Romans 1:16 | Rev. Kimberly Wright Ragins

Good morning.

Good morning, Real Church.

First, let me just say that it is an honor and a privilege to be with you today for your 10th-year anniversary.

Woohoo! This has been 10 years of building a beautiful community, 10 years of learning how to love one another, 10 years of believing that the church of Jesus Christ can be something different from what we have seen everywhere else, something different than what the world taught us that church was.

And 10 years of showing up day after day and doing the hard work of church building and community building.

And before I preach a word of challenge to you this morning, I want to begin by saying something that I hope you receive in your spirit, and that is that I celebrate you.

Pastor, I celebrate you.

I celebrate you and your leaders.

I celebrate those of you who caught this vision 10 years ago and those who have come along since then.

I celebrate those of you who have prayed, served, sacrificed, given, forgiven, and stayed committed when the work became difficult.

I celebrate the families who have made this church a spiritual home for themselves and their children.

And I celebrate the friendships that have developed across racial, cultural, and economic boundaries.

I celebrate those who have been willing to examine their own hearts and confront their assumptions and admit that there is still some growing up for all of us to do and decided that we would just come in here and do it together.

You could have chosen an easier way.

You could have built a church where everybody looked alike.

You could have built a church where everyone agreed on what worship should be like.

Could have built a church where people voted the same, came from similar economic backgrounds.

You could have built a church where nobody had to explain their experiences to one another, where nobody had to confront their own biases, and where nobody had to reconsider what they had been taught at home or in their communities.

You could have built a church, a church where everyone was just comfortable, but instead you chose something different.

You chose to believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to bring together people whom society has spent generations trying to separate.

You chose to believe that a church should not simply reflect the divisions of the world, but instead offer the world an alternative to that.

I'm grateful because I know that it takes courage to build a church such as this.

You chose to believe that people from different races and cultures and economic circumstances and life experiences could become one family in Christ.

And that takes courage.

It takes courage to build a multi-ethnic church.

It takes courage to build a multi-class church.

And it takes courage to confront the racism, the classism, and the injustice that we have to deal with as we grow in Christ together.

It takes courage to examine the prejudices that we have all been taught.

And it takes courage to admit that even when we have experienced prejudice, that we have internalized some of these own attitudes ourselves, it takes courage for us to say that maybe I was wrong.

It takes courage to say, help me to understand better.

It takes courage to listen to one another and to speak honestly to one another.

And it takes courage to stay at the table when conversations become uncomfortable.

But that is what you all have been doing.

Day by day, week by week, month by month, and year after year.

And for 10 years, you have been attempting to become a church that doesn't just talk about reconciliation, but you practice reconciliation in your relationships and in your building.

And in a world where division has become profitable, where hatred has become mere entertainment, and where prejudice has passed from generation to generation to generation to generation, you have chosen to become conscientious objectors to racism and classism and to injustice.

And I want to tell you that I know you have not done it perfectly, but God is pleased.

You have said that we will not simply go along to get along doing what the world has normalized, but you have said instead that we believe that there is another way.

And that brings me to the text of the day.

In Romans 1:16, it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

Romans 1:16

First to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

And in other translations, how it reads is it says, To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

And so those two words have captured my heart.

And also, the gospel is always making room for somebody else.

The gospel is always reaching beyond what is familiar to us, and the gospel is always crossing boundaries.

The gospel is always reminding us that the love of God is bigger than the limits that we try to place on it.

So today I want to preach from this thought.

And also the courage to become the church that God has envisioned.

The gospel is definitely bigger than all of the boundaries that we have learned or that we have lived in, or that we have even possibly created.

For the Bible says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

To understand the significance of these words, we need to remember that Paul lived in a world that was deeply divided by ethnicity.

It was divided by citizenship.

It was divided like ours by wealth, and it was divided by social status.

And so there were citizens and non-citizens.

There were free people and there were enslaved people.

There were wealthy people and there were poor people.

And even within the early church, one of the greatest challenges was this learning of how Jews and Gentiles could become the same people having the same faith.

They had different histories, different traditions, they had different religious practices.

And the question was whether Gentiles could fully become and belong without first becoming culturally Jewish.

Do we have to be like the most of us in order to be part of?

