ME to WE- Pastor Mathew George

Thank you for listening to this message from LifeHouse Church.

You guys all sound like you like each other.

We love it.

It's awesome.

Well, it's good to have you here at LifeHouse and worshiping the Lord this morning.

We got a special treat for you this morning.

Pastor Matthew George, his lovely wife, Jesley, and their family are here this morning to

minister the Word of God.

And they ministered last evening.

Pastor really came and delivered a word about marriages and really about how our past can

really play into our future and even how we communicate in marriage and how we act towards

one another.

And really just made that connection with all that.

But he's got a word he's going to give you today.

And I appreciate this family so much.

They're not only fellow ministers and fellow workers in this state, but they're friends

of ours.

And we have had the opportunity to work together, pastor, on multiple different boards with

one another.

They are church planters, so they understand church planting.

They have a heart for church planting.

We are a couple of the few, I guess, who have done that in this state and really get to

connect on that level, which is amazing.

And they're just an amazing family.

So if you get a chance, spend some time, talk with them, and we love them dearly.

But he's going to come.

And I know he's got a passion for the Word of God.

And probably the number one quality I really know about this family is that they love God.

They love Jesus.

And they serve that way.

And they talk that way.

And they live that way.

And that's incredibly important to me, to everybody you minister to.

So thank you for that.

But if you would, would you give Pastor Matthew a hand as he comes and brings the word today?

Good morning.

What a pleasure this is for me to be with you today.

Hey, three people went hunting.

And it was a doctor, a lawyer, and a pastor.

They all went hunting together.

And they see a buck, and they all pull the trigger.

And you know, the buck goes down.

And the doctor says, man, it's my bullet.

You know, it's mine.

You know, I just knew exactly where to get them, you know.

And so the lawyer says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You were a little late with that trigger.

It was mine.

It was exactly how I planned it.

And I pulled just a little bit of yours.

And the pastor said, hey, guys, walk with me.

And so they go walking, right?

And they go to the buck.

And the pastor says, hey, just look at it.

The bullet went in one ear and out the other.

You'll get it in a minute.

Amen.

You'll get it.

I hope that's not the case here at Life House.

You guys are amazing people.

And I'm excited to hear the word of God to share with you today.

And so I just want to say this, right?

Your pastor is like a big brother I never had.

I know we don't have the same color skin, you know.

But we're like brothers because I grew up with three sisters.

And I wish I had met them a lot earlier in life.

But if I need any support, any advice, this is the man I go to.

And so him and Dixie are just so close to us.

We hang out at their house once every quarter at least.

And we just have a lot of fun together.

And so I just want to say thank you, Pastor Kipp, for trusting me with this great honor

because, you know, to stand up here is a sacred responsibility.

I don't take it lightly at all.

And to be able to share the podium with someone, it is not easy for a pastor to do.

And so but I'm just so thankful for them and that we have a relationship that we can do

together.

So hey, would you just express to them how much you love those guys, you know, your pastor

and Sister Dixie?

We love you.

Thank you for having me and thank you for having us.

Gessley is my wife, we'll be celebrating 20 years, married this year.

And so yeah, we're grateful to God.

This weekend, we had the joy of sharing with you guys, those of you who were yesterday.

And I just want you to know that our passion is just seeing God just raising up strong

family, strong marriages.

And so I'm actually enrolled in a Ph.D. program currently at Eastern University towards the

marriage and family therapy.

So all of that said at this moment, I'm just thankful that, you know, that we get to celebrate

this moment with you.

We've got about 30 minutes remaining, right?

I just want you to just hone in on what God wants to say today to us.

Our daughter Eden is here today, but we have three more.

They'll be here for 1045.

And so it's a treat for us.

It really is a treat for us to be with you guys today.

Hey, would you turn with me to the Goss, I'm sorry, the book of Acts chapter four today,

book of Acts chapter four.

And I'm going to be sharing a few verses with you today.

Acts chapter four, beginning with verse number five, and we're going to go to verse 13, Acts

four, five to 13.

And I'm going to, I'm going to read this to you.

And I know it's eight verses, but I hope that you'll be able to just listen.

Could you stand with me as we read together?

That'd be all right.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, Lord.

Acts chapter four, beginning with verse number five.

Lord, this is your word and these are your people and I am your servant.

Glorify your name today.

The next day, the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem and as

the high priest was there.

And so was Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the others of the high priest family.

