Do Better - Act Justly

Are you ready? Yeah, come on, we're gonna worship Jesus. Here we go. Yeah. Come on. ♪ Yeah, praise God, hey. ♪ ♪ Yeah, praise God, it's worth it, good. ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God. ♪ ♪ And His love endures forever. ♪ ♪ He is always good, and His love endures forever. ♪ ♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. ♪ ♪ Praise Him on the earth below. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, all you heavenly hosts. ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God. ♪ ♪ Cause He's worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Every eye will see. Every knee will bow. ♪ ♪ All the glory and power. To who? To Christ our King. Yeah! ♪ ♪ Oh, He reigns forever, all creation sing. Yeah! ♪ ♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. ♪ ♪ Praise Him, all the earth be full. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, all you heavenly hosts. ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God. ♪

♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God. ♪ ♪ He is worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Praise God. ♪ ♪ Yeah! ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Peace, bring it all to peace. ♪ ♪ Let storms surrounding me, let it break. ♪ ♪ At Your name, still, call the sea to still. ♪ The rage you need is still everywhere at your name Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus, your silence filled Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus Breath, call these bones to live Call these lungs to sing once again I will praise Jesus, Jesus You make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus, your silence filled Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus, your silence filled Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus Your name is a light that the shadows can't deny Your name cannot be overcome Your name is a light forever lifted high Your name cannot be overcome Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble

Jesus, Jesus, your silence filled Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus Jesus, Jesus Jesus, Jesus Your name is a light that the shadows can't deny Your name cannot be overcome Your name is a light forever lifted high Your name cannot be overcome Your name is a light that the shadows can't deny Your name cannot be overcome Your name is a light forever lifted high Your name cannot be overcome Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus, your silence filled Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble Jesus, Jesus Behold, the Father's arm The mystery lavish His arms Steve cries out ♪ Too deep, how desperately He wants us ♪ ♪ The things of earth stand next to Him ♪ ♪ Like a candle to the sun ♪ ♪ Unfailing Father, compares to His grace ♪ ♪ He loves ♪ ♪ Behold His holy Son ♪ ♪ The Lion and the Lamb given to us ♪ ♪ The Word became a man ♪ ♪ My soul should know His Savior ♪ Thank you, Jesus.

♪ Forsaken for the sake of all mankind ♪ ♪ Salvation is His love ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ The righteous died for love ♪ ♪ And it wasn't over ♪ ♪ For He is the risen One ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ How great Your love is ♪ Sing. ♪ How great Your love is ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ How great Your love is ♪ ♪ How great Your love is ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Behold I have a friend ♪ ♪ The Spirit breathing Holy fire within ♪ ♪ My ever-present help ♪ ♪ Speaking truth when I can't find it ♪ ♪ Cut up this broken heart and light my way ♪ ♪ Till my time on earth is done ♪ ♪ Oh, Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Breathe in me like kingdom come ♪ ♪ Oh, Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Let Your Word in me be done ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪

♪ I pray to love His truth ♪ ♪ I pray to love His truth ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ I pray to love His truth ♪ ♪ I pray to love His truth ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul ♪ ♪ I pray to love His truth ♪ ♪ God, forever you love me ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪

♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ He who was and is to come ♪ ♪ Prepare the way until the work on earth is done ♪ ♪ I say dear God, I need to know your worth ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ I say dear God, to hear you ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ I say dear God, to hear you ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ I say dear God, to hear you ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ And this is my soul, my God ♪ ♪ I say dear God, to hear you ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art ♪ Whether you're singing kind of the new version of that lyric or you grew up singing the old one, how many of you can say that that original hymn just hits? It just gets different.

And I think it's really simple. Jesus tells us to have childlike faith, right? That's a commandment. Hey, be like this child. And for so many of you and so many of us, that song reminds us of our child, our childlike faith, that season in our life. We remember growing up with that song. It's that faith. It's that faith that draws us. Listen to Jesus that draws us closer to the Lord. But maybe you're in this room and this is your first time, maybe you're online, this is the first time you're tuning in. Maybe you're sitting somewhere in Florida and you're watching on a little screen, I don't know. It's funny because I know someone who's in Florida and I'm like, he's probably watching. The Lord gonna get you? Here's the thing, whether this is your first time or you've been here a bunch, you are in the right spot. Jesus wants to meet you, he wants to know you, he wants to rescue you. And maybe you're sitting there like, I don't need no rescue. And well, you came to church today, so there's something. I didn't need rescuing at some point either until Jesus found me in a basement in Colorado, okay? It's true, it's true.

