How it Should Be | Pastor Chris Kouba

Good morning.

Let me add my word of greeting to Pat's earlier.

My name is Chris Cuba.

I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here at United City.

I want to ask you if you would to please grab your Bibles and open them up with me to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12, that was Sid Eschemia, who was leading us in worship today.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Sid uh is a friend of our church.

He's gonna be here next week as well.

So grateful to have Sid filling in for us as we prepare and get ready.

Absolutely.

Sid did an amazing job.

Uh if you're on our church email, you already got this.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that means you need to get on our church email list.

You can go online and do that.

But we are excited that we just hired a worship pastor.

Amos Rivera is gonna be here March 5th.

He's gonna be starting in just a couple of weeks.

Be praying for Amos and his family.

Rachel, they've got four kids, Zelina, Levi, Ezra, and Ellie.

So they've got to sell a house and move four kids down this way.

But man, we're excited about having him.

Uh, Amos has been here a couple of times already here at our church and is excited to be here with us.

And so be praying for them uh and that family as they begin to think through and do all the logistics that go along with the huge transition.

Also, just want to take an opportunity to welcome all of the correctional facilities uh that are joining with us today.

We are so grateful to be able to bring this message to you.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate all of these folks.

Some of you may notice that uh I used to give specific ones.

We're now in more than two, and so we're not sure exactly how many yet.

We we've got the opportunity of at least three, maybe even more than that.

So now it's just all of them, right?

Which is pretty exciting in and of itself as God just continues to open up doors in that ministry specifically, and uh we're excited to see how that's going to look.

Let me ask you the question today: what do you look for in a church?

What do you look for in a church?

So far in 2023, uh we have seen 169 first-time guests come to United City Church, which is absolutely incredible.

Uh for sure.

We're averaging 28 first-time guests every single week, uh, which is just incredible.

It's an amazing thing.

Uh, we follow up with every single person that comes as a first-time guest to our church.

And for some of you that are maybe thinking, well, I visited your church a couple weeks ago for the very first time, and no one called me, it's because you didn't fill out the form that we asked you to, okay?

If you'll fill it out, we will follow up with you.

That's the whole process.

That's how this whole thing works.

And so, in light of that, we've been having a lot of conversations with people about what it is that they're looking for in a church.

We also are experiencing incredible growth here at United City year over year.

So it's one of those things that we've seen this and had this conversation a lot.

Asking different people, what is it that you're looking for in a church?

And here's the deal: in Northeast Houston, if you're looking to go church shopping, Mexican restaurants and churches, you got them everywhere, right?

I mean, it's plenty of different opportunities and plenty of different options.

And maybe for some of you, that's your story.

You're looking for a church.

Maybe you're here and you're kind of checking this whole thing out.

You're really not sure what it is that the United City is all about.

Maybe you were invited by somebody, or maybe you heard about us, but either way, you're here and you're looking for a church.

And there's a lot of things that go into trying to find a church, right?

I mean, you you know, you can look and see do I want a church that's got traditional music or contemporary music or blended music or some other music, right?

Uh do I want a church that's gonna be a small church that's gonna have more of a family field, or do I want a large church that's gonna have a lot of different ministries?

Do I want a church plant that's gonna be new?

Or do I want a church that's established that has been around for a long time?

I mean, there's all different things that go into what somebody is looking for when they're looking for a church.

I did some research, statistics would tell us this 65% of people, when looking for a church, choose a church based on the quality of the kids' ministry.

48% based on whether they have friends or family in the congregation.

75% based upon the worship style, and 94% are looking for a church, evaluating whether the pastor is going to connect with them.

No pressure whatsoever, right?

Okay.

This morning I want us to look at a different list.

It's a list that's found in Romans chapter 12, and this isn't a list of what it what you should be looking for in a church.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

How rather this is a list that details for us what we should be as the church.

I would simply tell you this: if we're gonna reach Northeast Houston, which is our ultimate desire, is not only to reach Northeast Houston, but to reach beyond, it's not gonna come by us making sure that we have good marketing brochures with the right people so that we can advertise to the community how we can check off most of the boxes that people are searching for.

That being said, let me say unapologetically, I believe we check off a lot of boxes, all right?

I think this is a pretty good church, all right?

I think we've got some amazing things happening right now.

