BLESS, Part 4: Break Dividing Walls

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at thelookout.church.

So good to be with you.

If this is your first time to the Lookout, again, we welcome you.

We thank you for spending your morning with us.

My name is Luke.

I'm just going to share from the scriptures in a little bit here.

And we hope that you feel loved.

We hope that you feel welcome and a part of what God is doing.

We are kind of hitting that, you know, the midway through the summer mark.

And we say midway, uh, like Amy said, next week we're not holding a gathering here.

Um doesn't mean church is canceled, church is moving to the mountains and we're just not having a service here.

You can show up to Amy's house, like she said.

Have fun with that, Amy.

Um otherwise, you know, uh otherwise, a couple other encouragements.

We'd encourage you to go visit some other churches in the area.

If you're not planning to come and camping with us, find some other churches.

You guys need to know that we love the other churches.

We love other pastors in Boulder.

Even this week, um, we gathered several pastors, a handful of lead pastors from across the region up in our prayer room, and together we join together to bless each other and bless what God is doing all over Boulder County.

And uh and you need to know that because we're not competing with another.

We are one body, okay?

And so it may be that next week you need to go worship with somebody else, and when you're there, you need to bless them, you need to pray for them, you need to cheer them on, you need to find some people and give some encouraging words because they probably need it, all right?

Um, if you are able to come up uh over the weekend, you can come join us on Saturday up at Beaver Meadows.

The instructions, uh the directions uh are online at the lookout.church slash connect.

Um so you can come uh join us um neck next Saturday.

That would be awesome.

But we're going to the mountains because we live in Colorado.

Why don't churches go to the mountains, right?

We've been doing this the last few years, and there's something about spending quality time with each other uh for a few days.

So that's what we're doing next week.

And it every year it's a it's a time of deepening our relationships, learning each other's stories at a whole new level, getting our hands sticky with marshmallows, the whole thing.

And uh that's what we do.

So uh sound good?

All right.

Um, so uh I if you have your Bibles this morning, I want to encourage you to open up to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And I'm realizing I may have given the media guys the wrong scripture.

It's Ephesians 2, 13 through 17.

So, Grace, can you put in Ephesians 2, 13 through 17?

And while I'm buying you time, oh it's there.

Okay, there's it.

No, that's not it.

That's Ephesians 3.

Let's do Ephesians 2.

I'm gonna call that my bad, alright?

It's not her fault, it's my fault.

I'm gonna own this one, alright?

It's on me.

Um Ephesians 2, 13 through 17.

Um we've been in a series the last few few weeks called Bless, and we do have this conviction, you know, that especially as we're coming into the summer, one of the tendencies we have as a people is to kind of check out.

You hit June, especially in in Colorado, and everyone, you know, this can the calendars fill up pretty quick.

We kind of see it as a time to vacate.

Let's get out of town, right?

Let's go do something else.

And uh let's check out.

But I just want to encourage us as a people, as a church, that um we do take times of rest.

We do take times for fun.

We're doing that next week as a church.

My family, we go up to the mountains as well.

But the summer, and and for for those of us in the body of Christ have been given to Jesus as we're living in the kingdom, we never check out of our kingdom responsibilities and roles as believers and followers of Jesus.

We don't check out of our responsibility to be blessed by God so that we can bring blessing in every person that we come in contact with.

That is a role that we never disengage from.

We are always followers of Jesus and we're always following him on mission in this world.

Are you guys with me here?

And so I want to read this passage.

We're gonna jump into the next part here.

So Ephesians 2.

But now in Christ Jesus, you once who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus, for he himself is our peace, who's made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he who came and preached peace to you who were once far off, and peace to those who were near.

Let's pray together.

Father, we come to you today, and as we were just singing moments ago, we thank you today, Jesus, that you are the way maker, that you've always been the way maker.

You've always sought a way for us to be with you and to be near you and in your presence.

You've always sought a way for your presence to be in us and to take residence within us.

And so this morning, God, we thank you to open up your scriptures.

