More Noble Minded
First B Jackson
2025-06-08

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

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Yeah.

That's good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good to see you.

Howdy. Howdy. How are y'all? Good morning. Good morning.

I'm Jenny. Jenny? I'm Ken. Ken, nice to meet you. Along for the ride?

Was dedication and I'm checking you all out as a lovely club here.

We do. Yeah. We do. This is this is a lesser attended, especially when we do this in between. Yeah.

We call this first BBQ. So Yeah. Big crowd is here. Big crowd is here at nine. Yep.

Hi there. How are you? How are you really? As far as far as you can tell. Yeah.

Very good. Yep. So you're welcome. I was gonna say that the thing says that it's three more minutes till the hour even though it's straight up hour. This is about par for the course.

But, yeah, we have they call the connect hour happens every week in between.

Yeah.

But this is like we do this once a month in the summertime, so we don't get a chance to get out. So it's a lot of fun. Yeah.

It's fun. Union today?

We are. Yep. So where are you from? Originally Athens, Georgia. Okay.

I live down in Denver.

Okay. So I'm I'm originally from Shiloh, Georgia, across the state from Athens. Yeah. Shiloh. And my wife and I attended UGA in Cortona, Italy, not in Athens.

I never did go to the Athens campus. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. Yeah.

Good to meet y'all. Alright. You can start at any time you want to, Carl. Oh, I agree, man. This is cool.

Missed you too.

Well, good morning, church. It is wonderful to see you. And would you stand us and stand with us and join us in song? Here here's a good word from Psalm one forty seven to lead us in a worship. It says this, how good to sing praises to our God.

How delightful and how fitting. And really, isn't it? Isn't it good? Isn't it delightful? Isn't it fitting that we get to be here to worship the God of all creation?

Would you join us in singing all creatures of our God and king?

All creatures. Creatures of our God and king. All the poor boys and with us sing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Amen. And I think in this, y'all recognize Judy is not up here playing the piano. She asked car there you go, Connor. They asked us if we would join in and do the second service too. But here we go forward, nothing but the blood.

This comes up so often. In my head, in my head, when I'm doing premarital counseling, it comes up and all all of the time and even in the sermon today, one of the things that's just this recurring thing is it's what is it that can wash away my sin? Nothing. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Let's sing it together.

Alright. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements. Not many.

A few. Road trip. The road trip is the theme of this summer's vacation Bible school. So vacation Bible school is happening the twenty third through the twenty sixth, nine to twelve in the morning. Ages are the rising pre k through fifth grade.

If you wanna register a child, you can do it by calling, scanning the QR code if you wanna do that or by letting us know. And if you wanted to be involved to be a volunteer, let us know that too. Oh, there's this. Clemmer family send off potluck is June 22 between services. And it is gonna happen between services.

We're doing chicken and waffles in honor of them heading south. If you would bring a side dish, that would be great. They will already be packed up and ready to go, so please no gifts. The the truck literally will be packed. Blake and Carl and I and Renzy are gonna make that trip together to help them get to where they're going in Huntsville, Alabama and be a blessing to the church there as they have been here and it is it is emotional.

But we love them dearly. That's happened in June 22. Two two weeks from today after fifteen years of faithful service here, their family is moving on to Huntsville, Alabama. First BBQ, that's what's happening outside still. June 8 was our first one of the summer.

We're gonna do it July 13, August 3, and September 7 between the services. So after the 09:00 service heading out and then it kind of lingers and goes on. But games, food, fun, fellowship, that's what's happening out there. There is a community worship night on Wednesday, June 18 from 06:30 to eight at Gateway Church down in Raptor Jay. You're welcome to attend, welcome to come to that.

It'll be kind of a sort of an all star band. All of the the the churches in town are contributing a member or so to be on the worship team that night. That's gonna be a fun gathering. You have anything more to say about that? No.

Just love for you to Yeah. It's it's gonna be fun. You're planning on being there. And I think my clicky clicker stopped working for some reason. They anything else you wanna know, you can look at the church website and most of the information will be there or stop one of us afterwards and ask us questions and we'll do the best we can to answer them.

But I think that's it. Did I forget anything? Okay. God, you are great. Thank you for breath in our

are. And

Lord, that is why we are here. That is why we sing to you. You truly are great. And and, yeah, this time of year is so absolutely gorgeous. And the words to these songs have never been more true.

