Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: Kids, if you are still here, you can be dismissed to go to Sunday school. It's so good to have kids in the house. I'm so thankful for our children. There is the church that's coming right behind us and we need more of them in the house here. So I'm looking around to see who I can speak some new children into their lives. A couple of you have to get married first. Dan, hallelujah. We need to grow from within.
Jacque: There is more coming.
Brian: Good. Yes. Yes. There are. There is a scripture we are going to read in a moment about Jesus and how our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever, but that is a reference to his character and his nature. But God is always doing something new. How many know that? If you go back to the dawn of time, there are some things that God instituted and implemented that have simply been closed for good. In other words, he is gone out of business. He is gone out of business. The title of my message actually is "Closed for Good". I want to talk about some of the things that God has closed and we keep trying to resurrect. How many know when God closes the door on something, if you try to keep opening it, you are going to get a big bump on your head from beating your head against that door that's never going to open and it creates all sorts of problems.
I recall back when I was young, there were many things that I was asked to participate in and go to and what have you, and being raised in a kind of holiness Pentecostal background, I got used to saying a specific phrase that became synonymous, I feel, with the denomination that I grew up in and that phrase is "that's against my religion." Have you ever heard that phrase before? That's against my religion. Embedded in that phrase, is the understanding or the idea that Christianity is a religion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Christianity is not a religion. As a matter of fact, Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion from the mind and heart of God. It's not a proclamation of a new religion. The cross was not a proclamation that a new religion is now being started on the face of the earth. It wasn't even a proclamation that Christianity was now going to become the best of all religions. The cross on the other hand is really the sign that God has gone out of the religion business. There are a lot of religions in the Old Testament there has been and is, and we are going to see how God brought all that to a close.
The fact of the matter is religion has never solved the world's problems. The cross is an example of the fact that God began to solve the world's problems apart from religion. Man didn't have to do a single thing to become the beneficiary of what Jesus did other than, of course, you had to believe to receive. But all throughout scripture believing and receiving is not considered a work of righteousness. It's not considered work. It was simply considered receiving a gift. What the cross of Jesus Christ— and we are going to celebrate communion at the end of our service today. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion really can't do a thing about the world's problems and that it never has been able to do a thing about the world's problems and it never will, and in many, many cases, religion has contributed to the world's problems.
We probably all know family members or friends or people that we've been associated with in our lives who've completely turned their back on God because of how the church has represented him through history, as well as how the church has treated them under the auspices of this is what our religion requires. Hebrews 13, eight says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. This is a reference to God's nature or his character. It's not in reference to how God has governed throughout history, but his nature, his character is unchanging. His heart is pure. He is full of unconditional agape love, but the ways that God works through humanity and has been working with humanity has always been changing.
Centuries before Jesus came on the scene, about 700 years., actually— that's a long time. We have a hard time relating to that. We go back maybe 250, 300 years in our history in America, and we feel like that's really old. The house I live in was built in 1912. It's 110 years old. And people say, "Man, do you live in an old house." If you go to Norway, they don't even consider something old until it's 250 years old. We have relatives that have homes and structures on their property that were built in the 1500s, but for centuries before the birth of Christ, Jesus came on the scene and the prophet Isaiah spoke a really, really interesting declaration. We find it in Isaiah 43:18 in 19. We are going to read this out of the Good News Translation.
Jacque: But the Lord says do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I'm going to do. It is happening already. You can see it now.
Brian: This coming August, we will be celebrating or experiencing celebrating the 25th anniversary of the beginning of hope community church. We had some discussions over the past few months about what we should do on our 25th anniversary. We talked about different things and what have you, but at the end of the day, I feel like the Lord used this verse to say, Brian, don't look behind you, look forward. God has done a lot of great things. We want to be thankful to the Lord. We want to be thankful to the people who helped us get to where we are at. You are part of that, and some of you who are watching online are also part of that. But God is doing a new thing at Hope. Norbert and Leslie will probably attest to you. There is a new vibe here that wasn't here maybe before. There is a new thing that God is doing.
If we are going to learn from the God who comes to us through Jesus, we are going to have to be a people poised for change. How many hate change?
