Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Be subject to one another
out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject
to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, just as
Christ is the head of the church, the body of
which he is the Savior. Just as the church is
subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be,
in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love
your wives, just as Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her, in order to make her
holy by cleansing her with the washing of water.
In the same way, husbands should love their wives
as they do their own bodies. He who loves his
wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his
own body. But he nourishes and tenderly cares
for it, just as Christ does for the Church, because
we are members of his body. For this reason,
a man will leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh. This is a great mystery, and I am applying
it to Christ and the Church. Each of you, however,
should love his wife as himself, and a wife should
respect her husband. Children, obey your parents
in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father
and mother. This is the first commandment with
a promise, so that it may be well with you and
that you may live long on the earth. And fathers,
do not provoke your children to anger, but bring
them up in the discipline and instruction of
the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with
fear and trembling and singleness of heart as
you obey Christ, not only while being watched
and in order to please them, but as slaves of
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
Render service with enthusiasm as to the Lord
and not to men and women. knowing that whatever
good we do, we will receive the same again from
the Lord, whether we are slaves or free. And
masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening
them, for you know that both of you have the
same master in heaven, and with him there is
no partiality. You may be seated. Thank you,
Maya, for reading. Wow. What a passage. A passage
read to a context of 70 or so nationalities,
different cultural realities that we come from.
A passage that is read to many denominational
backgrounds that have very different perspectives
on roles of men and women and how that works
itself out. But even deeper than that is I want
to invite you at the very beginning to do this,
to consider as you heard that passage being read
over you, what were you drawn to? What resonated
in your own heart? You see, this is a joke, but
I had my daughter read it right because the part
that resonates with me is, obey your fathers.
But then I also want you to seriously pay attention
to what part of that passage did you resist?
Did you feel, oh, I don't know if I like that
part. And the invitation is then to think through
what is it that is bringing us to that place
of either resonating with parts of it or resisting
parts of it. And in that posture, as we as a
community, our people gather around Jesus, desiring
with all of who we are to reflect him in life.
I want to invite you even to posture your hands
as I pray in this way to say, Lord, would you
please speak through your word? Would you guide
and move us? Would we, in one sense, pause? Certain
things that keep us from really hearing, but
also maybe not pause, but bring all of who we
are to you. Let your word read us. And let Jesus,
who is at the center of everything, come and
transform us from the inside out in an upside
down way. Where our relationships are increasingly
in store to a place of dignity. Just like we...
watched in the video. And so Lord, I ask that
the words of my mouth, that the meditations of
my heart would be pleasing to you. Oh Lord, because
you are our rock and our redeemer. And we pray
this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. So as I
said, we've been going through a series called
Jesus in all of life, because this is a division
that we have committed to here at ECB, Jesus
in all of life. And if you missed last week's
sermon about Jesus in the workplace, I encourage
you to go on and listen to that. Pastor Andrew
from the Vine in Hong Kong came and he spoke
to us and invited us to take seriously the words
of Jesus about being the salt and light and how
we bring that into the marketplace. Same with
the school setting. We bring that into the place
that we are spending all these hours in the day.
Whether or not that is an institution or a company
or organization that follows Jesus, we bring
him with us into that space. Next week, We're
going to do a teaching on Jesus in your finances,
in your resources. What does stewardship over
what God has given us look like? But today, we're
looking at the heart of relational aspects. What
does Jesus in all of life look like in our closest
relationships? And I want to say something right
from the very beginning. Yes, there's going to
be a husband and a wife and a children dynamic
to this. The family setting of husband, wife,
and children is not some, like, ultimate goal
of the life that we live, of the Christian life
we live. It is a gift that God gives, and sometimes
we participate in it, others don't. But if you
happen to be young and you're not a parent, you're
like, what does this message have to do with
me? Or if you are single and either you're at
a point of saying, okay, I'm going to let that
be in the past and I'm going to continue forward.
This message is for you. This is not just about
husbands and wives and their relation with one
another and how they are to connect with one
another or how parents are supposed to treat
their kids. Because what Jesus did is he did
not come to say the church is like a family.
