Morning. So Terry, Terry, she's not here.
She's in the other room. I was just wondering when you're
going to do that for the guys. You know, we feel outnumbered,
right? But anyway, boy, what an amazing
morning. I'm just got a sense of God's
presence today, like I don't think I've ever sensed before.
There's a ton of people in Washington, DC praying right now
as we speak for our nation. There's born again believers
that serve in our government and they're crying out to God to
rededicate our nation to once again understand that we are one
nation under God. That's huge.
I've been on this planet for a good many years and have been
watching what happens in our nation's capital, and I don't
remember any other time that this has ever happened.
Does any of you guys ever remember anything like this?
Yeah. George Washington.
That's that was it, huh? Wow.
That's a long time coming, right?
Wow. That's that's pretty
embarrassing. But anyway, we're as a nation
endeavoring to get back on track.
Franklin Graham will be one of the speakers there.
I know he's a real blessing. He'll bring the gospel.
Mark Rubio is a on fire servant of God.
If you heard his testimony, it's amazing he he doesn't.
He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, that's for sure.
So we need more people like that as we pray for our nation and
pray someone saying Amen over there.
And what, what's interesting about this event too, because I,
I just looked over you, brother, you know, Bishop Baron speaking
there. You know, he's one of the big
speakers and he's a Catholic Bishop, right?
Born again Catholic Bishop. And it's, it's an enter
denominational meeting of prayer of people from all backgrounds
of Christian community. And we need that too, to
understand that we, we need each other in these last days to
stand for the Lord. And so pray for these guys.
Thank God for for their stand for the gospel and their concern
for our country. And also I'd like you guys to
pray for there's nine of us that will be at the Pastors
Conference tomorrow in Philly. It'll be probably around 2000 of
us down there seeking the Lord to be re energized and
rededicate our own lives to the ministry and the calling of
God's given us. And there'll be people from all
ages, all ethnic backgrounds, all different countries will be
missionaries there. Some of our missionaries will be
there. I believe the Marquis will be
there and the Belmont and Hope and her husband from Chile that
we support. So we'll see them there and
it'll just be a wonderful time. So pray for the speakers, pray
for those of us who are attending that our hearts will
be opened and it will come back changed and be deeper, deeper
with the Lord. That's the whole purpose of
these of these conferences. It'll be 94° down there tomorrow
in Philly. Well, that's going to be hot.
And we eat outside. They have like tents and they'll
have, we'll be suffering having steak and you know, baked potato
and all this stuff and in the heat.
So pray for us while we're eating really good food and 94°
temperatures. But anyway, we are in the book
of Second Corinthians. If you have your Bibles turn
there this morning. We finished up last time at 2nd
Corinthians chapter 2 and we're going to look at verses 12 to
the end of the chapter. And then we're going to look at
the 1st 6 verses of chapter 3 this morning.
So let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much
and we we unite our hearts with those in Washington and all of
our country today that understand the significance of
rededicating. This nation is 250 years old
this year. So many events that are going to
happen to celebrate the freedom we have in the greatest country
in the world, United States of America.
And Lord, we pray for those who are working so hard to keep the
truth of this land shining like a bright light throughout the
midst of a very, very Dark World.
Lord, we understand that with the freedom we have here, so
different than what people experience in the Soviet Union
and China, Iran, Iraq, all the Mideast countries, the 10:40
window in India and Pakistan and what's happening, Lord, in
Africa and this Lord, we, we take it for granted.
I think I know I do at times. We have all this freedom to
worship you and to talk about you.
And then there's places in the world that are persecuting
people like us just for telling people about what Jesus has done
for us, where we think about the man and Ireland, Lord and
Dublin, this on the streets sharing John 316.
He was arrested and fined. This simple message of God's
love. And so, God, help us in these
days, help us to have a biblical worldview, to understand what
the Bible says about your desire for this nation and your desire
for this world, this creation that you've made, that we would
turn back to you, that we would get saved, that we would become
born again. Nothing changes until our hearts
change. And then only comes by the work
of the Holy Spirit when we're born again.
No other way, Lord, not through legalism, not through guilt
trips, but by your grace and by your love.
So, Lord Goddess, this morning as we share your word together,
may you feed us your sheep. We need to be fed.