We thank you for a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Help us to see you.

Help us to know your heart, God.

Holy Spirit, we invite you to come and speak.

You know what each of us need to hear.

So we give ourselves to you.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, everybody said, Amen.

So there's this well-known comedian who told this joke.

He said, I was walking across a bridge one day and I saw a man standing on the edge about to jump off.

So I ran over and said, Stop and don't do it.

The man said, Why shouldn't I?

He said.

I said, Well, there's so much to live for.

And he said, like what?

I said, Well, are you religious or atheist?

He said, religious.

He said, Me too.

Are you are you a Christian?

Or a Buddhist?

He said, Christian.

I said, me too.

So are you a Catholic or are you a Protestant?

And he said, Protestant.

I said, me too.

Are you are now are you an Episcopalian or a Baptist?

And he said, Baptist.

And he said, what?

Me too.

So are you Baptist Church of God or are you Baptist Church of the Lord?

And he said, Well, Baptist Church of God.

Wow, me too.

Are you are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?

And he said, Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation 1915.

And I said, Die heretic scum, and push them off the ledge.

It sounds funny.

It sounds funny, but in a strange way, it actually hits close to home.

When you think about the world that we're living in, right?

I mean, that particular joke had to do with denominations of Christians, but we're living in a time where the kind of hostility and volatility between people groups affects us all in much different ways.

And I wish I could say that differences like that don't actually come between us, that that's like a thing of the past.

But how many of you know it's like that, those are the types of conversations that we're in these days.

We're in a time where the dividing walls between us don't need to be much for them to create a lot of walls of separation, right?

And and sadly to say, this is one of the most common perceptions of the world towards the church.

When you look at all stats on what are when people are asked, what's the first word that comes to mind that you think about Christians?

Some of the words that you know come are like divided, that kind of thing.

But one of the first words that come to mind is like uh what's the word?

Hypocritical.

You say one thing, but you do another thing, and that's towards Christians.

And you know what's even less than Christians?

Pastors.

Pastors are now one of the least trusted people in culture, which I'm sad to say.

And so we're living in a time where there are divisions between us.

They're only escalating, they're in the church, and as we know, they're in the world, and it's a time where we don't quite even know who to trust.

And what it does is it creates this atmosphere of anxiety.

Some of us have felt it this last month.

We know that June in our nation now is Pride Month.

It's front and center, it's everywhere you look.

Um, and you know, and I'm sure for every person in the room, it's stirred up conversations, it's stirred up reflection, it stirred up even culture wars and boycotts and all kinds of different emotional responses to how is it that we move together through a month like this?

Again, in the church, as an example, even this last week, major denominations are actually dividing over issues like what do we do with women pastors?

Should women even be allowed to speak in the church?

And there's major denominations in our nation that are actually kicking out other churches and they're splitting over the same things.

We're in a time where right now everybody's starting to launch their bids for a presidential election next year and weigh in on what that's gonna be like.

And I don't know about for you, but what happens is as a culture, when we keep walking through moments and uh and issues that have the potential to create dividing walls, it creates fatigue, it creates exhaustion.

For some of us, it creates a discomfort in conversations not knowing what to say or how to engage certain topics, right?

And this suffering, this discomfort can lead to even anger feeling like the way the wheels are coming off the rails.

And some of you have felt anger as you're talking with people through hot topic issues.

Why don't they just get it?

How come they're not seeing things like I do?

And then underneath all this, even further, is the emotion of fear, the idea that in the midst of all of this, sometimes it feels like we can get swallowed up and lost within the cultural noise.

I was hanging out at a coffee shop the other day and just looking out on the street and just looking at all of the flags that were being flown from the different storefronts.

You know, and and of course, on one side of the street you have a rainbow flag, and the other side of the street you have a um United States flag.

Um you see a Nuggets flag now, Nuggets flags are flying around, Colorado State flags, then down the street comes a make America great flag, right?

Lots of flags, lots of flags flying around.

