Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
He continually shows us his goodness. Okay. Yes, we need to do that. We need to acknowledge. It's great to hear the sax, Walton. Wow, God is so good and he is constantly showing us his goodness. And yesterday at the women's encounter. Let me tell you, we got full of the goodness of God. We did. I just want to thank everybody who was apart, who helped put it on and worked so hard, all the ladies and all the ladies who attended. And thank you for meeting us, God. We left inspired and encouraged to be flourishing, to live. I remember the word, to live flourishing lives that show the glory of God. Thanks so much. And then at the registration table with our lovely Rachael, happy today, you can talk to her about the men's breakfast. Pastor Robert needs to know how many men are coming Saturday to the men's breakfast. You can go back and tell Rachael line up to sign up. Oh, line up to sign up. Very good.
Brian: You are a rapper.
Jacque: Okay, line up to sign up. Okay. And then also ladies line up to sign up for the Christmas tea that's right around the corner. For those of you who are new and our friends online, we have a big Christmas tea the first Saturday of every December. This place is filled with China teacups and beautiful decorations and handsome men serving us, and beautiful music and delicious food. We do it all to celebrate Jesus. If you want to be a table hostess, sign up with Rachael today because they are going. There are only a certain number of tables and they are going. Okay then operation Christmas child, Cindy and the children are going to be packing shoe boxes that are going to be sent around the world from Samaritan's Purse to children in third world countries to help them celebrate the birth of Jesus and to bless their lives. There's a box in the lobby and you can just bring all kinds of trinkets, little things. Where do we find the list, Cindy? Okay. You got a list this morning. You gave them out this morning. You got a list. So run to the store
Brian: And drop them in the box out there.
Jacque: And drop them in the box in the lobby. There are more lists at the table in the back. You can pick him up on your way out. Thank you, Rachael. Okay, one more thing. Micah Cobb got married. There's a picture of him and his beautiful wife, Elizabeth. His mom and dad, Jim and Lana, are inviting us all to come to a reception to in to a con congratulate the couple. And it's next Saturday.
Brian: At four o'clock.
Jacque: At four o'clock, so let Lana know if you can come. We are so happy for them. Don't they look happy? Yeah. Beautiful. He married a southern bell. Yeah. My mom is from the south and my Micah always says I'm the ding of a southern bell. I love that. Okay, so kids, you can go to Sunday school. Take it away, Brian.
Brian: Wow. What a great weekend, Friday night, Saturday with the ladies and the presence of the Lord. Just touching people and really learning just so many unique things about trees. There are so many things that as we discover more about even our world and the universe, how God's intention is for us to not worship the creation but look through the creation to the creator and worship him.
Jacque: The reason we were talking about trees is because our key verse was about how we would flourish like the cedars of Lebanon, like the palm tree, how we would become oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. So then we learned all kinds of things about trees and tree communities that apply to our lives.
Brian: It's just amazing. There is still some more information I think that people can get, some of the information trees, there's books to read and all sorts of stuff. I thank you everybody for your teaching who all the people did the teaching. It was just a really very impactful
Jacque: Well, thank you. The worship team, the band came and played so we could worship. That made a difference.
Brian: We were glad to be there. Thanks for including us. Have you ever been challenged to love somebody?
Jacque: Never.
Brian: Well then none of you are married if you've never been challenged to.
Jacque: I was kidding.
Brian: I know. This is going to be a part two of a series of a sermon I started a few weeks ago called It's a Risky Business. The fact of the matter is the way of Jesus is the way of risky love. The way of Jesus is a way of risky love. I look at how the world talks about love and you listen to radio and sometimes I'll listen to K-fan, the local sports station and get caught up in all the significant important things in life. You just listen to the dialogue of so many of the people on the radio and how it's just so clearly plain, they don't really get it. Everybody has a cry in their heart to be needed, to be loved, to be valued. That's how God made us. And yet so few people truly understand how to truly love somebody.
The way of Jesus is the way of risky love. I can maybe call it this. It's basically a dangerous unselfishness.
Jacque: Being vulnerable.
