SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader
This speaker welcomes the congregation, discusses the church fire and facility changes, introduces new members and the guest preacher, leads confession and baptism, gives congregational updates, and offers the pastoral prayer. The first name Christi is supported by Dr. Reggie Smith's later reference to "Pastor Christi," but the transcript does not provide a last name.

Speaker 2 - Dr. Reggie Smith / Guest Preacher
This speaker is introduced by the worship leader and then identifies himself by name. He says he works for Thrive and previously served Roosevelt Park Community Christian Reformed Church. He reads Titus 3:3-7, preaches the sermon, and gives the closing prayer.

Speaker 3 - Baptismal Parents / Families
This collective label covers the responses of Noah and Allison and of Charles and Lindsey during the baptismal vows. The transcript does not reliably distinguish the individual voices within each family response.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir
This collective speaker participates in hymns, spoken responses, baptismal vows, and closing affirmations. The automated transcript does not reliably distinguish choir voices from the full congregation.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

[Opening congregational singing. The first portion is severely corrupted by automated repetition and cannot be reliably reconstructed.]

There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed. There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head. For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more faithful, we should rest upon God's Word, and our lives would be thanksgiving for the goodness of our Lord.

[Congregational singing continues. Some lyrics are not reliable enough to reproduce.]

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

The God who has poured out His gifts into our lives is present here with us by His Holy Spirit. He greets us with these words: grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty and ongoing work of God's Holy Spirit. Amen.

Good morning, and welcome to worship at LaGrave, whether you are worshiping here with us in the sanctuary or online from somewhere else. A special welcome to those who are visiting and worshiping with us for the baptisms today. It is so good to be able to worship together in this space this morning.

There are a couple of memories of worship in this building that stand out profoundly for me because they are so full of gratitude for the ability to worship together. One of those times was shortly after COVID, when we could first come back and be together in this space after worshiping from home and having an empty sanctuary for a period of time.

You know what I'm going to say next. We're so grateful to be able to worship in this space this morning after a fire that you all heard about this week and witnessed as you drove into the parking lot this morning.

It's good to be safe. It's good to be together. It's good to be looking to Jesus as we anticipate our next steps. At the same time, we lament the destruction that has happened here.

We lament the physical loss of that space, the art, the history, the worship, and the organ that's in there. We lament the loss of hours of deliberations, meetings, prayers, and opportunities we were imagining for how that space, as it was, might be used for ministry with our youth and with our neighbors.

For today, there's a lot we don't know yet. You might expect that. What we do know is that our church, its buildings, and its people are God's. We are God's.

We trust that the God who has been faithful to this community over the last almost 140 years is going to carry us through the next part of the way into the future.

You will notice this morning that the east and northeast sections of the church are closed for the time being. That's because the east wall of the building next door is compromised, and we need to ensure that nobody is in the path of any portion of that wall that might fall.

The nursery has been relocated upstairs. District coffee was planned for the parlor. If you're here for that today, go up to room 200. After the service, your coffee time will be there.

There will still be fellowship, coffee, and conversation in the multipurpose room down the hall and to the right, through the narthex. Those are the things to know for today. We'll do our best to keep you informed about what is coming next as we learn more.

People are already talking and working on the next steps. You should also know that LaGrave's Council and Long-Range Planning Committee continue to focus on the long-term goals and visions we already had. We have a new set of circumstances, so we'll work together and take the next days and weeks as they come, trusting God as we determine those steps together.

Please continue, as you already have, in prayer for the people of our church, for the ministry visions of our church, and for the next thing God has in store for us here.

Okay, that was kind of heavy. Now we get to do some beautiful parts of our life together. We get to welcome some new members to this community.

Although they have been around LaGrave for a period of time, we have Tim and Sue Visor and Nick Rosema. Tim and Sue, I saw you. If you could stand where you are, that would be great. Nick, I don't know if you're here, but if you are, I welcome you to stand at this time.

Oh yes, you're right next to them. You did just what you were asked to do. Thanks for that.

You should know about these folks. Their faces might be familiar because they have been around LaGrave for a while, and we're grateful to celebrate with you this morning the beginning of your official membership in this church body.