Um and all of these flags, as we know, represent ideologies.

They all represent ways of thinking, ways of moving about this world, associations and categories.

And are you with me or are you not with me?

And it creates a lot of questions about how how is it that we live in this world?

I wasn't planning on bringing this message this morning, but a few days ago, I just started, I felt like God started reminding me of something that happened about a year ago, and and uh and it resurfaced in my heart, and I felt like the Lord started to speak to me again, and and and I believe through through this this story, speak to us.

Because what I want to do as a pastor is try to bring some language to stuff that we're all actually facing and feeling, but from different angles and vectors and perspectives, right?

But these are things that we're moving through, and we have to have handles, we have to weigh, we have to have a way to understand what the invitation of God is as we live through this moment together.

So last year you guys might remember we hosted a a huge uh worship night right out here on the property.

It was a huge night of worship.

Uh a guy came in um that's well known across the nation, and uh, we allowed him to use the property um to host uh a night of worship.

About 1,500 people showed up to this night of worship, which to my memory probably the most people that's ever been on this property at the same same point in time.

So um the thing is that morning I got a call from the Boulder County Sheriff that uh was to you basically they wanted it for me.

They said, Hey, just so you know, um there's a group that's planning a counter protest at the same time as your event.

So just wanted to let you know we're gonna be around and our plan is to keep everybody safe.

Um, but that that is going on.

And I said, That's fantastic.

That's not what I said.

But I thanked him and uh and I was I was thankful that he called.

I was like, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen.

Um and and so we weren't sure what that meant.

We didn't know, obviously, this last couple years, a lot of hot hot button things, lightning rod types of events that could go a lot of different ways.

And uh and so we didn't quite know what to expect from that.

And so um we uh Graham and I, one of the other elders, Graham, uh here at the church, we said, all right, well, let's let's do this, let's go find a way to go meet the protesters at their rally point.

We're gonna go, we're gonna go meet them.

We're just gonna introduce ourselves to them, and we're just gonna let them know that, you know, just try to build a bridge, you know, shake their hand and let and help them know that we're not against them, that we're for them.

We got over there to the their rally point, and they weren't all there yet.

It was a pretty unorganized protest.

Um, and so uh a lot of them were late, so we just figured maybe it wasn't gonna happen.

So we left, came back, um, and then the event started here, and sure enough, um about you know 15 minutes into the event, 30 minutes into the event, a whole line of protesters, a fringe group of uh you know associated with LGBTQ came and they uh um uh they marched through the field onto the property and they went to the other side of the fence right back here.

Um so they weren't on our property and they stood right behind the stage and they had banners and flags and bullhorns, and the purpose was you know essentially to disrupt the event.

Um and uh to be fair, I just want to mention real quick that this group that came doesn't represent everybody in the LGBTQ community.

Um this was a this is a specific group that that shows up to events to disrupt events, all right?

Just like not all evangelical Christians represent all of Christians, okay?

We're not I'm I don't want to make just blanket statements here.

Um but this group came over and their purpose was to disrupt.

Now, when they came over, a lot of our uh people from our church wanted to, again, um build a bridge.

So we had bottles of water and we're trying to hand out bottles of water, they didn't really like that.

And uh anytime there was tried tried to be engagement, there was very harsh language, very harsh words.

And um, and so it created this really interesting dynamic because during this worship event, where we're there and we're supposed to be, you know, raising our hands, worshiping Jesus, this whole thing.

There's also a whole other group of people on the other side of a fence lifting up their voices for a particular cause and particular purpose.

And on top of the hill over here was a whole squadron of police cars that was there just to kind of oversee everything and make everybody feel safe.

I just remember myself kind of being in the middle of this, looking at everything that was happening, knowing, like, okay, I know that the purpose of this event is to bring worship to Jesus.

But I started to ask the question with everything that's going on, is what is what is happening right now?

God, are you pleased with what is happening right now?

Is this making you happy?

Can you guys feel me?

I know every of you probably were there, some of you were there, and it was a fantastic kind of words.