To hear the birds sweetly singing in the trees and to look down from mountain lofty ground here, all of us have a picture of that in our in our minds as as we we sing these songs to see a brook and feel a gentle breeze. God, these are gifts from you, and we want to simply say thank you and sing our praises to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

And, yes, it's alright to clap and celebrate in church.

It sure is. And you can have

a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and the ushers are coming on forward. And we're gonna sing because he lives some good news from first Corinthians 15. It says, but thank God, he's the one who gives us victory over sin and death through Christ Jesus our Lord. Before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray?

Sure. God, thank you. Thank you for those who have come in this morning, gathered in your name. I thank you, Lord, that you are by your spirit with humble and obedient servants, a mighty moving force in the world. I thank you lord that you are continuing to advance your good gospel.

I pray that each heart who has received would be welling up inside to the point like Jesus said that there'd be springs of living water that just flow out of us. Lord, in Jesus name, we ask that you would continue the good work that you had started so long ago and everyone of us. Lord God almighty, would you be moving forward? Would you allow us to say a word fitly spoken right in time for someone to turn to you? Right in time for someone to trust in you.

Right in time for someone to continue in humble and obedient service to you. Lord God Almighty, would you strengthen us by using everyone else around us. In Jesus name, we ask that we would be doing your will and your way and that your gospel would go forth from here to the very uttermost parts. Revive us, lord. Amen.

God send his son. They call him Jesus. He came to love. He land forgive. He will and die.

To buy my home and empty grace there to prove my savior because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives. All fear is gone because I know the future and life is worth living just because he lives. How and joy. But greater sin, the calm assurance. This child can face uncertain days because he lives.

Because he lives. I can face tomorrow because all fear is gone because I know he holds the future, and life is worth living just because he is. And in one Amen.

Thank you, B. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Scott. Y'all might have seen him last week, but I hadn't seen him until this morning. So glad to be singing together this morning.

I'm thankful to be back too. Last week, I was in Georgia. Tanya and Pascal and I were all in Georgia, and we were doing a wedding for more than a dear family friend, a goddaughter, and she married one of my cousins. So it was a it was an emotional weekend, but aren't they all when you're like me? I cry nearly every Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, Saturday for different reasons around here than Sundays. But anyway, the wedding last weekend was great. I literally have done four weddings and a funeral in the last fifteen days, and several others scheduled. Graduation yesterday, it's an emotional time for me. This passage of scripture, if I were to ask you, what's Acts 17 about?

If any of you know much about the Bible, you'd say, oh, that's Paul in Athens. Yeah, eventually, it's Paul in Athens. But we're gonna go from Acts seventeen one through 15 where he is getting to Athens. So he's getting there from Philippi. He's working his way through Thessalonica and Berea.

And so, I'm gonna do a little bit of a review because it's been two weeks since I was last up here. So in Acts sixteen six through 40, that was the last passage that I covered, hindered by the spirit from going into Asia and it doesn't It's not real specific about what that looks like. They were, Paul and his running buddies, hindered from going into Asia. Now, that's the block that they had. They had started from Antioch, they went up through Syria, Cilicia, probably Tarsus, down through Derby for sure, Lystra, up towards Iconium, Galatia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, as they're heading, it looks like they wanted to go, really.

They kind of wanted to go probably to Ephesus and we know that Paul eventually makes it to Ephesus. So, the hindrance of the spirit is not a forever thing, it is a for them for then thing. So, they were not only were they hindered from going south into Asia, but they were hindered from going into Bithynia also, which Bithynia and Pontus were up north of there. And so, as they were considering, it's not Asia, let's go the opposite direction. It wasn't there either and we see them hindered by the spirit from going into Asia.

Hindered by the spirit of Christ, it says from going into Bithynia And so, they end up at Troas down on the Aegean Seashore and there's a question as to what will happen. What's gonna happen from there? Well, Paul and his running buddies are prayerful, I'm sure. It says that he went to sleep and Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man. So he had heard the Macedonian call today.

Right. Send the light. Send the light. Come over here and help us is what the vision of this Macedonian man said. So they they took that, the group there, took that as the call of God to go forward into Europe.

So Greece, that is they crossed over, they passed Samothrace the first day and then to Neapolis and they end up at Philippi. It's a leading city of Macedonia, but it's not a capital city. It's a great place, good place to retire if you're a soldier from the Roman army, a lot of guys did that. But at Philippi, they met with Lydia and an unnamed slave girl and the Philippian jailer. I'm of the opinion that all of those were saved by God during these interactions.

