Point of Grace – 9.29.24 Sermon Notes
Jesus dreams His church to be
“A Safe Place to Belong”
Does humanity need this?
“Our sense of meaning comes from loving connections with God and others. We are born to connect, and we need to belong. We receive love that ultimately stems from the beautiful love among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which has existed for all eternity. We then give that love out of gratitude for the love we have received, this becomes a virtuous circle. But sometimes we get stuck. There are forces at work in our culture and in our hearts and habits that disconnect us from ourselves and others….. But in our most honest moments we know this is what we need: to know and be known, to love and be loved.
“The Connected Life” by Todd W. Hall
Jesus and Belonging
John 8:3-11 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Matthew 9:9-13 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus’ revolutionary message was that all people “Belonged” to Him …. He paid for us to be with Him even with all our baggage … guilts, gunk and grief … which so often isolate us. The community He inspired (the church) has the same message “belonging is possible in the Body of Christ”.
The Jesus Community – A Safe Place to Belong
Ephesians 2 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ…… 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
The presence and love of Christ released in His church gathered in His name under His reign makes “a safe place of belonging” possible.
1 John 4 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
We each need a safe place to belong and together we get to be that place of belonging for others.