Romans 14 & 15 | Jerry Harris

Well, hello Crossing Church. How are you doing today?

Now, I really appreciate that and but I know a lot of you

aren't telling the truth. That you know, you, you, you put

yourself together, all of our locations.

And you know, I'm so glad that you're here, that you're here in

person. Those of you that are inside and

online, I know that you're not able to be here in person, but

and maybe you know you're still in your pajamas or whatever or

whatever you might be doing. But the fact is, is that we want

to always present something, you know, nice and palatable to

everybody else around us. But in truth, a lot of times we

are not what other people perceive we are that there's

stuff going on inside of our lives and we would just rather

not burden them with that. You know, we would just rather

just kind of hold that quietly inside of ourselves and put a

good face on and. And if people ask us how are you

doing? We'll just say fine, when that's

not the truth, It's kind of how we are, right?

I mean, it would take a long time if you actually wanted to

just, you know, back up the dump truck and let it out, you know,

and just say how you doing? Well, why don't you sit down.

True. Yeah.

I mean, for a lot of us that that's how it is.

And we're in the book of Romans and we are getting into some

real practicality in the latter chapters of the book of Romans,

and I'm in Romans 14 and 15. And it really is a discussion on

people whose faith is weak and people whose faith is strong and

how those two groups of people might interact with one another.

And we're in the the part of the series we entitled noticeable

neighbors like kind of how are you living your life in the

context of the people around you.

And one of the things that we're going to be discussing today is

this idea that or this truth that we're all damaged and we

all are to some extent. We're all damaged and damage is

actually a part of life. And I know that a lot of us are

trying to avoid it. The parents are trying to keep

their kids from having to deal with it.

We're trying to avoid damage. We really can't do it because

we're surrounded by it. And we we aren't always the

victim. Sometimes we're the perpetrator,

you know, because human beings, that's kind of what we do.

We live in a sinful world, and it's a world full of damage, and

we tend to damage each other. Some of the worst damage,

though, happens inside of a context, like you're in right

now is in a church. Because I think that we believe

that this ought to be a safe place, kind of devoid of damage.

Like, you know, we we, we should be able to be more transparent

here. We should be able to be more

real here. We should be able to trust each

other more here. But if you've been a part of a

church for a very long for any time at all, you've probably

experienced some of what we might call church damage or

church hurt. And the reason I know we we tend

to want to like label it as the church, like this.

This church hurt me. But the reality is that churches

are full of people, and the people that fill churches are

damaged people. And when you're in the proximity

of damaged people, it can damage your life because that's just

human nature tends to be what we do, and it might take a lot of

different forms in the church. It might be that you felt

overlooked, maybe you felt taken for granted.

Maybe like in a small group or something, you shared some

stuff. I mean, you risked it, you got

open with some other people and maybe they shared it with other

people and they shouldn't have, and you felt betrayed by that.

Maybe you were stabbed in the back, or maybe you were accused

of something that you didn't do. Maybe it was even more serious

than that. Maybe you experienced something

emotionally abusive or physically abusive and there are

people in churches that have been sexually abused.

Maybe whatever happened to you, you experienced when you were

new in your faith and then it made you go, you know what,

church, that's just like another one of these institutions.

It's just another one of these things that you just can't

trust. This is another club and it

really isn't very hard to get cynical.

And church can be viewed as optional by a lot of people.

Like, why do I even need to trouble myself with that?

I'll just kind of stay back and I'll, I'll, I'll keep a healthy

distance between me and all of whatever's happening in that

place. I've had people come to The

Crossing over the years, share stories with me about how broken

they are when they feel like maybe they can trust me with

that story. And they will talk about their

previous church experience. And I begin to realize just what

a major step of faith it was just to walk through the door of

another church again. Some of these people were some

of the hardest workers in their previous church environment,

some of the most committed people in their previous church.

But now if you find if you can find them at all, they're kind

of in the back in the dark and they kind of want to stay in the

shadows. It's hard to reengage.

Boy, I sure would like to stand up here today and say that all

just goes one way, but it doesn't because I have to tell

you that people at the crossing staff at the crossing, they have

done their fair share of hurting others and driving people away.

And I think it's easy for us to make excuses for our own

behavior or to find fault with people for leaving.

But there is no doubt that we've damaged people too.

