Diversity in the Church

I don't know about you, but I am still In all of what God did last week. We had a hundred people signed up to make a public profession of faith. in Christ, in baptism. And actually, we kind of miscounted. We actually baptized about 180-something people last week, which means.

80 people came to church, not one. Expecting to make a decision for Jesus. And they made that decision. And their lives and their eternities will never be the same. Amen.

Now, if they were to ask you. All right, I'm now following Jesus. How do I grow in the Lord? What would you tell him? Are you promised Saint?

Alright, you need to be in the Word. You need to read the Bible. Study the Bible. Memorize the Bible. That's good.

You'd probably tell them, now you need to pray. If you're going to grow in the Lord Jesus, You need to have a daily time of prayer. Every single day. But that's a good one. You may say tithe.

I believe that when you're truly born again, God gets hold of your pocketbook and 10% of your income. goes to the Lord. That'd be another discipline. But there's a discipline that's talked about in the New Testament more than memorizing scripture. More than tithing.

And that discipline is now that you're born again. You connect with a local body of believers, and you now get involved in the body of Christ. At least 51 times in the New Testament, this term is used. One, another. Love one another.

Care for one another. Bear for one another's burdens. Over and over and over. If you're going to grow in Jesus. You got to be connected to the body of Christ.

Are you with me? Amen.

And I said this last week. I said there is an internal God-given desire, every human being has it. for community. to connect with other people. And if you're born again, That God-given desire for connection has got to be realized.

In the body of Christ. You now have to say, I am a follower of Jesus. I'm part of this body. I'm now going to connect with this particular body. And again, there's that God gives, this is not, every human being has it.

In fact, there was a sitcom back in the 80s. Y'all remember the sitcom? And the theme song went like this. Making your way in the world today takes everything you got. Getting a break from all your troubles sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go? Where everybody knows your name. And They're always glad you came. You want to be, or you can see, our troubles are all the same. You want to go where?

Everybody knows your name.

Now, That song was written about a bar. It should have been written about the church of Jesus Christ. You come to a place where they know you, they love you, we're all struggling, we all have our challenges. Everybody knows you and loves you. That is the body of Christ.

And as we close out in our study of Romans, we're now at Romans 16. And, you know, we've been in Romans. Since January, so we made it through. We're now Romans 16. And as you close out the book of Romans, there's a bunch of names.

And y'all doubted me. Y'all thought there's no way Chad could ever bring anything good out of a bunch of names. This church constantly underestimates how smart I am. And so I want you to see this. In Romans 16, there is a list of names, and the Apostle Paul, keep in mind, he's never visited Rome before.

He's going to go there. He'll eventually be killed there. He's writing from Corinth this letter called the book of Romans. And he's writing it to a church he has never visited, but it's amazing, either through prayer. Cost personal interaction.

or word of mouth, it's amazing how many people in this church he knows.

So look if you would at Romans 16.1. Paul says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe. Who is the servant of the church which is at Cancre? That you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints. And that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you, for she herself has also been a helper of many and of myself.

as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. Great Mary. who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junius, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles who also were in Christ before me.

Greet Ampliatus. My beloved in the Lord. Greek Urbanis. Our fellow worker in Christ. Look at verse 10.

Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Verse 11. Greek Herodian. My kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

Verse 12. Greet. Persus the beloved. who has worked hard in the Lord. Verse 13.

Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Verse 15. Greek. Phila Logos. And Julia.

Narius, and then Paul goes on and on and on. I want you to see the incredible diversity in the church at Rome. This is a community of people who are about to go through incredible persecution, and God got a bunch of people from different backgrounds. Different socioeconomic levels. Different races And he brings them together.

Here the church at Rome. For example, at the church of Rome, you had females and you had ex-pagans. I want you to look at their verse one. He says, greet Phoebe. Do you see who that Phoebe?