Nick is a West Michigan native. He attended Calvin Christian High School and Grand Valley State University, and he has lived near downtown Grand Rapids for the last couple of years. He works as a data analyst at Michigan 211, a service that connects residents of our community with health, human-service, and other resources in the area.

He loves to read. He's a classics major and likes Latin and Greek. Good for you. Spread that love to the rest of us a little bit. He likes classical music and the Grand Rapids Symphony. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that you found the worship style familiar and found this to be a place where you felt at home worshiping.

Incidentally, Nick's grandmother is Kathy Rosema. She's been a long-term member of our church. If you know her, you can put the two of them together in the family tree. Nick, we're so glad this is going to be your church home.

Tim and Sue Visor have lived throughout the Midwest and as far west as Montana, working in Christian schools. Tim was a school administrator, and Sue was a kindergarten teacher and reading specialist.

After retiring, they moved to Grand Rapids to be closer to family members, including their daughters, six grandchildren, and siblings in the area. For fun, they exercise at the YMCA, read, bike, spend time with grandchildren, and reconnect with family and friends in the area. They're outdoorsy and love the national parks.

We're thankful already for your investment here. You've been involved with Kids Hope and with a dinner group you joined last year. We pray that God continues to weave you into this community. Welcome to LaGrave.

Finally, we extend a special welcome to Dr. Reggie Smith in LaGrave's pulpit this morning. We did not give him the memo that, when he was asked to be a guest preacher, he might be filling the pulpit on the Sunday after a major catastrophe at our church. We're so grateful, Reggie, that you were still willing to join us for worship this morning.

You currently serve as the director of Diversity Ministry at Thrive, an arm of the denomination's ministry. You have also worked as the director of Race Relations and Social Justice for the Christian Reformed Church.

Reggie, your gift in my life is that you were one of the first people to teach me, boots on the ground, about neighborhood and community ministry. That has served me well, and I'm grateful. Welcome, and thank you for being in our church this morning.

This morning, our service theme focuses on the transforming love of Jesus in our lives. Jesus' call to us changes us. Let's turn our hearts toward God, hearing this call to confession from Acts chapter 9. This is about Saul:

"As Saul neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground, and he heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?'

"'Who are You, Lord?' Saul asked.

"'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' He replied. 'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'"

Let's go to our Lord in prayer.

Creating, redeeming, sustaining God, You have made us to know You, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in You.

Some of us have felt Your love in our lives since we were small. Others of us remember clearly when we said yes to Jesus, who said yes to us first. All of us know that a lifelong journey with You, God, isn't always onward and upward. Sometimes we run ahead, lag behind You, or lose sight of You, though You are never far.

Forgive our sins, both willful and foolish. In Your mercy, light our way so that, with repentance and joy, we see and claim again that You are the Deliverer, not only for others but also for us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Hear the good news: Jesus has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. He has brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. In Him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. We are reconciled to God.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

Amen.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

God pours out His amazing love, and He gives us the opportunity to be receptacles of that amazing love. As we celebrate baptism together today, we're reminded of the way God washes, fills, and sets us free to be people of good news for the world.

In Romans 6:3-5, Paul writes this:

"All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, we too might live a new life."

Before Jesus began His public ministry, He went through the waters of baptism Himself. He heard the voice of His Father speaking blessing and commissioning, delighting in Him and affirming His identity.

Today, little Josie Lubin and Catherine Van Eerden will be invited into the family of God. They will hear God's promise to be God for them. Although they won't remember this day, today marks God's offer of partnership with them: a promise of faithfulness and commissioning, so that they, along with the rest of us, can be vessels of grace in God's world.

God has always sought to be in relationship with His people and to keep covenant with them. We see that repeatedly in the Old Testament, where He says, "I will be their God, and they will be My people."

God's promise from the beginning to be God was for children as well as adults. We see that in the covenant sign of circumcision, through which God marked the bodies of the people who belonged to Him.

In the covenant of baptism, God also marks us invisibly on our foreheads. He marks us as His own people. He frees us from the power of sin and death and unites us with our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes and makes His home in us.

When we baptize little ones like Catherine and Josie, we're reminded that God's grace is for them just as it is for grown-ups. We will teach them, as much as they'll listen from a young age, that they are set apart as God's own children. We look forward with anticipation, prayer, and joy to the day when they will respond to God for themselves.

