Jesus in All of Life - Part 2: Resurrecting Your Relationships | Pastor Phil Holcomb

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. Be subject to one another

out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject

to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For

the husband is the head of the wife, just as

Christ is the head of the church, the body of

which he is the Savior. Just as the church is

subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be,

in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love

your wives, just as Christ loved the church and

gave himself up for her, in order to make her

holy by cleansing her with the washing of water.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives

as they do their own bodies. He who loves his

wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his

own body. But he nourishes and tenderly cares

for it, just as Christ does for the Church, because

we are members of his body. For this reason,

a man will leave his father and mother and be

joined to his wife, and the two will become one

flesh. This is a great mystery, and I am applying

it to Christ and the Church. Each of you, however,

should love his wife as himself, and a wife should

respect her husband. Children, obey your parents

in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father

and mother. This is the first commandment with

a promise, so that it may be well with you and

that you may live long on the earth. And fathers,

do not provoke your children to anger, but bring

them up in the discipline and instruction of

the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with

fear and trembling and singleness of heart as

you obey Christ, not only while being watched

and in order to please them, but as slaves of

Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

Render service with enthusiasm as to the Lord

and not to men and women. knowing that whatever

good we do, we will receive the same again from

the Lord, whether we are slaves or free. And

masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening

them, for you know that both of you have the

same master in heaven, and with him there is

no partiality. You may be seated. Thank you,

Maya, for reading. Wow. What a passage. A passage

read to a context of 70 or so nationalities,

different cultural realities that we come from.

A passage that is read to many denominational

backgrounds that have very different perspectives

on roles of men and women and how that works

itself out. But even deeper than that is I want

to invite you at the very beginning to do this,

to consider as you heard that passage being read

over you, what were you drawn to? What resonated

in your own heart? You see, this is a joke, but

I had my daughter read it right because the part

that resonates with me is, obey your fathers.

But then I also want you to seriously pay attention

to what part of that passage did you resist?

Did you feel, oh, I don't know if I like that

part. And the invitation is then to think through

what is it that is bringing us to that place

of either resonating with parts of it or resisting

parts of it. And in that posture, as we as a

community, our people gather around Jesus, desiring

with all of who we are to reflect him in life.

I want to invite you even to posture your hands

as I pray in this way to say, Lord, would you

please speak through your word? Would you guide

and move us? Would we, in one sense, pause? Certain

things that keep us from really hearing, but

also maybe not pause, but bring all of who we

are to you. Let your word read us. And let Jesus,

who is at the center of everything, come and

transform us from the inside out in an upside

down way. Where our relationships are increasingly

in store to a place of dignity. Just like we...

watched in the video. And so Lord, I ask that

the words of my mouth, that the meditations of

my heart would be pleasing to you. Oh Lord, because

you are our rock and our redeemer. And we pray

this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. So as I

said, we've been going through a series called

Jesus in all of life, because this is a division

that we have committed to here at ECB, Jesus

in all of life. And if you missed last week's

sermon about Jesus in the workplace, I encourage

you to go on and listen to that. Pastor Andrew

from the Vine in Hong Kong came and he spoke

to us and invited us to take seriously the words

of Jesus about being the salt and light and how

we bring that into the marketplace. Same with

the school setting. We bring that into the place

that we are spending all these hours in the day.

Whether or not that is an institution or a company

or organization that follows Jesus, we bring

him with us into that space. Next week, We're

going to do a teaching on Jesus in your finances,

in your resources. What does stewardship over

what God has given us look like? But today, we're

looking at the heart of relational aspects. What

does Jesus in all of life look like in our closest

relationships? And I want to say something right

from the very beginning. Yes, there's going to

be a husband and a wife and a children dynamic

to this. The family setting of husband, wife,

and children is not some, like, ultimate goal

of the life that we live, of the Christian life

we live. It is a gift that God gives, and sometimes

we participate in it, others don't. But if you

happen to be young and you're not a parent, you're

like, what does this message have to do with

me? Or if you are single and either you're at

a point of saying, okay, I'm going to let that

be in the past and I'm going to continue forward.

This message is for you. This is not just about

husbands and wives and their relation with one

another and how they are to connect with one

another or how parents are supposed to treat

their kids. Because what Jesus did is he did

not come to say the church is like a family.