I think we've got some amazing things going.

And if you're looking for a church, I would simply tell you, I'd put our church up against any other church that's out there.

And I would tell you, I believe that we not only stack up, we're not a perfect church.

And if you're looking for a perfect church, you shouldn't join it because then it won't be perfect anymore, okay?

That being said, that wasn't meant to be as mean as it sounded, all right?

My point is there are no perfect churches, right?

It's made up of imperfect people, and we are the same in every way.

That being said, I believe we stack up, but please hear me.

We're not gonna reach Northeast Houston by how we market.

We're gonna reach Northeast Houston by us as the church living out what God prescribes that we should be individually and collectively as a body and as a people.

Last week we started a new sermon series called Kingdom Culture, and we we talked about this idea in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, which is kind of like the staple verses for this entire series.

Romans 12:1

And in that in that passage, it tells us that we are to, in light of all of God's goodness and his mercies, offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.

We're to be all in.

When we do that, it means that we're gonna reject the world because we're not gonna be conformed to this world, but instead, we're gonna be transformed by the renewal of our mind.

And when we do that, we begin to think what God thinks, we begin to do what God wants to do, which is to know God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Last week we talked about this principle, which is so true in kingdom culture.

You look, think, and act different.

This morning we're gonna look and continue on in Romans chapter 12, and we're gonna see that in kingdom culture, you you react differently in terms of how you relate to those who are on the inside, those who are inside of the church, and you also react differently in terms of how you relate to those that are outside of the church.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

What I want us to do is I want to ask you to take notes today because I want to let this be like a litmus test for you.

I want this to be an evaluation saying, hey, how do I stack up as it relates to this list of the things that I'm supposed to be personally and that we United City Church are supposed to be collectively?

I'm gonna give you 10 characteristics today of a believer's relationship with Christ.

Again, I want to ask that you grab something to prepare to take notes, get your phone out, whatever it may be.

I know that some of you, uh, I just mentioned it last week.

I think it's worth mentioning again.

Uh, just so you know, if you are a note taker, you get to cut in line when you get to heaven, all right?

You're gonna get to go better out.

And if you're one of those holdouts, you're gonna be in the back.

That's fine.

You're gonna get to heaven eventually, but it's gonna take you longer because you didn't take notes, all right?

I'm only partly kidding, all right?

Now, some of you non-note takers as well, you're thinking, ten things?

Are you serious?

Ten?

Like ten?

We're gonna be here all day.

And I would tell you most of the outlines that I looked at and most of the outlines that I drew up initially were between 25 and 30.

What you're gonna see is beginning in verse 9 of Romans chapter 12, it's almost like a bullet point list of just a bunch of things that he's gonna tell us.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

This is how you're supposed to be, this is what your life's supposed to look like.

In my Bible, it actually says, marks of a true Christian.

That's the phrase that it uses.

I'm combining them, condensing them down to a 10, and I want to ask you to evaluate yourself.

Let's begin reading in Romans chapter 12, verse nine.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Let love be genuine.

Taking notes, I want you to write down this first thing that we should be as a church.

Number one, we should be real.

We should be real.

The short phrase serves as like the heading for verses 9 all the way through verse 21 of Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Other translations say, let love be sincere.

The word genuine can also be translated like this: let love be without hypocrisy.

Paul is giving a warning against making our love fake or like a mere performance.

This means that I don't act, I don't put up mask, I don't put on my happy face, pretending like everything is good and perfect when it's actually not.

I want you to see a picture that brings some emotion to me every single time that I see it.

It's actually up on our refrigerator at our house.

This picture was taken on Easter of 2016.

Uh, you can see in this picture, we are all color coordinated.

My wife did a good job of making sure we looked our Easter Sunday best, and we go and we take this picture.

You can see all of the smiles that are there on this picture.

This picture, though, every time I see it again, I just get a little emotional when I see it because I know what is hidden behind this picture that is not evident whenever you just look at it.

You see, this picture was taken nine days after I experienced a pretty serious burn accident at my home.

What you can't see is on the smiles that are in this picture, particularly the smile that is on my face, I am in excruciating pain, physical pain.

So bad that it is literally difficult for me to pose and to stand there in place in this way for this picture.

What you can't see hidden behind the smile that is there on that picture is the fact that I am absolutely devastated.