I know that the unnamed slave girl was set free from the demon. Not it doesn't say specifically she believed in Jesus and she, you know, walked out and prayed the sinner's prayer. It doesn't say that specifically, but she was absolutely set free from the demon that had been a fortune telling spirit. So Lydia, an unnamed slave girl, and the Philippian jailer are the three vignettes that we get at Philippi. Now, I wanna go back.

I mentioned it in this service. I didn't mention it in the first service two weeks ago. I mentioned it this morning. That Paul or even Saul, as a good Jewish boy, he says that he was tribe of Benjamin, all of the pedigree of a good Jewish boy he had and as to the law, he was a Pharisee. He's the best that they had to offer.

I know because we're a New Testament church and we pay attention to the New Testament, then when you see Pharisee, usually a lot of us think, oh, that's bad guys. The bad guys. Pharisees are bad guys. The Pharisees were the church folks, church folks. They were the best that they had going.

Okay? The Pharisees were the ones who really took God's word seriously. They really took his direction seriously and yeah, you can get off course in doing that. You can overemphasize the wrong things because of your opinion and your tradition and they did that. But as a Pharisee, as a Jewish man, Saul's prayer, his morning prayer of devotion and affirmation would have been something along this line.

Lord, thank you. It's a a prayer of gratitude. Thank you that you did not make me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. Yeah. Whoo.

Yeah. That's in one way, it's like, oh my goodness, that's a that's a hard thing to rectify because he's man, it looks like patriarchy, it looks like all kinds of stuff. There's another way of looking at it though and the way of looking at it is, you made me. Okay? But that's in his head.

Every morning, every morning for all of his adult life, he's praying this prayer and then the Macedonian call comes from a vision of a man and the first person he meets is a woman, a businesswoman, right? And then there's the unnamed slave girl. The businesswoman, they went to find the place of prayer because in Philippi, there did not appear to be enough men to gather for synagogues. So there were ladies mostly gathered down by the river to pray. That's where they found Lydia, the seller of purple from Thyatira.

The unnamed slave girl just kind of attached herself and followed them around screaming and eventually annoys Paul enough to where he cast out the demon. And then, that interaction led them to being jailed. And if you look at all these circumstances, going with the spirit of God, with the direction of God, paying attention to his hindering also, and then coming into a place that's not what you expect. And then the circumstances turn to the jail and you think that couldn't get much worse. But the Philippian jailer and his whole household are saved.

Lydia and her whole household were saved. Lydia immediately issues forth with generosity and hospitality, invites him to stay with her. That's fantastic. So that's last two weeks ago sermon. Here we are at the beginning of this one.

Now, when they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came through Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. This where there was a synagogue of Jews is to contrast it with Philippi where there wasn't because there's not one there as far as we can tell. Now, according to Paul's custom, he visited them. This guy who knew his old testament really really well. He knew the law and the prophets and he had come to revelation from Jesus directly about how those things applied to him.

The law and the prophets, how they point to him. According to Paul's custom, he goes in and visits them and for three Sabbaths in a row, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. This is like a it's not just a roll and tumbling sort of thing where they just bounce through town. This is he's there for a while. Three Sabbaths at least.

He's there and he is reasoning with them and I highlighted first from the scriptures. From the scriptures is important. It's not just Paul's opinion. It's not just one way of seeing things. The truth of scripture will always be true.

Our interpretation can and does, I think, sometimes lack. But scripture is true. Let God be true and every man a liar. Right? This is something that is true.

So he bases what he believes and what he presents on what it says. According to Paul's custom, he visited him for three Sabbaths. He reasoned with them. He was using what it said and he was appealing to them from what it said, what it meant. And you can't do that without actually visiting to them.

I think the three things are important. Oftentimes in modern life, I feel like we can get into echo chambers and we only are talking to people who are just like us and we're only talking about things that are things we already agree with. If you don't visit the other and you don't reason with them from the basis of scripture, then you have lost the other. I think we can learn a lesson from Paul right there. According to his custom, he visited them, he spent the time reasoning with them from the scriptures explaining and explaining is because he is reasoning with them, he's explaining it.

Step back from your opinion that Messiah must be a military conqueror. Step back from your opinion that Messiah must be a political savior. Step back from this opinion and pay attention to what it actually says. You know, the suffering servant passages from Isaiah, I know how you understand them, but think about it this way. He's reasoning with them from the scriptures.

He's giving evidence. Pay attention to Isaiah 55. Pay attention to Isaiah 53. Pay attention. Look at the evidence right here.

