The Sean McDowell Show - A QUESTION Christians Must Consider (Mark 2:15-17)

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

How can Christians best engage their family and friends? Jesus models how to do this in his encounter with "sinners." There are some BIG lessons to learn and mistakes to avoid if we can follow the example of Jesus. Enjoy this sermon, which was from Yorba Linda Friends Church (Nov 17, 2024), and please take the warning and encouragement to heart. READ: End the Stalemate, by Sean McDowell and Tim Muehlhoff (https://amzn.to/3Zi6I9l) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [SMDCERTDISC] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: @sean_mcdowell Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org

Good morning, church. Two questions for you as we began this morning. One big picture, one a little bit more specific. Do you think when non-Christians are hurting, when their lives are turned upside down, one of their first thoughts is, I need to find a Christian because a Christian will listen to me, care for me,

and love me. More specifically in your life, your friends, your family, your neighbors. When their lives are turned upside down, do you come to mind as someone who they quickly think, I need to reach out to this person because they will listen to me, care for me, and love me. My wife's family is pretty big. Now, by pretty big, I mean her dad is one of 12. You should come to our family gatherings and get together sometimes. It is like dozens and dozens of aunts and second cousins and new boyfriends and uncles and on and on. It's huge. Well, every few years, we'll have a big get-together for a few days. And a number of years ago, we decided to get together in the Sacramento area

and one day go whitewater rafting together in the South Fork American River. Now this is like, maybe you've been whitewater rafting before, I'm totally rookie, but this is like a full day event where you go in the morning for about two or three hours, you have lunch, and then the afternoon you go for about two or three hours. Now, the morning time is like rapids that are like ones and twos. In the afternoon, maybe you get into three, three plus a little bit when presumably you know what you're doing. Now, before we started, they gave us some basic instructions. They said if you get thrown out of the boat since you have a helmet on and you're wearing like a preserver, don't grab something. Certainly don't put your feet down and try to stand. Don't swim

to the shore. They said, lean back, put your feet up, ride through the rapids, and then when things are calm, get back in the boat. Well, we had an eventless morning for a few hours, riding the rafts, had lunch, and then we went in the afternoon. Keep in mind, in our family, if I remember, there must have been like five or six rafts just because those in our family who wanted to go, there were so many who were there. Well, I was in the front left, and my father-in-law, who's about 20 pounds heavier than I am, was in the front right, and our raft was packed. Well, maybe you know this because you're an expert, but you know they actually name rapids? It's kind of unsettling when you learn some of the names.

So we're approaching this area and our guide says, yeah, we're about to enter what's called the hospital bar. I'm like, this doesn't sound good. Well, to make a long story short, all I remember is we're about to enter this. There's a big rock in front of us. We went down and it shifted our raft so fast that my father-in-law was thrown head over heels to the back of the raft. And since the raft turned, I was thrown head over heels, the only one out of the raft. Now, if you're a pro, maybe this isn't unsettling to you. But for me, when you don't know what up is, you don't know what down is, the temperature is jarring,

the water doesn't push you up, it pushes you sideways, it pushes you down. It kind of throws your life upside down, literally and metaphor and metaphorically now because I remembered their instructions I didn't grab something didn't put my feet down put my head back put my feet up went through the rest of the rapids awaiting getting back in the boat now the the rapids right after this they actually call the recovery room, somebody had a sense of humor who named these rapids. When your life is thrown upside down like that, all you want to do is get back to safety and get back in the boat. And I did that. Well, when people's lives are turned upside down physically, where do we go? I didn't think, should I get in the boat or not? It was

instinct. Well, if you're in a car crash or someone has a heart attack, none of you sit around and say, well, what should I do? Hey, what do you want to do? What makes sense right now? Let's brainstorm. No, what do you do? You automatically call 911. It's built into us. We trust hospitals. We trust response teams that this is our best opportunity to preserve a life if it can be preserved. Imagine if people really didn't trust doctors in our culture. You think that's crazy? In some cultures, they don't. What if we really didn't trust ambulance drivers or hospitals? how many lives would be lost what's interesting to ask not just when someone's thrown out of a physical boat or when somebody's physical life is turned upside down but what about when somebody's life is turned

upside down emotionally or relationally or spiritually? What's their first thought of who they want to talk to to help them out? There was a study, and this was a few years before COVID. This is a study done by Barna Research, David Kinnaman, in his book Un-Christian. And they studied outsiders, non-Christians, trying to get a sense of how they viewed Christians and how they viewed the church. Keep in mind, this is a few years before COVID, but as I read you their conclusions, I just want you to ask yourself this question. Have things gotten better or have things gotten worse? They basically said there's six conclusions about how outsiders view Christians. Number one, hypocritical. Christians say one thing, but they do another. They don't seem to live out what they claim is true.

