If I See Something I Say Something Part II
Tim Ross | June 21, 2020
“Sometimes it takes courageous, uncomfortable conversations to move the needle. Sometimes being politically correct will not work when there’s a mandate from heaven to move the needle.”
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Transcription
Thank you. Y'all ready? I hope you're ready. If you have your Bibles, I want you to open them up. We are in a series right now called we make dreams come true. This started two weeks ago. Within this particular series, there is a message that I started last week called if I see something, I say something. I had to put in first person, I didn't want it to be. If you see something, you say something, I wanted you to write it so that you can own it. If I see something, I say something. Last week we were in the book of Galatians 2 and we talked about Paul confronting and opposing Peter to his face in public because of the hypocrisy that he was expressing to the Gentiles in front of other Jews.
I want to take you to another passage still dealing with the same theme found in the book of Acts 15. Again, I want to take you out of current events. I want to take you out of the context of our cultural climate right now in this country. I want to put you into the scripture to let you know that there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. The things that we are dealing with now are things that the early church had to deal with then. It's not the exact same thing but it's the same kind of different, if you will.
I want to read you Acts chapter number 15 the first 21 verses we love reading scripture here so I make no apologies for it. I want you to have a good context before I dive into what the Lord has given me for today. Here's how I want you to frame your mind. We are about to step into a council meeting with the early church fathers. The apostles that laid the groundwork for the ministry that we declare today had it not been for Acts chapter number 15, I would not be standing here preaching today.
I want to let how important that is but I want to let you into the meeting and I'm so grateful the writer Luke allowed us not to just know that there was a meeting but the details of that meeting starting at verse number one. Acts chapter 15, it says this while 'Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses you cannot be saved.' Can I just pause right there? That is craziness.
The Holy Spirit has already fallen on the Gentiles as of Acts chapter number 10 and there are some Judaizers out there saying if you don't do it the exact same way we do it, you're not even saved. Jesus hasn't even redeemed you. I love the first line of this sentence. Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them. Thank you, Paul. Arguing vehemently. That's good right there. I want to let you know that if my voice goes up today a little bit if a slight vein starts to pop out of my neck, it's because I want to argue vehemently against the spirit of racism. I want to argue vehemently against injustice being done to our brothers and sisters.
I want to argue vehemently against any apathy that would try to set in, in the church, against what we need to do as believers to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters in the faith know that they have equal standing with God and us. Finally the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem accompanied by some local believers to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.
The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them much to everyone's joy that the Gentiles too were being converted. When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted that Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.
Once again they came up with the same verse, the same mindset again. The apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue at the meeting. After a long discussion, because you need to know that some of the stuff that we're talking about now, some of the stuff that we're talking about now, some of the stuff that is being raised up issues that need to be addressed, they're not going to happen with one discussion especially one that's short. It's not going to happen with one sermon. It's not going to happen with one round table.
After a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows, "Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the good news and believe. God knows people's hearts and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did us. He made no distinction between us and them for he cleansed their hearts through faith. Why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with the yolk that neither we know our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus."
Everyone listened quietly as Paul and Barnabas told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. When they had finished, James stood and said, "Brothers listen to me. Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. This conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophet is predicted as it is written. 'Afterwards, I will return and restore the fallen house of David, I will rebuild its ruins and restore it so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles. All those I have called to be mine, the Lord has spoken, he who made these things known so long ago.'
My judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood, for these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city, on every Sabbath for many generations."
If you're taking notes on this message, the title of this message is, if I see something, I say something, part two. If I say something, I say something, part two. Now, here is the environment I want to set. I want you to imagine that you and I have been called with Paul and Barnabas to go to the elders meeting in Jerusalem. We are going to this council meeting with the founding apostles of the faith, along with some elders of the church in Jerusalem. We are going to make sure that there's going to be rights for Gentiles equal to the rights of Jews.
