question is, what is it?
Is it going to be good?
Is it going to be bad?
And what is it that comes out of Jesus' disciple community
as they're being squeezed in Acts chapter 4?
And I want us to think about what are the marks of a living church,
a healthy church, a biblical church,
that lives faithfully even under stress and under pressure.
And so I'd like for us to consider three marks of the church this morning.
I want to talk about a spirit-filled boldness,
a confident prayerfulness,
and a unified graciousness.
If you're taking notes,
a spirit-filled boldness,
a confident prayerfulness,
and a unified graciousness.
Let's think for a minute about a spirit-filled boldness.
Anytime we read a great work of literature,
it's important to pay attention
when the author is repeating key words or key phrases.
And you'll notice in verse 8,
it says that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit,
and then he says it again in verse 31,
the church is filled with the Holy Spirit.
And you'll also notice in verse 13,
it says they saw the courage,
or the boldness of Peter and John.
And then down in verse 29,
it says they pray that they would speak God's word
with great boldness.
And in verse 31,
it says they spoke the word of God boldly.
Now, if the church had tried to live out her faith
and carry out her mission by her own resources
and her own abilities,
she would have failed and failed spectacularly.
But these first Christians said,
you know, yes, we've been filled by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
but we know that we need to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit,
as Paul says in Ephesians 5.
We need to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit
to ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit,
to seek the power of the Holy Spirit.
And why do they seek for that?
Why should we seek for that?
Well, because we need courage.
We need boldness to say things and to do certain things.
If you think with me for a minute about our favorite Berkeley bumper stickers
and the kinds of things that they tell us to do,
here's some of my favorites.
Subvert the dominant paradigm.
Question authority.
Resist.
Speak truth to power.
These are the kind of things that the church is being called upon to do in this moment.
The Christian message and the Christian mission is being challenged by the authorities
and Peter is needing courage to challenge the challengers.
And you'll notice in verse 13, it says,
when they saw the courage of Peter and John
and they realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,
they were astonished.
And they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
See, the Holy Spirit filled these Christians with the same courage that Jesus had
when he would go out to the helpless and the hopeless with God's power,
when he would talk to the skeptical and the critical with God's truth,
they were filled with the same courage of Jesus.
It's clear that Jesus' courage is being reproduced in Peter and John by the Holy Spirit.
And the question is,
how can we have Jesus' spirit-filled boldness reproduced in us today?
Well, think about for a moment what's the opposite of courage.
The opposite of boldness is fearfulness.
It's timidity.
It's cowardice.
And that, I think, would be the natural response in this moment
when the authorities who've just crucified Jesus a few months before
have now put you in jail and put you on trial.
And we remember when Jesus was arrested,
what happened to Peter?
Peter fell prey to fear.
He fell prey to cowardice when he denied Jesus three times.
And so, without the Holy Spirit, without courage in this moment,
it would be so easy for Peter to fall into that yet again.
But when the Holy Spirit fills Peter fresh,
and when the Holy Spirit fills us afresh,
he transcends our abilities and he transforms our inabilities.
And what he does with Peter here is he gives Peter freedom.
He gives Peter confidence and conviction.
He gives Peter assurance and authority to speak gospel truths
that people did not want to hear and that people,
even today, still don't want to hear.
And what do I mean?
Well, listen to what Peter says in verse 10.
He says,
Now, there are at least three essential but unpopular Christian doctrines here that people just didn't,
want to, and still don't want to hear.
And the first one is the doctrine of sin.
He says in verse 10,
You crucified Jesus.
And this reminds us that the good news always involves bad news.
That the human condition is so fallen.
Our human nature is so corrupt.
That when the one that God approved came to us,
we rejected him.
And that means,
by definition of being human,
each and every one of us are complicit
in this cosmic miscarriage of justice.
That we stand guilty
before the judgment of God.
Peter has the boldness to say in verse 12,
You must be saved.
That all people,
no matter who you meet,
they're in a plight and they're in a predicament
from which we cannot save ourselves.
We need a Savior.
And what Peter's saying is that you have a problem
that's so great,
the only way for God to deal with it
was for his son,
Jesus,
to die on the cross.
No wonder Peter needed to be filled
with the Holy Spirit
because it takes courage
to speak in such a way
as to bring people under a conviction
that they see their need
to be saved from their sins.