Brian: Being vulnerable. You can't love without being vulnerable. You can't love without giving. You can't love without exposing your heart. Can you?
Jacque: Taking a risk?
Brian: Yeah. Taking a risk. And the scripture is full of all sorts of instructions and admonitions and declarations about how God loves us and how we are to love God and how we are to love one another. Yet when I think back on the time of Christ and the land of Israel, the nation of Israel, and I think of the Jewish, well, I'll just use the expression, the Jewish faith, what it had become, by the time Christ came on the scene, it became the dominant religion of that area. Religion oftentimes is the way of safety and security and shelter within the structure of a bunch of rules, a bunch of regulations, a bunch of rituals, a bunch of routines. But when Jesus came on the scene__ there are a lot of people today that forget that Jesus was Jewish. Most Christians around the world don't perceive Jesus in the context of the fact that he was Jewish. And oftentimes one of the reasons for that is because he didn't act like the normal Jew. He didn't act like the normal religious rabbi leader, Jewish leader.
Jesus was relentless pressing people to see two basic things. The first, and we talked about this in the parable of the good Samaritan. We call it the Parable of the Good Samaritan, story of the Good Samaritan, where this religious leader came to Jesus and the asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Which he was already off base because you can't actually do something you have to believe, not so much do. But Jesus, in talking to this religious leader, asked what the greatest commandment was. This man quoted properly. And he said, "Well, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself." Out of that came the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus actually didn't call him a good Samaritan; he just called him a certain Samaritan, by the way.
One of the things that Jesus made clear in this teaching, this parable was that loving people is the primary way that we love God. Loving people is the primary way that we love God. The primary way that we love God is not in worship. It's not in prayer. It's not in evangelism. It's not in any of these very good things that I enjoy doing. The primary way that we love God is by loving people. And we see this clearly in Matthew 25. The context of the scripture is Jesus coming to the end of his earthly ministry. He is just about to go into the whole passion week. He gives us this incredible teaching in Matthew 24 and 25. And Matthew 25 versus 34 to 40 says this because this is the context where Jesus said at the end, he will separate the goats from the sheep. That's the context of this portion of scripture. So let's read it beginning in verse 34.
Jacque: Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.
Brian: Did you know that God is preparing and has been preparing a kingdom for all of his children since the beginning of time, our time since the creation. He has been preparing. Inherit this kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. And then he goes on to say these really incredible things that these people that are going to inherit this kingdom, what they did to Jesus.
Jacque: For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, "Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?" And the king will say, "I tell you the truth, when you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you are doing it to me."
Brian: So it's really clear here that Jesus is saying one of the greatest ways that we could have ever loved Jesus is to love the marginalized, those who are weak, those who are in prison, those who are discarded by culture, those who have very little, those who if you bless, have no real means of blessing you back. These are some of the greatest ways that we can love God. This was one of the first things that Jesus kept pressing in on people. That loving people is the primary way that we love God.
Jacque: Can I just say one thing about that?
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: Right now, we have a real way that we can bring clothes to people that are naked because Carrie's daughter, Stephanie works for a teen home like a hospital, and they come in with just the clothes on their backs. Every day they take their clothes, wash them, put them__ and they, some of these people do not have another change of clothes. Clothes. And so we just need comfortable jeans, Sweats, T-shirts, anything without strings in them. But there's a gentleman who's larger. There's no clothes for him. People can even just bring those to the church and we can get them to Stephanie. Sorry, it just seemed like instantly we can do what you are saying.
Brian: There's so many ways that we can help. There are so many ways that we can actually love like Jesus. We have to allow this kind of love for people to take precedence over religious rituals and ethnic obstacles. We have to. I'd like to read another portion of scripture's found in Galatians chapter three versus 26 to 29, where Paul is writing to the churches of Galatia, which not predominantly Jewish. And he says this:
Jacque: For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus and all who have been united with Christ in baptism, have put on Christ like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or gentile, slave or free male and female for you all are one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs. And God's promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Brian: As I was picturing this, I was picturing this role of righteousness that we inherit when we come to know Christ. He says this is like putting on new clothes. And I envisioned this robe of righteousness being put on all these different people. Some were Caucasian, some were African American, some were Asian, some were Native American, some were Norwegian. I'm saying that because I think we have some Norwegian relatives here today. If the robe could talk, the robe wouldn't say, Well, I'm now an African American Christian, or I'm a white Christian, or I'm a Native American Christian, or I'm a Norwegian Christian. It wouldn't say that. The robe didn't recognize what it was covering. It was just being worn by all sorts of ethnicities.