What was interesting is that, just like last week, when Paul had to confront Peter when some people visit from Antioch, they go to Antioch and visit, in Syria, they say to themselves, "Hey, we can't have these Gentiles, accepted into the faith of Jesus Christ, unless they are circumcised and they actually become Jewish people, they practice the teachings of Judaism." This incensed both, Paul and Barnabas because as they were going on their missionary journeys, they were already seeing the conversions of Gentile people that were coming into the faith. Not only that, they were equipping them spiritually and discipling them to become leaders in the church.
I love what Scripture says they disagreed with them and they argued vehemently. I don't know about you. I don't know if you've ever been in a vehement argument. I don't know if you're married, and if you've ever argued vehemently with your spouse. I don't know if you like sports and your team is the Cowboys and my team for my whole life is going to be the Raiders, no matter where they play. There can be some vehement arguments that can go on. What I love about Paul and Barnabas is they were not intimidated by the leadership that was holding this thought process.
They were not going to be intimidated by their rank, their profile, because they knew that what they were saying was not the truth. May I just pause and say, when we know that we have biblical foundation for what it is that we need to teach or preach, standing up for the truth is not just a principle, it is a person and His name is Jesus. Jesus is the truth, not your denomination, not your theological persuasion. Jesus Himself is the truth. What they understood and knew is that Jesus would not allow this to be going on, and so we cannot allow it to go on.
They argued vehemently and the argument precipitated till they said, "No, no, no, y'all got to go back to Jerusalem. Y'all got to get back to Jerusalem, y'all need to have a meeting, you all need to resolve this." I want you to think about this, Acts 15. The very first thing that the apostles had to resolve for the gospel to be spread further was the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. We talked last week, what would have happened if they did not oppose this teaching that was coming from the Judaizers. We know that there would have been division, we know there would have been discrimination and we know there would have been domination.
Paul uses his Jewish privilege to fight for the rights of Gentiles. Here we have it. At chapter number 15, Paul and Barnabas gladly go to Jerusalem. They say we'll gladly go have this meeting we'll gladly go sit down with the apostles and the elders to tell them what it is that we've experienced now that the gospel has spread. We will gladly link up and discuss this and have a discussion no matter how long it takes to ensure Gentiles are looked at in the same exact way as Jews.
They get to Jerusalem, once they get there, they hear some more people saying the same exact thing, "Hey, okay, we know these Gentiles want to get in but these Gentiles are not going to get in unless they convert to Judaism and they are circumcised and guess what, another argument broke out. See a lot of people think that if we're going to be believers that everything must be polite and everything must be like, "Hey, it doesn't matter." No, no stuff does matter.
That's why when we see something, we say something because there are some things that matter, according to Scripture. One thing that matters to God that should matter to us is to make sure that everybody that calls himself a believer in Jesus Christ knows that they are going to be treated equally based on their faith and not on their ethnicity. Here's what happens. They get into this room. They close the door and they have a meeting. Now, let me tell you something. I am the senior elder of Embassy City Church, and as a result, we have elders meetings here and elders meetings are closed-door meetings where we as the elders govern the church that is called Embassy City.
We get together and we come into a room and we make sure that we do not leave that room and make decisions and two, we have come into agreement. Until there's unity between us all about the direction that we feel like God is telling us to go. Those meetings are not public. We do not invite other people into those meetings, not even the staff. Those that are called to be elders, help us to govern the direction of the ministry.
Here's what I love about the Bible. It chose not to edit this meeting. I love the fact that they went into the room, they closed the door. They had their meeting and they came out they made a decision, but what I'm happy about is that Luke, oh, thank you, Dr. Luke. Luke was like, let me tell you what happened in the meeting. That makes me happy. I don't have to be a fly on the wall. I don't have to wish that I was in the meeting. Luke actually came out and gave the details of the meeting. I love this Bible.
This Bible from Genesis to Revelation is so open, it is so transparent. It makes no qualms about the issues going on, it just lays out humanity before us. My hope and prayer is that America can be just as honest about its history, as the Bible is with theirs. They close the door and they had this meeting but during this meeting, they address some very difficult things in coming to their conclusion.
