Sermon

Essentials Series (Part 1): Shaped from the Inside Out By a Continuous Companionship with God

HeavenEarth Church

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  1. Welcome to Heaven Earth Church.

  2. My name is Ross Stackhouse.

  3. I'm the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

  4. From the beginning, our heart was to be a church for people who

  5. don't fit neatly into church.

  6. Our heart is to meet people where they are, to learn their stories,

  7. to honor their stories.

  8. Because in every human story is God's story.

  9. In this podcast, you'll hear more about the people who now call

  10. Heaven Earth Church home.

  11. Their stories, in many cases of misfits who are discovering or

  12. rediscovering faith.

  13. If you want to know more about.

  14. Us, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org Otherwise, we

  15. invite you now into the story.

  16. Hello, good people.

  17. Brad Miller here, the producer of the Heaven Earth Church podcast.

  18. One of the main benefits of being a part of the Heaven Earth

  19. Church community is our Sunday morning conversations taught by founding

  20. pastor Ross Stackhouse.

  21. You can watch and participate in the Sunday morning conversation

  22. this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern time at YouTube.com heavenerthchurch.

  23. The audio version of the Sunday morning conversation is available

  24. here on the podcast, which you can find at Apple Podcasts, Spotify

  25. and on the website, which is heavenearthchurch.org here now is

  26. the first message from the Essentials series, shaped from the

  27. inside out.

  28. Continual friendship with God, with Pastor Ross Stackhouse.

  29. Okay, hey, we're gonna talk about this today.

  30. Just.

  31. That was a fast segue, wasn't it?

  32. A lot of times we think about the great commands of Jesus or of

  33. the scriptures that Jesus identified and reaffirmed as the

  34. great commands.

  35. But I don't know if we think about Jesus living the great commands

  36. on our behalf.

  37. We might think of Jesus being an example of living the great commands.

  38. But we may not think of Jesus living the great commands on our

  39. behalf.

  40. I hope by the end that makes more sense.

  41. He calls us to live the great commands on behalf of others.

  42. Today we are kicking off a series on the bare necessities of

  43. discipleship with Jesus.

  44. We're talking about what are called the five discipleship essentials

  45. of Heaven Earth Church.

  46. And we're doing that by talking about.

  47. We're going to dig into those, dig deep into those.

  48. By talking about immigration.

  49. How do you feel right now?

  50. How many of you.

  51. Your anxiety went up just a little bit when I said that.

  52. Embrace, show of hands.

  53. Your anxiety went up some.

  54. No.

  55. Yes.

  56. You might be saying, ross, I come to church to rest from the political

  57. mayhem and the upheaval that's happening.

  58. Why are you talking about this political stuff?

  59. Why?

  60. In fact, I want to talk about it today.

  61. Partly to help you to rest, to help you have anchoring power.

  62. I am not talking about this today with political motivation or

  63. agenda.

  64. I told Emily I'm making up a definition of politics for us this

  65. week.

  66. We had a series called Good Politics back in November, if you

  67. want to go reference that.

  68. It's a deeper dive into politics.

  69. By politics, I mean it's an idea or agenda an individual group

  70. of people have about how to order a society, and it's the means

  71. by which they achieve that agenda or idea.

  72. That is not Merriam Webster.

  73. That's Ross.

  74. You can say that definition stinks.

  75. I'm thinking about, like, how politics actually function our world.

  76. It's sort of the ideal that a group of people or individuals have

  77. about how to govern or order a society, and it's the means by which

  78. they make that agenda or ideal come to life.

  79. I have no political agenda or motivation today.

  80. If you walk out today having heard what I said, and you're like,

  81. gosh, I'm so glad I'm a Republican, or you walk out and you

  82. say, oh, gosh, I'm so glad I voted Democrat then I partly failed

  83. today.

  84. I have one goal.

  85. 1.

  86. Our church has ultimately one goal.

  87. We want to be committed, fruitful, flourishing apprentices

  88. of Jesus, who is Lord.

