Come to Me Unhindered
First B Jackson
2023-10-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are we? Good to see you. I know I I I don't look like Judy, and I don't sound like Judy.

She's normally on the piano. She's got a Sunday off, so the band kinda came in here to to lead worship. If that's okay, I hope it is. And would you stand? We'll we'll sing together.

Here's a good word from Psalm 95 to lead us in worship. It's come to him with thanks giving, and let's sing psalms of praise to him. How about we do that by singing, how great thou art.

Soul, How great thou art. How great thou art. And when I think that God is son not spare green, sent him to die ice skiers can take it in that on that cross my burden gladly bearing he bled and died to take

Nick, can I sing one more before you give an announcement?

I'd love to.

Easy. Easy. When we all get to heaven, let's sing that. Hebrews 13, it says, for this world is not our permanent home. We're looking forward to a home that is yet to come.

Sing the wonders love.

Isn't that fun? Wow. These guys are so great. I actually had a dream the other day, completely unrelated to this, that that Ray, Carl, and Blake didn't show up. And I was like, okay.

I can run the sound from the back and play the guitar up here and load in an old sermon I preached before. I'm just glad you guys are here today. That's what it really comes down to. Whoo. These are nightmares you have at the church.

Hey. If y'all are looking to get involved in a Bible study, we've got lots of them in community studies, in home studies, all different varieties. They're listed on the bulletin board outside. If you're not connected already, go look out there, find a place to get connected, call the leader, and get involved. And if you have a study that's already up and running that you'd like to invite other people to, let us know, and we'd like to put it on that board for you too.

Youth group is going on. Middle school, Sunday, three to five here at the church. High school, Thursday, 06:30 to 8PM at the Tribe Ministry Center. If you need help getting there, let us know. The Jackson Hole Men's Alliance is gonna be meeting this Wednesday morning at 06:30AM here at First Baptist Church.

All men are welcome, all ages. Come on by. They usually have a little meal and a great little message and a great way to connect too. Awana Kids Club, it's been going super well. Carl, how many people did you say we had?

Like We

got nearly 60 kids registered for a water right now.

Yeah. Nearly 60 kids registered. Please keep praying for that because that's something we feel like God is just gonna ramp up this year. It's it just it just feels like there's a lot of momentum behind it. And thank you all to all of the volunteers who who give, who come early, who set up and tear down and do dishes, all those things, it's such a blessing.

And the connect hour and Monday night kitchen stuff, we still need somebody to take over the Sunday morning, arranging everything over there. If you notice, there's a whole bunch of boxes and stuff stacked up back there. It's it's they're eagerly awaiting a volunteer to come, and and you could be that person. What a blessing it'd be to us. Much as we get the nightmares that some of these guys don't show up, sometimes we get a nightmare down there.

Like, oh, nobody remembered to do that. So would you be that person for us? And you can sign up for our weekly announcements. Church email is @firstbjackson.org. I can also sign you up.

And the first b in the Bible lessons are still going on. So if you want a daily reminder about God's word written by people around you, let us know. We'll get you signed up for that too. Anything else? Alright.

Thanks so much everybody.

Standing on the promises of God, standing on the promises that cannot fall, resting every moment to the spirit's call, resting in my savior as my heart and the God, standing on the promises of God. Let's sing it again. Standing standing on the promises of God,

Amen. Really though. And and here's a a good word from Hebrews. I wanna share just a couple of verses of the scripture too, but or with the song and scripture. But Hebrews ten's, let's hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we have firm.

For God's for God for God can be trusted to keep his promises. That's what we're standing on. And here's another from, first John four nine through 11. We're gonna sing of God's love, but but let's hear of it here from first John. It's it's this.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. Isn't that a gift? Isn't that a joy? Right there. That right there.

Wow. But here, it goes on. This is real love. It's not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son as a sacrifice.

Let's sing.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Would you pray with me? Lord God almighty, we are thankful to be here this morning. I'm thankful for the season.

Lord, I confess that I don't always enjoy fall. Feeling like a solar powered person, Lord, but I pray that I've been soaking in the sun, s o n, lately, and I am seeing new things this fall that I've never seen before. I'm thankful, Lord, to have new perspective, And I pray that you would share a new direction. For some of us, Lord, that have been seeking direction for a while, I pray that you would illumine the path in front of us. That you would show us what we should metaphorically be putting in the plates, Lord.

