Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother and Pastor Robert
Brian: It's great to have you back.
Jacque: It's good to be back in just a little week.
Brian: It's good to have you back.
Jacque: Thank you.
Brian: I want to thank Pastor Robert for sitting in for Jacque. I thought, you know, this is part three of my message on a lot of things died at the cross, so I just thought, well, it would only be appropriate for him to finish out the race with us here today. So thanks for joining us again.
Jacque: I said I can sit there, but you wouldn't let me.
Brian: You know what, we've got two ugly mugs in a rose here. They would rather look, look at you. So we'll put you right here in the center, a good camera shots anyways .It's so good to have you back. Keep praying for Jacque though because she is still in a sense on the mend, you know,
Jacque: I'll tell you, Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It's such a blessing to have the privilege to come here and worship the Lord together and to grow and learn and just be a community. So I thank you all for being here.
Brian: Yes. Yes. Amen. Thank you all of you who are watching online as well. Thank you for the cards and notes we get. Your support of course, financially is a great blessing to us as well and your prayers for Jacque. I deeply appreciate it and the church.
Jacque: I had one of our communities that watches every week online, Laurie. just have had you on my heart today and I'm praying for you. She has very severe back situations and she cannot come to church.
Brian: She has had multiple surgeries.
Jacque: Yes, multiple surgeries, and we are just praying because nothing is too difficult for God. You are not forgotten. We are so grateful that you are back with us.
Brian: I've been talking to Laurie. Laurie is a great singer, wonderful singer, and I'm hoping she can at least come and sing one song during the Christmas season for us here. It would be great to have her do that. Lord, we just pray right now in Jesus name for all those who are struggling with infirmities in their bodies, those who are struggling, maybe even, with the pandemic and COVID, those who have injured themselves and are in a place of recuperation, those who have struggled, maybe like the woman with the issue of blood, of some kind of disease for many years. Jesus, we just bring them to your throne of grace today and ask that a supernatural portion of your healing come to them today. May your presence overshadow them Lord in the same way that your presence overshadowed Mary. Come upon us today, Lord, in a way that brings your power and your grace and your restoration and your healing. We just pray this Jesus in your name.
Isn't it great to be able to call on the name of the Lord and at any moment? Last week we saw that, uh, when, when Jesus declared on the cross, it is finished, something very, very miraculous happened that would actually be a signal for what I like to define or call the end of religion. Jesus didn't die so that man could just do whatever he pleases. He didn't die to do away with the community of faith. He didn't do that. One of the reasons he died was to eliminate once and for all the barrier that had been created between God and man. Apart of that barrier was our sins. Isaiah says your sin says have made a separation between us. Another one of the barriers was that whole aspect of religion where man had to begin to perform to become acceptable to God and where humanity had to build a stairway to heaven, in essence. When Jesus sent it is finished, it's signaled that humanity no longer needed to build this stairway to heaven, which is of course how religion works. If you want to be pleasing to God, you have to do this, this, and this, what ends up happening, even with the giving of God's laws, the Pharisees added an addition to what God had asked of man, another 630 more rules and regulations.
I grew up in a denomination that was really heavy and big into rules. Usually, it was connected to what we would call holiness, so holiness became something of simply an outward look and even so like something like this was not acceptable to have. I thought this was lipstick, but it's actually an oil. Even oil was limited, shall we say?
Jacque: Fragrance?
Brian: Fragrance, yeah.
Jacque: Again, the denomination I grew up in, all of you women here today would have been booted out of our church, every single one of you, because I see some of you wearing earrings. Most of you have lipstick on. If I were to check your hands, most of you would have fingernail polish, and that was not acceptable in our church because that was thought of as something that was sinful. That isn't what God said. Religion has this Tennessee to take kind of the bare necessities of what God is asking us, and then start piling on more and more and more and more rules and regulations. What happens is like Jesus talked to the Pharisees and said, you add all these burdens on people and you become twice the son of the devil that the devil actually is.
One of the things that Jesus did was he actually came to end this whole striving mentality of I have to do this to become pleasing to God. I would like to read this event. We see it in Matthew 27 verses 50 to 54. This is really right at the end of the crucifixion. Let's read it, Jacque.