Second, too focused on getting converts. Outsiders often wonder, do we just want to convert them or do we really care about them as individuals? Third, anti-homosexual. At least in this study, if you said, I'm a Christian, an evangelical Christian, according to many people, you might as well say, that means I'm against gays. Fourth, sheltered. Christians are old-fashioned, boring, and kind of out of touch with reality. Fifth, too political. Now this study was before 2016. Obviously things have changed, and you can say for better or for worse but that was before 2016 that christians were too political and last judgmental judgmental that christians are quick to judge rather than lean in and just love people for who they are now imagine if we viewed this of hospitals right well hospitals they're hypocritical too focused money. They hate a certain segment of people. They're too political

and they're judgmental. Nobody would go. But the conclusion, here's what they said. They said, only a small percentage of outsiders strongly believe that labels respect, love, and hope, and trust describe Christianity. Now that's devastating, isn't it? Now we should care about people's physical bodies because God has given us bodies, but what's more important, your body or your soul? I was hanging out with about 100 youth pastors this week. And I like to ask people questions and I just try to listen to what they say. And one thing I've heard over the past few years is maybe you go back a couple decades or so and largely parents would say, if my kids aren't morally in line, send them to church, send them to youth group.

That'll fix them and make them good moral citizens. Quite a few will say that narrative has shifted a little bit. I'm not sure the church is helpful. I'm not sure the church is loving. I'm not sure if I want my kids exposed to that narrative that some consider hateful. So let me ask you the question again. What would it take for somebody when their life is turned upside down to think, I just got to find a Christian because a Christian will love and care for me? And what would it take for you and I in our lives when the people we know, when they're broken and they're hurting,

for us to come to mind as individuals that they want to reach out to because we will genuinely love and care for them. A friend of mine is one of the leading New Testament scholars focused on Jesus in the world. I teach at Talbot School of Theology. He teaches at Dallas Theological Seminary. And Derebaki said this. He said, the only way we will overcome the reputation that Christians are bigoted, hateful, and intolerant will be when people hear this charge and think, that's not right. I know a Christian, and they're not that way. He's right.

In other words, it's not some top-down program. It's you and I as ambassadors for Christ leaning in relationally for people and just loving and caring for them because Christ cares for us. Well, we're in a series right now on dining with others we dine with other believers because we're called to and that shapes us but we also see in the passage we're looking at this morning jesus dining with non-believers and guess what that also changes us so if you have your bibles you are welcome to open up to mark chapter 2. We will put it up on the PowerPoint. Why? Because Jesus used PowerPoint. But if you have your physical Bibles, you're welcome to follow.

We are only going to look at three verses because these three verses are just packed with insights that we can garner for our relationships and lives today. So Mark chapter 2 verse 15. It says, and as he, Jesus, reclined a table in his house, Levi, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many who followed him. And the scribes, thearisees when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors said to his disciples why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners and when jesus heard it he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick i came not to call the righteous but sinners now before we kind of look at this passage line by line there's two big questions I think it's important to ask and I think this is a fascinating

question why did sinners want to hang out with Jesus I mean why did people not only who sinned but who were known as being sinners want to hang out with the only guy who's ever lived who hasn't sinned. How does that happen? I mean, look, you've heard the phrase misery loves company. Well, that's also true for sinners. I know in my life, when I wasn't living the way God wanted me to and observing other people's not doing so, it's not like when we're in sin, we're thinking, you know what, I just want to find the holiest person to hang out with. That's actually the opposite, because that convicts us. And here's these sinners hanging out with Jesus, the only one who hasn't sinned.