They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them.

By what power or what name did you do this?

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 was

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.

And this man stands before you healed.

Jesus is the stone who you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.

Verse number 12, a central scripture for us believers, salvation is found in no other

name, no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we

must be saved.

Verse 13, 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.

Would you look at your neighbor and say, have you been with Jesus?

Do that for me before you sit down.

Come on, have you been with Jesus?

You can sit down.

Thank you so much.

I want to welcome you, those of you who are physically, those of you watching us on live

stream, welcome to the gathering of God's people.

It is a pleasure to be able to have you with us today.

I'm calling my sermon today, Me to We, Me to We.

And as you look at Acts chapter four and you see the aftermath of a story that took place

in Acts chapter three, right?

And so you've got to be able to read this entire section to figure this out completely.

But what happened here is that there was a man who was lame and he was lame and he was

begging for money as Peter and John were going into the temple, right?

And you know the story.

Jesus says to, Peter says to him, silver and gold, I don't have, but what I have, I give

you, rise and walk.

And he was healed.

And it was an amazing thing for the first time in his life.

He was able to go into the temple because lame could not enter the temple.

They were unholy and unclean.

And so for the first time, this, this man has walked into the temple and everybody can

see him because they all saw him begging for many years.

And here we have Peter and, and John, who is being questioned by the authorities, the

Jewish council, the family of the high priest, and they're wondering, Hey, why did you guys

do this?

What, in what name did you do this?

And you can see in verse 13, it's a central point I want to focus on today's when they

saw the courage of Peter and John and realize that they were unschooled, ordinary men.

They were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

And I want to tell you today that today, before you go, I want to tell you five things that

happened in our life after we've met Jesus.

And I want to give you five things before you go today.

Right?

So I'm calling it me to we, you see, we live in a country and we're just the personal accomplishments

are celebrated in such amazing ways, right?

Like the American dream is great, but it's all about, you know, how to build your family,

how to, how to buy a house and you know, that individualistic mindset.

Right?

And we're, we're all about success.

We want to be able to, you know, go to school and make a living for ourselves.

And that's a wonderful thing.

But I tell you that as we meet Jesus and as we, as we build a relationship with him, something

happens to us.

We go from me to we.

And I want to tell you that, that these two guys experienced this in their own life.

Right?

And if you look back at Peter's life and, and you look back at how he met Jesus, you'd

be amazed at what happened to him.

Right?

And if you go back to like Luke chapter five and you see the, the story of, of, of Jesus

meeting with Peter for the first time, you know, this guy is, is, you know, washing his

net after not catching any fish the whole night and it's his own boat.

It's his private space.

It's his sacred space.

Right?

And he's washing his net and, and, and, and Jesus, Hey, Peter.

He's like, yeah.

Hey, Rabbi, you know, you're, you're teaching, you're teaching the people I'm listening.

He says, well, I want to get on your boat.

And, and you know, all of a sudden, you know, the story, right?

Like, you know, he says, let down your net for a catch and the biggest catch of his life.

And so here's Peter, right?

He had this individualistic, successful life as far as just, you know, like doing his thing,

catching fish and providing for his family.

But as soon as he meets Jesus, something radical happens to him.

And, and he says, Jesus says to him, let down your nets.

And he caught the biggest catch of his life.

And Peter responds by saying this, right?

Get away from me, Lord.

I'm a sinful man.

Get away from me, Lord.

I'm a sinful man.

If, if I were Peter, I would be like, Hey, Jesus, you and me, we can make a good team.

Right?

I mean, I just caught the biggest catch of my life.

Right?

I, you can preach from my boat anytime you want to.

Right?

You know, you preach and you just let all the fish have a rival under my boat and we're

going to be all right.

We're going to make a lot of money together and your ministry is going to be successful.

No, no.

What, what Jesus, when he looks at Peter, he says, get away from me.

I think this is a good mark in Peter's life because he thinks that, man, I'm just, he

says, I'm a sinful man.

Isn't this what happens to a lot of us?

Right?

Sin begins to make us feel shameful.

We feel like Jesus, get away from me today.

I'm just, I'm just feeling like I want to be with myself.

I'm not comfortable approaching you today because I feel dirty.

I feel uncomfortable.

I just need some space.

You know what Peter hears from Jesus?

He says, follow me, Peter.

I'll make you fishers of men.

We sang about holiness today.

