Love Where You Live - Week 6: September 27, 2026

Nate, lead pastor here, so glad you're with us.

And in the last uh couple of weeks, we've had a big event happen at the Rubenstein House.

And so I want to show you a picture of my newest grandbaby.

Yeah.

So that's Emma with her little sister Elsie.

And uh I really am gonna tie this to this sermon, but I had to figure away how to put it up there either way, right?

So uh so I have uh you know three daughters, and there's always been the question of how many grandkids would we end up with, and so you know, we had four, and I said, is that the final four?

And no, it wasn't the final four, and I thought, well, maybe we'll get to the elite eight.

I was trying to come up with a little thing to name my kids, and my daughters, because they love me so much, we think at this point we're probably done with six.

And that may not be a significant number to you, but my daughters love me so much that they coordinated this for their whole lives revolved around six because there are six teams in each league of baseball that make the playoffs.

My daughters knew my love of baseball, and they went to Final Four, the Elite Eight.

We're going with six, the super six.

All right.

I'm sure they had nothing of that on their mind at all when they were, I was gonna say when they were, when they had their children.

Sorry.

So here's what I know about the hospital that my daughter birthed her child in.

I was so glad that there were so many people who were seeking the common good of bringing my sixth granddaughter or grandchild into the world.

Think about that.

Uh when I walked through the halls, it dawned on me a fresh and anew how many people, from the people that built the building to the people who cleaned the building, to the people to the doctors, the nurses, the support staff, right?

All the people that worked together for the common good of bringing me my sixth grandchild.

Now, if my granddaughter had been born in a different place in a different time, that's still true.

Whether it's the family network or the neighborhood or the community, the birth of my daughter, my granddaughter, was not an isolated event.

There was a group of people who sought the common good.

And I know a lot of people in this system, this hospital system, most likely have very broken lives.

And I know, and I don't think this is a controversial take, that the healthcare system is broken.

I hear that from all kinds of angles.

It's full of good people, but the system seems to be broken.

And I'm pretty sure that everyone who sought the common good of bringing Elsie Jane Groves into the world does not have the same worldview I do.

I'm pretty sure of that.

And the cynics among us would think, oh, you're you're giving people way too much credit.

They weren't seeking the common good, they were simply doing their job.

They were chasing a paycheck.

Maybe.

I understand that perspective.

But I believe, and we've been saying in this series, that there's something hardwired in humanity that desires to make the world a better place, to seek the common good.

And I believe that's because we're created in the image of God.

And and and that being created in the image of God is this desire to make the world a better place.

And when we unite around the common good, despite the brokenness of families and systems and people, we begin to see glimpses of the kingdom of Jesus.

And it causes us to ache for more of God's kingdom fulfillment.

I think when we see the common good resulting in good, there's something in us that says, yay.

And we don't care a whole lot about how we got there.

I know I celebrated when the hospital collectively brought my granddaughter into this world.

It's a hopeful approach to life that we've been talking about in this series.

And I know some of you are thinking about, yeah, but things are messed up.

We'll get to that.

Let's just stay hopeful for a moment.

And just and just ponder the idea that hardwired into every human, regardless of how flawed that's become, there's this God-given desire to make their world a better place.

You see, as Christ followers, our origin story is anchored in this idea that humans were designed to tend to the Garden of Eden.

We talk a lot about this in this series, and we did another series at the beginning of the year, we talked a whole lot about this.

But if we go back to Genesis 1.28, we'll see.

Then God said, God blessed him, Adam and Eve, and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it.

Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

There's this mandate, this global mandate, and the scope of this global mandate implies that humanity will need to work together to do this.

It was just Adam and Eve then, but the mandate was given in community and to this idea of tending to the garden.

And what that meant in that context is certainly different than what it means today, because the garden has changed and sin has messed things up, but that that God-given desire to tend the garden, to take care of our place, is given because we're created in the image of God.