I'm just saying, for me, everything in me was feeling this tension, this volatility, this hostility of a moment, of two groups of people separated by a fence.

God, is this something that is actually making you happy?

Is this pleasing to you?

I may be.

I know I wasn't the only one asking that question, but I was feeling it at a certain level that I couldn't even pay attention to the songs as much as feel the hearts of the people.

And it's what a lot of us feel regularly.

It's especially in the church, it's what a lot of us feel when we go to our workplaces, we go to our neighborhoods, we feel the weight and the disparity of gathering under certain causes and certain ideas.

So, in many ways, though, this is not anything new.

Even in the scriptures, we read how one of the foremost issues for the early church was reconciling the divisions between people groups, men and women, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, young and old.

This was one of the primary works as they were trying to live out the kingdom purposes of Christ and form these little communities.

They were trying to figure out how is it that we do this again?

Because this used to be just a Jewish thing, this used to be just a male thing, this used just to be just a you know, for a certain, you know, class or status.

But something had happened in Christ that had changed all of that.

But even what's interesting is even the temple, the structure of the temple, the temple that was around when Jesus was walking the earth, baked into the structure of the temple, was hierarchies and divisions and actual walls.

And I have a little diagram that we'll put up here of this temple, if you guys want to put that up.

See, it's interesting because back in Exodus, there wasn't a whole lot of divisions.

There's only really two divisions.

God had given Moses the design of the tabernacle as a way to be near his people and for the people to live safely near a holy God.

And in the temple, the design was very simple.

There's only a division between where the people were a whole and as a whole and a small percentage of the Levites who made sacrifices to God.

But as hundreds of years passed and there was blending of what was happening in cultures and pagan cultures and that kind of stuff, they started to add more and more divisions and structures to preserve the holiness of the temple.

And see, you guys know when you read through the scriptures, Israel had a very troubled history.

They were sent into exile because of immorality and idle worship.

Their hearts weren't given to God, so God would send them into exile.

And so when they came back from exile, they were determined, we're gonna get it right this time.

All right?

No more playing around, we're getting it right.

And so they wanted to get, there was a heart that they wanted to give God the worship he deserved.

So they started to create a structure and different levels of separation that kept the wrong people out and the right people in so they could stay preserved before God.

And so here's what's interesting: even the first century historian Josephus wrote about this.

He wrote about this early temple that there's levels of elevation.

And what some of the descriptions indicated that there were not only steps, but stone walls and warning signs dividing each group from the next.

And so in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, everyone, including Gentile converts to Judaism, can gather in the courts of the Gentiles.

But in order to ascend the steps and pass the next walls into the court of women, you must be of Jewish descent.

So Gentile converts, no matter how devoted they might be, can go no farther for fear of death.

Once a Jewish person entered the court of women, then a person who had formerly been sick or unclean was now clean, could go see the priest and be proclaimed fully healed.

Men and women could also give gifts for the service of the temple and present their sacrifices to the priest.

At this point, the Jewish men could go up additional steps into the court of the Israelites, where the priest would offer animal sacrifices on the altar and perform other priestly duties.

Finally, there were two additional rooms, the only two we find in the book of Exodus, which were accessed by the priests for their daily rituals, and then once a year by the high priest when he entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.

But there's a portion of a book from John Tyson and Susie Silk on this.

And so baked into the structure of the temple was you can come this far, but you can't come this far.

If you're of this kind of person, you can come this far, but you cannot come this far.

Every different level was actually, you had to take steps up to a different elevation and walk through a stonewall to get there.

Okay?

Here's the wild part.

When you get to the final in this temple, the presence of God wasn't even there.

They had lost the Ark of the Covenant hundreds of years ago.

So all of this, all of these divisions, all of these structures, it was all there, not because it was something that was making God happy and it's what God asked for.

It was because they were afraid.

There were walls and divisions because there was fear.

For the people it was fear of being found unrighteous by God, fear of being considered unclean like the pagans, fear of losing power with the Roman government.