Noah and Allison, and Charles and Lindsey, please stand where you are for your vows. I have a series of questions for you. At the end, I will ask you to respond, "We do, God helping us."

Parents, do you believe and claim that Jesus is your Savior, the One who restores you to right relationship with God, the One who holds everything together, and the One who makes everything new?

Further, do you believe that your children were born with the same sinful nature all of us share, that they too need God's grace, and that baptism is a mark of God's covenant of grace for the children of believing parents?

Finally, do you promise to do everything you can, relying on God's Holy Spirit for strength and wisdom, to raise your children? Will you do all you can to raise Josie and Catherine so they also see their need for Jesus and come to know Christ as the Lord of their lives?

Allison and Noah, what is your answer?

Speaker 3 - Baptismal Parents / Families

We do, God helping us.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

Charles and Lindsey, what is your answer?

Speaker 3 - Baptismal Parents / Families

We do, God helping us.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

Congregation, we also make vows at the time of baptism. These families have prayer partners assigned to them as a way for our church to demonstrate and practice a commitment to care and pray for these children. They are Ginny Gelthoff and Ellie VanderWall. Ginny and Ellie are here today, standing with you in prayer, although they won't come forward.

For the rest of us, let's join our voices in our commitment to these two children.

Do you, the family of God at LaGrave Christian Reformed Church, promise to receive Josie and Catherine in love? Do you promise to pray for them, teach them about Jesus, and encourage them in their faith journey as God gives you opportunities to do so? Congregation, what is your answer?

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

We do, God helping us.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

Families, prayer partners, and children - come forward. This is the moment of witnessing the baptism. You can come right over here. Children, you can come here and try to get a good place to see. Can you see? Can you see the children? Okay, great.

The babies are sweet, and they're cute, but baptism isn't about them. It's about God. God is going to do something in which He promises, by marking them, to be their God.

Catherine Van Eerden, for you Jesus Christ came into the world. For you, Josie Lubin, He lived and died, and He showed God's love. He did all these things for you even though you don't know anything about them yet. We love because Jesus first loved us.

Charles and Lindsey, come this way, and Lewis too.

Catherine Van Eerden, you are asleep. Baptism might wake you up.

Catherine Van Eerden, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Josie, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Come with me right over here. Friends, here is Josie, and here is Catherine. Some of you are related to Catherine and know her story. Others of you are now related to Catherine because she is your sister in Jesus.

We prayed for Catherine because she spent some time in the hospital, so it's a special day that we get to celebrate her baptism today. These are your family members now too. Show them what it's like to be a child of Jesus, okay? We'll pray for them together.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, what a gift to celebrate the life You offer us in Christ. Thank You for the Van Eerdens and the Lubins and for their desire that their children know, love, and serve You.

I pray for wisdom, energy, perseverance, strength, and opportunities for them to have conversations and to practice and enact the love and ways of Jesus at home, so these children also come to know, love, and serve You.

Now, Lord, bless them and keep them. Make Your face shine on them and be gracious to them. Lift up the light of Your face upon them and give them Your peace. Amen.

You may return to your seats. Thank you.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

Amen.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Christi / Worship Leader

Just a couple of congregational updates before we go to prayer. Sandra Des Tremps is hospitalized in Ionia. We printed Lansing in the bulletin, but that's not quite right. Grace Shearer has now returned home.

This morning, our pastoral prayer will include a little space for the quiet of your heart to lift your own praises and petitions to God. As we do that, feel free to settle into the pew and adjust your posture so you're comfortable. Perhaps hold your hands open if you sense something you want to release to or receive from God. Feel the sturdiness of the pew beneath you if you're unsettled, as a reminder of God's strength.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Jesus, You are the Word of God made flesh. Because You have come near to us, we can draw near, listen for Your voice, and lean into Your goodness. What we need most is You.

You had us in Your mind before the world was formed. From everlasting to everlasting, You are God, faithful across generations. Lord, You are strong. Lord, You are loving. Hear our hearts as we lift our praises to You.

[Silent prayer.]

God who walked in our shoes, You know we don't always understand what You're doing. But we believe that You never leave us, You never forsake us, and nothing in all creation can separate us from Your love. Assure us that this is true for us today.

