Love Where You Live - Week 3: September 6, 2026

Hey, welcome to the Connect Morning Show.

I know, I know.

Yeah, I just had to do that so with that song.

So hey, seriously, welcome guys.

We're glad that you're here.

So uh with this this morning.

We're gonna keep going with this Love Where You Live series.

My name is Jamie Prescott.

I'm the family pastor here at Connect Church, and I want to show you something that is kind of something meaningful to me this morning, one of my prized possessions, as you see it on the screen here.

Just for this series, this is called the Green Machine.

All right.

This is a snowblower.

Back in 2013, my father-in-law passed away, and this is one of the items that I was able to receive from his passing.

And uh he lived in South Dakota.

And I'll tell you what, in South Dakota, this was more useful to him than it is for me here in Kansas.

So, but uh up there in South Dakota, you needed a Mongo snowblower like this up there.

So it's pretty awesome.

It's got an electric start on it, you know, on those really cold days and you can't get that thing to pull.

You can just plug that thing in, hit that button.

But it is awesome.

When I have needed it, and I'm out there at my house on 27th of Missouri Street because I live on a corner, so I have two sidewalks that I have to snowblow.

You know, when you're out there by hand, you know, you're you're gonna like by the time you're done, your back is just dying.

But with this thing, I get out there.

So if you ever come down 27th Street and you see a guy with Phillips Phillips 66 coveralls on and snow and snow goggles, you're probably seeing me, all right?

Walking down the sidewalk, and I get through doing my sidewalk and my driveway, and I'm like, you know what?

I'm feeling pretty good.

And so I just kind of keep going.

So the next thing I know, I'm at the end of the block, and I'm sure everybody's looking out their windows, like, who is this crazy guy wearing the Philip 66 coveralls out there, walking down our sidewalk, snow blowing the sidewalk, you know?

But I was just like, okay, so I'm heading back to my house, and I'm like, you know what?

There's this lady that lives right here.

I've seen her husband, you know, walking with a cane.

You know, she's got to go to like, let's do her driveway.

So I start doing her driveway, and I'm sure she's looking out the door, like, somebody's out there doing our driveway.

Who is that?

So I get through doing that, and then I'm like, you know what?

The guy on the other side, single guy, just having a conversation with him that long ago.

He was talking about how, you know, his boy, one of his boys has just gotten kind of really religious on him, and all this guy's like, you know what?

I'm gonna do this guy's driveway.

So I'd do his driveway.

I'm still feeling okay, I'm still warm, got those Philip C6 coveralls on, you know.

And and so I'm like, you know what, this couple over here, they've already done most of the driveway, but the city's plowed all that gunk right at the end of the, you know how that is?

You get out there and you do your driveway, and now you're like, wait a minute, now I can't even pull anymore because I got this huge hump I gotta get over.

And and you never can get through it because it ices over, right?

And so I'm like, look, this thing, when you hit that, those piles, it's just boom, and that stuff just goes.

I'm not kidding.

This thing is awesome.

You know, I'm sure everybody's driving by, like, oh, I wish I had that thing, you know.

It's one of those kind of machines.

And so then I'm like, you know, what's what's one more?

I got this guy, he's completely capable of doing his driveway across the street.

But I'm like, you know what?

I'm just gonna be a nice guy.

Let's just get it done.

And I pull up in there and I do his driveway, you know, and then I put it away and I go home, you know.

So, what does this have to do with what we're talking about today, right?

With loving where we live.

I'm gonna get to that here in a second, all right?

But a couple of weeks ago, we started this series, Love Where You Live.

It's kind of it comes from this book.

If you want to go out and get it everywhere, it's called it's called The Hopeful Neighborhood.

But in this book, the whole idea is what happens when we as Christians pursue the common good of those that are around us.

That's in your neighborhood, that can be at your job, that can be right here at Connect Church.

Those that you interact with, what can happen when we pursue the common good of those that are around us?

I think it's really easy for us to say, well, don't we always do that?

I mean, it's what we should always want to do, right?

Let me ask you the next question: do you always do it?

You know, it's really it's it's another thing to actually make it happen than to have this the desire to want to make it happen.

Right?

Oh, I'm too busy, or we don't really get along, or you know, and so we talk ourselves out of it.

It's another thing to actually make it happen.