  89. That's it.

  90. So by the end today, I'll probably take some.

  91. Take a couple of shots at folks that tend to lean more right.

  92. And then by the end, I'll also take some shots at some things that

  93. are more left leaning.

  94. If you're hurt today in a very personal way, come talk to me.

  95. People have disagreed with me so many times already in this church.

  96. Awesome.

  97. Sometimes.

  98. I know now, Ross, we need to have coffee.

  99. I know what that means, and I welcome it.

  100. I love you all so much.

  101. And together, we are seeking to be in agreement with Jesus.

  102. Okay, I really believe you're gonna leave today encouraged.

  103. I believe that.

  104. So the main goal actually is to situate this conversation in what

  105. are called the discipleship essentials of Heaven, Earth Church.

  106. Well, how on earth did we come up with those?

  107. I'll tell you this.

  108. We worked really hard.

  109. Months ago, there was a group of people called the Strategy Team

  110. from very different walks of life, different ages, and we kind

  111. of asked a question.

  112. If there was a committed, fruitful, flourishing apprentice

  113. of Jesus in our midst, what would they look like?

  114. What kind of fruit would they be bearing in their life?

  115. And what essentials would they be spending time with practicing

  116. to produce that fruit?

  117. Makes sense.

  118. We had a big, long list, didn't we, Charles?

  119. It was a long list and we whittled it down after lots of prayer

  120. and discernment to five.

  121. And I'm going to flash these five up to you now.

  122. There they are.

  123. Now, we don't publish these, like, on our website because they're

  124. kind of nonsensical a little bit.

  125. Our community core values are more things that we put out, like,

  126. because they're more accessible.

  127. Our community core values are ones you've heard about a lot.

  128. Those are ones that, like, you could walk in and champion our core

  129. values day one.

  130. Day.

  131. These are a little deeper, a little tougher.

  132. Take practice.

  133. Shaped from the inside out by continuous companionship with God.

  134. That's something that we're trying to cultivate together.

  135. Number two, we want to be humble, hungry, and willing to seek

  136. Jesus.

  137. We want to seek Jesus way in his worldview above everything else.

  138. We want a curiosity about his worldview and a hunger for his worldview

  139. and a willingness to do what he says and does before it makes

  140. sense.

  141. Number three, Jesus had grace in the great commands at the core

  142. of his life.

  143. We want to cultivate that, too.

  144. I said, the one thing that we're spending time on today is that

  145. Jesus lived the great commands on our behalf and he calls us to

  146. do the same on behalf of others.

  147. Number four, shorter the scent essential.

  148. This basically means that we commit to together unearthing this

  149. concept or this idea that Jesus sends us to people, to specific

  150. people, and we need to listen to, like, to whom is God sending

  151. us?

  152. I heard a guy ask, where is our Nazareth?

  153. Jesus showed up in Nazareth.

  154. Why?

  155. Well, because that's where a lot of people who are considered

  156. low lives lived in Jesus's day and age.

  157. That's where God showed up.

  158. Now, we might not be sent to someone who's a low life, okay?

  159. But we do want to take seriously, hey, who is God sending

  160. me to and how do I show up?

  161. Number five, great collaboration with the big good news.

  162. Today we're focusing on the first three.

  163. Okay?

  164. I want to show you how, when we have an issue like immigration

  165. that's happening in our world, how these essentials can guide us

  166. incredibly well.

  167. I want to demonstrate that with you, okay?

  168. So there will be time for questions, like we do typically,

  169. but it'll be more toward the end.

  170. All right?

  171. Are you with me?

  172. Are you ready to dive in?

  173. Can I ask you one last thing?

  174. If right now you feel resistance in yourself, I invite

  175. you to hand that over to God to be fully present here.

  176. Defensiveness, resistance.

  177. Be open, curious.

  178. Firstly, I want to show you how if we're going to be shaped from

  179. the inside out by continuous companionship with God.