We want to be fed. We want to become a little bit
more like you today than we were yesterday, and we know that's
Your will as well. We love you, Lord, and we're
thankful for Your great love for us as we sang over and over and
over again. How great is our God and how
truly that affirms what it is we're all to exemplify every day
of our life, understanding Your greatness and all the many
blessings you've bestowed upon us individually and as our
families and as a nation. And we pray all these things in
Jesus name, Amen. OK, we are going to pick it up
here in verse 12. Let me read and then we'll make
some comments. Furthermore, when I came to
Troas, this is Paul speaking about his missionary journey to
preach Christ's gospel, and the door was opened to me by the
Lord. I had no rest in my spirit
because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of
them, I departed from Macedonia. So here's Paul and I, I love how
the Bible is so down to earth because it shares real life and
struggles that that we can have as as human beings.
And here's Paul in this particular instance talking
about the privilege he had and the door that was open to share
the gospel in this community of Troas.
And because his partner and his Co labor wasn't there, he didn't
have the confidence or sense that he should continue without
the help of of Titus O. I'm sure that had to discourage
him. He's all excited about the
opportunity and he doesn't know where Titus is and he's not
going to do anything without him.
It goes to show that ministry is a team effort.
It isn't a one man show. And Paul never wanted to do
anything in his own strength, let alone by himself.
He wanted to do it with his band of brothers like we do here at
Calvary Chapel Westmoreland. We do everything as a team of
men and women of God. We work together for the same
purpose, following our only leader, and that's Jesus Christ.
So you may be in a situation right now in your life where
things maybe aren't working out exactly the way you want them to
work out. Situations aren't occurring the
way maybe you're praying right now.
It could be a job issue, could be a financial issue, could be a
relationship issue, could be a health issue.
It could be a number of things that you're asking God to
intervene. And many times God will
intervene, and sometimes he interviews very, very quickly,
but he moves and acts after the counsel of his own will, not my
will or your will. And many times in the
adversities of life and the difficulties of life, those are
allowed and used by God to make us realize how much we need the
Lord, humbles us, gets us on our face before the Lord, and we
finally say to him, Lord, I can't do this without you.
I don't see a way out of this without you.
I need you, Lord, more than ever in my life because of this
particular thing that might be causing concern in your life.
And Paul had this awareness because of his experiences
walking with the Lord for years, that God is always faithful.
He never forsakes us. He never let's us down that you
might say, well, he's letting me down because this didn't happen
or that didn't happen. You can think that way as a
human intellectually, but God's sovereign and there's nothing
happening in your life today that he isn't part of or
allowing to occur. And that's that takes a lot of
depths of understanding in regard to who God is, his
attributes, his faithfulness to be able to have that trust that
can't be demolished or can't be circumvented or minimized.
You, you have this deep interior understanding that no matter
what he's going to come through for you in the way that he knows
it's best for you. So Paul goes into this verse in
verse 14 here he says, and this just shows how he believes his
faith. He says now thanks be to God who
always leads us in triumph in Christ.
He doesn't say thanks be to God who may sometimes lead us in
triumph. He says he always leads us in
triumph in Christ and through US diffuses the fragrance of his
knowledge in every place. So Paul had this complete trust
and awareness that God is in control and that he's already
working from a place of victory, not defeat.
So that's where we all are as Christians, even though we're in
a world that's in chaos at times and and all kind of difficult
situations arise. The victory was one for US
against the evil. 1 When Jesus died on the cross and rose
again, what Jesus did at that crucifixion, that tells us in
Colossians he spoiled the power of the principalities and powers
and rulers of darkness of this world.
So those things are still working in the world, but they
don't have dominant ability to control anything.
Only what you allow them to control is you yield.
Unfortunately, at times that maybe things that you shouldn't
yield to and you end up in trouble because of that.
Spiritually speaking, sin issues in our lives, but if we're
walking with the Lord, even in the aging process and the body
deteriorating and different things occurring in our lives
that we never anticipated, we have a hope that's eternal and
we have a life that's promised that will never end.
This is a short time here, 7080 years maybe, if we're fortunate,
But then we're out of here and we get a brand new body that'll
be no more suffering, no more sickness, no more disease, no
more persecution, no more martyrdom.
All these things will be be dealt with.
But Paul's living in a time where Christians are being
martyred, where Christians are being persecuted, and he's
working through this all the time, every day in his ministry.