Can we just pray together and lean into Jesus? Come on, Lord, we love you. Lord, thank you that you are a God of generations. Lord, that you're not a fad. Lord, that you're not just this thing that we do, this little short-term moment. But Lord, you are a God of forever. You're a God of the beginning and the end. You are the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Lord Jesus, would you become so real to us that we wouldn't help but just notice you in everything that we do? Lord, whether we are sitting somewhere on the other side of the country, on the other side of the world, we're in this room, we're at our house, we're listening to this in our car. Lord, whether we are in a good spot or a bad spot, Lord, you are consistent. Lord, you allow us to get to these places where then sings my soul. How great thou art, how great you are. How great you are. God, in every moment of our life, as we look back, we can see the webs of your grace and your generosity throughout our life. And Lord, for those of us in this room who maybe this is our first time, Lord, that we can't even say, like, I don't even know if I have a history with this God guy.

Lord, would you open up our hearts in that moment to be able to look around and say, hey, you know what? God's actually been there the whole time. Because you've been there the whole time. Lord, thank you that when everything else in our life leaves our table, that you are the one thing that stays. Even when we get up and walk off, you still stay. Jesus, and as we take communion with you, Jesus, and as we take communion, as we take something so simple as bread and a little bit of juice, would it be the reminder for us of what you did on a cross? Lord, in being beaten and hung on some nails to a tree, Lord, taking the full punishment and the weight of sin on yourself, so that way we can have a relationship with you and someday get to see you in heaven. Let that grace become real for us right now in the name of Jesus. Lord, forgive us of our sin. Whether we know about it, whether we don't know about it, grace covers it all. So Lord, help us. Help us to be humble before you. We love you, Lord Jesus. We worship you. We give you all the honor and all the glory. In the name of Jesus, we pray together.

Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for worshiping with us this morning. Feel free to make your way back to your seats and take communion when you're ready. Amen. What's up, Pantano? I'm Jonathan, and I'm so pumped you're here today. At Pantano, we're all about connection. Life is just better when we're doing it together, finding hope, building each other up, and making a difference along the way. If you're here in person, come say hi. Swing by our Next Steps after service, and our team will help you find a place in our community. Joining us online? You belong here, too. Head over to Next Steps online, fill out a Connect card, and let's stay connected. And don't miss out what's happening all throughout the week. Hit that Follow button and join the Pantano community on our socials for updates, encouragement, and more ways to stay connected. This month, we're taking a moment each week to recognize and celebrate those who make serving others their full-time job. And since International Nurses Day and International Law Enforcement Appreciation Day are this week, we want to say a big thank you

to all of our nurses and law enforcement officers. We are truly grateful for your service, dedication, and the sacrifices you make each and every day. At Pantano, we believe radical generosity reshapes our world, and because of your giving, people experience the love of Jesus in a real and tangible way. Lives are changed, and people are equipped and sent out to make a difference in their communities and around the world. If you feel led to give, you can drop your gift in our giving box, give online through our website, or text GIVE to 46356. Summer is right around the corner. Yes, yes, let's go, yeah, wow, yeah, I'm so proud, yeah! And it'll be packed with fun for your kids and students. We've got something for every age, from birth all the way through our graduated seniors. Our Kids' Summer Camp Winshape is an amazing experience happening right here on campus. And for our students, overnight camp is the highlight of the summer, and something that they won't wanna miss. Let me tell you, it's awesome. To find all the details, you can head over to Next Steps and get signed up. Thanks again for joining us. We can't wait to jump into our new series, Do Better. And so, do better. Yeah, you, I'm looking at you.