And even though sin has deeply distorted and damaged this work, this is the work that humanity, I believe, was designed for.

So no matter where I live, no matter who surrounds me, I'm surrounded by people who are called to pursue the common good, whether they know it or not, and regardless of how a good job they're doing or how much they're failing, they were given that same mandate to pursue the common good.

And in this series, what we've been saying as we wrap it up today is that Christ's followers are uniquely wired and enabled through the work of Jesus to seek the common good.

We're not unique in that God-given piece, but we're uniquely wired because of Jesus to pursue the common good.

And when we do it right, we do this with no ulterior motive that I'll seek your common good as long as I get to, you know, do something, you do something for me or you come to church with me, or whatever.

We don't do it with any ulterior motive.

There's no manipulation, but there's also the ultimate motive.

It's not ulterior, but it's ultimate, of living out and sharing the gospel.

We talked about this last week, word and deed, right?

Of living this out.

Like our ultimate motive in living into the God-given calling of pursuing the common good is because Jesus has transformed and is transforming us.

And we want to live that, and then when we have opportunities, we want to share that.

We don't, we're not ashamed that we are Christ followers, but it's not our ulterior motive to manipulate people, but it's our ultimate desire.

And by the way, when we struggle sometimes to share the gospel, maybe we should focus on living the gospel, right?

Living as Christ's followers whose lives are being transformed.

And I think if we live the gospel, yeah, it will take some courage and there'll be some moments where we have to step out of our comfort zone, but then sharing the gospel becomes a smaller step than living a certain way and just telling people about Jesus, right?

So last week we delved into this idea that this pursuit is not only good for the common good, but it's a way to glorify God.

This is what we were designed for.

When we shine forth the light of Jesus, we are glorifying God.

So today I want to look one more time through the scriptures.

We're gonna we're gonna do what we've been doing.

We're gonna end up in first Peter.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we've been in 1 Peter and 2 Peter the whole time at the end.

It's kind of a really this series is a little bit of a way of giving us an understanding of 1 and 2 Peter.

But we're gonna we're gonna do this again.

We're gonna look at some biblical perspective on this idea of the common good mandate.

Like the the the mandate that every human has, whether they know it or not, to seek the common good.

And what the first thing we notice is that when God sought, God asked humanity to seek the common good, he didn't ask them to do it alone.

This task of blessing the whole earth through Abraham, he he he tasked the blessing of the whole earth, first of all, to Abraham.

He called him.

And what did he say to Abraham?

I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna make a nation out of you.

Why?

To bless the world.

And we know as Christians that that greatest blessing came through Jesus, but this call was to do it collectively.

So God formed a nation through Abraham, and eventually through Jesus, he built a church for this very purpose that we are here as a church to pursue the common good.

This great global mission of humans that was laid out in the garden but compromised by the fall became very clear and explicit in Jesus.

So if there was any question about whether or not we as Christ followers should be pursuing the common good, Jesus clarified and answered that question.

Because when Jesus came, he declared that he had come what?

To bring the kingdom of God near.

He announced the inauguration of the kingdom of God.

We could look to Luke chapter 4, but today I want to look at Mark chapter 1.

Luke 4 · chapter mention Mark 1 · chapter mention

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.

The good news of God.

And the good news of God was that the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

So Jesus came saying, I've got good news.

The kingdom of God is here.

And where the kingdom of God is, things change and things are different, and it's an upside-down kingdom, and the good is sought.

Paul, moving this narrative through the scriptures, we saw it in the Old Testament in Abraham, and we see it in Jesus.

And Paul understood it would require a coordinated effort of God's people moving together.

That if we're going to do this, we have to act like a body.

And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul writes, Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit that distribute that distributes them.

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in every one, it is the same God at work.

Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

If you grew up in the church, you you probably had classes or heard sermons or talk about spiritual gifts and which gifts are still available, which gifts are operating, and all that.