Because it's Easter Sunday, and I don't know if you know this, but for a pastor, that's like the Super Bowl, all right?

That's a big, big day.

And so, therefore, I was praying towards this.

We were working as a staff team towards this, I was excited about this day and all that this day was going to represent.

And as you see me standing there in that picture, I am not getting ready to go and to preach the greatest message of all the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross and he rose from the dead.

Instead, I am just seeing, am I gonna be able to endure and get through this service?

I was devastated that I wasn't getting to live out my calling in that moment.

What you can't see in that picture is that the majority of those nine days I was actually spent at the hospital.

I'd already had one pretty significant surgery, was scheduled for another one at this moment.

And what you can't see behind the smile, I was scared to death.

I was absolutely terrified about what was to come.

Because they said you're gonna have a bunch more things, but they didn't give a lot of clarity because they didn't really know, and all I knew is that it was gonna hurt and then it was gonna be hard.

My guess is that if you were to post a picture of your service today and you were your time here at United City, that my guess is that you would smile in the midst of that picture, and if you were to post it online, my guess is behind that picture and behind that smile, there probably will be a little bit of hurt.

There probably will be a little bit of fear.

There might even be some sin that is hidden from the perfectly dressed outfit and the very well-rehearsed, worn smiles.

Please, Jeremy, we're not gonna reach Northeast Houston by putting a brochure of a bunch of pretty looking people who've got smiles on their face saying, Hey, come be perfect like we are.

We're gonna reach Northeast Houston whenever we are a people that say, Hey, we're gonna love with a genuine love, which means this.

I'm gonna smile, but I'm hurting.

I'm struggling.

I'm afraid.

But I'm here.

But I want you to know that I am here as honest and raw as I can be.

Look at the end of verse 9.

Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

The second thing I want you to write down today is this we should call each other out.

We should call each other out.

The word abhor can mean hate exceedingly.

It's the most extreme word that you could use of disgust and hatred towards evil, meaning this.

We're not just supposed to look at evil in the life of somebody else and be like, oh, that stinks.

Like you're supposed to hate it.

We're supposed to want to get rid of it.

The other hand, it says hold fast to what is good.

The word hold fast in the Greek language is the same word that is used for the intimate union between a husband and a wife, meaning this.

I'm not only supposed to hate exceedingly those things that are bad in your life, but I'm also supposed to push you towards godliness and push you towards righteousness.

I'm to want what is best for you.

What does this look like?

Well, what this doesn't look like is you hear about somebody's problem or you hear about somebody's struggle or you hear about somebody's pain and you say, I'm gonna pray for you, and you never actually do pray for them, and you never really ever think about it or bring it up again, and you just kind of hope that their junk gets figured out.

It's not like whenever you see sin in the life of somebody else, and it's kind of like the elephant in the room, and everybody knows it, and everybody's looking at it, and everybody sees it.

They talk about it behind their back, but no one's gonna actually go up to them and say, Hey, is this not good?

This isn't what you should be doing, this isn't how you should be acting.

I don't just want to call you out, I want to push you towards what is good.

It's this idea that I am to love the sinner and hate the sin.

I'm supposed to do both with an exceeding amount of intensity and passion.

Now, please hear me, because some of you think you have the spiritual gift of calling people out, right?

Like you think God has placed you here to tell everybody else what they're doing wrong.

Matthew chapter 7, judge not that you be not judged.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

It also says very clearly that you are not to call out the speck that is in your brother's eye and you miss the log that is in your own eye.

Let's let's interpret that passage for a second.

It's not suggesting that you ignore specks.

It's saying you gotta deal with your own stuff first, though.

You have to deal with the logs that is in your own eyes so that you can love somebody enough to be able to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good, that you can be able to say, hey, hey, this isn't right.

Church, please hear me.

I've got people and I need people in my life who can look at me and say, hey man, you're acting like a fool.

Like you're just off here.

Like you're not doing what God wants.

Like, what are you doing?

And you need to be in a place in your life where you not only are willing to give that, but here's the hard part to receive that.

That just doesn't mean you just look at somebody randomly down the aisle, okay.

Guess what?

You know, I've always actually thought about this, about you, and so I wanted to let you know about this.

Or somebody a couple of rows in front of you that you're gonna.

