Everyone feels equal, I think, at the airport. If you've ever been there, until they start calling boarding groups. You're tracking with me? You've been there? I've been in an airport before and I sit around and I was like, right, like you're, you're, you feel like you're in it together. You don't know anybody around you. We're like, we're about to go on a journey, right? You look around to your left, to your right, you're like, We're gonna go on this plane. Like, if it gets delayed, you're all upset together, right? Like you're all wondering, but you're like, we're about to fly across the country together, we're bonded, right? You're looking around. I don't know about you, but after I watched the TV series Lost, I started to look around and be like, OK, I started assigning roles to people in case the plane goes down. OK, this is how my mind works. Anyway, um, and so all is good and all is equal until they start calling those boarding groups. Right? And, and if you're not one of those early groups, you judge quickly, right? You're like, oh, it must be nice, Group A. Right? And at the same time, if you're lucky enough to get one of the early groups, you're like, see you peasants. You know, are you, you try to guess what boarding group that person is, they're like, oh, there's definitely Group F. Right? And so we start making these judgments in our minds. And so here's the thing is that We make judgments actually all the time, all the time. And that we walk through our days and, and now when you pull out our, your device and you go online and there is, there seems to be more divisions than ever before, right? And we find ways to reinforce our beliefs and then, and to tear down the beliefs of the people that we disagree with and we start to treat them differently. But today, I want to go into a message entitled Faith Doesn't play Favorites because we're gonna take a look at a group of believers. That was challenged very early on. In fact, this is one of the earliest books in the New Testament. So it's written by James, the half brother of Jesus, who's leading the church in Jerusalem, writing to dispersed believers from around the region. And so now they're getting persecuted from all sides. They're getting persecuted from the Romans, they're getting persecuted from the religious Jews and other leaders that were into this environment, saying that afraid that they were going to lose their power. And so now they're being dispersed and so you, you read the teachings of Jesus, you study the life of Jesus. That Jesus came down to earth, lived the perfect life, loved people well, promised forgiveness and hope through his life, died on the cross as payment for our sins, then rose again, defeating death itself. The Holy Spirit comes in, and the church is launched, but now you've got groups of people that shouldn't belong together. Culturally speaking, these people shouldn't be in the same room. We got masters and slaves, you got educated, uneducated. You have men, women, you have different ethnicities, you have different financial backgrounds. All of them gathered under one banner, and that is the hope of Jesus Christ Himself. And so what do you do with that? We're taking notes, I want you to write this down, that a vision of Jesus before you. Will help you value the people around you. A vision of Jesus before you will help you value the people around you. You see, James. His primary sources for writing this letter to this early church is most likely going back to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus was preaching in Matthew Matthew 5 to 7. And then also studying some of these Old Testament books, specifically Proverbs. Because unlike some of the other letters in the New Testament, it wasn't written to just one specific group at one specific time dealing with one specific issue, but rather, it, it's like everyone's scattered, they're struggling, they're hurting, and James comes in, he's like, look, we're in the wild, and here's your survival guide. Here's what it means to be a Christian. Here's how you're called to live. Here is what you're supposed to believe. Here is what you're supposed to do, that if you really think that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, here's what it looks like on an everyday basis. And so he's gonna give them and then also give us a map, a survival guide of how to survive the wilderness. It really is where the rubber meets the road, and, and he's gonna set this up because it says here in James 1:4, 1 of the theme verses of the whole book, he says, let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. This idea of perfection, it's really this idea of wholeness. Right? This idea of wholeness. Speaking of judgment, if you go through Whole Foods, you feel pretty good about yourself, right? You're like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay $20 for that vegetable and, uh, and then go around. Right? Like we do that. Why? Well, there is value. I, I'm just kidding aside, it is, uh, you know, some good food in there if you, if you got the money for it. But, but we pursue wholeness as a society in health. Well, James is gonna pursue wholeness in spirituality and in your faith because we're called as Christians to seek wholeness when we live in a fractured world. We have fractured finances, fractured relationships. Right, fractured mindsets. Right? You