I feel like there's been such a good theme about holiness.

And I thought about this, right?

Holiness.

When we think of the word holiness, what comes to our mind?

Like, man, God is so holy and I'm not, like I'm just, I'm just, I'm just not going to

measure up.

Imagine you guys went for a hike, you know, and you had a long day hiking or you're a

runner and you just finished, you know, a 5K and you're coming back to the starting

point and I'm standing there and I've got a cold glass of water.

You're like, oh my goodness, Matthew, thank you so much.

And I say to you, hey, this is cold water.

This is refreshing.

It's 99% clean, but it's got 1% of flesh eating bacteria.

Are you going to drink that?

It looks clean.

Not that thirsty.

But it looks clean.

It's cold.

But I need clean water for my body.

When you think about God's holiness, what do you need?

You need this, this good, complete, holy God to fix yours and mine sinful, dirty life.

So when you think about holiness, don't think, oh my gosh, he's so holy and it'd be distant

from him like Peter did.

No, when you think about holiness, you're just like, God, give me some more of that

because I need all the holiness from you I can get.

Bring me closer to you.

Give me more of your water because I cannot live without your holiness.

Dear friends, I want to tell you that this is what changed Peter's life.

Peter's life was changed because he went from me to we.

Me catching my fish, doing my thing to we, I'm hanging with Jesus because I need all

the holiness I can get.

I'm a sinful man.

Get away from me.

Jesus says, no, no, no, no.

I know you're a sinful man, hang with me some more.

You see, all of us are under construction.

Amen.

Three and a half years later, Peter is still going back to fishing.

You read John chapter 21, right?

John 21 · chapter mention

He's going back to fishing and he's telling people, I'm going back to fishing.

And Jesus is waiting by the shore saying, do you have something to eat?

This is the kind of Jesus we serve, my friends.

When you get to know Jesus, he doesn't abandon us.

His holiness pursues us.

And so I want to tell you, if there's anybody under my voice in this building now or watching

us on live stream, I want to tell you, if there's anything in your life that makes you

feel shameful or guilty, you have a good God.

You have a good, holy God and his wholeness can make you well.

It can make you whole and it can completely restore your feeling of feeling sick and lonely

from God.

See, God is holy.

That is true.

God has no blemishes and I need that in my life.

What am I saying?

I'm saying, point number one, friends, in Christ's community, you are welcome.

Ordinary people are welcome in God's community.

You know, this word ordinary is funny in the Greek.

It's the word idiotas.

You guessed it.

That's where we get the word idiot from.

No, really.

I didn't make that up.

It's in there.

These people are saying, these are idiots.

They don't have the training that we have.

They don't have the education that we have.

How is it that they're doing these things?

You people are idiots.

And Jesus says, yeah, give me some more idiots.

Give me some more fools who will speak to a layman.

Give me some more fools who will take me at my word.

Give me some more fools who will say, yeah.

I don't have all the education.

I don't have all the training I need.

But man, I've got a holy God on my side.

Come on, somebody.

Let's take a moment to praise God for His word.

Amen.

Come on, let's do it.

I need His holiness.

I need it every day.

I wake up in the morning.

I need His holiness.

I go through my life daily.

I need His holiness because I am not perfect.

I need Him so much.

And so my friends, number one, in Christ's community, ordinary is welcomed.

Because we're all separated from God.

If you ever felt like that, please hear me say this to you.

God has your solution.

He's got that living water that He spoke about in John chapter four.

He tells us, a married woman, man, the water you drink, you're going to be thirsty again

and again and again.

But the water I give you will well up in you like a spring all the way to eternal life.

For by grace, Ephesians 2, 8, you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God.

Can you say the gift of God?

This is a gift of God.

I will, He says, I'll never leave you.

Right?

I mean, this is, this is a word from the Holy God.

You can take His word for it.

He's not going to change His mind.

And so when you think about God's holiness, think about how perfect He is that He's not

going to change His mind.

Like you and me, we change our minds.

I said, I'll never buy a minivan, you know, when I was a kid.

Come on.

I hear you have like 23 babies in a year in the church.

How many minivans do you all have?

I mean, my goodness.

You can talk to Justin and ask, man, I'm never going to buy a minivan when we got married,

right?

Like I don't want to be that guy.

Hey, 20 years later, I've had two minivans.

Amen.

Come on somebody.

Oh my goodness.

