cited for confessing sins to one another and praying for each other
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
5 You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.
8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.
10 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12 But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”; so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.
13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.
14 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
15 and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18 He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
19 Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
the man at the pool of Bethesda, lying there thirty-eight years, Jesus asks if he wants to be made well, used to introduce step six
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”
13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
25 Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
27 He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.
28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.
32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true.
33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved.
35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.
38 You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
41 I don’t receive glory from men.
42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, Jesus tells him he must be born again
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’
8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.
12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
22 After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.
23 John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.
24 For John was not yet thrown into prison.
25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.
26 They came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”
27 John answered, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.
28 You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32 What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.
33 He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
36 One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
the bronze snake lifted on a pole in the wilderness, cited as the Old Testament callback Jesus uses with Nicodemus
1 The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
2 Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”
3 Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah.
4 They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.
5 The people spoke against God, and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this disgusting bread.”
6 Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.
7 The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.
8 Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
9 Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived.
10 The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth.
11 They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.
12 From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered.
13 From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
14 Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,
15 the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”
16 From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”
17 Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,
18 the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;
20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.
21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
22 “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.”
23 Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel.
24 Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
25 Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.
26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon.
27 Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;
28 for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
29 Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.
30 We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
32 Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there.
33 They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
34 Yahweh said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”
35 So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was the latest in Pastor Nathan's series working through the 12 steps with their biblical foundations. He focused on steps six and seven, the readiness to have God remove our defects and the humility to ask him to do it, and traced both back to a strange and often-skipped story from Numbers 21. Communion closed the service.
What was said
Steps one through five had already been covered in earlier weeks. Pastor Nathan briefly walked back through them as a foundation: admitting powerlessness, coming to believe God can help, making a decision to let him, taking an honest moral inventory, and confessing what that inventory turns up. Steps six and seven build on all of that. Step six is the question Jesus put to the man at the pool of Bethesda the previous week: are you actually ready to be made well? Step seven is the next move, humbly asking God to remove the shortcomings you have named and are ready to release.
The early AA literature used the language of rebirth and being born again, which made John 3 the natural scripture for this ground. Nicodemus, a serious student of the Old Testament and a man genuinely seeking God, comes to Jesus at night and cannot make sense of what Jesus is teaching. Jesus tells him he must be born again, and Nicodemus cannot follow it. The conversation lands at verses fourteen and fifteen before it reaches the famous sixteenth verse, and Pastor Nathan said he had read past those verses for years without following them back to where Jesus was pointing.
Jesus points Nicodemus to Moses and a specific moment in the wilderness wandering, Numbers 21. The Israelites, tired and impatient on a long detour around Edom, complain against God and against Moses. God sends venomous snakes. People are dying from the bites. Moses prays for the people, and God's instruction is unusual: make a bronze snake, put it on a pole, and anyone who is bitten and looks at it will live.
Pastor Nathan used three words to describe what the story is about. Sin: they spoke against God and against the leader God had given them, and the long New Testament vice list he has used throughout this series shows that same spirit appearing in many forms. Sorrow: to be snake bit is to have a real and deadly problem you cannot fix yourself, which is exactly step one, and the sorrow in the room from genuine loss is real whether or not it traces to a particular sin. Salvation: God did not have to make a way, and the way he made was strange, but the ones who looked lived.
Jesus uses that story as a direct parallel to the cross. Just as Moses lifted the snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. John three sixteen follows immediately. Pastor Nathan said he had not connected those verses carefully for years, and that the snake story felt odd and exclusive to him, but the logic is the same: the remedy looks strange, the act required is simple, and the ones who look live.
Pastor Nathan closed by reading from something written by his friend Alan Levi, addressed to a young person heading off to college. The piece laid out why the cross is the center of the story: sacrifice was established from the beginning as the means of rescue, animal offerings pointed forward to the one sufficient payment, and the cross is not a place for argument but for surrender. The terms are plain, take it or leave it: trust God and receive his means of salvation. That passage led directly into communion.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor shared a personal story about throwing his daughter's toy cow out the car window and lying awake that night feeling like he just couldn't get it right. When have you had a moment like that, where your own failure made you look honestly at yourself?
The 12 steps move from 'I can't' to 'God can' to 'I'm going to let Him.' Which of those three is hardest for you personally, and why?
Alright. Good morning, everybody. Sorry. Y'all are waiting on me. Didn't even realize it.
Would you stand with me and we're gonna sing How Great Thou Art? I wanna introduce somebody to you. So if you if you have not met him or seen him before, this is Danny and Rayna Ortley. Danny and Rayna Ortley and Danny played the Hootenanny last night and they're gonna play again this evening. We're gonna play down there.
The Hootenanny is not the one at the work, not the one at Doranen's, but the Bondurant Hootenanny is about an hour away from here. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, where Dan and Dancey Toalson live. This is second or third attempt that they've had, kind of growing an annual thing. It's camp out. It's a weekend long event.