He came to say the church is family. You and
I are brothers and sisters in Christ, and so
this is about relational health of how we engage
with one another. Some years back, when I was
living in Quito, Ecuador, with our family there,
we were in a wonderful... small group, equivalent
of what we call life groups here. Now that small
group had people from all kinds of different
backgrounds. So we had Haitians in that group,
we had Filipinos in the group, we had Americans
in the group, we had an Indian in the group,
we had Ecuadorians in the group, I say North
Americans, and then we also had Iranians in the
group. This is a beautiful expression of God's
big family together. Now my friend Saeed from
Iran, I learned so much from him, and I want
to recount a story that he was telling us. So
we gathered around a table as a group, and we
broke bread together. We fellowshiped in a way
that reminded us that we are a family of God.
And one day when we were preparing for this gathering
together, Saeed said, you know what? In my country,
in my culture, everyone knows their place at
the table. Everyone knows their place at the
table. I said, well, what do you mean? He said,
well, their place at the table is dependent on
where the door is. Where the door is? What does
the door have to do with where you sit at the
table? And how does somebody know where they
sit at the table? So my curiosity brings that
question to him. And he says, well, you see,
the door is the place where evil can enter. The
place where another warring group might come
in at any point, where thieves or robbers might
break in. And so if the door is on this side
and the table is set up this way, the place of
honor is the furthest away from the door, right?
So I would sit in the place of honor if I was
the most important person in that room. Now think
about this. What is that saying going down the
line? I am the most significant asset to this
group. The rest kind of systematically go down
in liability to the door. Because whenever evil
comes in through the door, you're keeping your
most important person at the end of the room.
Now, on one sense, that seems kind of funny.
But if you think about the reality of that relational
dynamic, where we begin to view one another as
transactions, as liabilities or assets. This
is the devil's work in us. And it will always
pull and rip and tear things apart in a destructive
way. Nightlight in the video that we saw there
is an example of this, where we begin to treat
people as a means to our own enjoyment or fulfillment
as opposed to their God -given dignity. In the
group setting, for those who are group culture
oriented, we find our place within the group.
based on loyalty to that group and the fulfillment
of that group. So it doesn't matter if you come
from more of a individual -oriented culture or
a group -oriented culture. There's this commodification,
the way that we treat one another where it says,
you know, you are simply a means to something
bigger than the goodness of what could be in
that relationship. You are a liability or you
are an asset. So as you reflect on that, what's
your place at the table? Think about your relational
connections with people around you. What's your
place at the table? But actually, a deeper question
that I want to ask is, as you think about your
connections, children with your parents, husbands
and wives, deep soul companions that are connected
with one another, your work situation, what's
your place at the table? See, the table represents
belonging. It means coming together and we all
find a place around that table. And so the question
is, do you long for something more than what
you're experiencing? And this is what Paul is
writing to. He is inviting us to experience the
goodness of who Jesus is and what he comes to
do. And I am confident that regardless of all
the different backgrounds in here, putting him
at the center does indeed change everything.
So with that in mind, let's talk about relational
wholeness. Let's go back to the beginning and
let's frame our story that we're going to get
to because this would have been in Paul's mind.
He would have considered three different dimensions
of relationship that are all important in how
people are created. So if you remember, Adam
and Eve are created. First, humanity is created
and there's one Adam and God says it's not good
for man to be alone. And so he creates what?
A companion for Adam. The two become partners,
soul -connected friends in that situation. And
this is a companionship. This is about us needing
this connection with other human beings at a
deep relational level. But within the story of
Genesis, we also have two other categories. One
is a generational blessing, right? So God didn't
create us to just take the goodness and hold
it to ourselves. He created us to use that goodness
to bless the next generation. And so there's
this generational multiplication of the goodness
of God that we bring into it as well. But God
didn't just stop there. He also said you have
dominion over the earth, stewardship. You are
to care for the world around you and also bring
it up into a point of flourishing. But you do
that in partnership with one another. You don't
do that in dominion over one another. You do
that in partnership with one another. And these
three aspects, if they are all together, we would
consider it to be a wholeness of relationship.
Or as the Bible calls it, shalom. All things
as they are meant to be. Okay, back to the video
that we watched just a moment ago. We see nightlight
working towards this wholeness of relationship
within the context of what they do. But we know
that our relationships, have challenges to them.