We are going to see a scripture at the end of my message today about how they all come together as one. God's declaring today that in this story of the Good Samaritan, this closing statement that Jesus made to the religious leader really challenged him greatly. Do you remember what the closing statement was to the religious leader in the story? He says to him, "You go out and do the same." That's the Samaritan. Did you go and do likewise, go and do the same. I'll be honest with you, I'm 71, soon to be 72, been around church my whole life, been a pastor for almost 50 years, not quite, but almost. During my 70 plus years of hanging out with all sorts of people who identify with Jesus, I have found that many of these Christ followers squirm both intellectually and emotionally and try to wriggle out of the clear implication of what Jesus said here when he said, "Go and do the likewise". Go love this person. Well, you know, you have to be wise, Pastor. Have you ever heard that? You've got to be careful. You’ve got to be wise.
Well, I would say that wisdom is always good, but love is always better.
It's good to have wisdom, but love is always better. Love is the best way. Christ followers are called to even be foolish. If we were to take applications for everybody who wanted to be foolish, there probably wouldn't be a lot of applications filled out, would there be? Right. Let's look at First Corinthians chapter 4 versus 10 through 13 because Jesus is actually saying something here. He is saying the way the world loves__ and the world perceives love. We have more songs written about love than any other topic. Wouldn't you agree? Love is the dominating theme of music. It really is.
And it's not like people who don't understand and know the Lord have never heard of the concept of love. We talk about it all the time. We have this inner need to be loved. We are striving for it. We want to be loved. Yet we actually don't even oftentimes know what it really means to love until we understand what Jesus says. Jesus' kingdom is entirely set up on a different way of loving than the worldly system that we live in. And we see some of that spoken of here in First Corinthians chapter four, verse 10 through 13. Just for the record here, when Paul wrote this, Paul had already been in the ministry along quite a while and he wasn't a newbie to the Christian walk and faith He had. By this time, he was a seasoned veteran, shall we say, of walking with Jesus. I read this portion of scripture and I thought to myself, I wonder if I want to even sign up for that kind of Christianity. But let's read it.
Jacque: Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools. But you claim to be so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are so powerful. You are honored, but we are ridiculed. Even now, we go hungry and thirsty, and we don't have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home.
Brian: Let me just stop for a second there. In our western perception of faith, if somebody saw Paul in this condition, not enough clothes to keep warm being beaten, not having his own home, not having any of these kinds of things, what would we say? We would say he doesn't have enough faith.
Jacque: God's blessing is not on him.
Brian: Yeah. God's blessing is not on him. What did he do wrong? That he is homeless, that he doesn't have enough clothes to wear, that he is freezing to death in bad weather. How many of you want to identify with this kind of Christianity? It's a challenge to us, isn't it? It's a challenge. This is why I say being a follower of Christ is not for the lazy or the weak. This is a tough thing at times. Let's go on. He is not done here.
Jacque: We are often beaten and have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us.
Brian: Well, I'm out. I don't want to do that.
Jacque: We are patient with those who abuse us.
Brian: Well, I don't want to do that either.
Jacque: We appeal gently when evil things are said about us.
Brian: I don't want to do that either. I want to respond in the same way that someone said something to me.
Jacque: Yet we are treated like the world's garbage, like everybody's trash right up to the present moment.
Brian: He says we are treated like the world's garbage, like everybody's trash right up to this present moment. This is the mature apostle Paul that all of us at one time in our lives have said, "I would like to be like the Apostle Paul." We didn't read this portion of scripture. did we? And when you look at how Paul was loving the world, I think we could say that his kind of love was certainly irrational from a purely human perspective, wasn't it? It makes no sense. I mean, what are you getting out of it, Paul? What are you getting out of it?