I bought a Toyota Sienna in 2007 and we bought another one in 2017.

Amen.

I love the Sienna so much and I saw somebody drive one today.

Amen.

So I'm just simply saying this, right?

Like we say something and we just change our mind, right?

Like ah, whatever fits.

But Jesus, He's not like that.

When He says, I'll never leave you, man, He's a good man of His word and He's going to hold

on to you no matter what happens in your life.

So don't let the enemy say you've been distant, you've been unholy, you are ashamed to come.

So number one in Christ's community, ordinary is welcome.

Listen to chapter four, verse eight to 10, right?

And Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, He declared them rulers and the people of the

elders.

If we are being examined today concerning a good deed to a crippled man by what means

this man has been healed, to let it be known to all of you, to the people of Israel that

by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, God raised from the dead.

By Him this man is standing before you.

Peter's a bold person today, unlike when it was Jesus being crucified, right?

Many times denied Jesus.

Something has happened to Peter.

Community has changed him.

The power of the Holy Spirit has changed him.

And A.W.

Tocha says this, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important

thing about us.

What comes into our mind when we think about God, is He this distant God who is sitting

on a throne with the rod waiting to punish me?

That's not our God.

Our God is a God who is near.

Our God is a God who says, come near to me and I will draw near to you.

Our God is a God who says this, right?

Isaiah 57 verse 15 says, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits

Isaiah 57:15

eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high holy place and also with Him who is a

contrite and a lowly heart.

To revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Yeah, He's in a holy place.

He's exalted.

He's high.

But He says, I'm also with the lowly.

I'm also with the broken, with the contrite.

And so don't ever think that God is so far away from you that you can't reach Him, no?

One thing you and I must do though is come with some humility, amen?

Come with some radical humility, man.

Just humble yourself and say, God, I need your holiness right now.

I feel like a distant child.

I need you to bring me near.

Number two, Christ's community offers me opportunities to be part of something greater than myself.

Number one, it was your ordinary welcome.

Number two, it offers you something to be part.

Man, this is bigger than me.

You know what I mean?

Think about Peter's life.

Could he be doing this if he didn't meet Jesus?

No.

He would be nowhere near this moment.

He's not yelling at the priest and the high priest and he's saying, Jesus whom you call

Peter, what has happened to you?

You are a different man today than you were three and a half years ago.

Community of Jesus can change us, friends.

I'm not saying that you guys are going to be preaching up on the pulpit.

That may not be you.

Maybe some of you will be called to preach.

But I will say this, man, as you meet Jesus, His boldness, right?

His confidence of knowing Him.

I've got Jesus on my side.

I've got Jesus on my boat.

I'm not alone.

It's that kind of a holy confidence that takes you to the grocery store, as Zach was saying,

right?

Like you feel like I'm going to the grocery store, but man, Jesus is with me.

I feel confident about this relationship.

So what am I saying to you today?

I need you to just think about me to we and think about the fact that, man, in Christ's

community I can do amazing things.

The church of God started off as a very small denomination.

I grew up in the church of God.

And Pastor Kipp and I, we've served on many, many boards.

And when I think about what the church has allowed me to do, I mean, I had a bad stutter

when I was growing up.

Like I had such a bad stutter that I wouldn't actually speak.

People wouldn't know that about me, right?

And so I would be like in a circle of friends and trying to have a conversation.

Couldn't say.

Couldn't say too many things.

I had such a bad stutter.

It was so embarrassing.

And so I didn't even really have a lot of friends.

As a matter of fact, when I was in college, I was struggling just mentally.

And I think I fell into a depression.

And I would run into the cafeteria, grab my lunch, and run out of there.

So I would go eat in my room by myself.

I'm not afraid to share this with you guys today.

It was a Bible college.

It was chapel services and, you know, every day.

And it was good people.

But man, I had struggles.

I dealt with depression.

I was anxious.

I didn't really do well in college as far as my grades.

It wasn't very good.

And somehow or another, I met a man named Frank.

And Frank is from New York, Brooklyn.

He grew up Times Square Church.

David Wilkerson, right?

And David Wilkerson, who went from like western Pennsylvania to the city of Times Square,

New York City, started ministering to gangs, lived in his car with nothing.

Went from me to we, right?

I mean, he just radically changed his lifestyle.

And discipled Frank.

And you can read about his David Wilkerson story.

And Frank and I would meet together for prayer every Tuesday at 2 o'clock.

