Excelling in Embracing (Romans 15:7) | Excel Still More (Part 2)

Transcript

JRS 69
August 10, 2025
Excel Still More (Part 2): Excelling in Embracing
Romans 15:7
Jesse Randolph

Well, the summer 1983 edition of The Spectrum, the official newsletter of Indian Hills Community Church, was chock full of exciting features. There was the page one feature about Warren Wiersbe, who is scheduled to preach in July of that year. There was an article titled “Victory in Jesus,” which featured Linda Strasheim's testimony. There was a piece about a new videotape ministry, which was just getting off the ground, thanks to the anonymous gift of a generous donor. Then there was a profile of a newer deacon in the evangelism ministry, some guy named Nick McElvain. And, as the author of his profile, some lady named Stephanie Whitson pointed out, Nick's growth since his salvation is evidenced in his sacrificial service, a challenge to us all to get involved.

But the feature of the 1983 summer edition of The Spectrum, which I'd like to call our attention to, was this feature which was called Open Forum. In the Open Forum, members of this church of some 1,500 people at the time could submit their questions to the editor of The Spectrum and then in a subsequent edition receive the answer to their question in written form. Front and center in this Open Forum edition in the summer of '83 was this question: What are the differences between a large church and a small one? In the answer portion, The Spectrum's editor gave this comprehensive summary of all the differences between larger and smaller churches: How planning works in the two types of churches, how leadership development works in the two types of churches, how communication might work differently in the two types of churches. Then the editor of The Spectrum in this season of great growth and expectation at Indian Hills addressed the topic of the importance of being a welcoming church, a church which is intentional in welcoming and integrating new members. This is what this editor wrote. “In a larger church, new members are brought into the body through planning. At Indian Hills, we have the Sunday morning visitors class, the opportunity for further personal contact through Timothy groups, and we provide literature to newcomers each Sunday morning.” In other words, the answer began with more of a programmatic bent toward being welcoming. But then came this line, “The key, however, for making visitors feel welcome is the personal contact that each individual needs to have when they visit. Perhaps the biggest challenge that faces us is to make people feel welcome and at home in such a large body.”

That second answer isn't programmatic at all. That second answer is very personal, meaning being a welcoming church isn't merely about having the right programs and structures in place, though those are important. Instead, to be a truly welcoming church takes personal investment and intentionality by its members who are willing to go out of their way to make others who aren't yet folded into the fellowship feel welcome. Again, this is written in the summer of 1983, that's 42 years ago. I had to do some research and saw that that was the year that The Return of the Jedi came out. And that was the year that McDonald's introduced chicken McNuggets to their menu. I can't imagine a world without chicken McNuggets with all my boys. That was the year I started kindergarten. That dates me. But I do have to say, I really do appreciate this editor's answer in this Open Forum edition of The Spectrum. Because it really is critical that any church, if it wishes to represent Christ well, if this church wants to be faithful, that it be a church which welcomes those, truly welcomes those, who come through its doors.

In many ways, you go back through the history, our church has been just that, a welcoming church in various facets and capacities over the years. Going back to the very beginning, when a young man and his bride and his young son came to this church as the pastor in the fall of 1969, a guy named Gil Rugh, they had a grocery shower for him on Sunday evening, September 27, 1969, to welcome the new family. Then in 1970, to get the word out about this new pastor in this still new facility, the church began handing out welcome tracts like these with this big red “W” on the front. That “W” stands for welcome. The whole point was to get the word out that people wherever they were from in Lincoln, whatever stage of life they were in, they were welcome to come witness and experience the power of the Word of God from behind this pulpit. Don Goertzen, our church's longtime executive pastor who joined the staff in 1972, and his wife, Wanda, they really modeled a welcoming spirit. I know, and they would never boast about this, that they had thousands of people come through their home over the years, over the past 40 or so years. And they have the welcome logs to prove it. In a lot of ways, this welcoming spirit has continued on into our generation. I think of Brian Willett, one of our deacons, who over a decade ago now saw an opportunity for us as a church to be more welcoming to newer visitors in our church, and he launched the Welcome and Hospitality Ministry. I think of pastor Aaron Nicholson, who as he did this morning, stands up every Sunday and uses words like welcome card and welcome bag and welcome center and says welcome to all those who come. He then, of course, runs our Connections Classes. He's enlisted a welcoming team who follow-up with visitors with a phone call and an invite to coffee or lunch. And it's not just the pastors and it's not just the deacons. I know firsthand of families in our church who make a point of inviting new folks, new visitors, new attendees to lunch after church, or who invite them to their Fourth of July cookout or to their New Year's Eve celebration to make sure that they not only don't feel left out, but that they truly feel welcome. And, of course, I receive comments all the time from folks in the south lobby or by way of email about how grateful they are for how welcome and welcoming our church has been. It's all really encouraging to hear that we have many in this body who get it and see the centrality of the importance of being a welcoming church.