That's not what I'm talking about.

This is why you gotta get in a group.

This is why you gotta be around people.

This is why you gotta have folks that are in your life who are watching you enough to know whenever you are lying through your teeth and can see it.

Because they're walking with you.

Look at verse 10.

It says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Number three characteristic I want you to write down today is this we should be a true friend.

We should be a true friend.

A mindset of genuine love means that I have the type of love that is a family type love.

The word translated brotherly affection means the type of love and affection that you would have towards family members instead of friends.

There's an important distinction between these two things, right?

Because let's be honest.

You can't choose who your brother is, you can't choose who your sister is, you can't choose who your parents are, you can't choose who your cousin or your aunt and uncle are, right?

Like you're stuck with those people, right?

Whether you like it or not, they are your people.

And so guess what?

What you do is because that is the case, because you know you can't get rid of them, whenever you're around them, whenever you're in relationship with them, whenever you're walking with them, you've got events where you're together as a family, you not only just make it work, but you go out of your way to celebrate with them, but also to grieve with them.

You you feel their feelings.

It's different than a friend relationship.

You can have friends that come and go over time.

Maybe you live somewhere and you're friends with somebody, you move somewhere else, and maybe you're not your friends with some new people, or maybe you have a situation to where just season of life changes, and these are good people and these are important people to you, but things have just changed, and so therefore, you don't keep up and you don't persevere in those relationships like you do whenever you're with family.

What I have discovered is this is that people, when they are looking at a group or then when they are looking at a church and they go in trying to find something wrong, they always succeed.

Every time.

These people aren't gonna like me, these people aren't gonna do this, and you already have in your mind the way you're gonna do it.

As opposed to if we go in with a family mindset, here's what this says you know what?

Yeah, they're quirky.

Yeah, you know what?

I mean, I don't necessarily jive with every single person that's here, but this is my family, and I'm gonna stick it out.

I'm in.

I'm all in.

Like I'm in it for the long haul.

And there may even be times along the way when there is some relational strife.

Maybe there's times along the way when there's some schedule strife and you're just not around each other as much, but those aren't reasons to leave, those are just reasons to persevere.

Because that's what you do whenever you're part of a family.

You love one another with brotherly affection.

Like in verse 11.

It says, Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

The fourth thing I want you to write down is this we should be patient.

We should be patient.

It's natural for a group, it's natural for a church to lose steam and grow frustrated over time.

Paul says, Don't be slow in your zeal.

At times there's gonna be some in your community who will be down and they need your energy and they need your excitement.

And there's gonna be other times when it's gonna be your fervency that's gonna lift somebody else up.

You're gonna need it from them, and you're also gonna be able to give it to them.

This is why I love being a part of worship services, because in worship, this is why we encourage you to do two things.

One, be engaging and expressive.

I'm not necessarily trying to dictate or tell you what that means, but what I'm telling you is this is that when people are engaging and expressive in worship, what that leads to is that the person who just drugged themselves in here, barely able to put two feet in front of each other, and are just really glad that they are even at church, they don't feel it at all.

They can feed off of your excitement, they can feed off of your energy, they can feed off of your worship.

There's other times when guess what?

You may be in here and you have no idea the person who's in front of you or around you or on the side of you, what it is that they are walking through, what it is that they are considering, and guess what?

The very fact that you are making it clear, I'm not doing this to perform, I'm not doing this to show off, but I'm doing this because I want you to believe what I believe.

Like I want you to see whatever it is that I see.

And because of that, at times we can carry each other.

Folks, there's certain times in here, like I'm all in.

I'm ready, I'm so pumped, I can't stand it.

And at those times, man, I'm carrying others who may not be there.

On the other hand, man, I'm so grateful that there's some other people that I can see who are walking with the Lord that have that type of thing because guess what?

I just feed off of their visual love for Jesus.

Look at what it says.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit.

I love this last one.

Serve the Lord.

I think these ideas go together because here's what I've experienced.

There's certain times whenever I need the church to serve me.

And there's other times whenever I get the opportunity to serve those in the church.

And I'm supposed to do both with fervent.

With zeal.

Look at verse 12.

Rejoice in hope.

Be constantly prayer.

Number five, write this down.

We should be spiritual.

We should be spiritual.