You know, some of that damage comes from well meaning

Christians. And what well meaning Christians

are trying to do is maybe educate.

Or we use the term disciple, newer believers, right?

And so this is what the Apostle Paul is beginning to refer to in

Romans chapter 14. Let's let's read it together.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

It says except the one whose faith is weak without quarreling

over disputable matters also stop right there.

How many matters do you ever face that are disputable?

Like all of them? Right.

So should we be quarrelling over disputable matters?

Maybe somebody is pretty new in their faith.

Maybe you've been in your faith a little longer.

Maybe you were kind of raised up in a different context, this

other person, and they're trying to figure something out.

You think you've got it figured out, and so you want to disciple

this person or help this person along.

And you say some things that may be really discouraging when

you're really just trying to help someone else, maybe because

you're inside of a disputable matter.

I think it's something that we all deal with.

And I think there's a real question underneath this.

And the real question is that we're.

Well, maybe it's a The question is, are we are we trying to help

people to become more like Jesus or are we trying to help people

to become more like us? Maybe that's a little tougher

way of putting it. I think sometimes the real truth

isn't just Jesus. It's Jesus and Jesus and my

interpretation of the Bible, Jesus and my choice of worship

style. Jesus and my political leanings.

Jesus and my worldview. Jesus and my group.

Jesus and my culture. Jesus and my color.

Jesus and my education. You get it.

You talk, you, you get the picture.

The point is there is no and there's just Jesus.

And we keep trying to change other people.

But ultimately changing people is what Jesus does.

It's not what we do. We're supposed to be cooperating

with him, not standing in front of him.

We need to let him do his job and not be a detriment to that.

Now. The Apostle Paul in Romans 14

gives examples of this in the Roman churches context when he

talks about faith and he talks about food restrictions in

verses two to four of chapter 14.

Listen to what he says. One person's faith allows them

to eat anything, but another whose faith is week eats only

vegetables, and the one who eats everything must not treat with

contempt the one who does not and the one who does not eat

everything must not judge the one who does, for God has

accepted them. Who are you to judge someone

else's servant to their own master?

A servant stands or falls and they will stand, for the Lord is

able to make them stand. So now we're in the context of

Romans and food restriction was a big deal in the in the Jewish

world and we've already established through the study of

Romans. Hope you're still doing that,

that the Roman church was an established church with with

Gentiles and with Jews, and so they were having to learn how to

get along together when they're coming from very, very different

backgrounds. And of course, if you were

raised Jewish there, there's a whole lot of rules associated

with your faith. It's called eating kosher or

eating pure. Now, Gentiles, they didn't

follow those regulations and they were not required to follow

those regulations. But that didn't stop Jews from

looking down on Gentiles because of the food they ate.

And it was a big deal to them and it was causing a lot of

problems. How do we, how do we connect

that to our world today? Well, I'm speaking from Quincy.

And in many ways, Quincy is a very Catholic community, right?

There's 8 parishes in Quincy and I I I don't know about like all

the rest of the other ten locations but definitely here

that's a reality. And the story goes of a of a

Jewish man that moved into a new community and it was a

predominantly Catholic community and and so and all of his

neighbors were were Catholics. And so on Friday, one of the

things that this Jewish man loved to do was cook a nice

steak on the grill. And so every evening Sky was out

there and he's cooking a steak on the grill.

And all of these Catholics that were pretty hardcore Catholics

were taught that they could only eat fish on Friday.

And so here comes this aroma wafting over the back fence, and

it's just driving all of his neighbors crazy.

And every single Friday night, this guy is cooking a nice juicy

steak on his grill. And eventually they just can't

take it anymore until they have an HOA meeting.

I mean, they get the neighbors together, you know, all the the

Catholic neighbors, they go, what are we going to do?

This is like, this isn't making it impossible.

I mean, you know, here I am, I'm trying to eat my fish.

I'm smelling. This is killing me.

And so they're talking about it, and they decide, you know, what

we got to do? Let's convert this Jewish guy to

Catholicism. That's what we'll do.

And so they started ganging up on him as neighbors, like, like,

you know, encouraging him and talking to him and working on

him. And over a period of months, you

know, they started to break this guy down.

And before long they had him to the place where he was ready to

convert from Judaism to Catholicism.