Maybe we've had differing opinions.

Maybe we realize, you know what, I don't really see eye to eye when it comes to faith issues between my neighbors and I.

Christianity doesn't really get the rapport that it did maybe 20, 30 years ago, right?

I don't, even as a pastor.

Used to be that pastors were this these highly respected people, you know, and you walk into a room and not so much anymore.

We're questions.

Are we really for real?

Right?

And even though that that's how we might feel, listen, I believe that God calls us to seek this task.

Like, and and I think we've seen it in Jeremiah 29, 4 through 7.

John has mentioned it, Nate has mentioned it.

If if you know our guys have been looking at this that have been part of the men's Bible study, and I can tell you, like, I this verse has been in front of me so many times that I think if there were a theme like passage for me this year, it's probably this one right here.

Because I've seen it, it's come up so many times, but this is what it says Jeremiah 29, 4 to 7, thus saith the Lord for the you know, for the Israelites who are being taken captive into Babylon.

It says, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there, do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

And this passage is it seems to go against everything that would be my knee-jerk reaction.

When you think about being taken captive, somebody were to swoop in and take you as your as their prisoner.

What do we want to do?

We want to try to rise up, right?

We're gonna be like, this is not right, and I'm gonna tell you what is right, and we want to try to escape, but that's not what God says at all in this passage.

Who just submits to their enemy?

This is oh, here go, it's gonna be great.

Who just submits?

Who seeks the prosperity of their captors, and yet that's what we read right here in Jeremiah.

Seek the welfare for them, because in that you will find yours.

When I thought about this, I thought, no, my typical attitude is that that I was taught from the movie Red Dawn.

The old movie Red Dawn, you know, when the Soviets and the Cubans and the Nicaraguans were invading the United States, and you've got Patrick Swayze, who was in high school with all of his buddies, and they're in this high school in Colorado, and all of a sudden they see the parachutes dropping down, and they're like, What's going on out there?

And the and and and the military guys land, and the first thing you do is they put their parachute away and they whip out a machine gun and they start shooting up the high school, and those guys are like, We're in trouble.

And you just start seeing explosions, and they all band together, they jump in a truck and they retreat out into the woods of Colorado, and they try to come up with this plan to keep the Nicaraguans and the Soviets from invading and overtaking the United States and say they have this little militia, you know, to try to rise up and keep this from.

And I'm like, that's what I would want to do if I were the Israelites.

Right?

No to the Babylon Babylonians.

We're gonna, we're not gonna let this happen.

But instead, God says, live like you would had had you not been captured.

And you were still serving me.

Keep buying houses, keep raising crops, keep getting married, keep finding husbands for your daughters.

Pray for it, and through these actions, seek the welfare of this city and you will prosper.

And our study that we've been looking at as meant on Mondays and Thursdays.

It's Monday night or Thursday mornings, if you're an evening or a morning guy, one of the things that we learned from J.D.

Greer is that this book of the Bible was not written in Hebrew like all of the others.

This book was written in Aramaic because that was the language of the Babylonians.

And so what God is really saying, He's saying, Listen, you can do it, you can live for me, and you have proved that you can live for me when everything seems fine and dandy, and honky dory, and you're living right in Israel.

But can you do it when you're in captivity in Babylon?

Can you do it in Aramaic?

Because I'm still the same God, whether in captivity or not.

So how do we do it?

Last week, John began to tell us, well, it starts by pursuing the common good, as you're gonna see on the screen here, right?

The common good is the welfare of others, and and the Hebrew word for that is shalom.

That's peace.

By seeking the peace of others.

That's how we start.

That's how we follow God's command, right?

By seeking the peace, by you know, it translates into wholeness, completeness, the well-being, the harmony of others, right?

We see that in verse 7.

It says, But seek the welfare, seek the peace of the city where I've sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for it's in its welfare, in its peace that you're gonna find your welfare or your peace.

And this week we're gonna gain even more knowledge of that.

So, how does that happen?

Genesis 1:8, 29, 20, 28 through 29.

Genesis 1:8

I want to read to you.

It says, and God blessed them, talking about Adam and Eve here, and God said to them, I want you to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

Sounds very familiar, doesn't it?

And I want you to subdue it, and I want you to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, Behold, for I have given you every plant yielding uh seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food.