Jacque: I love it.
Brian: Jackie loves change. She likes to rearrange the furniture after I've gone to bed at night.
Jacque: That was my dad's joke.
Brian: Oh, that was your dad's joke. Tripping over stuff that wasn't where it was when I went to bed. I don't know. But the thing about change is this: change always means the beginning of something new, which is partnered with the end of something old.
Jacque: Say that again.
Brian: Change is always the beginning of new, but it is partnered with the end of something old. We don't always like to give up the old, do we? We want to cling to those traditions of our past that affected us in a positive way, but Jesus brought an end to something old and he replaced it with something new. You know what that new was? Himself. That's why the religious leaders were so resistant to Jesus, because Jesus was actually replacing their very vocations with what he came to do. Because their whole day consisted of sacrificing bulls and goats and this and that and what have you, going through real ritualistic cleansing, going through all of these things. Many of the religious leaders had created a huge profit margin in doing all that. Their very vocations were being eliminated with the arrival of Jesus.
Jesus is the end of religion in two very distinct and important ways. The first is this: Jesus abolished the old covenant in favor of a new covenant. Jesus is really the cessation of the way of law, rules regulations in favor of the way of what Pastor Robert was talking about just moments ago, in favor of love and grace. WE see Paul writing about this in the book of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, where he says this.
Jacque: For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body, he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. He abolished the Jewish law with its commandments and rules in order to create out of the two races, one new people in union with himself in this way, making peace.
Brian: One of the distinctions that Israel had from all the other nations was the Law of Moses. That's one of the things that made them very distinct. What they missed the boat on in all of this was that the law was given to point them and bring them to Jesus. When Jesus arrives on the scene in the fullness of time, as the scripture says, when he arrived on the scene, instead of welcoming him with open arms and saying, this is who we have been waiting for, they resisted him because he was going to bring an end to something old to implement something new.
We see that there was animosity between the Jewish nation and the rest of the nations. We also see that Jesus said that he wanted to bring peace by making the Jews and the Gentiles one people. And how was he going to do that? With his own body, the sacrifice that he made on the cross. There was a separation that existed between Jews and Gentiles and Jesus was trying to eliminate that separation and he did it and accomplished it through what we are going to celebrate here in a few moments with communion, the death of Jesus. We see John, the apostle saying it this way in John chapter 1, verse 17.
Jacque: For the law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
Brian: So again, we see this contradiction or this distinction that the law was give through Moses, but God's love, his unfailing love, his faithfulness came through the person of Jesus. Let's look at another verse: Hebrews chapter 10:8-10.
Jacque: First, he said, you neither want, nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings.
Brian: This is actually Jesus talking. This is talking about Jesus, where Jesus actually said, what?
Jacque: You neither want, nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins.
Brian: So here is Jesus praying and talking to his father in heaven. And he says, you neither want, nor are you even pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar or these kinds of sacrifices to take away sins. And then he goes on.
Jacque: He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the law.
Brian: They were still in compliance with the law of Moses. They were in compliance with all that.
Jacque: Then Jesus said, here I am, oh God, to do your well. So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place.
Brian: So he did away with all of that. Here is the thing that we struggle with. Some of us understand that we are not sacrificing bulls and goats and all that stuff now. We would have a hard time in our culture in America if we tried to implement that kind of practice, but there is a whole lot of other things in the Law of Moses that we want to hang on to. Let me tell you what law brings. It brings judgment and condemnation. We are going to see in a little bit, that's the failure of the law. It doesn't take away sin. It doesn't take away guilt. It doesn't take away shame. And in our culture today, we have more mental illness than at any other time in our history. I would submit to you, putting more laws on people, putting more "thou shalt do this" on people is not going to alleviate the mental stress and the emotional stress and the mental illness that our country and or people around the world struggle with. But what we need is more of Jesus.
We need someone who can deal with the pain of people's hearts. We need someone who can deal with the mental anguish that we struggle with because of rejection and all of the sins that come against us in our life. Paul, I think Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but if he didn't, whoever is the writer of the Book of Hebrew, said this. Go on.