Can you see that seven hundred years ago when he wrote that down, he was talking about the crucifixion that happened just twenty years ago at this point. He was given evidence from the scriptures. So reasoning with him is the explaining, and that's a lot of the job of preaching is taking what it says and saying, this is what it says, sitting it in your lap and letting you reason over it. And then giving evidence from the scriptures. I like this and this makes me think of a lot of different places.

Let's go one click further. He's giving evidence what? That the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Now, that's not the way that they had previously thought the Messiah would show up. Their idea was he'd be a political figure that gathered support and he would also be a conqueror much like his father David.

That's what they're expecting someone who's a man of war and clout and esteem and probably great riches. And what Paul was doing was explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Now, this takes me to Luke 24. The disciples on the road to Emmaus. Y'all know the passage.

Imagine walking home after the weekend of Passover weekend where your rabbi was killed on a cross. Can you imagine the bewilderment and the baffling? Because those two at least, guys on the road to Emmaus, when they're coming home in '17, I think it's where Jesus steps to them and says, what is this conversation that you were having with one another as you walk this road together? And so, it says they stood still looking sad. Are you the only person that has not heard of the events of this weekend?

Are you the only one that didn't hear that they crucified Jesus of Nazareth, our master? Are you the only one that didn't know? And it says, and Jesus began to explain to them that Christ had to suffer and rise again. And it says when they are approached Emmaus and approached their home, it says, they invited Jesus into their home. They didn't recognize who he was by the way.

Didn't recognize who he was. I don't know if he shaved, I'm not really sure. He did they didn't know who he was. And so, as disciples of Jesus, they were being hospitable to a stranger on a road. They invited him into their home and he's opening up the scriptures to him.

It says, later it says, didn't our hearts burn within us when he opened up the scriptures and pointed to all those things in the old testament that were about him. And when he broke the bread which we're gonna have a time of the Lord's supper, communion at the end of the service today. He broke the bread and it says that when he broke the bread, they recognized him and they recognized who he was and then he's gone but they were doing what he told them to do, treating the least of these along the road. Go out in the highways and hedges and tell them. Now, they had an incomplete understanding of what had happened, but he gave them a more full and more ample understanding and it's the best thing that ever did happen.

They only knew of crucifixion and he was telling them of resurrection and he was doing it in a resurrected body. So when it says that Paul was explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, he is sharing with us something that is absolutely true and then he's saying, this Jesus, this Jesus, this Josh, this Joshua, this guy, there are a lot of people named that. This one that I'm talking about though, this is the one that I'm proclaiming to you. He is the Messiah. He is the Christ.

He is the anointed one. And some of them, it says, persuaded. Praise God. Some of them, after three Sabbaths came around. Okay.

I do see what you're saying and that suffering servant passage does make a lot more sense now. I do understand and there were a lot of things that that helps clear up for me. I trust that that is true and it says, some of them were persuaded and they joined Paul and Silas. Praise God. Those are folks who were in the synagogue and should have known and then it goes on from there.

It says, and beyond that, there's a large number of God fearing Greeks and a significant number of leading women that also accepted. But, oh, but the Jews, the hardliners, the religious folk becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, politics makes strange bedfellas. If you have an axe to grind, if you have a peeve that you want to set right, you'll take anybody who will align themselves with you. And this says that those Jews that were jealous took along some wicked people from the marketplace and they formed a mob and they set the city in an uproar. Stirring up of people happens a lot in the book of Acts.

And they attacked the house of Jason. How many of you all think of Jason as a as a biblical name? I don't. Every time I see this passage, I go, really? His name is Jason?

I was like, my my cousin Jason, who's named after Jason Robards, by the way. That's just weird to me that it's Bible, but it's Bible. Funny that I don't think of it that way. Think of Jason and Argonauts, all of that, but no. It's not a Jewish name, but here here he is.

They attacked the house of Jason. They were seeking to bring Paul and Silas and the running buddies out to the people. Now, when they did not find them because they were hidden away pretty well, they began dragging Jason out. You're helping him. You're aiding and abetting these folks.

And they grabbed Jason and some of the other brothers before the city authorities shouting, these men who have upset the very world have come here also and these guys are giving him harbor. Jason has welcomed him into his home. They should be rejecting these people out of hand and not having anything to do with them and here they are. They're acting contrary to the decrees of God? No.

This is a civil situation that they're in. They formed a mob, marketplace is involved. They're acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar. Now, this is not a is not a charge we haven't heard before. In the gospel, we see when Jesus is before Pilate.