I want to give you, in this message, the four major takeaways from the meeting. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. I want to give you the four major takeaways from this meeting. I'm excited to give you these. Basically, I want to let you into the elders' meeting. Hey, I just came back from the elders meeting in Acts chapter number 15. I can't wait to tell you what happened in there. Because, oh man, they covered some stuff.
Y'all ready? Point number one. Here was the first major takeaway from the elders' meeting. There is no us versus them. That was the first major takeaway from this elders' meeting. There is no us versus them. Now, let me explain what was going on here. The Jews have received the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter number two and it had not come into the Gentiles yet they didn't have that Holy Spirit experience until Acts chapter number 10, which is actually 10 years between Acts 2 and Acts chapter number 10 and they were really grappling with how do we receive these Gentiles into the Christian faith? How are we supposed to look at them?
When we let them in? Do they have to do everything like we do it or how is it supposed to be? The first major takeaway was there is no us versus them. Here's what it says in Acts chapter number 15, 'He made no distinction between us and them.' This is Peter talking, 'for he cleansed their hearts through faith.' I want to say that again. He made no distinction between us and them. He made no distinction between us and them. Now, here is what I hope you can wrap your mind around. If it were not for Jewish people having this conversation, then there would be no Gentiles that could properly declare Jesus without doing everything the Jewish people were doing for thousands of years.
Let me, let me break it down. If it wasn't for Jewish people, having this conversation and getting to the breakdown of there is no distinction then no white people from Europe could be doing the gospel. If it wasn't for this breakdown and no distinction, no black people from Africa could be doing the gospel. No people from Latin America could be doing the gospel. If they held this stringent belief that they had to do everything exactly like us, then everyone who was not a Jew. Remember last week, pop quiz. What makes you non-Jewish? The fact that you're not a Jew, pop quiz. What makes you a Gentile? The fact that you are not a Jew that can trace your lineage back to Abraham.
I want you to understand what the Jews did in this passage, in this verse, saying that there's no distinction is why white people who are Gentiles can preach the gospel. It's why black people who are Gentiles can preach the gospel. It's why Hispanics who are Gentile can preach the gospel. That's why you, 11% Croatian, 19% German, 52%, whatever can preach it. The only division that God saw from heaven is those I have covenant with and those I do not.
These Jewish people said we cannot make a distinction between us and them. If the issue from heaven is Jew and Gentile, I'm majorly confused that America has made it black and white. We're both Gentiles.
Since when is a light-skinned Gentile that we would call white, think that you have supremacy over a dark-skinned Gentile that we would call black? We both wouldn't be here unless they had that conversation about us, but yet you got over here and forgot history. There is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, which means there's definitely no distinction between black and white and Hispanic and Southeast Asian and Russian and Australian and somebody from Great Britain and somebody from the Middle East and somebody from Iraq.
There can't be, you know why? Because those apostles and elders decided there was no distinction. The fact that we could get all the way on the other side of the world and be arguing about something that they resolved means that Satan knows really well how to trick us into thinking that we are better than we actually are. If you are not a Jew, you are a Gentile. If you are a Gentile then we must look to scripture to have precedent on how we deal with division.
Acts chapter number 15 is the elders meeting that gave us the precedent to know that we can speak to racism in America because they spoke to the division in Jerusalem. Newsflash, America is not Jerusalem. America's not God's gift to Israel. Israel is God's gift to the world. We have to stop our replacement theology thinking that somehow we have become God's chosen nation when Israel will always be God's chosen nation. Might as well throw this in here real quick for the black Hebrew Israelites, correct? You are not the enslaved people written about in scripture. Israel were the enslaved people written about in scripture.
We can identify with them because we were in this country, experiencing the same issues as them. If God was talking about black people in Genesis chapter number 15, then there would be no Exodus. It would have went Genesis, Job, maybe Esther. We have to stop disrespecting Jewish people. We have to stop taking their narrative and then flipping it around like it's our narrative. I know you love Jeremiah 29:11. He was talking to Jewish people. Now, you can resonate with it. You can reflect, you can get something from it, but please don't take it from them as if it wasn't written to them. There's their book that we get to find ourselves in. It's not somehow turned into our book that we let them into.