But he has this assurance that Christ is the victor and we're
triumphant as we identify ourselves with him.
And what happens to whenever we live that way.
And when Paul lived this way, whenever he was around people,
he diffused this fragrance of like, wow, how can he be this
way? How can he live this way?
I want to be like that. I want to be able to to go
through adversity and difficulties and challenges with
this kind of confidence and this kind of positive mindset that
the Lord's he's everything's OK and I don't have to be shaken.
And because of the Holy Spirit's power in Paul's life, in your
life and my life. And we wanted to be more evident
is that whenever we're sharing our faith or living our lives,
people will be around us and they'll marvel at the fragrance
of, of the goodness and the presence and the love and the
power of God, the joy of God coming off of our lives.
And we, we don't make this happen.
This is a supernatural outpouring of God who lives in
US, Jesus who lives in US, right?
It's his life that lives in US, and it's his life that lives
through us. And when his life lives through
us, we are living a supernatural kind of existence.
When Jesus said I've come that you might have life and you
might have it more abundantly, this, that this wasn't a phrase.
That was the reality that he said, if you have me, if you
have Christ, if you have my life, then you have life.
If you don't have Christ, you don't really have life.
And I touched on this last week a little bit.
You're living, you're existing, but you're really not living
until you have the life of Christ in you.
And all of you here today who have experienced being born
again, you know the difference between what your life was like
before you were saved and before you were born again, how you
responded to life, how you reacted to situations, and how
you act now because Christ is in you.
It's, it's incredible and it's his grace, it's his power and
it's his life in US and through US.
And so wherever you go, and I'm sure at times people will maybe
say to you, you know, something different about you or you, how
do you get through this? Or you got this illness thing
and you, you don't seem like it's, it's bothering you that
much. What is, what's making you like
live this way? And then you have a chance to
tell him it's Christ Jesus is in you and you give him the glory.
And whenever you're proclaiming the goodness of God in the land
of the living, it impacts everyone around you who who
hears you. And you look for these
opportunities as Paul did, because this is an evangelist
here, his ministry. Where can I go to tell people
about what Jesus did for me? That's simple, isn't it?
Who can I talk to about what Christ has done for me?
And I'm sure you're probably like me, You have a lot of
people you care about, and you think about your family, your
neighbors, your coworkers, whoever it is that you run into
at a store or whatever. You see people's lives and many,
many are obviously broken. Like how can I get this
conversation going into this direction to tell them about who
Jesus is and whenever the fragrance is on you and coming
out of you, you're sort of irresistible, even though maybe
some people don't want to hear it.
They're like, I mean, I'm curious.
I'm intrigued about what makes you tick, What makes you, how
you, how you wired. I was on the phone with a
business conversation 2 days ago.
Second time I've talked to this guy about an arrangement we may
be doing together. And in in my industry, the
industry I'm in, one of the words that's used the most is
the F word. I don't know what it is about
guys, but they think the more they say that word in sentences
a more macho they are. And you know, and, and I'm like,
OK, you know, whatever, you know, they don't hear me talking
that way. And they're probably like, why
isn't this guy saying that stuff?
Why isn't he talking that way? And so as we're as we're talking
this guy, I think he only used it one time.
So the Holy Spirit was maybe like Clark's a little different
here. This isn't really rolling really
good with him this kind of conversation.
So we began to get the talk about success in business and I
was telling him about all the Lord has done for me and the
things I've accomplished in my life.
I I know it's because of Jesus and I give all the glory to him
and he's just listening and it's ironic.
You know what he says, this guy's part Jewish and part
Protestant. His his dad was a Russian Jew
and his mom was, I think Methodist or something.
He says, well, he says I'm, I'm, I'm sort of seeking right now.
He said, I have mansions, I have fancy cars, I have watches, I
have all this stuff and it doesn't satisfy me anymore.
And I said, you know, it's ironic you say that because
Jesus said a man's life does not consist and the abundance of the
things he possesses, it's, it doesn't fill you up.
And he says, yeah, this, there's this thing in my soul that's
empty and it's dry and it, it's, it's meaningless.
And all my family, we live on Long Island, we have this
affluent lifestyle and, and it doesn't do it for me anymore.