But there's a second essential
but unpopular Christian doctrine
that Peter speaks about here
and it's the doctrine of resurrection.
In verse 10,
he says that God raised Jesus from the dead.
That when God powerfully raised Jesus
from the dead on Easter Sunday,
he showed that Jesus' death on the cross
really did atone for sins.
That Jesus really is the one
who took our sin upon himself
in order that we might have his righteousness.
And this doctrine is another reason
that Peter needed to be filled with the Spirit
and filled with courage
because no one had ever seen
or even heard of or experienced
a resurrection in the middle of history before.
People had their defenses up.
A dead man walking
was just outside of their plausibility structures
of what was possible.
And they were skeptical.
They were critical.
They found a resurrected Jesus
hard to accept into their working paradigm
of reality.
Now those first two are challenging,
but this third one's really challenging.
This third essential
but unpopular Christian doctrine
that Peter speaks about,
we could call the doctrine of Christ alone.
And he says, verse 12,
that there's only one way,
there's only one means,
there's only one person
by which human beings
can experience salvation.
Again, hear it in Peter's own words.
Verse 12,
salvation is found in no one else
for there is no other name
given under heaven
by which we must be saved.
And that was a radical,
provocative statement in that time.
It also, in our day,
stands diametrically opposed
to both postmodern relativism
and religious pluralism.
And people read that
and they say,
well, how arrogant.
How exclusivist,
how narrow-minded,
how triumphalist.
We find this verse
a shocking and implausible claim
that's quite difficult to accept.
And so you'll hear many people say
that either all paths to God
are equally valid and viable
or there is no God
and there is no path.
But let's just examine that for a moment.
What Peter says here
is the inevitable
and inescapable implication
of the claims that Jesus
made for himself.
And I'll give you a few of them.
This is from the Gospel of Luke,
chapter 19.
Jesus said,
the Son of Man came to seek
and to save the lost.
Jesus says in that statement
that human beings are lost
and they're in need of being saved
and he says,
I'm the one who's come to save them.
I and I alone am the Savior.
That's straight from the words
of Jesus' mouth.
Or in John,
the Gospel of John,
8, 9, and 12,
he says,
I am the light of the world.
Whoever believes in me
will not remain in darkness.
Jesus says that darkness-loving humans
need light
and I and I alone
am that light.
He goes on in the Gospel of John,
John 14,
he says,
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.
If you look at Buddha,
if you look at Confucius,
if you look at Socrates
and Muhammad,
did any of these people
ever claim
anything
even remotely close
to what Jesus said?
I think if you look at the record
of history,
they did not.
So if we assess them
on the basis of their own claims,
we cannot say
that they're all on the same level.
After Jesus
rose from the dead
on Easter Sunday,
he said to his disciples,
this is again in Luke chapter 24,
he says,
this is what is written,
the Messiah will suffer
and rise from the dead
on the third day
and repentance
for the forgiveness of sins
will be preached in his name
to all nations.
All the nations.
You see,
Jesus,
when he says that,
he refuses to sit in a row
with other founders
of world religions
or other great thinkers
of the past
because he has made claims
that none of them
ever dared to make,
which is that he conquered death
and he can forgive sins
and he and he alone
can do that
and that implies
that Jesus is not only unique,
Jesus is supreme
and superior.
If you embrace
postmodern relativism
and religious pluralism
and you say,
no one should insist
that their view of God
is better than the rest,
what you said
is true,
it could only be true,
first of all,
if there just is no God
or second,
if God is such
an impersonal force
that he doesn't care
what any of our doctrinal beliefs
are about him.
So as you say that statement,
that there's only,
there can only be one way,
no one should insist
that their view of God
is better than the rest,
if you say that,
you're assuming by faith
a very particular view of God
and you are pushing it
as better than all the rest,
which is the very thing
you're saying
that people should not do.
To say no one should insist
that their view of God
is better than the rest
is itself a very white
and western view
based on European
enlightenment's idea
of knowledge and values.
But the question for you today
is why should that
one particular view
be privileged
among all the other views?
You're basically saying
whether you've read him or not,
Immanuel Kant's take
on knowledge,
truth,
and spirituality
is right.
And the Jewish way,
the Christian way,
the Buddhist way,
the Muslim views
on these things
are all wrong.
But that seems tolerant
on the surface,
but it's actually
just as exclusive
as the Christian claim.