If you would like, if no no pressure, but if they like what you see here, come on down. Come on down and we'll worship together. It's a worship hootenanny and it's just for no other cause except for just to praise God together. So saying that, why don't we do just that? How great thou art?
Here we are.
Oh, Lord, my God. When I, in awesome wonder, consider all the
with shout of acclamation and take me
home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
Amen. Amen. That is too We're gonna go straight into the second song which is This Is Amazing Grace. As I realize, these, some of these, that one, not that one. Not that one.
If you're Swedish and you've been around for four hundred years, not that one. But this one may be new to some of you. This is Amazing Grace. We're gonna sing through these. I'm glad to have Danny and Reyna here and just to praise God together.
So here we are. This is Amazing Grace.
You've done for me.
Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is
the lamb who was slain. Worthy is the king
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. We have a few announcements and Philip and Amy Jordan are our collectively. Together, they are our children's ministry director and so I'm gonna ask them if they'll come forward. While she's come forward with a microphone, I'll mention this.
Do you all know what Old Bills Fun Run is? A lot of you do, maybe a few of you that are unclear. Old Bills Fun Run was started to amplify giving to charitable giving in this community. And hence, has developed lots and lots and lots of five zero one c three's within Teton County because they get funded through Old Bills Fund Run. It helps to amplify donations.
For a dollar that you put in to say Good Samaritan Shelter or to Compass Women's Care or to First Bees Benevolence Fund, if you put a dollar in, it comes out the other side of old bills as a dollar 50, usually, somewhere right around there. So it's a way to amplify giving and we are in that giving season right now from August 9 to September 13. That's happening, the fun run is actually next week, but it is a way of amplifying giving. I'm gonna turn it over to you. Come on up.
Alright. Thank you. First, I'm gonna ask Philip if he will pray really quick over our children. We're starting school this week. I know there's lots of little sweet children in here.
And I just want him to pray over our kids and our teachers and our parents.
Father, we just thank you for all the children, grandchildren that we have. And as they go back to school this week and and last week, father, we just pray for them, pray for a hedge of protection around them, pray for their parents who are sending them off for peace of mind. And also, father, as we get started back in Sunday school, we pray for the kids that are here in Sunday school and for the teachers that you would speak to to all of the kids that are here through those teachers and and that you would guide their hearts through that program. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Thanks.
Okay. So children's church starts. It is at 09:00. We start on the September 15. We're gonna start having the elementary class that's been going through the summer.
Miss Crystal has been a very faithful teacher throughout the year, and she teaches that class. It's kindergarten through second grade from nine to 09:30. We also next week, we'll end up starting the upper elementary, which is third grade through fifth grade, and they go from nine to 09:30 downstairs. That'll come back starting next week.
09:30 to ten.
Sorry. Did I say sorry. 09:30 to ten. Yes. Thank you.
And then middle school and high school also happens at that time, 09:30 to ten. Nursery is nine to ten. We have it at that hour. So if you want to come early in that hour and then we have the connection, and then we have the 11:00 service. Something we are starting new this a lot of parents have asked that we started next week, so I said, yes.
Let's start it because they were super excited about it. So the three and four year olds, we're gonna have a preschool class. Typically, they go between one class or the other, and so we are gonna open up a preschool class for our three to four year olds, and it will be the whole hour from nine to ten. They'll have snack and music and a Bible lesson. And between Philip and I, we're gonna actually teach it this fall.
We're super excited about it. It'll be downstairs in the classroom right next to the nursery. So the way this works though and how this all works is we really, really value the volunteers that come in and help. And whether it's for the thirty minutes from 09:30 to ten to support miss Crystal in her class or to come and support us in the nursery, preschool, or you can even if you would like to teach once you could teach once in the fall and once in the spring, once a year. We appreciate it.
The kids really enjoy all the different couples and the different adults that come in. And we also
The resources are provided, and it's pretty good.
Yep. Yeah. Everything is provided just like in Awana's, everything. That is a really great night also to volunteer. And if you just wanna scan, that's my phone number will come up, and you can text me about helping on Sundays and also helping at Awanda's on Monday.
Watching the kids learn their scripture is very fun, and they have a lot of fun. I mean, it is pretty awesome on Monday night here. So just y'all can let us know if you wanna talk to us anytime before service or after. We are here, and we appreciate all that y'all do and help with. Thank you.
And we could also ask for a lot of prayers. That would be very much greatly appreciated.
That's
great. Thank you very much. Both Philip and Amy Jordan. God help us. Thank you.
Help us help them to help these kids. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask that they would be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that they would know right from wrong, up from down, left from right, that they'd be able to keep their eyes focused on you. In Jesus name, we ask for your superintendent presence on all children's ministry. Amen. Would you stand with us?