  180. Shaped by God from the inside out through, like, this ongoing friendship

  181. that takes a lifetime to cultivate, just like a friendship

  182. takes a lifetime to cultivate.

  183. Right.

  184. You have different seasons of friendship in your life.

  185. Right.

  186. As you get older, you might even learn what friendship is about

  187. in the first place.

  188. My wife and I have had, like three different marriages.

  189. We had marriage, like first starting out when we had nothing.

  190. We lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and we ate Hamburger Helper

  191. a lot.

  192. I love Hamburger Helper.

  193. That's not a shot at Hamburger Helper.

  194. Then we had, like, our marriage when we started to grow

  195. up a little bit, started adulting a little bit more.

  196. Now we're in our third marriage.

  197. Marriage after you have children.

  198. This is a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view.

  199. I'm with you.

  200. See, Ashley?

  201. We're here for it.

  202. Okay?

  203. There's seasons of that friendship.

  204. If we're going to be shaped by continuous friendship with God, it's

  205. going to be a lifelong pursuit.

  206. And one of the ways we.

  207. We invest in that lifelong pursuit is through the Bible.

  208. Many of us find the Bible to be, like, confusing, complex, scary,

  209. weird.

  210. Yes.

  211. Do all those things.

  212. But what we have to learn is viewing the Bible as a library of

  213. scriptures with all kinds of different books from all different

  214. times and places through which we can discover God's heart.

  215. I'm going to say that again.

  216. The Bible is more like a library of scriptures with different

  217. books written from different times and places through which we

  218. can discover God's heart.

  219. Part of our discipline is learning how do we discover God's

  220. heart through it, rather than treating it like a textbook or a

  221. manual.

  222. Just like today, I'm going to install a catalytic converter on

  223. my awesome 2010 CRV.

  224. Wish me luck.

  225. Well, I don't need to.

  226. I don't read the Bible like I read the manual and instruction manual

  227. to install that catalytic converter.

  228. Okay?

  229. Some people have read the Bible that way.

  230. That ain't how it works.

  231. It's a living, breathing thing.

  232. All right, I want to show you today we have a rare example with

  233. immigration, how we can get a big picture view from wire to wire

  234. that demonstrates God's heart.

  235. That's what we're searching for.

  236. When we encounter the Scriptures, we pray things like,

  237. God help me to see your heart.

  238. As I spend time with this Bible.

  239. God help me to see your heart.

  240. I read this Bible and over a lifetime we're trying to get a big

  241. picture view of like, what does this library point to?

  242. You're going to see today how we're going to work deeper and deeper

  243. into the core of the Bible's heart, which is God's heart.

  244. So I'm going to show you today how.

  245. This is a rare example.

  246. Like sometimes we got to guess because the Bible doesn't mention

  247. it.

  248. The Bible doesn't say anything about what to do with your smartphone

  249. addiction.

  250. Did you know there's nothing in there about that.

  251. But buddy.

  252. Woo.

  253. Immigration.

  254. Wire to wire.

  255. Can I show you the entire Torah?

  256. First five books of the Bible is basically an immigrant's tale.

  257. Did you know that basically the entire first five books is an

  258. immigrant's tale?

  259. Abraham lived his entire life as an immigrant.

  260. Did you ever think of that?

  261. First you're like, I don't know who Abraham is to begin with,

  262. so it's no difference to me.

  263. He's a main character.

  264. Okay?

  265. Just trust me on that for now.

  266. Abram.

  267. God calls to Abram.

  268. His name was Abram.

  269. Then Abraham, God says, hey, I'm gonna call you to do this big

  270. new thing that I want to do with people in the world.

  271. So I'm going to have you move from the place you are Abram, and

  272. go to this other place.

  273. He spends his whole life as an immigrant.

  274. God promises him this.

  275. Have no doubt that your descendants will live as immigrants

  276. in a land that isn't their own, where they'll be oppressed slaves

  277. for 400 years.