Paul's answer was revolutionary.

Could we be different and be together?

Paul says yes.

The gospel had come through Israel, but God's saving purpose extended it to all nations.

God had promised Abraham that all the people on earth would be blessed through him.

And now through Jesus Christ, that promise had been fulfilled.

And so Paul is declaring that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, but also, but also, but also none being forgotten about, but also to the Greek.

The gospel has roots, but it also has reach.

It has a history, but it also has a new horizon.

The gospel, it came through a particular people, but it was always intended to be for all nations.

And real church, for 10 years, you have been attempting to live out the implications of the gospel.

You have recognized that the gospel is for everyone who believes.

And so you work on people believing.

And then the church cannot organize its lives around assumptions that only certain people truly belong here.

You have dared to believe that the family of God can include people who are radically different and have radically different stories.

How beautiful is that! People whose ancestors come from different continents, people whose families have experienced different histories, people who have known privilege and people who have experienced discrimination, people who have abundant opportunities, and people who have had very limited ones.

And you have said, come, let us learn how to follow Jesus together.

That is no small thing.

Because our natural tendency is to gather with people who make us comfortable.

Our natural tendency is to find people who understand our culture.

Our natural tendency is to lean toward the familiar, people who share our experiences and people who see the world the same way we do.

But the gospel interrupts tendency.

The family of God is not built on our similarities, it is built on our shared relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is the thread that knits us all together.

So you don't have to erase your culture in order to belong.

And you don't have to deny what your history has been in order to belong.

And you don't have to pretend that your experiences don't matter.

But you do have to surrender anything that keeps you from loving your brother or your sister because Christ said so.

And after 10 years, I hope that you can look around the sanctuary and recognize something very extraordinary.

Some of the people that you now call your family are people that you might have never known if you did not commit yourselves to this vision.

And I hope that somebody whose experiences have challenged their assumptions has become a trusted friend to you.

I hope that somebody whose culture was once unfamiliar to you has enriched your understanding of worship.

I hope that somebody whose economic circumstances were different has taught you the something about faith and resilience and about generosity.

And now you understand something that you may not have ever understood before 10 years ago.

That we are better together.

Not because we are the same, but because in Christ we are one.

And that's worth celebrating.

That you are part of a church where we are one.

You've refused to make peace with the Jesus Christ that other people say would tear this stuff down.

In Ephesians 2.14, it declares that for himself is our peace, that he himself is our peace.

For who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier to keep dividing this wall of hostility.

I love that verse.

Because Paul doesn't just say that Jesus came to decorate this dividing wall.

He doesn't say that Jesus came to make the wall more attractive for us.

He doesn't say that Jesus came to teach us to live comfortably on either side of the wall that we've been living on.

Instead, it says that Jesus came to tear the wall down.

And if there is no wall, then we are forced to live together.

So in its original context, Paul is speaking about the hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles.

But the truth has profound implications for every division that threatens the unity of the body of Christ today.

Racism is a wall.

Classism is a wall.

Cultural superiority, that is a wall, and prejudice is a wall.

Ignorance is a wall.

And sometimes our own pride becomes a wall.

And Christ came to turn tear it down so that he could be the peace between us.

So I want to celebrate you because you have been willing to confront the walls in your life, not simply the walls in society, but the walls that can exist in your own heart.

I know that as I grow in Christ, I have to tear down the walls in my very own heart.

It is another thing to ask the Lord, where have I allowed racial prejudice to influence my thinking?

It is one thing to condemn classism, but it's another thing to examine how we respond to people based on what they're wearing, where how far they've gone in school, what school they may have gone to, what kind of job they have if they have a job at all, what neighborhood or zip code they even live in.

We are called instead to celebrate this cultural diversity that we find when we come together.

It's another thing to surrender the assumptions that our preferences should always determine how things are done around us.

And this is where the witness of this church becomes so powerful.

Because you have chosen to be satisfied, not to be satisfied, I'm sorry, with just looking diverse.

And you instead you have chosen to pursue a deeper work, the work of becoming reconciled one to another.

And there is a difference.

Diversity is who's in the room.

Reconciliation is how we live together once we get there.

Diversity can be celebrated in a cute little photograph.