So, what do we learn from this passage that translates into helping us to pursue the common good of those that are around us?

And we don't have to get very far in this passage before we see this one word right here, and it starts with a B, and it says that God did what?

God blessed them.

God blessed them, God blessed Adam and Eve.

You know what that means in this passage?

That he gave them everything that they needed to accomplish what he has asked of them.

Have dominion over the animals.

Go and raise crops.

I'm getting I've given you everything that you need in order to accomplish what I've asked you to do.

God blessed them.

And the Hebrew word here is to it actually is barak.

God gave them, God bestowed the power for success, prosperity.

He didn't say, listen, I want you to just go out and do the best that you can, right?

But I want you to use every gift that I've given you to accomplish the task that I'm asking you to do.

I've given you what you need to do it.

And so today we learn that to pursue the prosperity or to pursue the common good of those around us, right?

It comes from using the gifts that God has given to us.

Listen, I'm not talking about spiritual gifts.

Now that's that's yes, we do.

We use those, but it gets simpler than that.

I mean, I was talking with John, you know, as I was preparing to preach, and I was like, Are we talking spiritual gifts?

He's like, no.

And so he gave me the book, and I went and read, and wow, this is simple as a mean green snowblower.

What listen, what if we stopped looking for the problems in our neighborhood, but took the time to behold and notice the abundance of gifts that God has already given to us and our neighbors?

It's so easy to pull like if you came into my neighborhood right now on 27th and Missouri Street, we got problems.

It's a one-way road going in front of my house where everybody hates it and they want to go the opposite against all the traffic.

I saw it happened to me yesterday.

And you know what?

My negative reaction is what are you going?

This is dangerous.

And you know what?

I will tell you this the police will pull you over.

I saw it happen the other day.

But our neighborhood is a mess right now.

It's gonna be great when it's done.

I can tell you all of the problems in my neighborhood.

I can tell you what neighbors need to get their yard moved.

I can tell you, you know, all kinds of stuff, right?

We can see the negative things.

But what happens when we stop to quit looking at the negativity and think, you know what, what is it that I have?

What has God given me?

What are the gifts that God has given me that I can use in my neighborhood?

And how has God gifted my neighbors?

I love how God uses this word, the other B word that's in that passage, not just the word blessings, but the word behold, right?

You know, I love it, it's kind of like makes me think of Emiril Legasi, you know?

Emiral Legassi, he's out there cooking, making up something good, and all of a sudden he's just like bam! You know, when he throws that extra spice in there in there.

And I found out he does that because he used to, you know, they used to do these long recordings and he'd be like, well, the producers and all the people filming would begin to fall asleep, and I just came up with this word to wake him up, bam, you know, when he would just throw something extra in there.

And I think God is like maybe playing like an emerald agassi, and he's just like, listen, I need you to take notice of this, and so behold, you know.

Seriously, God is saying, Behold, because this is like, I need you to notice this, that I have given you everything that you need to accomplish the task that I'm asking you to do, and that is to go out into your neighborhoods and work for the common good, and you already have what you need to do it.

Behold.

Listen, typically, I put this chart together, typically, this is how it works.

You know, as you're gonna see on the screen here, we we typically identify the problem, we see the negative thing, and we're like, okay, what can we do to fix that?

Well, it ain't me, right?

Who's gonna do that?

But that's how we typically we try to come up with a solution and then we implement that solution.

But no, that's not what we're God is saying, listen, I need you to start here.

I need you to start with the gifts that you have, the way that I have made you, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not, I have gifted you.

Start there.

What can you do?

And now imagine the possibilities of that and pursue the common good of those around you.

What happens when we start there versus looking for the problems?

We see what we can do, what we have.

Right?

And this is what I realized that day that I took advantage of my father-in-law's green machine, and I was out there tootling along, and I was like, you know what?

I'm warm, I'm okay, I'm feeling pretty good, and I went down to the end of the block, and then I did all of my neighbors.

All I was simply doing was what God had asked the Israelites to do, and that is to use the gift that He has given them.

Using the gift that He had given me through that machine to do what I could do.

And I can tell you right now that it has actually grown the relationships that I have with my neighbors.

I mean, did it get us to where we completely need to be?

No, but it definitely made a road.