  278. Wow.

  279. Isn't that exciting?

  280. I can't wait to give my life to that God.

  281. But did you see it?

  282. Your descendants will spend much of their entire like existence

  283. as what is it?

  284. And immigrants.

  285. Ross and other translations.

  286. Doesn't it say foreigner?

  287. You betcha.

  288. Immigrants.

  289. That's a harsher reality.

  290. In this world, you are either one of us or you're not.

  291. You're either Egyptian or you're not.

  292. You're either a Moabite or you're not.

  293. You're either an Israelite or you're not.

  294. And if you're not, good luck.

  295. It's a dog eat dog world for everybody, but especially you.

  296. Abraham spends his whole life as an immigrant.

  297. Wire to wire From Genesis to Revelation, this thing has a lot

  298. about it.

  299. Exodus.

  300. We're going to skip forward to the second book.

  301. All of Exodus has provisions about how to include immigrants Israel

  302. in your way of life.

  303. Like, hey, if the.

  304. If people want to practice Sabbath, including the residents

  305. and the immigrants, here's how they do it.

  306. Exodus has instructions like this.

  307. Don't mistreat or impress or Oppress.

  308. And because you were once immigrants in the land of Egypt.

  309. So this is after they had that time of slavery and immigrated to

  310. this other land.

  311. Don't mistreat or oppress immigrants because you were once

  312. one of them.

  313. Going further, we got a lot of Scripture today, folks.

  314. I hope you ate your Wheaties.

  315. Don't oppress.

  316. And you know what it's like to be in.

  317. Because you were in the land of Egypt.

  318. Oh, I'm sick and tired of hearing this already, Ross.

  319. Well, guess what?

  320. The Israelites were too.

  321. And why did God have to keep repeating it?

  322. Because he knew they'd forget.

  323. You'll hear a shift now.

  324. These people who had spent much of their existence as immigrants

  325. became residents.

  326. They were somebody now.

  327. So God had to keep reminding him, reminding them.

  328. Don't forget Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus.

  329. Leviticus.

  330. We're still in book three.

  331. We got a long way to go.

  332. Also, do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the

  333. grapes that have fallen there.

  334. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant.

  335. I am the Lord your God.

  336. Leviticus 19:33 and 34.

    Leviticus 19:33

  337. When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat

  338. them.

  339. Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were

  340. one of your citizens.

  341. You must love them as yourself.

  342. There's the great command.

  343. Did you see?

  344. We'll come back to it.

  345. You must love them as yourself.

  346. Why?

  347. Remember, you were one of them once because you were immigrants

  348. in the land of Egypt.

  349. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.

  350. Numbers has a bunch of provisions about what to do with

  351. immigrants.

  352. We're going to skip a book of the Bible.

  353. Aren't you glad that we're not going to go through all 66.

  354. He who God enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves

  355. immigrants, giving them food and clothing.

  356. That means you must also love immigrants because you are immigrants.

  357. In Egypt, later, in Deuteronomy.

  358. Don't detest Edomites.

  359. Remember what I said.

  360. You're either one of us or you're not.

  361. You're either an Israelite or you're not.

  362. The Israelites hated the Edomites.

  363. Don't detest them because they are your relatives.

  364. Don't detest Egyptians because you were immigrants in their land.

  365. But God, they enslaved us for all that time and mistreated us,

  366. is what it is.

  367. We'll keep going.

  368. Okay.

  369. Oh, it gets stronger.

  370. Shoot.

  371. Deuteronomy, chapter 27.

    Deuteronomy 27 chapter mention

  372. Cursed is anyone who obstructs.

  373. Obstructs the legal rights of immigrants, orphans or widows.

  374. What?

  375. They had legal rights.

  376. They did sure did.

  377. They had something called we.

  378. We.

  379. Oh, let me back up just a little bit more.

  380. Did I.

  381. Did I skip one?

  382. Don't take advantage of poor, needy workers, whether they are fellow

  383. Israelites or immigrants who live in your land, your cities.

  384. Don't obstruct the legal rights of an immigrant or orphan.

  385. Don't take a widow's coat as pledge for your loan.

  386. What did the prophets.

  387. Why did Jesus, when he was asked, hey, what's the greatest instruction

  388. in the law?