Now keep in mind, here's who Phoebe is. Paul is writing the book of Romans from Corinth. He wants to deliver, they don't have Amazon in those days, he wants to deliver this letter. To the church at Rome. There's a lady from a nearby city who goes to the church there at Corinth.

Her name is Phoebe. And the Apostle Paul gives this letter to Phoebe. Phoebe takes it and she travels 600 miles to personally deliver the letter to the church at Rome, to that church. It's quite a woman. In those days, to be a woman traveling by yourself, it was dangerous to travel back then.

You had pirates, you have bandits, and yet Paul gave it to this lady named Phoebe, and Phoebe takes it all the way to Rome.

Now, it's interesting, her name. Phoebe means radiant. That's very interesting. Back in those days, individuals would name their children in honor of Greek gods. The Greek god Apollos, his name was also, they called him Phoebus, which means the radiant one.

Phoebe? Probably born in a pagan town, Kinkre, right near Corinth. Her name is Radiant. She was probably named by pagan parents after the Greek god Apollos, who is also called Phoebe or the radiant one. Which tells me Somewhere along the way.

This lady that grew up in a pagan family with pagan customs, worshiping demonic false gods, heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and she got radically saved. The church at Rome was made up of individuals who were radically saved from paganism. I praise God that Cross Assembly is that kind of church. In the last several weeks, here's who I've talked to. Last several weeks I've talked to somebody who came out of Hinduism.

I actually talked to a young man a couple weeks ago. He and his whole family were demon worshipers. From another country. Until they got radically saved and now they go to cross assembly. I've talked to ex-Muslims.

who got saved out of Islam and they go to this church. I talked to ex-Mormons who got saved out of Mormonism and they go to this church. We've had all kinds of perverts get born again and radically saved, and they joined the church. The church of Jesus Christ is made up of a lot of messed up people from some messed up backgrounds who met a perfect Savior who changed their life. And that's why Paul says in First Corinthians 6:11, and such.

Were some of you? Past hints. This is not a pristine church made up of pristine people from pristine backgrounds. We're like Phoebe.

Some of y'all come from pagan backgrounds, just like her, but you got radically saved. The church is also made up of Um older couples. Look at you what at verse 3. Paul names specifically a couple named Prisca or Priscilla and Aquila. That's in verse three.

Acts 18:1 says this: that Priscilla and Aquila went to Corinth. They were run out of Rome in 49 AD and went to Corinth because the Emperor of Rome had kicked out all the Jews.

So these were Jews, a Jewish couple. Living in Rome. They get kicked out of room. And they go to Corinth, and that's 49 AD. That's years before this is written.

Which means by the time Paul writes this, he is writing to a couple who have been married together at least 15, maybe 20 years. This is now an older couple.

Now, there is, here's what I call it, a cult of youth going on in the American church. We want to attract all the young people and that's great. We want to be trendy for the young people. That's fine. And sometimes older people in the body of Christ may ask themselves, Am I needed?

Church at Rome had an older, seasoned couple, and I want you to listen to me. In a world filled with broken marriages. In a world filled with broken families. We got a lot of young people coming in this church. They have never seen a healthy relationship between a man and a wife because her mom and dad fought all the time and left.

That they see unhealthy relationships on T V. Oh they know! Our unhealthy relationships. The body of Christ needs some Priscillas and Aquilas, man and wife who have been together, they've taken their hits, they've gone through the challenges, but they're still together, and they can say to another new generation coming along. Through Jesus Christ, your marriage can work.

Here's how a Christian marriage ought to work if you're going to make it in the long term.

So you have Pagans like Phoebe. You have older couples. Like Priscilla and Aquila. And then wealthy people. We're there at the church at Rome.

Look at verse 10 and 11. Yeah. those of the household of Aristobulus and Narcissus. Aristobulus was royalty. He was the grandson of Herod the Great.

Remember the Herod that killed all the little babies there in Bethlehem? Aristobulus was his grandson.

So, this is a wealthy member of a royal family. And Paul says, Aristobulus's family? Goes to the church at Rome. Royalty. Went to that church.