Now at the same time, I do have to share that being welcomed and feeling welcomed and getting connected has not been the universal experience of every person who has ever come through these doors. At various different points throughout the year, I will get up here and stand up and make mention of the various visitors we've had and the new people who are coming and the growth that we're seeing and it's true that we are seeing many new folks come to this church on a Sunday over Sunday basis. But that's really only half the story. There's another side to that story. And, yes, it's true that many new folks are coming week after week, but it's also the truth that many of those new folks don't stay. They'll come for a few Sundays, or they'll come for maybe a few months' worth of Sundays, but then we don't see them again. Now in some cases, it'll be totally understandable why someone didn't stick around. You know, someone might come into this church on a Sunday and they have a thought that they have been gifted to speak in tongues, and then I'll stand up and say something about what we believe about the present day ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church age and that tongues have ceased, and they will not come back again. Right? Or there are those who maybe they found their way into our church, I don't know how, but they're used to hearing 15-minute sermons from a purple-haired lesbian pastor. They show up here, and they get 60 minutes from a guy like me on God's design for sex and relationships and family and the like. Maybe somebody stumbles into this church who's a universalist, and they think that all roads lead to God. And then they hear words here like sin and death and judgment and hell, and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father but through Him, and they're gone after that one Sunday. That's all understandable. We will not be everybody's cup of tea.

But there have been others. And when I say others, I mean many others who objectively would have been a really solid fit here at Indian Hills, who ended up not making this church their home. Each appeared to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ who loved the Lord and loved His Word, and as a follower of Christ would have been gifted by the Spirit to serve in some capacity in this body, and yet they haven't stuck. We get a text, or we get a phone call, or we get an email, or more often than not in this very autonomous generation, we get ghosted, and then we have to find out through some other means that so and so is no longer attending the church. If after they've left, they provide us some opportunity to ask questions about why it is it didn't work out for them here, the common reason, the most common reason they will give for leaving, is not about doctrine. It's not about the preaching or the teaching. It's not about the welcome center. It's not about the coffee that is served in different parts of the church facility. What is most commonly mentioned is an inability to connect, an inability to form friendships, an inability to find friendships, an inability to crack into certain established circles here in the church.