Jacque: Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do. We are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all.
Brian: There is no question that sin, whether it's sins we've committed or sins that have been committed against us, have a devastating effect on our lives, very devastating. That's why we shouldn't sin, but the scriptures also say, can a Leopard change his spots? The answer to that is no. We have a fallen nature, don't we? Without Christ in us, we are just going to live that natural life of being a sinner, which is going to bring more consequences and more devastation into our lives. That's just the nature of things. We need this help from outside of us. That help is found in the person of Jesus Christ and his love for us and his mercy for us and his grace for us.
When God speaks of a new covenant, it means that he has made the first one obsolete. There is no need for it anymore. It's now out of date and God's intention is for it to disappear altogether, not just partly disappear, but disappear together. Let's look at one more scripture in the book of Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13.
Jacque: When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
Brian: Let's read that again. All those of you who feel we need to have more laws, I heard of a pastor recently. You told me this. He had a podcast. He said, "The problem with the church is we need more law." We don't need more law. We need more of Jesus. We need more of his grace. His grace isn't just permission to live sinfully without consequences. Grace is divine empowerment, divine empowerment to live how he wants us to live. Divine empowerment to actually love that person who curses you, divine empowerment to love that person who despitefully used you, divine empowerment to pray for that person who has spoken evil of you. That's what we need. That's what we need. Read this again, Jacque.
Jacque: When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
Brian: When this really hit me, I thought, man, this is borderline shocking, this verse . This is one part of the Bible calling another part of the Bible obsolete. It is; this verse is calling a whole section of the scriptures obsolete. Now, just to be clear, the Old Testament is not obsolete in totality because there are many parts of it— Jesus, actually on the road to Emmaus, unless you are in Israel, then it's emus. But we've always said Emmaus my whole life, so I'm going to still say Emmaus. But Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, talking to the due disciples started from the law and the prophets and the history and talked to these two disciples about himself. So the Old Testament is in totality obsolete because there are many things in the Old Testament that refer to Jesus. There are many things in the old Testament, especially Psalms and Proverbs, that are great instructional things and inspirational things. There are many parts that point to Jesus. However, as a binding covenant of rules and rituals and observances and laws and obligations to set us somehow apart to God. It's over. It's obsolete. It's dead. It's done. It's six feet under. And any other words you can come up with to describe dead. Do you remember the movie with Keith Wilder and Gilda Radner? They were in this small plane and the pilot died.
Jacque: Hanky Panky.
Brian: Yeah. The pilot dies, and one person is sitting in the back and asked— I can't remember who was in the front.
Jacque: Gilda was in the back. Keith was in the front. And he said, "The pilot's dead."
Brian: And she says, "Don't say dead!"
Jacque: Keith Wilder said that. Gilda said the pilot's dead. The woman saw the situation for what it was. And he said, "Don't say dead!"
Brian: Just ask him what we should do?
Jacque: I can't ask him. He is dead.
Brian: Don't say dead!
Jacque: Ask him what we should do. Do you know what we should do?
Brian: Well, he is dead, so he doesn't answer. What did he say? What did the pilot say?
Jacque: He didn't say anything.
Brian: He is dead. This old covenant is dead.
Jacque: No matter how much we want to ignore it.
Brian: No matter how much we want to ignore it, or no matter how much we want to resurrect it. You know what we want to do? We want to extract behavior out of people by putting rules on them. That's what we want to do. God wants to extract behavior— Behavior is important. It matters to me how my wife treats me. It matters to you if I'm faithful to my wife, doesn't it? Does it matter to you if I'm going to be faithful to my wife? It certainly does matter to you. Our behavior matters, but my behavior can't be extracted out of me by having some kind of rule over my head and some kind of devastating consequence happen to me. If I don't comply, because then all we are going to get is behavior. But what Jesus is interested in is our hearts. If he has my heart, then he will have my behavior. He will have my behavior.
Jacque: It comes out of my love for him.