Whether it's our time, our attention, our devotion, our conversation, Lord, would you show us how you would walk the path? Show us, Lord, and allow us the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to direct us and empower us as we go forward. We want to be doing your will, your humble and obedient service, just like Jesus, following his example. Lord, would you speak through your word to us? Direct our hearts toward the mission of God.

I pray that the ministry of reconciliation would be very, very real in those that are here in this room, that it would be represented in our families. Lord God Almighty, I pray that you'd draw many to the heart of God through the humble witness of these gathered saints. In Jesus' name, we ask for your will to be done in your way among us and through us. Amen.

And fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory. Speak, oh, Lord, and renew our minds. Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us. Truths unchanged from the dawn of time that will let go down through eternity. And by grace, we'll stand on your promises and by faith we'll walk you walk with us speak oh Lord

Amen. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, Ryan. The Hootenanny. We've we've been playing, you know, we kinda pause Monday nights for a while and for the last for all of the month of August, we went up to The Hootenanny.

And it was a blessing for us, but I have I had a couple people in the past month. One of them came in. He's a great bass player. He's up there all the time. And he just stopped in and said, thank you all for coming up and playing.

And I really appreciated that song and that song. And I thought, really? And it was very much appreciated by the band, I think, but also by the people. And that was it was nice to hear that. It was good.

Go and tell rather than come and see. Here we are. Luke eighteen thirty five through nineteen ten. This is at least two different people that were looking for Jesus. Okay?

I say at least, I have been doing a study Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic gospels altogether. If each of them mention it, I've been covering it. I'm gonna stick with Luke for this time. Luke mentions a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, mentioned in Mark and Matthew, but I'll come back to that. This week, I wanted to handle these two folks that were looking for or on watch for Jesus.

Luke eighteen thirty five and nineteen ten is what we're going through. I saw something in this service last week that I didn't see in the first, and usually the sermons are pretty close. The energy in the room may be a little different. It might come out a little different, but this hit me last week during y'all's service. It wasn't in the study two weeks ahead of time or three weeks ahead time.

I've been studying it for that long. But this hit me, and it was so profound. I thought of Terry Holbert was one of my professors in seminary, and my very first class that I took was a gospels class where we're walking through all four gospels at the same time, much in the style that I'm doing right now. And he kept triple spaced notes. So he had a line and then two blank lines and then another line.

And he would he was 86 years old when I started seminary. There's a picture of me at graduation, 91 years old when I graduated, and he was standing right next to me, and he always kept those triple spaced notes. And if he thought of something new, he would scribble it in his notes. And you could see a first year, first semester seminarian coming in with all the zeal that you come in with and raise their hand and say, doctor Holbert, do you think that could be such and such? You'd say, I've never considered that.

I'm gonna study it though and write it down. I thought, rather than saying, I figured this out. I got all the answers. I like that. So this one hit me last week.

It was pretty hard. So I wanted to share it with you again because you did hear it last week. You just heard it at the moment of last week. If you take the three stories from two weeks ago, the three versions from Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the suffer the children come to me, let the children come to me. If you had to boil it down to one sentence, it'd be allow them to come to me and don't hinder them.

Come to me unhindered. Right? And then last week's message was of the rich young ruler, and if you had to boil that one down into one, it would be drop what hinders you. He says, what do I need to do? And then Jesus says, well, if you're asking specifically for you, you need to let go of what's hindering you, and that's your riches.

In your case, it's your riches. So drop what hinders you and come follow me. Ain't that good? That's what we call a chiastic construction. An X in Greek is a key or a chi, depending on how you want to pronounce it.

But a chiastic construction is an X like this. So allow them to come to me. Don't hinder them. Come to me. Don't hinder them.

Drop what hinders you. Come to me. It's pretty good. It's two pericopes, but they go together. And it's the A portion is come to me and then unhindered.

Drop whatever it is that's hindering you. I like that. It also sets up today. So a couple of people are watching out for Jesus. We're gonna start.

This is all we're covering today. That's the full gamut from 1835 to 1910. And Jesus is on the move. We see now Jesus was approaching Jericho, approaching Jericho, and a man who was blind was sitting by the road begging. Now, approaching Jericho, for you map people, here we are.