He came to say the church is family. You and

I are brothers and sisters in Christ, and so

this is about relational health of how we engage

with one another. Some years back, when I was

living in Quito, Ecuador, with our family there,

we were in a wonderful... small group, equivalent

of what we call life groups here. Now that small

group had people from all kinds of different

backgrounds. So we had Haitians in that group,

we had Filipinos in the group, we had Americans

in the group, we had an Indian in the group,

we had Ecuadorians in the group, I say North

Americans, and then we also had Iranians in the

group. This is a beautiful expression of God's

big family together. Now my friend Saeed from

Iran, I learned so much from him, and I want

to recount a story that he was telling us. So

we gathered around a table as a group, and we

broke bread together. We fellowshiped in a way

that reminded us that we are a family of God.

And one day when we were preparing for this gathering

together, Saeed said, you know what? In my country,

in my culture, everyone knows their place at

the table. Everyone knows their place at the

table. I said, well, what do you mean? He said,

well, their place at the table is dependent on

where the door is. Where the door is? What does

the door have to do with where you sit at the

table? And how does somebody know where they

sit at the table? So my curiosity brings that

question to him. And he says, well, you see,

the door is the place where evil can enter. The

place where another warring group might come

in at any point, where thieves or robbers might

break in. And so if the door is on this side

and the table is set up this way, the place of

honor is the furthest away from the door, right?

So I would sit in the place of honor if I was

the most important person in that room. Now think

about this. What is that saying going down the

line? I am the most significant asset to this

group. The rest kind of systematically go down

in liability to the door. Because whenever evil

comes in through the door, you're keeping your

most important person at the end of the room.

Now, on one sense, that seems kind of funny.

But if you think about the reality of that relational

dynamic, where we begin to view one another as

transactions, as liabilities or assets. This

is the devil's work in us. And it will always

pull and rip and tear things apart in a destructive

way. Nightlight in the video that we saw there

is an example of this, where we begin to treat

people as a means to our own enjoyment or fulfillment

as opposed to their God -given dignity. In the

group setting, for those who are group culture

oriented, we find our place within the group.

based on loyalty to that group and the fulfillment

of that group. So it doesn't matter if you come

from more of a individual -oriented culture or

a group -oriented culture. There's this commodification,

the way that we treat one another where it says,

you know, you are simply a means to something

bigger than the goodness of what could be in

that relationship. You are a liability or you

are an asset. So as you reflect on that, what's

your place at the table? Think about your relational

connections with people around you. What's your

place at the table? But actually, a deeper question

that I want to ask is, as you think about your

connections, children with your parents, husbands

and wives, deep soul companions that are connected

with one another, your work situation, what's

your place at the table? See, the table represents

belonging. It means coming together and we all

find a place around that table. And so the question

is, do you long for something more than what

you're experiencing? And this is what Paul is

writing to. He is inviting us to experience the

goodness of who Jesus is and what he comes to

do. And I am confident that regardless of all

the different backgrounds in here, putting him

at the center does indeed change everything.

So with that in mind, let's talk about relational

wholeness. Let's go back to the beginning and

let's frame our story that we're going to get

to because this would have been in Paul's mind.

He would have considered three different dimensions

of relationship that are all important in how

people are created. So if you remember, Adam

and Eve are created. First, humanity is created

and there's one Adam and God says it's not good

for man to be alone. And so he creates what?

A companion for Adam. The two become partners,

soul -connected friends in that situation. And

this is a companionship. This is about us needing

this connection with other human beings at a

deep relational level. But within the story of

Genesis, we also have two other categories. One

is a generational blessing, right? So God didn't

create us to just take the goodness and hold

it to ourselves. He created us to use that goodness

to bless the next generation. And so there's

this generational multiplication of the goodness

of God that we bring into it as well. But God

didn't just stop there. He also said you have

dominion over the earth, stewardship. You are

to care for the world around you and also bring

it up into a point of flourishing. But you do

that in partnership with one another. You don't

do that in dominion over one another. You do

that in partnership with one another. And these

three aspects, if they are all together, we would

consider it to be a wholeness of relationship.

Or as the Bible calls it, shalom. All things

as they are meant to be. Okay, back to the video

that we watched just a moment ago. We see nightlight

working towards this wholeness of relationship

within the context of what they do. But we know

that our relationships, have challenges to them.