Jacque: How about this one? Should I say this? Sometimes they say you need to put up boundaries. I know at times we have to put up boundaries.
Brian: I appreciate Pastor Jeff's message from last Sunday
Jacque: I was with the children.
Brian: Yes. Pastor Jeff's message was talking about how do you love your enemies in the context of being abused? Jeff's message wasn't about staying in a physically abusive or real abusive relationship. That's how we love like Christ. That's not what he was saying. So go back and listen to that message if you haven't done it. But you are right. I really get frustrated today with so many people who all they want to talk about is their personal space or boundaries. When I don't think Jesus came across, hey, you are in my personal space. He came to give his life, a ransom, for all of us who were not lovely, not good looking, not anything to offer. We were sinners when he did. That's the kind of love is the kind of love we are to bring to a sinful world.
Jesus calls people to love in such a way that all social barricades are broken. They are all penetrated; they are eliminated. And especially those barricades erected by religion. That's why Jesus kept really ticking off all of the religious leaders of his day because he was getting to something that they weren't willing to do. At the end of the day, to love like God, because that is what we are to aspire to. I've been praying lately, Lord, I want to love like you love in about five minutes later, he has already shown me five times when I've missed that. But it's in my heart. I know it's a good thing for me to pray. It's a right thing for me to aspire to, to, to love like God. Because Jesus said a new command, I give to you that you love as I have loved you.
I found myself in my attitudes and in my interaction at times with people, woo, that didn't happen. And so now I need to say, I need you. Jesus. I need more of you. I need more of you so that I can love as you love. But at the end of the day, to love like God, we have to be willing to put love ahead of safety. We have to be willing to put love ahead of comfort. We have to be willing to put love ahead of convenience. How many know it's not always convenient to love? Well, let me check my schedule and I'll work it in. So often the way that Jesus loved was on the spur of the moment. It wasn't well, meet me next Wednesday at one o'clock and I'll dole out some love to you. A new commandment I give to you. Love is I've loved you to love God. And our neighbor in the way that Jesus instructed us to is so radically different from our culture today. It's so radically different. It's so different from what our society tells us to do, that as a follower of Jesus, we really have to disregard the rules of our culture to love like God loves. We really do.
We recently met with a couple who is reconciling in their relationship. They are not part of our church, so don't start looking around to see who it is. We do have sheep from a different sheep fold, by the way. I'm going to talk about that verse in a moment. They are putting things back together in their marriage. And this one counselor said to the offended spouse, well, you have to get angry and you have to yell at him and you have to do this, and you have to become bitter before you can forgive. And he calls himself a Christian counselor. I just said to this couple, "Listen, the way of Jesus is a different way of loving." And it's I think it's virtually impossible when you've been sinned against to not feel hurt, to feel offended, to feel rejected, to feel loss. That's normal. We are not emotionless creatures. But you don't have to go down the road of becoming angry and then bitter and then resentful and harboring all this ill will before you forgive. The only one that loses in that is the person who goes down that road.
Jacque: I've talked to this woman probably every day for a year, and I keep saying her, "You are just loving like Jesus." It's absolutely amazing the amount of love and that love is what is bringing healing.
Brian: It is. And Jesus invites all of us, his followers, to become part of a worldwide, I call it, transnational, multiethnic, ethnic family of faith. And this is one of the reasons why he said to his Jewish friends in this verse that I just quoted, John chapter 10, verse 16, where he says this:
Jacque: I have other sheep too that are not in this sheep fold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
Brian: Because there was this tribalism in the nation of Israel where the nation of Israel. Even the disciples, after they had spent three and a half years with Jesus, they said, "Well, are you now going to restore the kingdom?" Are you going to kick these blankety blank Romans out of here? Are you going to clean clock here, Jesus? When are you going to do this? Even after Peter and, and Paul had been almost like kicked out of the comfort of their Jewish framework into the gentile regions, and they began to see all these people being coming converted to Christ. And especially with Peter at Cornelius, who was a Roman soldier. He believes, and Holy Spirit falls, they all start speaking in tongues and baptism of the Holy Spirit happens. Peter goes back to Jerusalem to the rank and file in Jerusalem and they said, "Hey, this is not in our agenda, these gentile dogs." The love of Christ was so far spilling over that it just pushed Paul and Peter, particularly, in the early days, out into the regions of the Gentiles. And Paul then says it this way in Colossians chapter 3 verse 11.