The last three sermons that I've done from the book of Luke, Jesus has been ministering in Perea over here for some time. The last three sermons that I preached have been set in this area headed towards Jerusalem. In Luke nine fifty one, it says, and Jesus set his face like flint towards Jerusalem. He is walking towards the cross. And that's a great portion if you've got 24 chapters.

Right? And from nine fifty one, Jesus is resolutely walking towards the cross. Now, Perea, he's been through Galilee and Samaria and Decapolis and back, and now Perea, and he's working his way towards Jericho at the beginning here. He was approaching Jericho. Now, Jericho the Jericho of the Old Testament where the walls came and tumbling down is just a little bit north of Jericho at that time, the modern city, and it's grown further south even yet.

But now, as Jesus was approaching Jericho, a man who was blind was sitting by the road begging. But when this man heard a crowd going by, he began inquiring what this was. Now if you are a beggar and a blind beggar, you probably know the routines of your area. You know, slow food in The Tetons is on Wednesday evenings here at the Center for the Arts. You know that the People's Market is downtown on Saturday mornings.

You know where the people are going to be because you want to put yourself in the place most likely to have the most people pass by. When he heard a crowd was going by, he start hey. What's going on? This is not what I heard about. I'm here.

And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Jesus, by this point, had been ministering for about three years. If you look at his ministry from from the point of, you know, the baptism and the temptation and the Cana Of Galilee wedding, all of that stuff, you look, we've been the disciples have been with him for three years. We're probably less than a couple of weeks out from the cross at this point. He's walking from Perea into Jericho on his way to Jerusalem.

So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He had gained some fame, and this guy calls out saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He says he says it loud. Okay? And those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet.

Don't go on it. Don't they did it again. Right? When the kids were coming to Jesus, parents are bringing kids to Jesus, and they're saying, oh, no. No.

No. Don't bother Jesus with the don't don't bother Jesus with the riffraff, those little rugrats. No. And Jesus said, no. No.

No. No. No. Allow them to come to me and don't hinder them. And what are they doing right here?

They're hindering this guy. Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet. Hush. Jesus might say something important and all we can hear is you screaming. But he kept crying out all the more, even louder, son of David, messianic title.

Have mercy on me. Mercy. Mercy. So grace is when you get something good that you do not deserve, and mercy is the opposite side of the same coin. It's when you do not get something bad that you do deserve.

He's asking for mercy. That probably ties into the theology of the times. It's sort of a prosperity gospel of if you're suffering, it's because of some sin in your life. We see Job's friends doing that in the Old Testament. We see the disciples in John nine saying, who sinned?

This guy or his parents? That this man had been born blind. Now this guy was not born blind. He says well, we'll get to it later. Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept on crying out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

Now this man couldn't see where Jesus was, but he was using the faculties that he had. He heard who it was, and he started hollering out for him. I love this guy. And Jesus stopped. He heard him.

He stopped, and he commanded that he be brought to him. Again, they were hindering, and Jesus says, stop everything. Bring him to me. Come to me. There it is again.

We're set up with that chastatic construction, and then here we are. Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. And when he came near, Jesus asked the man, what do you want for me to do for you? Now what did he cry out for twice already that we know about? Mercy.

That's what he said. What do you want for me to do for you? How did how is it that you want for me to show you mercy? And he said, Lord, I wanna regain my sight, to regain sight. This man was not born blind.

This man had been able to see and at some point was blinded. That's a hard thing to deal with. My brother had a car accident a long time ago, and he was blinded in his right eye. He says the vision's come back a little bit, but this is a lot worse. You know, one eye, but you can still take in.

At the deaf school where we were for seven years in Mexico, in Rio Bravo, Mexico, there was a little girl, Sara E was her name, and she was deaf. Her mother had scarlet fever while she was pregnant, so she was born deaf. And she only had sight in one eye. So all of the information that this girl took in, she took in through her left eye. And she needed a pretty thick set of glasses to be able to see there.

But I'll tell you what, that little gal spoke American Sign Language by the time we left. She spoke American Sign Language and Mexican Sign Language. She could read in English and she could read in Spanish. Yes. She used the faculty that she had.

Even though it was limited, she used the faculty that she had. When we were leaving, she was teaching the younger kids about Jesus. So what do you want for me to do for you? And he said, Lord, I want to regain my sight. And Jesus said to him, and this is a command, and it's funny, regain your sight.

Just like that. Your faith has made you well. What do you need? What do you want? You got it.