So they took him to their to their church.

It took him before the priest. And I don't know what it is that

the priest has. It has the water in it, you

know, like the holy what? What is that thing called?

I don't know what that thing's called anyway.

You know, there's a sprinkler thing.

That's the technical term. Anyway.

It's so the the Jewish man comes there and and he gets down on

his knees and the priest standing over him and he's

sprinkling the holy water on him and he goes born at you, raise

the Jew now Catholic and all of the neighbors went yes, that's

it. Solve that problem.

Next Friday, here comes that smell, the smell of a nice steak

cooking on that guy's grill. And they go, we've got him now.

And they all join up in the street and they head over to his

house. They walk into his backyard and

there he is over the grill with his little water bottle.

And he's going born a cow, raised a cow, now a fish.

Brothers and sisters do not determine who their parents are,

even though a lot of you, especially the younger ones,

your older brothers and sisters try to convince you that you

know who your parents were and weren't.

And what does the word accept mean when Paul uses it?

It means not to reject. It means not to ignore.

It means not to treat someone else as second class.

Acceptance is a basic recognition of family.

It's understanding not only who we are, but who's we are.

That it isn't us who determines our siblings in Christ.

It's Christ that's determined by the parent.

We don't have to agree, but when we disagree, we need to disagree

in a very agreeable way. Years ago when I lived in

Indiana and our children were little, we were downtown.

And there's a famous deli downtown called Shapiro's in

Indiana, Indianapolis. And Allison is trying to manage

these children, toddlers at the time, and it's hard to do that

and at the same time order. So she's not just ordering for

herself, she's also ordering for them.

And this is one of those places where I kind of step back and

let her do that, right? Or thankful that she does do

that. And so she's kind of going fast

at Shapiro's. And so she goes for one of the

kids. She says like a ham sandwich.

Shapiro's is a deli. It's a Jewish deli.

Are you? Is it too early in the morning?

They don't serve ham. Now, the person behind the

counter could have gotten frustrated by that, but they

could see that there was a young mom here dealing with kids and a

dad. And I I remember that moment.

I looked at her and I went, Oh my gosh, and and the guy behind

the counter said, hey, wouldn't you like some nice pastrami?

I mean, he didn't make a big deal out of it.

He didn't say, Did you not understand that this is a Jewish

delicatessen and we don't serve ham?

That ham is not kosher meat? He didn't scold her, give her a

hard time. He just said something nice

back. If we're going to disagree, we

need to disagree in agreeable way.

All goes on to talk about how in Jewish culture, one day is more

important to another. And of course that's a core

value. In the Old Testament covenant

law between God and the Jews, part of the 10 commandments was

the 4th commandment, which was remember the Sabbath day to keep

it holy. But Gentiles were not a part of

that covenant law. And in the New Testament, when

we see the church established, you see this movement from the

Sabbath day, which was a Saturday.

And by the way, it wasn't a Saturday the way you understand

or I understand a Saturday because a Jewish Saturday begins

on our Friday at 6:00 PM and it goes from Saturday to 6:00 PM.

But that would be the way that the Jewish people in the Church

of Rome would understand it. But Gentiles didn't feel that

way. And when the church was

instituted and acts, two people began to worship the Lord on

Sunday, the first day of the week, and they called it the

Lord's day. So we we see this movement from

the Sabbath, the Saturday to the Sunday.

Now that would have sent a shockwave through the Jewish

culture at that time. Then he talks about things like

eating meat or abstaining from meat and how some people would

only eat vegetables. Now if you go into First

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 8, it'll get deeper into this, but this is

kind of culturally what would happen anytime you would go to a

butcher shop to buy meat. During this era, all animals

that were slaughtered were taken through like a tunnel and they

were passed underneath an idol. So all of the animals that were

slaughtered, that were killed and then butchered technically

had been offered to An idol was kind of A2 for one, right?

So, you know, they were trying to get credit from their false

gods about the sacrifice of an animal even though they were

going to butcher it for food. Well, there were some people

that were new in their faith that were saying no, no, no,

nothing. Unclean's going to enter my

mouth. This was offered to an idol.

I won't eat it. So they would only eat

vegetables. And other people would say, come

on, the fact that people are doing whatever they're doing

with that animal as far as passing it under an Isles, no

big deal. All this meat is clean.