Brian: It comes out of love. All of these attempts to extract behavior on people by using more law is reverting back to a covenant that's dead. It's dead. And I know some of you are saying, "Don't say dead!" But it's dead. The second thing— I have to hurry here. The second way that Jesus is the end of religion is that Jesus himself is the goal or the fulfillment or the culmination or the end point or the hope of all that we've ever desired in religion. The writers or the New Testament said the people in the Old Testament just longed, they longed for what was to come, meaning someone to love them and have a relationship with them and someone who could take care of their guilt and their shame, but all them sacrifices, it just kind of postponed all of it until Jesus could come.
You see when a train reaches its destination, the people get off the train because it has run its course, especially for those people who are on the train. The purpose of that train ride has been fulfilled. Because you see a train gets its passengers to a destination, but the train is never ever the destination. The old covenant was the train. The old covenant was the train that was trying to get its passengers to a destination, and that destination was Jesus. It was Jesus. And this is precisely why Paul says this in Colossians 2:17.
Jacque: For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
Brian: He equates the law as simply a shadow and a shadow is something that maybe gives an outline and what have you of reality. But the shadow is never the reality. There is another scripture here in Hebrews 10:1-7. Let's read that really quickly.
Jacque: The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.
Brian: The law was never the good thing itself. It was simply a shadow or a train to get people to a destination.
Jacque: The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.
Brian: Let me pause you there for a second. Aren't you thankful that even during our worship this morning, we could just pause and just thank God for the total cleansing of our sins, the total forgiveness of our shame and the release of any oppression. But the old sacrificial system never did that. Year after year after year, but they were never able to provide the perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.
Jacque: If they could have provided cleansing, the sacrifices would've stopped, for the worshipers would've been purified once for all time and their feelings of guilt would've disappeared. But instead those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Brian: Let me stop you there again. Many people come to church and every time they come to church, they are reminded of all their failures. Now let me ask you a question. Why would you continue to keep going someplace that reminds you are nothing but a failure? Why would you do that? It's like the guy that kept hitting his finger with his hammer. Why are you doing that? Well, I guess it feels so good when I stop. It's really sad that it feels better when you leave church than when you come. That's not what God's plan is for the house of the Lord. That's not what God's plan is for the community of faith. And so we see that these people kept coming and their feelings of guilt would get worse and worse and worse rather than disappearing, but instead—
Jacque: That is why when Christ came into the world, he said to God, you did not want animal sacrifices for sin offerings, but you have given me a body to offer. You are not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, I have come to do your will, oh God as is written about me in the scriptures.
Brian: These are pretty clear, aren't they? These are pretty clear. 1:22:00 The old covenant routines of animal sacrifices and all of the other aspects of the law, such as not planting two different grains in the same field, not having multiple fabrics in the same garment and all sorts of things like that. There are scores more.
Jacque: Brian, I always remember you calling having distinctions for the law, like ceremonial law, moral law.
Brian: Yes. There are people who've done it. I've done that. But if you actually look in the Hebrew, they don't make a distinction. The law is the law. The law is the law. They never broke it down. We broke it down to give definition to it. I think as a church, we did that so that we could keep some of the law to keep implementing on people and coercing behavior out of people. The routines of animal sacrifices and all these other things that became so religiously embedded into the Jewish culture and ultimately even in the church culture never really actually accomplished anything in changing people's hearts. They did. They never changed people's hearts and they never made a true spiritual impact on the souls of the practitioners. It's not that these routines were useless. I don't believe they were useless. They just weren't useful in the way that Jesus is useful in the way that people thought, because they were simply a shadow of things. They actually really didn't do anything that was actually needed in the hearts of people. Shadows don't have any power in and of themselves in any way. A shadow could give us a hint or clue. If we look at a shadow and the sun shining from behind us, and we look at a shadow, we can see, oh, there is an outline here. Is that a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? I don't know.
But a shadow can give us hints and clues and contours of a reality, but they are never the reality itself. And Jesus is the reality. Jesus is the reality in the same way that a caterpillar's life as a caterpillar must end in order to give way to the butterfly, the old covenant has to end for the new covenant to thrive. When we try to keep exerting behavior out of people by coercive law, rather than love and dedication to Jesus, what ends up happening is instead of becoming a butterfly, we try to revert back to being a caterpillar.
