Love Where You Live - Week 4: September 13, 2026

Well, good morning.

My name is Nate Rubenstein.

I'm the lead pastor here at Connect Church.

And I grew up in Salina, Kansas, and went to elementary school my whole career at Hageman Elementary School in Salina, Kansas.

And at the back yard of our school, just off to the side, the very back corner, there was an amusement park, a small little amusement park named Playland.

We loved playland.

And one of the cool things about being that close to Playland was on the family fun nights, you know, where you go in the school and get the duckies out of the pond and all of that with the little tickets they gave as a part of that night.

The last hour of that, they opened up Playland to our little school.

There was a small fee, but it was very cheap.

It was so fun.

And we loved it so much that we would ask my dad to go and mom to go to it like on a regular basis.

Can we go to Playland?

Can we go to Playland?

No, not tonight.

Not today, not tonight.

We're too busy.

Don't have enough money.

Wait till the play, you know, the family fun night.

We said, well, can we just go buy Playland?

Because I thought we thought if we can get them to see it and how much fun they're having, they'll let us come.

And my dad, in a typical, this is his best and only dad joke that ever worked, he said, No, we can't.

It's too expensive to go buy Playland.

Oh, Dad, you're hilarious.

When you walked into Playland, this is my memory.

I couldn't find pictures to verify.

If you happen to be from Salina, we can collaborate afterwards to see if my memory is anywhere close to accurate.

But when you walked into Playland, off to the left was a Ferris wheel.

Fair enough, good.

We all know what Ferris wheels are.

You turn to the right, you go down a little bit, there's the bumper cars.

You remember the bumper cars before they made you go in circles?

It was like the demolition derby up in there.

It was fun until you're the one that got hit by somebody from the back.

Go a little further down, and these two might have been in reverse order, I don't know, but there was the tilt-a-wirl.

Or as my brothers and I called it, the tilt a hurl.

Because inevitably somebody would, if you've never seen one of those, Google it.

It was it was a ride.

It was a ride.

And then off down a little farther to the left was the boats.

Those little boats you get in and drive around.

We didn't, boats weren't, we spent a lot of time on the tilt-to-hurl.

But the boats were over there, and the attraction for the boats was not the boats as much as the fish.

So on the rare occasion that my dad would buy us popcorn, we gave half of that popcorn to the fish.

You ever seen this kind of thing going on at an amusement park?

Here's a picture.

This isn't playland, but this is what it felt like, you know?

Have you ever done that?

You get popcorn and you throw it out to the goldfish, the carp.

We're gonna call them goldfish today.

Same family, cousins.

They don't get along at the reunions, but we're calling them goldfish today.

Because I Googled this Playland and said, Does anybody remember Playland?

I was trying to find.

The only thing to find was a Facebook post.

And in the comments, do you remember Playland?

This one guy said, Yeah, what I remember is the goldfish stuffed with popcorn.

And what I want to tell you about these goldfish, I don't know them personally, but here's my observation.

That these fish displayed zero regard for the common good.

Right?

Every goldfish for themselves.

Get what you can get, climb over who you need to climb over, push out who you need to, when that popcorn comes, that are empty calories that won't satisfy you anyway, but it's all you know to chase.

You're going after that popcorn.

And I thought to myself, as I thought about playland, that seems like a pretty good metaphor for the human condition, perhaps, especially in the cultural context we live now.

Every goldfish for themselves.

And now might be a good time for us to remember that in Jesus' prayer, we call it the Lord's Prayer, but it was really the prayer he wanted us to pray.

One of the phrases in that prayer is thy kingdom come and thy will be done.

Remember that?

Which feels a whole lot different than being goldfish fed by popcorn.

And it seems to me that those pursuing the kingdom of God are motivated to seek, as we've been saying in this series, the peace and well-being of our neighborhoods.

Shalom is the word that sort of epitomizes that.

It's this idea of wholeness and completeness.

It seems to me that people pursuing the kingdom of God in heaven as it is on earth are going to be caring about their neighbors, not just their neighbors as individuals, but their neighborhoods.

Or as we've been saying in this series, the common good of our neighborhoods.

We've been talking about this idea of seeking the common good of our neighborhoods.

And we've we've been pretty clear that we want to frame this conversation correctly, that we don't seek the common good of our neighborhood with any ulterior motives, right?