Regain your sight. The word for regain your sight right there is means to look up. So I reading through this and trying to put yourself at the scene, he's crying out for Jesus. Jesus says, stop. Everybody stop.

Bring that guy to me. And he comes to him. I don't know that he knelt. I'm not positive. But I know that the word means look up.

It also metaphorically means recover sight or regain your sight. But when the man is bowed and looking for mercy, he's been calling out for it. And Jesus says to him, look up. Your faith has made you well. Recover your sight.

That was last week. That that little deal over in Idaho Falls that we've been advertising since April, that was called the look up tour, Anableppo tour. He said to him, Anableppo, look up. Your faith has made you well. And it says, and immediately, which is important in Luke, immediately, immediately, he he regained his sight.

He did. He looked up, and he began following him again. Don't hinder them. Bring them to me. Come follow me.

Drop whatever it is that hinders you. And immediately, he regained his sight, and he began following him, glorifying God. And when all the people saw it I love that too. When all the people saw it story about a blind man. When all of them had their eyes opened to it, they also gave praise to God.

Isn't that interesting? That when one person begins to glorify God. They've been seeking, watching, even if it looks like happenstance. They took the opportunity, using the faculties that he had, and he called out to him, and Jesus responded. Lord, in our day of trouble, may we call out to you because you answer us.

When all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. Now Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. I think he was probably between Old Jericho when he saw Bartimaeus or heard Bartimaeus, and he was entering New Jericho. I think probably that's the way it was because of Matthew and Mark, we'll get to that at a different week. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

So he's passing through when you see something like that, especially in Luke, where he set his face like flint and he is headed towards Jerusalem. Everywhere that he's going, he's doing it with purpose on his way to the cross. When he entered Jericho, knowing that this is a stop off point on his way to the cross. Here he is, Perea to Jericho, and he's going up the hill to Jerusalem. I've said this before, and I know the map people in the room always remembers this, that Jericho to Jerusalem is almost exactly the same distance as First Baptist Church to the top of Teton Pass.

And it's almost exactly the same elevation change. So I sometimes think and dream about riding a bicycle to the top of the pass. But the only reason I want to do it is to come down the other side. I want to just coast, you know? Well, Jesus was doing the same journey on foot.

I mean, he's done it before. He's done it a lot, a lot, actually. He's going to the top of that hill from here to Teton Pass. He's going up there not to ski down Glory, although in a way he was. Sorry, didn't mean to do that.

Hikes all the way to the top of the pass to go to the cross. That gets me. It was very intentional that he was walking it out. But as I said last week, 80 something percent, maybe 90 something percent of his miracles that he does are interruptions along the way. And so in Jericho, there was a man who was called by the name of Zacchaeus.

I read a couple of commentators that brought out that Zacchaeus actually means clean or innocent, pure. Now he's a chief tax collector, and he was rich. We just heard last story we just heard was the rich young ruler, and how nearly impossible how impossible it is as far as humans go for that man to enter the kingdom of heaven was like a camel going through the eye of a needle. And now the next story is about a guy named Innocent or Pure, but he was far from it. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

Now, will say, the point of the rich ruler story, him going away sad is because he would not drop what was hindering him. And Jesus said that it was what was impossible with man was possible with God. So now he's gonna give an example of showing how possible it is. Right? And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable due to the crowd. Because like I said, there's a throng around Jesus all the time because he was short in stature. Do y'all miss that little guy? So for you visitors, this fellow lived in The States for seventeen years.

He's from Romania. He has returned as a missionary to his people. He worked the self checkout at Smith's grocery store, and the guy standing next to him is like five ten. So he's a little man. A wee little man, was he?

Right? He still is. He is in Romania right now. This is fun. Yeah.

He loves the story of Zacchaeus. I do too. So Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was unable to do the crowd because he was short in stature. He couldn't see over everybody else. So this chief tax collector, rich guy, hikes up his robe and takes off running.

It says, so, he ran on ahead and he climbed up in a sycamore tree. That sounds sort of undignified for a rich man, doesn't it? Didn't matter to him. He wanted to see Jesus. So he ran on ahead, and he climbed up in a sycamore tree, and ahead wait a minute.

This crowd is a little older than the last crowd. Zacchaeus was well, ye little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the savior passed that way, up in that tree and he said, I'm going to your house today for I'm going to your house too. That's the story of Zacchaeus.