I'll never forget it.

It was a sacred time for me.

I felt like, man, Frank knows me.

He would make Cafe Bustelo coffee.

Come on, anybody.

You all don't know about Bustelo.

Amen.

He would make strong, good coffee.

Amen.

And he would have condensed milk.

And it was good coffee, condensed milk.

And we would watch sermons on his TV, VCR.

Oh, man, come on, VCR tape.

I don't think he even knows what a VCR is.

We would watch old sermons of great preachers.

And we would pray together.

Man, that was a good community, my friends.

That allowed me to experience just connection.

Like I was with somebody who cared about me.

And I pray that as you walk into Life House, as you build community with your small groups,

and as you spend time praying with your friends and your family, I pray that that's how you

feel about the body of Christ.

Because you've gone from just an obscure individual to a person that says, man, I can do all things

through Christ and it's community who strengthens me.

Amen.

And if this is the community that God is calling you to, you can do greater things with God,

with His community than you could ever do without.

And I must go forward.

I want to tell you, friends, here in chapter four, verse number seven, they had Peter and

John brought before them and began to question them, by what power did you do this?

You see, this is a stressful moment for most people.

I mean, can you imagine?

Like locked up in jail, and they're going to lock him up, and you'll see what happens

at the end of this chapter.

Like locked up in jail for preaching the gospel.

Can you imagine what that's like right now?

Imagine if you were arrested for something that you believed in.

You want to preach or something that you're standing for, justice for something that is

passionate for your heart.

And these people are getting arrested.

And I wonder how they made it through intense pressure of being just questioned and arrested.

The Quakers are a movement that began.

Right?

You know about the Quaker movement, and I'll tell you, the founder of the Quakers is being

judged by the authorities.

He responds by saying, if you knew my God, you would quake.

They got the name Quakers.

That's the kind of authority, the kind of power that he had, even as he was facing his

death.

I want to tell you, in the intense pressure moments of your life, you need Christ's community

around you.

You need people around you who will say, man, I'm standing with you right now.

I know it's a bad diagnosis.

I know it's a bad situation with your family, your relationship, but man, I'm going to stand

right there with you.

You are not alone.

And you've got to let people into your circles.

You've got to let them come in and build relationships with you that you feel like you're strong.

And I say, number three, Christ's community offers me strength when I'm faced with intense

pressure.

Frank offered me a lot of strength.

He's a good man.

Yeah, Bustela was good.

The videotapes were good.

But more than all of that, I enjoyed strong community.

When I go to Pastor Kip and Dixie's house, we enjoy strong community.

We feel like we're with people who actually love us and know us.

This is worth spending time on.

We drive three hours to come to Carlisle to spend time with them.

But we love it.

Why?

Because it's worth community.

It's worth connection.

And I want to tell you, friends, I want to invite you in this new year, this new season,

make time for good, strong connection in your life.

Yeah, money will come and money will go.

But man, the connection you have, the security you have with going from me to we cannot be

put into a value with money.

We all need money.

I know it.

But man, we need more than money.

We need connection.

We need a secure base, the place to feel like I belong.

I am invested in this relationship.

Ecclesiastes 4.9 says two people are better than one.

They can help each other succeed.

In Christ community, the ordinary is welcomed.

In Christ community, it offers me to be part of something greater than myself.

In Christ community, even when I'm under intense pressure, I feel a support.

Bringing my sermon to a close very soon.

As you can see, I love A.W.

Tozer.

He says these words, God does his deepest work in our darkest hour.

So if you're going through right now, I want to tell you, you need God, of course.

You need God's people, the community.

What does he do?

He uses his people to just reveal himself to you.

He does his deepest work in our darkest hour.

I can give you multiple examples from scripture.

Moses is probably the one that comes to mind right now.

Thank you, Lord.

I mean, 40 years running from God's call in his life.

He's in the land of Midian.

And he feels like, man, I don't know if I can ever fulfill God's call in my life.

Oh, man.

God comes to him in a burning bush.

And he tells him, come on, Moses.

Before you make any excuses and all of these things that's coming up, he says, first thing

you got to do what?

Take off your shoes.

You're standing on holy ground.

See what's happening here, right?

Holiness again, right?

God is saying, you need my holiness to help you with your mental struggle.

You need my holiness to help you navigate through your loneliness.

The latest research tells us about 50% of the country of the United States is dealing

with some kind of mental challenge.