So this quote that was, you've seen before in this series that I just really love, it helps me think properly about what we're trying to do here.

It says the ulterior motive in pursuing the common good must never be to share the gospel, all right?

Because the reason that the reason that is the case is because ulterior motives are never good.

Have you ever been hit by an ulterior motive from somebody else?

So it's not that we're going to seek the good of our neighborhood so we can jam Jesus down somebody's throat.

People sniff that out.

Besides, it's just not a good way.

Manipulation is not a good way to live.

But I love the idea, ironically, that the ultimate motive is just that, to share the story of Jesus and his impact on our lives.

And it starts by sharing our lives.

I think so many, many of us are like, how do I talk to my friends about Jesus?

Well, that's a conversation that's not really for today, but let me tell you one way you do it is you live for Jesus.

You just live your life in a way that reflects what God's doing in your heart.

And so we seek the common good, not because we're trying to manipulate people, but because we think shalom is good.

We think that's a little bit what it means that thy kingdom come and thy will be done.

And last week, in this journey of understanding what it means to seek the common good, we were asked to switch our mindset from what is wrong with our neighborhood to what assets lie in our neighborhood, what's available to us in our neighborhoods, how can we see the goodness around us?

How can we bring our goodness to it?

If you remember, Pastor Jamie last week talked about his big green machine, right?

This idea, I have something I can offer to the neighborhood.

But it's not just what we offer, it's seeing the goodness in our neighborhood.

What resources are here for us to consider?

But study after study shows that the church faces massive distrust in our in our country right now, for whatever reason, which doesn't matter, it's the truth that study after study says that maybe maybe it's because people wonder about our ulterior motives, or maybe it's because of whatever the reasons, the failures of the church, the perceptions of those outside the church, whatever the reasons, you know, when we ask the question, how can we seek the common good, how do we gain trust with people who don't trust the church?

On the other side of that, if we're really honest, part of the reason it's hard for us to seek the common good is because that means we're gonna stand side by side with people whose values are vastly different than ours, who value so many things and think about life so differently than us.

So if we're seeking the common good, we're kind of gonna lock arms with people who are really different than us and honestly have values that we are either walking away from or we see differently.

And so, how do we seek the common good when we're aligning ourselves in some sense with those who have vastly different values than us?

We're gonna talk about our values at the welcome party today if you're coming.

Are we compromising our beliefs as we seek the common good?

Are we watering down our witness?

Or maybe the other question that's on the other side of it is how do we regain the trust of our neighbors?

So I think we need a motivation.

I think we need something deeper than a practical application of, hey, be good neighbors, do good in your neighborhood, seek the common good of your community, seek the shalom.

That's all good stuff, but what motivates that motivates us deeper than that?

And that's what we want to talk about today.

I think it's pretty critical, it may be the most critical component of this whole conversation.

And so you're probably wondering what that motivation is.

I'm so glad you asked.

It's pretty simple.

Love everyone, always.

That's our motivation.

Now that doesn't mean it's easy, and that doesn't mean it doesn't get tricky to figure all this out, but I want to talk about our motivation today.

I want to talk about why we care about our neighborhoods.

It's more than just a formula, or an idea, or a strategy.

Or guilt.

Because the preacher's sad.

Because that's what Christians do.

The deepness of this to the common good is love.

Who do we love?

Everyone.

How often do we do it?

Oh.

In the series, we are under operating under the assumption that the church is out of season.

Now, you may not agree with that, but I'm just setting the framework of how we're having this conversation.

I really agree with that.

That in America, right now, the church is out of season.

Paul talks about uh being ready in season and out of season.

We're kind of out of season now.

But I would argue that the church does its best work when it's out of season.

I I would encourage you to read church history and ask when is the church most reflecting the kingdom values that Jesus asked us to bring.

What God, what Jesus asked God to bring.

I think it's when the church is out of season.

In fact, our greatest weapon of love, did you hear what I said?

The greatest weapon of love is deeply compromised, if not extinguished, when the church possesses or seeks power, influence, or cultural acceptability.

I think when the church is at its bust, is when the church is on the margins.

That's not to say we have to always live on the margins.

Not that to say history doesn't have its ebbs and flows where the church has more influence.

You read the book of Acts, there was a time of persecution.

Later on, it says the church was flourishing.

It had different levels of influence.