When you look at this verse, all three of Ideas kind of come together to be speaking of being spiritual, a spiritual person is someone who has, who believes in, and who offers hope.

Like they're consistently encouraging people that may be struggling, or consistently encouraging those who may be dealing with sin, or consistently encouraging those who may be walking through illness or things like that to say, hey, there's a reason for you to have hope.

Even in the worst of circumstances, hope is available to us if we believe in Jesus because the resurrection matters, not just on Easter, but like today.

February 19th, the resurrection is just as important and just as a reason to be celebrated as it is on Easter Sunday.

And so, because of that, hope never wanes.

But hope doesn't always mean that everything's gonna get better.

Which is why it says, be patient in tribulation.

This means you're walking with someone who's dealing with difficulties and trials and tribulations, and yes, you tell them about the hope that they can have, and yes, you you constantly go towards them, encouraging them, but you also endure with them.

This is exhibited itself whenever you walk with somebody through cancer, not just when they got diagnosed, but two and three years later when they're still dealing with it.

I see Aaron Campfinkel over here.

Aaron, so good to see you and Daniel and their family.

Erin is a young mom that is walking through cancer treatments, got four kids.

We need to continue to pray for her, doing well, getting good reports.

Love being able to see that on a consistent basis.

But I also just think and love the fact that her and her extended family, a lot of them are here in our church, and it's been amazing to watch not only their life group come alongside of them, but their parents' life group come alongside of them, but their sister's life group come alongside of them.

All coming along, enduring this trial with her.

We're not there, we're not dealing with the physical things that maybe Aaron's walking through, but Aaron has given me every time I talk to her, she encourages me.

Just because of the comments that she makes.

And I think it always leads to this last part of verse 12 constant in prayer.

Aaron, I pray for you all the time.

I pray for you all the time.

I know your life group prays for you all the time.

I know so many others are praying for you, and I think this is what happens.

You pray for somebody even when they bring up that prayer request that they mentioned 18 months ago.

And you pray for it like it's brand new.

This is what it looks like to have spiritual relationships.

I'm with you.

Like I'm here.

Like I'm gonna endure this with you, and I'm gonna pray this with you, and we're gonna, it's fine.

And I know it's a struggle right now, but guess what?

I ain't going anywhere.

I'm here.

Look at the next verse, verse 13.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

One of our core values is we're better together.

I I don't I don't want that to be a slogan.

I would really love for that to be a lifestyle.

Number six, write this down.

We should let others in.

We should let others in.

The implication is not just that we let others into our homes literally, but we also let them in relationally.

Most people don't like this.

You want to keep people at an arm's distance.

I like to call these people refrigerator friends.

These are people that can come into your house.

These are people that can walk up to your fridge, they can open up the door, they can get whatever it is that they want, and you're not gonna be like, hey, what are you doing?

Why are you doing that?

They just kind of have access, okay?

Now please hear me.

This is different than middle school boys that are at your house or high school girls, all right?

I had a bunch of high school girls in my house, and they all raided our fridge like vultures.

They didn't ask any permission, they just did it, all right?

We're gonna be hosting a home this weekend for uh encounter weekend, and we're glad to do that.

I'm just gonna tell you, they're gonna raid my house of all this food, and we would have it no other way, all right?

We love that that's the case.

I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about people that you're walking with that can come in and out of your life and they don't have to give an explanation.

It's those people who can celebrate your messes and your milestones.

It's those people who you have no fear of being exposed because you have no fear of hiding anything.

It's just open.

Yeah, you can come in.

You can come into my life, and you can you can ask whatever it is that you want, and you can have whatever conversation that it is that you want to be able to have.

And it's these refrigerator friends who they have that type of access to your life.

Look at number seven, write this down.

We should be gracious.

We should be gracious.

It shifts a little bit.

Verses 9 through 13, up to this point, have all been about how in kingdom culture we relate to those inside of the church, those who are like us, who believe like us.

In verse 14 through 21, the shift is made where now it's saying, This is how you relate in kingdom culture to those outside of the church, to those that are enemies, to those that are on the outside of us.

Look at what it says in verse 14.

Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

Verse 21, skip down.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The world will not embrace a life that follows Jesus.

We talked about this in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1

When you reject the world, the world will reject you.

It will lead you to a place where you begin to be persecuted, you begin to be criticized, you begin to take to take shots because of what it is that you stand for and what it is that you believe.