And so the Pharisees worked to really protect this because they didn't want to lose what they had.

I'm going to get back to that story I started with in just a second, but let me just double-click on this for a second.

This is important that we see.

Somehow Jesus was able to draw close to tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, all without losing himself, and this is key.

He never backed down from his standards, his mission, his identity, his purpose, his dedication to do the will of the Father.

He never lowered the standard of sin or injustice or wrongdoing, but somehow Jesus was able to love without losing himself in the process.

This is a big deal.

Specifically, you take one group of people like the tax collectors, which, of course, none of us like paying taxes, but tax collectors were a different thing back in the time in the first century Israel.

Tax collectors were a lot were essentially mercenaries for the Roman government.

In fact, they were Jewish citizens who would who would actually tax their own people to fund their oppression.

They were taxing the people to give the money to the Romans to strengthen their ability to oppress the Israelites.

So no wonder they were so hated.

They were considered they had betrayed their people.

They were just considered just low lives because they had been bought out by the Roman government.

But Jesus, that didn't seem to keep him from dining with the tax collectors, from from being with him.

But when he was with them, it's not like he ever made an allowance for what they did.

And when he was with people, even sinners, he would always give them a picture of what the kingdom of God was like.

He would always call them out of sin, but still draw near to them in love.

Jesus, he broke down every dividing wall of hostility that kept us from the presence of God.

Jesus didn't let anything come between him.

And even when he died, we read in the scriptures the curtain that separated the holy of holies, the holiest place, was torn in two.

Why would that be?

Because that was always the heart of God.

Not to build up walls, but to tear them down.

Jesus, even when he resurrected from his tomb, he didn't make us move the stone.

He just walked through the walls.

So if there's anything we see in the life of Jesus, is that he tore the veil, he moved the stone, he walked through walls.

Jesus destroyed the walls humanity built through his life, through his death, through his spirit.

Every wall of hostility, he looks for them and he tears them down.

See, we sing about those things in our songs.

But do we connect with the heart of Jesus to look for a wall so we can break him down and find the one on the other side of the wall?

Now, back to the story.

During this event last year that I was talking about, there's a protest, there's a worship night, there's a lot of, wow, what's going on here.

I was talking with some of our team, I was talking with Piper in particular.

And uh she made the comment, she noticed that on the other side of the fence where there's protesters, there was someone who was waving a flag.

But it was different than the way other people were waving flags at this at this event.

And she mentioned, she she turned over, she said, Hey, that person over there, that person, she's like, that person has an anointing on their life.

Which is kind of a weird thing to say about somebody in a protest.

She said, That's that person has an anointing on their life.

They're waving flags differently.

And do you guys realize that the gifts and calls of God are irrevocable?

God can give you gifts that can be used for a lot of different ways and purposes.

It's just, I don't understand it.

It's just the way it works.

And so a little bit later in the night, Piper made her way over to the fence and noticed this person and then realized she recognized this person.

And this person recognized her, and they realized that they knew each other.

And so at first it was like, is this safe to interact?

Can we talk?

We're on other sides of the fence, we're here for different reasons.

Is this safe for us to talk?

And so it was a little tentative at first, but then but then Piper, you know, reached out and said, Hey, I love you.

And the person came over and started to meet with Piper and talked to her and said, Listen, uh, I love you too.

I just I I can't I can't do things the same way I used to do them.

Now, here's a little backstory.

This particular individual used to be a member of this church.

This particular individual was part of a family we loved and we still do love.

This particular individual used to dance and have flags that they would come up on this very stage and wave and worship.

Because, but because they now identified as trans, they felt like they no longer had a place to be here.

And so they were left with no other option.

They felt that the story they went by, they felt left with no other option, but to be on the other side of the vents, to wave a flag for a totally different purpose.

Because she said to Piper, how could I be a part of a church that hates trans people?

And of course, Piper responded back to her and said, Listen, we do not hate you.

We love you.

We love you.

We love you.