Jacque: And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook the rocks split and the tombs broke open the bodies of many holy people, who had died, were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
What Matthew is talking about here, he is kind of taking some of the events that took place over the three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and compiled it into basically one paragraph. The bodies that came out of the tombs didn't happen at the crucifixion; that happened at the resurrection, but at the crucifixion, Jesus cried out, "It is finished," and this incredible event where it appears as though the finger of God from the top to the bottom, ripped the veil of the temple in two, so that now the holy of holies, which was where God's presence was to be, was now exposed to everybody.
It wasn't just a place where the high priest, the sanctioned person that was to be the mediator between man and God Israel, and God went into once a year, but it was now available and open for all people to see and all people to enter into. This is one of the most significant things that happened actually in the crucifixion. By significant, I mean, symbolically, what it really represented and what it represented. Because of this, there are no longer existed the two categories, the categories of an insider, like the religious leaders and the outsiders, whether they be nonbelievers or believers or whatever it might be. There are no longer existed this category of insiders and outsiders.
There was another very interesting thing. I don't know if this is the same Centurion that came to Jesus when he had the need of healing, but we see something very interesting here with this Roman Centurion. Finish reading that Jacque.
Jacque: When the centurion and those with him who were guarding, Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, "Surely he was the son of God."
Brian: Imagine this, here is a Roman soldier, who is basically a trained killing machine, especially a centurion, a leader, usually pretty calloused. In that culture, callousness was just kind of part of emotional survival, in a sense. He was one that brought a lot of death and destruction. That's what a soldier did, a Roman soldier did. Here he is proclaiming, this was the son of God. Isn't it interesting that this outsider had more inside understanding than most, if not all of the insiders at that time? This was really something that God's purpose was to see accomplished that there was no longer going to be this dividing wall between those who were in and those who were out and this wall was finally done away with. Paul now, some, 20 years later, writes about this very same thing in Ephesians. Let's read that together.
Jacque: The Messiah has made things up between us so that we are now together. This is Ephesians 2: 14 through 22 in the Message Bible.
Brian: By the way, the made up here doesn't mean he is making up a story. It's not that kind of made up. It's where "making up is fun to do" type of thing.
Jacque: It's breaking up.
Brian: Oh, breaking up is hard to do. We should write a song: making up is fun to do.
Jacque: We should. That's a good idea.
Brian: That's the kind of making up this made up is talking about here. This is the positive making up with one another.
Jacque: I'll start again. The Messiah has made things up between us so that we are now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall. We use to keep each other at a distance tear down the wall.
Brian: Let me just stop you here for a second. Again, I speak so much out of my own experiences and my own even failures. There are a lot of divisions in our country today. There is political division. There is racial division. There is ideological division. One thing that has existed for a long time in the church is an “us versus them” mentality between those who believe in Jesus and those who haven't believed in Jesus. You can't have an “us versus them” perspective without a creating an attitude of judgment against them. You are one of those. You are one of those. Robert, have you seen this at all, sometimes in your experience, in your ministry experience.
Robert: I've seen it all too often. As we were talking about this weekend, 2020 as revealed a lot of things, and one of the things that 2020 revealed is the heart of man, even man in the church, and the great revelation of that us versus them mentality, even in the church. It's not something that's new, but things like what has happened in the pandemic and other things, social unrest, reveals what's at the heart of man. It brings these things out. It reveals what was already there.
Brian: One of the things that Jesus was trying to accomplish at the cross, one of the things that he wanted to die was this whole idea of us versus them. He wanted us to see that we were in a sense, one humanity, and that he took care of the sin issues. He took care of all the obstacles. He tore down the wall that existed between insiders and outsiders, Jews, Gentiles, believers, unbelievers. That wall was done away with because his love was for everybody. It wasn't a selective love. It wasn't, dare I say, a Calvinistic kind of love where God picks these people to go to heaven and these people to go to hell. It wasn't that kind of love. That's an "us versus them" kind of love. Let's keep reading here.
Jacque: He revealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped.
Brian: So when you look at the laws of God, and then you look at the rabbinical laws and all the things that they added on what God had intended to simply paint a picture of what it was like to have a relationship with him, it now became these burdens on people's backs that made it virtually impossible to know God, to come into God's presence, especially without the assistance and help of the people who were in charge of the temple. That's really what happened.
Robert: I think it gets missed sometime in our, in our study what God's original intent was all along. God does just didn't come when Jesus came on the earth. His heart has always been the same towards mankind. He always wanted to have a relationship with man. He always wanted man to have a relationship with one another. What man modified God's intent was never God's heart. I don't think most people who read the Bible, you know, at first glance really realized that God always had an intention to do what he is done through Jesus Christ.