They will always be the route to which Gentiles will be the engrafted people of God. Anytime you try to flip that around, then the Bible becomes something shaky that you can interpret for your own benefit. Point number two, the second takeaway that comes from this elders' meeting that we have the opportunity to step into. Everyone listened quietly. I'm going to say those three words again because right now a lot of listening needs to be going on. Everyone listened quietly.
Here's what it says in scripture. 'Everyone listened quietly.' That's what it says. That's why I made it the point because that's what it says. Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. These Jewish men use their Jewish privilege to step into a room full of Jews and say, shut up for a minute. We're discipling Gentiles. They're getting saved. I'm mentoring a guy named Titus right now. If you don't stop this stuff, I can't write letters to him.
Well, shut up. Wait, the next thing we need-- Shut up. Listen quietly. You can't talk until you've listened because until you listen, you won't learn. I'm speaking to churches today that are trying to grapple with what's going on in America in real-time. You don't have to be quick to respond. I know everybody's pushing you for a response, but if you say something quickly, you might say something stupid.
Take your time. Listen, you don't understand black culture. You need to get some black people and listen, don't cut them off and say, you know what the solution is? Because you don't just listen. You want to have a round table. It's not for dialogue. It should be a monologue. Listen. We'll let you talk in a minute, but you haven't listened long enough to learn anything, to come up with a solution. Before you wash somebody else's feet, before you apologize on behalf of a whole race, let us finish the sentence because until you listen and you learn, you can't move forward with a solution.
Everyone listened quietly. Remember this was a long discussion. I don't know how long it was, but it was a long discussion. Paul and Barnabas are speaking. They're saying, listen, half the people I'm mentoring are Gentiles. I'm trying to really move this thing along. You do understand if we don't get these Gentiles in here, we are cutting off the legs and feet of our own movement. You do understand if you don't get some black people on staff, you are cutting the legs and feet off of your own movement. If you don't get some Hispanics on your staff, you are cutting off the legs and feet of your own movement. If you don't get some Southeast Asians in your leadership, you are cutting off the legs and feet of your own movement because for a fact that when people walk through the back door, they're looking for someone at the front door that looks like them.
While you would love to make it spiritual and just say, we just want to put people in the presence of the Lord, before people can see God's presence, they usually see our presence. if our presence doesn't reflect what it looks like when their people go to the grocery store. How was the grocery store more diverse than church? The baseball game is more diverse in church. The concert you go to is more diverse than church. How is it that 57 to 60 years after Dr. Martin Luther King said that eleven o'clock is the most segregated hour in America, that is still the most segregated hour in America?
It's probably because you haven't had your elders meeting yet. It's probably because you haven't had your board of trustees meeting yet. It's because you haven't had your deacon board meeting yet and you haven't argued vehemently what each other. Now I'm not talking about a church that's in Billings, Montana that's 99.9% white. There's nothing you can do about that. Please understand I'm not talking to you, but there's no way you're gonna be in LA, there's no way you're going to be in New York, there's no way you're going to be in Miami, there's no way is going to be in Dallas, no way you're going to be in Houston, no way you can be in New Orleans, no way you can be in Chicago and all these major cities and you're that way you, you're that Black, you're that Hispanic. So much so that you are known as the Black church.
I'm just trying to see if Paul would ever write a letter to the Black church. My letter to the white churches scattered abroad, I greet you with Jesus' joy. To the letters of the Hispanic churches. We let everybody in this country because we told them that they would have opportunity and freedom, but then we won't let them into our churches because we don't feel like they deserve opportunity and freedom. Unless they circumcise himself. Unless they become Judaizers. Unless they totally embraced our culture. As long as your culture and the kingdom culture, you understand the difference between kingdom culture should reign over everything.