We know that even when we're trying as hard as
we can, we still engage in this way of considering
one another as liabilities and assets. Whether
you're in the school system or the work system
or wherever it may be. And Paul does not write
this letter to pre -Christians, although they
can learn from it. He writes it to the church,
which what does that mean? All of us. have growth
to do in our relationships. But here's the good
news. Paul is going to speak right into the mess
of the relationship. So we don't hide the reality
that we haven't arrived yet. We bring that reality
forward. And what Paul does is he references
the Greco -Roman household. And I want to put
a note in here to say that Pastor Pablo in the
book of Colossians touched on this and he did
an excellent job of explaining it. And so I highlight
that to say that if you want to go more in depth
than what we get this morning here, go back online
to our series on Colossians and uncover that
part. Because having this insight is important
for us as we go forward in what we're looking
at here. So what was the Greco -Roman household?
How was it structured and set up? A pyramid is
a good way to look at it. Top down, very dominated
by the patron that is on the top of this whole
system. Everything works together for the good
of the group, but it is the one on top that dictates
and has total authority for that system and structure.
Now, how does this actually play itself out in
those relational dynamics? Well, think about
the companionship that is supposed to be there.
The husband takes a wife more as a business contract,
where you as a wife are here to support my ends
of keeping this group in order. So your role
in our relationship is not one of us partnering
together as companions in life. It is you bringing
about what I'm hoping to do in life. Do we do
this with others? Yeah. So you have a distortion
of that aspect within the Greco -Roman world.
But then you also have the reality of parents
and their kids. Now this one, I want you to think
about it this way. If the group's survival is
the ultimate goal, think back to the table. Right?
We put the most important person furthest from
the door because we're trying to make sure that
the group survives. That it can go to the next
generation. That's a huge weight to put on somebody.
And as a parent in a household like one in Rome
in a Greco -Roman thing, I would put that weight
upon my children. Does this sound familiar in
some ways? Where your kids end up being your
hope for the future. That is a burden they are
never supposed to hold. You are to steward them
as God's children, holding up them before their
maker and helping them to flourish in all of
who God created them to be, not to serve the
ends of the group going forward. So you see a
distortion happening in the Roman household in
this setting as well. And then there's the masters
and the slaves, right? There are estimates that
30 to 40 % of the Roman world were slaves, of
the Roman population. People have described it
as the electricity of Rome. Now think about us
in a world that's highly digitized, and if you
take all the lights out suddenly, everything
screeches to a stop, and it is unable to continue
forward. So this is a structure of society where
slaves are not... A simple like, oh, this is
nice. I get an extra meal that they're cooking
for me. This is them being an integral part of
actually making the Roman society work. But remember
what the plan in Genesis was. This is about co
-partnership of stewarding the world around us,
not a domineering one of using other people in
order to bring about my own good or needs. Do
you see the distortion that Paul is speaking
to? Now the reason it's important to hold this
in context is because when Paul begins to address
this, he addresses it from the inside out and
in an upside down way. He doesn't dominate it
by wiping the whole thing clean and starting
over again. Why is that good news for you and
I? Because if I listen to your story and if you
listen to my story, We can add a lot to relate
to with the Greco -Roman world. And I'm in desperate
need of a God who steps into my life and begins
to transform it from the inside out rather than
saying, sorry, Phil, I can't have you part of
what I'm doing. And again, this is back to the
nightlight commitment, right? Coming in and visiting
them where they are and beginning from the inside
out to make things better again to flourish.
I'm guessing you have some questions about the
passage. We're going to get to those, so keep
holding those. What we say, though, is that each
person has a means that is far more valuable
than what they give to the group or their own
personal fulfillment. With the Greco -Roman world
family structure and what many of the ways we
relate to one another does is captured in this
quote here. No human relationship can bear the
burden of godhood. No human relationship can
bear the burden of Godhood. And the attempt is
to take its toll in some way on both parties
or on the group itself. So what this quote is
looking at is to say, when you remove God out
of the center of the relational framework and
fabric, there becomes a burden placed on that
fabric, on those relational dynamics, that will
crush God. the relationships. It will actually
begin to tear things apart. And that's what Paul
is writing into as he writes this passage. So
what's the answer? Ephesians 5 .21 says, be subject
to one another out of reverence for Christ. Let's
read that together. Be subject to one another
out of reverence for Christ. This becomes the
refrain. So think about a song. A song is going
to tell a story often. It's going to give all
kinds of details and things to communicate. But
at the core of it is going to be a refrain or
a repeating line. And that line is going to tell
you, yes, there's this whole story being told.