And we talk about spiritual gifts, but I think sometimes we miss the purpose of the spiritual gifts.

What is Paul saying here?

Giving you all these gifts collectively, not individually, but collectively, you can pursue the common good.

And I don't think he meant just when you're at church.

Pursue the common good with just uh the people that are on the same page with you.

I think what Paul was saying was certainly it has that application.

Of course, it has application.

In fact, Paul talks a lot about that application in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14.

But I think he's saying live into the mandate for which you were created through the power of the kingdom which Jesus made available to you.

And the kingdom comes to us through the Spirit so that we can pursue the common good.

Peter, again, we're getting back to Peter, reminded early Christians of this living hope to which they were called.

And he beckoned them to rejoice in their coming inheritance.

He says, Listen, live as people of hope.

And think about the fact that there's an inheritance coming for you.

Live in that hope.

This is why I think this is a hopeful life.

I think Christians should be marked by hope.

Hope does not hear me.

Hope does not deny the brokenness of the systems and the people and of ourselves.

It does not say everything's okay.

It does not look the other way.

It does not ignore justice.

It does not ignore sin in themselves, in the community, and in the church.

But what it says is that's not the final answer.

Listen to what Peter says in verse 1, uh chapter 1 of verse 3 of his book.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of that salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Don't you love that phrase?

And all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Paul's saying, listen, even when you're suffering, have hope.

Even when life around you is falling apart, have hope.

You are a living hope.

You have a living hope.

You are shielded.

You don't have to operate under the same operating principle of the world around you.

It's your ultimate purpose to live out the gospel.

And that means seeking the common good.

This is the living hope that carries us into our work for the common good.

We're not asking you, as Kinect Church people, to seek the common good because it's socially acceptable or it's popular or you should do it if you're a good person.

We're saying let it flow from who Christ is in you.

Again, we recognize the brokenness around us and in us.

But we also know that sin is not the final answer.

And that deeper redemption is possible in us, but is not contained in us.

Our faith is a hopeful faith that our neighborhoods can be better as we get better, that our schools can be better, that our churches can be better.

I don't know how that's all gonna play out, but I'm gonna trust the gospel that we are the living hope.

We believe redemption deeply transforms us and draws us into good works to seek the common good of our communities as a testimony in our belief that someday all things will be made right.

Everything you do now out of a hopeful belief in the kingdom is verified someday when everything is made right.

That's what draws us forward.

Sometimes when I talk about hope, I talk about uh Rick Warren used this illustration years ago.

I think it's so beautiful that hope is like the windshield of a car.

Right?

That that's that's what's out there.

We see this beautiful expanse ahead of us.

We have a rearview mirror that reminds us of where we came from.

But hope is ahead of us, and sometimes we have that reversed in our lives.

We're stuck by the brokenness around the the windshield, the rearview mirror is like the whole car, and then we just kind of look around to try to find some hope.

And Warren reminds us that this hope, this living hope, pulls us forward.

In our responsive reading at the beginning of the service from 1 Peter 2, the apostle Peter paints a striking picture.

Each Christian is like a living stone being together, brought together by a God to form this spiritual house.

And as a living stone, Peter reminds us that we are chosen.

Listen to what he says in chapter 2, verse 9.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life.

That's that's what we're talking about, declaring his praises.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As God's special possession, we are chosen by him to live into the calling that every human has, but we do it as God's special possession, chosen by grace to seek the common good with an uncommon unity and an uncommon humility.

This is what we're called to.

First Peter 3.

He goes on, finally, all of you 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.

This is the posture of those who Christ is redeeming as we do this work that humanity is called to.

Hopefully, humble, cheerful, knowing who we are in Christ.

I guess what I'm saying this morning, our common calling as humans doesn't end with our specific call, as calling as Christians.

We're still called to this common good, but as Christians, we do it differently.

As those redeemed by Jesus, we are uniquely empowered to pursue our common calling of tending the garden or seeking the common good, and that is an attractive presentation of the good news.