Do better. Do, just do better. So, what's up, Pantano Church? How you doing today? Man, so good to see all of you. If you're new and you don't know, we are one church that meets in multiple locations all across Tucson and the surrounding area, and across the globe online. So, let's give a shout-out to a couple people. I wanna say a big shout-out to our Benson campus. Can you welcome all of them in? Come on, yeah. Give it up for our friends at the Gospel Rescue Mission. Come on. How about everybody at the Santa Rita unit, God Behind Bars, yep. And then we have our friends right here on campus at our Espanol service. Give it up for those guys as well. Yeah, so awesome. Man, we're excited about all that God is doing in every single spot, every single location. It's cool. Before we dive into the message today, I wanna celebrate two people. The first, if you may not know, if you're new to our church, there's a lady by the name of Robin Blumenthal, and she has, for the last few years,

she's actually been our outreach pastor. She's kind of ran with outreach ministry. She's been on staff for a long time, many different positions and different ministries, but she's done an incredible job. In the last little bit of this season, God has been calling her into something new. Her heart is always about the community and being in her world, and she has done such a great job of bridging the gap between the church and our community. And so God is fully calling her into community, and I can't wait to see what all He does with her life. So she's stepping out of that gap, she's stepping out of that role, don't worry. She'll be around and a part of our church for sure. But I just wanna take a moment just to say thank you. Can we just give it up for Robin Blumenthal? Yeah. Yes. The next person I want to give a shout-out to is actually here. I'm gonna invite my friend Dan. Dan, come on out. Give it up for Dan Jones everybody. So I met Dan a little over a year ago and he was working with this ministry that takes the Bible to every people group on the planet, right? Gets the Bible in the hands of everybody. So that's how we met and Dan and I just struck up a friendship and he even invited me to officiate he and Carla, his wife's wedding this past January, which was amazing. And we're still married. He does good work. I have a good track record. Still married. And but along the way we just began talking about, man, what could God do to use your experience and your ministry background? He's a retired lieutenant colonel from the Air Force.

He's worked in many different ministries along the way and I'm like, what could God do with a person like Dan? And so Dan accepted this role and he is stepping in to fill those shoes and I'm excited about it, Dan. Yeah. Guys, thank you. Thank you very much. That is very kind and I want to say you guys are my people. The 1030 service, right? You know, no matter how Trevor tells us please go to one of the other services, we are still here. You know, you come here for the message, but you stay because of the parking. So I just wanted to tell you how blessed I am, how blessed I feel to be able to step into this new role. Once again, I just want to say thank you to Robin. If everybody could give her another round of applause. I have inherited an amazing program. I have also inherited Robin's closet of shoes. She is like the caterpillar of the ministry world. There are so many shoes I have to fill. Thankfully, I see a lot of people around here that do have feet. So whether you have one or whether you have two or whether you feel like you always wanted another pair of shoes, I believe we can make something happen because we have always needed difference makers. One of the things that I would like to talk about is the Dominican Republic mission. So there are a lot of things we do as difference makers here locally. You know, whether it's working with kids, whether it's painting or doing construction, you know, we have a lot of different type of programs that we have been able to do because God has called you to these types of things. Well, we're actually going to be able to just carry what we do forward locally to the Dominican Republic. We're going to be out there for about a week. We have a 12-person team and in true biblical fashion, it's being led by a guy named Paul. So with your prayers, I think you can make a significant difference in supporting that team. But I'm going to hand it back to Chris because I talked too much. That's awesome. Give it up for Daniel. He's awesome. You know what? Multiple times a year, we'll usually send a team out, you know, across the globe. And as always, we always invite you to be praying. That's how best you can serve that team of 12 people is be praying for them. But before we end, I'd love for Dan, just pray over that team. Lead us in prayer for that

