Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: What a peaceful, peaceful peace that is. The peace of the Lord Jesus, as a gift, such a gift.
Brian: It's a wonderful gift that oftentimes we don't take enough advantage of.
Jacque: True.
Brian: Boy, there has been certainly a lack of peace in the world as of late. We need Jesus more than ever. We need Jesus more than ever. I'm the kind of guy that likes to know what things do, why things are made and what they do. I remember years ago, we went through like an office supply store, and they had this sale bent, and they had this item in there for a buck. I said to Jacque, “we need to get this.” And you said to me, “well, what is it?” I said, “I have no clue, but for a buck, we need to buy it.”
Jacque: You have an inquisitive mind. Never go to a museum with Brian unless you want it to be a whole day event.
Brian: Anyways, everything has a purpose. We have a purpose. Things are created with purposes in mind, and when God birthed the church, he had a purpose for us as well. It's so easy at times to think of our relationship with God, just kind of like individualistically. Of course, that's obviously important and we have a personal relationship with Christ, but there's another dynamic involved in this whole thing called Christianity, and that is the body of Christ. What is the purpose of the church? Through the years, I've heard people in the Christian community say statements such as something like this that have God doesn't judge America for its sins, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. You ever hear anybody say that? I've heard people say things like that.
Now I'm not ignorant of America's failures and shortcomings. It does grieve me very deeply, uh, the cheapening of life that seems to be happening in America. Obviously, we see that with the abortions and even though the statistics seem to indicate that they're, they're dropping a number the way to determine how many are being had are much more difficult to tabulate nowadays, because so many abortions are just at home. That pains my heart to think that that's what we think of life. So many people are dying in gang warfare in our cities today. We just had another three-year-old shot in our city, a three-year-old, um, this is tragic. The overdoses that happen because of drug abuse in our country is overwhelming. 93,000 people died in America last year in 2020 from drug overdoses. Many of those were prescription drugs.
I dare say that those 93,000 deaths probably hardly registered to blip on our collective radar screens because it's so common. It's becoming so common that it doesn't register shocking anymore. And then of course you can't open the paper without seeing another war breaking out someplace, somewhere in the world. Whoever coined the slogan "war is hell" actually knew what they were talking about because war is about killing people. The value of life just seems to be diminishing and diminishing and diminishing.
I do realize that the scriptures indicate that the earth was destroyed through a flood because of maybe conditions that might exist in America today, or maybe around the world. I think probably to you, as well as to me, it's maybe even sometimes more frustrating that what appears in fields like anti-God agendas that are coming out of different governments in various levels of government and being funded by tax dollars that accelerates the frustration, even though some states probably are worse than others regarding some of this stuff. I'll be honest with you. I've actually come to expect that kind of stuff from our governments. I've come to expect that partly because of the scripture that says can a leopard change its spots? Fallen person is going to do fallen things. Oftentimes we expect fallen people to not act as though they are fallen. That is kind of a battle that we have to rage within our own minds and hearts.
One of the things that I struggle— I just can never really get accustomed to— I've been in the church my whole life. Most of you know that my father was a pastor, and he was a wonderful pastor and a great father. I've been around church my whole life just like you were. I think you were born in the nursery at Souls Harbor. I just can't get accustomed to the ever-increasing level of failure to missing the mark in the church because of all the divisions that happen in the church. Oftentimes the slander that happens from one denomination to another, or one national religious leader talking about another national religious leader. Ambition runs rampant at times, I believe, in many ministries among the ranks of the righteous.
It seems like it's easier to pull teeth than it is to get people to pray. I'm so thankful for all the people that are praying in our church every night at 6:45, there are some of us that gather online and we just ask God for more of him. That's all we are gathering for: for more of him. We have other prayer times, usually one on Fridays and there are other pair gatherings that we have. I'm so thankful for all the prayers that we had. But sometimes I look at people in the church and their hearts are getting harder and harder. It feels like arrogance is rising because everybody is right and everybody else is wrong. I'm right and everybody else is wrong. With that comes judgmentalism. I'm painting a pretty horrifically bad picture here right now, but I believe we have in so many ways as the church, we have failed to truly represent who Jesus is to the world.