As we draw near to Your Word, we also draw near to Your presence with our worries, wonderings, questions, and griefs. This week, we witnessed destruction: fire here, flood there, wars and rumors of wars. While we await Your renewal of all things with hope, we lament.

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy, especially on the people of Nepal and the communities of Rasuwa and Nuwakot in the impossible struggle they are facing. Prevent further flooding. Protect life. Strengthen rescuers and community leaders. Comfort those who grieve or wait for news. Send aid that can reach where it's needed. Show, through Your church, Your concern for those who suffer.

Hear our prayers for those communities.

[Silent prayer.]

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us in this space too. Have mercy on those who feel that an avalanche of water and mud has cascaded into their souls.

Comfort those among us who grieve. Comfort [name unclear] and her family following [name unclear]'s death. Be with Scott and Susan Koistra as they try to make sense of things after the death of their grandson, Luke.

Strengthen everyone in our community facing cancer, including those receiving hospice or hospital care even now: Dan Beemers and Bruce Quinn. Encourage those in the hospital or doing the hard work of rehabilitation: Grace, Ron, Sandra, and Norma.

Hear now our silent prayers for one another and for ourselves.

[Silent prayer.]

Strengthen LaGrave Church, Lord, in its calling as a church in the city and under the cross. Make us strong together as we look to Jesus, who pioneered and perfected our faith.

Let us begin this unexpected chapter remembering that, when we were without hope and without God in the world, You came looking for us. You made us alive in Christ so that the lives we live, we would live for Him. In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

God of grace, amazing wonder, irresistible and free. God of grace, I stand in wonder as my God restores my soul. His own blood has paid my ransom; awesome cost to make me whole.

God of grace, who loved and knew me long before the world began, sent my Savior down from heaven, perfect God and perfect man.

God of grace, I trust in Jesus. I'm accepted as His own. Every day His grace sustains me as I lean on Him alone.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

God of grace, I stand astounded, cleansed, forgiven, and secure. All my fears are now confounded, and my hope is ever sure.

God of grace, now crowned in glory, where one day I'll see Your face, and forever I'll adore You in Your everlasting grace.

When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.

[Congregational singing continues. The automated transcript repeats "amazing grace" extensively; the mechanical repetitions are omitted.]

Speaker 2 - Dr. Reggie Smith / Guest Preacher

Good morning. What a day to be at LaGrave.

I'm Reggie Smith, and I work for Thrive, a ministry of church renewal and church revitalization for the Christian Reformed Church. For 20 years, I was the pastor at Roosevelt Park Community Christian Reformed Church. It's good to be here with you.

For our Word this morning, we'll look at Titus 3:3-7. Hear the Word of the Lord:

"At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."

This is the Word of the Lord.

LaGrave, you all had plans. You had plans all the way up to Wednesday night, and then something happened. Something happened right over there.

I remember watching my friend and your pastor, Peter Jonker, whom I used to play basketball with and had the honor of chasing more times than I care to admit. Peter said in the interview, "We had big plans for that building."

It was acquired in 2017. You had big plans for it to be a place where people facing housing challenges could find a sense of place, in partnership with Degage and Mel Trotter.

LaGrave, you had plans. You did a great deal during those years of meeting, praying, and spending money. In fact, you had a meeting this past Thursday about that very thing.

Don't you just love it when God throws a boomerang into our plans? We all have plans.

Paul and Titus had a plan to go to a little island called Crete. They planned to go to this place where the Cretans lived. We get a word from that name that isn't exactly a complimentary thing to be called. When was the last time you felt good because somebody called you a Cretan? I don't think so.

It always had a negative connotation. Yet Paul and Titus were going to this little island to turn people who were more involved with the Roman Empire than with the cross of Christ. Paul and Titus had plans.

Maybe when they arrived, God threw them a curveball. Maybe they said to themselves, "These people are wild, wily, uncontrollable, and have issues - not like us. We don't have issues."

Paul and Titus had to spend time trying to figure out what it meant to turn these Cretans into Christians. What did they need to do? What did they need to instill? They had plans for them.

Very often, God takes our plans and turns them upside down. He invites you and me into those plans if we are willing and able to come along with that change.

What does this mean for us, LaGrave, as you now face this building? What is God's plan for it? What is God's plan for you as you rethink and reimagine what God is doing so that you will continue to be a blessing here in the city - in the city under the cross of Christ? Hallelujah.