But if you take anything away from this song,
this is what you should be taking away. And what
Paul does in these short few verses, if you were
listening well to them, is he brings in Christ
14 times. again and again and again. And he says,
you brothers and sisters, you children, you who
are in the workplace as bond servants or whatever,
you cannot ever look at one another without Christ
being the center of that relationship, or else
it will begin to fall apart and become a distorted
way of engaging with one another. That's where
Paul writes, and that's why he's going to call
us back again and again and again, be subject
to one another in reverence for Christ. So the
question we ask is, let's go back to that story
about the table, right? Where was Jesus's place
at the table? Where should he have been sitting?
If he walked into that room, which he walks into
our lives, the table furthest, the seat furthest
from the door was his seat, right? And he could
have kicked out whoever was there and taken a
seat and basically said, I created all of you.
You are here ultimately for my fulfillment, my
purpose, and my means. What does Jesus do? Jesus
steps into our reality. And he sits right in
front of the door. And he doesn't only sit in
front of the door. hoping something will happen.
He sits in front of the door knowing that every
way that we have not loved one another well,
every way that others have not loved us well,
all of the evil that has happened in the world
was going to come rushing through that door and
crush him. He sat there knowing that full well.
And this is the one that we serve, that we look
to. And this is why Paul says, be subject to
one another. in reverence for Christ. This is
what he came and did for us. And we begin to
look at one another through this lens going forward.
This is the Jesus way. It begins to shape us
from the inside out in a completely different
way of engaging with one another. So what does
that actually look like within the Roman context,
within Ephesus, where Paul is writing to? Well,
Jesus came and he declared himself as not one
that came to be served, but to serve others and
to give up his life as a ransom for many. He
said these words, letting you and I know that
he didn't come to sit on that side of the table,
but he came to sit on this side of the table.
And then he followed through with what he said.
So I want us to consider the Jesus way. And here's
what I invite you to do. With your hands, go
ahead and make a U shape, okay? Now, when Jesus
comes, He comes down in a way that reflects this
U -shape. A psychologist and spiritual formation
author by the name of Daniel Allender gives this
perspective in the reality of who Christ has
come. So keep holding that up there. What Jesus
does is he descends down into our reality. He
does not wait for us to come to him. He actually
in movement comes to us and descends down into
our reality. And so that is a integral aspect
of it. You can put your hands down. A lot of
you are like, how long do I hold this up there?
What I want you to do is keep that in mind, though,
as you look forward. And you can even look through
your relationships in that aspect going forward.
So he descends down into our existence. He takes
on the form of humanity, one that he created,
even taking on the form of a slave and being
one for us. But he doesn't just stop there. He
comes to serve, not to be served. And so this
is the bottom part of the you where he has come
down and you think about him washing his disciples'
feet. Rather than sitting in the place of honor
and staying there and requiring everyone else
to be the ones who served him, he went and served
them. He humbled himself in that situation. So
again, he's down in the bottom of the you. Then
he sacrificed. He willingly gave up his very
life for you and for me. But then he rose again,
right? And so that's where it comes back up on
the other side of the you. So you go down in
this journey and you come back up and this kind
of marks and you remember the frame or the shape
of how Jesus has journeyed in on life. Why is
it important for us to keep that in mind? Well,
as Dallas Willard says, Christ was not crucified
so that you and I wouldn't have to be. He was
crucified so we could be crucified with him.
Now, don't worry. I'm not proposing that you
have to go and work out your salvation and you
are trying to make sure that you are paying off
your debt. This is a reality of our loyalty to
ourselves needs to die. Our loyalty to a different
group needs to be surrendered. The way that we
move ourselves in life needs to go to the cross
just as Christ went to the cross. And it happens
to follow the U shape. We all want to just jump
over from one end to the other. We do not want
to go down. We don't want to serve one another.
We want whole relationships without actually
the serving and sacrificing that happens there.
Can I get an amen? But that's not the way of
Jesus, right? Jesus comes and he says, join me,
but join me not in your own power, but through
the power of the Holy Spirit, who you will see
in just a moment here. So what does it look like
in Ephesus? What Jesus, what Paul is doing is
he's bringing Jesus into a specific cultural
context. And he brings Jesus into this context,
as I said, from the inside out in an upside down
way. How does that actually play itself out?
Well, husbands and wives, what is the husband
called to do? To give up his very life for his
wife, just like Jesus did for him. Headship?