What you've done
is you've inserted
your construct of reality
as the right one
and you've thrown
all the other ones out
as wrong.
And so I just want to
appeal to you
to think about it.
Just sit with these
essential but unpopular
doctrines of the Christian faith
and just think about it.
What if I'm wrong?
What if Peter's right?
What if Jesus is right?
What if Jesus' claims are true?
What if he's ultimate reality?
What if I'm not in line
with ultimate reality?
That's the challenge before you.
That's the challenge
that Peter has put
before these people.
Get in line
with ultimate reality.
He had a spirit-filled boldness.
There's no way
he could have said that
without the Holy Spirit
filling him
with boldness.
And we can't do it either.
Well,
the second mark
I want to focus on
is a confident prayerfulness.
And I think this is
where the spirit-filled boldness
came from
is a confident
prayerfulness.
When you look at this story,
the authorities,
they realize,
okay,
I think we've got
a problem here.
This Christianity thing
is a problem.
And this message
is going to begin
to infect
many, many more people
unless we
go about
some sort of containment.
And so,
they try to contain
the infection
with raw power
and with intimidation.
And so,
they command the church
not to speak
or to teach
anymore
in the name of Jesus.
And this is really
the situation
of many, many Christians
around the world
today,
right now,
that they're facing
similar threats
that if they speak
in the name of Jesus,
they'll not just be arrested,
but they'll be flogged.
They'll be put to death,
which if you keep reading
the Acts of the Apostles
is what happens.
The next chapter,
they're flogged.
A couple chapters later,
they begin to be put to death.
Here in Acts chapter 4,
the Christians,
it's the first time
the Christians realize
some of us are going to die.
Some of us right here
in this congregation,
we,
we're going to have to die
for our faith.
And so what do they do?
Well, here is the,
I think we find the best test
of a profession of faith,
which is the test of trials.
The test of,
of tribulations and troubles.
What do we do
when our life
and our faith
come under fire?
And the ultimate test,
I think,
of our profession of faith
is what is our prayer life like
when we're being tested?
And what do these first Christians
show us about how to pray?
And I want you to just look
at verse 23.
It says that
on their release,
Peter and John
went back to their own people.
They reported all
that the chief priests
and the elders had said to them.
And when they heard this,
they raised their voices together
in prayer to God.
Sovereign Lord,
they said,
you made the heaven
and the earth
and the sea
and everything in them.
These are the characteristics
of true prayer
that are put before us,
before these,
by these people
who are being threatened
with extermination,
with death,
with the end of their lives.
And what we notice,
first of all,
is their calmness.
Notice their quiet,
assured confidence
with which they speak.
They're talking
to a person
that they know
and a person
that they love.
You know,
we too are living
in turbulent times,
right?
We're living in a world
on fire,
a world in crisis.
We're living
not really sure
if we're honest with ourselves
what's going to happen next.
But the question for us
is do you know
how to pray?
Do you know
how to talk
to this person
that you know?
Do you speak
confidently with him?
Do you lift up
the whole
of your situation
in which
you are involved
to him?
Because that is what
authentic Christians
do.
And I want to,
I want to say
that you don't
have to wait
until your pastors
are thrown in jail
to begin to pray
this way.
You can do it,
you can do it today.
Some of you
are dealing
with hard circumstances
in your life,
in your family,
in your work.
Do you know
how to pray
your way through those?
my wife and I
are going through
a difficult
and stressful
situation
right now
with our
extended family.
But thank God
we're not alone.
Thank God
we're not left
to our own
resources.
Thank God
that we can raise
our voices
in prayer
and say
Lord
do you confidently
come to this God
that you know
who's a living God?
He's a living
person.
He's a God
who acts.
He's a God
who knows
where we are.
He's a God
who knows
what our circumstances
are.
He's a God
who's able
to do something
about them.
Do you say to him
Lord?
Because that's
what they say
in verse 24.
They say
sovereign Lord
you made
the heaven
and the earth
and the sea
and everything
in them.
They acknowledge
him as the
creator
and the sustainer
and the ruler
of all things.
They affirm
his absolute
transcendent power.
They say
your might
and your authority
is limitless.
You're the king
of the universe.
You're the high king
of heaven
and there is
no sphere
including my
troubled sphere
right now.
There is no sphere
of created reality
that is not
under your control
in heaven
or on earth
or in the sea
none of the creatures
in any of those
places.