Point number three, third takeaway. They had scripture for reference, Oh Lord. Somebody opened the Bible. Thank you, Jacob, for opening the Bible. Jacob, thank you. Jacob, you are the man. Jacob. I'm high fiving you, Jacob. Jacob, you are such a beast. I'm so glad you're at that meeting, Jacob. I'm so glad that you were the leader of the Jerusalem church. Jacob, you are amazing. I know some of y'all are wondering right now. Who's Jacob. Jacob is Jesus's half brother whose name got changed to James in 1611 with when the King James Bible was written. See how easy it is for us to replace stuff. Just because you printed it, King James, doesn't mean that you get to Trump King Jesus.
I'm to call James by his government name, Jacob. It's amazing to me that we've printed as many Bibles as we printed and we can't even get his name right again. Cool King James great. Do we have the honor King James over Jacob? We even took his Jewish name and made it an English name. Here's scripture from Jacob 'and this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted as it is written. Afterward, I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord.'
Here it is. This was old Testament, 'including the Gentiles. All those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken. He who made these things known so long ago.' They had scripture to reference. When you want to know if you have precedent to do something as a believer just search the scriptures. If it's in the Bible, you are a good solid foundation to move forward. He said, "Hey, I'm reminded of this passage in the book of Amos 9:11-12, it actually says something about God restoring us but then also Gentiles coming in too. Matter of fact, anybody that would call him his name. I'm so glad Jacob read his Bible. I'll be glad when we do the same, when it comes to matters of racism and injustice. When I think about the last 120 years of the church from 1900 to 2020, what I am dumbfounded by is that we got to 2020, and we've had all these many years of church and the church has not done a solid job of standing up strong against racism and injustice for 120 years. To the point that we're still talking about it right now.
You do know that if you would have read Philemon y'all could have ended slavery. It's a page about a runaway slave who encounters Paul becomes a believer and Paul tells Philemon, "Hey, I'm bringing this guy back to you, but you got to receive him different because if he's a believer and you're believer, you don't have a slave anymore. You have a brother. I'm trying to figure out how white slave owners, enslaved Black people, taught them the Bible but left that out.
Are we referencing scripture? In our elders' meetings, are we going to scripture and going, we got to kill this, and let's find a Bible first to do it or do we still have so much of America's culture that we can't even cite kingdom culture? Are you still being so disciplined by Fox news in this MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, OAN that you can not hear yourself have a discussion for four hours and never bring up a Bible verse? I am arguing vehemently with you. You are on my last nerve and it's got to stop, go straight back to the Bible, read it, and then we can literally from scripture push this thing along.
If you're only getting up on the weekend to say something that makes your church comfortable, you're in the wrong business. I pastored the equivalent of an interracial couple. We've got about 60% African American and we got about a 40% non-black. The majority of that would be Caucasian. Then we have Hispanic, then we have a Southeast Asian, we got Koreans. We got all kinds of people in this church. I love this church, but here's what I know. If I preach the gospel some weeks, I'm going to make the Black people mad. If I really preach this book right, I'm going to make the white people man, I'm going to make everybody uncomfortable.
That's what the gospel does. It won't let stay comfortable. It's always going to challenge you. It is always going to stretch you. Go look at the three and a half years that the disciples followed Jesus. They get on a boat storm breaks out. They get off the boat demons that are naked are cutting themselves, running after him. It isn't safe following Jesus, he's good. He's not safe. Go watch The First Narnia.
Point number four, we're about to wrap up the elders' meeting. Point number four. After we realized that there was no distinction between us and after we realized that God wants us to be for everybody. After we process the revelation that God's given us, that we have scripture for this, that we have a precedent to stand on as we make this move. Point number four, please write this down because this is going to really upset the world. Don't make this difficult. Don't make this difficult.
Here's what Jacob, Jesus' half brother, says, and so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult. Where do you think I'm coming up with these points? I'm just actually reading the Bible and coming up with a point based on what it said in the Bible, and so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Just leave that scripture up there. Don't make this difficult.