This is one of the things that the Sanhedrin threatens him with, that the high priest threatened him with. If you're not a friend of Caesar if you if you let this guy go. Jason is welcome. They all act contrary to decrees of Caesar saying that there's another king, Jesus. Jesus had already said, my kingdom is not of this world.

Now, you can be a humble and obedient servant and a citizen of heaven for accepting the kingship of Jesus right here, and there still is law around you. There still is political structure and authority around you. Still the state around you, but it's a different thing. This They stirred up the crowd, the mob, and the city's authorities who heard these things. They were very consciously doing that and when they had received a pledge from Jason and from the others, they released them.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we won't we won't take care of them any longer. We'll Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pledge from Jason and others. They released them to go back. Now, brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas.

Y'all got to get out of here, man. They're gonna There is bad things have happened and they're gonna be worse in the morning, so you got to get out of here. And you don't need to wait until light. Go ahead. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and Berea is not that far away from Thessalonica, but it's the next town over.

When they arrived, they went into the synagogue again as was Paul's custom we see in verse two and back here in verse 10. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews because these were the people that were supposed to know the Old Testament. I love what it says in the eleventh verse. It said, now these people in Berea, they were more noble minded. They were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica.

If you go throughout and I'm from the South, so I tend to think in southern terms. And when you're riding through little two lane roads in the South and you come up on a tiny little church, it is about, I don't know how many, hundreds of percentage points higher to run into a Berean church than it is a Thessalonica church because we wanna be more noble minded. Right? So, the Bereans, it says, they were no more noble minded because they received the word with great eagerness and they examine the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. They were excited excited to see things in a in a a more ample light.

When I think of those disciples in the road to Emmaus and they're bewildered and they're baffled by the events that happened because they had an incomplete understanding of the circumstances and Jesus gives them a more complete understanding of the circumstances. It's the best thing that's ever happened. And this is for them. They're in the synagogue. They know their word and they're willing to step outside of their opinion and see what it really says.

In the light of his glory and grace. Here we are. They examine the scriptures daily. It wasn't just something they did on Sabbath to see whether these things were sowing. Therefore, it says many.

Now, in Thessalonica, it says some of them were persuaded which is good. That's better than none. But this one says, because they were able to examine it and they were listening intently, many of them came to believe along with significant number of prominent Greek women and men. So that's really really good. But here we go again.

But when the Jews of Thessalonica so that's the town that they had to flee in the middle of the night. When they heard that there they are over in Berea, that's like, oh, they're in Wilson. They've taken up at the old Wilson schoolhouse and they're teaching their nonsense over there. We ought to go over there and mess with them. You know, that's the way this is but when the Jesus of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul and Berea also, they came there as well and what were they doing?

They were agitating. Agitating. This is the I think it's the third word that we've had to say agitating, stirring up. And there's going to be another one in just a second. But you know how the old saying among linguists is, there are hundreds of words in Inuit for snow, different types of snow, different looks of snow.

There's so much agitation in the book of acts, it takes lots of words to say it. So properly to put in motion, to agitate back and forth, to shake to and fro figuratively is to set in motion that which needs to remain still. Relying upon the finished work of Christ is what needs to remain still and yet they're shaking them and say, no, you must add to it all of this law or that's not the way it should be understood. They're troubling causing inner perplexity and emotional agitation from getting too stirred up inside or upset. So it says they're agitating and beyond that, they're stirring up on purpose the crowds.

The stirring up is to shake or to move violently, physically shaking or metaphorically to agitate. It can refer to literal shaking of objects or a figurative unsettling of people or situations. Do not be so sure of that. Right? That's the sort of thing that they're doing.

And if you take with this the book of Galatians and you see in the book of Galatians where once having received Christ by grace, how is it that you're going back to law? Who has bewitched you? There are a group of people who want to shake up the gospel of grace. So, that's what they're doing and then immediately, the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea. The same folks who were gonna arrest and perhaps kill Stone.

Paul were after him again from one town over into Berea and if they can start a mob in Thessalonica, they could probably find enough supporters in Berea to do the same. Immediately, the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea, so down to the Aegean. And Silas and Timothy remained there in Berea. They're not as big of a lightning rod as Paul is. Now, those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens.

It says, since it's from the seashore, I think they probably went by boat to get to Athens. And that's where we'll pick up next week. This is the more famous passage from seventeen sixteen forward is in Athens. Beautiful beautiful place. And receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they all left.