I'm not here to try to shape what history should look like or what the future should look like.

I'm just saying I think it's best.

The church, we we we tend to think the church is in trouble when it's out of season.

And I just want to make the case that perhaps it's our finest hour.

Maybe if there was a title for this sermon, we don't title them very often, but if there was, I think it would be this: The Power of Love in Tough Seasons.

So let's take a journey through scripture.

I want to take a short look at history and then ask some questions about how we can love everyone always, not, listen, not as a compromise of the gospel, but as the full expression of it.

It's not a choice.

Do I trust the gospel that I am a sinner that needs the grace of God and I need redemption and Jesus has to transform me because I'm a must, and that's what he does, that's what the gospel does.

So it's not like I have to choose between that work in me and our work in our community.

It's the God, the idea of loving everyone always, seeking the common good of our neighborhoods, is not an aberration of the gospel, it's the full expression of it.

So let's let's go through.

I'm gonna read a lot of scriptures here in a moment without a lot of explanation.

I I don't think we can go wrong when the public in the public reading of scripture.

You might want me to expose, you know, teach on it or whatever.

Go home and do that.

Ponder these passages as we go through them.

I will say some, I'll say a lot of other things, but just get when we get to that point where I'm going through scripture, this is intended to help you see this theme over and over again in scripture.

So let's go.

Everything, before anything was created, there was God, and God is love.

This is in scripture over and over again.

So the source, the motivation, and the power to love, everyone always is God.

We have to start there.

You can't manufacture this.

1 John 4, and we read this earlier in the response reading, you heard it, but listen to it again.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

And then on in verse 19 of chapter 4, we love because he first loved us.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.

For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.

And he has given us this command.

Anyone who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Lots to unpack there, but the simple idea is John is saying, God loved us first and invites us to love everyone always.

However, I don't know if you noticed, it turns out that it's not always easy to love everyone always.

Because sin entered the world, creating a separation between God and his creation and between us as created beings.

This started in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We've gone to this passage a lot in 2026.

We're gonna keep coming back to this origin story because it starts here.

Genesis 3.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord called to the man, Where are you?

Here's this separation that happens because Adam and Eve, like every human since, has chosen their own path away from God.

But what did God do?

He didn't say, Well, when they want to come back to me, I'm here.

He went and he found them.

And he had he said to Adam and Eve, Where are you?

And that's what God's always been doing.

Where are you?

I want you.

I want to show you my love.

So this the sin problem has infected our culture through every generation, through every person, through every culture, through every tribe, through every nation, through every language.

And as it expresses itself in so many ways today.

We're gonna do a whole series in 2027 about how sin works and how grace overcomes it.

But we like this is like the easiest thing for us to agree on.

The world's a mess.

Now we might not agree on what caused a mess, but the world's a mess.

Experts today are claiming that we've charted a course away from conversation and towards diatribe.

I agree.

Some say this problem is because of digital communication.

Some say it's because we're encouraging excessive politeness, otherwise sometimes known as political correctness, or excessive impoliteness, self-expression without consequence.

Last week, Janet and I flew out to Charlotte to visit family.

What a wonderful time we had with our family.

And on the airplane, I saw a shirt.

I won't tell you what the shirt said, but you ever see a shirt and you're just wondering, what do you hope happens when people read that?

All sides of every issue, every political, like what are we doing?

Some t-shirt companies are making a lot of money because we've chosen tribes.

And this one included Jesus as a part of the conversation.

I wanted to, I kind of wish the guy would have sat next to me, but I'm kind of glad he didn't.

Because, see, when we're separated from the source of all love, when we like Adam have gone our own way, humans' default setting seems to be anger and jealousy and defensiveness.

Can I put it in the language we've already established?

That sin drove humanity to become goldfish stuffed with popcorn.

Clamoring and fighting to get more and be more, only to discover that what we pursued is not what we were created to consume.

But instead of recognizing this, we jump right back into the fray the next time someone throws out another handful of empty calories, and we chase it and we fight for it and we get it however we can.

We as Christians need to remember that we are not goldfish stuffed with popcorn, but beings created in the image of God and deeply loved by God, being transformed by Jesus as we surrender our life to Him, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is a story of how God began to call people back to the love that existed in the Trinity and was shared with us and expressed that love to us in Jesus and made available to us through the Holy Spirit.

