Gospel Prayer & Power

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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?

Acts 4 · chapter mention

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,

Luke 19 · chapter mention

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,

Luke 24 · chapter mention

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,

Acts 4 · chapter mention

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

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