Embracing Unity and Compassion in Christ's Community
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "We need to do what we can do. We need to try to do everything that we can do. We can't solve every problem, but we need to do what we can. And sometimes, it's just that God will bring you in contact with a need, and he wants you to do something about it. And so sometimes, what we want to do is we want to say, oh, my next door neighbor's having a financial need. You think the church can give him some money? Yeah, maybe. Maybe. But how about you? They're your next door neighbor. Don't you think we ever do that, that we try to hand off needs?" [01:02:54]
2. "We want to be a counterculture community that is doing works that are identifiable to help the poor. So how can we become this kind of community? And I'm out of time. So I'm going to end with this. We need to identify with Christ. Do they not blaspheme the very fair name by which you have been called? No matter how poor you are, probably, it'd be very rare. If you marry into a very wealthy family, you become a partaker in that family. I mean, if you're poor and you marry into a wealthy family, you become a partaker in the wealth of that family." [01:12:36]
3. "We should value everyone based on who they are in Christ and their value in Christ. It's often been said that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. And what was unusual for the church, the first century world didn't struggle with racism the way we struggle with racism today. It wasn't the same. There were blacks and whites and people from all over the world that were gathered in Rome. They saw Roman citizenship as elitism. If they were Romans, they felt like they were elite and superior to other people." [46:37]
4. "We want to be the kind of people, assembly, that are helping people. What uses it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith and he has no works, verse 14, can that faith save him? And we'll talk more about this, but there's a faith that's a saving faith. There are people that say they have faith in Jesus and they never act like it. I believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, there's not anything you can ever do to be saved. You understand that? There's no work that you can do that can earn God's favor." [59:46]
### Quotes for Members
1. "So the idea that every person has value and should have rights is a part of our Western belief. I mean, we believe that. So where did it come from? Aristotle, who is older than most of us here, Aristotle was very, very smart. And Aristotle said this, you can look at some groups of people and see they were born to be slaves. And we think, we hear that, we think, that's not right. But that everyone has worth and value is not common sense. Even today, there is an ongoing battle for the worth and value of a person." [01:04:39]
2. "We want to be a kind of church that it's full of mercy and grace, mercy and judgment. We want to be just. In Matthew chapter 20, verse 30, there were two blind men by the road. And as Jesus was coming by, they started crying out with a loud voice, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on us. have mercy on us, son of David. And what's interesting, they're not saying, as Jesus is coming, when we think about mercy and justice, they're not saying, Jesus, be nice to us." [57:14]
3. "So now in the church, you've got both groups. You've got these Hellenistic Jews. Hellenistic means they were Greek-speaking. So because of Alexander the Great had conquered before Rome, there were a lot of areas around that had developed and Greek had become the common language. So when the church was birthed in Jerusalem, there were Hellenistic Jews that had come in from around the Mediterranean area. And they had come in to the church. So now there's a division. There's this daily distribution of food that's taking place for the widows." [52:01]
4. "We want to be a community that exemplifies Jesus. I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it? We want to be a community of justice and mercy. So he begins right off the bat. He says, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. So what is that? Well, it's partiality. It's discrimination. He's saying, don't discriminate in your love. It's an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives." [45:16]
5. "We want to be a community that does what we can, because obviously, there's absolutely no way we can solve every problem and every need, right? You understand that? I mean, even the government can't do that. There's not enough money ever to solve every problem and every need. Who needs help with their house payment? Okay. Line up over here. Who needs help with your car payment? Line up over here. Who needs help with your cell phone payment? Line up over here. Who needs help with groceries, now that they've gone up 50%?" [01:02:09]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "We need to do what we can do. We need to try to do everything that we can do. We can't solve every problem, but we need to do what we can. And sometimes, it's just that God will bring you in contact with a need, and he wants you to do something about it. And so sometimes, what we want to do is we want to say, oh, my next door neighbor's having a financial need. You think the church can give him some money? Yeah, maybe. Maybe. But how about you? They're your next door neighbor. Don't you think we ever do that, that we try to hand off needs?" [01:02:54]
2. "We want to be a counterculture community that is doing works that are identifiable to help the poor. So how can we become this kind of community? And I'm out of time. So I'm going to end with this. We need to identify with Christ. Do they not blaspheme the very fair name by which you have been called? No matter how poor you are, probably, it'd be very rare. If you marry into a very wealthy family, you become a partaker in that family. I mean, if you're poor and you marry into a wealthy family, you become a partaker in the wealth of that family." [01:12:36]
3. "We should value everyone based on who they are in Christ and their value in Christ. It's often been said that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. And what was unusual for the church, the first century world didn't struggle with racism the way we struggle with racism today. It wasn't the same. There were blacks and whites and people from all over the world that were gathered in Rome. They saw Roman citizenship as elitism. If they were Romans, they felt like they were elite and superior to other people." [46:37]
4. "We want to be the kind of people, assembly, that are helping people. What uses it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith and he has no works, verse 14, can that faith save him? And we'll talk more about this, but there's a faith that's a saving faith. There are people that say they have faith in Jesus and they never act like it. I believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, there's not anything you can ever do to be saved. You understand that? There's no work that you can do that can earn God's favor." [59:46]
### Quotes for Members
1. "So the idea that every person has value and should have rights is a part of our Western belief. I mean, we believe that. So where did it come from? Aristotle, who is older than most of us here, Aristotle was very, very smart. And Aristotle said this, you can look at some groups of people and see they were born to be slaves. And we think, we hear that, we think, that's not right. But that everyone has worth and value is not common sense. Even today, there is an ongoing battle for the worth and value of a person." [01:04:39]
2. "We want to be a kind of church that it's full of mercy and grace, mercy and judgment. We want to be just. In Matthew chapter 20, verse 30, there were two blind men by the road. And as Jesus was coming by, they started crying out with a loud voice, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on us. have mercy on us, son of David. And what's interesting, they're not saying, as Jesus is coming, when we think about mercy and justice, they're not saying, Jesus, be nice to us." [57:14]
3. "So now in the church, you've got both groups. You've got these Hellenistic Jews. Hellenistic means they were Greek-speaking. So because of Alexander the Great had conquered before Rome, there were a lot of areas around that had developed and Greek had become the common language. So when the church was birthed in Jerusalem, there were Hellenistic Jews that had come in from around the Mediterranean area. And they had come in to the church. So now there's a division. There's this daily distribution of food that's taking place for the widows." [52:01]
4. "We want to be a community that exemplifies Jesus. I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it? We want to be a community of justice and mercy. So he begins right off the bat. He says, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. So what is that? Well, it's partiality. It's discrimination. He's saying, don't discriminate in your love. It's an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives." [45:16]
5. "We want to be a community that does what we can, because obviously, there's absolutely no way we can solve every problem and every need, right? You understand that? I mean, even the government can't do that. There's not enough money ever to solve every problem and every need. Who needs help with their house payment? Okay. Line up over here. Who needs help with your car payment? Line up over here. Who needs help with your cell phone payment? Line up over here. Who needs help with groceries, now that they've gone up 50%?" [01:02:09]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from May 27, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?