They would have been wealthy people. He says the household of Narcissus. Narcissus was a secretary To the emperor of Rome. This is a high-ranking official. And Paul says: family members of a high-ranking Roman official, go to your church.

Implication. They're wealthy. He says, Herodion, verse 11, that's again, possibly from the household of Herod. Here's my point: You have people going to the church at Rome that have clout. They have political connections.

And they got money.

Now it's important because now look before I came here I just pastored small rural churches. And I always saw this phenomenon, and it always bothered me. We get I love Rural people, I'm a rural, okay, I love it. But we would have some wealthy people. Visit the church.

And you always do what kind of car they would drive and how they would dress, and they were wealthy. It's very interesting. I always notice this coldness, this tension. toward these wealthy people. Can't understand it, can't explain it.

I wonder if maybe we have misapplied some of the teachings of Jesus and we said, Well, obviously, all rich people are going to hell. That's biblical. That's not biblical. And in the church of Rome, you have people who love Jesus, who walk with Jesus. They're born-again believers, but they're wealthy people.

So, don't just think because somebody has money, they must have cut corners or they're dishonest or whatever. You actually have born-again believers who follow Jesus Christ, who serve the Lord, and they're wealthy, and they go there to the church at Rome. Let's go back to this. You have ex-pagans. Like Phoebe.

You have older couples, verse 3, like Aquila and Priscilla. You got wealthy people, verses 10 and 11. And then you got foreigners. Look at this. Verse 12, Paul says, greet Persis.

Do you see that? P-E-R-S-I-S. Persis literally means the lady from Persis. Persia. Anybody know what modern day Persia is?

Iran. You actually had a foreign lady from Iran that went to the church there at Rome. She's a foreigner.

So again, I salute the flag. I love the eagle. I like eating apple pie. I'm an American. But we got to be really careful in the body of Christ that we don't get so turned in on ourselves because we're Americans that we have this hostility toward brothers and sisters in Christ who are from other places.

And before we start to say, you know, call down some heavenly napalm. On places like North Korea and Iran, maybe we need to remember one of the fastest-growing churches in the world is taking place in Iran. There's a revival, and people are getting saved in North Korea.

So, again, before we say, let's you know, nuke them till they glow and then we'll shoot them in the dark. Man! You know what? We got brothers and sisters. In Christ.

in places like Iran. and North Korea and Cuba. Foreigners were part of the church at Rome. And then this has got interesting. There were Africans in the church at Rome.

Verse 13 pauses now, greet Rufus. Who is Rufus?

Now, follow me on this. Here's who we think Rufus was. Have you read the Gospel of Mark, Matthew, Mark? You've read Mark? Did you know that Mark was written from Rome?

Right where this letter was sent to. I mean, the church Mark went to was the church at Rome. And when Mark is talking about Jesus carrying his cross to Calvary. Evidently, he falls, he's been beaten. People weren't scourged and then crucified.

That never happened. Jesus was scourged. and crucified the fact that he could carry his cross as long as he did was a Amazing. But he falls. He can't get up.

And so in the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark says the Roman soldiers point to this guy named Simon. And says, you. You're going to carry this man's cross. And in Mark 15, 21, Mark adds this footnote.

He says, This man, Simon, who was forced to carry the cross of Jesus, he has two sons. He says, one of them goes to your church. His name is Rufus. When Paul says greet Rufus, he is probably saying greet the son of Simon of Cyrene, who goes to your church, who is forced to carry the cross of Jesus.

Now, here's the important thing about that: Cyrene is northern Africa. Rufus was probably African. He was probably a dark-skinned man. And he's part of the church there at Rome. And Paul actually says, and his mama, did you read this?

He says, his mama is like a mama to me. We know for a fact that there were African leaders in the early church. If you look at Acts chapter 13, verse 1, one of the upper-level church leaders, the Bible calls him Simon the Black Man. Let's not use different nicknames like that at our church. You understand, but I guess this is just a different cultural thing back then, but an upper-level leader.