God's made it clean. They would argue about that.

And you can see how there would be divisions in the church and

difficulty and mean spirited talk and people would get

frustrated. They would step away from it

because of what was going on, right?

And you might think to yourself, that would not happen today.

We wouldn't do that in a church today.

Come on, you know what I've noticed?

I don't know about this and all the other our other communities

been in Quincy. Halloween is a pretty big deal.

I mean, some people, like, go crazy, like with their yards and

everything, right? They just go nuts to celebrate

Halloween. But there are some people, well

meaning Christians, that are like, That is the devil's

holiday and no one should ever celebrate Halloween because

you're glorifying the devil. For many years my wife ran the

preschool in here in Quincy and we did a Halloween alternative

for preschoolers. It was called Noah's Ark Park

and kids would dress up as animals to go on the ark.

But there were some well meaning Christians tending to disciple

others. That said, how dare you dress

little children up as animals for Noah's Ark Park because

you're trying to give them an alternative to Halloween cause

it's really just Halloween you pagans.

Now you can see how some people by faith are saying we should

never do anything called Halloween.

Other people by faith, are saying it's not a big deal.

And there's even these positive ways that we can do this.

Would you call that a disputable matter?

Sure, certainly I would, because we all have our opinions.

But our opinions should never be more important to us than the

people that Jesus died for. For goodness sake, look at

verses 7 to 10, it says. For none of us lives for

ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

If we live, we live for the Lord.

If we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we

belong to the Lord. For this very reason Christ died

and returned to life, that he might be the Lord of both the

dead and the living. You then why do you judge your

brother and sister? Why do you treat them with

contempt? For we will all stand before

God's judgment seat. We have to recognize that it is

not our job to judge or condemn other people.

Leave that to the Lord and you just bring Jesus that not Jesus

and just Jesus to people. Now in our movement of churches

called the Restoration movement there are churches that are

instrumental and there are churches that are non

instrumental. As a matter of fact from this

location where I'm preaching at 48th and main, if you go over to

State Street about 46th and state there is a Church of

Christ. It's a non instrumental Church

of Christ because the people of the non instrumental Church of

Christ do not see instruments being used to worship God.

In the New Testament, they're worshipped in using instruments,

The Old Testament, but not in the New Testaments.

And since the New Testament is silent about the use of

instruments in worship, they don't use instruments and they

sing a cappella. Now they're fine with music in

any other setting, but when it comes to worship, no

instruments, how should we feel about that?

Will? You obviously know how I feel

about it, because you know, we love music and all forms and

instruments. We think that's fine, but what

if I were to invite, and we have before, someone from the non

instrumental Church of Christ to come and speak at the crossing?

What would I do? Would I have an expectation that

they just need to just get over it or would I do something

different? I've literally done this and

I've asked people to come and I I've told them, listen, we will

cover our instruments and we will sing acapella because we

want to honor you. Because whether we have

instruments or don't have instruments doesn't mean

anything compared to who Christ Jesus died for.

And we need to honor each other that way and not get caught up

so much. Indisputable matters because

ultimately we are all going to have to answer to God for this.

That's what that scripture says. Look at verses 12 and 13.

It says so then each of us will give an account of ourselves to

God. Therefore, let us stop passing

judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not

to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother

or a sister. That's the main thing.

We're not supposed to forget it. Let's look at another verse, the

19th verse. It says Let us therefore make

every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.

I wish I could frame that and hand it out to everybody.

Let us do whatever leads to peace and mutual edification.

Edification means to encourage. It means to build up, make

another person feel pretty good about where they are.

So, and it's so. There's two things there, peace

and mutual edification. Here's two questions we should

always ask ourselves before we ever get into a conversation

that is going to devolve into a disputable matter.

Number one, does my part in the conversation lead to peace?

Are the things that I'm saying or the ways that I'm responding?

Doesn't matter if I brought it up or they brought it up.

Is it leading to peace? #2?

Do the things that I contribute to the conversation actually

build the other person up in some way?

I want you to think about before stuff came out of your mouth.

How much different would your life be if before anything came

out of your mouth? You ask yourselves those two

questions and then lived according to them.