But reconciliation can be can only happen when we practice relationships with one another.

Diversity can be achieved by extending an invitation to different kinds of people, but reconciliation only happens when we uh find some humility, some repentance, some forgiveness, and love.

And so you have been willing to do that work.

And not perfectly, I'm sure.

Not without mistakes.

This is a messy kind of work.

And not without disagreements either, but I'm sure you've done it faithfully.

The courage to confront ourselves is a huge part of coming into relationship with Christ.

It's a big part of maturing in the Lord.

It's a big part of how we work out our salvation day by day.

In Psalm 139, 23 and 24, it's it records David's prayer where he asked God, search my heart and lead me in the everlasting way.

I want to tell you, much like the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, thy will not mine be done.

This is a dangerous prayer.

When you go before God and say, Search my heart and lead me in the everlasting way, you don't know what you're asking for.

Because when you ask God to search your heart, he may show you something that you didn't even know was there.

He may reveal your pride to you.

He may reveal your racism to you.

He may reveal the fear that you have inside of you.

He may reveal assumptions that you have inherited and you've never ever questioned before.

He may reveal your internalized racism, the painful, painful process of absorbing negative messages about our own identity.

We walk around with that every day.

And when God reveals those things to us, he's not simply trying to condemn us.

Instead, he is inviting us to become free from those things.

He's inviting us to find liberty in him.

He is inviting us to be free, free from prejudice, free from fear, free from stereotypes, free, free, free, so that instead we can exchange those things and be free to love as Jesus Christ loved.

And that is why we celebrate the courage that you all have had.

Because you have been willing to let God change you.

You have done work that is transformative.

So every time you choose understanding over judgment, you are practicing living out this gospel.

Every time you take the time to listen to someone with an open mind instead of a closed heart, you are practicing the gospel.

And every time you choose humility over pride, you are practicing the gospel.

And every time you challenge the injustice that you see, whether it affects you or not, you are bearing witness to the gospel.

And so, real church, God honors your faithfulness.

And that's why you are such the blessed church.

That is why when I came in here this morning, I was literally in tears.

Because I know that the faithfulness that you all have had in relationship is what God is blessing.

The faithfulness that you all have shown in the sacrifice of change is what God is blessing here.

And so while you do what is possible, difficult but possible, you make space for God to do the impossible in this church and also in your lives.

Now, one of these the things that makes your vision especially significant is that you are simply not trying to just become a multi-ethnic church.

That would be pretty simple.

We see those popping up everywhere.

But instead, you are committing yourselves to becoming a multi-class church.

I think that might be an even more difficult challenge.

And I want to suggest that that this takes a different kind of courage to live this out.

Because sometimes it's easier to worship with someone of a different race than to build genuine community with someone whose economic circumstances are radically different than your own.

But economic diversity challenges how we understand success, it challenges how we see our own security, it challenges our thoughts of generosity and our ideas about privilege.

Imagine two families sitting beside one another at church.

One family is deciding which private school they are going to send their child to so that their child has the very best opportunities.

And this family sitting right next to them is wondering how they will afford school supplies.

One family is discussing investments and retirement, and the other family is trying to figure out how to put food on the table tonight.

One family is planning a vacation, and the other is wondering where they can afford and when and where they're going to take another day off and have just a little moment of relief.

And yet on Sunday morning, you all sit next to each other.

And together you all sing sincerely, great is thy faithfulness.

And here's a beautiful thing that God has been faithful to both families.

But their experiences of life may not look the same.

It's beautiful that they can sit together and not be envious of each other, not resent each other, and not judge each other.

And if the church is going to become a genuine family, then we cannot ignore those differences.

We must learn to love one another in the midst of them.

We have to learn how to be happy for one another.

James challenges the economic favoritism that is shown.

I did this with with the the children yesterday.

In James 2, a wealthy person enters the gathering wearing fine clothes while a poor person enters in shabby clothing.

The wealthy person receives a place of honor, and the poor person uh is treated as less important.

And James confronts the church because they have allowed the world's economic hierarchy to determine how people are valued in God's house.

James says that's not okay.

Church classism is not always so obvious.

Sometimes it sounds like, uh, why don't they just get a better job then?