At the early church in Antioch. was an African.

So y'all falling with me? This is not a monolithic church full of a bunch of white Europeans. You have ex-pagans. You have older people. You have rich people.

You have foreigners, you have black people like Rufus of Cyrene that goes to the church, and you have educated people. Verse 15 There's a man named Philo Locus. That means the lover of learning. The lover of words. We're not sure.

But this could mean that this was an educated man who went to the church at Rome. Again, it wasn't a bunch of backcountry rednecks from Possum Holler gathering together and playing their banjos on Sunday morning. You actually have some educated people there. And I need to hear that. Because I'm going to be honest with you.

I don't know if you do this, I do this. If somebody comes to our church, I shouldn't admit this, but I'm gonna admit anyway.

Somebody comes to our church and they're like, Yeah, I graduated from Yale. Liberal. He can't be born again. He graduated from Yale. Ah, Chad, I am studying at Duke University.

What are you doing here? Don't you want to go to a liberal church, like a liberal Methodist church? And now I'm starting to realize reading verses like this: you can be someone who loves learning, loves education, and still loves the Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible to do both, okay? And evidently that's what you had of the church.

And then you had Slaves. at the church. Look at verse 8. Paul says, greet. Empliadas.

Now Ampliadis Is a slave name. People who study past history say, you know, we had names that were in this category, names that are in that category. Ampliotis, that was in the slave category.

Now, do a little digging this this uh week. Anybody ever been to Rome before? All right, I went to Rome several years ago. If you ever go to Rome, Go to the catacombs. Y'all know the catacombs are?

They're like tunnels under the city. Like, I mean, I can't remember how many miles, just miles of tunnels under the city. Oh And in the days of the persecution of the church, the church would go underground and worship in those tunnels.

Well, those tunnels were also. Tombs. Basically under It's basically an underground graveyard. And when the persecution came and Christians couldn't meet in the open, they would go into this underground graveyard and they would worship. Archaeologists have found an interesting grave in the catacombs.

Everyone. It is a large well decorated grave.

So it has to be a person of honor. And yet it belonged to a slave. Do you know what that slave's name was? Ampliadis. We're not sure if that's the guy's grave or not, but if it is, it shows that even a slave in the first century, who is considered to be property of another person, could rise to a position of leadership and honor in the early church if that was who this is.

And there's another slave name that's mentioned here as well. Do you see this? Greet Ampliadus, verse 8, and then verse 15. Do you see this? Paul says, Greet Narius.

Narius Now again. We don't know who Narius is. We do know Narius is a slave name.

Something very interesting happened years after this in 95 AD. This is not in the Bible. You got to look in history. I did a little bit of digging this week. In 95 AD, There is a scandal in the city of Rome.

Because two high profile movers and shakers enroll. These are the ones who are invited to all the parties. They have a nice house. Everybody wants to be their friend. A major scandal took place.

It was found that this high-profile power couple in Rome. We're actually Christians. And when that was found out. The husband was uh tortured and killed. and the wife was banished to a faraway island.

You do a little bit of digging. And this high profile couple who were Christians in Rome. had a slave, Who is also their bookkeeper? Do you know who the slave was? His name was Nereus.

The same name that we see in verse 15.

Now we don't know for sure. But here's what I like to think. I like to think that this man that Paul says greet, greeting Arius. I love to think that he was a born-again believer who was a slave, attached to this power couple, and this couple watched the way that he handled their books. They watched his work ethic.

They watched his attitude when he would come into work every day as the slave. And I like to think that over time, this power couple looked at Narius and said, There's something different about you. You don't grumble, you don't gripe, you got a great work ethic, you come in earlier than everybody else, you stay in later than everybody else. What is it about you? And I love to think that it was Narius that led his boss to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they were the ones who finally gave their life for Jesus Christ several years later.