In this elders' meeting, emotions ran high, in this elders' meeting, voices got loud. In this elders' meeting, I'm sure some feelings were hurt, but sometimes it takes courageous uncomfortable conversations to move the needle. Sometimes being politically correct will not work when there's a mandate from heaven to move the needle. Here's what I'm telling you. We should not make this difficult.
I firmly believe that God has used this Coronavirus to shut the entire world down and specifically to America, has put a magnifying glass over racism in this country. I don't think he's talking to the government. I think he's talking to the church. Here's what I think he's telling the church. Before you lay hands on another president thinking they are going to help you do your job, I need you to lead the oval office and get back to the most sacred office that I've given you authority in. That's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If they see us do it here, then they'll do it there. You cannot legislate nor incarcerate hate. Jim Crow laws did more to punish these people in this country than anything. We might as well have stayed in slavery. We were getting killed more after the emancipation proclamation than when we were slaves. Let's not make this difficult. Let's hash it out here. Let the church of Jesus Christ and this elders' meeting be the place where "Argh." When we come out, let's just flat out say, "Hey, we're not going to make this difficult for everybody. We're not going to make it difficult anymore for Black people and Hispanic people and Asian people and all people of color, for women to be a part of moving the gospel forward."
Do you know if the Gentiles didn't have us, they could do nothing great? Do you know how much longer it would have taken for the gospel to spread?If it was exclusively for Gentiles only? If it was just a good old boy network full of Jews? There are racist white people, there are racist Black people, there are racist Hispanic, there are racist Indians, there are racist Middle Eastern. There are-- No, that's a spirit. I'm telling you, I feel a burden from the Lord to drive it out of these pews. I don't know what America is going to do about their issue with racism. I'll be glad to speak into that, but here's what I know I have, some control over what happens here.
I'm telling anyone that calls Embassy City home, if you are waiting for me to stop talking about this subject and get back to preaching the gospel, then you have never heard the gospel fully preached. This is a watershed moment for the church. I pray that we would get behind closed doors, raise our voices loud and end these spirits reign over our churches, because I see something, I'm saying something.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that there is something that is rising up on the inside of you, whether that be righteous indignation to finally speak up or whether it be a conviction of the Holy Spirit that in some way you've kind of been a Judaizer. It wasn't to shame them. Anytime the Holy Spirit spots something cancerous in our heart, the wonderful thing I love about him is that he's so polite to show it to us so that we can get rid of it.
Racism is not something anyone's born with. They're taught it. They've learned it. Bias and prejudice is not something that people are born with. They learn those things, where you say well, nobody instructed me. Well, if it wasn't taught, it was caught. If everybody else was doing it and you started doing it I'm not blaming you for that. All I'm saying is if you see something, say something. You got some mustard on your shirt. You didn't mean to put the mustard on your shirt. You were just go on about your day living but then you had some mustard on your shirt, though.
I truly believe that God is pointing out our stains on us, where we've been bigoted, where we've been biased, where we've been prejudiced, where we have discriminated. God is pointing to us the church. I don't know what America's going to do. Church of Jesus Christ though, embassy City, we see something so we're saying something. You might be listening to this message and you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior. Can I tell you something amazing? God has made no distinction between Jew or Gentile, God has also made no distinction between me and you.
I don't care what your background is. I don't care what your history is. I don't care what you've come from or what you've done. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Repent of your sins. What does it mean to repent? It means to renounce, what does it mean to renounce? It means to disavow your old life for the new life in Christ.
If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord you shall be saved. Hey, we're doing some heavy lifting over the next few weeks, Embassy City. I'm feeling more bold by the week. I don't know when this series is going to be over, but I want you to pray for me. It's a lot going on right now. There's a lot of people's emotions that are involved and I get that, but I'm not coming out of this Bible for solutions. I'm going into it for solutions.
Father God, I pray that you would welcome in with open arms, everyone that wants to receive Jesus as Lord, and I pray God that for those that might be finding a mustard stain or a ketchup stain, I pray that as they bring that to you, you would wash them white as snow. I thank you for the mandate you've given us to upset the world and we can't wait to see what you do with this church as a solution to this problem.