And sometimes it sounds like, why don't they just manage their money a little bit better?

Sometimes it might sound like, why don't they Just move somewhere else so that they don't live in that neighborhood that's so dangerous without understanding the barriers that people actually face.

Prejudice can be also a work in the other direction.

We can assume that someone who has wealth is selfish or that someone with financial security is never suffering.

We assume that life is so easy for anyone who has who has economic ease.

We don't think that they go through any kind of pain, but there are some things that money cannot buy, and there are some issues that any that people have that money cannot solve.

And so there are these assumptions that we make about each other.

The gospel challenges all of that.

It challenges the wealthy to be generous, it challenges the poor to recognize themselves as people of dignity.

And it challenges the privilege to examine what their responsibility is in church and in society.

And it reminds us that our value is not determined by the things that any of us possess or do not possess.

The early church understood this.

In Acts 2, 44 and 45, it describes believers sharing their possessions and providing for those who had need.

And I love the way the scripture talks about this.

I always say that when all the politicians are talking about what sin is and what's not sin and trying to make the Bible their political agenda, they never ever decide to look at the book of Acts for economics, right?

For course in economics.

They don't say if everyone would sell everything that they have and put it all together and then make distribution according to how everyone had need, there would be no lack among us.

We know that that is true, that there is God has provided, God has provided more than enough, but our greed does not let us divide it equally.

And we'd rather hold on to everything that we have and watch other people suffer than to share what God has blessed us with and to imagine that perhaps God has blessed us to be a blessing.

So this church understood that being one in Christ also had to mean something beyond Sunday worship.

It had to mean something when somebody in the church was hungry on Tuesday.

It needed to mean something when someone lost their job and didn't know how they were going to pay the rent.

It should mean something to somebody who needs shelter, and it should mean something to someone who needs help.

And this is what I celebrate about your vision.

That you have dared to believe that people should not have to belong in the same economic class in order to belong in the same spiritual family.

That's right.

That the business owner and the hourly worker they should work together.

That the homeowner and the renter might be best friends.

That the person with financial resources can share generously without being treated as more important than someone who has less.

And that the person with fewer resources can contribute wisdom and faith and leadership and gifts and creativity without being treated as less valuable than someone who puts more money in the pot.

Because in the body of Christ, everybody has something to contribute.

And so everybody has gifts and everyone has value and everyone has a place.

And so everybody should have to purchase, should not have to purchase their dignity.

Real church, I celebrate you for daring to pursue that kind of church family.

This is something in your anniversary invitation that deeply moved me.

I love how it was written.

It said that the gospel refuses to stay inside the walls of the church, that it moves toward people and it moves into neighborhood.

It moves toward the poor and the overlooked and it becomes flesh that dwells among the people.

It becomes flesh.

Flesh.

Something you can see and hold and touch and taste.

It becomes flesh and it is among the people.

So, church, that is not simply a beautiful statement.

That is biblical understanding of mission, of what your mission is.

John 1.14 tells us that the word became flesh and it dwelt among them.

So God did not love humanity from a distance.

Instead, God came near.

I don't know what you're going through today, but I want you to know that we serve a God that when we're going through stuff, this God will come near.

He walked our streets, he entered our world, he entered the ordinary homes of people.

He sat at tables with people that society rejected.

He touched people that other people would not touch.

He accepted the rejected and he spoke to people who others would not speak to.

And he loved people that other people decided already were unworthy.

Think about the woman at the well.

In John 4, this Samaritan woman, Jesus goes out of his way to get to her.

It was a divine appointment that she had that day.

Jesus was Jewish and their communities had a long history of hostility.

There were plenty of reasons for Jew, for Jesus to avoid any kind of conversation with her, but Jesus stopped.

Yesterday I preached about this, and I preached about how Jesus will stop along the way.

He loves to stop along the way.

You are never so insignificant that God is too busy to stop and deal with whatever you are going through.

So Jesus stops when he's on his way and he speaks to her.

And that is what you get when you come here: an encounter with Jesus Christ.

A woman who came to draw water became a witness for her entire community.

And so isn't that just like Jesus?

He sees people that other people overlooked and he engages people that other people avoided and he restores dignity to people that other people have dismissed.

And church, this is what makes the mission so, so important.