And he says, I'm in a workbook right now and I'm studying about
Jesus and why I need Jesus and how can I follow Jesus?
So all of a sudden the conversation went that way.
Isn't that amazing? And so I told him I'd be praying
for him about his situation, what he's considering.
I said whether we work together or not is immaterial.
What the reason we actually got together was to have this
conversation today. And that'll continue with this
guy 'cause he's, he's very open another situation.
And I'm just sharing these things because sometimes I get
it right and other times I miss the opportunity, right?
God gives you a layup, a real simple layup to be able to tell
someone about him. And you miss it sometimes, don't
you Kasin as many layups as you've done, then you got one in
the net. Sometimes you think, spiritually
speaking, I missed that opportunity.
But God doesn't condemn us. There's always these new
opportunities, right? But there's this Hawaiian guy I
work with in San Francisco and I've reached out and had a
relationship with him. I met him in Spain when I was
there and, and we connected and, and he just resigned.
He's taking a job with someone else and, and he sent me this
really nice like note about the impact that I had made on his
life and how I showed that I cared about him and no one was
forcing me to do this. This is the stuff we do as
Christians, right? We care for people, we love
people and we want to have a relationship with people.
And so you never know what God will do.
And he writes us like amazing story about, you know, our
friendship. And so I called him up the next
day to talk to him personally about what he was dealing with
and he sent me a picture of his beautiful kids and his wife.
And he was saying he, he uses mahalo and all those, you know,
Hawaiian kind of religion comments and that.
And, and I said, well, I'll be, I'll be praying for you for the
future, which goes on. And I said, matter of fact, let
me pray for you now. So I prayed for him and there
was dead silence and he, and you could tell he was choking up.
Isn't that the Lord? But he says that that prayer
really touched my heart, you know, and then the guy, another
Christian guy I work with, I told him because he had been
praying for this guy. He, he sent him a text and he,
he told me he was praying for him.
And then yesterday he, he was all excited.
He says, I got that new job and thank you guys for praying.
And we'll stay in touch, right? These are providential
opportunities. And so this is the fragrance
that we're supposed to be. Giving out now sometimes that
fragrance is really strong in my life and then other times, like
Cindy will tell me she's I stink, right?
She says, you know, I'm blowing it right, right.
The person I love the most, I blow it the most with right.
So it's good, good days and bad days, right?
And all this journey of, of our of our experiences here with the
Lord, but he says here we are to God the fragrance of Christ
among those who are being saved. So most of you here are saved
today, I trust. So everything is being said from
the word and the preaching in that is smelling good.
You, you like it, you feed on it.
It's energizing. And among this fragrance also is
is working among those who are perishing.
To one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the
other, the aroma of life leading to life.
So when you're around unbelievers and you're sharing
what it is you believe or what you love about Christ and what
He's done for you, they don't like it, do they?
They like, don't want to be around you.
They find a way to change a conversation.
If they see you again, they go the other way.
They're just totally, totally turned off because what you're
saying in their deep conscience, they know they don't understand
what we understand, but they know there's more to life.
There's a creator God, whether they want to deny him or believe
in Him or not, they're going to have to stand before this
Creator judge, and they're under the wrath of God until they come
to faith in Christ. That's pretty intense.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that does not have the Son of
God hath not life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
So in the conscience, in the back of the mind, after all the
partying and all the wealth and all the experiences and all the
stuff you try to fill yourself up with, you lay your head on
the pillow at night and your conscience haunts you because
you know you're not living the way you need to live.
The Bible tells us in the Romans that we have this conscience and
awareness of God. And so to us who are saved, we
can't get enough of the word and worship and talking about Jesus.
We love that. That's, that's our DNA now
because of Christ and being born again.
But if you're, you're not a Christian, it's, it's a turn off
until you have your eyes open to realize.
So Paul's talking about this and to to, he goes on to say, and
who is sufficient for these things?
In other words, like sufficiency is this idea of understanding
from God's vantage point in Philippians 413.
I can do all the things through Christ who strengthens me, and
there's all things that are things that God's calling me to
do and to live out. I can't say, well, I like
keyboards, so I'm going to take over at the end of the service
and play the keyboard. I say, Jesus, you know, as you
said, I can do all things. I'll get up there.