team as they launch a week from tomorrow, right? It would be my honor, but since I'm on probationary period right now, I need your help. So if you could pray with me, please. Father God, I want to thank you for the tremendous honor to be able to come before you in your throne through your son Jesus and his sacrifice. Father God, we lift up this team, this precious team that you have called for this moment in time to go out and support the community in Dominican Republic. You have imbued them with spiritual gifts, with talents, but most importantly, you have given them a servant's heart. Father God, they are completely confident. They know that you are preparing the way for them and you are going ahead of them to make sure that you have bound the enemy, that you have granted them travel mercies, that you will keep them healthy, and we are very thankful for that. Father, in every single interaction that they have, may your Holy Spirit overflow in them. May you use this opportunity to transform their hearts and their minds so that when they come back, they have a better perspective of who you have designed them to be. And in the same way, they look and see the joy and the peace that you establish in the hearts of those they serve. And Father God, I want you to burn the names of our team members into the hearts of every person who is hearing me right now. Father, they come alongside in prayer. whether we're here in Tucson or elsewhere, that you hear their voices as they support that team. Father God, this is all for your purpose, your will, for your glory, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, amen. Dan, welcome to the team, buddy, love you. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I love that we are a part of a church

who takes the gospel seriously, takes this call seriously, to be outside of the walls of this building, right, or whatever building you're in, and to make an impact in our world. In fact, a few weeks ago we did our annual Serve Our City, which is where we do just that, we get outside of the walls of the church, we don't do normal services, right, we go and serve as worship. And the past couple of years, my wife Rebecca and our family has kind of joined our friends and said, where can we make an impact? Where can we make a difference, right? You have three hours on a Sunday or a Thursday, where can we do something good? And so this past time we actually chose this area right off Broadway and Harrison, and it's this field that's right behind a bus stop, and it just is really good about collecting garbage, just trash along the roadway. And so we went and we started cleaning, and we got further back into this field, and realized that there's a wash back there, and then there's this underpass that goes under the road. And we saw this spot and it was just full of garbage and trash, I mean like full, I think we have a picture of that, they'll put it up. So pretty nasty, and it goes back far, right? And I was like, we only have two hours,

maybe we don't tackle that today. And my buddy Will was like, I think we're gonna tackle that today. And so we tackled that that day, and you know, yeah, that's good, it's awesome. Thank God for Wills, who are all about it. But as we began digging this stuff out, like you just found all the usual stuff, right? Drug needles, crack pipes, pizza boxes, just garbage, right? Clothes that had been completely soiled. And we were able to, in a couple of hours, make a little dent, right? A small impact. And I think there's an after picture. We were able to do a little bit of good, right? That was good, it was awesome. It's fun to be able to do something like, and you just have instant impact, right? That usually doesn't happen in life, so it's kind of nice. But here's what I didn't tell you. As we walked down and got into that area, and I bent down and I looked all the way through that underpass, and what I didn't tell you is that I saw some people that were living down there. And as we start pulling trash out and garbage, they start walking out the other side. And they were leaving, wanting to probably just kind of avoid interactions. And so the very first thing that popped in my head

when we start cleaning, and I saw these people, is I don't want to deal with that today. I don't want to deal with that today. Are they gonna be mad that we're moving stuff or cleaning stuff out? Are they gonna be, you know, all the what ifs that happen sometimes when we're helping people? And you know, it's wild that in the moment this didn't dawn on me, but later, I realized that I was good with cleaning up the city. I was good with picking up garbage, even used drug needles and all this stuff. I was okay with that. But I wasn't okay with the group of people who had caused the mess. And I realized that just a little bit of my heart had become hardened to a person, to a group of people that I see every single day. And here's the truth. Helping somebody is not near as easy as cleaning up some garbage and bagging it up and hauling it off. It's not near as easy. But what the Lord reminded me is this. You can't follow Jesus and ignore people. You can't, amen? So today, we're starting a three-week series, and over the next few weeks, we're gonna look at this one passage of scripture in the Old Testament. It's found in Micah.

This is a challenging but so, so simple passage of scripture. It says this, six, verse eight. He has shown you, O mortal, which is us, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. Now, some biblical scholars actually say this is one of the most succinct and powerful summaries in the whole Old Testament about what God requires of his people, of us. And I love that. I love that it's simple, because as Christians, we can become obsessed with making things complicated. Pastor Shriver says that all the time, right? Keep it simple, right? It's so easy for us to get caught up in all the things, doing more, right? More events. Learning more theology. Becoming obsessed with achieving more or proving ourselves more. And God says, no, I don't want all that. I want these three things. This is how you do better. So over the next three weeks, we're gonna dive into this, this passage. And today we're focused on the very first part. Act justly. Now this word justice, by the way, is mentioned 400 times in the Old Testament.

