Mark 9:33–37 No Christian gets to say, “Children, that's not my thing. I’ll let the others take care of the kids.” Jesus’s response to that is to say, “If you can’t receive children, you cannot receive me.” Far from being a guilt trip to move us to receive children, Jesus promises here is that when we do receive these little ones, we will get more of God. But we must take time to think and pray about what it really means to receive children in Jesus’s name.

Matthew 28:16–20. In part 1 of our Loving All Peoples sermons, we focused on what unifies all of us as those God has chosen—we are all sinners. We are called to love all people as Jesus did—being willing to dine with the tax collectors and sinners of our area in order that they might know Jesus who came to save them. And if last week was about the unity we have as people in Jesus, this week we are going to look at the diversity. God saves individuals. Again, and again we see God use all these different “peoples” to his own glory. Through the diversity of his people, God reveals the breadth of his own glory as he uses individuals to demonstrate his love and creativity. Like a multi-faceted diamond, God’s glory reflects in multi-colored variety through his diverse people.

Mark 2:15–17. At first it may seem odd to link a sermon on our priority of “Loving All Peoples” to sin, but I believe it is crucial to understanding this concept. This passage pushes us to realize that there is a common ground to all the peoples that God loves. And we see most clearly that we are all found to be sinners.