Jacque: In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slaved or free. Christ is all that matters. And he lives in all of us.
Brian: This is just a personal thing that happened with me. I was very young. My dad was pastoring Pentecostal church, Northern Minnesota and was part of a larger denomination. We would have missionaries that would come to our church on a regular basis. And particularly the missionaries from Africa, I was always really interested in and looking forward to them coming because they would bring artifacts from Africa. And, of course, I loved Tarzan when I was a kid and Tarzan was in Africa, so maybe I could see some of Tarzan stuff. They would always show pictures. And inevitably, they showed all these grass huts from the places they were and all the Christians were wearing white shirts and ties.
Even as a five year old, I thought to myself, what is wrong with this picture? It seems like we are more interested in making them into Americans than into Christians. That's why when we see here that in this new life, it doesn't matter if you are Jewish, gentile or if you are African or Asian or American, God loves all of those distinctive cultures. He is created all those cultures. It's only the most ignorant of people who think the whole world should be like me and like the food I eat and look like me and dress like me. There are cultures all over the world, and Paul is saying this, there is a diversity within humanity and all of humanity is given an equal place at the table of fellowship. All of humanity has given that offer. But we have to be willing to cross into other cultures to bring that love and bring that message.
I appreciate Mark and Linda Petty. They are part of the Japanese church and they work with Japanese students who have come to America for one or two or three years. They just begin to share the love of Christ with them. They come from a whole different culture. Their whole mental set is different. We can, we can go up and give someone a hug and say I love you in our culture, but in their culture that is reserved only for spouses and that is very offensive to them. It would behoove us if we are going to minister to the Japanese to learn a little bit about the Japanese instead of expecting them to become like us.
Jacque: Do you know why they listen to Mark and Linda? Because Linda cooks good food for them and they open their home to them. Mark takes them on exciting excursions.
Brian: And by the way, it's not that we don't see or recognize any differences. I just s shutter when sometimes people say, "Well, I don't see black." Well, I see black every time I look at Robert and TaQuaris. How can you not? I would imagine they see white when they look at me. That's just so silly to say stuff like that. But the follower of Christ will value and learn from and celebrate the diversity that we have. I played dominos for years with my father-in-law. He is a Norwegian. Do you know how Norwegians played dominoes?
Now we had a game day here and Robert starts playing dominoes with John and a few other of their African American friends.
Jacque: And then the girls got in there.
Brian: And then the girls got in there and I thought, I need to stay away from this man. I'm getting my fingers broken on this.
Jacque: It was an exciting game of dominoes. I want to learn your dominoes.
Brian: But you know what I thought I need to hang around these people a little bit. They can expose me to something that I've not ever been exposed to before. This is the diversity that we have in humanity. But all of that diversity has a place at the table of fellowship. We at times just are so closed to crossing into other cultures or other ways of thinking. This may sound strange to you, but we are actually looking into trying to start a metaverse church. Some of you probably don't even know what that is. But there's a whole culture out there in a metaverse that needs Jesus. They aren't coming to us, my friends. But if we are to go into the whole world and as we go bring the love of Jesus to that world, we need to go into these places. We need to go into these cultures. We need to get over our uncomfortableness with people being different from us.
Jacque: Just Google Metaverse Church, Today's show, and you are going to hear the coolest interview with this pastor. He'll tell you all about it.
Brian: At the end of all things__ and by the way, I hope we all realize there's only going to be one end of the age. You know that, don't you? There's not going to be 10. There's only going to be one end of the age. And until that happens, we all need to keep on living. We all need to keep on living. We all need to keep moving forward. We all need to keep doing all of this. As we keep on living when the end comes, I don't think we are going to shed all of our unique traits and be absorbed into one mass of generic human expression. Do you know what I mean by that? Well, let me read a verse for you. It is found in Revelation 7, 9 and 10.