How does that happen? And how do we become like that? Because I think we fall into one of two traps. Either we Christians become holier than thou and so righteous that no one wants to hang out with us because we constantly make them feel convicted and like they're spiritual inferiors. On the other hand, sometimes we become so much like the culture that there's nothing distinct in our lives that shows the difference Christ has made to us. Somehow Jesus never sinned and he spoke truth and sinners wanted to be with him how does that happen but second we might be tempted to read this story and think oh here we go pharisees mess it up again and observe this story from a third-person perspective and not realize that Jesus isn't only critiquing the Pharisees.

He's critiquing you and he's critiquing me. What Jesus does here is completely radical. He subverts and turns on its head certain social conventions, which are natural to us. So here's the reality. You might not want to hear this, but if you and I were there, we'd like to think we'd be like, yep, Jesus is right. Go, Jesus, get him. But in reality, if we were there, we would have said, wait, hang on, Jesus.

Somehow you missed what you're supposed to do, and this is not what you're supposed to do and this is not what you're supposed to do so just this week i took my 12 year old son up to visit the beautiful buddhist temple maybe 30 minutes north of here and we got about a 90 minute tour and then i sat down with two of the monks for about 90 minutes to just find common ground ask them questions model for people we're making a youtube documentary out of it. What was interesting is we got the tour for about an hour and a half, sat down, and I introduced the two monks. And this is the first thing in the video.

Now, our tour guide stopped immediately. She said, hang on, we're going to have to reshoot the introduction. I said, what happened? She said, well, you introduced this monk before he introduced the head monk. We got to start over, and you need to introduce the head monk first. I said, fair enough. I'm your guest. I want to show respect. My point is not to criticize them, but my point is we as human beings, what do we do? We say there are certain people who deserve honor. There are certain people who deserve respect, and here's how we show them

honor and respect. And you shouldn't break those conventions. You know what Jesus was doing? He was completely breaking the conventions of his day. He was acting in a way that, according to the religious ideas of the day, nobody should act. So don't read this story thinking, yep, there goes the Pharisees again. They messed it up. Read it saying, is Jesus challenging my own assumptions? And am I living like Jesus? With that said, let's jump in. And it starts by talking about it.

It says they reclined at the table. In other words, he shared a meal with them. Now, the radical nature of this can be lost on you and me because of the Western culture that we live in. The idea of sharing a meal with somebody and how sacred that was is kind of lost on us. We can go to fast food. In fact, we now have the technology to order DoorDash

and have someone make our food, leave it anonymously on our doorstep, so we open up the door, go inside, and eat alone. If you want to, you can live that way. In that culture, dining with somebody was a sign of friendship. It was a sign of intimacy. It was a sign of friendship it was a sign of intimacy it was a sign of acceptance that's how dining was viewed now what's so remarkable about this is judas the one who betrayed jesus when are we told explicitly that jud Judas realized he's the betrayer at a what? At a meal, exactly. Now we might miss how radical that is. Another example like this happens

when Judas actually betrays Jesus. He betrays him with a kiss. Now all of us see that, we're like, wait a minute, a kiss is a sign of affection and love and care, and he's giving him a sign of affection while he stabs him in the back? That's messed up. Dining with somebody was the same kind of act. So here's Jesus, breaking bread with the very one who's going to stab him in the back? What? That's how radical it was then it says many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with jesus and his disciples now in mark this is the first time

it's referred to as his disciples so there's at least 12 of his followers so if there's many sinners and tax collectors and he's got his disciples, this is a pretty good-sized dinner party. This is not three people sitting around breaking bread. But it's his tax collectors and sinners. Now you know this. Tax collectors were basically, according to the Jews, the worst of the worst. It's about as bad of a profession as one could take. I mean, you could become a prostitute, but at least you're not betraying your own people, as a tax collector does. So Romans were oppressing the Jews spiritually, economically, physically. And what tax collectors would do is they would betray their own people, work for the Romans to contribute to this oppression,

and then take more money on top of that for themselves. This was so egregious that as I looked this up in some commentaries, tax collectors were excommunicated from the synagogue. They couldn't even go in the synagogue. Now keep in mind, this is an honor-shame culture. Our culture is individualistic. It wasn't like in that day, it's like, oh, a tax collector, you know what? You do you. If that's who you want to be, we're happy for you. That is not how it was viewed in that culture. You shamed your religion. You shamed your country. You shamed your family. So we have some of this today as parents and grandparents. We want to say, oh, our kids went to a great university. Oh, my son or daughter has

