Belonging is one of the three core values of Crosswalk Church, along with experience and momentum. But "belonging", we always say first. The reason we do that is because it's important to Crosswalk that we always be a community of belonging. What does that mean? It means is that no matter where you're from, what you've done, no matter what you look like, you belong here. Period.

We become the people of God more profoundly when we're together. And yes, when we're together with people we don't always agree with, which I understand is hard. But we have the opportunity to create a different kind of world when we're in the presence of God. And so belonging is really important.

It doesn't have to be beautiful. In fact, it probably won't be. We'll make mistakes along the way. People will get hurt. We'll apologize. And most importantly, we'll heal together. If we don't do those things, are we really fulfilling the call that God has given us to love our brothers and sisters, to love others as you would have them love you.

So if you come to a crosswalk, chances are you may see somebody you don't like. You may see somebody who doesn't like you. You may see somebody who disagrees with your ideologies or your politics. You may see somebody who doesn't look like you, doesn't eat the same food as you, and sometimes doesn't even speak the same language that you do. But we are all the same. We are sinners. We stand before a loving and forgiving God. We worship Him for what it is that He has done for us. And we continue the hard work of belonging.

In this series, we're going to talk about stories of healing that Jesus has for us throughout Scripture. And as we do that, we are going to learn what it means to be healed, forgiven, restored, and brought back into a community of belonging. So if you're listening to this, I want you to go and find a crosswalk church close to you and know that when you get there, you belong.