Brian: That was his goal all along.
Robert: That was his goal all along.
Brian: Amen. That was so good. So he repealed the law code that had been clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped, and then what did he do?
Jacque: Then he started over.
Brian: I love that he started over. With Jesus, there was a whole new covenant. There was a whole new arrangement. It wasn't just like an addendum tacked on. It was "I'm doing away with this. This is how it's going to be now," a whole new deal.
Jacque: Instead of a container of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Christ brought us together through his death on the cross, the cross goddess to embrace and that was the end of the hostility.
Brian: Let's just picture this for a moment. The hostility that God wanted to end was broader and greater than simply the hostility that existed between the nation of Israel and all the other nations of the world. The purpose that God had was that Israel, and we see this through the prophetic word to Abraham, that through you, Abraham, all nations of the earth will be blessed. God's plan was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Israel. What ended up happening is Israel became just as lost as the rest of the world. They went into just as much idolatry as the rest of the world. They became just as separated from God as the rest of the world was. They needed a redeemer just like the rest of the world needed a Redeemer.
When God said, I'm going to start virtually over, and we are going to start with Jesus when he did this, what God wanted to happen out of all of that was that humanity would now become to embrace one another and that believers would actually embrace non-believers, and that they are embracing of the non-believers would change their hearts to become believers. That is the real method of evangelism that God's heart is really after. He started over and he started fresh for everybody and he brought us together and the cross got us to embrace that there was an end of this hostility, and then he came to do what?
Jacque: Christ came and preached peace to you, outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals. And so made us equals through him. We will share the same spirit and have equal access to the father. That's plain enough. Isn't it? You are no longer wandering—
Brian: Sorry to interrupt you.
Jacque: You are not interrupting because you have to talk.
Brian: I've got so much stuff that goes through my mind when I read the word of God. It says he treated us as equals, made us as equals, and through him, we both share the same spirit and have equal access to the father. There was a time in my life where I believe because I was a believer, I actually had more access to God than a non-believer, but I believe that all people have access to God. That's what the whole renting of the tabernacle curtain was all about. The scripture says all who call upon the name of the Lord can be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord, God will hear. I'm not saying that as a believer, we don't have more blessings. I believe as a believer, we have far more blessings than a non-believer. I believe that there are certain blessings that come our ways as believers, but as far as accessibility to God, I don't have any more accessibility than anybody else who wants to call on the name of the Lord, because that curtain has been torn down, and it exposed the fact that I don't need a professional clergy to connect me to God. You don't need a priest or a rabbi or a pastor or any other spiritual leader to somehow connect you to God.
This curtain was torn apart. It was torn in two and God's presence at that moment, at the time when Jesus said it is completed, it is finished, that word really means like the completion of paying a debt. It's a paid in full kind of concept. When Jesus said it is finished or it is completed, the whole access to God became available to all mankind.
Robert: I have so much to say with that. I think that's been one of the great sins of the so-called church, in the sense that it's easier for us to say, okay, believer versus unbeliever. God has made us equal, but it's been a great sin in the church that their professional clergy has not totally done away with that. There are still remnants in the church that, that make it as if our job is to be the intermediary between the people and God. God tore that down. Christ became that he turned no priests so we no longer need to go through man, as an intermediary to God. We, as believers have equal assets to God. That's why when I disciple people always tell them pastor or not, you can go to God just like me. I'm no more special to you. If you want to put a hierarchy for me to show you an example of how it is, but I don't have greater access to. That's a witnessing tool we can have to the unbeliever because many of them still have that idea. They will often say, "You are going to do this because you have access to the man upstairs." No, you have access to the father as well. All you have to do is accept his son.
Jacque: And so many people think "I can't come to God because I've failed." I remember my dad. I heard the story that he thought, "Well, I'm going to quit smoking and then I'll become a Christian." It's like I was going to join Weight Watchers after I lost 10 pounds.
Brian: Yeah, I'll lose 10 pounds and then I'll join Weight Watchers.
Jacque: Weight Watchers would help me. It's so ridiculous trying to fix yourself before you go to the fixer.