And they they dialogued a little bit further, and and it wasn't quite able to end because somebody cut off the conversation, but this particular individual, like back at Piper and Drew, like a heart to say, I love you, and then a tear coming down her face to say, This breaks my heart.

I don't want to be in this position.

I just want you to feel the weight of the story a little bit.

Because this individual this is one story, but it's one story that represents many stories.

There's a lot of people who, whether right or wrong, feel hated by the church.

They feel like there's no place in the church.

And if that doesn't grip your heart, if that doesn't break your heart, I pray for you.

I pray for you because that should.

It should it should pierce us from the inside out.

I believe it would for Jesus.

I believe that Jesus would be one that his heart would be moved in this situation, because Jesus doesn't see crowds of people, he sees individuals with names and stories.

Now, as a church, it's important that we understand a couple things.

First of all, just to be clear, as a as a as a church, as a community of people, we do see uh our view of sex and marriage kind of follows a historic uh historic sexual ethic.

We believe that God's design for marriage and sexuality is that marriage is to be enjoyed, is sex is to be enjoyed in the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.

That's what we believe.

We believe that's in the scriptures.

And in fact, later this year, we're gonna take some more time to carefully move through that.

We know that's such a hot button issue.

It leaves us all, all of us are affected by this.

We have either in this room, maybe you've had questions about your gender, sexuality, or you have people in your family or friends that do.

Listen, our our our role is not to just start sheeping generalities and blanket statements and and and trying to ostracize people further.

We want to build bridges, we want to bring clarity, but we are starting with what we believe is um uh a clear biblical view of what we see in the scripture.

Now, that being said, what that does not mean is that we hate everybody that doesn't believe that.

And we reject that idea.

Rick Warren said one of the two most sinister ideas in our culture today is number one, uh, that to love somebody means to affirm every single part of their life.

And number two, to disagree with somebody means that you hate them.

Do you guys see how absurd those two ideologies are?

But that being said, our role is to find the walls that separate us and find ways to look across the walls where people see categories, we see individuals.

And if you caught this in the story, what happened was what happened in this moment was it's easy in a moment like this for one group of people to say, that's just a group of washed-up conservative evangelicals that are just clueless about how things really work.

And then on the Christian point of view, it's easy for us to say that's a crowd of just rebellious protesters that are, you know, that they just they're just here to to, you know, uh to disrupt and do all these things.

Even if that was true, we can create blanket statements that say this is all that they're about.

What I love about what Piper demonstrated in this situation, she looked across the vents and she didn't just she saw somebody, not through the lens of what she saw in the flesh, but according to what she saw in the spirit.

She didn't see somebody who's far from God, she saw somebody that was marked by God.

That takes the eyes of Jesus, guys.

It takes the eyes of Jesus to look at somebody that, and one day we'd say, Oh, they're in that camp, but to see them through the eyes of Jesus and say, This is what God thinks about them.

And then out of that lens, she approached the fence, and it was no longer a fence that separated thing, is when you come into Christ, part of our identity is living in Christ.

We actually we don't erect walls, we come towards the walls and we look through the walls until we can see the eyes of the people that God loves.

And we fight for them and we look at them and we humanize them and we dignify them.

It doesn't matter if they spit in our face, it doesn't matter what they say, they're made in the image of God.

They're made in the image of God.

We treat them with dignity and respect without losing ourselves.

Nobody's lowering a standard here.

In fact, this is a really important thing as we continue to move forward together.

There are things that do need to be opposed in our culture.

There are things we need to raise our voices on.

There's things, particularly with my wife and I, that we're very disturbed about as it relates to what our kids uh often experience when they bring home books from their school library, to be quite honest.

And listen, we've showed up to board meetings, um, and my wife, I love her.

Um, she is able to love with, she's able to assert herself and her voice and be heard and without diminishing or demeaning or being violent towards another person or uh diminishing their identity and their worth and their value.

And so even this last year, we were able to show up to a school uh parent-teacher meeting and say, Hey, we got some red flags here.

