Rooted and Growing Deep: Welcome 10.3.26

This sermon opens the first week of a five-week series on the church's core values, beginning with the value of welcome. The pastor draws a clear distinction between salvation and discipleship, framing welcome not as a requirement for earning God's love but as a response to the grace already received through Christ. Using Colossians 2, the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14, and a modern story of human connection aboard an airplane, the sermon argues that how we treat others is a direct reflection of how we understand God. Welcoming others, especially those who are new, hurting, or overlooked, is presented as an act of discipleship that flows naturally from having first been welcomed by Jesus himself.