Jacque: After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language.
Brian: So let me ask you a question. Why did John__ this was his vision. Why did he describe it that way? Why did he describe it as people from every nation, every tribe, every people and every language.
Jacque: They must have looked different.
Brian: They all looked different. They were all talking differently. They all had different ways of identifying with who they were. And what was happening.
Jacque: I want to start again. After this, I saw a vast crowd too great to count from every nation and tribe and people and language standing in front of the throne and before the lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches on the, in their hands. And they were shouting with one great roar: Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb.
Brian: So here is this incredibly diverse group of people, too great to count, so I hardly want to call it a group of people, throngs of people, throngs of diversity. I wonder how many cultures who no longer exist, who've all died off, are going to be around that throne. When we have a tendency to think of cultures and diversity, we only think of the cultures of that are alive and present today. But what about if you go back 6,000 years, all the different cultures and practices and things and ways and languages and what have you. They will all be before Jesus. They will be saying in such a loud voice that it sounds like they are shouting with a great roar: Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb.
We will bring all of our diversity into a glorious, multicolored, multiethnic medley of celebration to Jesus. There are people today in some areas, cultures, ways of thinking that have yet to know this wonderful lamb of God, this wonderful Jesus. He is asking us, are we willing to take on the responsibility of this risky business of loving in an unselfish, in a way that puts ourselves at times at risk? We risk maybe being rejected. We risk being spoken of as Paul said. We are treated disrespectfully; we are treated in such a way that I feel like I'm the world's garbage. But that's the kind of love that will touch someone who is skeptic and someone who has yet to believe.
And the cross of Jesus Christ__ and if I could ask the ushers to, and Pat, if you could start getting ready to do communion, because we are going to serve communion this morning to everybody. The cross is what I call the divine equalizer of us all. At the cross, we are all on the same level. In the church, we have different people with different levels of authority and responsibility. I have a certain level of authority as a pastor of this church. We have other staff pastors who have authority. There are different people who've been empowered as the staff. They have authority, but all of that authority is given to serve. It's not given so that we can people serve us. It's given so that we can serve.
There are all sorts of different levels of authority, responsibility in the body of Christ. But when it comes to a level playing field, we are all at the same level at the cross. We are all at the same level at the cross. We welcome all of you who are watching by livestream; you can join us in communion here. Just grab some juice and some bread and you can join us here in a moment. But the whole concept of the Passover, the whole concept of communion, the whole concept of the Last Supper, Jesus was really laying it out clearly that what he was about to do was going to be the divine equalizer for all people.
Jacque and I were talking about that this, this week. There are some people who constantly live in the future. And you know what? They live in a place of anxiety and worry. They are always worried about the future. If you have worry in your life, it's because you are living in the future.
Jacque: And fear.
Brian: And fear, yes. But there are other people who constantly live in the past and they live under shame. They live under guilt. They live in regret. But God is not in the past and he will be with us in the future. But where God is right now is he says I am that I am. It means present tense. He is right here, right now. And what God wants for all of us right here, right now is for us to be committed to loving is he loves. That's why he said the night that he was betrayed, this is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood, which is shed for you, hoping that our hearts would now be moved to living and loving in the same way that he has lived and loved. Go ahead, ushers, you can please distribute the communion emblems. Thank you, Paula. Thank you.
Thank you, Lord, for what a wonderful example model. But you were more than just setting an example. You actually came to conquer the power of the enemy. Jesus, your own words said you have come to destroy the works of the enemy. And Lord, the works of shame and guilt or the works of fear and anxiety, these are not from your hand. Your cross came to do away with the works of the enemy. I thank you Lord that there is total restoration and forgiveness to be had in you, I thank you Lord, that there's not a space of darkness that you would not be willing to penetrate. The psalmist said it best when he said, "Even if I go to sheol or hell, you are there." Because the most hellish places on earth, your love can penetrate.