And she uh she read a whole letter, it was fantastic, and it was clear, and it was, hey, these are things that we're concerned about.

I think that things uh um you know that that are often being taught um uh about identity to our children, I think it's some of the worst parts of our culture right now, to be to be quite frank with you.

And yet, and yet we are part of a movement that while we lift our voice, while we name what we believe is important, while we we try to give language to what we believe is the heart of God in our culture, we're always seeking to tear down walls, not erect them.

Are you guys with me on that?

So there's a couple things.

Um, there's a couple things I want to mention in particular.

What happens is the reason why we put up walls in the first place is we're scared.

A lot of times we join groups because we're scared of what happens if we join if we don't.

And fear is what drives wall making.

Fear drives this every single time.

But if you're if you're you're we're afraid of losing ourselves, we're afraid of losing power, we're afraid of losing our voice, we're afraid of losing a lot.

But listen, if you're fighting for preservation but not for proximity, then you've missed the heart of the gospel.

If we fight to preserve ourselves, but we're not fighting to be proximal to the ones that God loves, then we're missing what Jesus is doing.

Jesus was never afraid of losing himself.

In fact, he said, whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, for my sake, will find it.

And he always pushed towards the margins, pushed out towards the margins, pushed out towards the ones who were considered threats.

He pushed towards them because that's what he was always doing, and that's what he is always, he always continues to do.

Anxiety causes us to either lose our lose our identity or fight for identity.

And that's what's happening.

We either start creating walls and cutting people off and saying we're the group that has it, or we just lose our identity and enmesh with every ideology, and we've completely lost any sense of clarity within ourselves of our identity given by the Father.

Have you guys seen that?

We either cut off or we become completely enmeshed in the culture.

And I would just like to suggest we don't have to do either of those.

You can be a bold, confident, spirit-filled son and daughter of God.

You can be a Bible-believing Christian and you can love fiercely.

You can love fiercely.

Don't let anybody tell you you can't do the two together.

Do not settle for that lie.

It's a lie, and it pulls people towards these polar opposites.

We cannot do that.

We can't.

Because Jesus didn't do it, and that's not his way.

That's not the way of Jesus.

He's given us a message of reconciliation that just says, be reconciled to God.

And so today, um Dad, you can come up and play some keys.

Um today, there are a couple questions here.

As we're kind of holding this together, Jesus is the wall breaker.

I want to ask a couple questions for us here today, because this all hits us in a few different ways.

First of all, who are the people in your life that you've placed into ideological categories?

Who are the people in your life that you've placed into ideological categories?

You haven't been as concerned about their story as you can as you are about where they land on X, Y, and Z topic.

Oh, they're just a leftist elite.

They're just a washed up conservative.

They're just a they're just being, they're an overly spiritual Christian.

Or they're just a lukewarm, wishy-washy Christian, right?

That person, they're just a conspiracy theorist.

Or them, oh, they're just a gullible crowd-following sheep.

Have you guys heard these types of things?

These are the types of things that we catch yourselves saying from time to time.

So if that's, if if if you tend to think in those kinds of ways, categories but not people, I just want to just as just quiet your heart in this moment.

I want to ask you, um, who comes to mind that you've done that to?

Who comes to mind?

What are their names?

Maybe just close your eyes across the room here just so we can um focus in here.

God, bring to mind anybody that we have written off in certain categories.

Bring to mind names and faces, God.

And as as names come to mind, I I just want to encourage us.

I had to do this this week as well, even in preparation, God.

I just want to encourage you if people come to mind, if God is highlighting somebody that you've written off because they they wave the wrong flag.

Just take a moment and say their name and bless them.

And even just repent before God and say, God, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for what I've said about this person.

Forgive me.

God, you've you tore the veil, so why am I putting up walls?

If you've written some, if you block somebody out, if you cut somebody off, if you're withholding forgiveness from somebody, if you're allowing a wall to exist, I just want you to take a moment and let the Holy Spirit get you and ask you, is that what God has for you and that person?