We miss a lot if we don't know those songs, don't we? Oh, I know there is. There's a third verse too, and it gets even way on out there. But let's let's watch the second verse from the scriptures. Alright?

So he ran on ahead. He climbed up in the sycamore tree in order to see him because he was about to pass through that way. So, he used the faculties that he had too. As undignified as it might have been, he ran ahead. He climbs up in the tree to get the bird's eye view and when Jesus came to that place, he looked up, look up.

That's great. He looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for today. I must stay at your house. I must there. It's dei in Greek.

Dei is it is necessary that a lot of people, whenever you see dei it's not always, but most of the time when you see dei in the New Testament, it is a divine necessity. So when Jesus says, come on, I must go through Samaria. He's gonna meet the woman at the well in Samaria in John four. I must go through Samaria. This is I must stay at your house.

And it's not I must just pop in for a little fifteen minute pastoral visit, read a scripture, leave. I'm staying with you. You know? I'm coming to your house. I'm staying there on my way to Jerusalem.

And then this today. I see this, and I and I immediately think back in the book of Luke to other instances where the word today seems to you be used in a sort of a programmatic sense. At the very beginning, Luke two, it says that the angels, heavenly chorus says, today is born for you, a savior who is Christ the Lord, right, in the city of David. Today and it's there's an immediacy about this time. What's been hidden for ages past, the mystery is being revealed, and today, there's born in the city of David a savior, Jesus.

Now if you go forward three or four chapters, you get to Jesus' first recorded sermon where he's in the temple I mean, he's in the synagogue in Nazareth hometown, and they hand him the scroll from Isaiah 61, and he begins to read. And he reads that it's setting the captives free, giving sight to the blind, healing the deaf, healing the lame, and proclaiming the new acceptable or not the new, the acceptable year of the Lord, the time of favor of our God. Now the very next verse and what he quit before he got to it is, and the day of vengeance of our God. Could have kept going, but he stopped because he was there to proclaim the acceptable time of the Lord. Now he's coming back.

There will be a day of vengeance of our God. There will be. But he was proclaiming that the captives are free, that there's salvation available in him. This is a little nod to that. It's gonna get greater.

Zacchaeus, hurry. Come down for today. I must stay at your house. And he hurried and he came down. This is another one of places.

I I mentioned it a few weeks ago where Jesus said the guy, go wash in the Pool Of Siloam. And Jesus said, go wash, and the next two words are went washed. It was immediate obedience. Right? And so simple obedience.

This says, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down. And the next thing it says is hurried and came down. And how did he do it? He received him joyfully. He didn't think, oh my goodness, he's coming to my house, I'm not sure the bathroom's clean.

I should've left such and such. I didn't make up the bed. Oh my goodness. I hope the shower curtain is closed so he can't see the sky. He received him joyfully.

He was excited. He wanted to get a better look at Jesus, and so he put himself in a position to see Jesus more clearly. And when Jesus saw him and invited himself to his house, he received him joyfully. Thank God. When the people saw this, this is the people.

Oh, when the people, all the people, it says in the next verse, when all the people saw this, they all began to complain. Dia Gongetso is what that is. Gongetso is the word for murmuring. Gongetso. Gongetso.

Gongetso. It's an onomatopoetic word, and it's like grumbling. Dia Gongetso is similar to that. They all started grumbling. He's gone to be in the guest of a man who's a sinner.

That guy cheated me out of taxes. I know I didn't know that much to the Romans. Romans. I hate the Romans. And he's one of our countrymen, but he's collecting taxes for this oppressive force of Rome.

I hate that guy's guts, and Jesus is gonna spend the night with him. When the people saw this, they all began to complain, saying he's going to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Now this reminds me of a story we covered about a month ago. Luke eighteen nine to 13 says, now he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they thought they were righteous, and they viewed others with contempt. The people who were complaining about Jesus' day was Zacchaeus.

Fitz. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. Swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I'm super religious. I pay tithes of all that I get. Holy, holy, holy am I. But the tax collector was standing some distance away.

Can you see Zacchaeus running ahead of the crowd and getting up in a tree? This tax collector in the parable, standing some distant way, was unwilling to look up, unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but he was beating his chest saying exactly what Bartimaeus said. God, be merciful to me. God be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you this man went to his house justified rather than the other one because it takes humility to ask God for mercy and to admit to your sin.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humble, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. He has gone into be the guest of a man who is a sinner, but Zacchaeus but Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my possessions, half of what I own, I am giving to the poor. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, and the sense of that one, it's not absolute consensus among commentators, but I think I agree with them, is sense I have extorted from people. If I have extorted anything from anyone, I'm giving back four times as much. But that's the highest required penalty under the Torah law.