come into church and we're singing, Behold the Lamb, and then you go out and then you do whatever you want on Monday, right? And you you live completely different. Some of you don't even wait till Monday. Some of you lose it in the parking lot on the way out. Some of you lost it on your kids this morning on the way to church. I, I think Satan knows he can't get you in church, and so he's sitting right outside that door, right? And so he's gonna get you on the way in or the way out, right? That's how it feels like. So we live in a fractured world. But James tells us that you can actually pursue wholeness through Christ. He says, I don't want you just to pray a prayer, call yourself a Christian, and then just wait till death. I want you to mature, to grow, to become more like Jesus in your relationships, in your thinking, in your mindset, in your, in your uh life. So what does that look like? He continues on. One of the other theme verses of the book is found in James 1:22. It says, but be doers of the word. Not hearers only deceiving yourselves, that we are called to live this out. Now we're gonna focus on the 1st 13 verses of James chapter 2, but I wanna highlight this little command sandwich that we got going on. So it says in there, pursue wholeness, that you're lacking nothing, that you become more like Christ, and you do that through actually obeying the word of God. And then we're gonna have our passage, and then immediately after the passage we're gonna study today, we actually get James 2:17. It says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. What he routinely says throughout his writing is that Christianity is just not a faith to be proclaimed, but rather a faith to be lived. You gotta take the faith out of the box, right? You gotta, you gotta, you gotta take the car for a spin. You got, you gotta go and you got to live this out. That's where the impact happens. And I say all that because now he gets into these commands. He gets into these practicalities of how do you live this out? So you have a fractured world, you have a divided church, they're getting persecuted. They're being attacked from the outside. There's division and distraction from the inside. And James comes right out of the gate and says, look, here we go. James chapter 2, verse 1, he says, my brothers. Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Don't do it. Cool. Thanks, James. But what is partiality? That doesn't make sense to me. Let's just break this down, OK? Partiality is using your position, your power, or your perspective to elevate or diminish somebody else. It's playing favorites here. And we're not talking about time because Jesus technically played a lot of favoritism when it came to his time, right? He was present with people and performed miracles and preached to the crowds, but he actually spent a majority of his time with the 12 disciples, and of the 12 disciples and those friendships, then even a smaller circle of the 3. Right? And of the three, maybe even a little bit further and investing in Peter. And so you see here that partiality is not necessarily about time as much as it is about treatment. And so, a, a way to think about this here is, do you use your position to hold it over somebody else? Do you use your power? To control somebody else. Do you use your perspective to dismiss somebody else? But I want you also to notice this, that it partiality is not just simply diminishing people, but it's also elevating people beyond where they're called to be. We live in a culture that will idolize or demonize somebody, don't we? That if they represent our party or if they represent the our our school of thought, that they can do no wrong. And we lift them up and place them in a spot that is actually only meant for God. That's not just a political thing. We do that with celebrities, right? We do that with actors and actresses, we do that with musicians and athletes, but we also do that with the people in our own lives. Your spouse. Could make a great spouse, but I'm gonna tell you, they make a horrible god. Your children, if you place them into the God's spot. You're gonna put so much pressure on them. That they will never meet your expectation, or when they leave the house, you feel like you got nothing left. How common is it for marriages to crumble actually after the kids leave the house? Why? Because they never invested in their marriage because they elevated their children so much. That they never had that foundation of a relationship of husband and wife. Are there people in your life that you diminish or dismiss because you don't agree with them? Or there are people in your life that you elevate to almost hero iconic status just because they have something that you want? That not only is bad, that's actually called sin. And James calls this out. He says don't, don't play favorite favorites to people. Now, invest in the people close to your life. Invest in that inner circle, invest in your leaders on your team, right? But in your treatment of others, what you say, how you think, how you love, how you treat. Will say more about your faith. Than a song that you sing on a Sunday. He doesn't stop there, he continues on. And well, you know what? I'm just gonna walk through here. Jesus gives us the example, OK? Let me just highlight a couple to you, that won't be on the screen, but right from the