Millbrook Baptist Church

This is what Jesus is telling us this morning, Millbrook. You, me, we, all of us, are loved beyond measure, held in the hands of an affectionate Creator, who yearns for our potential to burst forward, who delights in our presence, who says to themselves each and every moment, “I’m so glad I made you!” And while there a thousand adjectives I could use to describe the people who sit in this room, I hope you’ll leave here remembering a noun, a word of unchanging distinction: Beloved. YOU, ME, WE, ALL ARE GOD’S BELOVED.  Thanks be to God!!!

For when we experience God’s hospitality, we begin to realize our collective gifts, and our collective possibilities.  And God is no longer the obstacle to those goals, but rather God is the catalyst.  I believe, with all my heart, that worship is the beginning of transformation.  It is not idleness. It is not meaningless. It Is our purpose and our source and our start. 

The earliest Jesus followers lived in chaotic times, too. The Jerusalem Temple got sacked, Vesuvius erupted, Rome’s excess rattled decorum. And yet we hear about an Acts Church that thrives, that pools its goods and possessions, where all who have need are provided for. They worship God with great joy, and they break bread together with glad and generous hearts. Sure, it’s the end of the world as we know it, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s the beginning of an era where in seeing our connectedness with one another, we channel the Spirit of God now and forever.