Whereas Paul says in Acts 13, quoting from Isaiah 49, 6, we are a light that brings salvation.

Listen to what Paul says.

For this is what the Lord God has commanded us.

I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

The gospel flourished in the early days because of the hopeful lives of Christians.

And we talked about this earlier in the series who were out rescuing the babies that were left to die on the side of the road and healing the disease and bringing in those who are diseased and broken, seeking the common good with an uncommon power through Jesus.

The salvation that Jesus offers surely refers to individual transformation.

We take nothing away from that.

We talk a lot about that.

That matters.

If Christ is not your Savior, I invite you to surrender your life to Jesus and let him transform you.

Just trust that he is who he says he is and ask him to take you on a journey that will change your life forever.

But don't let that transform life stop with you.

Understand that you have been called as redeemed children of God to work together with others to seek the common good, which makes this earth a little more like heaven and has a leavening effect on those that we work alongside in this pursuit of the common good.

See, this is what I believe.

I believe that as we as Christians live out this faith in real life, not only will we be making our neighborhoods better and our schools better and our churches better and our world better, but we'll be common, we'll be we'll be doing this work together with people who will start wondering why we're doing this work and why we're doing it so humbly and consistently.

And we'll have those moments where we can share the reason for our hope.

I want to tell you the story of Orange Scott.

I heard that he had a sister named Violet and another named Clementine.

Man, I know I've been serious for a while, but that was funnier than you guys are making it.

I should have got a little more for that.

Either that or his parents were fans of Netherlands soccer team.

I don't know, but his name was Orange Scott.

But to understand Orange Scott, we have to back up to John Wesley.

And John Wesley's last recorded letter, written in 1791, two days before he died, he wrote William Wilberforce, who, if you know history, was the uh politician who pushed really hard and finally was succeeded in ending slavery.

And when he wrote William Wilberforce, he called slavery that exorable villainy, which is a scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature.

And in the letter he wrote to Wilberforce, this is what he said.

Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils.

But if God be for you, who can be against you?

Go on in the name of God and the power of his might till even American slavery, the vilest that the earth, that the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it.

Wesley died two days later.

This is the last known correspondence that he wrote.

And by the time Wesley wrote this letter, Methodism had grown in England and had jumped upon and was now here in America.

It came to America and became known as a Methodist Episcopal Church.

And shaped by Wesley's legacy, the Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated anti-slavery sentiments into its earliest regulations and documents.

In fact, for slaveholders to become a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, slaves had to be freed within a year.

So if you joined the church, you had a year to free all your slaves.

American Methodism had no, was no friend of slavery until it was.

Push back to this strong anti slavery.

Position of the Methodist Church happened almost immediately, especially in the South.

The concern was we're not big enough as a denomination to take this controversial stand.

People will leave.

Yes, slavery's wrong, but let's just be patient here.

If too many people leave, our movement will die.

And so in 1804, not long after the Methodist Episcopal Church was established, there were two rule books for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

They're called disciplines.

They still are to this day, which is a weird name.

But two rule books, by laws, were published, a standard one for most of the church, but one for slave states with anti-slavery sentiments deleted.

Abhorrence of slavery was on the books.

Accommodation of slavery was the operating policy.

In 1785, the Episcopal Church decided, oh, I already mentioned that, that they were too small to take this risk over the split over slavery.

But by 1830, so 1804 is when these two documents came out, by 1830, they thought we're too big now.

We're too big.

Too small, too big.

In the meantime, the abolitionist movement was growing.

A key figure was William Lloyd Garrison.

He was not a Methodist.

In fact, he held a lot of beliefs quite different from Methodist theology.

But he was wired, created in the image of God to seek the common good.

And became a strong advocate for abolition, for the abolition of slavery.

William Lloyd Garrison, well-known historian, figure in history, one less known is one Orange Scott.