Love that was given to us and designed to return in love to others, showing our love for God as we love others.

When Jesus came, he not only reiterated this calling that started in the Old Testament, but he also showed us how to make it possible.

Now, let me just talk about love for a moment.

This kind of love is not to say that God blesses, excuses, or withholds judgment on evil.

This simply says that Jesus' default posture towards people is to be kind and loving towards them.

Jesus knew that sin had to be dealt with.

That's why he dealt with it on the cross.

Again, the sermon series in 2027 about how the atonement helps undo what sin had done.

But as Jesus looked at people who knew, who he knew sin had separated from them, he did not say, Your sin has separated you from God.

More so he came alongside them and says, How can I help you?

Now he could like heal people, do things that we feel like we can't, although I think there's probably more power in the power of the Holy Spirit than sometimes we recognize.

But the power what Jesus could do is not the issue as far as his choice to do it, his choice to see people, to touch people, and come alongside people, and speak truth to power.

And to see, this isn't just Jesus spoke to these days one of the kind of going through Matthew with my D group and this little passage in Matthew 12 that Jesus the Bible says that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick, but will bring justice for the oppressed.

This heart of Jesus.

Let me read some of these passages.

Matthew 22, very familiar and should be because it's critically important.

Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

We'd like it to stop there, but it doesn't.

He says, and the second is like it, love your neighbors yourself.

This call to love.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands.

In the Sermon on the Mount, we are explicitly called to love everyone always.

Matthew 5.

You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who whoa, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.

He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

And if you greet one another, if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?

Do not even pagans do that?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.

That passage doesn't give a lot of room for t-shirts that make statements that hurt people.

Luke 6, but love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.

Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the most high, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Peter encourages this church.

We did a series on this last year.

Encourages this church.

He says, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

And then he says, Finally, all of you, be like-minded.

And this is 1 Peter 3.

Be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.

On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing.

Peter's saying, Listen, the church is going to be out of favor.

You're going to be persecuted.

And what do you do?

Fight back?

No.

Love your enemies.

Church history has figured this out.

The history of the church.

Again, when the church is doing its best work, when it's on the margins, the greatest period of the church, I Think was before 325 AD when the church was young and and and they were not in power at all.

See, in that time frame, to the average Roman citizen, the behaviors of the early Christians looked highly suspicious.

In fact, they had some they had some accusations against the early church that will sound crazy to us.

The average Roman citizens, many of them, and there's things in history that verify this posture.

They had rumors about the church, like the church is involved in cannibalism.

Why?

Because Jesus said, This is my body.

This is my blood.

So rumors came up that in their ceremonies they would sacrifice babies and eat flesh and drink blood.

There were rumors about incest.

Because the brothers and sisters, they were, they call each other brother and sister, and there's this family unit.

Think about it.

The church is the first time in history that people from multiple cultures came away and into intimate, deep relationship with one another.

And because the Roman culture was similar to ours, intimacy became tied to sexuality and sex.

And so now, oh, this intimacy must mean there's incest going on.

Okay.

The church was accused of atheism.

Imagine that.

Why?

Because the church refused to bow its knee to the Roman gods.

And if you don't bow your knees to the Roman gods, it doesn't matter what else you do or say or think.

You're atheistic.

You don't believe in God.

The church is accused of treason and antisocial behavior because it refused to sacrifice to the gods or worship the Roman Empire as divine.

They were seen as unpatriotic rebels.

Perhaps there's application there.

The church was seen this way by the culture.

None of that was accurate, but it was all based on stuff that was happening in the church.

In fact, this this this rumors and this idea, these ideas became so bad that Emperor Nero falsely blamed, famously, this is very much a part of history, he falsely blamed Christians for starting a fire that devastated Rome.

And the official, the empire's official policy began to allow for devastating violence against these early Christians.

They had to endure verbal insults, defamation of character, false rumors, boycotts of their businesses, and even persecution.

And did you know that in this early time frame, that if you brought a charge against a Christian that stuck, you got their property?

So can you imagine how you would view your neighbors?

Can you imagine the people that wanted to get something from someone else?

How they would bring a false accusation if they could get it to stick with the authorities, they got their property.

Now everybody's a suspect.

Every person around you is after your property.

How did the early church respond?

Oh, I'm sure it wasn't perfect.