It's going to sound like a mess. That's not the thing that God
has for me, right? But in regard to following the
Lord, preaching the Word, doing my job, whatever, at times I'm
overwhelmed, I'm intimidated. I know down deep inside I can't
do any of this stuff apart from the enablement and strength of
God. He's, he's my sufficiency.
But what happens is when you're failing in your life, the answer
is, where's the sufficiency at? Is your sufficiency Jesus, or is
it yourself? I've talked to many people,
especially guys when they're going through tough times and
try to help him out and they'll, you know, I, I can handle this.
I, I can, you hear that I can get through this.
I can take care of it. I'll figure it out, right?
That's just the normal issue of arrogance and pride that we we
have versus I need help. Jesus, show me how to trust you
more. Forgive me for my sin of
rejecting you and trying to live my life without you.
And that's really the conversation we have to have
with people when they're broken. Are you getting tired of living
your life and your own strength? Are you realizing you can't do
this anymore and that you need God's help?
And at that point in time, many people will say, yes, tell me
how. And then we get into the gospel
and that's how people become believers.
And that's, that's a wonderful thing, isn't it?
But this idea of sufficiency is really interesting because even
as a Christian, you can find yourself try to do stuff in your
own strength, in your job, in your career, in in some
insurmountable situation. And then someone will talk with
you and they'll say, well, let's pray about it.
And you're thinking, wow, why didn't I think of that this
whole time? You're trying to do it yourself.
And someone reminds you, let's pray and see what the Lord might
do. And of course, when we pray, God
does exceedingly, abundantly above whatever we could ask or
think according to his power that works in us, His power that
works. And it's not my power, not your
power, but his power that works in us.
I think of Jesus in John 15, five.
He says I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abides in me, he that lives in me, and my strength, my
sufficiency, will bear much fruit.
And then he says without me you can do nothing, right?
How many times have you read that and agree with it?
Yeah, but how many times you try to do stuff without him?
I mean, the simlest thing, you're in the traffic jam and
it's driving you crazy and you wonder why, why the traffic
isn't moving and you're stressing and you're frustrated
and you're striving and you're trying to Google the quick way
out of the traffic jam to figure out like how you can get out of
it quicker. And instead of just like, OK,
Lord, you have me here right now in this traffic jam.
You're with me and I want to buy with you, and I want you to give
me that stability and that Peace of Mind that I can realize that
only through you while I get through this traffic jam, right?
Or an argument with your wife or your family or something,
relying either on your own wisdom, your own ability, or, or
just saying really upfront with Jesus, I can't deal with this, I
can't handle it. Help me, I need you.
Show me how to do this. Paul also talks about this verse
in Philippians 413. This is a powerful verse in
regard to Paul writes this because he had to personally
experience in himself in regard to his own journey in the
Christian life. And so everything Paul writes
he's he had to personally experience it with the Lord or
it wouldn't mean anything right. But he says this this idea of
the importance of of being able to that was the wrong reference
to to skip that one. But it says his strength is made
perfect in our weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon
us. So when I recognize my weakness
and you do too. The sufficiency is Jesus, and
that life of Christ is what causes us to be able to
persevere in the midst of challenging situations.
And then he says, for we are not as so many peddling the Word of
God, but as of sincerity, but as from God.
We speak in the sight of God and in Christ.
So we're not manipulating you through what it is we do here in
any given Sunday or Wednesday or any kind of time that we're
teaching the Word. We're teaching the word as it is
as a word of God. In truth, we're not adding
anything to it. We're not subtracting anything
to it. There's there's no agenda that
we have secretly in regard to what they would say.
Paul said here peddling the word of God.
And what was happening was at that time people would go around
to the churches and say, Paul's a friend of mine, he told me to
come here and speak. Well, they couldn't call or
e-mail and say, do you know who this person is?
They just assumed, OK, well, they had to have letters of
commendation recommending this person is a legitimate minister
or servant of the Lord and people could fraudulently fill
these forms out and, and give it to the elders of the church and
they would assume it was from Paul.
These things were happening, unfortunately.
And So what was going on at that time, the Judaizers and, and
this is the, the Jews that were upset because the gospel was
circumventing what they wanted to have as the focus, the law,
the 10 commandments externally trying to live the law with your
own strength externally to prove that you were a true Christian.
So they would mix legalism with grace and law with the gospel.