And if not, be free through repentance and confession.

Second, second thing, those, maybe some of you are here in year one that has been labeled by others.

Maybe you felt like you're on the other side of a fence and the other side of a wall.

And that's been, you know, probably the tension that maybe you feel when you come to church, or you felt here this morning for whatever reason, you feel like you're on the other side of a wall and you're not sure how to get to where other people are.

You're not even sure you want to be with where other people are.

And that could look a lot of different ways.

And listen, I and I know I highlighted the the LGBTQ issue, but that's not the only thing I'm talking about.

I think I'm talking about any dividing wall that separates us from each other.

Maybe for whatever reason, you feel like you can't get into the right group, you can't get into the right conversations, you can't get your voice to be heard enough.

You you don't feel misunderstood, you feel misunderstood.

See, for you, the temptation is to give up on trying, to write everybody off, and give up on trying to connect, and to believe that everyone is against you and there's no hope.

And to you, I just want to offer you the way of Jesus here today for you is first of all, know that you are seen by God.

Jesus knows what it's like to be misunderstood.

He was misunderstood quite a bit.

He knows what it's like to have his motives questioned.

He knows what it's like, but the invitation for you is just as God has forgiven you, you also should forgive.

What does it look like to forgive those who have maybe kept you on the other side of the fence?

You don't have to live there any longer.

God has forgiven.

You and you get to extend forgiveness.

God knows you, He sees you, and He's broken down every wall between you and His presence.

He's with you, He surrounds you on every side.

So keep showing up.

Don't check out.

Keep showing up.

Because God is for you.

And this morning, I want to invite us just together.

Let's stand together.

And up front, we have two tables with communion.

And I didn't prep the guys this morning to make sure we had enough, but I just feel like this morning, together, to receive communion, to recognize that in this body of believers, every dividing wall of hostility has been broken down.

Not because we tried harder or we fought for unity or we all decided to wave the same flag.

It's because every dividing wall has been broken down in the flesh of Jesus Christ.

And he's killed the hostility.

This is a supernatural work of God.

The reason we are here together is because God has made one what used to be fragmented and separated.

All of us here have fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us here have sinned.

He has made a way to himself, and he makes a way for us to draw near to each other.

Amen.

So I just want to invite you, go uh, if you can, form two lines on both sides of the room and uh and get at some communion elements and bring them back to your seat, and we'll receive those together.

So Ephesians 2, 13 again.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near.

God, we thank you this morning that as we open the scriptures, we recognize that we were all far off from you.

Sometimes we still feel far off from you, but we thank you, Lord God, that you did for us what you couldn't we could not do for ourselves.

And I thank you this morning, as we receive your body and your blood, God, that you uh that you eliminate the distance, God, that you've eliminated the distance between us and your presence, God, and and your desire is that we become and we live as the kind of people who do that, who eliminate the distance of people in our lives.

God, as we receive your body and your blood, would you make us one?

Would you make us whole?

We thank you that you are our peace this morning.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Let's receive the bread together.

And we'll receive the cup.

Amen.

Let's stand again this morning.

I just want to encourage you.

Some of us, we're gonna have some ministry team, prayer team up front after the service, kind of towards the front and the back.

If you want to talk about anything that we talked about this morning, if you want to talk about what a relationship with Jesus looks like, if you want prayer for anything in your life that's happening, healing in your body, healing over relationships, this is a safe place to do it, right?

And uh, and and the rest of us, as we end our time, encourage you to go get your kids, bring them back up for some conversation, and listen, do not show up to this room next week.

Telling you, you're gonna, if you do, you're gonna have a great quiet time, all right?

Just enjoy the view from the parking lot.

Um, we invite you to join us for camping this week.

But listen, don't get disconnected, don't disengage.

You are the body of Christ.

You've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

I just want to commission you.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may make his face to shine upon you, may he be gracious to you and give you rest.

Go in the grace and the peace of the kingdom of God.

Love you guys.