Yes, absolutely. But what does that headship
entail? I get to call all the shots? I get to
make all the decisions. There's not a lot of
that in the Bible about, okay, husbands, you
get to control all of these different things.
But instead, what it says is if you are a position
as a man or in a position that find yourself
to be in more strength or whatever it may be,
your call is to give up your life for your wife.
Positionally, wherever we are in relationship
with one another, the way of Jesus is one where
the one... on the top actually serves the one
on the bottom. And that's what we see within
the Jesus way. What about wives? Wives are to
respect their husbands. They are to encourage
them in that way of Jesus as they are modeling
this. Similarly, through the way that Jesus brings
restoration with companionship. What about children?
Well, children are to honor their parents, to
obey them. And this isn't just because we're
trying to carry on the family name to something
else. This is because God has invited flourishing
within the family dynamic, a resurrection of
those relationships. And what about the slave
and the master? Well, they are to begin treating
each other the way that Christ has treated me
and treated you. And in treating us that way,
it completely takes away the whole hierarchy
of a slave and a master. Now, you may be asking,
but Pastor Phil, why didn't Paul just say slavery
is outlawed? This should not be the case. Why
is he speaking to such an evil institution and
saying, slaves, you need to respect your masters?
I believe probably the reason for that is within
the Roman Empire, there was no chance of you.
setting a protest to change things around. There
was no opportunity for you to move into the government
sphere and try to change it in that way. And
what Paul knows is a secret that Jesus came to
say, which is the way of Christ starts small
and it grows from the inside out. Is God about
slavery? No, absolutely not. Fundamentally, he
is working to undo that whole system. But in
this context, what he has done is he said, from
the inside out, it will change. And guess what?
It changed. Laws did change. Now, we still have
huge problems with slavery today, and that's
why people who are followers of Jesus are called
to step into that place and to treat one another
as Christ has. And this is also not to say that
when you have an opportunity in a government,
whether it be with an NGO or something of that
nature, to resist and push against slavery, do
so. But if you find yourself in a spot where
you are bound by the nation and the culture and
the system where you cannot do anything, you
begin from the inside out. And that's the beauty
of what Paul has brought in this passage to those
in Ephesus. So what does it look like? Husband
and wives really become brothers and sisters.
You and I become one large family where we treat
one another as brothers and sisters. The other
thing is that children become gifts from God.
Gifts that we are pouring into for the next generation.
And this means that we have expanded from husband
and wife and two kids, kind of a western view
of looking at it, to this. A new community of
people who are restoring relationship and passing
this on to the next generation. And it also takes
the whole dynamic of dominion and stewardship
over the world and it says, you know what? You
and I are brothers and sisters in that. It is
not me lording over you. The only ones that we
ultimately report to is God. And that's our hierarchical
structure. So treat those who are, if you find
yourself in a company, treat those who are underneath
you in the way that Christ treats you. That's
a powerful ethic from the inside out. So the
question then is, are you reflecting Jesus in
your closest relationships? Think through your
family dynamic. Think through, if you are married,
your husband -wife relationship. Think through
how you are interacting with your parents. Are
you reflecting Jesus in your closest relationships?
Thanks to actually Pastor Pablo's sermon on Colossians,
I set this chair up in our house, and it's kind
of in an awkward space in the middle of the home.
And we call this the Jesus chair. It's at the
center of the home. And it's to remind us that
when we walk into that space, he's there and
he is to be the one who's at the center of all
we do. This is a way of framing ourselves and
beginning to learn again what it is to be fully
who God created us to be. And what I want to
do, as I sometimes do, is I have a book that
I want to talk about and then I'm going to offer
it to one of you. It's called Habits of the Household.
And yes, it is written towards... the family
of husband, wife, and children, but it can apply
to those who are involved in all kinds of ways
of blessing the next generation, of being in
companion partnership with one another, of those
in the workplace. And so what this book does
is it just offers a way to begin to shape yourself
in the way of Jesus in all of your relational.
dynamics. Now, as I often say, if you read, if
you take this book, if I give it to you, I want
you to commit to reading it and then passing
it on to somebody else. And then it goes that
way. Okay. So normally I give you the disclaimer
at the end, but would anybody like this book?
All right, there you go. Okay. Now you guys keep,
keep track of him. Make sure that he reads it.