beginning, the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph, he works through their lives, right? A carpenter and a teenage girl that no one had ever heard of before. When he calls the first disciples in Matthew 4, they are majority of them uneducated fishermen, right? He goes on and he presents the gospel and heals this demon possessed man in Mark chapter 5, or he shares the gospel with the religious Ivy League educated guy named Nicodemus in John 3, turned around and offers living water to the Samaritan woman rejected at the well. John 4, when told, who is my neighbor, he gives this parable of the Good Samaritan, which he pits against each other, the two strongest hateful groups in the world at that time towards each other. He says, no, if your neighbor is a person in front of you who has a need. When he says, who can receive the gospel, he tells the parable of the prodigal son, and it's not just the prodigal son, it's the prodigal sons, meaning you have the one guy who lives by rebellion and and goes and parties and squanders away all of his wealth. He says, no, there's hope for him, but then when he comes. Back, the religious older brother is really judging and left outside there too. So you got rebellion, you got religion, and Jesus saying neither of those will save you, but rather being a child of God is what saved you. And so he preaches this idea of identity, of love, of security that's found in him. He talks about how the little children can come to him in Matthew 19. He, when he's walking through the town, he, he looks up at Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the short guy up in the tree, says, hey, I'm coming over to your house today. When he rose again from the grave, who were the first people People to see the resurrected, um, or the resurrection. It was Mary, um, it's Mary's there at the tomb back when a time when women's testimonies were not even seen valid in court. And so here Jesus repeatedly over and over and over again, ministers to and ministers with and ministers for people from all kinds of backgrounds. And then he's gonna tell us to treat people the same. Says don't treat people with partiality. Don't play favorites in the name of God. And then he gives us this example. James chapter 2 verse 2 and 3, he says, for if a man is wearing a gold ring and fine clothing and comes into your assembly, or a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and says, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, oh, you stand over there, or you sit down at my feet. He's saying like, if someone comes into church, if someone comes into the gathering. And you're judging them based on how they look. Don't do that. Let, can we just be real for a second? Can we just be real? Can you name a more image-obsessed judgmental judgmental culture in America than like Greater Scottsdale? I, I'm, I'm being real, right? Like, come on. Like, again, it's, it's, it's not wrong to have wealth. It's not wrong to have that, but you know, every everyone's trying so hard. Here, right? Everyone's trying to keep up with some image that we don't know who started it, but We're trying to get the latest thing and, and this and status for what? Like, we got people whose relationships are falling apart at home, but then online, they're posting their great promotion or or trip or thing. Why? So you can get approval from people that you're never gonna see. Meanwhile, you haven't had a conversation with your spouse or your kids that live in that you share the house with? See, Scripture is applicable everywhere, but there are certain passages that apply more intensely to areas in which people reside, and I think this is an area where we struggle as a community. is that we make judgments on people based on how they look, how much money they make, what they drive, what they do. And God's saying, that's not the sign of maturity. So he gives us this example, but then he continues on with the reasoning why we shouldn't do that, OK? Verse 4, these next 4 verses, it's gonna continue on through verse 13, but these next 4 verses actually give us 4 questions about reasoning. So it says, don't do that. Why? Verse 4, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? It's a personal question. Have you not become judgmental yourself? Right? If somebody has prejudice, it literally means to prejudge somebody else. And it's very easy to play the comparison game in our culture. Where if somebody has something that we don't, we either get envious or we tear them down quietly, don't we? Right? You ever have somebody say something positive that happened and you're like, I'm so happy for you. Right, but there's like another version of yourself that's inside, just like, right, you know what I'm talking about. And uh or somebody doesn't get the thing and you're like, I knew it. I knew it. Right? We, we, we, we play this game all the time. But why are we making ourselves? Judges, we're not on, we're not on the voice waiting for somebody to say something and we just hit our button whether or not we approve or not. Do you know what I mean? Although that would be cool, like America's Got Talent, if you had a giant X that if you had a somebody had a conversation and they started speaking, you didn't like it, you just go. That would be a lot of fun, actually. Says, what are you doing? Verse 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, see, notice the care. He's not coming at them harshly. He's saying, look, brothers, sisters, believers. Don't miss the gospel. He says, don't become evil and judges yourselves. Verse 5, Listen. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love Him? He's asking a spiritual question. Didn't God use Mary and Joseph to bring Jesus into the world? Didn't God use? The disciples, those uneducated people. To start the movement of the church. Didn't God use Paul? The persecuting religious zealot, to turn around and become the mouthpiece for the early church. Didn't God save you? Weren't you just on that other side? Weren't you just overlooked and overcome and overwhelmed and God came in and saved you? Weren't you there when God presented you grace? Then why, why are you not giving that same grace that you received to other people? Verse 6. But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? He's like, wait, now that you're safe, you're gonna become. The same level of judgmental as the people who oppress you. I was talking with some uh religious leaders and missionaries overseas and saying corruption in other countries is actually really common. Because what happens is these oppressed people get attacked and overlooked and and and all these negative things happen and then they get to power and instead of changing it, they say, oh, OK, now it's my turn. Do you have a my turn type mentality? Well, they did it to me. That was my turn That's not, that's not the gospel. Yeah, the personal question, like, are you becoming a judge? You have the spiritual question, like, are you, do you understand the gospel? You have the historical question. Are you becoming like the same people that persecuted you? And then you even have the relational question, verse 7. It says, are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? 1 Peter 3:15 says, always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. Well, if you have to be able to give an answer. Then your life has to actually beg the question. So how are you living differently than the world? If your life was put on trial, is there enough evidence to convict you of faith? Meaning if people looked at your emails, if people looked at your meetings and your calendar and your bank account, and your actions and your words, would they conclude, oh yeah, he's a believer? Or would it be somebody who looks exactly like the world who happens to occasionally go to a church on a Sunday? Verse 8 to 11 here continues on and say, look, this really doesn't line up with the gospel. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture that you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. Like Jesus said, love, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Really, within that, he's quoting back into the Old Testament, whether you go to Deuteronomy or in Exodus, where he's saying that the Shima law like this, Love the Lord your God, right, as one. It's going all the way back, loving neighbors yourself, that's what he's saying here, like, this goes all the way back. This isn't something new. He says, but if you're not following this here, verse 9, but if you show partiality. If you're showing judgment, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law of transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of it all. Verse 11, for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, then you've become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. This idea of freedom. It says for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but this great powerful statement here that mercy triumphs over judgment. The 10 Commandments is like going to the doctor to find out what you have, right? You go to the doctor, not simply to get better, but to get the scan, to get the, the imaging, to get the test, the blood test to find out what you got. The Old Testament does that. It shows the character of God, but then it shows the sinfulness of man. Then Jesus comes into play. And then he takes it actually a step further. He says, You have heard it said, don't commit adultery. I'm gonna tell you, it's actually deeper than that says don't, don't be lustful in your heart. You've heard it said, don't commit murder. I'm gonna tell you, don't hate. These things of not putting a God, another God before him, about not being jealous or coveting, about not lying to one another. These are concepts that all of us, myself included, have sinned against a holy perfect God. How many sins does it take to make you a sinner? One. But we are, we are sinning every day. At no point have you ever done anything to earn the salvation and grace of God. That the only way that we are sitting here today, having church is because what Jesus did and how he died on the cross as payment for our sins, that when he rose again, provided justification, this idea of being declared righteous, set free because the payment of our sin was paid in full with what Jesus did. So that when he rose again from the grave, that he provided forgiveness and hope and purpose and life and freedom for all. So why are we gonna go all through this, experience this forgiveness, experience this grace, experience this freedom and turn around and judge the people that for the sins that we also committed. There's a part in the gospel story where Jesus is about to be crucified. And the leader in that culture says, hey, based