Literally.

Listen, it's not rocket science.

And I'm so glad because I am no scientist.

I'm just a regular guy who loves Jesus and wants others to know and experience the peace that I have experienced in him.

And I didn't know that I was doing this incredibly godly thing the day that I went out to snowblow, some extra sidewalk and some driveways.

But when I remain who I am in Christ and I get to be involved with my neighbors because I did something like that, it's not about me, but it's about him, right?

I got to have a conversation with my with my single neighbor, retired gentleman, and you know, he highly respects me, and he's he's not a follower of Jesus right now, but he knows that there's something about faith, and and we were talking and and joking, you know, and he knows that he's getting older, and and I I finally said to him, I said, you know what?

I said, when that day comes and you need somebody to do your funeral, I'm your man.

And he said, I'll remember that.

It was kind of a joke, but kind of me saying, I know some things.

It's not rocket science.

This is not anything new that God is asking of us, but it's the very thing that Jesus taught his disciples as they walked with him for three years.

I want you to look at me, look with me at Acts 2, the 43-47, as Luke wrote about this, talking about the community of believers, and this is what he says, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done throughout the apostles, and all who believed were together, and they had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and their belongings, and they were distributing the proceeds to, and you catch this word, to who?

To all as they had need.

And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

There were people there who were not followers of Jesus yet, who were experiencing a community of God doing what he had asked of them, and that is working for the common good of the people in their neighborhood.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who experienced the knowledge and the peace of forgiveness and the reality that Jesus was their savior.

Listen, this community was experiencing the prosperity that comes from practicing the common good, and I think that ours can too.

So, how does this become a reality for us?

Well, the first thing is this right here is that was we have to pause.

Stop looking for all the things that are wrong with your neighborhood.

It's so easy to do that, right?

But let's just pause and let's just slow down.

Let's stop noticing the problems.

That's easy.

It's so easy to see the negatives, but notice the positives, right?

What has God blessed me with?

What is your green machine, right?

And so behold, the second thing is to behold.

Imagine the possibilities that God could do as you use those gifts.

And remember that God has promised us prosperity when we work for the common good of those that are around us.

My relationship with my neighbors is so much better.

And the third thing is this right here that is to pursue it.

To get out in your neighborhood and start pursuing the common good.

Be revolutionary.

Get out and do something that nobody else is doing.

Not for you, but for them.

For their common good.

So that they might see Jesus through your actions before you ever have to say a word.

Right?

That green machine has brought me and my neighbors together.

I could tell you story after story of literally like the the just how it's created an opportunity for me to interact with my neighbors.

The card that was given to me by the Ukrainian lady that she literally handdrew and wrote a note to me.

And so other story after story, again, how we've been able to see each other and interact and say hi now because something is going on between us.

Listen, I know that as we prepare to close out today, we might be sitting here thinking, yeah, but you don't know my neighborhood.

I don't have a lot in common with anybody I live around, right?

You know, and maybe you're thinking I'm in odds with everybody that I live around, and I'm the only follower of Jesus in my neighborhood.

Nobody else is open to this, you know.

And like, listen, I get it.

And we're gonna talk more about that next week as we continue with this series.

I hadn't lived in my house too long before I, you know, I had mowed my lawn and I was out of my back patio, and I was blowing and I was like, This is my house, someone take care of it, right?

And I'm blowing my patio off, and all of a sudden I hear this loud screeching sound, and I'm like, what?

And I'm it's so loud.

I mean, I'm hearing it over my my lawn blower.

And I look in the direction where it's coming from, and it's it's it's my neighbor, and she's literally you know, whistling.

I don't even I don't know how to do it like that.

And I I stop my blower and she's like, Can you do that some other time?

What can you welcome me to the neighborhood?

You know, I'm getting ready to have dinner on my patio back here, and it's too loud.

Just a few more seconds is all I need, you know.

I kind of thought, well, this is not gonna go really well.

It did.

We got over it.

I had to get over it.

She lives somewhere else now.

No, I found myself helping her pump water out of her basement when it flooded.

I found myself being willing to take care of her cat when she went to Scotland to visit her daughter.

And I laid down in the floor in the cat room and let the cat crawl on me, and I petted it and played with it.

Not really a cat person, but what can we do to work for the common good of those that are around us?