  389. The first five books, he says, love the Lord your God with all your

  390. heart, mind, soul and strength.

  391. And the second one is, like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

  392. All the law, the first five books and the prophets.

  393. Hang on those two things.

  394. Why did he say that?

  395. Because Jesus's people were ignoring the prophets.

  396. The prophets who said, look, you guys are awesome at worship.

  397. You honor all these provisions in the first five books about how

  398. to do worship, but you miss the main thing, which is God's heart

  399. for the vulnerable person among you.

  400. You're not caring for the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

  401. Ezekiel has to remind him of that.

  402. Hey, do you remember what it said in the Torah?

  403. These people, they treat father and mother with contempt.

  404. They oppress immigrants and deny the rights of orphans and widows.

  405. The prophets said things like this over and again about, like getting

  406. right about what God said in the Torah.

  407. The important people of all the land have practiced extortion

  408. and have committed robbery.

  409. They've oppressed the poor and mistreated the immigrant.

  410. They've oppressed and denied justice.

  411. Another one from Ezekiel.

  412. What?

  413. You will assign the immigrants inheritance with the tribe with whom

  414. they reside.

  415. This is nuts.

  416. Do you see what this is saying?

  417. These foreigners in your midst will have an inheritance just like

  418. the residents.

  419. My God.

  420. My God.

  421. So I wanted to show you.

  422. This is in line with essential one.

  423. If you want to be shaped.

  424. If we want to be committed, fruitful, flourishing disciples of

  425. Jesus, our hearts have to be shaped from the inside out by God's

  426. heart.

  427. Are you with me?

  428. And if we're going to know God's heart, we got to travel around

  429. in the library of scriptures and want to know the big themes that

  430. are represented from beginning to end.

  431. We don't just cherry pick scriptures.

  432. We like.

  433. We got a hard question in our question series about homosexuality.

  434. What did I do?

  435. I went through every reference in the thing about it, did I not?

  436. You're like, I don't know, Ross.

  437. I don't remember that.

  438. Well, anyways, go back.

  439. I did.

  440. Okay, so we're not going to Come to a good place.

  441. If I'll bring this up.

  442. I actually put this in a slide.

  443. I'm pretty sure I did.

  444. We're not going to come to a good place in terms of what the right

  445. thing to do is if our motives and thoughts come from the outside

  446. in.

  447. Mostly, if you want to be shaped by friendship with God from

  448. the inside out, that is that program.

  449. I did that slide, right?

  450. I checked it today.

  451. I did.

  452. I checked it twice.

  453. Daggone it.

  454. If we're gonna have, like, come to a good place in terms of

  455. what the right thing to do is, we have to be shaped from the inside

  456. out.

  457. We have to beware of the propaganda swamp in which we currently

  458. travel.

  459. We get propaganda regularly from people who have a fierce Democratic

  460. Party agenda.

  461. We get propaganda regularly from folks who are deeply committ

  462. to the Republican agenda.

  463. If we want to be fruitful, flourishing disciples of Jesus, we

  464. have to be shaped from the inside out by his heart.

  465. That's how we'll find the right thing to do.

  466. And you might be saying, ross, well, but what does Jesus have to

  467. say about it?

  468. Well, wouldn't you know that I prepared for that?

  469. And in fact, it speaks to.

  470. I told you.

  471. We're going to root this in the discipleship essentials of our

  472. church.

  473. Number two, we want to be humble and hungry and willing to

  474. seek Jesus.