We know that even when we're trying as hard as

we can, we still engage in this way of considering

one another as liabilities and assets. Whether

you're in the school system or the work system

or wherever it may be. And Paul does not write

this letter to pre -Christians, although they

can learn from it. He writes it to the church,

which what does that mean? All of us. have growth

to do in our relationships. But here's the good

news. Paul is going to speak right into the mess

of the relationship. So we don't hide the reality

that we haven't arrived yet. We bring that reality

forward. And what Paul does is he references

the Greco -Roman household. And I want to put

a note in here to say that Pastor Pablo in the

book of Colossians touched on this and he did

an excellent job of explaining it. And so I highlight

that to say that if you want to go more in depth

than what we get this morning here, go back online

to our series on Colossians and uncover that

part. Because having this insight is important

for us as we go forward in what we're looking

at here. So what was the Greco -Roman household?

How was it structured and set up? A pyramid is

a good way to look at it. Top down, very dominated

by the patron that is on the top of this whole

system. Everything works together for the good

of the group, but it is the one on top that dictates

and has total authority for that system and structure.

Now, how does this actually play itself out in

those relational dynamics? Well, think about

the companionship that is supposed to be there.

The husband takes a wife more as a business contract,

where you as a wife are here to support my ends

of keeping this group in order. So your role

in our relationship is not one of us partnering

together as companions in life. It is you bringing

about what I'm hoping to do in life. Do we do

this with others? Yeah. So you have a distortion

of that aspect within the Greco -Roman world.

But then you also have the reality of parents

and their kids. Now this one, I want you to think

about it this way. If the group's survival is

the ultimate goal, think back to the table. Right?

We put the most important person furthest from

the door because we're trying to make sure that

the group survives. That it can go to the next

generation. That's a huge weight to put on somebody.

And as a parent in a household like one in Rome

in a Greco -Roman thing, I would put that weight

upon my children. Does this sound familiar in

some ways? Where your kids end up being your

hope for the future. That is a burden they are

never supposed to hold. You are to steward them

as God's children, holding up them before their

maker and helping them to flourish in all of

who God created them to be, not to serve the

ends of the group going forward. So you see a

distortion happening in the Roman household in

this setting as well. And then there's the masters

and the slaves, right? There are estimates that

30 to 40 % of the Roman world were slaves, of

the Roman population. People have described it

as the electricity of Rome. Now think about us

in a world that's highly digitized, and if you

take all the lights out suddenly, everything

screeches to a stop, and it is unable to continue

forward. So this is a structure of society where

slaves are not... A simple like, oh, this is

nice. I get an extra meal that they're cooking

for me. This is them being an integral part of

actually making the Roman society work. But remember

what the plan in Genesis was. This is about co

-partnership of stewarding the world around us,

not a domineering one of using other people in

order to bring about my own good or needs. Do

you see the distortion that Paul is speaking

to? Now the reason it's important to hold this

in context is because when Paul begins to address

this, he addresses it from the inside out and

in an upside down way. He doesn't dominate it

by wiping the whole thing clean and starting

over again. Why is that good news for you and

I? Because if I listen to your story and if you

listen to my story, We can add a lot to relate

to with the Greco -Roman world. And I'm in desperate

need of a God who steps into my life and begins

to transform it from the inside out rather than

saying, sorry, Phil, I can't have you part of

what I'm doing. And again, this is back to the

nightlight commitment, right? Coming in and visiting

them where they are and beginning from the inside

out to make things better again to flourish.

I'm guessing you have some questions about the

passage. We're going to get to those, so keep

holding those. What we say, though, is that each

person has a means that is far more valuable

than what they give to the group or their own

personal fulfillment. With the Greco -Roman world

family structure and what many of the ways we

relate to one another does is captured in this

quote here. No human relationship can bear the

burden of godhood. No human relationship can

bear the burden of Godhood. And the attempt is

to take its toll in some way on both parties

or on the group itself. So what this quote is

looking at is to say, when you remove God out

of the center of the relational framework and

fabric, there becomes a burden placed on that

fabric, on those relational dynamics, that will

crush God. the relationships. It will actually

begin to tear things apart. And that's what Paul

is writing into as he writes this passage. So

what's the answer? Ephesians 5 .21 says, be subject

to one another out of reverence for Christ. Let's

read that together. Be subject to one another

out of reverence for Christ. This becomes the

refrain. So think about a song. A song is going

to tell a story often. It's going to give all

kinds of details and things to communicate. But

at the core of it is going to be a refrain or

a repeating line. And that line is going to tell

you, yes, there's this whole story being told.