Brian: What I really love about God is he is an equal access God. We all have equal access to God. Those of you who are listening, you might never have prayed to prayer to receive the Lord. You may know virtually nothing about the principles of God's word. You have just as much access to God as I do. You have equal access to God. This is one of the things that Jesus did at the cross: to make access to God available to all people. Let's finish reading that.
Jacque: Christ treated us as equals and so made us equals. Through him, we both share the same spirit and have equal access to the father. That's plain enough, isn't it? You are no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You are no longer strangers are outsiders. You belong here with as much right to the name, Christian, as anyone.
Brian: I think we need to understand that everybody belongs here. This is where people belong. People are wandering. They are looking for a Homeland. They are looking for a place to belong. What we have done historically as a church is we've said, "Well, if you believe this way and you behave this way, you can belong here." Jesus takes it just the opposite way. He says, "I want you to know that you belong with me. And the more you walk with me and spend time with me, the more you probably will begin to think like me, and the more you will probably begin to behave like me."
When the disciples first came to Jesus, and this was one of the things I love about "The Chosen" series is that these guys weren't spiritual at all when they started following Jesus. They didn't have this great passion for service and love for their fellow man. They were fighting with each other. They were jealous of each other. They had bigotry in their hearts. They had prejudice issues. Jesus said, I want you to follow me. Some of them, when they called Matthew, "Well, Matthew is going to be a part of this group. I'm not sure if I want to be a part of this group." Isn't that how we have been historically as the church? But God is telling us that he wants to build something very strategic here, and that people are no longer wandering exiles, but actually, this is where they belong. What we have to do is welcomed them so that they will have a sense of belonging, and then let's trust God and Holy Spirit that he will convict them of their sin and that he will be able to transform their lives. Keep going.
Jacque: God is building a home. I want to say that again. God is building a home.
Brian: And guess what?
Jacque: He is using us all
Brian: He is using us all.
Jacque: He is using us all irrespective of how we got here in what he is building. He used the apostles and the prophets for the foundation. Now, he is using you, fitted you in brick by brick, stone by stone with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day, a holy temple built by God. All of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Brian: And so we see again with the curtain of the temple being torn in two God, ushered in a new way. I don't even want to call it a system, but a new way. That new way was, uh, that the temple was no longer a place to go to, but the temple was here in us. We are the temple We corporately are the temple, but we individually are also the temple because now the Holy Spirit no longer goes to the Ark of the covenant or the place where the Ark of the covenant had been kept, or the holy of holies. That is not where the presence of God goes anymore. Holy Spirit now goes where?
Jacque: In here.
Brian: In here. And so by his death, Jesus ended the whole system of religious law that kept Jews and Gentiles separated, and Jesus absorbed into himself, the whole system of rules and rituals that mediated between God and man and people, and he nailed it all to the cross. Of all the things that died on the cross, I think that's one of the most significant things that actually died on the cross that day. That's one of the most significant things. He canceled the debt that we had, which listed all of the rules that we all failed to keep and all of that kind of stuff, and he nailed it to the cross. I'm not saying that God doesn't have an opinion about our behavior because our behavior matters. My behavior matters to my wife. Your behavior matters to your family. So behavior matters, but God's desire is that— and I touched on this a little bit last week about the whole idolatry issue. Sin is really idolatry. It's much more than just I did this wrong, I did this wrong, I did this wrong, but when the scripture says that Jesus died to save us from our sin, most of us think of sins, plural, but the sin he died to free us from his idolatry, having other things become more important than God.
Oftentimes, the way the gospel has been presented is not very good news because the gospel is presented in such a way that God is trying to coerce behavior out of us rather than transform our hearts so that behavior naturally comes out of us. God's kingdom is first and foremost, a kingdom of love and personal relationship with God. Pastor Robert was talking about that as he came up and shared a little bit about the offering about even how giving is to be out of a personal relationship with God, where we as his followers reflect his beauty and his glory or his love and our giving should simply be a reflection of our relationship with God. It's reflecting who God is because of all the things that God is, he is a giver.
For God so loved the world that he gave. He gave his one and only son. That is what we are saved to. We are not just simply saved to have a landing spot when we die. We are saved to be something to have a vocation. That vocation is to reflect his goodness and his glory. I had a teacher that once you to say, "I want to live in such a way that reflects the goodness and glory of God that when I die, the only place I would fit isn't to heaven, not so much that that's my reward for living here, but that's the only place that I would really truly fit."