I think I probably have others. Oh, yeah. Small group. Small groups. There's a small group Jamboreeapalooza.
Okay? That's happening. It's happening. September 22 between services. If you are a part of a small group or you would like to be a part of a small group or you think, you know what I think I want to host one, lead one, or just attend one, any of those things.
Small group, Jamboree of Palooza has happened in September 22 between services in the fellowship hall during the connect hour down there. And we're kinda trying to set it up to make it as easy as possible for you to get plugged in to a small group or for you to have other people say, hey, I was thinking about doing one, I don't know, about mechanic in cars. That's one of them. I wanna have one in the garage at some point. I wanna do that.
I haven't done it yet, but that's one that I'm thinking about. So I'm gonna, you know, be down there for a little while, see if I can convince other mechanics to be a part of it. But that's the kind of stuff we're talking about. Affinity groups, we want for it to be organic. We want for it to be something that is natural.
But people getting together in small groups makes Christian life together better and easier in a lot of ways. Men's lunch study is happening during the lunch hour. Do not infer from that that lunch will be provided. These are men. They're not gonna do that.
Okay. If you want lunch, bring lunch. It's fine. Men's lunch study happens Thursdays 11:55 in the Fellowship Hall. It is a good time.
Twelve to one, we're studying the Bible together, praying for each other, and engaging with the text and with one another. It's really good. One of my favorite things that happens during the week. And I think that's the last slide for the announcements. Would you stand with us?
We're gonna sing a song called Evidence and go right into a song called Goodness of God. I see the evidence of your goodness, Lord, all over my life, all over my life. Would you sing with us?
My sin rolled away because of you, oh Jesus. See the cross, the empty grave. The evidence is endless. All
I love your voice you have led me through the fire and darkest night you are close the name the in the goodness name of of God all my life you have been faithful goodness of God
Amen. Praise God for his faithfulness.
Y'all can have a seat and we're gonna invite the ushers to come forward and would you pray with me? Danny's gonna play. He probably gonna tell a story and play something in in between here but would you pray with me? God, we're so thankful to be here in your presence to gather with brothers and sisters in Christ. It's such a privilege, Lord.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the folks that we had coming internationally this morning, the first service. I met people from about five different countries and here we are and they're coming in and we're brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm so thankful to be a part of this amazing spreading circle of your love, of your goodness, your blessing, your favor, Lord.
In Jesus name, I ask that you'd be with us in the midst of each and every circumstance whether it is something we recognize as being for good or something that will eventually be for our good. Thank you, Lord God Almighty, that the way that you work is right and good. Will not my God do what is right? In Jesus name, we ask that our hearts would be in line with yours and that we would be a willing participant, humbly placing in the plates metaphorically everything, our all Lord of the financial resources that we put in there. Lord, I pray that you'd do what you will with it, your will done your way, unimpeded, unhindered Lord.
But I pray also for every conversation that we have, for every stepping out on faith that we have to lean towards someone. Lord, I pray that you would bolster us, that you would increase our faith, that you'd give us the words, that you would, Lord, replace anxiety with peace. In Jesus name, we ask that you'd do your will and your way among us, Lord, but then through us. Amen. Amen.
One week ago, Raina and I took our youngest daughter and dropped her off at Colorado Christian University, dropped her off at college. And for those of you who have not taken a kid to college, it's not like it was when I was a kid. My parents basically dropped me off with a box at Colorado State and left. And with for our daughter, it was two days of decorating and it was amazing. Took a long time.
Pink trash bags, pink trash cans, pink couch cover. It was ridiculous. Anyways, I've recovered. But we dropped her off and as we're kinda, you know, in the rearview mirror, I couldn't help but think it just wasn't that long ago that we had all three of our kids in the car driving to school every day. And, and I remember this one moment when I'm not sure who my wife, Raina, was.
It was just me with the kids, and we were late to school. We're driving. We're going fast. And Maggie, our youngest, was in the car seat behind me. And somebody had given her this little cow key chain, and when you squeeze its eyes, it would light up and it it was just terrible, terrible, terrible cow.
And she kept reaching around and shining it in my eyes, my ear, like, here. And we're late to school, I'm like, Max, we gotta go. What are you doing? Plea please stop. Please stop.
Please stop. Please stop. And she did it one more time,
and I grabbed it, and
the the window happened to be open. And I yeah. You're ahead of me. I made a poor decision. And, I took the cow, and I just threw it out the window.
I was done. And all the kids started to cry at once and like,
that was Maggie's favorite cow,
you know. So I'm feeling like a loser, dropped the kids off at school, came back, picked her up half day. I said, Max, I'm sorry. I threw your cow out the window. It wasn't that big a deal.