But if you take anything away from this song,

this is what you should be taking away. And what

Paul does in these short few verses, if you were

listening well to them, is he brings in Christ

14 times. again and again and again. And he says,

you brothers and sisters, you children, you who

are in the workplace as bond servants or whatever,

you cannot ever look at one another without Christ

being the center of that relationship, or else

it will begin to fall apart and become a distorted

way of engaging with one another. That's where

Paul writes, and that's why he's going to call

us back again and again and again, be subject

to one another in reverence for Christ. So the

question we ask is, let's go back to that story

about the table, right? Where was Jesus's place

at the table? Where should he have been sitting?

If he walked into that room, which he walks into

our lives, the table furthest, the seat furthest

from the door was his seat, right? And he could

have kicked out whoever was there and taken a

seat and basically said, I created all of you.

You are here ultimately for my fulfillment, my

purpose, and my means. What does Jesus do? Jesus

steps into our reality. And he sits right in

front of the door. And he doesn't only sit in

front of the door. hoping something will happen.

He sits in front of the door knowing that every

way that we have not loved one another well,

every way that others have not loved us well,

all of the evil that has happened in the world

was going to come rushing through that door and

crush him. He sat there knowing that full well.

And this is the one that we serve, that we look

to. And this is why Paul says, be subject to

one another. in reverence for Christ. This is

what he came and did for us. And we begin to

look at one another through this lens going forward.

This is the Jesus way. It begins to shape us

from the inside out in a completely different

way of engaging with one another. So what does

that actually look like within the Roman context,

within Ephesus, where Paul is writing to? Well,

Jesus came and he declared himself as not one

that came to be served, but to serve others and

to give up his life as a ransom for many. He

said these words, letting you and I know that

he didn't come to sit on that side of the table,

but he came to sit on this side of the table.

And then he followed through with what he said.

So I want us to consider the Jesus way. And here's

what I invite you to do. With your hands, go

ahead and make a U shape, okay? Now, when Jesus

comes, He comes down in a way that reflects this

U -shape. A psychologist and spiritual formation

author by the name of Daniel Allender gives this

perspective in the reality of who Christ has

come. So keep holding that up there. What Jesus

does is he descends down into our reality. He

does not wait for us to come to him. He actually

in movement comes to us and descends down into

our reality. And so that is a integral aspect

of it. You can put your hands down. A lot of

you are like, how long do I hold this up there?

What I want you to do is keep that in mind, though,

as you look forward. And you can even look through

your relationships in that aspect going forward.

So he descends down into our existence. He takes

on the form of humanity, one that he created,

even taking on the form of a slave and being

one for us. But he doesn't just stop there. He

comes to serve, not to be served. And so this

is the bottom part of the you where he has come

down and you think about him washing his disciples'

feet. Rather than sitting in the place of honor

and staying there and requiring everyone else

to be the ones who served him, he went and served

them. He humbled himself in that situation. So

again, he's down in the bottom of the you. Then

he sacrificed. He willingly gave up his very

life for you and for me. But then he rose again,

right? And so that's where it comes back up on

the other side of the you. So you go down in

this journey and you come back up and this kind

of marks and you remember the frame or the shape

of how Jesus has journeyed in on life. Why is

it important for us to keep that in mind? Well,

as Dallas Willard says, Christ was not crucified

so that you and I wouldn't have to be. He was

crucified so we could be crucified with him.

Now, don't worry. I'm not proposing that you

have to go and work out your salvation and you

are trying to make sure that you are paying off

your debt. This is a reality of our loyalty to

ourselves needs to die. Our loyalty to a different

group needs to be surrendered. The way that we

move ourselves in life needs to go to the cross

just as Christ went to the cross. And it happens

to follow the U shape. We all want to just jump

over from one end to the other. We do not want

to go down. We don't want to serve one another.

We want whole relationships without actually

the serving and sacrificing that happens there.

Can I get an amen? But that's not the way of

Jesus, right? Jesus comes and he says, join me,

but join me not in your own power, but through

the power of the Holy Spirit, who you will see

in just a moment here. So what does it look like

in Ephesus? What Jesus, what Paul is doing is

he's bringing Jesus into a specific cultural

context. And he brings Jesus into this context,

as I said, from the inside out in an upside down

way. How does that actually play itself out?