400 times. In the New Testament, the theme of justice is actually mentioned 300. So it's kind of a big deal, right? It's kind of a big deal. Something we should probably lean into. So let's start with this. What comes to mind for you when you hear the word justice? When you hear that word justice, some of you right away, you're like, you hear the soundtrack of the show, you know, you're like, that's what your mind goes to, your favorite show. But you see the judge and you see the panel of jurors and you know, all of that. That's the justice system is what you think of. Some of you, you're comic book fans and you think of the Justice League, right? I'm leaning to the students, but it's actually the adults probably that you're like, yeah, the Justice League, right? Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman. Some of us, this word actually creates some tension. Like we think of politics or arguments or division. Maybe it sparks some like excitement for you, some passion because you're all about acting this out, right? No matter what comes to mind for each of us, can I just say this? Before this was ever a cultural conversation,

it was a command from God. This is a command from God. We see it all through the Bible, Old and New Testament. Act justly. So let's define this. Let's look back at Micah to understand, we always need the context of what's happening, right? We have this verse. What happened before this verse? Here's plain and simple. The people of Israel, God's people were a hot mess, like just jacked up. They were doing a lot of the things that you and I are tempted to do today. They were showing up to worship, going through the religious motions, doing all the right things, offering their time, their talents, maybe even their money, but their lives weren't actually changing. They were religiously active, but they were culturally and spiritually devoid. They weren't being transformed. And God says, I don't want more rituals. That's not what I want. I want transformed lives. So he says, this is how you do better. It starts with acting justly. It's not a suggestion, it's not a personality type, or maybe this is your spiritual gift, right? No, this, as Christ followers, this is how we do better.

So at its core, a simple definition of justice is this, restoring what sin has broken. Restoring what sin has broken. Sin breaks things. It's what it does. It's caused so many of the issues that you and I have in our world today. Oppression, inequality, exploitation, neglect. All these things are spawned out of sin. So what is sin? Sin is, it's an attitude or an action that goes against God's standard, and it causes harm every single time. That's why our world, in so many ways, is in the mess that it is in because of sin. And justice shows up and it says, hey, this is not how God designed it. So we have to do better. Everybody say it with me, do better. Do better. Let's do it together. Here we go. What does acting justly look like? How do we live it out? And this can be a little bit unclear sometimes. It's actually not super clear how we live this out, so it's always good to look back at the Bible. If you have a Bible, maybe a phone app you can turn here, it'll be on the screen. I wanna look at a couple of passages.

The first is Isaiah chapter one. It says, learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah points out three groups of people here who were treated unjustly in this time. But before he gets there, notice the very first word he says. Learn. Learn. This word is so important, it matters. Justice will not just happen in our lives. We don't just naturally drift toward it. We have to move toward justice. It takes intention and awareness, and then it takes growth. And here's the tension, church. It's possible to be spiritually active, but culturally absent. It is possible for us to come in a church service and to praise God, to sing about His love, and then to walk out and to ignore the people who need God's love the most. Tucson needs people who act justly. Your world needs people who are present and aware and are gonna bring justice. So God's calling us to be aware and to act. Here's the truth, though. Remember, you can't act justly and ignore people. That's not how it works.

It is really easy for us to get to the place where we are just done with people, right? You ever been peopled out? Like, you see the shirt, like, done peopling today. It's too peoply out there, right? Can I let you in on a little secret? This is why, you may not know this, this is why it is so easy to write people off, because people be peopling. Every single day, everywhere you go, people are peopling. Like, they just, it's what they do. But you know, eventually, I begin to write people off and begin to shift my heart away from, and then, the danger is this, we actually start to overlook what matters most. What matters most as a Christ follower? The people around us. Man, we have to care. God is calling each of us to care. It's not an option. We have to be aware. Now, awareness is one of the biggest reasons we miss the opportunities around us, and we don't live this command out. I actually heard Andy Stanley, who's a pastor, he said this, time in erodes awareness of. Time in erodes awareness of. This is the idea that we can become blind to the realities around us over time. Think about where you live, right?