But I'm trying to go to sleep that night in our house and everyone's asleep and I'm just laying there thinking, man, I just don't get it right. I'm selfish. I'm impatient. So I went down to this piano that we have at our house and I started to, it was basically a prayer. I was just writing a song kind of a prayer.
And that night as I was kinda working it out, just hit me that I don't have to have the coolest or the best of this or that. If I had one prayer in this world, it'd be that my kids know who God is. That's salvation. It's being born again. That's what that that prayer is.
So I wrote this song never thinking I would play it for anybody. And, I played it for my wife, and she, made me record it years later. So this is a song about not not getting things right in your life, but trusting in God for the people that you love around you, to find Jesus and to be born again.
Can I tell you the truth? It's the middle of the night and I can't fall asleep. There's something on my mind. You've given me your grace. Can I ask for something more?
It's all I really want. I won't hide it anymore.
So let me say,
hey, as humbly as I can.
I know I don't deserve your every blessing, and yet I've asked a thousand things of year.
But if I
had only one prayer you
could answer, pray my children grow to walk in truth. Given my mistakes, I made more than a few. I haven't always been a reflection of you. So I'm asking for your grace, bringing up your love to fill in all the holes. Send mercy from above.
I know I don't deserve your every blessing, and yet I've asked a thousand things of you.
But I
had only one prayer you could answer.
I pray my children grow to walk in truth.
And I
know your spirit helps me in my weakness.
And you
groan for me and help me make it through. Can you teach me how to pray from the cradle to the grave?
And help my children grow to walk in truth. And help me not to throw the things that move.
That
is great. Thank you very much. Oh, love you, Danny. Thank you. So if you've been here for the past few weeks, the past few times you've seen me preaching, you know that we've stepped I I have done for twelve years just a chronological study of the New Testament.
And then about five four or five months ago, I ran out of the New Testament. And rather than going back to the Old Testament, I started doing a few greatest hits. The things that I think were the real kind of where do we get the gospel in a nutshell sort of things. And then after that, the most practical thing that I've undertaken myself in the last six and a half years spiritually speaking is to take the 12 steps seriously. So 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, that was the original form in the late thirties.
Some people got together in a small group. They suffer from the same particular malady and they discovered together how God could and would lead them out of this issue. And so, I promised a friend that I'd go through it about six and a half years ago and we have been walking through them together and praise God. It's been helpful. It's been really really helpful.
So, I thought, well we're gonna go through this in church together and I'm gonna go for the Biblical underpinning of it. If you wanted to see a book about this, the good book and the big book, the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous in this good book, the Bible, is kind of what got me started on the thinking of this. The underpinning for the steps is very much biblical. But the steps are helpful because they're sequential. So here we are.
Step one. Step one, we admitted that we were powerless over our problem. Now you can insert your own particular problem right there in AA that say, we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol. It's that simple. We admitted we were powerless.
I can't. My life has become unmanageable. I'm the one that's been leading it and I can't solve this problem on my own. Is deflation at depth is what the early literature on this subject says. We recognize that it was necessary to come to an end of yourself, deflation at depth.
And I say, don't stay there long. Deflation at depth is a horribly depressing place to be. Step two, we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Now, we read that a higher power or a power greater than ourselves as God and that's a good thing. I believe that that is true.
But the steps stepped back from religiosity for a moment and said that, okay, I can't but there is someone who can. That is a willingness to believe. A willingness, I believe that there's something above me that is possible that it could restore me to sanity. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. I'm looking for that and that's a humble place when you admit I can't, but the second step says God can.
The third step is actually a voluntary decision. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. This higher power that could restore society. It's basically, can't, God can, I'm going to let him. Okay?
This is a decision. I'm going to let God have his way rather than me having my way. If I keep doing what I've been doing, I'm going keep getting what I've been getting. So, God can restore me to sanity. I'm going to let him and actually, this decision to surrender is not always easy.
I I said in the first service, it's not easy for Americans, it's not easy for Protestants, it's not easy because we were born to fight, were we not? Right? And we've been trained to be good at it. Individualism runs really really rampant and we want to, like Frank Sinatra, do things our way. But the decision to surrender is I can't, you can, I'm gonna let you as I understand you.
Now, our concepts of God, sometimes, if we think we know it all about God, which we've been trained to do, a lot of us even not just, you know, Protestant, American, but denominational. We have our own way of understanding and theologizing scripture. And if you don't agree with us on absolutely every point, then you die, you heretic. I don't want have anything to do with you. God, as we understood him, opens up the possibility that we might not have it all figured out.
It's a statement of humility. I love it. I think it's helpful. Step three. Step four is we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
And if you've ever walked with anybody through these 12 steps, this one tends to be one of the hardest ones because it is looking at yourself in the mirror and probably not liking everything that you see. And so rather than be in a place of confidence, again, like deflation of depth at depth, step one, the fearless and searching moral inventory is self examination. It's very much a step of sobriety and humility to say, I'm gonna take this seriously. Now, I have been using this list. I've actually used it in various forms over the years to make a point in a sermon usually.