  475. What does Jesus say?

  476. What does he do?

  477. That's our concern.

  478. Our whole life at Heaven Earth Church is concerned with that question.

  479. We have one goal.

  480. What does Jesus say?

  481. What does he do?

  482. How do we say things and do things likewise?

  483. It's that simple.

  484. And it's that hard.

  485. Well, I don't have all the scriptures.

  486. I just have stories.

  487. I'll just tell you a few.

  488. Okay, first of all, there's a story where Jesus travels a long

  489. way to talk with just one Canaanite woman on the coast.

  490. Canaanites were viewed as cockroaches that wouldn't die.

  491. Why?

  492. Because when Israel came to this land where they existed, guess

  493. who was living there?

  494. The Canaanites.

  495. And what did the Israelites devise that they should do with all

  496. these people?

  497. Root them out.

  498. Kill them.

  499. Get rid of them.

  500. Well, there's some cockroaches that just wouldn't die.

  501. And Jesus said, hey, guys, come with me.

  502. I got to show you somebody.

  503. He meets a Canaanite woman.

  504. He mistreats her as Israelites often did.

  505. And then she steps up and advocates for herself and says something

  506. to Jesus.

  507. And Jesus does something like, look at this faith in her.

  508. Look at what she Does.

  509. He uses a Canaanite woman as an example.

  510. Why?

  511. Because he's living out the great commands.

  512. He's living out the Torah and the prophets.

  513. He's like the Bible in a human body.

  514. One time he's traveling to Jerusalem.

  515. We talked about it, and his buddies are like, hey, let's not

  516. go through Samaria, okay?

  517. Jesus?

  518. He's like, yeah, good idea, but we're going to do it.

  519. Jesus, we hate the Samaritans.

  520. They're like mutts.

  521. Yeah, I know you think that way.

  522. That's why we got to go.

  523. So he tells a story about 10 lepers who come to him and ask to

  524. be healed.

  525. Jesus says, hey, go on your way.

  526. Go back to the priests and get your certification.

  527. That allows you to integrate back into religious and social life.

  528. And on the way, they're healed and.

  529. And only one comes back to say thank you to Jesus.

  530. What country was that?

  531. One guy from Samaria.

  532. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, fourth chapter, sits at high noon

  533. at a well next to one woman.

  534. What's she?

  535. A Samaritan.

  536. Who's the first missionary in the Gospel of John?

  537. A Samaritan.

  538. Jesus loves enemies just like he asks us to do.

  539. I did put one scripture from Jesus in here, though.

  540. We'll look at that now.

  541. Okay.

  542. Now, when the human one comes in, his majesty and all his angels

  543. are with him, he will sit on his majestic throne.

  544. All the nations will be gathered in front of him.

  545. He will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates

  546. the sheep from the goats.

  547. He will put the sheet on his right side, but the goats he'll put

  548. on his left.

  549. If you're like, I don't know what that means, it's okay.

  550. We're just going to keep going for today.

  551. Then the king will say to those on his right, come.

  552. You will receive good things from my father.

  553. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world

  554. began.

  555. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat.

  556. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.

  557. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

  558. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear.

  559. I was sick and you took care of me.

  560. I was in prison and you visited me then.

  561. Those who are righteous will reply to them, Lord, when did we

  562. see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink?

  563. When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you or naked

  564. and give you clothes to wear?

  565. When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

  566. I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least

  567. of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.

  568. So if we want to be fruitful, flourishing apprentices of Jesus,

  569. that's his worldview.

  570. What's yours?

  571. I didn't say it.

  572. He did.

  573. I told you.

  574. You're gonna have time for feedback.

  575. We're getting there, I promise.

  576. But we gotta get to the last essential.

  577. Okay?

  578. We're working deeper into the core.

  579. See, Ross, I don't know what to do about this issue.

  580. Well, try to find God's heart through the library of scriptures.

  581. I tried and I couldn't do it.

  582. Okay, next key, go to Jesus.

  583. What does he say and do?

  584. If you don't know what else to do, look at what he says and does.

  585. I tried and I couldn't find it.

  586. Well, then What?

  587. Next essential 3.

  588. Put grace in the great commands at the core.

  589. If you know nothing else to do, ask yourself what the great commands

  590. are.