He said, Chair, what's your point? My point is. If you're going to belong to the body of Christ, You're going to have to be willing to belong to people who come from different backgrounds than you. They may not look like you, they have different cultures than you. We have ex-pagans, we have older couples, we have Africans, we have Asians, we have Hispanic, we have all kinds of people together in the body of Christ, just like the church at Rome.

Now It kind of makes you feel good, doesn't it? And honestly, I love being part of the family of God. We're going to sing about that in a second. I love being part of the family of God.

So is everybody happy? Because you know me, I'm about to give you a downer right here, okay? I want you to listen to me. This is very important. Three lessons.

I've learned. pastoring for several decades. I've been through it and I've taken my hit. There are three things that we have got to guard against. If we're going to be a part of a church like Rome, made up of different people from different backgrounds, I need you to listen to me.

Three things I have learned over several decades of pastoring that we've got to be careful of. First one is this. Obsession. We cannot be obsessed With race And diversity that cannot be our obsession. From Romans 16, we have this beautiful picture of a diverse body of Christ.

But did you notice in verse 16, Paul doesn't Talk a lot about the diversity. He doesn't mention the diversity. He's just very matter-of-fact. You got people from this background. Paul does not talk about the diversity.

He doesn't say let's get together in small groups and have listening sessions. He doesn't say, let's all go to Robin DeAngelis' white fragility book and let's do a study on racism. He didn't say that. He just says, if you're born again, like it or not, you're part of this body of Christ. And if you don't like white people, you're going to have a hard time.

You don't like black people, you're going to have a hard time. Paul is just very matter of fact, the body of Christ is diverse. Just get along with it, understand it, and just go on. And we're now living in a culture. You're going to hear me say this pretty strongly here in a second.

that's dividing over this thing because we are obsessed with race. Um Two years ago now. My wife, Darla, a lot of you know this, some of y'all don't. She uh She donated part of her liver. There's a little girl that goes to our church.

She was uncritical. I'm just telling you, this was. She was very critical. She had to have a liver. And I wise a chef.

I mean, I think I'm supposed to donate part of my liver. And I said, well, honey, if Jesus' telling you, do it, do it. She says, I got to go get tested to make sure I'm a match. And I hated to kind of give her a downer because she really, I'm just doing this was a life or death thing. I didn't want to give her a downer, but I said, honey, here's the challenge.

Her father is African American. Her mother is Chinese And I hate to tell you From what I can tell, you're neither one. I don't know. how your liver is going to match somebody whose father is African American. and whose mother is Chinese.

She goes in and does a test and she's a perfect match. And I did some research. It's very interesting. According to Dr. Harold Freeman, Former director of surgery at North General Hospital in Manhattan, who is a specialist on race.

He says racial characteristics that we're so focused on, like skin color, hair, eyes, racial characteristics that people focus on, listen to this, account for only point. Zero, one, Two percent of the of human biology. When you look at our genetic makeup, These issues that we think are so important, like skin color, they are only 0.012% of your genetic makeup. Which is why he says. There is, listen to this.

There is more variation within a particular racial group. than there is between one group and another. That's why an African-American may not have been a best match for her. A Chinese may not have been a best match for her because there's so much variation within specific races. Base, here's my point.

All these things that we think are so important. are not important. Point zero one two percent. And so I'm saying Maybe you ought to take it from the Apostle Paul. And just stop being so obsessed with these differences.

You with me on that?

Now it's quiet. Unclinch. Everything's going to be okay, all right? I know this is, I'm about to touch the third rail here.

So. If we're going to be part of a diverse body of Christ, We need to be careful of number one, obsession. Let's not obsess over these differences. And then number two, we've got to guard against division. The consistent Strategy of Satan throughout the last 2,000 years of the history of church.

Hey, Satan's a lot of things. He's not creative. Did you know that? He does the same thing over and over and over to the church in every generation. And I can't blame Satan.