But this is a list of all of the New Testament lists of vices or sins. So there might be some that you think, well that's not on the list. This is all the different vice lists from the New Testament up here in one place and you could start anywhere, you know, evil talking, lying, swindling, reviling, drunkenness. Those are just examples. I believe the list is representative, not comprehensive.
There may be something on here, but if you take it seriously and you do a fearless and searching moral inventory of yourself, and you're looking at this list as a grid, you'll find yourself on here somewhere. Right? Fearless and searching. What does God say is a problem? If I'm looking at the list and I'm honest with myself, I'll probably see myself here.
Now, step five is when you do see yourself on that list and you realize that you've fallen short, step five is agreement with God. We admitted it to God. I missed the mark right here, Lord. I'm angry, I'm full of wrath, malice, and slander. I recognize that it comes out of my mouth as abusive language.
I don't wanna be the way that I am. I admit that to you, God. I'm admitting to myself and it helps if you'll tell someone else. Now, first John one nine, if you're looking for biblical support for the admitting it to God, agreement with God. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to be forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
James five says that, to be praying for one another, confess your sins one to the other so that you can pray. Small groups are helpful. We admitted to God to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs, that's confession. Saying the truth about what it is. Agreeing with God.
The next step I mentioned last week and this is what the main service was about last week. It was the from John five, the man who had been lying for thirty eight years at this pool of Bethesda and Jesus has an unusual question for him. He says, are you ready to get well or do you want to be made well? Step six is where we say we are entirely ready to have God remove the defects of character that we've seen in that self examination, that we've already admitted to him. Now, I think that step six is a good one to slow down and say, are you ready to get well?
Because we tend to identify ourselves by our sin in some ways, and that's a that's a problem. If I were to say, and I mentioned it last week, I probably shouldn't go into it again. If I'm a I'm just a big eater, I'm a big eater. Yeah. I'm I'm a glutton.
I'm a compulsive eater. I eat my emotions and then some. Know, if if if I were to just say, and I'm a big eater, I'm a healthy eater, I wouldn't dare insult someone by not eating what they've made, all of it, and then some. If I wanna retain that as a part of my identity, then I'm not really serious with God about admitting that it is actually wrong that I want to get over. Right?
So we're entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. It's a statement again of humility, it's conviction, and it signifies a readiness to be made new or change. Now, I mentioned step seven last week, so step six, step six, step seven, we humbly ask for God for him to remove our shortcomings. We humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings. I barely mentioned it last week because I don't want to leave you in a place where you're knowing that you have defects and you're ready but you don't have a next step.
The next step is humbly asking God to remove your shortcomings. Sounds a lot like step five. We admitted it to him but we're asking him to take it out of our lives. We're ready for that to be the case. So step seven, if you read the early literature and actually I will say this, I'm not I'm not bashing AA, I think it's the best chance that people have for getting sober.
I think it's wonderful. For NA, it's fantastic. For sex addictions, 12 step programs are great. It's If there is an addictive problem, these 12 steps work for that. I will say that early on in the thirties, they recognized it was a small group of people who came to a place of having a spiritual rebirth, an awakening.
And they mentioned rebirth, Bill w did, Bob did, all of the early AA guys mentioned rebirth or being born again. It was as if I were born again or it was that I was born again. Now, I know the term sometimes is associated with folks that you might not like, born again. Maybe not. Second service, y'all might just love them.
I don't know. Christians don't have a great reputation, honestly. And so we're facing that head on. Humility and rebirth is humbly asking God to remove our shortcomings. Now, if I were to say, hey, we're gonna talk about being born again, which scripture am I gonna go to?
Nicodemus. Nicodemus. That hurts when I said Nicodemus, John three. John three, Nicodemus. This is the scripture for being born again.
It's where Nicodemus comes to Jesus. So this is what you thought it was gonna be about. Right? This is where we do this. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.
He is a Pharisee. We know that. He is a student of the Old Testament. He is seeking to work in holiness, to walk in holiness. He has studied the scriptures.
He knows the Hebrew. He knows all of the stuff, the ins and outs of it. He's been around synagogue for a long time and sees himself as a carrier. He is someone who's seeking after God and he comes to Jesus and he says, listen, this is early on. Chapter five last week I said, this is where the confrontation with Pharisees and with other religious folks actually really takes off in chapter five.
But in chapter three, when Nicodemus comes at night to interview Jesus, he says, listen, we know that you're from God. We know you're from God because nobody could do the things that you do if they were not from God. But I don't understand what it is that you're saying. I don't understand the teaching. I don't get what it is.
