In week six of Upside Down Glory, Pastor Dave Hentschel opens Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 12 to explore what it means to be “The Body That Suffers Together.” Scripture tells us that all creation groans under the weight of the fall, and believers groan as well—not in despair, but in hope. This message reminds us that suffering is not a sign of weak faith, but a shared reality in a broken world, and that the Spirit of God intercedes for us even when we have no words left to pray. Yet God never intended His people to suffer alone. Through the image of the church as a body, Pastor Dave calls us to move beyond isolation and independence into interdependence, where every member is needed and every weakness matters. The church is not a crowd that watches suffering, but a body that absorbs it, bearing one another’s burdens with Romans 8 hope and 1 Corinthians 12 hands.

In a groaning world, God forms a people who wait with hope, care with compassion, and refuse to let anyone suffer alone.

In week four of our Upside Down Glory series, Pastor Dave Hentschel walks through 2 Samuel 9:1–13 and Luke 14:12–14 to reveal the heart of a King who seeks out the forgotten and makes room for those the world overlooks. Through the story of Mephibosheth—crippled, exiled, and hiding in Lo Debar—Scripture shows how David’s covenant faithfulness leads him not to eliminate weakness, but to honor it with radical kindness, restoration, and a permanent seat at the royal table. Paired with Jesus’ call to invite the poor, the lame, and the blind to our banquets, this message confronts how easily dignity becomes conditional and hospitality selective. God’s Kingdom, however, is built on chesed—steadfast, covenant love—where grace is extended to those who cannot earn it, repay it, or even believe they deserve it, and where belonging comes before usefulness.

The measure of a Christ-shaped community is not who sits at the center of the table, but whether the forgotten have been invited to it at all