I heard from a friend that, two years ago, a woman lived in that building. Nobody even knew she was there. She lived there for quite a while because, if you have ever been in that building, you know someone could live there and nobody would know. There are all these little cracks and crevices. She made a home there and felt good. She didn't have to pay rent or anything.

Then she made this mistake: she meandered into the sanctuary and turned on the lights. She was discovered.

It's easy to say she was a little wild and wily, but that's exactly what Paul and Titus were dealing with: wild and wily people whose entire lives had been built around the Roman culture. They watched gladiators in the arena. That was a way to gain notoriety and status. If you could kill and not be killed, you became somebody. It makes sense that they wrapped themselves around those values.

Then Paul and Titus began to work with them. They began to practice what it meant to live under the conditions of Jesus Christ and under the conditions of the cross. What did it mean to turn a life from Cretan to Christian? It was fundamentally different from what they had before.

They were wild and wily. Paul knew a great deal about that because he had been wild and certainly wily.

Pastor Christi read to us from Acts 9, giving us a little snapshot of Paul's life. He wasn't exactly a nice man if you were a Christian. He came looking for you, and he was willing to do whatever it took so that his way of life and his way of Judaism would continue.

Then Jesus got hold of him: "Saul, why do you persecute Me?"

It would be a Christian named Ananias whom Jesus sent to him. When Paul came to him, Ananias said, "Isn't this the man who was killing us, and You want me to open his eyes? Are You out of Your mind, Jesus?"

Jesus said, in effect, "Absolutely."

First, Paul tells us a little about what the Cretans were: disobedient, envious, malicious, hating one another and being hated. Then Paul and Titus began to reframe the story for them because God had plans for them.

When the kindness and love of God the Savior appeared, that was the new story. That was the new narrative. That was the story.

Your life is not defined by verse 3. It is defined by verse 4. When you enter into this life with God through Jesus Christ, you are no longer defined by the values of the culture. You are defined under the auspices, glory, majesty, and grace of Jesus, who says, "I have plans for you," even if you don't know it.

You understand what I mean by grace.

As you stare at this building - charred, stone, and wood - God has plans for you all, if I can use my mother's vernacular. The building may be burned. The smoke may continue. But the smoke is never enough to choke out God's plans for His people, who plan to be a blessing right where they are.

God has plans for you.

God had plans for the Cretans: that they would be the people who turned that little island upside down, not under the values of Rome but under the cross of Christ. They were going to be turned upside down. God always has plans, even when ours are disrupted.

I remember Bryan Stevenson, an author and civil-rights attorney. He would visit his grandmother in South Carolina. Whenever he came through the door, she would put her arms out and say, "Bryan, come over here and give your grandmother a big hug."

She would squeeze him so hard he couldn't breathe. Some of you probably do the same thing. She squeezed him until he said, "I can't breathe anymore. Grandma, you're going to kill me."

She would ask him, "Did you feel that?" He would say, "Yes." If he said he didn't feel it, she would grab him and hug him again.

His grandmother was trying to teach him something important. She told him, "The most important thing about people is that you can't change them from a distance. You have to get up close and personal."

Paul and Titus had to get close and personal. Paul was trying to teach Titus, as he went to pastor this new Cretan Christian church, that change would begin only as he got close to them, walked in their shoes, and pastored with patience, goodness, kindness, and the revealing love of God. They would begin to change because he became proximate to their lives.

The amazing thing about Jesus is that He couldn't merely fax us or text us, "Hey, I love you." He couldn't simply say, "I'm going to ask many people to speak on My behalf, and I'll let you know what I think sometime later."

In the words of John, the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.

Those words enrich what Paul and Titus were doing. The Cretans were experiencing rebirth and renewal through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always coming close in our lives and reminding us again that we are saved by grace, not by works, and that God has plans for us.

God has plans even in spite of us because He promises to do something new in our lives when our plans go to pieces and don't go the way we intended.

I loved seeing Catherine and Josie baptized this morning. As Reformed Christians, baptism reminds us that God is hugging us close. I wish you could have seen God's arms around both children and around their parents.

You ought to remember your baptism because, in your baptism, God reminds you, "I'm hugging you close until you can't breathe anymore." You said to them, "We are going to hug you close too."