And here's what he says: when that time comes, two different times he mentions it in verse 14.

Bless.

Man, that would have been so much easier if he said curse.

It'd have been so much more gratifying if he'd have said, All these people that are opposed to you, all these people that are in opposition to you, all these people that come against you, you curse them and you tell them why you're right and they're wrong.

You get revenge, or you make sure they know, or you make sure they pay.

No, what does he say?

In kingdom culture, we don't act like everybody else does.

In kingdom culture, what do we do?

We bless those.

How do you overcome whenever you are wrong?

It says here, you don't overcome when you're wrong by doing more wrong.

It says you overcome being wrong by overcoming it with good.

This is hard to do.

It requires a transformed mind.

It means that you have to trust the Lord for something, even if it feels like, but they're getting away with it.

Can I tell you, God has a habit of things that appear as though they are getting away with it, but he's actually using for something way more glorious that's not only for your good, but for all of our good.

Luke chapter 23, verses 33 and 34 says, And when they came to that place that is called the skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them.

Luke 23:33

For they know not what they do.

Actively seek to overcome evil with good.

Look at verse 15 rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Number eight, write this down.

We should show empathy.

We should show empathy.

There are times and it's appropriate to celebrate, there's other times and it's appropriate to cry.

There should be a huge difference between us and everybody else outside of the church.

Everybody loves a good celebration, everybody loves a good party, but how many show empathy and they offer up tears when people are hurting?

This is what the church does.

We celebrate baptisms, we celebrate life change, we celebrate job promotions, we celebrate sports victories, we celebrate progress that is made, but everybody does that.

We also grieve with those who are hurting.

We don't just let tears flow in isolation.

We get involved in people's pain.

We can't always do something about it, but we certainly want to make sure that they know that we care.

We follow the example and the model of Jesus who partied hard.

We saw the very first miracle that he ever did in John chapter 2 was he turned water into wine at a wedding.

John 2 · chapter mention

But we also see in John chapter 11, in verse 35, that at the death of his good friend Lazarus, it says he wept.

John 11 · chapter mention

We celebrate and we cry.

Look at verse 16.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

Number nine, write this down.

We should be humble.

We should be humble.

The word harmony carries the idea of being of the same mind.

It doesn't mean that everyone is the same, but it does mean that we're pursuing the same thing.

This is the power of the church.

This is why we have people from Newcane and from Huffman and from Spring and from Umble and Atascasita and Kingwood and Crosby and Dayton and everywhere else here in the Northeast Houston region that can come together for worship, that can be on mission together, that can serve together, that can reach those who are far from Christ together.

But when pride gets in the way, it leads to confrontation.

It leads to competition.

It leads to self-preservation.

You want to know what's going to take down the influence of United City Church in this region?

It's going to be whenever you have the people of United City Church who begin to say pridefully, How does this serve me?

Instead, humility.

Humility leads to ministry.

Humility recognizes that you yourself once were so lowly.

But Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2 says that the mercies and the grace of God were so great it changed you.

Romans 12:1

I would love for it to be said of United City that at any time, in any place, and from anywhere, everyone is welcome at UC.

We want to look like our community, we want to reach our community.

We want to be a church that serves those in our community.

That is the goal.

But it doesn't come with pride, it has to come from humility.

The end of that verse, never being wise in our own sight.

Look at verse 18.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

Finally, I want you to write this down.

We should not seek revenge.

We should not seek revenge.

This may be hard for some of you to hear.

If you've got kind of a people-pleaser mentality, or you're somebody that wants approval, you're not going to get along with everybody.

As much as you try, it's just not going to happen.

It doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.

It says, as far as it depends on you, you do everything in your power, everything that you can do in order to live peaceably with all.

But whenever it gets to that place and there's still not resolution, there's still not things that feel better, and there's still not peace, just walk away and let the Lord deal with it.

For some of you, what you desperately need to do is you gotta let it go.

You can recall and you can rehearse that way that you have been hurt last week or last month or last year or five years ago or 20 years ago, like it was yesterday, and it is so real and it is so prevalent in your life, it is causing you to view every single thing that happens to you through this lens of I'm slided and I don't want that to happen ever again.