Because there are people in your community who may never walk through the doors of this church unless somebody walks toward them.

I pray that you are people who walk toward the other.

Some people won't walk in the church because they've been wounded by religion.

There are a lot of people walking around with church hurt.

Some people have felt excluded from churches for a host of reasons.

Some people are just struggling with poverty and just trying to figure out how to get the next thing done and the next need met.

Some people are struggling and dealing with addiction.

Some are carrying grief that is so heavy they don't feel like they can even pull the covers off their head and get out to bed in the morning.

Some people are financially comfortable but spiritually bankrupt, and they don't think they need church either.

And so the gospel is still calling the church to move toward people.

And I love this church because every time I talk to, run into, see my brother, he is always telling me what he is doing to move toward the people.

That beautiful playground out there is about moving toward the people.

The preschool that you all have is about moving toward the people, letting other community members come in here and work alongside the church so that when people are coming to see them, they recognize that there is a church here.

Opening the doors to the community is moving toward the people.

And so the Bible says, and also, the gospel is for people who are already uh who are already here, but it is also for people who have not yet arrived.

Figure out how to get them the gospel.

The gospel is for those who know how to navigate church culture, and also for those who have never felt comfortable at church.

The gospel is for those whose lives have appeared to be all together all the time, and also for those who feel like their life is absolutely falling apart.

And that is the mission of Jesus.

In Luke 4, 18 and 19, Jesus announces the good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoner, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberation to the oppressed.

And Jesus declares that his ministry is concerned with the whole person.

So that if you follow Jesus, if we follow Jesus, we cannot separate our proclamation of the gospel from the demonstration of his love.

We have got to put some feet on this thing.

We cannot preach good news to the poor while treating poor people like they are a problem and a burden.

We cannot preach reconciliation while ignoring the hostility that exists between us.

And we cannot preach love while remaining indifferent to injustice.

Your problem is my problem.

And so we cannot claim to love our neighbors while we remain disconnected from their lives.

The church cannot solve every problem, but we can refuse to become indifferent to one another.

The very least we can do is move alongside people and pray together.

Love people, ask how we can help, show up for one another and keep being together in fellowship.

We can refuse to allow the walls of the church to become the boundaries of our compassion.

And real church, I celebrate you because your vision recognizes that church does not exist simply for itself.

Church doesn't exist to serve itself.

Too many churches just serve themselves.

They're like little country clubs, like little little membership spots.

So you want to be able to transform your community beyond the walls of the church with the love of Jesus Christ.

And so a church that doesn't simply gather, but a church that goes.

A church that doesn't simply worship, but a church that is a witness.

A church that doesn't simply talk about love, but instead one that is a demonstration of God's deep and abiding love.

And so in Revelation 7.9, I did this with the babies yesterday.

I hope they bring the stuff home that they did.

I had every family sit together and draw the picture of Revelation 7.9.

Describe the great multitude from every nation, every tribe, every people, every language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

And I tell you, the little posters that they made were so beautiful.

There are different nations, different cultures, different languages, different histories, but one Savior, one throne, and one lamp.

There is one song of salvation, and we should sing it together.

And I believe that this real church has been attempting to demonstrate that for the last 10 years.

And you should celebrate that together.

You're trying to give the world a preview of the coming kingdom.

Now I know that you're not heaven, that this is not quite heaven here.

I know that you have disagreements.

I'm sure some of you probably think worship is too loud or I don't like those songs, or somebody thinks the service is too long, somebody thinks pastor preached too long, somebody thinks that they want traditional worship while someone else wants contemporary worship.

This is not an easy thing to do.

Somebody probably has strong opinions about what y'all should serve when you have church meals.

I love what one of the brothers said to me yesterday as I proposed all the things that challenge a multi-ethnic and multi-class church.

One of the brothers said, Well, at our church, we just have a lot of potluck.

People bring what they like.

I love that.

That solves a big, a big uh cultural and ethnic problem.

That a simple thing and a simple way to solve what could feel like a big problem.

Because unity doesn't mean that everybody agrees.

Unity means that that you have decided that your commitment to Jesus Christ and to one another and to the greater good and the bigger mission is more important than your little differences.