In fact, there are many who recanted their faith.

But by and large, the church said, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

This persecution lasted until about 313 AD.

And Emperor, there's a lot more to this, as anytime you study history, you understand, right?

But Emperor Nero is kind of the beginning of this persecution on sort of a global scale.

There was localized persecution before this, but in the sort of but it but even Emperor Nero's persecution was largely around Rome, like the city of Rome, not the whole empire.

Diocletian's on the back end of this.

There was a lot of other persecution in between in those 300 years.

Sometimes it wasn't as bad, sometimes it was better.

Sometimes the church was in season-ish in at least regions during that time.

But Diocletian, he went next level.

Nero's persecution was a sudden localized burst of cruelty, but Diocletian's persecution came because Christianity had grown too large.

The kingdom was coming.

And it was growing.

The church was doing its best work, showing love in the midst of that.

And believing the Roman Empire was crumbling because of people, because people had abandoned the traditional gods.

Diocletian said, Oh, what's going on?

This thing is growing over here.

He didn't forget about the flaws in their system and the power hungry and all the other things that go on.

He looked at the Christians and said, Oh, this is their fault.

Because this kingdom that doesn't fight back is growing.

So we got to do something about it.

So this was a Roman empire-wide persecution.

They've abandoned the traditional gods.

That's why this has happened.

Diocletian's persecution was highly organized.

It was empire-wide.

It was an effort to force the total extinction of Christianity.

Thousands of believers were tortured, mutilated, sent to labor camps, or executed over a span of eight years.

Tertullian said it was the blood of the martyrs that became the seed of the church.

And the church prospered.

Part of what caused the church to grow in this time of martyrdom was the early church's commitment to love everyone always.

This was exhibited in the plague of Cyprian that erupted in Ethiopia.

This was not persecution, but there was a plague that came about in 250 A.D.

It reached Rome the following year and lasted nearly 20 years.

It was like COVID on steroids.

It was not persecution, but it showed the posture of the church this season of persecution.

Its name actually refers to Cyprian, a bishop, excuse me, a bishop of Carthage, a Christian.

He documented the plague, so he's the one that wrote it down.

He's the one that gives us the history of it.

Kind of like the Spanish flu, you know, that's not what, but it they're the ones that got labeled with it.

Cyprian got labeled with this.

He was the one who told us about it.

Now, I'm gonna explain, I'm gonna explain the symptoms of it.

Hang with me, lunch is gonna come later.

This gets it's all right.

You need to understand what was going on.

Cyprian noted that sufferers experienced bouts of diarrhea, continuous vomiting, fever, deafness, blindness, paralysis of their legs and feet, swollen throats, and blood filled their eyes while staining their mouths.

The height of the outbreak, 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome.

And it was Christians.

These ones who are persecuted, who couldn't trust their neighbors, who might be coming after their property.

It was Christians who played an active role in caring for the ill and providing burial for the dead.

Listen to what Cyprian said.

There is hope in eternal life.

So, Christians, bring yourselves to the sick and poor and help them.

God said, Love thy neighbor as I have loved you.

Cyprian was saying.

In the midst of this horrible plague, seek the common good.

Stand arm in arm with people who are going to stand with you.

I'm sure there were others besides Christians who came alongside and he said, Seek the common good.

Don't ask what they believe.

Don't tell them they have to trust Jesus before you'll bear their wounds.

This pattern repeated itself in history in a tough season as the church exhibits behavior aligned with the kingdom of God, namely loving the smoldering wicks and the wicks regain, the wicks regain their light and the church thrives.

Ironically, not long after the persecution of Diocletian, the church gains political power under Constantine and loses its kingdom influence.

Read history.

That's great.

It's in scripture, it's in history.

But what does this look like in this cultural moment?

Let's be clear, let's be abundantly clear.

Christians in the West are in no way enduring persecution on the level of those under Nero or Diocletian, but we have entered a time in which the gospel is out of season.

And as we experience this shift, many of us are tempted to push back, to draw back, or to isolate ourselves.

And we need to be reminded again that our posture in this moment is to love everyone always.

Paul said it in the most famous passage on love that is known beyond the church, spoken often at weddings, but I want you to hear it again.

1 Corinthians 13, just a few of those verses say love is patient, love is kind, does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud, does not dishonor others by wearing crazy t-shirts.