Cause I think the last few times this hasn't
necessarily gone through. What comes before this
passage? What Jesus doesn't do is just give us
a model and then say, all right, now go and do
it. Go and be crucified in that you shape. He
gifts us with the power of transformation that
moves us from the inside out and that allows
us to do what God has asked us to do. So key
to all of this is the Holy Spirit. And so we'll
put together the Jesus way. what Jesus has modeled
and called us to, as well as the power of the
Holy Spirit that moves us in that dynamic. And
again, this book with all of the different framework
of what it looks like to form habits that look
like Jesus infuses the Holy Spirit in and through
all of what we do. I want to end with a story
though, a story of a young lady who moved from
Bangkok before she was a Christian to Saudi Arabia
in 2014. And this young lady moved there. hoping
and believing that she was going to end up getting
married. So she had a boyfriend and she believed
that that was going to be a fulfillment of what
she experienced when she got there. She also
was moving there for work and she believed that
this would be a situation where she could progress
in her work situation and it was going to be
really good. So this lady moved to Saudi Arabia.
And she began her life there, and she reflects
that her and her boyfriend were fighting, I think
in this context, it was like cats and dogs is
how she said it. So they're seeing one another
as assets or liabilities in different transactional
relationship with one another. So much so, there's
so much tension because Jesus was not at the
center of that relationship that it ended up
breaking apart. So she has this grief of losing
that. At least work is still there, right? Well,
unfortunately, in that business setting, the
company made some shifts and began to downsize.
And they were laying off people. And again, layoff
after layoff, she's like, oh, it's not me, it's
not me. And eventually it became her. See, what
the company cared about more than anything else
was the bottom line. And if she stood in the
way of that bottom line, she was out. So now
she's experiencing... A lack of companionship,
which also could have been the next generational
blessing piece and the work dynamic. And those
have come together and just fallen apart in front
of her. She's like, I was so lonely in that situation.
Well, into that stepped a family and a family
that actually came around her. And they were
formed and shaped through the power of the Holy
Spirit in what we have just talked about. And
they were curious about this lady. And so they
got to know her. They began to make connections
with her and they were the ones that took that
step towards this person. But not only that,
they were humble and they listened well. See,
they weren't coming in and saying, hey, we want
to just bring all of who we are to you. That
ended up happening in a healthy relationship
later on. But they listened and they asked questions
and they began to connect that way. And then
they were sacrificial. They had a two -bedroom
apartment. And they had a young daughter who
they moved out of this apartment, not out of
the apartment, into their room with them to make
space for this lady in their daughter's room.
It's a sacrifice. It cost them because, and here's
the thing to remember, there was nothing in this
whole relational connection where this family
was receiving anything from this lady. But they
were generously giving out of an overflow of
what Christ had done for them. And you know what
happened? This lady ended up coming to saving
faith in Christ through that experience. She
came to saving faith in Christ through that experience,
which then created a committed family with them.
One where they are forever brothers and sisters
in Christ, where it changed everything from then
forward. And who is this lady? Emily Kim, who
works with Community Life. And now she is giving
of herself to help shape and form community here
because her life was so transformed from Jesus
in our closest relationships that she is committed
to give herself in that space going forward.
And she gave permission to share this story and
you can hear more to it later. But what I share
it, what I share it is to remind you of the power
of Jesus in our closest relationships. It can
come and encounter us no matter where we are
at, and it flips our life around and brings us
into a new way of engaging with God, where there's
brothers and sisters, there's people to create
generational blessing through, and there's a
partnership for God's kingdom that flows out
of what she does. And that's the beauty of Jesus
in all of life, right? I want to invite you to
pray with me in that. Lord, I thank you for the
incredible way that you have extravagantly stepped
towards us. And I thank you for the way that
you have encountered us and engaged us and moved
us by your great love for us. And no matter what
cultural aspect that we find ourselves in and
no matter what messy family background we find
ourselves in, you step towards us and you breathe
new life, resurrection life into that. And when
you do that, your kingdom comes and your will
is done. And we're so deeply thankful for that.
So Lord, would we be people that would help to
magnify you in all of life? Would we join in
creation singing your song, representing you
to the world who needs relational wholeness?
We pray this all in the wonderful name of Jesus.
Amen. If God is calling you to support our ministries,
you will find giving options on our website.
And remember to join us next week. God bless
you.