And Jesus gets cuts to the chase and says, Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. He goes, but I don't get that. I don't understand that. How can a man who's all go back and get into his mother's womb and be born again? That doesn't make sense.
And Jesus kind of tries to express it in a different way. You're born of water and of the spirit. He's he says, I still I'm I'm struggling with it. So John three is the place for you must be born again. And so yeah, if I'm going to preach on it, if y'all were going preach on it, most of y'all been in church your whole life, you know this sermon, right?
John three, concept of being born again. Nicodemus is struggling with that issue. He's a religious guy. He's certainly sincere. Maybe he didn't want everybody to know that he was coming, but he's interviewing Jesus.
He's going to the source. That's wonderful. He's struggling with the issue. And then, you know, John three sixteen says, whosoever. Oh, the whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.
And then we do an altar call, we have an invitation hymn, and then the service is over. That's the way every that's every other week where I'm from, you know. And that's good, but there's something else in John three that I don't think and I know I had not taken it seriously to where I actually followed the the line and went back to the Old Testament. But right before we get to John three sixteen, we hit fourteen and fifteen obviously, and Jesus takes Nicodemus who was an old testament scholar, who is someone who's committed to knowing the stories and getting the juice out of the stories and understanding and coming closer to God by understanding their history. Jesus takes Nicodemus and what I think is a weird direction.
It's probably weird because I didn't take it seriously. I didn't pay any attention to it for a long time. I know I was at least college age and I might have even been married and on the mission field before I ever really took it seriously and followed it back to numbers 21. So Jesus' old testament callback, he mentions Moses and a very very specific event from the history of Israel's wilderness wandering. So, you all know the story.
God meets Moses burning bush, tells him to go take his people out of Egypt, set the people free, goes to pharaoh, all of the story, you know that. And then, when he gets the people out of Egypt and they're wandering around the desert for forty years, forty years. They're waiting for an unbelieving generation to die off before they can go into the promised land. At the point of Numbers 21, Aaron is already dead, I believe. It's pretty late.
Numbers 21, they've been wandering around for a long time. And Jesus I'm gonna read it first, and then I'll come back and kinda preach my way through, but think about this. They traveled from Mount Horror along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom. Oh, good. If you know anything else about the Old Testament, you don't wanna go anywhere near Edom.
You're gonna end up in a fight if you go near Edom. So they're going around Edom, but the people grew impatient on the way. Why are we taking the long way around? Let's just go through Edom and whoop them. But the people grew impatient on the way and they spoke against God and they spoke against Moses and they said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
There's no bread, There's no water. We detest this miserable food. The miserable food was manna from heaven, miraculously provided by God every day. You don't even have to store it. You don't have to keep it.
You don't have to refrigerate it. It's just gonna be there in the morning. If you do try to keep it, it's gonna rot. We detest this miserable food. That's manna from heaven.
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. Woah, that's a turn. Actually, does this sound like God as you know him? God as we understood him. Does this sound like God as you know God's love?
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them and they bit the people and many Israelites died. And the people came to Moses and said, we sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us and so Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it up on a pole and anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. And so Moses made a bronze snake. He put it up on a pole.
Does that sound like making a graven image to y'all? It's exactly like making I was a sculpture major. Sorry. Graven image. That's exactly what that was.
So Moses made a bronze snake. God told him to and he did. He put it up on a pole then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. So there's a fairly famous old etching about this. Gustaf Dure also has a nice etching about this.
It was vertical and stair horizontal, so I went with this one. Moses has made this bronze snake. He puts it up on a pole, and you can see people gathered around, and there's a guy right here who still got I'm sorry for y'all who just hate snakes. But there's a guy who's got a snake on his back, and he's trying to rip it off, and Moses is saying, just look up there. Just look right there.
It's right there. This is the way. And the guy is worried about the snake that's on him for sure. The others, this one and this one, neither of them are looking and they look like they're in an awful pain. But there are people who are gathered around and looking up and they're being made whole, made well.
The ones who looked lived. Now, is that the weirdest story to yell? It's one of the weirdest stories in the Old Testament to me and I never really paid attention. Probably quit my Bible reading plan by numbers 21 that year. Numbers 21, let's go back.
Anyone was bitten by a snake and they looked at the bronze snake, they lived. So what is this story about? So we're in step six and step seven, and I couldn't help it this time. I don't usually use the preacher's rhetorical vice of alliteration, but I'm using it this time. Three s's.
Snakey s's. Three s's are this. The first s is for sin, and it's clear what that is. They spoke against God. Now I've heard this.
I have actually heard this sermon preached in the last few years but usually, was when the pastors in hot water with somebody and they go back and they said, don't speak against the Lord's anointed. You know? They spoke against God foremost. That's blasphemy to speak against God in the way that he has made. They grew impatient.