Although I am certainly aware of the sins of America and the sins of the church personally, and I hope you can attest to this, I believe you can, that I am growing in my understanding of a greater truth that is now becoming, for me, the preeminent passion of my life. That greater truth is a truth concerning God's heart, and it is this: that God is good all the time, that God is slow to anger. He is slow to anger and he is abundant in loving kindness. He is always good. He is slow to anger and he is abundant in loving kindness. He has shown over and over and over that he will relent concerning calamity to us that we were relented. Even if there is only one person praying for mercy, that one person will get more of God's attention than a hundred thousand people in a city that are living in decadence. That one person will get more of God's attention when they intercede and pray. I think we all know that obviously the Lord doesn't approve of many of the things that are transpiring. He doesn't put a sanction on it. He certainly doesn't smile over it.
There is a scripture in Jeremiah that I think describes so clearly the pathos of what God is feeling about the sin of mankind. He said “You have erected these idols. You sacrifice your children to the God of Moloch.” And then God says this kind of very incredible thing. He says “Something that I commanded you not, neither did it even enter my mind that you would do such an abomination.” I have no idea how the whole fore knowledge of God fits into that verse. But all I know is that God is declaring the angst, shall we say, of his heart over the sin of man. God is not just winking at sin. I don't believe he does that, but he is also not looking for opportunities to destroy us. He is not looking for opportunities to give us our comeuppance. He is actually seeking opportunities and ways to forgive us and to restore us. He is seeking for those things.
I used to try to discover all the decadence of what's going on in America and, and all of the sins that we are committing, and who's doing this, and who's doing that now. What are these people into and whatever. I realized that having an accurate knowledge of America's sins does nothing to remedy them. It doesn't do one thing to fix them, to remedy them. And then of course, what happened to me is I began to judge all those people who were doing all those things. And then of course I became full of pride because I was right and they were wrong. Right. You didn't like how I was very much back in those days. When is the last time you have seen my wife not being able to say something?
Jacque: You're so wonderful now.
Brian: Emphasis now.
Jacque: That was just a little part of our life.
Brian: Yes, but you know what?
Jacque: But it was big.
Brian: It was big. But it was big in a lot of good ways too.
Jacque: Oh, it was big in a lot of good things. We learned so much through those years. Oh, it was so formative of what not to do and how not to be in the mercy of God and his great love. We learned so much.
Brian: And how God really wasn't. I want to read a scripture today. It's found in 1st Timothy chapter 2 verses 4 through 10. This scripture really shows God's heart and passion, but it also gives a revelation to you and I as to how we are to be with people who are missing the mark. So let's read it together.
Jacque: Yes, because we want to be like Jesus. He wants not only us. This is from the Message Bible. He wants not only us, but everyone saved.
Brian: So we need to know that he wants everyone saved, which means he cares about everyone.
Jacque: He wants everyone to get to know the truth. We've learned that there is one God and only one and one priest mediator between God and us: Jesus who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin to set them all free.
Brian: So here is what Jesus did. He offered himself in exchange for all those who were in sin. They were in bondage. I personally don't feel that at the cross that Jesus paid Satan, as a teacher of mine once said the only thing Satan is owed is lumps, but there was, in essence, an exchange. There was slavery. He paid the price. The metaphor there to try and help us understand is that we were on the slave trading block and he came and bought us. The story of Gomer and the prophet and how the prophet came and bought— Hosea, the prophet Hosea came and bought his wife back from slavery. This was the picture of what Jesus has done for us. And so this is this wonderful exchange that has happened between where we were and God.
Jacque: Eventually the news is going to get out.
Brian: I like that. Eventually the news is going to get out. Now there is something hidden here. One of the things I think is a little bit hidden is the fact that there is a prophecy in the Old Testament. It's about the coming of Jesus. For unto us a child is born; Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and the increase of his government there shall be no end. In other words, his kingdom will keep growing and growing and growing and going to all parts of the earth. But then it says this and the zeal of the Lord will perform this. So God's enthusiasm is going to get this done really. Now, I want to be included in that personally, but you know what? If I decide to walk away, I'm not going to undo God's plans. I don't have that capable of— I don't have that much might in regards to God. And so we see here that eventually the news of this wonderful savior, this wonderful exchange is going to get out.
Jacque: This and this only has been my appointed work, getting this news to those who have never heard of God and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
Brian: Just simple faith and the plain truth of who Jesus is. Now, he goes on to talk about what is the underpinnings of all of this.
Jacque: Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray.
Brian l: He wants mostly for us to pray
Jacque : Men and women to pray, not shaking angry fist at enemies.