this wonderful profession. That makes us proud. Well, that culture, to say your kid was a tax collector was the most disgraceful thing imaginable. And here's Jesus dining with the betrayers and somebody sympathetic to the oppressors of his own people. You know if you and I were there, we'd be like, um, Jesus, you didn't get the memo. We need to start this documentary again. That's what we would have thought. Now, when I used to read the story, it's like tax collectors and sinners. I envisioned it was like prostitutes and it was murderers, but I'm not sure that's what's going on because the foil in this are the Pharisees. And the Pharisees, of course, followed the law to the T. So I think the sinners here are

essentially people who just don't follow the law, don't take it seriously. So they were sinners since they didn't do exactly what God required. That's who Jesus is hanging out with. Then it says, the scribes of the Pharisees. Now, in the scriptures, there's three religious groups that were kind of foils of Jesus. You have the Herodians, because you had Herod, kind of the Roman puppet king. There was a political dynasty.

You had the Sadducees who got a lot of their power influenced through the temple. So when the temple's destroyed in AD 70, the Sadducees fade. But the Pharisees are the ones mentioned in this story. Why? Because the Pharisees focused on interpreting and understanding and following the law. That was most important to them. So the temple's destroyed. What happens? Now you can interpret and apply and follow the law still, just in a different fashion. By the way, Paul had Pharisaical roots. So do you see the contrast in the story? You had the group of

religious leaders most known and most proud of their devout following of the law and Jesus not giving them the honor that was due. He's breaking social conventions in a way that again if you and I were there we would have have thought, Jesus, what are you doing? What are you doing? And then we get to the heart of this story where Jesus makes the point he doesn't want us to miss. He says this. Those who are well have no need of a physician. But those who are sick.

I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners. Let me say it again. Those who are well have no need of a physician. If you're well, you don't need a doctor, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, is Jesus dividing the world into two kinds of people righteous and sinners is that what jesus is doing he's actually saying there's some people who are righteous for the lord and there's some people who are sinners by the way if we had time i'd love to hear what some of

your favorite statements are when somebody says there's two kinds of people in the world and then fills in the blank. My favorite one is, and by the way, when I tell you this, just so you know, you will not be able to unremember it. I promise you, all of you will remember this. This came from my coach at Biola. I played basketball at Biola. My son's playing for the same coach, which is pretty fun. And he used to say this to us. He'd say, you know, there's two kinds of people in the world. Those who return their shopping carts and those who don't.

Minimally, you will not be able to avoid feeling guilty if you choose the latter group. Now, of course, his point was there's teammates who make it harder on their team, and there's teammates who make it easier on their team. Think about yourself or you think about others. Is that what Jesus is doing here saying, well, there's two kinds of people. I was sent by God and I'm here not to deal with those who are already righteous. They don't need a savior. I'm here for the sinners who need a savior. And the answer is absolutely not. How do we know this?

Because the Bible makes it crystal clear that all have sinned. Romans 3 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And again, all in Greek means all. Exactly. Nothing fancy to it. Rich, poor, male, female, black, white. Every single human being is sinful. In fact, John in 1 John says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, if you sit here and say, I don't have sin, John is like, you're a liar because you know you have sin and you refuse to acknowledge it. So given that Jesus talks in Mark 7 that it's out of the heart that comes sloth and rebellion and envy and greed and lust. He's not saying

there's righteous and there's sinners. What Jesus is saying is when he talks about the righteous, he's using it ironically to refer to the self-righteous. Not people who are actually righteous, but who think they are righteous. So this whole point is powerful. He's saying, look, everybody sinned. Pharisees need God. The sinners need God. But I'm not spending my time with those who think they don't need God, who think they have it all figured out,

who are too prideful to recognize that they need salvation. I'm going to sinners because they know that and they're more open to my message. I mean, it's interesting to ask, who goes to a hospital? It's not just people who are sick. And it's not just people who know they are sick. There's a lot of people who are sick and who know they're sick and don't go to a hospital. They're called men. It's not just the sick that go to hospital.