I'm sorry.

It's not self-seeking, like carp t seeking popcorn.

It is not easy lingered, keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

That's a key phrase I'm gonna come back to in a moment.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This is not cheap love, friends.

This is not love that excuses sin.

This is not love that delights in evil.

It's like if you think my call today is love everybody and abandon truth, that's not it at all.

That little phrase, love does not delight in evil, reminds us that, but it doesn't mean we're the ones that solve someone else's evil problem.

Our call is to love everyone always and let Jesus transform lives like he's transformed ours.

So rather than throwing our energy into cultural wars that contain an implicit disregard for the common good, why not throw our energy into standing shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors in active pursuit of the common good by loving everyone always as our motivation.

Hang with me.

I'm gonna give you some practical advice on how to do this.

Romans 12, 18 has always been a verse that I've been intrigued by.

It simply says this if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

I love the phrase, as far as it depends on you.

You ever try to love your neighbor and they don't seem to want to be loved?

So, what does that mean?

How do we parse out as far as it depends on you?

Loving without compromise.

Let me just give you three ideas.

These are not practical steps you do, these are postures to take.

All right?

If you hear me preach, you know this first one I use a lot.

Actually, I use all three of these points a lot.

Remember the gospel.

Remember the gospel.

Remember the gospel says.

You know what the gospel says?

The good news of Jesus?

First of all, the gospel is Jesus.

But as we parse that out in our own life, here's what the gospel teaches.

You're more broken than you ever want to admit.

You're more loved than you could ever imagine.

And you're being transformed in ways you never thought possible.

That's the gospel.

So as you do this hard work, you're not doing it in your own strength, you're not doing it because you're better.

You've been rescued by that love that you are now sharing.

So this has to be a gospel-centric work, right?

Or it becomes just work.

Repent.

I'm becoming more and more in love with the word repent as I get older.

I've shared this so many times.

I I think I have a little bit of a new thing on it.

Here's what repentance means.

You turn from something to someone.

So that you can turn back to something with something different.

Repent.

When you start acting like a goldfish filled with popcorn, repent.

There's no shame and condemnation.

There's no condemnation.

It's simply saying, I don't help me so that I can turn back to this situation different.

And the last thing is bless your neighborhood.

Bless your neighborhood.

Take a step.

The gospel motivates us.

Repentance sort of keeps us going, keeps us in the game, keeps our hearts clear.

But what do you do?

So I had some other points here, but I was noticing the resources that our staff has put out that honestly I hadn't looked at yet out here in the lobby.

Y'all should go look at a little table out there, some good stuff.

And I found this sheet that simply says acts of neighborliness.

Neighborhoodliness.

Neighborliness.

I hadn't read it.

I told you, I hadn't read it.

It's a whole list of things you can do.

Here's what I figured out.

This series is convicted me deeply.

I figured out I don't know my neighbors like I should.

I figured out if I wouldn't knock on their door and say, let's seek the good of our neighborhood, they were like, Who are you?

They would know who I am.

But like, why are you here?

You who drive into your, you know, open up the garage door, go in, close the garage door, mow your lawn.

I'm a better neighbor than that, but you understand, right?

So I drew a little chart of all the houses I can see from my back porch this way and my front porch that way.

Wrote all their names, have a little chart.

Every day I'm praying for them.

I think I can start there.

Then I'm asking God, what's next?

Friends, don't be a goldfish stuffed with popcorn.

Don't be a goldfish stuffed with popcorn.

Seek the common good of your neighborhood as far as it depends on you.

How?

Remember who the gospel says you are.

Turn from the goldfish stuffed with popcorn lifestyle and towards Jesus' kingdom so that you can bless your neighborhood in any way he calls you to.

Because our ultimate motivation is to live and share the good news of Jesus.

And that sounds inspiring and spiritual as this upside down kind of kingdom exists.

But here's the question I want to leave you with that we'll pick up next week.

Does it actually work?

Does it actually work?

Can it really overcome evil?

Can this kind of love actually make a difference?

Stay tuned to be continued.

Lord, thank you for your love that loved us always everywhere.

And may we be together as we seek the common good ultimately motivated with no ulterior motives to love everyone always.

And then show us what that looks like as we lean into the gospel, turn towards you, and figure out our next step in Jesus' name.

Amen.