Then there are others, like the man I'm going to mention now, who started coming to Indian Hills, but who eventually left because they objectively and outwardly felt unwelcome. This man, who I won't mention by name, moved here from out of state, in 2022, right around the time that my family arrived here from California. When he and his family landed here in Lincoln, they had been a part of other faithful churches in their neck of the woods and we seemed to, based on their church pedigree, to fit their family really well. This man and his family would not only attend our services on Sunday morning, but they did actively try to get connected in various other ways. Their kids began attending some of our youth programs. They heard about certain social events that are being put on by our church, and they attended some of those. They even paid an unannounced visit to my home on a Monday afternoon, my day off. How they found out where I live, I don't know. But they paid a visit and delivered my wife some flowers. That was a very nice gesture which we appreciated. But from my limited vantage point, this looked like a family that fit. Everything was humming and clicking for them. But then I noticed that I hadn't seen them for a while. They had just sort of dropped off the radar. So, I sent the husband a text and asked him, How are things going? Haven't seen you for a bit. Everything okay? He texted me right back to say, “Can we meet for coffee?” And, you know, usually when I get a text, can we meet for coffee, and it's a good thing. This text I knew was not a good thing when he shot back the text so fast and said, “Let’s meet.” I knew it was not going to be a positive meeting. I loved this brother, I still love this brother, and so, of course, I obliged. We met for coffee and in that meeting, he proceeded to share with me why he and his family had left Indian Hills. He shared with me that while the Sunday sermons were resonating, he and his wife weren't able to make any real connections here at the church and then he went on to list the things they had done. They had attended all the services. They were trying to get plugged into various ministries. I mentioned youth programs earlier. His wife had been at Titus Tuesday. They were actively trying to join a home Bible study. They were really trying. But things were sputtering, and they felt isolated. They felt alone. But again, that didn't deter them. They were still actively looking for ways to connect. But the tipping point for him and the tipping point for them as a family came at a church sponsored event. At this event, this man, this husband, this leader of his family was in a circle of other men from our church. And as he opened his mouth, he shared something which revealed that he was not the most theologically deep or astute man in the group as were the other men in this circle. I'm going to leave out the details of what specifically was said to him so as to not single out anyone here or put them on the spot or make them slouch in their seat. But I will say that what was said to him was a snide remark, which apparently was aimed at his theological shallowness and his lack of Biblical discernment and knowledge. What was said to this man coming from a member of this church was totally unacceptable, and it was totally unchristlike and totally uncharitable. Now, understandably, this man, newer to our church, walked away from this interaction humiliated, totally embarrassed, completely devastated. As I sat there with him over coffee many months after this event, he told me through tears that this was the most intense rejection he had ever felt in a Christian context. He told me that it felt like a bullet had ripped through his heart. And he told me that he would never set foot again in our church. He was not hostile, but he was heartbroken, and understandably so. Well, this man eventually left Lincoln. The family moved to another state based on employment. As I mentioned earlier, I still keep in touch with him, and I had a phone call with him recently. He revealed to me that while his family does now attend another faithful church in another part of the U.S. and based on what they went through here and specifically what he went through here; this incident of being embarrassed and rejected by other Bible men, he's really been struggling to get connected in fellowship at the new church they attend. That's how deep the wounds are, and that's how deep the scars are.

So 1983, we're being reminded in The Spectrum that the biggest challenge that faces us is to make people feel welcome and at home in such a large church body. And in 2023 and 2024 and 2025, we've had more than a few come through these doors who have not connected, who didn't feel welcome. We've had more than a few move on to other churches where maybe the teaching isn't as deep or as insightful, maybe where the music isn't as beautiful, maybe where the chairs aren't as comfortable, but at least they feel welcomed.

We're back in our Excel Still More series, this is part two. Last week, we looked at the foundational conviction which undergirds this series as a whole, which is that we are to be a church who, II Timothy 2:8, remembers who? Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ. This week and in weeks to come, we're going to be building on that foundational idea of remembering Jesus Christ as we consider specific ways that the Lord is calling us to excel still more as a church. Last week, the sermon was titled Excelling in Exaltation. This week, it's titled Excelling in Embracing. There's a man in our church who cringes, who recoils every time I try to give him a hug. I won't give you the name, but I'll give you two clues. One clue is his daughter, Ava, was married last Saturday and the other clue is his name is Tyler Morten. But don't worry, Tyler, this sermon is not about hugging. This sermon is about being welcoming, being better at being a welcoming church, excelling still more in our welcoming. Our time is short this morning with communion, but in our brief time together I want to show you how crucial, how foundational, how fundamental it is to make sure that we are being a welcoming group of followers of Jesus Christ. Not because it pleases Pastor Jesse or because it pleases the Board of Elders, but because it pleases the Lord.

Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Romans 15. We're going to be looking at Romans 15 and just one verse today, verse 7. Romans 15:7, God's Word reads, “Therefore, accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” A simple straightforward passage, but a passage which has it all. There's a what, we are to accept one another. There's a how, just as Christ also accepted us, and there's a why, to the glory of God. First though, you know, there's this critical connection word there in verse 7, “Therefore.” There are many famous therefores in the book of Romans. “Therefore” Romans 5:1 “we've been justified by faith.” “Therefore,” Romans 8:1 “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” “Therefore,” Romans 12:1 “I exhort you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” And then there's this passage, Romans 15:7 “Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” Now, though our passage today might be less known than those other ones—Romans 5, Romans 8, Romans 12—this passage, this “therefore” still carries a ton of theological weight. Because resting on this “therefore” is the totality of the truth that Paul has laid out in the first 14 plus chapters of his magnum opus, the book of Romans.

Turn back with me if you would to Romans 1. We're going to do a real quick flyover jet tour of all of Romans in about four minutes or less. But Romans 1, where we see that, verse 22, “Though we profess to be wise, we were fools.” “We exchanged,” Romans 1:25, “the truths we knew about God for lies.” Romans 1:18, that we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Romans 1:29, we were “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil.” Romans 1:29, still, we were “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice.” Romans 1:30-31, we were “gossips, slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.” Now jump ahead to Romans 2, where Paul, still on this topic of who we once were, highlights the fact in verse 4 that we had “stubborn and unrepentant hearts.” Then in Romans 3, we learned that in our former unsaved conditions, our “throats were open tombs. The poison of asps,” snakes, “was under our lips.” We learned that our feet, Romans 3:15, were “swift to shed blood.” We learned, verse 23, that we “had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We failed to seek God. We had gone astray from God. We ran from God. We hid our face from God. We were in sin, and we were given over to our sin. We were dominated by our sin. We were once enslaved to our sin. In light of those truths of that state we once were in and the depths of the sin that we were in, we did face the righteous fury and wrath of a holy God.

Also resting on that word in our passage in Romans 15:7, that word “therefore” is a reminder of our salvation. Look at Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, shed His own innocent blood on our behalf. He bought us with His blood. By His wounds, by His stripes, by His scourging we are healed. It's done. It was paid in full, and it can't be undone. I heard somebody say recently this past week that we cannot be any more unjustified than Christ could be uncrucified. Amen to that. It's done. Also resting on this word, “therefore” in Romans 15:7 is the reminder of the life-altering effects of our salvation. Jump ahead to Romans 6:16, it says, “Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” We were once slaves to sin, slaves to ungodliness, but now Romans 6 tells us we are “slaves of righteousness.” We who once were spiritually dead are now spiritually alive. We've been spiritually resurrected. We're new creatures in Jesus Christ whose lives have been forever changed by what He has done for us. We become sons and daughters of God, joint heirs with Christ, adopted into God's family. Our heavenly inheritance awaits us based on what He did for us at Calvary.

Also resting on this word “therefore” in Romans 15:7 is a reminder of the eternal perspective that our salvation ought to bring us. Turn ahead with me to Romans 8:28. We live our new lives in Christ knowing that, as it says here for those who love God, “all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose,” meaning we lay our heads on the pillow each and every night knowing that every circumstance, trial, difficulty, joy, anything else that happens in our life, God is orchestrating for our good and for His glory. We lay our pillow on the head each and every night knowing that no matter what is going on in our lives at this very moment, every situation we find ourselves in, every conversation we find ourselves in, every quandary we find ourselves in, every dilemma we find ourselves in, we know that Romans 8:38-39 says, “Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The God who knows the beginning from the end is arranging all things and purposing all things according to the counsel of His perfect will. This includes Romans 9, His sovereign election of His people. This includes Romans 10, the power and the impact of His gospel, and this includes Romans 11, His future plans for Israel.

The last one I'll mention is this, that resting on this word “therefore” in our passage, Romans 15:7, are the words of Paul in Romans 12. Look at Romans 12:1-2, which tells us that in light of what God has done for us in redeeming us and rescuing us and justifying us and saving us through the death of His Son, we are to, Romans 12:1, “present our bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.” In other words, because of what He gave, namely His life, we are to give all of ourselves in this life to Him, to be living sacrifices.