You've got to be sick, know that you're sick, but also realize you can't fix yourself. You need a medicine or expertise outside of yourself to fix your body. It takes a level of awareness and humility to say, I'm broken. I can't do this. I need your help. So Jesus is saying, everybody's spiritually sick, but I came to call those who know it and who are humble enough to recognize that they need the medicine I have to offer. You see, Jesus did not call those who believe they are righteous, but outcasts who knew they needed to be made whole. What's so interesting about this is Jesus doesn't say,

hey, get your life right first, and then I'll dine with you. Did you hear that? Jesus doesn't say, hey, get your life right first. Stop sinning and I'll dine with you. No, he dines with sinners, met them where they were at, even though how radically culturally revolutionary that was. You see, Jesus was no moralist. Jesus was no moralist. I think one of the reasons people don't want to dine with us as Christians is because sometimes we're moralists. Sometimes we feel like it's our duty to fix everybody else's beliefs and behavior before they have the medicine, which is God's grace and forgiveness and a changed heart that can then lead to changed behavior. You see, Jesus dying with people because he knew they needed the medicine that he had to offer. And he knew they could only live differently when they experienced his grace,

when they experienced his forgiveness and became new creations and were given a new heart and a new power and new motivation to then live differently. Daryl Bach, again, wrote it this way. He wrote a book called Who is Jesus? And I love this line. He said, it's important to see here that Jesus does not sit at the table and merely accept those on the fringe. He challenges them to live differently or mentions forgiveness as a motivation for the sinner's response, which assumes a reaction to previous sin. You see, don't mishear me. I'm not saying Jesus dined with sinners and said, you be you, to each his own. Hey, if that feels good, do it. Jesus did not

dine with people without living and proclaiming truth. Somehow he was able to lovingly reach out to people in relationship, but speak truth in a way that sinners would listen in part because he wasn't a moralist he offered grace and he offered forgiveness for people and he modeled that in his own life you see the reason jesus did this is because he realized something. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Jesus knew that sinners, and really read the story in Luke 15 of the older son who represents the Pharisees, he actually knew everybody needed a transformed heart. That's why he dined with people, so they could see and experience his medicine, his grace, his forgiveness. What's incredible about this is this scene of Jesus dining with sinners

is kind of prophetic of the ultimate messianic banquet you and I will have in heaven when we get to dine with the Lord. As I read this story, I think there's two takeaways for us from this practically. Number one is to keep in mind, we dine with Jesus because he first dines with us. We dine with Jesus because he first dines with us. The Bible says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Bible says while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If there's any sense in your heart or mine where we are the spiritual elite, we know Jesus. We have eternal life. We have forgotten that we are not the ones who did something to earn God's salvation. In fact, that's every other religion on the planet that says through meditation, through works, through pillars, through practices, Christianity says no. It's only because of what Christ has done for us that we're able to dine with him that should break us that should humble us

and clear away any sense of spiritual superiority you and i are only invited into eternal life because of what god did through his son jesus christ the cross. He paid a debt that we could never pay ourselves. As we learn in Matthew chapter 18, the unmerciful servant, it's when we don't know how much the king has done for us that we in turn don't show grace and mercy to others. So don't miss in this passage that it is radical that sinners wanted to dine with Jesus. And I want to figure that out because I want to be the kind of person. I'm not saying I'm there where sinners and non-believers want to spend time with me. Then maybe I can speak truth into their life. But what's more radical than sinners wanting to be with Jesus is that Jesus dined with them.

And Jesus dines with us. But second, if that's true, then how do you and I become agents of grace who dine with others as an extension of the grace that God has shown to us. And my question is, do we do that well? I don't know that we do. I was driving with a pastor in the southeast years ago to speak at a church, and like five minutes from the church was this Unitarian church. And I said, hey, have you ever reached out to talk to the reverend or minister there?

He's like, no, why would I? And I remember thinking, why would you? You're a spiritual leader. He's a spiritual leader in your community. If you don't reach out to him, who's going to? Just take him to lunch. Listen to him. Build a relationship. Maybe you'll have a chance to share if he's open to just take him to lunch listen to him build a relationship maybe you'll have a chance

to share if he's open to it i read a book 10 years ago by a journalist who's left-leaning politically and i only mention that because it's a part of her story she's written for usa today fox news cnn her name's kirsten powers She's described growing up as an atheist and kind of mocking Christians until she met a guy who didn't fit the stereotype of Christians, was invited to church, and she heard Timothy Keller preaching on his book, The Reason for God. Ends up becoming a Christian, and then she wrote this book called The Silencing. Again, 10 years ago, a lot has changed.

