We had a guest pastor today, Steve Brown. He’s a pretty frequent guest pastor at our church, and I actually know him from the church I used to attend in Orlando (I know, small world!). I really enjoy what he has to say, and today was no exception.

Today’s sermon was entitled “Church R Us”. He started out by reminding us how bad we (the church) are – that we’re all sinners and none of us “have it all together”. He then talked about loving all the members of the church (meaning, all Christians), even people we disagree with. This orthodoxy of love only comes from God – you can’t love until you’ve been loved. Through God, we can love the church even when we sin. Steve ended with the phrase: “We’re not good, but we’re His.”

I guess when it comes down to it, the message is pretty simple. Love others, pray for them, because God is going to use them. It’s easy to get mad/frustrated with the church when it hurts us. It’s easy to brush off all Christians as hypocrites. But that’s not the right response. God loves us even though we’re hypocritical. And we are all part of His plan, even when it doesn’t look like it. I have a feeling this subject is much deeper than I’m getting into here. :-)

You can listen to the sermon here (message title: Church R Us, November 25th).

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What did you learn at church today? Leave a link to your own “Sunday Ponderings” blog post, or you can just mention your thoughts in the comments. Read more about this weekly carnival and get the code for the “Sunday Ponderings” graphic here.