Pastor Jeff really, really helped us with this. I think it's probably at least 10 years ago now when we had been talking about membership at Hope on and off throughout the years and I was always struggling with the model that most churches implement and practice for membership. And because most churches practice membership this way, that if you believe in these things, and if you will behave in this manner, like when I was young, the behavior that was focused on was no smoking, drinking, going to dances or movies. That was our denomination. If you didn't smoke or drink, go to dances or movies, you could then be accepted into membership at our church.
At other churches, it might be something different, but it always began with, what do you believe? Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I can check the boxes. Okay. Now, will you promise to behave this way? And made a list of things. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. If you believe this and behave this way, you can belong here. And then we began to think about how Jesus is and how Jesus says come as you are. Come as you are and I'll give you a place to belong. You belong with me because all your sins have been dealt with. All of the things between you and my father in heaven. I've cleared out of the way you belong here, but there is still bad thinking and there is probably still some bad behavior within the framework of that person. That's okay, you belong here.
If you keep hanging out with Jesus, you know what's going to happen? You are going to start thinking like Jesus, amen. If you keep hanging out with Jesus, you are going to start thinking like Jesus, and if you start thinking like Jesus, you are going to start behaving like Jesus. But it doesn't start with believing and behaving and then you can belong. It starts with belonging, and then we will believe, and then hopefully we will begin to start behaving ourselves as we would say to our kids: just behave yourself. But the home was always there for that child to be welcomed in. And there is a home for us. It's with Jesus. We don't need more law. We don't need a resurrection of that, which God has said is obsolete. We don't need more rules and regulations for people with their judgment and condemnation when we don't comply. What we need is more of Jesus. We need more of his divine power to transform our hearts and our minds.
This is part of the reason why, even though sometimes my schedule doesn't allow me to be at the reaching for more at 6:45 every night, I do a reaching for more virtually every day. I take time out of my day and say, I need more of you, Jesus. I need more of the river of life from your throne of grace to flow through me. I need more of you. Jesus. I need you to help me become like you. I need your love. I need your grace. I need your mercy. There is so much of me that I don't like, father. I need more of you and me so that all this stuff in me that I don't like you can clean out of me.
When we give ourselves to Jesus in that way, that's when the law will die and love will begin to reign. I tell you, my friends, every single one of us who have been changed from the inside out were not changed by more rules and laws. We were changed because of the unconditional love of Jesus.
Jacque: It makes me think of that verse: It's the kindness of God that brings us to repentance.
Brian: If we can just meditate on that, like Welton was saying, kind of ponder, ponder and think, just think about the goodness of God. Just think about what Jesus has done. And when I do that, I actually begin to like people that don't like me. I've kind of referenced this on a few occasions in the past, but Jesus is the love potion number 9. You take a drink of Jesus and you just might find yourself going around, kissing everything in sight.
Jacque: I loved what pastor Roberts said today: when we don't love it's that our hearts are tainted. As I just spend time in his presence and just receive his love, he pushes out all of that and heals my heart. I want to have a whole and healthy heart, that can love that can be his hands extended and love.
Brian: There is no question that maybe all of us to some degree or another need heart surgery. Some of us more than others. Maybe you only need one single bypass. I might need a quadruple bypass in my heart, but you know what? Jesus is the divine heart surgeon and he can make our hearts healthy and whole. But our hearts will never get healthy and whole by trying to measure up by doing this rule, that rule, this rule, that rule. Finding ourselves failing, and then feeling more and more miserable and then we find ourselves hiding, don't we? We build up walls. We don't want to become transparent because what would other people think of all my failures? And then even as Steve shared with the newcomers, at one point in his life, he got to the point, "I have messed up so bad. I might just really go all the way, messing up, because there is no hope for me."
Jacque: He missed the message of grace. That was so good, Steve
Brian: Grace changed his heart. Grace changed his life and he is worshiping the Lord today as one of our worship leaders because of the grace of Jesus, not because of another rule that was placed over his head. We are going to celebrate that grace by having communion today. Pastor Robert and Pat, if you'd come and, and help distribute the emblems here. Again, we still have the COVID friendly communion. We are slowly going to move towards the other, but we just feel this is what we need to do for now.