Well, husbands and wives, what is the husband

called to do? To give up his very life for his

wife, just like Jesus did for him. Headship?

Yes, absolutely. But what does that headship

entail? I get to call all the shots? I get to

make all the decisions. There's not a lot of

that in the Bible about, okay, husbands, you

get to control all of these different things.

But instead, what it says is if you are a position

as a man or in a position that find yourself

to be in more strength or whatever it may be,

your call is to give up your life for your wife.

Positionally, wherever we are in relationship

with one another, the way of Jesus is one where

the one... on the top actually serves the one

on the bottom. And that's what we see within

the Jesus way. What about wives? Wives are to

respect their husbands. They are to encourage

them in that way of Jesus as they are modeling

this. Similarly, through the way that Jesus brings

restoration with companionship. What about children?

Well, children are to honor their parents, to

obey them. And this isn't just because we're

trying to carry on the family name to something

else. This is because God has invited flourishing

within the family dynamic, a resurrection of

those relationships. And what about the slave

and the master? Well, they are to begin treating

each other the way that Christ has treated me

and treated you. And in treating us that way,

it completely takes away the whole hierarchy

of a slave and a master. Now, you may be asking,

but Pastor Phil, why didn't Paul just say slavery

is outlawed? This should not be the case. Why

is he speaking to such an evil institution and

saying, slaves, you need to respect your masters?

I believe probably the reason for that is within

the Roman Empire, there was no chance of you.

setting a protest to change things around. There

was no opportunity for you to move into the government

sphere and try to change it in that way. And

what Paul knows is a secret that Jesus came to

say, which is the way of Christ starts small

and it grows from the inside out. Is God about

slavery? No, absolutely not. Fundamentally, he

is working to undo that whole system. But in

this context, what he has done is he said, from

the inside out, it will change. And guess what?

It changed. Laws did change. Now, we still have

huge problems with slavery today, and that's

why people who are followers of Jesus are called

to step into that place and to treat one another

as Christ has. And this is also not to say that

when you have an opportunity in a government,

whether it be with an NGO or something of that

nature, to resist and push against slavery, do

so. But if you find yourself in a spot where

you are bound by the nation and the culture and

the system where you cannot do anything, you

begin from the inside out. And that's the beauty

of what Paul has brought in this passage to those

in Ephesus. So what does it look like? Husband

and wives really become brothers and sisters.

You and I become one large family where we treat

one another as brothers and sisters. The other

thing is that children become gifts from God.

Gifts that we are pouring into for the next generation.

And this means that we have expanded from husband

and wife and two kids, kind of a western view

of looking at it, to this. A new community of

people who are restoring relationship and passing

this on to the next generation. And it also takes

the whole dynamic of dominion and stewardship

over the world and it says, you know what? You

and I are brothers and sisters in that. It is

not me lording over you. The only ones that we

ultimately report to is God. And that's our hierarchical

structure. So treat those who are, if you find

yourself in a company, treat those who are underneath

you in the way that Christ treats you. That's

a powerful ethic from the inside out. So the

question then is, are you reflecting Jesus in

your closest relationships? Think through your

family dynamic. Think through, if you are married,

your husband -wife relationship. Think through

how you are interacting with your parents. Are

you reflecting Jesus in your closest relationships?

Thanks to actually Pastor Pablo's sermon on Colossians,

I set this chair up in our house, and it's kind

of in an awkward space in the middle of the home.

And we call this the Jesus chair. It's at the

center of the home. And it's to remind us that

when we walk into that space, he's there and

he is to be the one who's at the center of all

we do. This is a way of framing ourselves and

beginning to learn again what it is to be fully

who God created us to be. And what I want to

do, as I sometimes do, is I have a book that

I want to talk about and then I'm going to offer

it to one of you. It's called Habits of the Household.

And yes, it is written towards... the family

of husband, wife, and children, but it can apply

to those who are involved in all kinds of ways

of blessing the next generation, of being in

companion partnership with one another, of those

in the workplace. And so what this book does

is it just offers a way to begin to shape yourself

in the way of Jesus in all of your relational.

dynamics. Now, as I often say, if you read, if

you take this book, if I give it to you, I want

you to commit to reading it and then passing

it on to somebody else. And then it goes that

way. Okay. So normally I give you the disclaimer

at the end, but would anybody like this book?

All right, there you go. Okay. Now you guys keep,

keep track of him. Make sure that he reads it.