They're all
under your
dominion.
And to quote
the Dutch
theologian
Abraham Kuyper
he said
there is not
a square inch
in the whole
creation
of our human
existence
over which
Christ
who is sovereign
over all
does not cry
mine.
The essence
of true pair
is to take
your terrible
and terrifying
circumstances
directly
with confidence
and assurance
to this
sovereign Lord.
Do you know
him like that?
Do you turn
to him
in this way
in your hour
of need
in your hour
of trial?
Do you pray
to him
not just as
the creator
and the sustainer
and the ruler
of all things
but this church
begins to pray
to him
as the revealer.
He's the one
who's revealed
himself.
He's revealed
his purposes
because he's
spoken
by the Holy
Spirit
through his
servants
who wrote
the Bible
like Moses
and like
David
like the
prophets
and the
apostles
and here's
what they
say in
their prayer.
They say
you spoke
sovereign
Lord
you spoke
by the
Holy Spirit
through the
mouth of
your servant
our father
David.
This is
Psalm 2
wide of the
nations rage
and the
peoples plot
in vain.
The kings
of the earth
rise up
and the rulers
band together
against the
Lord
and against
his
anointed
one.
You see
the church
is quoting
this God
inspired
God
authored
Bible
back to
God.
They're quoting
Psalm 2
they're quoting
this prophecy
about the
Messiah
that was
written about
a thousand
years before
the birth
of Jesus
and when
they say
it there's
just a
calmness
and there's
a confidence
to their
praying
because they
not only
know their
Bible
but they
know the
God of
the Bible
and they
know this
God who's
brought the
Bible to
focus and
fulfillment
in his
Messiah.
David said
why do the
nations rage?
Why do the
kings of the
earth rise up?
Why do the
rulers band
together and
plot against
the Lord and
scheme against
his anointed
king who's
going to bring
justice and
peace to
the earth?
You see
Psalm 2
is about
God's
king who
will be
targeted
by
conspiring
enemies
and yet
he will
emerge
victorious.
That's why
they chose
that psalm.
These first
Christians are
pouring out
their hearts
to this
living God
the God
of Abraham
the God
of Israel
the God
of the
universe
who's shown
time and
again that
the empire
of Egypt
is nothing
to him
the kingdoms
of Babylon
are nothing
to him
this God
who's
continually
acted and
intervened
on his
people's
behalf
this God
who has
shown that
nothing
absolutely
nothing
is impossible
for him
that even
though the
nations rage
even though the
peoples rebel
against him
everything
is under his
control
he is sovereign
he has a
plan and you
know what's
happening to
their fears
as they pray
that and
remember that
they're melting
away in the
presence of
God
and then
they say
in verse
27
indeed
Herod and
Pontius Pilate
met together
with the
Gentiles and
the people of
Israel in
the city
to conspire
against your
holy servant
Jesus whom
you anointed
they did
what your
power and
will had
decided
beforehand
should happen
you see
their prayer
acknowledges
that even
the apparently
disastrous
things
that took
place as
Jesus went
to the
cross
were not
outside
of the
will of
God
the
wickedness
of
these
rulers
is held
in check
by and
it's contained
within the
overall purpose
of God
who makes
even human
wrongdoing
turn to his
praise
and what the
church is
realizing in
this moment
is that the
Lord of
creation
and the
Lord of
revelation
is also the
Lord of
providence
and the
Lord of
redemption
and they
say to
themselves
what a
horrible
thing
that Jesus
should be
crucified
but also
we realize
that if that
had not
happened
then our
sins would
not have
been wiped
out and
we would
never have
come to
know the
living God
and they
say the
cross of
Jesus
the death
and defeat
of the
Messiah
proved to
be God's
secret weapon
for redeeming
sinners and
redeeming this
world and so
if God
exerts absolute
control over
his universe
and if he
could bring
such goodness
out of the
absolute
terribleness
of Jesus
cross
well then
surely he
can take
care of
me
surely he
can take
care of
us and
our trials
and our
troubles as
well
and so they
pray in
verse 29
now Lord
consider their
threats and
enable your
servants to
speak your
word of
great boldness
stretch out
your hand
to heal
and perform
signs and
wonders through
the name
of your
holy servant
Jesus
I gotta admit
that is not
what I would
have prayed
they don't
pray Lord
give us
safety
and comfort
and protection
which is what
I think I
probably would
have prayed
they don't
pray Lord
cause our
enemies to
die horribly
which is what
I sometimes
want to pray
they don't
pray Lord
please stop
them from
being so
unpleasant
or Lord
let this
persecution
stop and
change our
circumstances
rather quite
simply they
pray now Lord
look on their
threats let us
go on speaking
your word
boldly and
will you please
continue to
work powerfully
and when they
say that what