So that's our jet tour through the book of Romans. I've really just laid it out there to make this simple point that is all built into and hanging over that word “therefore” at the beginning of our passage in Romans 15:7. Romans 15:7 bears the weight of each of those deep theological truths that we've just waded into. I have to say, if those truths that we've just gone over don't remind you and don't inspire you and don't excite you and don't motivate you, don't put a charge into you to live faithfully for Christ; then I don't know whatever would. These truths about God and His character, these truths about us and our depravity, these truths about our salvation through Christ should flood us with gratitude day over day, overwhelm us with joy, true joy, Biblical joy every single day. The rising tide of these truths ought to motivate us to live sold out, sacrificial lives for Jesus Christ 24/7. And that includes how we welcome people into this body of believers.

Speaking of which, we're still in Romans 15:7. Let's move on to the command. We've worked through the word “therefore.” Now these words, “accept one another.” Therefore, accept one another. The word there in Greek, accept, is a fun one to say. It's proslambano. It's a compound verb. It combines a common Greek preposition, pros, which means beside or alongside, and lambano, which means to receive, proslambano. When you put pros and lambano together, you get the literal meaning to receive beside; to call to your side. I know that in the LSV that I'm reading from and the NASB that many of you are reading from, it says “accept.” But here I actually favor the ESV translation, which reads this way. “Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.” That word welcome, the English word welcome, seems to me at least to better encapsulate the meaning of the Greek expression or the Greek verb proslambano. The meaning is, again, to bring someone near to you, to fold them into fellowship with you, to welcome them into community with you.

An important cross reference to help solidify this point is found at the end of the book of Acts. You could turn over there with me to Acts 28. The scene here is where Paul is on his way to Rome. There's this storm, there's this shipwreck. They end up on the island of Malta, just south of Sicily. Look at how it's recorded in Acts 28:1-2. Luke is here speaking kind of in the third and then in the first person. It says, “And when they had been brought safely to shore, then we learned that the island was called Malta. And the natives showed us extraordinary affection. For because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.” Now interesting footnote here before I get to the main point. The word that Luke uses here, the Greek word for natives in verse 2 is barbaroi, it's what we get our English word barbarian from. These barbarians, these natives, note how they greeted Paul and his crew. “They showed them,” verse 2, “extraordinary affection.” Other translations have it unusual kindness. And look at how they did so in very practical ways. They received them, it says “they received us all.” And by the way, that's our word, received is our link back to Romans 15:7. This is the same word, proslambano. They “received us all.” And note that these barbarians in Malta, they didn't simply allow Paul and his crew or simply grant permission to Paul and his crew to come onto their shores. No, they “received them.” They welcomed them. They did that in these practical ways of kindling a fire for them because it was starting to rain and it was getting cold. So, in these very tangible, practical ways the barbarians of Malta demonstrated care and concern for Paul and Luke and their crew.

Carrying this lesson of Acts 28:1-2 forward to the church age and specifically to our church, Indian Hills Community Church in the year 2025, there's a significant lesson that we as a church, that we as a Christian community can learn from barbarians of 2,000 years ago, and it's this. It's one thing to simply grant entry to someone into your building, into your facility. It's one thing to leave the doors unlocked for visitors to come in and sit here. It's an entirely different thing to truly welcome them into the fellowship. It's an entirely different thing to truly welcome them into this body of believers. It's one thing to start allowing people to passively sit in our pews or chairs. We don't have pews anymore, I've noticed. It's one thing to let people enjoy the air conditioning on a hot summer day. It's one thing to let people warm their toes on a cold winter morning in this building. It's one thing to passively let people listen to our orchestra. It's one thing to let people listen to the preaching that happens behind this pulpit. It's one thing to tell people about programs and things they can start to get involved with and then leave the onus on them. It's quite another thing to greet our visitors warmly and to extend your hand, and to shake it, and to look them in the eye, and to ask them questions, and to consciously and selflessly show interest in them. It's another thing to volunteer, to take some time to show someone who's clearly new here how to get around this large and sometimes confusing building. It's another thing to sit with a new person and to introduce someone else to this new person and to invite them to lunch, and to ask them for their contact information, and to actually follow-up with them, and then to pray for them, and you tell them that you're praying for them, and maybe even have a few other couples from church over to have a meal with them to make them feel welcome. It's quite another thing to show interest in somebody, not just on that first Sunday they come, but for the long haul. To be willing to break with tradition. To be willing to break with what's become customary for you. Maybe sitting in a new section in the auditorium with them to introduce them to some new folks that maybe you haven't even met yet because it's a new section of the auditorium. Maybe it's to skip Sunday lunch with your family or shift your schedule around for the week to accommodate someone who the Lord has providentially brought into your life. There's a difference between opening the doors and welcoming.