We have this opportunity before us to truly have an abundant life, truly have an abundant life, a life of faith and a life of trust, and going on this, as Barry McGuire saying years ago in his great song, Cosmic Cowboy, going on this incredible ride with God throughout the universe, this incredible life that we can have with Christ. We can have it right here right now. We don't have to wait till we die to get it. We can have this abundant life right here right now. His heart for us is to follow him to an abundant life. That is a true reflection of who he is, and that is, I think, a vocation that every single one of us can really in a sense give ourselves to, or be called to. In the conversation that Jesus had with his disciples at the last supper, and a lot of the book of John is really bought that last supper, he offers to them and to us, a new reality in which all barriers between God and humanity are removed. We see the first of this in John 14 verses 15 to 20.
Jacque: If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the father and he will provide you another friend so that you will always have someone with you. This friend is the spirit of truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him. Doesn't know what to look for, but you know him already because he has been staying with you and will even be in you
Brian: t's hard for us to imagine this because the only thing we've ever experienced is New Testament experience, but the disciples, they actually had the unique experience of going from Old Testament to New Testament. So they were kind of that conduit that bridges the two errors, in a sense. In the Old Testament, we see the moving of the whole of Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The spirit would come upon people. They would prophesize. They would come upon people like Sampson and he would do mighty works of strength. But in the Old Testament, the way Holy Spirit worked was Holy Spirit came upon people. In the New Testament, it's altogether different. Holy Spirit now dwells within us. He comes within us and the power comes from within us, as Jesus was saying to the woman at the well that he could give her a drink of water that would actually bubble up from within her and she would never thirst again. This is a whole new way of doing things.
And so the godless can take them in, not because God's against the godless or opposed to the godless and that sets, but they don't have eyes to see. They don't know about this. And so we have this great opportunity to tell people what they can actually be filled with: Holy Spirit. And he says, I will not leave you off. Let's read that.
And so the godless can take them in, not because God's against the godless or opposed to the godless and that sets, but they don't have eyes to see. They don't know about this. And so we have this great opportunity to tell people what they can actually be filled with: Holy Spirit. And he says, I will not leave you off. Let's read that.
Jacque: I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you are going to see me because I am alive. And you are about to come alive. At that moment, you will know absolutely that I'm in my father and you are in me and I'm in you.
Brian: This is a whole new concept. Now this is no longer about observing feasts and festivals and so forth. No that the observance of certain things— I love to observe Christmas. I love to observe Easter. I like to remember. It's all great to do those things, but I don't do any of those things to somehow make myself acceptable to God. It's not how I climb the ladder to heaven. The heaven has already come to earth. I walk in fellowship with the Lord. Why? Because Jesus is in his father and Jesus is also in me. I'm in them. Let's look at one more portion of scripture, John 14, I'm sorry, John, 15, 5 and 6.
Jacque: I am the vine. You are the branches when you are joined with me and I, with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.
Brian: I have a tree, a couple of nice trees on my property. I look at them and some of them are just completely full of leaves and others don't have a leaf on them. You know why? Because the sap quit running into that branch. The sap is` no longer running into that branch. So if I grab a hold of one of these branches that has all these leaves on it, man, I can't break it. I might be able to bend it and maybe even injure it a little bit, but I can't break it. But if I take up much bigger branch, that has no leaves on it, all I've got do is pull on it and what it snaps like a twig, a dry twig. Why? Because there is no life in it. There is no sap in it. We've just got to get a little bit sappier. We've just got to get sappy, or we need the sap of Holy Spirit flowing through us. We just need that more. This whole verse here where he says, "I'm the vine, you are the branches" implies an intimate union, a union in which we share the flow of the same life-giving sap. Again, when the sap quits flowing the branch dries up and he dies, doesn't it? Do you know what happens? Religion wants to be a substitute for the sap.
Religion wants to come in and say, do this, do this, do this, and all of a sudden, we have this outward appearance as things are okay, but inside, as Jesus said, we are full of dead men's bones. Now, we look to clean the outside of the cup because that's what everybody sees, but inside we are dying. Jesus came to give us life from the inside out, from the inside out. What we are having described for us here in this portion of scripture is that Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus and both together. We are in the father. Again, I want to read one more verse that really beautifully describes us. It's found in John 14:23.
Jacque: Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."