Why come up with new strategies when your old strategies keep working? Church keeps falling for the same strategies. Why would Satan come up with something new?

So for the past 2,000 years, Satan has tried to divide the church over the racial issue. We saw that in the first century. The racial issue there was Jew versus Gentile, and Satan tried to divide the church over that. I've never seen it as bad as it was in 2020. In 2020, Satan won a major victory in the Church in America.

He divided the church in America. I remember in 2020. I said, Chad, you got to speak out against this George Floyd stuff. And man, I did. I said what happened to George Floyd was wrong.

I'd read somewhere he'd recently got born again and he was struggling in his faith. And I even said, man, from what I read, that might have been a brother in Christ. I spoke out against that. Here's what I got. That's great, Chad.

Now you need to kneel.

Next Sunday. Because that's what all the white people are doing. Do you remember that? Everybody was kneeling. You need to kneel.

And I said, no, no, look at right here. These knees only bow before one person, and that's Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

Well, for that statement, I was branded a racist, and people left. And then um So I said, Jed, you need to say Black Lives Matter. And so I said. I believe that. Remember that?

I stood up here and I said, Man, black lives do matter. And I didn't qualify with it, and all lives matter. I didn't say that. I said, no, no. I firmly believe.

Black lives do matter.

Now listen. I was then told, good, now you need to give to that organization called Black Lives Matter. There is a difference between the statement, Black Lives Matter, which I agree with. and the organization, the corporation called Black Lives Matter Incorporated. And I did some research.

Remember this? And I said, I can't support them on their website before they script it. Their website specifically says, we are here to dismantle the traditional family. I can't support that. I believe the statement, Black Lives Matter, but we're not giving church funds to an organization that says on their own website, we are here to dismantle the traditional family.

People got banned left. Turns out, I was right. We're now finding out that Black Lives Matter Incorporated was basically a real estate Ponzi scheme led by a couple of Marxist lesbians. That's what it is. And I saw the Church of Jesus Christ not just here, but all over America divided in 2020, and it broke my heart.

And it's 2025 and Satan's doing it all over again. He's used in the Charlie Kirk assassination. to divide the church. I honestly, I was oblivious. I had no idea.

I've had pastors, multiple pastors from other churches. That I've watched, some have contacted me and said, Jake, you gotta help me.

So, what's going on? My church is splitting. What are they splitting over? I said something positive about Charlie Kirk on Sunday, and somebody said, No, he was a racist. Why are you holding up a racist in our church?

And you know, some of these people I've had in my own church.

Well, I've read some of the racist things that Charlie Kirk said. No, you've read some of the racist things that others said that he said. That's what you've read. We actually have a great African-American leader right down the road here, Bishop Patrick Wooden, great man of God. Bold man of God, African-American leader in the African-American community.

He said something this past week, and I was like, I like what he said. I wish I'd come up with it on my mom. Here's what he said. He said to his church, African-American church. Charlie Kirk, I'm just kind of Given a synopsis of his argument, Charlie Kirk spoke thousands of hours over the last 15 years of a very public speaking ministry.

Thousands of hours. If he was such a racist. Where are all the video clips of all the racist things that he said?

Well, let's roll it right now. I want you to watch. Nobody's doing that. Have you noticed that? They're just saying things that somebody said that he said.

And the bishop said to his church, you can't do that. You can't malign a brother in Christ who, 30 seconds before, he got his Killed on national TV. You can't say that he was a racist. 30 seconds before, he's sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If he's such a racist, produce for me the video clips of all the racist things that he said.

But see, churches are dividing over that. We lost a great brother in Christ this past week. His name was Vodie Bauckam. Ever heard of Bodhie Bawkham? Died at age 56.

I think maybe a heart attack. Bodhi Bauckham. did two good things for the body of Christ. He said, number one, Charlie Kirk was a friend of mine. Leave him alone.