It means that you have been conscious and conscientious about deciding that you will keep showing up even when it doesn't feel like a perfect fit, even when you don't feel like your way was considered, that you understand that there's something more important than you getting your way and being comfortable week after week.

So in John 17, Jesus prayed that his followers would be one so that the world would believe that the Father sent him.

I think about this when I look at other religions sometimes, how they look like one.

And we don't always look like one.

Think about that.

Jesus connected our unity to our witness.

That the way that we love one another tells the world something about the God that we claim to serve.

That people should look at us and say, who is their God?

Look at how they love one another.

Your commitment to becoming a healthy, multi-ethnic, multi-class church is part of your evangelistic witness to the world.

Because when people see individuals from different backgrounds genuinely loving each other, they begin to ask, how is that even possible?

What is it that is holding those people together?

And why do they keep making room for one another?

How are they in each other's lives in the way that they are?

And the answer is not that you are uh unusually wonderful people.

You are not superheroes.

The answer is that Jesus Christ is at work among you.

The answer is that God has found his way into your heart.

The answer is that, real church, you have become witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so, because somewhere in your community there is a child who has been taught to fear people who look different.

And your church can show that child something different.

Somewhere there's a young person who has been told that their economic circumstances determine their worth.

They don't have the right sneakers when they go to school.

Their hair is not done like the other girls.

They don't live in the right neighborhood and they don't show up the way the other kids do.

But your church can show that young person something different.

Somewhere there's a family that has never experienced genuine community across racial and economic lines before.

They've been stuck where they've been stuck, but your church can show that family something different.

Your very existence is a testimony that another way of living is possible.

And that is worth celebrating.

So, real church, as I prepare to close, I want you to look around this sanctuary, look at the faces that are here, look at the different backgrounds that are here, look at the different generations that are here, look at the different cultures, look at what God has brought together.

There was a time in this country when people of different races could not sit together in the same restaurant.

There was a time when people could not attend the same schools.

There was a time when neighborhoods were divided by race and communities divided by wealth.

I tell people all the time I was born to a white man and a black woman in 1968.

My very birth is a sign of a crime.

I am evidence of a crime.

And sadly, some of those divisions still remain today.

But here you are.

And here you are together, different races and cultures and economic backgrounds, different generations, and yet you worship today together, praying to the same God, calling him Father, worshiping the same Jesus, being transformed by the same Holy Spirit, and declaring that you are members in one family.

Look at what God has done.

Look at what don't ever take this for granted.

Now I know that this work is not finished, I know that it's messy work, I know that it's hard work.

I know that some of you show up with like a real mission in mind, and other people just found a church that you like and you want to keep coming and you hope they all keep working it out.

But there are still, there, there are still issues of classism and racism and barriers that need to be broke down, and there are still wounds that need to be healed.

But I also know this.

I know that 10 years ago this place did not exist.

That Pastor Andrew dared to believe another way was possible.

He didn't just want to open another church in Marion and figure out who was gonna come.

Were the black people gonna come or were the white people gonna come?

Were the rich people gonna come, or was his audience gonna be the poor people?

Today you are demonstrating that the gospel has power to bring all people together, all kinds of people together.

And you are simply talking about you're not simply talking about reconciliation, you are practicing it, you are living it, you are embodying it, you are walking it out.

And so I am so grateful that I got to see this for myself.

I live in a very, very diverse city, but I promise you our churches don't look like this.

There are so few.

And when they look like this, they don't necessarily behave like this.

Thank God for this.

Thank God for this.

You are not simply dreaming about the kingdom, you are seeking to live its values here on earth, and you deserve to be celebrated.

You all deserve whatever goodies y'all got coming today.

When the world says stay with your own kind, I'm so grateful that you all have decided that that's not good enough.

This church says no and also.

And when the world says protect your own privilege, this church says no and also.

And when the world has said stay, uh, though those people don't belong here, this church has said no, no, no, and also, because the gospel is still powerful and the blood of Jesus still reconciles, and the Holy Spirit still transforms.

And I want you to know that God's love is still filling your hearts and God is still speaking.

So the cross is what made this all possible.

So I just want to tell you why I believe in this kind of church.