Is it contributing to peace? And I am I encouraging the other

person in some way? I would imagine a lot of us

would have a lot less to say. I imagine that a lot of us would

be spending a lot less time on social media and it and and we

would look at our phones and when it got we got our screen

time thing, it would say, well you're really down.

You know it's like yeah, why? It's because of that if those

things are not happening, we need to ask why.

Could it be because we have this Pride issue that we want to be

right, That we just want to be right here?

A couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail.

Some people had come to me and they had asked me to use my

influence as the publisher of Christian Standard magazine to

promote something. And they were being so nice to

me. And I took them out and we had a

meal together and, you know, was sharing with them.

And then immediately I got emails back.

Just really positive. Boy, I really appreciate your

time. Really appreciate the things you

shared with us. I'm so excited about this.

I'm so excited about that. But as some people do, sometimes

they don't realize that they have other emails to one another

attached to the e-mail that they sent to me.

And the two guys were emailing each other back and forth

talking about me and hadn't realized that they sent that

along, that that was somehow attached.

You know, you'd never do anything like that.

That's never happened to you. So I'm reading this and I'm

like, wow, that. So that's what they think.

That's what they really think. One guy was saying to the other

guy, I, I, I, I'll place a bet that he doesn't call, he doesn't

e-mail us back for two weeks, stuff like that.

I showed it to my wife. She got really upset.

And so there's a part of me that's going and I was working

on this sermon and I went great sermon illustration, but it

doesn't lead to peace or mutual edification Flood go right and

some of you are going are going well that never that's never

happen Anything like that's ever happened to me.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Well, maybe it hasn't. Maybe it didn't have an e-mail

issue like that. But maybe to a person's face,

you've said the things you know that they want to hear.

But when you get with somebody else and you talk about that

person, the conversation is very different.

And we're all guilty of that. Look at the 22nd verse.

So whatever you believe about these things, keep between

yourself and God bless. The One is the one who does not

condemn himself by what he approves.

That's some really, really good advice.

Have you ever gotten into it with someone about some petty

thing? And then after the damage is

done, you look back and you say to yourself, it would have been

just better if I would have kept my foolish mouth shut, keeping

some things just between you and God looking.

It's okay if you want to say to God, this person just really

hacks me off. I don't know you.

God can handle that. You keep, you know, you complain

up. It's OK, he'll work through

that. He'll remind you of all the

things that you do right. But this other direction is not

good. This direction from 22 is really

good advice. And the other thing that you see

from this is that Jesus takes it personally when people insult

you because of your faith, it offends you.

When people insult you because your faith, it also offends him.

And you might go, OK, all right, it's nice to have someone stand

up for me. That's a good thing.

But wait, he also takes it personally when you and I talk

down to someone because of some shortcoming they might have.

Or maybe not to someone, but about someone to someone else.

Chapter 15 verses one to three says, we who are strong ought to

bear with the failings of the weak and not to please

ourselves. Each of us should please our

neighbors for their good, to build them up.

For even Jesus, even Christ did not please himself.

But as as it is written, the insults of those who insult you

have fallen on me. Truth is, sometimes we know just

enough about the Bible to hurt people and we need to step back.

And we need to do our best to learn practical ways that we can

walk out our faith and live out our faith without hurting other

people, because that hurt can be profound.

I want to close with this. When I read a story in the

Bible, it's not uncommon for me to want to identify with whoever

is the hero because I want to be that person.

I want to be the one who does the right thing.

Isn't it interesting that so many of us tend to want to

identify with the hero in the story, but when it comes to our

own intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, we have

to understand there's only one hero and it's never us.

Jesus is always the hero of the story, and the glory goes to

him. Doesn't go to us, right?

Well, maybe you're going well, you miss me on that one, Jerry,

Because when I read a story in the Bible, I'd identify with the

victim. Okay.

Maybe you identify with the victim because, you know, we

kind of live in a victim culture.

And so, yeah, this because we're not thinking about maybe being

the good guy. Maybe we're thinking about the

other person being the bad guy and me being recipient of that.

I'm not saying that those things aren't valid, but when you try

to identify with the victim of the story, you're doing the same

thing that I'm doing if I identify with the hero, the

story, Because ultimately there's really only one victim,

and that's been victimized to this level, to to the highest

level, and that's the same person as the hero, the story.