So this is sort of a travelogue, but there are a couple of things that I want for us to get out of this passage. It's possible to be so set in your opinion that you will not be swayed even by a good exposition of scripture. Okay? It is possible for you as believers, good church folk with your heart in the right place, it is possible for you to get yourselves into a position where I've settled that question, I've answered that, asked and answered, move on objects, don't have anything to do with that. Now, I have written long papers, really long papers about what I think on every theological question, 208 doctrinal statements when I was in seminary, and I still believe probably all of the ones exactly like I did then.

But whenever I read a passage like this, I want to be like the people in Berea. I want to be able to let go of some niche market opinion of mine. I've got scriptural basis for it. Don't get me wrong. I've got a scriptural basis for it.

What I want though is to understand the way of God more accurately as we'll see later on in Acts. What I wanna understand is, I wanna understand the scriptures especially the Old Testament in the light of Christ. I wanna understand the New Testament in the light of Christ. You know what I really wanna understand? I wanna understand my next step.

I don't want to be condemned in what I approve and I don't want for my opinion to set me at odds with the purpose of God. So I won't for God to change my heart. Now, humility is the way that we know God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And this is the most humble spot we can gather is right here at this table. When I start, every time that I start this, I start, and on the night he was betrayed.

Boy, how often do we betray him? Now, if we just think, that was just Judas. No. No. No.

No. No. No. The whole point of the thing is we all betray him. We all have betrayed him.

On the night he was betrayed, he did this. Now, I'm gonna ask the ushers if they'll come forward and we'll go straight into this time. I'll ask the band to come back up too and we'll continue. But would you pray with me as God, thank you. I thank you for these little moments.

Travelogue as it is just to tell them where and when and what happened exactly but there are little nuggets in there that if we will let your spirit convict us, because it does not condemn us Lord. If we let your spirit convict us, you will bring us into your truth. You will allow us to live a life where we're inviting Jesus into our home and we're inviting others in. Whatsoever you do to the least of these. We'll watch ourselves when we're agitating others, when we're stirring up others.

Be careful lest we fall. In Jesus name, we gather here at this table and we gather around the body and the blood, the life that was perfectly lived in submission to the spirit that is available by your spirit. Access was made by voluntary active submission, the voluntary and substitutionary atonement that Jesus made. Lord God Almighty, we pray right now that you would bless, that you'd bless this little cracker, this representation of the body of Christ as we distribute it lord. And I pray that for all of us, we'd consider our way and we'd consider our walk and lord whether we tend to be church folks who might air on the side of legalism or works.

I pray Lord that we'd let go of those things in all humility and recognize the absolute sufficiency of the life of Christ. And Lord, for those of us who might struggle with licentiousness or libertine behavior, I pray Lord that we'd walk away from what we might have just declared. I can do whatever I want to. Yeah. Permissible but not profitable.

Lord, would you allow us to let go of the things that so easily ensnare and entangle us as we consider the body and blood of Christ. In Jesus name, we ask your blessing on this time. Amen.

In Christ alone, my hope is found. He's my land, my straying, and my song. This cornerstone, this fallen ground, firm who took on flesh, fullness of God in her lustful. This gift of love and righteousness scone by the ones he came to say. Till on that cross has Jesus died.

The wrath of

Amen. From life's first cry to final breath. God, thank you. Overwhelmed with your goodness, lord. On the same night that he was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he blessed it, he said to his disciples there and his words still ring out to us.

So this is my body which is given for you voluntarily. It's given for you. Take this, take it in, eat of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. In the same way, it says he took the cup. We're gonna distribute that right now and though this is a little plastic cup of Welch's grape juice.

It's an open invitation to be a part of the life of Christ, the going forward of the gospel. We trust you, Lord. We trust the way that you walked it out, and we're asking you that by your by your voluntary death, burial, resurrection session, all of that, Lord, that you would carry us forward by the same spirit that directed you. I thank you for every soul in the room right now and I pray that as each one partakes that we would that we would really deep down sense that we are a part of your kingdom, that we are a part of your reign, and we are extending that to the rest of the world. In Jesus name, I pray that we'd be declaring your death.

Be of sin, the double cure, save from wrath, and make us pure, Lord. Amen.

Mother chosen.

And in the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup after supper and for them it was probably a common cup and he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. What they had been looking forward to, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this, take it in, drink it, and drink it in deep as often as you will in remembrance of me.

Amen. Amen.

Would you join me for the doxology? You could stand and as a as a benediction today, there's a g chord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Pray father, son, and holy ghost.

Amen.

And go in peace. Amen. Hello. I missed you there. This thing