He was a good man, he wasn't a racist. Second thing that he did Was he said to the church, y'all got to wake up? Satan is dividing the church over this issue. The church of Jesus needs to wake up on this racial issue because Satan is coming in and he's using this to drive a wedge between brothers and sisters in Christ. And it never works.

It never works. when we divide over things like this. Adrian Rogers tells this great story about what took place in the early 1900s. He said: In Russia, you have a group of bishops together, they're arguing and they're fighting. He said, a couple doors down from those bishops, you got a group of people called the Bolsheviks who are coming together and they're trying to figure out how we can take over Russia, overthrow the royal family, and bring in communism.

So, you got the picture? The bishop's fighting down here. The Bolsheviks strategizing how can we take over Russia. He said, Do you know what the bishops are fighting about? They were fighting about whether we should use 18-inch candles or 22-inch candles in our worship services.

And while they're fighting and divided, a satanic thing called communism came and took over the country. We can't be divided.

So we gotta watch out for obsession. We've got to watch out for division. And then finally, we've got to watch out for perfection. Here's what I mean by that. We're going to have to stop expecting perfection among each other.

Here's what I found. In the body of Christ. When somebody messes up and fumbles the ball. We go after 'em. They're not perfect.

But when I fumble the ball Or you fumble the ball. You want everybody to be graceful toward us. I'm just human, after all. And maybe we need to stop. Striving for perfection among everybody, and understand we're a messed up church with messed up people.

Sometimes we say stupid things, sometimes we do stupid things, but you don't leave your brothers and sisters in Christ just because you find out they're imperfect people. I love this great story. I don't know if it happened to the Civil War or Vietnam, but I heard this story one time of. Two best friends who are in the same unit, let's say it's Vietnam. And there's this massive firefight at night.

And they have to retreat. And as they're retreating, This best friend realizes my friend's not with me.

So he says to his sergeant, he says, I gotta go back and get my friend. Sergeant says, no. The enemy is there. If you go back, I'll not only lose your friend, your friend is dead. Not only will your friend die, you'll die.

You can't go back. That young man disobeyed the sergeant. Went back. And a few minutes later, the lifeless body of his friend draped around his shoulders, he comes back. And the sergeant is heartbroken for this young guy.

And he's angry. He said, I told you. Leave him alone. I told you he was dead. You could have gotten yourself killed.

But he asked this: Was it worth it? And the guy said, yes, sir, it was worth it. Because the very last thing my friend said to me before he died was I knew you'd come back for me. And there are times. Where we get hit We mess up.

We fumble the ball. Brothers and sisters get caught in a moral mess, and we find out we're not perfect. You don't abandon your brother in this battle called spiritual warfare. You go back, you pick him up, you carry him, but you don't expect perfection, and you don't abandon him. We got to start having grace with each other.

1 John 4.20 scares me. Says this, if you say you love God. But you hate your brother or sister? You don't know God, the truth isn't in you. And it's not always an act of feeling, sometimes it's an act of will.

I love you. Even when I don't like you. This rang true for Daw and I years and years ago. We were at one of our churches we'd pastored. All Darling just wanted to have kids.

We had a boy. And he turns one year old, and Darla's into the... She wants to throw a party. She wants family to come in. She was just so excited about our one-year-old.

This is his first birthday party. I've been waiting for a while to be a mama. I now get to have a birthday party for my one-year-old son.

Now we lived, you know, have you ever heard this term? It was in a parsonage. You know what a parsonage is? It is a building, it's a house basically attached to the church. That was just a joy to stare at your church 24-7, have people come by all hours of the night asking for stuff.

It was wonderful.

So we're living in this parsonage. And Darla has family coming in and she said, Chad, we don't have ice. She said, can you go up to the church? and get some ice I said, yeah.

So I go to the church, go to the kitchen, I get ice, and this guy walks in. Church member, friends, never had a cross word with him. And he said, here's our first sign of trouble. Good. I'm glad you're here.

Uh oh no, here he comes. Church, he laid into me. I don't like this about your ministry. I don't like that about your ministry. I don't like the way you said this from the pulpit.