And she talked about how what she considered the illiberal left through media, through the university, kind of silencing those who dissent from the left's narrative. That's her take. Now, I'm reading this whole book, finding it interesting that somebody on the left is critiquing the illiberal left. But I got to the end of the book, she said something that has always stuck with me. Here's what she writes at the end of the book. She says, we should all make efforts to invite people who hold different views into our world.

Contrary to popular thought, familiarity doesn't breed contempt. It breeds understanding and tolerance. Now go make some unlikely friends. I thought, that's exactly right. As ambassadors of Christ, that's part of our job. Go meet people, talk with people, dine with people, share with people. I was speaking in the Midwest, and I met a youth pastor who shared a story with me that's really stuck with me. So at his high school, there was an LGBTQ club that was starting, and they needed an advisor. And he said, they asked me, as a local Christian pastor, would I be an advisor for this club?

Now, immediately, some of you are like, nope, can't support that. I'm against it. I'm just sharing his story to think about it. He said, yeah, I decided to do it. And I said, well, tell me why. He said, look, if these kids are open and willing to hang out with me, I want to do it. I said, okay, what happened? He said, well, they just met week after week and would talk and share and do their thing.

And eventually they turned to me and they're like, what do you think? Why exactly are you here? What does the Bible say about issues of sexuality? He's like, they started to ask me. And so he walks through the scripture, says what the Bible teaches. I think when nonbelievers ask us what the Bible says, we need to be honest and not water it down. He said, I quickly shifted to the person of Jesus to try to help them be drawn by the character and love of Jesus. He said, eventually a few of them came to my youth group

and one or two of them became followers of Christ. I thought, that's powerful. Then I asked him, I said, how did this change you? And his response is interesting. He said, honestly, Sean, before I did this, I didn't realize how much of my heart anger I had for this community. I saw the hurt. I saw the brokenness. And God changed me through this. Now, you might hear this story and go, oh, here's Christians sneaking in just to convert people.

Here's the deal. I shared last time I was here a friend of mine who's an atheist journalist and we're hoping to write a point counterpoint book together and i told him i said look i'm a christian i would be lying and insincere if i didn't tell you that i hope you become a christian But whether you do or not, I care about you and I want to be friends with you no matter what. That's friends what I think we're called to do. So to wrap up, if I may,

let me just bring it back to the question I asked at the beginning and try to personalize it for you and personalize it for me. Do you think when people in our culture, their lives are broken and their lives are hurting, their first thought is, I just got to find a Christian. They'll listen to me, they'll love me, and they'll care for me non-judgmentally. people in your life your family your friends your neighbors co-workers when their life when

they're thrown out of the raft of life maybe emotionally or spiritually or relationally do you come to mind as someone who they say, I just have to go to this Christian because they'll listen to me and they'll love me and they'll care for me. Philip Yancey wrote a book called Vanishing Grace, and he asked what is the most simple question, but it's one that's kind of haunted me, hopefully in a good way. He asked this question. He says, do people want to be with you? I thought, what an this question. He says, do people want to be with you? I thought, what an interesting question. Because here's Jesus. The Holy Son of God and even sinners wanted to be with him.

So without compromising truth and speaking truth in the right way at the right time, how do you show love to people who see the world differently? People of different races, different ages, political differences. How do you show love to non-Christians in your life? And what's one small thing, whether it's repairing a relationship that was maybe broken or starting a new relationship where you and I can be an agent of grace, dining with people like Jesus did, even if we take criticism, hoping that they would be open to the medicine Jesus has to offer, which is his grace and his forgiveness. May God give you and I the wisdom and the strength to live that out in our dining with others. Amen. I'm going to sneak the pavilion. We'd love to say hi,

meet you, shake your hand. Thank you for letting me be part of the teaching team here. But let's pray. Father, thanks for this series. We're going through on dining with others. And as challenging as it may be, help us grow in our own understanding of your grace. Our own understanding of your mercy. If there's somebody here who feels like their life has been thrown out of the raft, God, I just pray that Christians in their life will come around

them and care for them and love them and lift them up. And may you put people on our hearts and our minds that we need to reach out to and love if they are hurting as well. We have so much we're grateful for. We pray this in your name. Amen.