They didn't throw any cows out the window. They had the golden calf for a while. They spoke it against God and they spoke against the leader that he had provided them, Moses and there's no bread, there's no water, we're in the desert, and this man is terrible. That spirit is actually sinful. Actually, you were to look back up my long list, you'd see it in several different places.
So what is the story about sin for one thing? Sorrow is another. To be snake bit in the South, I don't know how many of are from the South, a couple of you from back back there. To be snake bit is when you're just snake bit. You can't do anything to get out of your own way.
And they say, oh, that NASCAR driver is like, no matter what he does, no matter what car he's in, no matter what engine, he's just snake bit. Can't get any better. Can't do anything about it. To be snake bit is to recognize your problem but not be able to get that. Does that sound like step one?
I've got a problem that I can't do anything about on my own. I'm snake bit. And that is a sorrowful place. I said, deflation at depth is not a place to stay. It's look to what God will provide.
But this, they bit the people and many Israelites died and to look out at this congregation, I know most of y'all, not all of you, but I know most of you. I know that you're a representative sample who have had tremendous loss in your lives. Some of you have lost family members recently. In the first service, it was every row. I actually stood during a song and was looking.
Every row has experienced deep and tragic loss, losses of husbands, wives, kids, grandparents, babies. And there is a sorrow that may but maybe it's not just like last week and just like John nine. Maybe it's not the direct result of someone's particular sin, but it is a fallen world we live in and sorrow is very real. Paul says in Corinthians that sorrow can be either godly and it'll draw us toward him for salvation or worldly and all it will do is lead to death. You can be sorrowful and not lament and head towards God.
You can be sorrowful and run from him. They bit the people, many Israelites died. So what else is this story is about? Third s is for salvation. So though God did not have to make a way, he made a way.
And he made a way in a way that's a little weird for me. My taste, I think that's odd. Make a snake, put it on a pole, that just seems weird. So Moses prayed for the people. That's another good point.
God's leader, when they came to him, he didn't say, they said, Moses, please pray for us. Please pray for us. We spoke against God and we spoke against you. Please pray for us that he would relent. And Moses said, I told you.
Told you so. Should've been listening to me. I'm God's man. Don't lay your hands on his anointed. You need to be listening to me.
Chapter and verse. Right there, buddy. No. He said, God, please. Moses prayed for the people.
He loved the people. He cared about the people. He was leading them because he loved them. He was leading them because he loved God and that was the charge he had been given. So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses directly, make a snake and put it up on a pole.
And anyone who's bitten can look at it and live. That is the way of salvation for those people who were snake bit. Wait. What? Did you all know Tanya got snake bit on a mission trip one time?
She did. Yeah. The time between being snake bit and having anti venom is a really concerning time. But in this story, seriously, there's no tourniquet, there's no anti venom, they're just snake bit. They don't have a chance to do anything about it.
Moses prays for him, God makes a way. So Moses follows God's instruction, he's obedient even though it might not make sense for him and he made a bronze snake. He put it up on a pole. Boy, do you think that bothered him? He's the one who came down the mountain with the 10 commandments.
Wait a second, God. I mean, remember these first four were all about you, but this one down here, that that that said don't make any graven images and you've just told me to do that. That God, as I understand him. Then when anyone who was bitten by a snake looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Anyone that looked, lived.
So was I right? Is that weird? I think that story is weird. I still think that story is weird. I love it because it is an example.
Jesus uses it as an example for someone who is sincerely seeking after him. So there's something wonderful to follow, there's something weird is back to Nicodemus here in John three. And just before we get to John three sixteen, whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life. Just before that, we get this, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so in just the same way, the son of man must be lifted up. Can you think of him being lifted up on a cross?
So that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. And then John three sixteen. This example is right there next to it and I had not even looked at it. But you know what? I think it's a weird story and it seems really exclusive and there might have been some of those people that are pretty good people.
They just complained that one time or they just were here among the people who were complaining that one time and they got snake bit and then they just couldn't believe that it was as simple as just looking up. But it really was. The ones who looked lived. So the three s's that we face are still the same. We all have sinned.
We all have sin. First in John's epistles, he says, if you say you have no sin, you are a liar. And guess what? That's a sin. Sorrow.
Sorrow as Paul says can go either way. It can be godly sorrow which leads to repentance or it can be worldly sorrow which just leads to death. So there's sin, there's sorrow, and salvation. A way has been made. I'm gonna let Alan Levi, who's a friend of ours and he's written several good books.
I passed passed along a couple of books to a couple of y'all over the years and he's a singer songwriter who just has a way of putting things into words. I'm gonna let him finish the sermon. He's writing to a kid who just moved off to college actually, one of his nephews. But I'm gonna just go ahead and let Alan finish it out. And then we're gonna go to a time of communion.