Every once in a while, I'll be out there mowing on a Monday, my day off, and I think all kinds of thoughts, just getting real with you. I'll think of all kinds of thoughts like these poor people, they hear me preach on Sunday morning with all these ideas. They brought me in three years ago. For some I'm sure they like church the way it is. They've liked church the way it was. They don't want church to change. They have great, warm, fuzzy memories about how it looked thirty, forty, fifty years ago, ten, fifteen years ago. And who am I to come in and say, “We got to change some things?” Every once in a while, I have that thought as I sweat, as I push that mower. But when I have those thoughts, I do quickly remember that the Lord is sovereign. I do quickly remember that the Lord is perfect and that all of His ways are perfect. And I do quickly remember that the Lord in the local church works through elders. And I do quickly remember that the team of elders that brought me on board 3 plus years ago to be the church's pastor, they knew that they were bringing in a church planter. Did you know that? Before I got here, I spent over a decade with my family in church plants in California. That's my pedigree. The elders could have brought in somebody who is quite content to just sort of keep things running as they were, sort of gently adjust the knobs as needed, but otherwise don't rock the boat.

They could have brought in somebody who was reluctant to push for change. They could have brought in somebody who didn't want to ruffle any feathers among the more established families in the church. But that's not who they brought. They brought in a stranger, and a Californian at that. They brought in a church planter. Now if you've ever spent time in a church plant, you know that you were intensely trained and intensely equipped to be as welcoming as you can possibly be. That is the DNA of what you do. That's how you function. That's how your brain works. That's how your motivations are fired every single week. When a church plant is just getting off the ground, it is all hands-on deck. When new visitors show up, you are trained to not just swarm them on Sunday and make them feel uncomfortable and nervous. No. No. You're trained to intentionally pursue them outside of Sunday and let them know how important they are to you because they are, because you're praying for them, because you want them to know Christ and grow in Christ and they feel that.

Church plants operate much differently than large established churches like Indian Hills. I had a colleague in California once mention that the difference between a church plant and a large established church, he said the established church is like the cruise ship. Right? It's got all the bells and the whistles. It's got the staff and the resources. It's got the big lights and the YouTube feed and it's just all that you could need to kind of make the ship stay on course. But a church plant is like a speedboat, and a speedboat is not like a cruise ship. A speedboat is smacking against the waves, and it's listing, and it's rocking, and people are falling out, and you're always in danger of hitting the rocks. Right? It's totally different. Well, what you got with me 3 plus years ago was not a cruise ship director, but a speedboat operator. Sort of an odd pairing, I grant that, given the size and the history of our church. But I still deep down firmly believe that the Lord is going to especially use this pairing for His glory in this church for many years to come. I believe the Lord brought the right guy and the right team of guys to this church for this time to advance what He wants to do here for generations to come. Speaking of which, where I am at this point, I know where the other elders are at this point, is this, that it is time that we as a church, that as we look forward to our future, grateful for the 50 plus years behind us, but looking forward to the future, that we adopt a true church plant mentality.

That we adopt the mentality of the speedboat. That we adopt the mentality of what it would have been here 50 years ago when people were all excited about all the new folks who were coming, and it was growing, and they were eager to get the Gospel out and eager to train up and invite new folks in. We need to ditch the comfortable cruise ship idea and move into the speedboat era of Indian Hills. And it all starts with welcoming.