on our culture, you get to let somebody go. Do you want Jesus or do you want Barabbas, this horrible person? And they're like, give us Barabbas. We're Barabbas. We are the wretched sinners that don't deserve anything good from God. And yet when God looks down on us, he sees. The sacrifice of his son and sees the forgiveness that is available. And extends the grace so that you can experience freedom. And now we can become ambassadors of that freedom to in turn live that out. On a daily basis. See, if God values all people, therefore we should value all people. And that's easy to say, but it's much harder to live. Let me put it to you this way. Is there somebody that if they showed up at church this morning, you'd be mad? You know what I'm saying? If there's a person that showed up at church, you would be frustrated. We all have that person. I mean, don't look at that person right now. Have you ever heard a sermon? And your first thought was, man, I really hope he heard that. I really hope she was listening. We make judgments all the time. But what happens Is that we turn around and we blame God for the poor choices of other people. Right. If somebody is playing Beethoven. But they're playing Beethoven poorly. Do you blame Beethoven? No, you're like, that's not good. That's not what it, that's not how it's meant to be, is it? But let's be real, none of us are good. That's why you learn the recorder, right? What was that? 3rd grade? You remember that? Not quite sure how that translated into adulthood. I mean, I've never been like going into a business meeting, wishing I, I could whip out some hot cross buns on the recorder to bring us all together, you know, OK. You ever been to an elementary school band concert? It's not good. But what, what happens? We don't like, that's, that's cute when they're kids, right? It's not cute when you're a grown adult. And you're still playing the spiritual music of a child. As you grow, you are called to grow in maturity. It's called sanctification. But here's the reality. We used to live in a culture, and I say used to probably about 30, 40 years ago, that if somebody claimed faith, and then did this, you would line up and say, oh, they weren't living out the faith that they claimed. But somewhere along the lines of about 20 to 30 years ago, when we went from kind of modernism to post-modernism where it became, we took it out of the author and we put it onto the reader, and we made truth and we made it subjective and said it can be whatever you want, where we came alongside says, oh, someone is claiming this, but they're living that, therefore, what they believe isn't true. One of the greatest deterrents to Christian faith are Christians. I've been pastoring for 20 years. And so many times I've heard stories of people who were hurt by somebody else in the church. Someone said this, someone did that, and I left and I hadn't been back. But Every single time. That somebody comes to faith. It is because of the grace and the example and the heart that somebody else shared with them. That somebody actually lived this out. And so that they see it, you know, that's different. That that's somebody who has it, not together perfectly, but they're they're anchored to something deeper. More meaningful they have peace I can't describe. They have forgiveness and grace that I can't understand, but I want that. They have a joy that goes beyond circumstances. See, God has value for all people, and it runs through all scripture. Genesis 1:27. So for God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them. So he created this valuable piece of creation known as humanity. John 3:16, the most quoted verse in the Bible, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. So this idea of his claim is exclusive. Listen, the gospel is offensive. Do you get that? By definition, the gospel is admitting that you are a sinner. It's going to offend people. So let the gospel offend people, not yourself. It doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about it. Does that make sense? Let the gospel be offensive enough. Can we do that? Romans 6:22-23, he says, but now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and to its end eternal life. You've been freed. You've been forgiven. Therefore, let us grow and extend that to others. Why? Read verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Colossians 3:11 says, here there is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythian, slave free, but Christ is all and in all. He says this is the church. Judgment stop here at the church. Now, the culture has gone so far and says no, tolerance is everything. No, sin is sin. Right? We're called to take a stand for truth and to live out God's way of life in our finances, in our sexuality, in, in how we speak to each other, what we believe in our values. So stand for truth, but then you love people along the way. Because then it says this at the very end of the book. So we got the beginning, we got the middle. Now let's go all the way to the end. Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 and 10. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude. That no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Every tribe Every tongue, every nation. The global church is so much bigger than whatever little circle you live in. I, I heard a stat recently from, uh, a pastor and podcast. I, uh, just full disclosure, I didn't, I didn't fact check it. Maybe you can fact check me afterwards, but, uh, so go search it out for yourself. But they said about 100 years ago, about 95% of evangelical Christians lived in the Western world, Europe, North America. Now, just about 100 years later. Uh, Europe and North America represent only about 5 to 10% of evangelicals around the world. Do you understand that other countries are sending missionaries to us now? That's not a made-up thing, like, that's legitimate, like, there is revival happening everywhere. Understand that, like, before you start thinking about judgments about this or this, that person, that person, there are people getting radically saved from around the world. And then in heaven, we're gonna see every tribe, every tongue, every nation under one banner of Jesus. So let's put our judgments aside. And try to live out the gospel that we have once received. Because a vision of Jesus before you will help you value the people around you. A vision of Jesus before you will help you value the people around you. So let's land the plane here and just get super practical, OK? I want you to think about a relationship where there is judgment. Did you elevate somebody too high or did you diminish somebody too low, or did you distance somebody too far away? Right? Three categories of people. Have you elevated somebody too high to like iconic idol status? Have you diminished somebody beneath you? They're not worth it. Or if you distance yourself from so far from somebody? OK. Now, after you see it, if you think about it as the name that God's placing on your heart right now, I want you then to pray about it. Ask God for one step that you can take this week. What is one step that you can take this week? Um, and then. I want you to do it. Do what God tells you to do. To see it, pray it, do it. Is there a relationship in your life where you are judging somebody differently than yourself? Right now we're talking treatment, right? Understand this, forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. It's a step towards reconciliation, right? There is something as safety and boundaries, but forgiveness starts here with your mindset and your heart and your thinking. So start there. Can you pray, taking that relationship to God, asking God, can you help me see this person as you see this person? Then do it Take a step in faith this week. Last Sunday, I think There was one of. The greatest, most powerful gospel moments in public that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The reality is the Charlie Kirk Memorial last weekend, I was right in our own backyard. Had about 100,000 people in attendance. I know that because some of y'all were there and missed here. Thanks a lot. I'm just kidding, kind of, but no, just kidding. Now, some of you guys were there. Another 100 million people. Streamed online. 100 million. Represents a third of our country. People from all over the world. Some say that this was the largest broadcast broadcasted event in the entire world, in the history of the world. And I don't want to make a political statement on this, but I want, I want you to zone in on the most talked about moment from that five-hour memorial. And the reason it's the most talked about is because it is the most gospel-centric thing I think I have seen in my lifetime of the principle that we're talking about, of taking faith and living it out. I don't want you to take my words for it, but I want you to listen to Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie. Who just days before was assassinated, now standing and has an opportunity to speak. In front of, including streaming, over 100 million people. And I want you to notice not just what she says, but the legitimate human struggle through which she had to process through and say it, that I think the only way you can describe it is a gospel Holy Spirit moment. Just, just listen to these words. And then think about your relationships. My husband, Charlie. He wanted to save. Young men Just like the one who took his life. That young man That young man. On the cross our Savior said. Father, forgive them for they not know what they do. That man That young man. I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies. And love for those who persecute us. When you see the gospel lived out. It moves people It changes people. And we have the chance. To bring light into a dark world. To bring wholeness into a fractured world that when we view people as Jesus viewed people, when we treat people as Jesus treated people, that in the largest stage. With the deepest of hurts, if someone can forgive in that moment, I promise you there is hope in your relationships. I promise you. There's opportunity. For you To bring light Into the relationships and the people around you. Stand for truth. Fight for love. And let us not be a church that plays favorites. But let us love people the way that Jesus loved us. Dear God, just thank you for who you are and what you've done. God, I pray that you would just move in a mighty way. We can be reminded of what it means to live out our faith on a daily basis, not to play favorites, to lift up or to diminish or distance ourselves, but to treat people the way that you've treated us and extend grace and love and mercy to those who need it. We love you, God in Your Son's name we pray. Amen.