Obsessive Includers | Student Ministry

Everyone's life is built around something. Something shapes what you trust, how you make decisions, how you treat people, and who you are becoming. You may never name it, but whatever sits at the center eventually shapes everything around you. Jesus didn't come to remain at the edge of your life. He invites you to build your life around him. A life of adventure that's shaped by his truth. A life that molds you into who he's made you to be. A life that includes everyone, everywhere. A life that is ready to follow wherever he leads. These are just values we talk about. These are the values that make us who we are. [MUSIC PLAYING] What's up, Crossroads students. My name is Olivia. I'm the student pastor at Crossroads Dayton. Shout out to my dogs this morning or evening, wherever the heck you are. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm pumped for today because we're talking about something really special. Now, you need to know a little something about me, and that is I like to cook, OK? And when I say I like it, no, I love it. "Ratatouille" is, in fact, my favorite movie of all time. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yeah! There's only one rat in this world that inspires me to work in the kitchen for six hours

straight for a meal that just tastes OK, all right? But there's another chef in this world who has personally changed my life, all right? His name is Mike. At least I think his name is Mike. He created a place, a wonderful place, called Jersey Mike's. And see, when I was a wee lad, my mother would take me there, and I would get ham and cheese on a sub. That was it. I was a plain Jane, all right? I liked my ham and my cheese, and that was it. But slowly, over time, I started to include some more ingredients. First up, some mayonnaise. Is mayonnaise an instrument? Unreal. Unbeatable, all right? Specifically from Jersey Mike's, it's the best. And then I got crazy. Let's add tomato. Let's add some lettuce. Pretty good, OK? And then about a few years ago, I was scrolling online, and I saw something called Mike's way. And I thought I need to try it. I just need to try it and see what it's like, even if I waste $10 of my own money in this moment, I need to know. So here I am, 20-something years old, pulling up at Jersey Mike's, and I say Mr. Sandwich Magician Sir.

I would like my sub, Mike's way. When I tell you that I have now tasted and seen the goodness of God, I can't go back. It is now Mike's way, or the highway, all right? I decided to include all those amazing ingredients, and I'm a different person now, all right? I know what a good sub is. And that's exactly what we're talking about today of what does it look like to include not ingredients, but new people in our life. See, we've been in this series where we've been talking about our core values as cross-road students. And my favorite core value is that we are obsessive-includeders. We're obsessed with including people. But it's not just because we're a church, and we want to be friends with people, but it's actually rooted in who God says we are. Now to get into it, we actually need to go back to the very beginning of the Bible. See, in the very first part of the Bible, there is this chapter, this book called Genesis. And in the very beginning of Genesis, we see God creating the whole entire world, all right? He's creating the sky, the land, the oceans. He's creating mankind in his image. It's amazing, it's beautiful. But then we see God, Adam, and Eve, mankind, in this beautiful relationship together. See, God, He created them, but He included them

in so much more. We see God creating the birds of the air. And guess what? Adam is included in naming them. See, God, when He created you and me, He designed us to be included in His goodness, included in His plans, included in bringing the kingdom of heaven here now. See, later in the story of God, we get to meet a man named Jesus. And he is the son of man. And when Jesus walked to the earth, there were all kinds of people, all right? All kinds of groups of people. And it was really, really hard. But we see through Jesus' example that he shows us the way of how we can be inclusive. And so think about your school right now. You probably have like different groups of people, let's say like the basketball team, right? That's like a group of people. Or what about maybe a group of people that's like super into anime or maybe a group of people that they're just like readers, they love to read. They're reading like a book a day. In our schools and maybe even at church and cross-word students, they're just different groups. And so there are two groups of people I want to look at through this story that we're going to read together in Luke. Now before we jump into it, I need to explain who these people are. The first group, they're called the Pharisees. In the Pharisees, they're seen as the religious rulers and leaders of Jesus' day.

Now if I could describe them to you, they're kind of mean, a little judgmental. And I would say 98% of the time are rockin' a mad side eye, bombastic side eye, criminal offensive side eye. You know, just judging you at all times, holding you to the rules. They were extremely exclusive. Then there's this other group of people called tax collectors and sinners in this story. Tax collectors were two thumbs down hated by everyone. Think about it. Would you like somebody who just takes your money? No. Me neither. I want my money. I want to keep my money. And so there is this man named Levi and he's hanging out with the sinners and the tax collectors. And let's read when Jesus enters the story. In Luke 5 starting at verse 27, it says, "Later as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. He says, "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Later, Levi had a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples saying, "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?" Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they're righteous, but those who know their sinners and need to repent." This is crazy for so many reasons. So Levi, a tax collector, gets this wild invitation from Jesus. Jesus includes him and says, "Come join my crew, like join my disciples, follow me." And from this invitation, we see that Levi completely changes.

In fact, he gets a new name and his name is Matthew and he ends up writing a large part of the Bible. He becomes a core person in the story of Jesus. Why? Because of this one invitation, because Jesus decided to include him. And then what did he do immediately after? He created an environment where more and more people, more people who were broken, could come into contact with Jesus. Now, I don't know about you, but I have felt like Levi before. I felt alone, like no one likes me, that nobody wants to be my friend, maybe excluded and on the outside. And if that's you today, what would it look like for you to receive Jesus' invitation to say, "I want to be known by him. I actually want to feel the love of Jesus. I want to receive that in my life." It's the best invitation I've ever received in the whole entire world. And maybe you're like, "I know him. We're good. I have my crew. I have my circle." Again, I need you to pick one person, one person who maybe is on the outside of your circle that you can bring in just like Jesus did. Now in my life, I personally, there's been seasons where it's been really easy for me to stay close to the people who are exactly like me, who do the same things, who like the same things, and we're good, we're chilling, I got my crew. But two of my very best friends to this day could not be more opposite than who I am. And if it weren't for them and their influence on my life, I wouldn't be the person that I am today. When we invite people, when we include people that are different than us to join our circle, to join our table, God does amazing, amazing things.

and obsessive-includer isn't about just having fun and making We grow closer to God. We grow closer together when our table gets bigger. And so crossword students, what does it look like for you to receive God's invitation? To receive His love, to be included in His plans, to be included in His love, or maybe you feel like you have a closed circle right now, but just because it's close doesn't mean it needs to be closed. Pick that one friend and man, today, as you head into C-Group, talk about who that person is.