I wish we could have a hug festival right now, but I don't want to unsettle all the introverts in the room.

Think about it, saints. Through the rebirth and renewal of God's Spirit in these Cretan Christians, God was showing Titus and them that He still had plans for them. He was still making something of them in the midst of the Roman Empire. They were going to make a difference on that island.

The only way we can change people is by becoming proximate to them and getting close to them. I'm always amazed that people, especially in churches, love to sit close to one another, as you are doing right now - as long as you can have your personal space. Come on now. I know about this game.

But as Reformed Christians, we can't change people from a distance. We have to become proximate.

You see what that building represents: LaGrave becoming proximate to the hurts and pains in the city and saying, "It's okay. We aren't going anywhere." Hallelujah.

You haven't moved for 140 years, and I hope there's another 140 in you. Paul and Titus became proximate.

Years ago, I went for a massage because I had hurt my back playing basketball. I'm a little slower now than I used to be. I met a massage therapist named Meg. She was a friendly young woman.

She asked, "What do you do?"

I didn't want to tell her because I knew that would change the massage conversation. I said, "I'm a pastor."

She asked, "Where?"

I said, "On the southwest side."

She asked, "What church?"

I told her the name of the church. She said, "Oh, my dad used to attend there."

She began to tell me about a Sunday when she and her father went to church. As they approached the door, her father stopped. He began to sweat and panic. As his daughter tried to understand what was happening, he told her, "I can't go in."

She asked, "Dad, why can't you go in?"

He said, "I just can't. I don't think I'm good enough."

As Meg told me this story while giving the massage, I didn't want a massage anymore. Meg and her father never returned to church. They were both suffering from "not-enoughness." They had been fed a steady diet telling them they were never good enough or had never done enough to embrace the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives. That's not what they heard.

If we're honest with ourselves, sometimes those voices become louder than the voices of affirmation.

The Cretan Christians heard those voices often enough. They were known in the Roman Empire as wild and crazy people with whom you should never become involved because they were uncouth. They were a mess. They were not the kind of people who would make Christians that other Christians could be proud of.

Yet Paul and Titus said, "We have a new story for you. We have a better story."

Their story was that they were justified by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and would inherit the hope of eternal life. That was the story Paul kept drilling into them.

It is not because of what you've done. It's not because of who you are. It is because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. It is because of what God has done.

If the cross says yes, nobody can say no. If Jesus says yes, nobody can say no.

It was lovely what Pastor Christi read today and what we also had in our confession. If Jesus says yes to us, nobody can say no. You don't get kicked off Jesus' team for a few mistakes.

In fact, it becomes the very thing through which we invite others who continue to hear the voices in the basement rather than the voices in the balcony. Hello, you all. They waved back at me.

That is what Paul and Titus were doing: turning Cretans into Christians.

As you think about what God's plan is for that building and rethink what God is doing, I leave you with these words: "He who began a good work in you" - you know the rest - "will be faithful to complete it."

He will be faithful to complete it. He has started a work, and He will be faithful to complete it.

Let's pray.

Lord, maybe this week we needed to hear that You are not done with us. Maybe someone came here today with the voices from the basement much louder than the voices from the balcony. We saw what happened on Wednesday night. Plans were dashed.

Lord, we know You are faithful. You are faithful.

As this church begins to reimagine how it can partner in addressing the challenges facing people who are unhoused here in downtown Grand Rapids, I ask that You fill their imagination this week and in the days ahead.

For our individual families too, and for both Catherine and Josie, You have begun a good work. Even if we're in our 80s, You have begun a good work.

It is not about our faithfulness; it is about Your faithfulness to us. You endured the cross and all its shame. You justified us by Your grace. You saved us.

Lord, we now open our hearts, minds, and lives to follow You and follow in Your footsteps wherever You go, so that we may be a blessing and people may know that God has plans.

Thank You for inviting us into those plans to be a blessing to anyone and everyone we encounter. We thank You and give praise and honor to You. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said:

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

Amen.

Speaker 2 - Dr. Reggie Smith / Guest Preacher

We'll stand together.

Speaker 4 - Congregation / Choir

[The service continues with congregational music or repeated affirmation. The automated transcript ends with a long mechanical repetition of "Amen."]