And interesting in Wyoming that that penalty is for rustling cattle. Okay? You can, I think, still shoot people here if they rustle your cattle? Don't quote me on that and please don't do it, my goodness. Sorry.

But that's the way. Here, he says, I'm going to go beyond what the law requires. 20% was an absolutely wonderful giving to the poor. But he says, I'm giving half of my possessions to the poor. And since I have taken more than I should have, I'm going pay that back four times as much.

I've been very careful with my with money I've taken, and I'm going to pay all of that back. This is a sign of a transformed heart. He's not asking Jesus what he must do. He's it's already been done, and he's doing it out of a heart of gratitude. And Jesus said to him, this is how I know, today.

Oh, today is born a savior. This is about salvation. Today, the scripture has been fulfilled, and you're hearing setting the captives free, calling people to righteousness. Today, salvation has come to this house. You know the next time it says today is, today, you will be with me in paradise, the thief on the cross.

Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham. Now Abraham, Paul tells us, believed God, and it was imputed to him as righteousness. And what Zacchaeus just showed is that he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Today, salvation has come to this house because he too is the son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Amen.

Amen. Son of David, have mercy on me. It's a messianic title. Son of man is a messianic title. Jesus' favorite self designation.

For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. This echoes just about the whole book of Luke, and it's one of the last things we see before the cross. It there's so many ripples in the water here. I think that's our last slide, but it leads us into this. When he gets up to Jerusalem, he institutes what we call the Lord's Supper or communion.

Some people might even call it the Eucharist. This is the table that celebrates Jesus' life. That he lived out perfectly and then voluntarily and sacrificially offered his blood as the one, once and for all sacrifice. So if you have ever put your faith in Christ, I don't care your denominational background. This is an open table.

Alright? So Jesus says to do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. And so we are doing this together. We will distribute a little wafer, a little oyster cracker. And then later, we'll pass back by with a little plastic cup of grape juice.

It's representative of the body and blood of Christ Jesus. There are also a couple of others here. If you're gluten free, can grab one at the beginning that has both elements in it. But I want to go right now into a time of prayer, I'll ask the ushers to come forward. And God, I want to give everyone, and myself included, Lord, a chance to just think about life, to think about whether or not we are calling out to you with the faculties that we have, whether we're putting ourselves in a position where we can see you more clearly.

Lord God Almighty, I thank you that you do indeed know us by name and that you're calling us out by name and inviting yourself in. Lord, I pray that we would receive you joyfully. As I've said, Lord, this is an open table for anybody who's believed no matter how long ago it was or how recent, just in the last few minutes. Lord, for a heart that trusts in you, this is an open table. Would you bless each one that's here as we distribute this little cracker, representative of your body, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Alright. And on the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper, and after giving thanks for it, he broke it. And he said to those assembled in that room with him and through them, he's saying to us, this is my body which is broken for you and given for you. Do this, take it in, eat of it as often as you will in remembrance of me.

Lord Jesus, I thank you that by your stripes, we

are

healed. I thank you that you have proclaimed the acceptable time of the Lord. Lord God, thank you for accepting the blood of Jesus, the righteous one. His blood that once and for all time has made the sacrifice. We ask that you'd bless this little cup of juice that we're distributing right now, Lord, as a representation of his shed blood, voluntary sacrificial blood.

Amen. Now in the same way that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup. I think about this, it was a common cup for them. This is a common cup with them still, even though it's an individually packaged thing. He said to them, this is the new covenant in my blood, that which you've been waiting for since the prophet Joel and Jeremiah, the new covenant.

It's in Jesus' blood. And he says, take this, take it in, drink of it, and do as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen. And Paul says that as often as we do this, proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again, an end to the penalty of sin, an opening to the sanctifying spirit. Would you stand with us?

And I think we'll close with the doxology, if if you would. You got a g chord there, Carl. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Amen. And for a benediction today from second Corinthians six two, for he says, it's in the time of my favor, the acceptable time of the Lord. I heard you and in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you, now, today is the time of God's favor.

Now, today is the day of salvation. In Jesus name, may we be spreading that word. Amen. Amen.