And people got confused and they got stumbled and they got, they
had problems. And what happened was when they
were there, they would get the people to give them money to do
their ministry. And so whenever the real
ministers came around, there was nothing left in the churches or
the offerings for the poor people in Jerusalem because
these false people peddling the word of God with wrong agendas
were in the on the area then. So in verse 1 of chapter 3 says,
do we begin again to commend ourselves?
Paul never went around bragging about himself.
The evidence of Paul's ministry was the impact it had on the
hearers of the word of God. The people's lives were changed
because of Jesus and getting saved and being born again.
So if someone said, well, how did you hear about the gospel or
how did you get taught the word of God?
Well, we were with Paul for a period of time and then this is
what happened because of what God gave him to teach us.
So Paul didn't need any kind of papers to commend themselves.
Or do we need some others epistles of commendation to you,
or letters of commendation from you?
You are epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all
men. Clearly.
You are the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not
with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tabled
tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
And So what happens is when you get saved, like before I was a
Christian, and maybe you can relate to this.
I was in this church that told me that if I lived a good life
and I knew the 10 commandments, we had to memorize them in
Sunday school, then I would be OK.
Like God grades on a curve. So if my percentages were
higher, my success of the law, then I'd be OK.
Most of us thought that that was the gospel.
A lot of people, when you talk to them about the Gospel, well,
I'm pretty good. They'll say I'm Presbyterian or
I'm Catholic or I'm losing. You know, they, they they want
you to hear that and think, oh, yeah, you must be OK because you
go to that church instead of pursuing it even more.
Well, that's nice. You go there.
Who are you trusting in for your salvation?
Well, I'm, I'm a pretty good person.
That's what they'll always say, well, I'm not saying you're a
bad person, but you are a Sinner.
Do you know that? Well, everybody sins.
OK. Yeah.
Well, what does God do about your sin?
Does he just say it's OK and there's no big deal?
Do you need forgiven for your sin or how do you get forgiven
for your sin? What do you have to do?
And they sort of look at you like a deer in the headlight.
They'll say, well, I, I I give offerings.
I help little old ladies across the street.
I, I don't steal, I'm, I'm not bitter.
They'll give you this list of stuff that sort of wants you to
think that they're OK and they don't need Jesus.
But as you pursue it more, you know, and I love the guy that
does the, the preaching out in the streets with Kirk Cameron.
He he will always use the law not for salvation, but for
conviction of sin. And he'll just start.
Well, that's nice. You, you sounds like you are a
pretty good person. By the way, you know, we're on
the beach here in California. Some pretty cute girls here.
Do you ever look at them and lust at them?
Oh, well, Well, yeah. OK.
Well, it happens. If you look upon a woman with
lust in your heart, you've committed adultery.
So you're an adulterer. And the guys gets real big.
Have you ever hated anybody? Well, everybody has Some people,
they don't like you. I've hated what the Bible says.
If you have hatred in your heart, you've you've committed
murders, so you're a murderer. And then he just goes down.
All of a sudden you just see the gravity of the reality of the
word of God that convicts people of their sin.
And until you're convicted of your sin, what do you need to
get saved for? If you just go to church and
they got a nice happy message and everybody's OK, you're OK,
I'm OK. And then we just leave.
And we don't have any changed life.
We don't have any convictions about anything.
We don't have any kind of prayer life.
We don't have any kind of remorse or humility for the
things we've done against not any God, but against one
another. It's a mess, right?
And so that's why you drive down the highway and you see John 33
signs once in a while and of course you would know it.
You must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
I wonder how many people drive down and then Google and say,
what's that verse say? And then they read it and then
they think, well, what does that verse mean?
And 2nd Corinthians 517, This is the power of John 33.
If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. So I'm not intentionally wanting
to lust anymore. I'm not wanting to hate people
anymore. I'm not because Christ is in me
now. He's giving me a new nature.
I'm, I'm a child of God now and you are too.
And so we want to live like that.
We want to live to please the Lord.
We, we're, we're part of his family and, and the whole nature
now is changed. We were dead in sin and we get
saved. We're now alive in Christ.
And so all of a sudden our eyes are open and man are they open.
When you first come to Christ, everything you see, like, I
can't believe I used to live this way.
I can't believe I used to do this.
I, I can't believe I acted this way.