Brian : So here is how we deal with the sin issue: Not raising angry fist towards the sinners.
Jacque: But raising holy hands to God.
Brian: That's right. Raising holy hands to God in prayer.
Jacque: And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God.
Brian: This is going to be hard for some of you ladies.
Jacque: Why did you have to use this verse? Not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions, but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.
Brian: Yes. Now, as a man, I'm actually thankful that you women wear makeup.
Jacque: You don't mind a little primping. I don't mind a little primping, but two hours in front of the mirror is probably not.
Brian: I'm not saying that's what you do.
Jacque: I don't do that.
Brian: No, you don't do that. Not anymore. No, no. I better be careful here.
Jacque: Okay, let's get back to the scriptures here. Okay. Not shaking angry fist at enemies, but raising holy hands to God.
Brian: There was a day where I would shake a fist at the enemy and
Jacque: The enemy, not the enemy enemy, but a person being the enemy.
Brian: I will just be frankly honest with you. I don't ever remember one of those people ever coming to know the Lord. As a matter of fact, I grieve over what I may have caused them to do. If I was their image of Jesus, if I was them, I wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with Jesus. Embedded within this scripture is the reality that faces all of us, and that is, we are all sinners. That's really one of the underpinnings of this scripture here, that we're all sinners and it is appropriate for us to hear warnings and cautions about sin. It's appropriate for all of that. But I would say this, that if a warning doesn't offer hope in the midst of that warning, if the warning doesn't offer hope, then don't drink too deeply of that.
Jacque: That's really good.
Brian: Because hope is embedded in Jesus. That's what we'll be saying today. All our hope is in you. All our hope is in you. Truth is in Christ, but so is grace in Christ. There was a time in my life many years ago, that all I cared about was the truth and I would hammer people with the truth. How many of you know that we need more than the truth? We need God's grace. We need his mercy. We need the heart of Christ, the spirit of Christ. And so if a word comes to you from someone without grace, without vision, without hope, it's really not the spirit of Christ. How many of us know that the enemy is an accuser? He's the accuser of the brother. Have you ever come across someone who is excited about their future? Like Kelly and Catalin are excited about their future. You can tell that in their video, right? You ever come across someone who's excited about their future? You know why they are? It's because they're not focusing on their past. It's hard to be excited about your future. When all you can think about is your past.
God has a future for all of us. God has a future for this church. There may be a lot of loss. That's happened. I just lost my mom. That's a loss. We lost John Kothe. We lost other dear friends. We've lost some people in a sense because they're helping Catalin and Kelly start their church. That's a loss. Ae we going to focus on the past or are we going to look forward? Let me tell you something. The view out of the windshield is a lot better than the view onto the rear view mirror.
Jacque : We've lost some people because of Covid.
Brian: And COVID, yeah, that's right. We've lost people because of COVID the last 18 months or more. It has been tough. It has been tough. It has been tough on all of us, all of you. And yet we can look at the past or we can look forward. Can't we? We can look forward.
Jacque : We choose to look forward.
Brian: That's right. Now, you know what? Satan can't accuse you of your future, right? He can accuse you of your future only your past, only your past. When someone is in from their past sin, we can pray redemptively for them, redemptive prayer for them. It is so important to know that redemptive prayer is so much more powerful than judgmental prophecy. It is. I've got a funny story that my dad told me. My dad was part of a Pentecostal church and there were a lot of people that were given the freedom to, to stand up and prophesy during the services. Sometimes things could get in the tad bit, out of control in the service particularly if the person who was giving the prophecy maybe wasn't in the right spirit. Let's just put it that way. I'm trying to be really nice as I'm describing this.
There was this one gentleman in the church that my dad was telling me about that. It seemed like he was mad at everybody. He was not only mad at the pastor. I mean, he was mad at the choir director. He was mad at the worship leader. He was mad at the Sunday school superintendent, the nursery director, the ushers, they weren't doing what he felt they should be doing. In fact, nobody in the church was doing with this guy felt they should be doing. I'm thankful that that's not hope community church. One day he decided to bring a word from the Lord to the congregation and he stands up and he begins to rail against the church and how God is so angry and so displeased and so frustrated with these people and that God was going to write ichabod over the doorposts of the church, which of course the word named ichabod means the spirit of the Lord hath the partner from this place.