And here's a picture of dear Mr.

Scott.

Scott was a rising star in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

He had a deep and real conversion at a camp meeting.

He felt a call to preach and saw much fruit.

He cared deeply about the call that Jesus issued to make disciples.

Many fully expected him to become a bishop, if not the bishop, of the whole church.

But he abhorred slavery and did not accommodate it.

He was in the north, but he sought the common good of his world by aligning with the abolitionists on the issue of slavery, even as he continued to proclaim the gospel.

For Scott, these two things were not mutually exclusive, but his decision to pursue the common good of eliminating slavery cost him position in the Methodist Church as he spoke out boldly against slavery.

The short version of the story is that at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836, Scott took the floor and spoke out boldly against slavery.

One fellow delegate kindly said of him, I wish to God he were in heaven.

That's a great way to that's so English, right?

I'm sorry.

In a meeting with the bishop after the meeting, in a meeting with the bishop after this conference, Scott was invited to continue as presiding elder that had got him to that seat at the table, only if he refrained from speaking out against slavery.

He refused.

So instead of continuing to rise in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was demoted to a small congregation of 30 people in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he kept making disciples.

He was passionate about the gospel.

He believed everybody needed Jesus.

He believed their eternity was lost without Jesus.

He did not compromise the gospel for one second, and that church grew to 120 people in a very short amount of time.

But in 1837, just one year after being appointed to Lowell, demoted to this small congregation, Scott left the ministry.

No longer was a pastor, and for two years joined the abolitionist movement.

Not as a pastor, but as a person.

He joined with William Lloyd Garrison and others.

He left his calling.

And remember, Garrison and Scott would not agree on a lot of theological things.

But he saw a cause.

He saw the common good.

He wanted to fight slavery because that was what was needed.

And this came at considerable cost to his health and threats to his life.

Two years later, Scott returned to his pulpit in Lowell.

And in 1839, he was elected again to go to the 1840 conference.

The first time he stood up was 1836, 1840, he goes back to this conference.

He's back now in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

He stands again and attempts to move the Methodist Church toward an abolitionist position and was again rebuffed.

So in 1843, along with Leroy Sutherland, Jotham Horton, and within a few weeks, Luther Lee and Lucius Matlock, he announced that they were leaving the Methodist Episcopal Church.

And eventually these men, along with others, formed what is now the Wesleyan Church, the church that you are a part of, or at least here at this building.

But here's what I want you to hear.

All of them continued committed to the common good of seeking the end of slavery, even as they continued their passionate desire to invite individuals into life of being a disciple of Jesus.

They're not friends mutually exclusive.

But can I say this?

Both of them might cost you something.

Seeking the common good is not separate from the gospel, it is the full expression of the gospel.

As we wrap this series up, I just want to remind us that as we come alongside our neighbors in pursuing the common good, we are fulfilling the creation mandate.

We are living out the gospel in real ways.

We are creating opportunities for conversations about Jesus with our neighbors.

We are glorifying God and doing hopeful work that points to the full expression of the kingdom of Jesus when he fully returns to establish his kingdom.

So would you join me in pursuing the common good as those who have been saved by a good Savior?

And guess what?

Tomorrow, I don't know if this was planned by the people who put the series together, which by the way wasn't me.

But tomorrow is National Good Neighbor Day.

Isn't that beautiful?

Isn't that an opportunity?

I don't know what that means for you in your neighborhood.

I've been thinking and praying a lot about it in my neighborhood.

I won't go into a little thing that happened last night actually when we went out to eat, but it's like God keeps reminding me.

So if you're so inclined as you leave today, in the little uh board across from the welcome center, there is a little some resources like and things you can do on Good Neighbor Day.

Maybe you don't need these, maybe you're a great neighbor, I don't know.

But maybe tomorrow is an opportunity for us to just do something to seek the common good in our neighborhood.

Why don't you stand with the worship team?

We're gonna worship.