And just like it's overwhelming, but you got this new life and
God's mercy and his forgiveness. And until God does that work of
new birth in the heart, you're a legalist, you're in a church
maybe and you're judging someone because of the way they dress or
you're always criticizing people thinking that you're better than
them or, or you disdain certain people.
And you have these attitudes in your heart that are just
unchrist like and the and the real reality that you've really
been changed and that your life is made new is that you begin to
live like Jesus lived and the apostles and the disciples.
All the things we read about here and study every week are
for people like us and have a new nature.
Now we're learning to become more like Christ.
And if people show up here, watch online, whatever, that
don't know Jesus yet, through the teaching of the word, it
becomes obvious after a while, like I'm here, but I'm really
not here. I need to be like these people
here, like Jesus. And how does that happen?
And every week we give the opportunity, should you want to
pray, you don't have to come up front.
You can stay in your seat. Whatever.
You can just say as we take the communion, Lord, I need you to
save me from my sin. I'm at the end of myself and I
can't keep living the way I'm living.
I've destroyed too many people. I'm destroying myself and I'm
fearful of what will happen to me now if I die and I don't have
you. I know I'm guilty.
I know I'm worthy of hell. And I don't definitely don't
want to go to hell. And Jesus is the rescuer.
He's a deliverer. And he says, whosoever calls
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
He said, whosoever comes to me, I will no wise cast out meaning
I won't say no, I'll take him and her, but I won't take you.
No anybody that comes with a brokenness and an open heart and
says, Lord, please save me and forgive me in my sin.
I want to have this new birth. I want my life to be made brand
new. He'll do that for you like he
has for me and many others. So as we prepare our hearts for
the Lord's Supper, worship team is going to get a break today.
They don't have to come up because we're going to do
something different at the end. It's a surprise.
So if you're here, you're going to get a surprise.
Yeah. If you're not here, I'll tell
you about it. If you want to call me what
happened, you have to give me 10 bucks first, though.
No, I'm just kidding. Well, the Lord's Supper has been
given to us as a gift to break bread with Jesus.
We when we do this, we do it with Jesus and we do it with
each other, which is awesome, right?
And we're part of the body of Christ and we get this privilege
of, of breaking bread every time we gather with the Lord.
It's like Jesus is sitting up here in this chair.
He's, he's physical, He's sitting on the right hand of the
father right now, but he's also omnipresent.
So he's, he's with us completely, all of us here.
And he's omniscient. He knows everything about us and
he knows what needs to go in my life and, and what's OK right
now and what needs to change and what I need to surrender and
what I need to yield to. And this is a weekly process for
me. I'm sure it is for you because
every week I'm sort of thinking a little bit more about what
needs to change in me. And, and if I don't understand
that, like I say, I got a great wife that'll remind me of what
it is I need to work on still. That's a that's a good thing,
right? But anyway, it's also an
opportunity before you take the bread, break the bread and take
the bread and the, and the cup is if you're unsaved, you don't
need to take this because it's, it won't accomplish anything.
But if you commit your life to Jesus today.
And ask him to save you. This could be the first time you
ever had to have had a chance to have a meal with the Lord
physically present with us right now.
And then the warning too is always like if I'm not serious
in my life right now, I've gotten off track with the Lord
and maybe I'm sinning and I need I'm messed up right now and I
sort of lost my way didn't lose my salvation.
I've lost my way. I need help to get back on track
with God, right? That's an opportunity to don't
take this without getting back on track with God because
there's a judgment, taking it unworthily, not understanding
what this means, the Lord's Supper.
So let's take this together. Lord, we're thankful again for
the apostle Paul and breaking things down so simple for us to
understand how to live and follow you.
Lord, we do pray today for each other that, Lord, this would be
meaningful. This time together, breaking
bread with you and having supper with you right now, Lord,
remembering what you've done for us, what this represents, what
it is, Lord, as you said that night.
And Lord, we also think of those who might be here that have
never been born again. Lord, we can't make that happen.
That's a work of your Holy Spirit.
But Lord, if there's anyone here today that's convicted of their
sin and though they need to be saved, may the day be the day of
their salvation. May they just simply say, Lord,
I know the truth. I need you, Jesus, forgive me of
my sin and save me. You'll do that.
Lord, we thank you for that on the night that you.