Back to our text. “Therefore,” welcome, “accept one another.” Because our pastor told us to? Because our pastor is making us? Because he's using crazy words like speedboat? No. Romans 15:7, “accept one another just as Christ also accepted us.” The first part of this verse gives us the what we are to do, “accept one another,” welcome one another. Then it is “just as Christ also accepted us.” Those are powerful words. Don't overlook those words. Don't miss that glorious connection between what Christ came to do for you and for me and the command we now have in this passage to welcome others. How has Jesus Christ, the perfect sinless Son of God welcomed us? How has He accepted us? He welcomes sinners like us into God's family by dying for us. He welcomed us through His death and His resurrection. And He did so, why? Because of how lovely we were, and how worthy of welcome we were, and how beautiful and glorious we were? No, absolutely not. Titus 3:3 says, we were “foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable.” We were Christ's enemies. We were hostile to Him. We were alienated from Him. We were, it says, “despicable.” That's about as low and as vile as it gets, and yet He welcomed us. Romans 5:6 says, “at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” He rescued us. Jesus saved us. He accepted us. He welcomed us, and He did so, so that our ultimate end would no longer be death, but rather eternal life. Dear brothers and sisters, if what Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, was willing to do, by going out of His way to come down from heaven to this sin stained earth to welcome those who once were his enemies, wretched sinners like us into his eternal family, can't we follow His example in going out of our way to welcome others here? If Christ has so welcomed us, can't we leave the comfort zone of our circle of closest friends and family members to go welcome a stranger? If Christ has so welcomed us, can't we rearrange our schedules and our priorities to welcome those who might otherwise go unwelcomed because we assume somebody else has him, somebody else has her? If Christ has so welcomed us, can't we pray for more opportunities to meet and welcome other individuals and families before we even show up for church on Sunday? If Christ has so welcomed us, can't we break out of the shell of our traditions, what we're used to doing? That's the cruise ship mentality. Answer the call of what we need to be doing, which is to go out of our way to welcome others into our fellowship, not just on a Sunday morning, but with all of our life. Remember Jesus Christ.

Before I move on to my next item here, in case I haven't ruffled any feathers yet, I am going to do so now. Now is the time. At a very high level, the charge I'm giving you all this morning, us as a church, boils down to the seriousness of our devotion to Jesus Christ Himself. It boils down to the seriousness of our devotion to His bride, His body, the church. Realistically, how serious can we be about Christ and about His bride, His body? How serious can we be about answering this challenge to be this mobilized welcoming group of believers if our own commitment to the church isn't what it ought to be? Here's what I mean.

How serious and committed can we be to this mission of welcoming others as Christ has welcomed us if we're always showing up late? How serious can we be about answering this charge to welcome others as Christ has welcomed us if we're always answering that magnetic pull out to the south parking lot to get out of here as fast as we can? How serious can we be to answer this charge to welcome others into this body if during the service we're browsing our news feed or checking our stock performance or scrolling social media? Now irony of ironies, those who these next comments will be directed toward probably won't hear them. But how committed can we be to this charge to welcome others as we've been welcomed by Christ if we're never in the services. Right? If we think we're being noble and pulling double duty to serve in both the first and the second hour, but we're never in here. Or we've been in the nursery rocking babies for 20, 30, 35 years, but haven't heard a live sermon since Clinton was President. Or milling around in the hallways during the service time, visiting with friends, family, treating it like social hour, treating it like we're at Buffalo Wild Wings rather than in the church of the living God. Friends, there was no halfway or part-time with Jesus when He went out of His way to go to the cross to welcome us into the family of God. So why would we think it's okay for us to go halfway or part-time in our devotion in welcoming others into His body?

Back to our passage. Paul concludes his thought with these words, Romans 15:7, we are to “accept one another just as Christ also accepted us,” look at the last words here, “to the glory of God.” It's all about bringing God glory. Everything in this world exists for the glory of God. The world itself, society, culture, people, families, it all exists to magnify God and His character. “For from Him,” Romans 11:36, “and through Him and to Him are all things.” That includes the church. Everything we do here in the building— our services, our classes, our programs. Everything we do in our homes as the church with our families, our spouses, our children, our grandchildren. Everything we do in the community of Lincoln as the church, as we evangelize the lost. Everything is to be done with one ultimate purpose, which is to bring glory to our great God. And that includes welcoming, welcoming others as we have been welcomed by God through Christ to the glory of God.