He was pronouncing this judgment and condemnation, and when he came to the part that God was going to write it ichabod over the doorposts of the church, he said, and God's going to write Michelob over the doors of this church. My guess is if they would've put Michelob over the doors that they'd had the whole town coming to the church, probably. And this is course not. The real spirit of prophecy is this is not the purpose for the prophetic. The prophetic is to Edify and to build up and to encourage, to give hope, to like the prophecy of Ezekiel, where he spoke to dead bones, but what did he prophesies? He spoke that muscles and Sunu and life was going to come to those dead bones. That's what the prophetic is all about is to bring life to us, to bring life and redemption. God is so much more patient and merciful than we have ever previously imagined, or could even think.
We have a scripture on the cornerstone of our church. I want to read the portion of scripture, but in context of where that verses from it's from Jeremiah 29. I'd like to start at verse four and just kind of give you a back ground here. Picture now, Israel has been taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they've been taken from their homes. The temple has been desecrated and destroyed. All of the artifacts, the gold and all the artifacts have been taken. People have been hauled off to a whole other land. They've lost all of their possessions, and they're now transplanted in this country and city of Babylon. Here's what the Lord says to those people.
Jacque : This is from the NIV. This is what the Lord almighty, the God of Israel says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and settle down.
Brian: He's telling them to actually settle in a foreign land
Jacque: Plant gardens and eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters increase in number there; do not decrease.
Brian : See, I think that's part of God's heart is that the kingdom of God will always increase, not decrease.
Jacque: Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
Brian: Now, isn't that a delineation from what we're accustomed to? Read it again.
Jacque: Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
Brian: I wonder if that was hard for any of them. They had been taken away from their Homeland, marched all across the desert, into Babylon, and now God saying, I want you to pray for the peace and the prosperity of the nation and the people that have done this to you. Wow.
Jacque: You have to forgive them.
Brian: Well, obviously I think forgiveness is implied in there somewhere. Wow. And goes on to say—
Jacque: Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers you too will prosper.
Brian : I wonder if we pray for political leaders this way, especially political leaders that we don't agree with. Do we actually really pray for them this way? Or do we pray those to preparatory prayers that David prayed when I think he was personally out of the spirit, not in the spirit. There were some things that David did that really didn't align with God. How many of you know that?
Jacque: Like he would pray make their son's fatherless- kind of mean prayers.
Brian: Yeah, and there were many things that David did that were in the spirit that represented the heart of Christ. For example, when his son Absalom turned against him, he had the heart of God towards his son. His son was trying to steal his kingdom and kill him and all those sorts of things or Saul. Look how he was with Saul.
Jacque: He could have killed Saul.
Brian: He could have killed Saul, but he never picked up a sword and throw it him. He was never going to be God's hand of judgment. That's what he was not going to be in that situation. We find at times different sommeliers writing prayers that are very, you know, God's slay them and kill them and do this. And frankly, I think that's more of a revelation of their human flesh and their humanity than it is the spirit of God personally, because we see something different here. Don't we? We see God's commanding them, pray for the blessing of these people. Pray for the blessing of this nation that just took you into captivity. So here—
Jacque: Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers you too will prosper. Yes. This is what the Lord almighty, the God of Israel says. Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name, I have not sent them declares.
Brian: When we hear prophecy, it's very important to understand that it needs to line up with the spirit of Christ who Jesus is because Jesus, the spirit of prophecy is the spirit of Christ in a, and just like the fellow that stood up and condemned everybody in the church and wanting to Michelob written over the doorpost of the church was not in the spirit of Christ. He was in his own spirit. We have to have that dessert moment to be able to know what is of God and what isn't of God. Is this giving hope? Is this giving judgment? What is it giving?
Jacque: Should I keep reading?
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: This is what the Lord says when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
Brian : So here's our verse.
Jacque: For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans, to prosper you and not harm you.
Brian: I wonder if in the first 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 years of that captivity, if they felt that they were being prospered by the Lord or blessed by the Lord or that he had a plan for them, right?
Jacque: I want to start at the beginning. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not harm you plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord.
Brian : Sometimes I think the only way God is able to get at all of our hearts is to take everything away from us. I don't like that about myself. That I'm much more desperate for God when I needy than when I'm blessed. I don't like that about myself. It shows me that there are things in me that still need more of Jesus and less of me, but collectively as a people, sometimes we just have to be put into desperate straights in order for us to get our focus truly on who is our supplier, who is our comfort, who is our God. And so when I read this person to scripture again and pondered this over and over the command is to pray for rather than pray against. The command is to pray for not to pray against not to pray vindictively, but to pray mercifully, to pray compassionately, to pray redemptively.