We'll learn some more about doing that for the people maybe that we don't see eye to eye with and are at odds with next week.

But I want to show you a video here really quick by a little boy named Roman.

And I believe that Roman puts us to shame a little bit, maybe at times when it comes to doing this thing.

I believe that God is asking us when it comes to use the simple gifts that He's given to us to accomplish the common good in our neighborhoods.

Watch this.

He wakes up every day, excited to say hi to somebody.

Like that's the first thing he wants to do.

And yet, his mom, Anna Buntslow, says for the longest time, Roman's cheeriness belied in inner loneliness.

About a year ago, his parents broke up.

His dad moved to Florida, and his grandparents lived out of state too.

Fortunately, all those waves, all those seeds of kindness he planted began to bloom.

Starting with Mr.

Wade Folger, who lives across the street.

Wade went over to meet the kid who was always waving.

They started doing stuff together.

Eventually, other neighbors followed suit, stopping to talk, doing stuff, drag racing down the street.

Anna says it was weird.

I mean, she barely knew any of these people.

I didn't really know how to take it.

I just saw that my son was happy.

Which is why she went along with it when Roman then began inviting many different neighbors to his soccer games, basketball games, and baseball games.

Other neighbors came to his swimming lessons.

And even his preschool open house.

And when it came time for his birthday party, Anna knew the only people she needed to invite were his senior citizen neighbor friends.

He loves having us there.

He'll run up and hawk us.

He laughed and he has a lot of grandparents in us because it's what it means.

They've made such an impact on him.

Like you really they are really special people to him.

He's got a big beard.

Today, the refrigerator is blanketed with pictures of all those people he holds so dear.

His mom says his inner loneliness is gone.

And his love thy neighbor attitude is spread.

We all started waving at each other.

We see people, we wave at them.

Roman has now brought together about a dozen neighbors who say they would have barely known each other if not for that little boy.

Look at you, who lived in a neighborhood but needed a village.

Look at what this little kid has built.

It does the world good.

If the world was like this child, what an awesome, awesome place it would be.

I love you too.

I didn't may only be.

Hey.

I think he's a southern boy.

The love thy neighbor attitude was spreading in this neighborhood all because of a little boy's wave.

Look at how many people he brought together.

He needed some family, and they needed each other.

And it came together because of a little boy's wave.

His kindness.

I can see why Jesus had a special place in his heart for kids.

They're so innocent and yet so profound.

Would you stand with me as we prepare to close?

As we prepare to close out today, I want us to partake of communion together.

And as we do so, I want to remind you, you don't have to be a member of Connect Church to do this.

We just ask that you know Jesus as your Savior, that you've given him control of your life, and you're doing the best that you can to say yes to him each and every day.

But as we prepare to close out today, you know, and maybe you question whether or not that you can do this.

I want to read a passage to you.

The apostle Peter wrote this, and he was speaking to a crowd at the temple in Jerusalem after healing a man who was lame from birth.

But this is what he says.

He says, When God raised up his servant Jesus, he sent him first to you too, and here's that B-word, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.

We may sometimes feel as though, you know what, I'm not worthy.

I can't do much.

But listen, as we partake of communion this morning, I want us to take a moment to, first of all, number one, behold the gift that God has given us through his Son, Jesus.

It's the greatest gift we've ever been given.

The Son of Jesus, his death on the cross, so that we could experience forgiveness and freedom from the weight of our own brokenness that sometimes holds us back.

So if you would, would you take that cup there?

Would you peel back and open the cracker and hold that in your hand?

In our hands, we hold the cracker, which represents the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was broken for us, so that we could find wholeness in Him and seek the gift that was given to us by God so that we could go out and be used in our neighborhoods.

You may take and eat.

Peel back the cover there.

And in our hands we hold the juice which represents the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for each and every one of us, so that we could find forgiveness again and experience the gift of Jesus Christ through God the Father so that we could go out and we could work for the common good in our neighborhoods, free and blameless.

Take and drink.

Father, we thank you today again for the simple message again that was brought kind of complete with the example of this little boy and the gift that you'd given him of joy.

But Father, we thank you for the greatest gift ever given for us, your son, and for what it does for us, for what it allows us to do in our own neighborhoods to find the common good, to experience that with our neighbors.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.