Cause I think the last few times this hasn't

necessarily gone through. What comes before this

passage? What Jesus doesn't do is just give us

a model and then say, all right, now go and do

it. Go and be crucified in that you shape. He

gifts us with the power of transformation that

moves us from the inside out and that allows

us to do what God has asked us to do. So key

to all of this is the Holy Spirit. And so we'll

put together the Jesus way. what Jesus has modeled

and called us to, as well as the power of the

Holy Spirit that moves us in that dynamic. And

again, this book with all of the different framework

of what it looks like to form habits that look

like Jesus infuses the Holy Spirit in and through

all of what we do. I want to end with a story

though, a story of a young lady who moved from

Bangkok before she was a Christian to Saudi Arabia

in 2014. And this young lady moved there. hoping

and believing that she was going to end up getting

married. So she had a boyfriend and she believed

that that was going to be a fulfillment of what

she experienced when she got there. She also

was moving there for work and she believed that

this would be a situation where she could progress

in her work situation and it was going to be

really good. So this lady moved to Saudi Arabia.

And she began her life there, and she reflects

that her and her boyfriend were fighting, I think

in this context, it was like cats and dogs is

how she said it. So they're seeing one another

as assets or liabilities in different transactional

relationship with one another. So much so, there's

so much tension because Jesus was not at the

center of that relationship that it ended up

breaking apart. So she has this grief of losing

that. At least work is still there, right? Well,

unfortunately, in that business setting, the

company made some shifts and began to downsize.

And they were laying off people. And again, layoff

after layoff, she's like, oh, it's not me, it's

not me. And eventually it became her. See, what

the company cared about more than anything else

was the bottom line. And if she stood in the

way of that bottom line, she was out. So now

she's experiencing... A lack of companionship,

which also could have been the next generational

blessing piece and the work dynamic. And those

have come together and just fallen apart in front

of her. She's like, I was so lonely in that situation.

Well, into that stepped a family and a family

that actually came around her. And they were

formed and shaped through the power of the Holy

Spirit in what we have just talked about. And

they were curious about this lady. And so they

got to know her. They began to make connections

with her and they were the ones that took that

step towards this person. But not only that,

they were humble and they listened well. See,

they weren't coming in and saying, hey, we want

to just bring all of who we are to you. That

ended up happening in a healthy relationship

later on. But they listened and they asked questions

and they began to connect that way. And then

they were sacrificial. They had a two -bedroom

apartment. And they had a young daughter who

they moved out of this apartment, not out of

the apartment, into their room with them to make

space for this lady in their daughter's room.

It's a sacrifice. It cost them because, and here's

the thing to remember, there was nothing in this

whole relational connection where this family

was receiving anything from this lady. But they

were generously giving out of an overflow of

what Christ had done for them. And you know what

happened? This lady ended up coming to saving

faith in Christ through that experience. She

came to saving faith in Christ through that experience,

which then created a committed family with them.

One where they are forever brothers and sisters

in Christ, where it changed everything from then

forward. And who is this lady? Emily Kim, who

works with Community Life. And now she is giving

of herself to help shape and form community here

because her life was so transformed from Jesus

in our closest relationships that she is committed

to give herself in that space going forward.

And she gave permission to share this story and

you can hear more to it later. But what I share

it, what I share it is to remind you of the power

of Jesus in our closest relationships. It can

come and encounter us no matter where we are

at, and it flips our life around and brings us

into a new way of engaging with God, where there's

brothers and sisters, there's people to create

generational blessing through, and there's a

partnership for God's kingdom that flows out

of what she does. And that's the beauty of Jesus

in all of life, right? I want to invite you to

pray with me in that. Lord, I thank you for the

incredible way that you have extravagantly stepped

towards us. And I thank you for the way that

you have encountered us and engaged us and moved

us by your great love for us. And no matter what

cultural aspect that we find ourselves in and

no matter what messy family background we find

ourselves in, you step towards us and you breathe

new life, resurrection life into that. And when

you do that, your kingdom comes and your will

is done. And we're so deeply thankful for that.

So Lord, would we be people that would help to

magnify you in all of life? Would we join in

creation singing your song, representing you

to the world who needs relational wholeness?

We pray this all in the wonderful name of Jesus.

Amen. If God is calling you to support our ministries,

you will find giving options on our website.

And remember to join us next week. God bless

you.