Maybe when you first move there, you're walking through, and you grab a doorknob or a cabinet handle, and you're like, oh, that's loose. I'm gonna have to, I need to fix that, right? I'm gonna do that Friday, it's my day off, I'll fix that. And Friday comes, and you're busy doing the other things, right? Next week, I'm gonna fix that thing, and then next week is next month and year. And then eventually, you're pulling that cabinet open, and you don't even realize that the handle's loose, because time in erodes awareness of. The very same thing happens with the people that are around us every day. That's why the Bible says we have to learn. First, we have to learn and seek justice. This might even mean, here's where it gets a little scary, that we change our perspective on a person or a group of people that we have developed over time. It starts with learning, it starts with becoming aware. Proverbs 31 says this. Speak up, somebody say speak up. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. Justice means we use our voice. Silence is often siding with brokenness. So if we make this personal, like think about the people in your life every day,

students, think about that one student that is overlooked, that has looked past. You began to notice them in the beginning of the year, and then every day, they're just there. And then you start to look right past them, or maybe even worse, they're targeted and treated poorly. Think about that person that is in your family, and they're the ones that have just made all the mistakes, right? Burned all the bridges, and then it becomes so easy just to look past this person and begin to ignore this person because of what they've done. Maybe it's a family in your neighborhood that lives on your street, and you don't know them, but maybe they're facing opposition just because of the color of their skin, or because they were born in a different geographical place than we are. It's so easy over time for us to lose sight of what's important. There are so many ways for us to speak up. We're Americans, and man, so many of us can vote. That's a great way for us to speak up and to cause great change to happen, right? That's a way. You can advocate in so many different ways, like in our city, in our county, in our world, but here's my challenge to all of us. This is true for every single one of us. The best place that we can speak

for those who need it the most, who need a voice, happens in our everyday conversation. It happens right here, and then what comes out of my mouth. How I talk about a person or a group or family can actually be the first step of acting justly. So we learn to do right. We speak up for those who need it. And then God can do some great things. Here's what I love. The very first scripture that Jesus quoted, it comes from Isaiah, and his public ministry began with this. And he quotes the scripture about himself found in Luke chapter four. He said, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free. Now Jesus is absolutely talking about spiritual freedom, right? Because that's what power he has. But we know by looking at Jesus's life and how he lived, we know that he's talking about the tangible people around him as well. The people that are in his everyday life.

He didn't avoid brokenness like so many times I choose to. His whole mission was to move toward it. He didn't stay comfortable. He stepped into the mess. And by the way, he's asking us to do the very same thing. Here's the problem. Church, we are often way more focused on justice for us than justice from us. Here's some great questions we can ask ourselves. Am I more concerned about my rights, the laws, the systems that maybe inconvenience me a little bit than I am about those who are a bit more messy and maybe don't have their life all put together? Getting even more real, am I more concerned about the garbage and the trash and the covert than I am about this group of people who are broken and hopeless? If we truly wanna follow Jesus, man, we cannot run from brokenness. We gotta move toward it. The fun part is God often starts this whole movement in our life with the people right in front of us. There was this man named Oscar. And if you met him at the beginning of his story, you would not have called him a hero. In fact, just the opposite. He was a businessman.

He lived in Germany. He was ambitious. He was strategic, opportunistic. And when World War II broke out, he saw a business opportunity, a way to make money. So he started this factory and he used Jewish labor because it was cheap and they were easy to exploit. At first, he benefited from this injustice, but something along the way changed in his heart. When he got close to this group of people, he became aware. He saw their oppression. He saw families torn apart. He saw fear in people's eyes. He saw human beings were treated as if they had no value. And suddenly, it wasn't about business anymore. Oscar had a choice to make. Does he stay comfortable, keep making money, or does he step into what he knew was wrong? And something in his heart shifted. He didn't just feel feelings, but he acted. See this, he learned, he became aware, and then he acted justly. He began to use his money, his influence, his connections to fight injustice. He bribed officials. He manipulated paperwork. He protected lives. In fact, he had this list of over 1,000 people, we know that as Schindler's List,