Has there ever been a greater victim than Jesus?

Has there ever been someone treated more unfairly than

Jesus? And so if you want to get up on

the pedestal for hero, maybe you should step out.

Maybe you step off. And if you want to get on the

pedestal for the victim, maybe you should step off.

And maybe all of us together need to look to the one place

where the truth is the one place, the one person who was

the hero of every story, and a person who was victorious, even.

But this kind of victimization truth is we are a collection of

victims and perpetrators. And to be honest, probably

everybody I'm talking to has been both at one time or

another, maybe even now. But Jesus is here, the ultimate

victim and the ultimate hero, and he is here to heal the

victims and to turn the hearts of perpetrators back to him.

If we'll just lean into him today, this place was made to be

a place of healing, a place of burdens, lightning, place of new

life and new perspective. A place where old is laid down

and the new is freely and gratefully received.

Let's be that place we're moving to a time of decision.

Earlier this week, Allison and I were at We sit at the dinner

table and we work there. And Abby, my youngest daughter,

came over with her. One was at preschool, the other

one is younger than that and brought the younger one.

And I'll tell you, these two kids of hers, I love these two

kids so much. They are all boy and they are

like 2 Tasmanian devils. Like if there is something on a

shelf or there is something put away, that is totally a wrong

thing. It needs to be fully displayed

on the floor for all to be able to see and maneuver around.

Sometimes that irritates me. Doesn't really seem to bother my

daughter. She's a great mom with them.

Doesn't seem to bother my wife. So we're sitting there and Abby

and I are talking about some of the different struggles that

we're dealing with, and she's sharing with me.

She's being transparent. I'm trying to share with her and

being transparent. And she said something to me

that kind of hit me. She goes, I'm such a

perfectionist, but she really wasn't talking about how she

viewed others. She was talking about how she

viewed herself. And she always falls short of

what she feels like she ought to be or ought to do.

I don't know if you guys connect with that or not.

And I was trying to think of something I could say to

encourage her. And for some reason, she took

her eyes off of me while we're in this conversation.

Maybe she heard something that her son was doing right next to

her on the other side with Allison, with him bouncing on

the lap, watching train videos. And I saw that, and it occurred

to me, I go, Abby. I know that may be how you feel

and how you think, but you need to understand that when God

looks at you, it's just the same as when you look at Avery.

That's what he sees. He sees you that way, and Avery

comes into this house and he makes all these messes.

It doesn't seem to bother you that much.

It certainly doesn't change the amount of love that God had that

you have for Avery. And it doesn't seem to bother

Allison much. Doesn't really change that level

of love there either. As a matter of fact, you have a

lot of grace for a kid who just turned 2.

And if you know this scripture, and I know she knew this

scripture, if you then, being evil, know how to give good

gifts to your kids, how much more will your Heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask you?

Some of you are here right now, and you're trying to manage this

stuff all by yourself. Trying to carry all your own

load, trying to be tough enough, Pull yourself up by your own

bootstraps, Buck up when maybe you just need to be the little

kid that runs to the parent and needs to feel the nurturing arms

of a Heavenly Father. Encouraging and reassuring.

That's what these steps are for today.

For you to just spend some time with the Lord.

To be reminded that he loves you.

To be reminded how He sees you. And to be reminded that we've

talked about a couple of weeks ago, that he has more grace than

you will ever require for you. Some of you are here today.

You've never come into an intimate, personal relationship

with God. You think you're so tough.

You think you're so strong. I want you to know right now

that you are surrounded by a whole room of weaklings, and the

guy you're listening to is one of the biggest weaklings of all.

And you can let go of that today, and you can let the Lord

Jesus have his way in your life, and it'll be messy.

But what do you think he expects out of an infant?

There's going to be somebody right over there by that

baptistry that would love nothing more.

And just to share with you some of what the next steps could be.

And you could leave this place today completely different than

when you walked in. Here's an opportunity.

Would you stand with me? Let's pray together.

Let's give this moment to the Lord.

In Jesus name, Heavenly Father, I pray take this moment.

It belongs to you anyway. But help it to belong to you as

far as we're concerned, in our hearts.

And if there are hearts right now that are struggling, I pray

Father that we would put down those defenses.

Be transparent before you and let you have your way in Jesus

name. Amen.