I mean, I've never had a crossword with this guy, and he was a friend. And he just cut loose. And I'm going to... If you don't straighten up, we're going to leave this church and we're going to bring people with us and we're going to, I mean, it was nasty. And by the time I got back to the house, I tried to hide it, but my wife said, What happened?

She could. I should have just said, we'll talk about it later. I said, honey, I just got. sabotage you know By by this guy. This guy, and I told her exactly what sh he said.

She's like I thought they were friends of ours. I didn't know they felt that way about us. And it basically, it was my fault. I shouldn't have told her. It ruined.

That birthday party. She's trying to smile and whatever. And she was just heartbroken. That's on a Saturday. The next day Here's how I used to close out every church I pastored until I came here.

I don't know why I stopped doing it here. Every church I pastored, I would close out with this. We'd have everybody close the service, but everybody hold hands across the aisle. And we'd sing this old song from Bill Gaither. You ever heard of the song?

I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by the blood, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, for I'm part of the family, the family of God.

So it's the day after this blow-up. And my wife is holding this person's hand. And then she stretches across the aisle. And do you know whose hand is right here? That guy that just Tore us up and destroyed my son's birthday party.

He was right there. And she was like, what do I do? And she grabbed his hand by an act of will. And she sang that song and she said, Chad. As I was singing that song, Suddenly my heart began to break for that man.

He was saved out of paganism. He was part of the whole hippie movement during the 1970s. He had gotten radically saved. He's on fire for the Lord. He's still dealing with some mess from his past.

She said that doesn't justify what he did, but suddenly I realized he is my brother in Christ. And this is a messed-up church. You would have messed up people like that guy. And the church is like Noah's Ark. If it wasn't for the destruction on the outside, you couldn't stand the stench on the inside.

It's a messed-up place sometimes, but we are part of a family. And one day Jesus Christ is going to come back and He's going to make everything right. Until that day comes, we've got to love each other, not expect perfection of each other, and join hands with each other.

So I want you to stand on me right now. And uh Hey, let's do this because How many of y'all have heard that song before? Raise your hand.

Okay, that for a few of you. Let's do this. Would y'all sing through that song one time? And then after they sing through that song one time, I want to have you. Do the same thing.

Join hands and we're going to sing that together. Hey, sing this for us. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood. Join us with Jesus as we travel this side.

Oh, I'm part of the family, the family of God. There will be lyrics next service. We have to expect sometimes imperfection. Right? Join hands across the aisle right now.

Church is getting It's getting crazy out there. Shooting each other. Killing each other. Coming against each other. Man, the body of Jesus Christ ought to be the one place where we can get away from all that mess and say, this is a place where you belong.

These are brothers and sisters who love you. I look forward to the day when a messed up society finally looks at the church of Jesus Christ and says, We can't get along in our culture. Let's look to them. What are they doing right? They got something we don't have.

I look forward to that day. And when that day comes, and the culture says, Why are you able to get this race thing right when we can't get it right? Why are you able to get this division thing right? When we can't get it right, I look forward to that day when we can say with one voice, Jesus. It's Jesus.

Join hands and let's sing that right now. Sing that though, Lord. I'm a part of the family of God. I've been washed in the fountain and cleansed by his blood. Join hands with Jesus as we travel this side.

For a part of the family, the family of God. Father, we look forward to that day when every knee will bow. And every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory. of you, O Father. God, it is messed up.

Divine it. Angry. Hateful world that we live in. May the people of God join together with their eyes on Jesus, with their souls fixed on heaven. May we understand, oh God, we are only here for a short time.

Until that day comes. May Jesus Christ be the king over his church. We speak against division. We speak against satanic attacks against the body of Christ. We speak against demonic division in the body of Christ.

And we proclaim we are men and women of the most high God. And now to him who is able to do. Immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. According to his power that's at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen and amen.

God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ. God bless you. Yeah.