  591. What are they?

  592. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

  593. And I forgot to mention this part.

  594. He says before he mentions the second one.

  595. What does he say?

  596. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul

  597. and strength.

  598. And love your neighbor.

  599. Oh, no.

  600. He says something in between those two things.

  601. What's he say?

  602. Anyone?

  603. He says, the second is like it.

  604. The second command is like the first one.

  605. Let's get into the politics of it.

  606. Let's get into the real issue.

  607. Okay, Ross.

  608. But at the end of the day, my wife put up a post on Facebook.

  609. I already said I wholeheartedly endorse it.

  610. So it's no secret there.

  611. Let's be honest.

  612. My wife could put up a lot of things, and I better just wholeheartedly

  613. endorse it.

  614. Okay?

  615. I want to stay married to her.

  616. She could put like, I wholeheartedly think that aliens

  617. are circling the earth right now.

  618. And be like, I wholeheartedly endorse this, honey.

  619. Yep.

  620. But I actually endorse this.

  621. What she said on there, you might say some of the pushback she

  622. got, I've gotten is.

  623. But, Ross, ultimately, they're here illegally.

  624. At the end of the day, they broke the law.

  625. Okay, I hear that.

  626. The second is like it.

  627. Love your neighbor as yourself.

  628. Really simply.

  629. This is such a way of life for us, folks.

  630. Jesus is saying, place yourself in the shoes of the person

  631. and ask yourself this question.

  632. What consideration and love would I hope to receive if I were

  633. in their shoes?

  634. What consideration and love would I hope to receive?

  635. Ross, they're here illegally.

  636. That's just the way it is.

  637. If I were in Their shoes.

  638. I would hope that people would not judge me in that way.

  639. I would hope that they wouldn't assume that they know why

  640. I chose to come here the way I did.

  641. I would hope if I were in their shoes, someone would be curious

  642. instead of judgmental, which sounds like this.

  643. I wonder what would make a person flee where they were living

  644. so desperately to come here.

  645. Not through legal means.

  646. Curiosity rather than judgment.

  647. I hope that if I were in their shoes, someone would give me that

  648. consideration and love, I hope.

  649. And then, of course, now that they're here and some things that

  650. might be going on right now are going on right now, man, I hope.

  651. What if I were in that neighborhood, living there?

  652. What if it were my children at the school?

  653. What consideration and love would I hope to receive?

  654. And honestly, folks, that helps us on both sides of the border.

  655. It works for the person in Texas, too.

  656. Like, you're, like, what policy should I support or be about?

  657. That's a great question.

  658. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who are fleeing where

  659. they're living and also the people on this side of the border.

  660. It works.

  661. I don't think Jesus would have told us if it doesn't.

  662. It works.

  663. I'm almost finished.

  664. And then you get a talk, okay?

  665. I promise it'll happen.

  666. I know you doubt it because I go so long all the time at the end

  667. of the day.

  668. I told you, this is what we're anchoring into today.

  669. This right here.

  670. Jesus lived the great commands on our behalf.

  671. So God looked upon us, his beloved people, who are now acting

  672. like they're strangers.

  673. They're acting like people who don't belong to him.

  674. They make themselves enemies of God in their thought, word and

  675. action.

  676. God looks upon them like running their lives, doing their

  677. thing, having a prodigal son and daughter kind of party.

  678. And what does God do?

  679. He treats us as neighbors.

  680. He comes to confront the spiritual forces of wickedness and

  681. death and sin on our behalf.

  682. He comes into our shoes.

  683. He walks our path and he goes ahead of us to fight darkness and

  684. evil.

  685. Why?

  686. So we can be liberated, freed and forgiven now and forever.

  687. And he teaches us.

  688. Look what Ephesians has to say.

  689. About what?

  690. Why did he do that?

  691. Because he was living the great commands on our behalf.

  692. Look at this.

  693. Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children.