Brian: Just think of that. This creator just spoke and light came into being, and the world came into being, and all the things that we see in Genesis chapter one, where God's spoken all of these incredible things happen. He just spoke. That same creator wants to come and dwell within our hearts and live within us. Anyone who loves me can have this. My father will love them and we will come to them and we will make our home with them. This is not a stairway to heaven. This is heaven coming to earth, living in us, dwelling in us. This is such an incredible description of why Jesus wanted religion to die. Because if we are going to be content with making a bunch of rules that we follow, this will never happen. This will never happen, but Jesus has something entirely different for us. It's not more rules to follow. It's where we are led by his spirit that comes from within. He gives us access to himself freely. Do you know why he does this? Because you mean so very, very much to him.
He does this because you mean so very, very, very much to him. You are the apple of his eyes. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't have good thoughts about you. There isn't a moment in the existence of God that his heart isn't for you. There is not a moment that God thinks to himself, “God, I sure blew it with them." He only has thoughts of how can I bless? How can I make provision? How can I love them? That is the nature of the God that has created us. As the apostle John wrote in first John 3 verse 1, "What great love has the Lord lavished on us." It's such a great love that the Lord has lavished on us. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to play for the operatory today, that old gospel song, "Nothing between my soul and my savior," but not because— and I know that song was kind of written about kind of a self-sacrificing life. I don't want anything between me and God, so I'm going to sacrifice the sacrifice that. There is a place for all of that. I agree, but I think the reason I'm drawn to that song is because Jesus on the cross has removed all the things that would be between me and him. He has done it at the cross. Again, go read second Corinthians chapter 5 again, and see how clearly that talks about how Jesus has done away with all of the things that have kept me separated from God and how he has provided for you and for me equal access to his presence.
We are going to celebrate this wonderful gift of access to the presence of God today, by all of us sharing the communion. Pastor Robert, if you and Jerry and whoever else could help get that ready for everybody here. We just want to take a moment to reflect upon just the sacrifice of Jesus, the goodness of God, all the things that God has for us today.
So father, we thank you for the cross. We don't want anything between you and us father, and you have removed all of the hindrances that would keep us from having a relationship with you. You, Lord, have gone above and beyond what we could ever ask or imagine or think. We have thought for so many years that like, Jacque's dad, I've got to quit doing this so that I can be acceptable to God," But Lord, your love for us is what's already made us acceptable to you. Now, we ask that God, you transform our hearts and that we would become one with you, father in Jesus.
We pray that the idolatry that is so easily embraced by us, we would lay it down and have only you as our God. And as we come to this place of true relationship with you and intimacy with you, really knowing your presence is with us. Every moment of every day, our trust goes deeper, our commitment goes deeper and our love goes deeper. And I thank you today, Jesus, that your cross has made a way for us to be reconciled to you, that your cross removed the curtain that divided us, not just between Jew and Gentile, but between us and you and each other. You have torn down the wall that divides us.
Lord, even when Paul wrote in first Corinthians about the things that you gave him regarding communion, even Jesus, you said as often as you eat this and drink this, we do show and demonstrate what you did and what you accomplished at the cross. It wasn't to be just a once a year event at the Passover that we would take communion, but it was to be something that we did regularly and that we would model and be an exclamation point as to what you did. You died to come to earth, not so that we would have to build a stairway to heaven.
So I bless you today. I bless you today. So let's take our communion emblems here and let's take the bread and let's just kind of hold it up, and let's remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he blessed it. And he said, "This is my body, which is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me." As we eat this, let us remember that his body was broken so that we could have wholeness in our mortal flesh, that Jesus made the way for us to be healed of all of our diseases and that if you are in need right now of a physical healing of some sort, as you eat the bread, let's just ask God to do his work of complete healing in our bodies. So let's eat this together.
After they had finished eating the bread, he took the cup and he lifted it up and he blessed it. He said, "This cup is the blood of the new covenant, the blood that I will shed for the remission of your sins. No longer would the sins be covered up; they would be removed." So he began to use terminology like "as far as the east is from the west" because if you go east, you can go forever. If you are going north, you will eventually go south. But if you go east or if you go west, you can go forever. Forever and ever have our sins been removed and Jesus' blood was shed so that our sin, our idolatry and all of the outworking of that idolatry, all of the addictive behaviors, all of the wrong ways of thinking all of the things that can easily beset us, he died for. He died to help give us victory over them. His blood was shed to free us from them so that they would no longer have control over our lives, control over our minds.