that were saved because he chose to act justly. And this story's amazing and powerful, right? And we've seen the movie or read the book, but here's the truth of it. It cost him everything. It cost him his business. It cost him all the potential money, the wealth that he would've earned. But he chose it. And he said at the end of one of the last interviews, he said, if I could've just added one more person to the list, man, that's what was on his mind. You and I may never be faced with something so massive as this. We may never get the chance to do something so great, but I guarantee you we are faced with the same question every single day. Will I stay comfortable or will I act justly? God's not calling us, by the way, to fix everything. Thank God, right? Because we wouldn't do that. But we're called to do something. So if we make this real, I wanna give us two points. Here's two things that we can do today. Maybe this week. The first is we have to identify one injustice. This starts with prayer, by the way. In fact, all good things that come from God, all growth, happen by prayer. When we pray, God, where is there brokenness?

Where is the broken people around me? Who is being overlooked? We can't follow Jesus and ignore people, right? Acting justly starts with awareness, and that only comes from God opening our eyes to what we have been blind to. So this week, today, pray. God, help me identify one injustice. The second thing is act. You need to advocate. You can speak up for someone without a voice, like the Bible tells us. This could be a child. It could be a struggling parent. It could be a group of people who are marginalized or ignored. Here's the thing. I love that so many Christians are pro-life. I love that so many Christians have a passion about the innocent and the unborn. I love that. I feel like that's a gospel thing, right, as we follow Jesus. But can I tell you this? It doesn't end after the baby is born. Biblical pro-life is from womb to tomb and everything in between, right? Amen? Amen. Woo!

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. God cares about every single person. He cares about us. Man, it's so easy for us to think of them. But where did He meet you at? Where did He reach down when you were in the mess of life and pull you out? It's easy for us to forget about that. God will open the eyes to opportunities around us, but we have to pray. And when we pray, be ready, because He will let you see it. And then it's up to us whether we act. I wanna read one more passage before we end today. This is in Mark chapter six. This is one of the largest miracles that Jesus ever performed. Jesus and His disciples were gonna go to a remote place, it says, and rest. And that's so funny, because Jesus always had people following Him, right? And this is what happened now. All the people from all the surrounding towns followed them. So it says He had compassion on them, and He began to teach. His disciples are thinking,

man, there are thousands and thousands of people here. The Bible actually says there's 5,000 men, not including families. So easy 10,000. And they think logistically, there's no Burger King around here. We're in a remote place, right? How are we gonna feed all these people? So this is where we pick up in verse 35. It says, by this time, it was late in the day. His disciples came to Him and said, this is a remote place. It's very late. Send the people away, that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. They're thinking logics, right? They don't have a lot of money, thousands of people, right? And Jesus flips this whole thing on His head, and He says, you give them something to eat. You give them something to eat. Can you imagine being there that day? You're like, with what? Like, there's nothing here. We don't have the money or the food. These guys were tired. They'd been doing ministry day after day. The crowd was too large. There were too many people.

It was too big of an issue. They said, let these people fix their own problems, right? They got here. They can get there. Does that sound familiar? Then Jesus says, no, you feed them. You are the answer. But they just saw this group as a problem to solve. Man, and I've fallen into that way, way, way too many times. So Jesus does this massive miracle. He takes a couple of fish, a few loaves of bread, and He feeds over 10,000 people, right? And it's like amazing, crazy, mind-blowing. The disciples were there. They saw the miracle. And they still weren't changed. Watch this. Immediately after this, it says that Jesus sent the disciples back across the lake. He said, get in the boat. You guys go ahead. Go get some rest. I'm gonna dismiss the crowds. Verse 48, He saw the disciples straining at the oars, and He said, I'm gonna dismiss you. because the wind was against him. You're gonna be like, what? Shortly before dawn, he went out to them, You're gonna be like, what? You're gonna be like, what?