  694. Well, how would I do that?

  695. Jesus says, love others as I have loved you.

  696. How do you do that?

  697. Live your life with.

  698. Have I put you to sleep?

  699. Live your life with one more time.

  700. Live your life with grace and the great Commands at the core, following

  701. the example of Christ who.

  702. Who and gave himself for us.

  703. Watch this.

  704. The second is like it.

  705. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God when he

  706. stepped into our shoes.

  707. Even we, when we were acting like morons who didn't care about

  708. God, he stepped into our shoes, lived life in our shoes, walked

  709. with us, suffered with us, and confronted the worst of human sin

  710. and evil and dealt it a knockout blow so we could be freed

  711. and forgiven now and forever.

  712. And when he did that, you know what Ephesians said?

  713. When he did that, it rose up like this sweet smell as an act of

  714. worship to God.

  715. When you step into the shoes of your neighbor and you ask, what

  716. hope and what consideration and love would I hope to receive

  717. if I were in their shoes, and you follow through on that.

  718. When you do that, it's like the greatest act of worship you could

  719. offer to God.

  720. When you love your neighbor, you are worshiping God gloriously.

  721. When you love your neighbor, well, you are offering the greatest

  722. riches back to God who made you.

  723. All right, my last thought, I promise.

  724. I said in our Good Politics series that navigating citizenship

  725. in two kingdoms is hard.

  726. We live in one that has borders and laws.

  727. I'm a citizen of America, and I'm a grateful one.

  728. Grateful in all caps, bold, italicized and underlined in whatever

  729. cool font thing you could do to emphasize it.

  730. I'm a grateful citizen of America.

  731. It's something I ask myself.

  732. How do I steward that blessing, not hoard it?

  733. And there's something that we must do now.

  734. I'll take my shot at the left.

  735. I told you it was coming.

  736. Immigration was a crisis long before now.

  737. Where was the outcry then?

  738. During the Obama administration and the Biden administration?

  739. Where was the outcry?

  740. Where was it then?

  741. Why is it happening now?

  742. Something was wrong back then.

  743. Are we only doing something when it fits our political agenda,

  744. or are we doing it because Jesus calls us to it?

  745. Something?

  746. They did something wrong, those administrations.

  747. But man, we heard this phrase when we were back like an elementary

  748. school.

  749. Two wrongs don't make a hey, they did something wrong doesn't

  750. mean we should keep doing something wrong.

  751. If two wrongs don't make a right, certainly one wrong and one

  752. evil don't make a right.

  753. If two wrongs don't make a right, a wrong and an evil definitely

  754. don't make a right, do you know what makes a right a right?

  755. That's why they pay me the big bucks for saying something like that.

  756. What makes a right is a conviction that's shaped by friendship

  757. with God from the inside out.

  758. What makes a right makes is action that's informed by Jesus worldview,

  759. first, last and only.

  760. What makes a right is a life lived with grace and great commands

  761. at the core.

  762. That is what makes it right.

  763. How do you want to live?

  764. Thank you for participating in the conversation happening at Heaven

  765. Earth Church.

  766. Your next opportunity to do so live is this Sunday morning, 9:30am

  767. Eastern Time, either at the main campus at 309 East Main in Whiteland,

  768. Indiana or online at YouTube Live.

  769. That'[email protected] Heaven Earth Church the audio podcast is

  770. always available at Apple Podcast and on Spotify.

  771. You can help others find out about the Heaven Earth Church podcast

  772. by going to Apple Podcasts and or Spotify and leaving a five star

  773. rating and your review.

  774. Instructions on how to do just that and links are in the show notes.

  775. You can always find out more by going to the church website heavenearthchurch.org

  776. we.

  777. Want to thank you for spending time with us today.

  778. My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church,

  779. and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact

  780. your faith story may just be beginning.

  781. If you want more information about our church or you're interested

  782. in the next step, you can go to heavenearthchurch.org otherwise.

  783. We look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth

  784. Church Podcast.