The fact of the matter is my friends. The world has seen a church with a lot of rocks in its hands. That's what the world has seen. We have such a better gift to bring to the world than rocks. Don't we? We have such a better gift to bring to the world than rocks from the gift that Jesus gave to us was not stoning. Was it? It wasn't rocks. There were no stones in his hand. I'll tell you what was in his hands: scars. Scars, that's what was in his hands showing how much he loved us and was was willing to sacrifice for us. The fact of the matter is Jesus was not born to carry out God's wrath and neither was the church birthed to carry out God's wrath and judgment. We, the church were birthed for the very same reason that Jesus was born in a sense. Of course, he's the redeemer.
We're not the Redeemer, but we have been birthed to a complete, in a sense, his mercy on the earth. We have been birthed as a church to live a life of mercy and to represent truly what is in God's heart. That's what the church was birthed for. So the purpose that we exist as a church is to represent the heart throb of God's mercy and grace to people that he is determined that he is going to get his love into every, every man's mind, every person's heart. Every person's life will be touched by the love of God. That is what God is determined to do. I want to be included in that strategy of God. I want to be a part of that. I want to share in that wonderful opportunity.
We don't celebrate world champions in Minnesota very often. We've never celebrated one with the Vikings. We've done close, but close is only good in hand grenades as you know. We've had two world champions in Minnesota with the twins baseball team. In 1997, when they won their first world championship, we all went down and were part of the victory parade. We saw Kirby Puckett. Everybody was in convertibles and it was like 30 degrees outside, you know, but, and there were about a half a million people that were a part of that, that day. Today, about 30 million people claim that they were part of that parade. They weren't, but there's something great about being associated with something successful. I have the privilege and Jackie and BJ and Micah when they were very young to be a part of the parade that the Viking that the twins— maybe that's prophetic devices. I don't know, that the twins, when the twins won the world series. I'm really glad that's part of our family history.
It has very little if anything to do with the kingdom of God, but it's an enjoyable thing for us as a family to have experienced how much more is it going to be wonderful for us to look back and say, I was a part of this, what God did. I was a part of what God did at Hope Community Church. I was a part of what God did when his spirit began to move in 2021 in such a way that only God really can get the credit for it. And so I want to be a part of this mercy flood that's coming.
We prayed for Germany today. I don't know if you saw the big sink hole in the, in the paper and just some of the tragic things that have happened there, and floods can be very overwhelming. I believe that's what God's love is to be that's what God's heart is to be his love was to be so overwhelming, it will break every fear, every, every resistance that people have of him. We need that today. We need that today in our world, in our state, in our country, we need that. We don't need to expose sin. We need to lift holy hands and pray for the God of redemption to come and sovereignly show himself. I had the distinct privilege of being part of the Jesus movement in the late sixties and early seventies. And you know what, when I reflect back upon those years, I didn't do one thing differently during that time than I had before that, or even after that. But God did something very sovereign. We need a very sovereign move of God. I do believe it'll happen as we pray. And as we come before the Lord and giving ourselves wholeheartedly, when we seek him as this portion of scripture says with all of our hearts and he says, then I will be found of you.
I want Jesus to come to America. I want Jesus to come to Minnesota, but I wonder if we, the church have wanted it with all of our hearts yet. So I just implore you, let's— we're going to have communion here in a moment. As we have communion, let's, let's not only thank Jesus for our redemption, but let's thank him for the redemption of all those other people who are yet to be redeemed. Let's begin to have a vision of all these people. God wants to sweep into his kingdom, being touched by his grace and his mercy. As we receive these emblems, not only are we thinking of his broken body and his blood that was shed for us, but it was shed for them too. As the scripture says, he wants not only us saved, but everyone saved, everyone.
So I'm going to pray. And if we could have Jerry and Pat help with passing out the emblems. Again they're, COVID friendly. I'll give you a few minutes to get, to get them opened and be careful not to say I've already opened mine so that I wouldn't be here at 10 minutes from now.
Jacque: Here is a tip: take the top off the wafer before.