Because I believe in the kind of Savior who crossed the greatest distance of all, the God who left glory in heaven and entered this broken humanity.

He loved people who were who other people did not love.

He loved someone like me, and he welcomed people that other people would not have welcomed.

He welcomed someone just like me, and he challenged the powerful, and he defended the vulnerable, and he ate with the sinners, and he healed those who were broken, and then he went to the cross, and on the cross, he gave his life for the world.

And when he was buried, I thank God that they thought that the work was finished, but early on a Sunday morning, he got up.

He got up and he didn't get up weak and he didn't get up like a dead man.

He didn't get up limping.

Instead, he got up with all power.

And he got up with the kind of power that is the power that saves.

It is the power that heals, it is a power that can deliver you, it is a power that can reconcile us all back to each other.

It is a power where all things become new again.

And that same power is at work here at Real Church.

And so we celebrate these 10 years and we celebrate every barrier that has been broken.

We celebrate every relationship that has been formed.

We celebrate every chip prejudice that has been challenged, and we celebrate every person who has found this to be their home.

We celebrate every act.

Of courage, and every moment where you all have been gracious or generous to one another.

And we celebrate every time somebody chose love over fear and love over hatred.

Because you have not simply survived for 10 years.

You have dared to live the gospel in a world that desperately needs it.

And so I believe that the next 10 years can be even more powerful.

And not because the work will become easier.

I saw those babies yesterday, and they are ready for what y'all have coming.

But because God, the God that we serve, He is faithful.

So keep on standing together, church, and keep on loving one another, keep on learning, keep on leaning on each other, keep on welcoming whosoever will let them come.

And keep this building opening its doors to people, to community, and to a world that desperately needs what you all have to offer in here.

This is magical.

This is beautiful.

But more importantly, this is powerful.

And I believe that on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, when you all open the doors and worship God, that He is pleased.

So tell the people who are coming and also.

Whenever somebody asks who belongs at that church, you tell those people and also.

And wherever somebody asks, who else can experience the love of Christ, you tell them everybody who comes to him.

Happy 10th anniversary, Real Church.

Happy anniversary, Pastor Drew.

Happy anniversary to your family.

Happy anniversary to those who do the work of ministry here.

Happy anniversary to the children and the families who are in this place.

I am so grateful, grateful, grateful that I got to come across the country and to be with you all today and to be with the families who were not here yesterday.

I'm very blessed.

I feel so blessed that I could see the good work of Jesus Christ working through all of you together.

Amen.

Can I pray for you this morning?

Father God, whoo.

God, we just thank you for your 10 years of faithfulness and we thank you, God, for how you've been faithful here at Real.

We thank you for the vision that you planted, the leaders that you have raised, and the families that you have brought together.

God, we thank you that there has been such courageous people who have given themselves over to this grand idea of togetherness, this congregation that you have put together so divinely to build something very different for all the world to see.

Thank you for every relationship that has been formed across racial, cultural, and economic boundaries.

Thank you for every prejudice confronted, every heart transformed, and every person that has discovered that they do belong to God's family.

God, we just thank you.

As real church enters the next decade, we ask you, God, that you would give them a fresh vision.

God, that you would allow for deeper love to be felt here and for greater courage to be found.

God, I ask that you would continue to help this church.

Where the wounded are, God, I pray that they find healing.

God, if there are people here who are poor, I pray that they find their dignity in this place.

Where the wealthy are, I ask you, God, for radical generosity and where every culture here is honored and where Jesus Christ remains at the center.

God, let the love that is in this church, let it emanate beyond the walls of this church and find itself throughout this entire community.

May the next ten years be even greater, a greater demonstration of your love, your power, your grace, your mercy, and your ability to deliver a people and to reconcile them to each other.

God, we just thank you and praise you because we love you and we adore you and we see you, God.

We see you in us, working, we see you working through us, and you see, we see you working all around us.

Continue to bless this pastor, cover him and keep him from the head crown of his head to the soles of his feet.

Continue to keep his health, his mind, his body, his spirit, God.

And we thank you and praise you for those who work beside him.

We thank you for his wife, his generous, generous wife who shares him with the rest of us.

And God, we just bless you.

We love you.

And we pray these things in the mighty and matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Savior, and our peace.

Amen.