Once upon a
time, only once for a short while in the history of the world, God who had created all things became one of us. Born a baby to a common woman, grown a child in a common town, employed at common labor and spending his life with common people. He took a name, Jesus, and walked among us inviting, welcoming, at times pleading with us to return to God and to love the right things in the right way. Few of us listened and eventually, as you know, we killed him. We whipped him almost to death, drove nails through his hands and made him hang on a wooden cross until he died, all because he was guilty of calling us to love God and to love one another.
Maybe you wonder, what's with the cross? Why is that such a big deal to the followers of Christ? Why can't we just be nice to each other, sing songs on Sunday, feed the poor, and skip all that part about Jesus dying on the cross? I'll be honest with you. It is rather difficult, especially for our twenty first century minds, to grasp the necessity of Jesus' death.
After all, I suppose that God could have waved a wand or issued a blanket pardon to humanity, but that's not what he did. Instead, from the very start, when we defied God and ate the forbidden fruit, you know, the Adam and Eve story, God said that there must be justice, a payment of a penalty. Now, it might seem cruel to us, and it is cruel, but sacrifice was the means of rescue that God established from the outset. For thousands of years, the people brought animals to God, bulls, goats, lambs, doves, But none of those was ever fully acceptable to make things right. They were just a symbolic and temporary remedy of sorts until an adequate payment could be made for our sin.
What the animal offerings really did was point to Jesus, who would one day come as the one and only sacrifice that God would accept once and for all. In short, it's through the cross that Jesus rescues the world. Well, maybe you say, I still don't get it. Maybe we're not supposed to get it. Maybe the cross is something that we merely accept by faith whether we fully understand it or approve of it or not.
The cross is not a place for argument with God, but rather a place of surrender and humility for us. We have to simply confess that Jesus' death was my fault, that it was made necessary by my sin, that it had to happen because nothing else could fix the fall, not education, morality, government, therapy. If we're to be forgiven and accepted by God, it will be on his terms. And his terms, quite simply, take it or leave it, are that we trust him and receive his means of salvation, Jesus on the cross. It is a pure gift.
And in a very real sense, Aaron, when Jesus died, every one of us was there.
You. Could invite the ushers to come forward and Danny, if you'd play something pretty, that'd be great. We're distribute the bread first and then I'll partake together and we'll distribute the cup. It's a little cracker representing the blood. I mean, the body of Christ and it's a little bit of grape juice in a plastic cup.
It's representing the blood of Christ. If you grab one of these with a lid on top of it, they're gluten free. Okay? Gluten free body of Christ. That has both the bread and the cup involved.
So if you grab one of those, you'll have both. But we're gonna distribute right now the bread and would you allow me to pray for us. God almighty, I thank you. Ask your blessing on everyone in the building, Lord, for every soul here, for every family they represent. I pray, Lord, that you would spread the circle of blessing that you have been going forward forward with since even before Abraham.
All the way back to Adam and Eve, Lord, you have made a way when there was no way. So Lord, as we celebrate the way that you have made, the life of Jesus perfectly lived out in submission to the spirit, tempted in every way just as we're tempted yet without sin, and the voluntary sacrifice in his blood. In Jesus name, Lord, we come together and we take this communion to commune together with him. Would you bless Amen. So on the same evening that Jesus was betrayed, he had supper with his disciples and after he had given thanks, he broke bread with them and he said, this is my body which is given for you.
It's voluntary. It's given for you. Take this. Take it in. Eat of it.
And every time you do it, do it in remembrance of me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming in humility, for for literally condescending towards us, Lord, for reaching out to us. Thank you that you walked it out just like us on this earth through all of the trials and temptations and you were without sin. Thank you for your voluntary act of submission and your voluntary act of sacrifice. Thank you for this precious blood that was spilled on behalf of all who would ever believe before, during, after your time here on earth.
In Jesus name and for your calls, Lord. We ask for your blessing on this little plastic cup of grape juice that for everyone who would partake would feel the blessing of your presence and for those Lord who let it pass because they just don't believe. I pray that the influence of someone in this room would bring them into a relationship where they do look up and take the way that you have made. In Jesus name, and for his cause we pray, amen. God is so good.
The same manner that he'd taken the bread, he also took the cup, a common cup most likely for them, and he was gonna pass around the table. And he said to them, he still says to us, this is the new covenant in my blood. It's on me. I'm the way, the truth, the life. He'd say that later.
I mean, he'd say that before later than the story today. He says, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink it in. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen.
And Paul says that as often as we do this together, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. Now his death was an answer. Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make us pure for salvation, for sanctification. God almighty. Would you stand with us?
Danny, I think we're gonna do do the doxology. Can you give us a strong g? Alright. God's a human. Alright.
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. And now from Romans fifteen thirteen, the benediction for today.
Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