About 30% is on some kind of medication for mental challenges.

And I'm not against medication.

Trust me, I'm not against medication.

But I will say this, it is a new pandemic of our time.

It is a new pandemic.

We need to be able to pay attention to the health and how we are holistic beings.

And we not only just have to pay attention to our mind or our bodies, we also have to

pay attention to our spirit, right?

So what do we need to do?

We need God's holiness.

And so no one should feel like, oh, I'm on medication or I'm distant.

I feel like an idiot, right?

Peter and John would say, oh, you're welcome because God does His deepest work in our darkest

hour.

Next chapter, after they've been in prison, you know, chapter five, verse 41 and 42, they

felt, then they left the presence of the council rejoicing after they were counter worthy to

suffer.

They've been beaten now, dishonor for the sake of the name.

And every day in the temple and from the house to house, they did not cease teaching and

preaching that Christ is Jesus.

They have been in prison.

They have been beaten, but they did not stop.

This life is too good.

There's so much adventure here.

I'm going from house to house.

I'm preaching the gospel.

I love the community of Jesus.

This gives me life.

It gives me hope for tomorrow.

You see, Christ's community offers me the gift of togetherness.

For I'm not alone.

You're not alone, my friends.

You have family here.

If you're here and you don't have immediate family in the neighborhood, just look around

you.

You're with family.

You're with people that love you.

I mean, most of you probably don't know who I am, but I'll tell you, if not for this Jesus,

we would have never met.

I would have never met Kip or Dixie.

I would have never met any of you.

It's because of Jesus.

And when we come to a presence of God's people like this and we come to worship God, we ought

to be overwhelmed by the goodness of God in our life.

There's a reason why that cancer didn't take you out.

There's a reason why that bullet didn't take you out.

There's a reason why that car accident didn't wreck your life.

Man, there was angels of God surrounding you.

And people were praying for you that you did not know were praying for you.

Why?

Because there's a good community here who's going to stand with you, the thick or thin,

the good or bad.

They're saying, we're here.

We love you.

That community offers me the gift of togetherness.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 to 25 says this, let us consider how to stir up one another

Hebrews 10:24–25

to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some,

but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near.

I'm not here a doomsday preacher.

I don't know when the Lord is coming back.

But I tell you this, we're a lot closer today than we were 2,000 years ago.

Right.

I mean, we're here today because of people like Peter and John who gave their life for

this.

We're here today because of John Tyndale who translated the Bible, or at least started

to and was burned to the stake or John Hus who was burned to the stake for doing, for

doing just translating the Bible.

I mean, we're here today because of missionaries that came to India, the country I was born

in and preached the gospel to my forefathers.

I'm not here because I'm macho or somehow better.

No, I'm here because of the community of Jesus.

I'm here because the family of God who has gone before me, who has paid the price and

paved the way so I can stand before you.

My uncle came to this country in the early 1960s because a Bible college in Boston, Massachusetts

sponsored him to come to study MDiv.

I'm here today because of him, because of that Bible college, because his sister is

my mother.

They filed for our visa and we waited 12 years to hear from the immigration office and say,

yeah, you're welcome to come for interview.

And friends, I'm in it.

I'm debted to God and His people because I'm not here because of my own good strength or

my good work.

No, I'm here because of the community of Jesus and everything that He has done for me.

And I want to say the last thing.

In Christ's community, there's full and total belonging.

Romans 8.15 says, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you

received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.

We're with family and we all have one dad.

Isn't that right?

It doesn't matter what age you are, what color skin you are, we all have one dad.

And I'm here today to say that we can all celebrate this family because we love one

another unconditionally.

It doesn't matter what we look like, sound like, what part of this country or the state

we're from.

We are united together by the family of God because of the blood of Jesus that makes us

one.

My friends, this time I want to invite you to stand with me, please.

In Christ's community, the ordinary are welcomed.

In Christ's community, it offers me the strength to do something greater than myself that I

could ever do.

Christ's community gives me the strength when I am under intense pressure.

It gives me the gift of togetherness and it gives me a full and total belonging.

This time Pastor Eric is going to come forward to the East Shore campus and get ready to

sort of invite you forward.

As you're standing today and in the East Shore campus, I want to invite you to spend a few

moments in prayer, would you do that with me, please.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.

If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with

us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousec.org.

at www.lifahousecog.com