Nourishing Unity Through Grace and Embracing Diversity

1) "The parable of the elephant and the blind man illustrates the diversity of Christianity. And it shows how different Christians can experience God. No matter what they walk like, talk like, look like, think like, and come to us with. The beauty of this is that we must learn to embrace instead of brace for the different experiences of our fellow Christians. You see, everywhere we turn around or we look today, both in and out of the church, there's a scandal. There's a new revelation. A truth telling. A hurt. A pain or exposing or falling away. Some days I wake up, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, I'm wondering, who's next? Even within these walls, it's been a bumpy road at times over the past several months. Yeah, I'm talking about it. But I want to encourage each and every one of us today in this room. Although the road has been bumpy, the road ahead may be uncertain. I stopped by here to tell you this morning that no matter how uncertain it is, I'm certain it may feel Jesus is still the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow." [01:05:35] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Paul wants us to understand this wonderful word called grace. You see, if we focus on God's grace, we won't allow the differences. We won't allow the grievances. We won't allow the disappointments. We won't allow the shortcomings. We won't allow the mistakes. We won't allow the issues, the habits, the hobbies, the hangups to prevent us from coming together. We need to understand that the true gift and power of a relationship with God, is the understanding that if it had not been for the grace of God, where would I be?" [01:07:48] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "We must welcome and not war with each other. We must welcome but not war with each other. Verse 17 says, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of the righteous. There is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. When you look at chapter 14, the first four verses, he talks, Paul talks a lot about the fact that, hey, it's not up for you to look at how weak your brother or sister is, where you are strong. Guess what? Where you are weak, they are strong. That's how this thing works." [01:08:57] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "We must stand on God's grace. Not on business. Romans 14 and 18 says whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. I'm going to say that one again. Whoever thus serves Christ. Not you. Not me. Not the sick and shut in. Not those who need food in the pantry. Not the children's ministry. Whatever your likeness is. But those who serve Christ. Because that's what it's about. So as long as you are serving God, you're accepted. That's what he's trying to communicate." [01:15:06] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Grace is more than a brief utterance of words that we pray for that we that we announce before we eat a meal grace is something that we are to give people before during and after we dine with our brothers and sisters let me come to your pew again for a minute i won't stay long this is what mama and daddy and grandma and granddaddy did when you're cousins and your aunts and uncles and your sisters and your brothers came off the street for sunday dinner without a reservation we never had to worry about running out of food in my grandma's house growing up grandma had a two-meat minimum i'm proof of it didn't go you know you know how we are we all have family no she didn't come in here smelling like weed but grandmama said baby come on in here the table is spread the feast of the lord is going on i can smell the alcohol all on his breath he didn't think to sober up before he walked through mama's house like this daddy's house like this big mama said baby you know once you drink the lord's living water you'll never thirst again" [01:25:18] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Grace is one of the most powerful things that we can provide for each other because God gave it to us first life is hard enough to cope with and God is more concerned with us working together to and building each other up which brings me to my last point for the day we must release our will and accept God's will I'm gonna read it in Scripture because I don't want you to think I said it 1422 reads as follows the faith that you have keep between yourself and God say that again the faith that you have keep it between yourself and God they ain't getting it pastor they ain't getting it the faith that you have keep it between yourself and God and then he ends with the following says blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what other I mean for what he approves" [01:27:52] (78 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "When we welcome instead of war with each other when we stand on God's grace instead of business when we accept God's will for us to be graceful with one another when we do these three things we will find ourselves ready to nourish our brothers and our sisters regardless of who they are and what they come to this house with and we will nourish them with the same grace that God extends to us I'm going to end with the following look around the room and ask yourself this question when was the last time you shared a meal with your brother or sister whom you did not understand or know not your pew buddy not your ride or die Saint with your college educated self the brother or sister who's working at Walmart or Tyson or whatever gas station just to make it work I'm not talking about those that you actually get along with I'm talking about the people who you don't have a phone number for not the people follow on social media, I encourage you to try it sometimes because Jesus often ate with people who were not like him. And look where we are now. I thank God that he ate with people who were not like him." [01:31:19] (99 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)