they're saying is
the Lord of
creation and
the Lord of
redemption is
the Lord of
the church and
the church's
mission Lord
we know that
the opposition
is there they
always have been
there they're
always going to
be there but
we also know
that we're here
too and we
want to be
faithful we
want to speak
boldly of
Jesus so that
more and more
people in this
city can come
to know him as
the Savior that
he truly is
even if that
puts us in
risk even if
that puts us
in danger and
Lord we also
want you to
demonstrate your
saving power and
keep radically
transforming people's
lives so that it
will be clear that
you're doing a new
thing in Jesus
see the church
needs to learn and
every generation
what it means to
pray with confidence
such God
centered
scripture
saturated
Christ
glorifying
prayers
I don't know
about you but
I read this
prayer and I
feel like I
could probably
grow a little
bit in my
prayer life
we could
probably grow a
little bit
in our prayer
life
the church
needs again
and again
the sense of
God's powerful
presence
shaking us up
filling us up
with the Holy
Spirit
and giving us
this same
confidence that
really only comes
through prayer
and that's the
second mark of
the church
a spirit filled
boldness
a confident
prayerfulness
and I just want
to say one
brief word here
at the end about
this final mark
a unified
graciousness
a unified
graciousness
I think
you're probably
aware if you've
studied much
history that
from this point
on over the
next 300 years
the church will
be persecuted
more and more
intensely
and yet also
over these next
300 years
the Lord will
sweep about
half of the
Roman Empire
into the church
and that's
amazing because
here's this
church that
is making
these most
exclusive claims
about Christ
and yet
she's also
being experienced
as the most
inclusive community
that the Roman
Empire or the
world had ever
seen
and the reason
for that
inclusivity is
that the church
had a radical
lifestyle the
church was this
countercultural
community that was
strikingly different
than everything else
and it was
strikingly attractive
and here's why
it says in verse
32 all the
believers were one
in heart and
mind
no one claimed
that any of
their possessions
was their own
but they shared
everything they
had with great
power the apostles
continued to
testify to the
resurrection of the
Lord Jesus and
God's grace was so
powerfully at work
in them all that
there were no needy
persons among them
the church was one
in heart and mind
absolutely unified
which is the exact
opposite of our
society right now
polarized partisan
just divided as it
possibly could be
the church was
together one heart
one mind and what
united them was the
grace of God it was
the grace of God that
had caused each and
every one of them to
be reborn into this
family where all of
them called God
Abba father that's
why they were one in
heart and mind and
the the work of the
grace of God was so
powerful in their
lives it was so
powerful in their
midst that they were
being transformed by
that grace they were
becoming a gracious
people and they were
becoming so gracious
that they said to
people outside of
their own flesh and
blood outside of
their own biological
families they said to
people who could not
be more different than
them they said we're
going to be spiritual
family you are my
sister in Christ you
are my brother in
Christ come here
because I want to
share with you my
time I want to share
with you my money I
want to share with you
my food I want to
share my support with
you whatever I have
is yours and they
gave away their money
so that if any of
them was in need the
church was meeting
that need because they
were the family of
God and they were
loving one another in
acts of love and I've
seen this and I've
experienced this so
many times right here
in this church and so
I just want to
encourage you if you're
new to our church if
you've been a part of
our church for a
little while but you're
not yet part of a group
in this church you just
kind of come on Sundays
and then you come back
the next Sunday I want
to encourage you to
join a community group
as they launch next
month because these
groups are the places
where we live this way
our groups are places
where we can belong in
inclusive community
where we can express the
unity of knowing God as
our father where we can
pray for God's grace and
power to be unleashed in
our lives where we can
live like God's family
to support and care for
each other's needs
spiritually relationally
practically where we can
encourage one another to
live out this unified
graciousness this radical
generosity isn't that
isn't that what you want
isn't that what we need
may God give us the grace
to live like the original
Christians to live authentic
Christianity in the name
of the Father Son and Holy
Spirit amen