You ask us to follow your leading and follow your direction, to bring your grace, your love and your restoration to these places. And often as was with Paul, we will be rejected, we will be ridiculed. The way that we love will be said to not make any sense, but that you have to protect yourself Oh, father, I just want to thank you that you sent Jesus in such a way that he didn't protect himself, but that he gave himself for us. I don't want to undermine Father, anybody who is in a very dangerous and abusive situation. There's grace for that person to be able to say no more. That's a good thing to happen, to stop sin from happening, to stop abuse from happening.
But Father, oftentimes, we are not willing to go to the darkest of places because we fear rejection; we fear other things. Help us to know that where your love is and your grace is greater are you than he that's in the world. So we have no need to fear what the enemy might do. And there the end of the age has not happened yet. Tt will happen. I look forward to that time. I would like to be alive when that happens. But I know there will be an end to the age and all the things of this earth will be wrapped up. But until that time comes, your words to us are to occupy, to live until you come and to trust you that you will go before us.
So as we take the bread together, we are reminded on the night that you were betrayed by Judas, you took the bread and you broke it, and you said, "This is my body which is broken for you; eat it in remembrance of me." So we remember the great love that you gave for us when your body was broken and beaten for our transgressions. We take the bread together. After they had finished eating the bread, Jesus took the cup and he said, "This cup represents my blood, which is a new covenant. And this blood that will be shed is shed for the remission of your sins." Not just a whitewashing of them, not just putting a blanket over them so they are not visible to the naked eye, but they were removed, gone. Kind of like the empty tomb. They are gone.
Brian: That empty tomb is so significant because you conquered death, you conquered hell, you conquered the grave, you conquered sin, you conquered all the effects of it. We, today, drink this cup in remembrance of the fact that it was because you shed your blood, that you were able to extend redemption to all of mankind for by one man's sin entered into the world and by another man's sacrifice, forgiveness has been given to the entire world. And so we drink this today in remembering, in memory of your great sacrifice. We once again place ourselves at the cross. We bow our knee, and we say the wonderful, wonderful cross of Jesus, it provided for us. It provided for us all that we would ever need in this life and in the life to come. Let's drink the cup.
Lord, I lift up to you in this moment of reflection and what you have provided, I lift up Deb Thompson to you and we ask in Jesus name that a mighty genesis would happen in all of her blood system and in her cells, a recreation; make all things new. We pray for Butch Nelson today, that God, there would be again, a genesis in his body and a regeneration of life. We pray for Nadean. She is come through surgery. She is here this morning. I pray that Lord, this affliction of cancer will die in the name of Jesus and her life, her body will be full of the life and the regenerating power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, for anybody else who is struggling with health issues or emotional issues, issues of forgiveness, Lord, I just pray you will saturate their lives now, their bodies and their lives and their minds renew their spirits.
I pray that Lord, they would have the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord would come to them. May we rejoice in the goodness of our God today, may we rejoice in the goodness of our God. For those who are watching by livestream, I just pray a blessing upon them as well as they've taken communion with us. I pray in Jesus' name that if there's affliction in their bodies__ I think of our daughter-in-law, Jessica, where she has treatments every month to keep her cancer cells sleeping. Well, I just pray that you would say the word for them to go to sleep permanently in Jesus' name. I thank you, Lord, for all of the people that you care so deeply about that we just lift them up to your throne of grace today and asking Jesus' name that there would be virtue, the virtue of Jesus as just with the woman with the issue of blood where you said virtue has flowed out of me. I pray that the virtue from the throne of grace would flow, Lord, into all of the needs of your people today that can hear my voice. We pray this, Jesus, in your name and for your sake, and everybody said amen. Amen. Let's stand together, shall we?
Brian: Did you receive this word today? Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
Jacque: Hey, we have some extra treats left over from the encounters, so help yourself on the way out if you are a little hungry,
Brian: Yes. Even if you are not hungry, take them.
Jacque: And then remember a way that we can help and we can clothe people is to bring some comfortable clothes and we'll make sure that Stephanie gets them for work.
Brian: Amen. Let's raise her hands together. 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. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you ask of God largely that we will love as Christ has loved us. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-9-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.