Brian: Through the wafer first. That’s right. Do the wafer first. So father, we thank you that Lord, even though these emblems are probably far cry different than the cup that you drank from and the bread that you broke, they represent Lord, what you did that last night. When you had suffer with your friends and your disciples. Lord, you changed everything out the cross, you changed everything. That night, you took off your robe and you wrapped a towel around you and you washed the disciples feet. That was not what Kings do. You had said to your disciples, a new command I give to you love one another. As I have loved you. I want you to love each other in this very same, exact way that I'm loving you. And so we can do this father with your spirit in us, and we can walk in this grace and we can be empowered by your love and we can be filled with your spirit, river of life flow into us today. Saturate us with your love and your presence and your mercy.
Lord, I pray that we would be as the Israelites were. When they arrived in Babylon, they began to pray for the country that had taken them into captivity. They began to pray for the leaders who were behind that captivity Lord, and as they prayed, Babylon was prospered. Israel became prosper and eventually a whole other king came in and took over. And Cyrus later came as part of the Persians and he wrote a proclamation that people could go back to Israel. This was in fulfillment. Lord of your word. Your word is always true. So we rely on it. We believe in it. We thank you for it. We thank you Lord for your body, which was broken for us. On the night that you were betrayed, you took the bread and you broke it and you blessed it and you lifted it up to heaven.
And you said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me. And so today we remember what you've done for us, but father, we also want to remember those who have yet to come to know you. Maybe it's a son or daughter. Maybe it's an uncle or an aunt. Maybe it's a grandchild. Who's away from you who doesn't know you. Maybe it's a neighbor; it could be a coworker. It could be somebody that is in our neighborhood that we've just started to develop a friendship with whoever they are. Lord, we lift them up to you and we pray for them. We pray that your spirit will touch them and somehow melt their hard hearts and that they would come to know you, Jesus and have eternal life be given to them. So we thank you for your body, which was broken for us. We eat this in remembrance of you. Jesus let's eat it together.
After they had finished eating the bread, he took the cup and he blessed it. Then he declared this cup is the blood of the new covenant, a new arrangement, entirely different way of doing things much better. And that his blood was going to be for the remission of our sins. The complete, doing a way with our sins, the complete washing away of our sins, not just an old Testament blood covering, not just like sweeping it under the rug and then putting the rug on top of it. So you couldn't see it, but it's all lumpy. Cause you know, something's under there, but it was all gone as far removed as the east is from the west. And so we thank you, Lord, that your blood was something that no other blood could do. And that is wash all of our sins. What can wash away my sins, nothing except
And so we thank you Lord today that we can stand sin free in heaven that our sins have been washed away. And that we drink this cup Lord in remembrance of your blood, which was shed for us because it was your blood that provides the forgiveness of all of our sins and the ability to be completely restored with you on to, to make the opportunity available for us to be one with you. So as we drink this cup, we ask God that you pour redemption out upon those who we know that need you, family members, neighbors, coworkers, whoever they may be. Lord, we have someone in our mind and image in our mind who needs to know your forgiveness today. And I pray that you will pour out Lord in a sovereign way, your forgiveness, your forgiveness, may it be like a Saul experience on the road to Damascus where Jesus, you just come and change his mind and changes. Heart changed their minds and change their hearts. Sovereignly show up Lord, we pray redemptively. We pray for these people and Lord that they will know you. They will come to know you. They will experience your love. And they will know it's because of the love of Christ and the blood of Jesus that they have been forgiven. We drink this cup today now in remembrance of your blood that was shed. Let's drink it together.
We bless you, Lord. I thank you that Lord you are for us, not against us. And you want us as your church to be for what you're doing in the year. Do it again. We want to lift up holy hands and pray. We want to lift up holy hands, not shake angry fist at people, but we want to raise holy hands to you and pray for all people everywhere to repent. Jesus. We pray this in your name for your sake. Amen. Amen. Let's raise our hands together. Now may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turned his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be filled with a spirit of prayer for your friends, your family, and for our nation. This we pray in the name of the father, son and holy spirit.
Amen. God bless you. Every wonderful day. We invite you to come to our house this afternoon at five o'clock.
Jacque: We're going to have a bonfire and a picnic and a sing-along the Riley's. Yes. And if you're coming, be sure and bring a chair along with you so we have plenty of places to sit.
Brian : God bless you. Hope to see you tonight at five. God bless you. Thanks for being here today. And if you're watching our live stream in the twin cities, you can come to our house as well. Five o'clock. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 7-18-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.