Maybe you've responded in such a way where you are passive aggressive, or maybe you've responded a way in which you're aggressive aggressive, or maybe you've responded in such a way where you've tried to retreat and back out, and you just kind of fall into a little shell.

But here's what the Bible tells us in kingdom culture: we respond by being aggressively graceful.

That's how we respond.

This is the Lord's thing.

He can deal with it.

And I promise you, he'll do a better job than you ever could.

Let me summarize.

I want you to look at the list in full.

And I just want to ask to do a little bit of evaluation.

How are you doing?

As you look at this, where do you struggle?

Where do you need to repent?

As you look at this, where do you need to grow?

I get it.

This is hard.

This is hard stuff.

It's not gonna come by us disciplining ourselves and trying harder and working harder.

It's only gonna come by the Holy Spirit of God working in our minds to let us know the will of God and then to do it.

It's such a radical way of living.

It only results because we've received and we've heard and we've experienced the mercies of God in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, which has changed us.

Romans 12:1

So if you've been changed, guess what?

Then the Holy Spirit wants you to exhibit these qualities in your life.

But if you look at these things and they're not a part of your story, maybe it's because you don't know Jesus.

You don't have a relationship with him, and the Holy Spirit is not living inside of you that only comes whenever you receive his free gift of mercy and eternal life through a relationship with him.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes all across this room?

I'm gonna ask that no one be shuffling or moving around or leaving in these few moments that we have left together.

If you would just give me a few more.

Do you know Jesus?

Have you experienced his mercy in your life through a relationship with him?

It requires that you admit that you are a sinner.

For you to believe that Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth you want to be saved.

Do you want to do that today?

Do you want to do that right now?

Just pray this simple prayer of faith with me, dear God.

I want to have a relationship with you where I receive your mercy and I receive your grace.

I believe that you died on a cross for me and that you rose from the dead.

And right now, I receive your gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of all of my sins.

Continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

If you just prayed that prayer of faith with me in just a moment, what I want to ask you to do is to come forward during our time of invitation.

Our staff team is going to be on the sides, they're going to be in the front.

I want to just ask you, would you come forward and just say, I gave my life to Jesus?

We want to celebrate with you today.

We believe it's the best decision that you've ever made in your life.

So we want to celebrate that.

Others of you maybe have questions about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.

Would you come forward and allow us the opportunity to take an open Bible and to answer those very questions?

Maybe some of you want to come and join United City Church, not because we check off all the boxes, but instead because this is the kind of church that you want to join with us to be in this community.

If God is leading you, would you lead the way today?

Others need to come and be baptized like these four that we saw today.

You've given your life to Jesus.

Now it's time for you to go public through the testimony of believers baptism.

Would you come and let us schedule your baptism?

Maybe just others need prayer today.

Maybe you've got a need that you've got heavy on your heart.

You want to be prayed with and pray over.

The prayer of a righteous person availeth much, is what it says in 1 John.

Would you come and let us pray for you today?

Or maybe you have conviction on your heart that you want to say, man, I need to get this right.

This isn't the type of thing I'm convicted today, and I want to be different.

And would you make a commitment today?

Just come alongside and pray with and for you.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments.

Call people to yourself.

We thank you for this one that's already comes.

God, I just pray for whatever decision, Lord, he is making today, Father, that you would use it in his heart, Lord, to be able to further him in his next step towards the kingdom of God.

And for any others today that need to respond to you, call them to yourself in these moments.

In the name of Jesus, I pray.

Amen.

What an incredible message.

Hey, if you made a decision today to give your life to Jesus, we'd love to know about it.

We'd love to celebrate with you.

We'd even love to pray with you.

And so if you made that decision, would you text next to 55498?

And someone from our team would love to follow up with you.

In the meantime, I would love to pray with you even right now as God continues to do things in your heart moving.

And so, Jesus, we love you so much.

We say thank you for the truth of your word.

Thank you for still showing up in people's lives and still doing all the things you can do.

Jesus, I pray that you continue to heal hearts and heal lives.

Uh bring peace to minds.

And Jesus, once you can just do what only you can do, it's humanity fan.

This has been an incredible service.

It's been so fun worshiping with you.

And we'd love to see you, either in person or online, right back here next week.

Services are at 9 30 and 11.

We'll be at a fantastic week and we'll see you soon.