We thank you today, Jesus, that your blood is sufficient. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so we drank this cup today, Lord, remembering your death and the blood that was shed. And we ask in Jesus name that Lord heal our minds, heal our souls, heal our spirits with the precious blood of Jesus heal our bodies with the broken body of the Lord. We drink this in remembrance of you today. Blessed be your name. Pastor Jeff, would you come?
Jeff: Thank you, Lord receiving these elements, the wafer and the juice are symbolic, of course, but even in that action, there is a reality because the Holy Spirit acts as we've just step into faith. So father, we receive your forgiveness. We receive your healing. We receive you. If you've never prayed that prayer, watching by livestream or here today, no better time than right now to say, Jesus, I receive your forgiveness. Jesus, I receive your healing. Jesus, I receive you into my life. That's all that he needs to come and change everything for you. Just a small opening in your heart and a willingness that says, yes; that's all he needs.
Wherever we are today, having known Jesus for 50 years, having known him for five minutes, he is eager to come and change it all up. As a good friend of mine once said, "He doesn't always make it easier, but he certainly makes it better." But you know, Pastor Brian, there is another pray wanting to pray today because of something you said really stirred my heart about us being the temple of God and wanting to be formed into an abiding place for him that is pleasant for him, that he is comfortable with, that is welcoming to him. As individual temple, that's a really good prayer to pray. Lord, I want this temple to be a place that you would like to be.
It's an everyday prayer to ask Holy Spirit to just keep changing us so that our attitudes and our words and our thoughts and our treatment of others and everything that we do is a place that reflects him, so he is living inside of us and he feels good to be there. It's even a bigger challenge for us as the church to be a place that he is comfortable to be. It takes quite a lot of change for us to actually love each other, accept each other, not judge each other, let go of bitterness and resentments towards each other. And so to become the temple that Jesus really can enjoy being in, we've got to be willing to change. I want to pray a prayer before we go today, just asking the Holy Spirit, telling them that we are willing to change so that we can be a temple that he loves to dwell in. Anybody okay with that? Should we pray that prayer? Just raise your hands to the Lord.
Lord, we want to become a place, a dwelling place for you that is pleasing to you, a place where you like to be a place that is comfortable, a place that fairly represents who you are so that as you are here, you know that your heart, your desires and your will, will be conveyed. Lord, do that in me. I'm willing to let you change me however you need so that you can do it in us. We just yield to you, Holy Spirit, to keep changing us. Keep showing us those roots of resentment and judgment, idolatry that just need to go away. Thank you for freeing us from bondages like these and making this whole. We want to be a place that's whole and healthy for you to abide in. We want to be a place that's whole and healthy for others to belong to, those who haven't found you yet. We just want to be a community in which they can come and find your love. So make us your loving people in Jesus' name. Amen.
We've prayed a couple times for healing. I don't know if we need to do it again, but I told Nikki, I would definitely want us to pray for her today because she is here and I would like some of you to just lay hands on her. She is still in a process of recovery from a recent surgery, so if some of you don't mind getting up from your chairs, you can go pray for her. Anybody else here need prayer? If you are at home watching, you can put your hand up if you need a healing and we'll just pray again.
One of my favorite Bible teachers right now said, "I don't understand why. Sometimes we pray and people get healed and sometimes we pray and people don't, but the one thing I know is that a lot more people will get healed if we keep praying than if we don't." So let's keep praying. Put up your hand to the Lord if you need a healing. And we are going to agree with our friends back there, for Nicky for a complete recovery.
Father, we thank you. We just keep looking to you. We don't hesitate to ask you again, to trust you again, to confess that we trust you again for the healings that we need for the breakthroughs that we need, for the provisions that we need. In Jesus name, we just impart your favor and blessing to all who can hear this right now. Holy Spirit, we ask that even now you would just fill us in release your power of healing into our legs, into our arms, into our backs, into necks, into our organs, every part of us, Lord. Just release your refreshing healing. Thank you, Lord. We are so thankful. Amen. Thank you everybody. That's good. Good stuff.
Brian: Would you come up and join me here? Those of you who have been watching by live stream, we are so thankful for your being part of this community. We are so grateful for how you stay in touch with us. God bless you. I hope you received encouragement today. Those of you who are here, thank you for being in person. You are always an encouragement to us. Let's just lift your hands together and receive a blessing from the Lord.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turned his face towards you and give you his peace. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-17-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.