walking on the lake, super easy for us to just read that You're gonna be like, what? You're gonna be like, what? You're gonna be like, what? You're gonna be like, what? and be like, yeah, it's Jesus, he's walking on the lake, of course, right? He's walking on the lake, on the water. So the same thing, if you and I were in the boat, the same thing happened. The disciples saw him and they thought he was a ghost, so they cried out, they were terrified, and immediately he said to them, take courage, it is I, don't be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them and then the wind died down. They were completely amazed, check this out, for they had not understood about the loaves. They didn't get it, they saw it with their own two eyes. They thought it was logistics, they thought it was a problem to be solved. And this last line I've heard so many times and read this passage and it wasn't until recently that it impacted me the way that it has. Their hearts were hardened. The disciples, the group who had been with Jesus and watched him day in and day out, miracle after miracle after miracle, compassion, care, they saw it and they almost missed the miracle.

Why? Their hearts were hardened. Church, we cannot follow Jesus if that's why we're here. If that's why you do this whole thing, is following Jesus, and I hope it is. We can't follow Jesus and ignore people. Here's the truth. Most likely in some small way, or maybe a big way, we have become hardened to the people around us. Like me, with the unhoused people, those people that were living under the bridge. And I didn't even realize that my heart had become hardened towards them. It's just too big of an issue, right? How do we even solve this? How do we even, what impact can we make, right? And I just turned the other way. But like the disciples in the boat, we could be missing the miracle of God. Here's the thing. Every week, just about, somebody gets in the waters of baptism and they go from death to life. And every single person is a miracle of God. Every single one, right? These miracles are happening in front of us weekly, weekly, at multiple locations. And it is so easy for us to just become commonplace. For our heart to just harden just a little bit and just be like, yeah, that's just what we do.

Just what happens. God cares about every single one. I don't want us to miss the miracle that God wants to do right in front of us. Before we can ever learn, before we can ever become aware and act, it starts internal. It starts with our heart. It's not about changing the world overnight. It's refusing to ignore what God has put in front of us. Thank God he's not dependent on us to fix the world overnight. But he does want to soften our hearts. He does wanna take this heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. And that only happens, church, when we are in his presence, when we encounter him. Can I tell you another little secret? God has a plan to redeem the whole world. Guess what the plan is? It's you. It's me. It's us, right? We're the plan. He's calling us to make a difference. Each and every single one of us, he has called you to be aware, to act justly, to love mercy,

to walk humbly with our God. And so maybe today we can just carve out just a couple of minutes to say, God, do business in my heart. Even if it's such a small little place where my heart has become hard toward a person, toward a group of people, God, would you show me? Let me be aware. Would you take the blinders off so that I could see people for how you see them? Because here's the deal. If Jesus was looking at us face to face, he would say, you feed them. You clothe them. You care for them. You reach out to them. You love them. That's why our whole mission is loving people to Jesus and launching Passion of Difference Makers because God has called us to act justly. I wanna invite you in this moment, you can sit, you can stand, you can kneel, but I do feel like God wants to do some work inside of us. And can you imagine a church who has soft hearts and on fire for mission? Imagine the impact that could happen. Our team's gonna lead us in a moment and I just wanna pray for us. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is a darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. Divine master, God, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. That I may not seek to be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life. Let's worship together. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Caught up in your presence. I just want to sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. I never want to leave. Oh, I'm not here for blessings. Jesus, you don't owe me anything. And more than anything that you can do, I just want you. When I've just gone through the motions, I'm sorry. Come on. And I just sing another song to take me back to where I started. I open up my heart to you. And I'm sorry when I come with my agenda. And I'm sorry when I forget that you're enough. So take me back to where we started. I open up my heart to you. I'm caught up in your presence. I just want to sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. I never want to leave. Oh, I'm not here for blessings. Jesus, you don't owe me anything. And more than anything that you can do, I just want you. I just want you. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else will do. I just want you. Nothing else.

Nothing else. Nothing else will do. I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do I just want You

Nothing else, nothing else Nothing else to do God, our children. God, our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. We pray together. Amen. Amen. Can we give God some glory and some praise in this place? He's so worthy of it. We hope you have a wonderful week. If you need prayer, we got a prayer room right across the way. We love you. See ya. I just want You Nothing else, nothing else