Jesus is what and who we are celebrating. When we receive communion and we take the bread and we eat that, and Jesus said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me, there was a spiritual dimension that happened in the eating of the lamb, and that was, the people of Egypt were healed, and then they took this journey of Exodus. I just truly believe that many of us get plagued with physical maladies. And sometimes, they become our familiar friend in a sense, or at least a familiar enemy that we just tolerate. I just believe in asking largely of God. And so when we take communion today, if you have a need in your body, maybe you've been a diabetic for your whole life, but let's ask God to heal your pancreas and all these other organs that help with that area, and be whole.
If you have a bad back, a deteriorated disc in your back, and the doctors have said, well, this is just how it's going to be for you, and maybe like our friend, Lori, who has had many surgeries, let's believe for God to do a creative miracle that there would be a new back there, a new disc, a new knee, a new hip. Let's ask God to do these things. Let's believe God for it. And then when we drink the cup together, what we are doing is we are celebrating. That kind of sounds like an oxymoron. We are celebrating the death of somebody, but it's not like "ding dong, the witch is dead" type of celebration. It's really a reminder that there is no more shame. All the guilt is gone. It's a relationship that has been made new for us. This is because of the blood of Christ.
As we take these emblems, we recognize that these are just representations. They, in a sense, symbolically represent the body of our Lord and the blood of our Lord. So let's take the bread together. Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, he did take the bread that represented his body although the disciples didn't know it at the moment. He said, "This bread is my body, which is broken for you." So let's eat it all in remembrance of him. Let's eat it together, shall we?
After they had finished eating the bread, he took the cup and he lifted it up and he blessed it. And then he said something new that the disciples had never heard before. He said, "This cup is my blood, which will be shed for you and it is for the remission of your sins." That was the first time that word had ever been used in all of the history of mankind. Because the old covenant, which was now being done away with in the last supper and the cross, was this, not sure what the term is, but it was when the caterpillar became the butterfly. This transformation, this transition was happening and the old was dying and the new was being birthed. Jesus said, "Your sins are no longer going to be swept under the carpet or covered, but they are going to be gone. They are going to be eliminated."
You no longer have to carry the shame and be reminded every Sunday that you come to church, that you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you are a sinner, but that every Sunday that you come to church, you are restored, you are forgiven, you are new. The blood of Jesus is what does that. The blood of Jesus that was shed for us, brought about the elimination of my guilt, the elimination of my sins. And so Jesus, we celebrate your work of victory. We remember your cross. As we drink this communion, it represents your blood that was shed for us for the remission of our sins. They no longer have a hold on us. They no longer have a memory talent into our minds, but they are gone. Our sins are separated from us as far as the east is from the west, buried in the deepest sea, never to be ever found again. And we drink this cup in celebration of what you did for us. And we, Lord, want to walk in our freedom today. This we pray, Jesus, in your name. Let's drink this together. Pastor Jeff, would you come please?
Jeff: Wow. Well, after such a wonderful message, if there is anybody here or watching on live stream, that hasn't yet opened your heart to Jesus, I don't think you could help, but understand right now that his heart is open to you. He has opened as a heart and he has opened his arms wide to welcome you into the family. If you are not in that family yet, if you haven't said yes to Jesus, I want to just take a minute and give anybody who is here an opportunity to do that. His arms are wide open. Picture him standing in front of you with his arms wide open and all you have to do is step towards him and say, yes, Jesus. I want to be in your family. I want to be your child. Come and forgive my sins, please. There are many, and begin your heart surgery on me. Please change my life. I want to be yours.
I just got a sense that if there is anybody here, who is feeling like your faith is a little stale right now, it's a great time to refresh it, because his arms are wide open to you too. They have never been closed. You might feel distant from the Lord right now. You might have walked with Jesus for 50 years and right now you are feeling quite far away. But guess what? He is not the one who moved. And his arms are wide open to you. If you are one of those who happens to be here today, then all you have to say is, "I'm coming back," and take that step towards him. He will embrace you, and you can begin the journey again of the change of your heart and the transformation of your life. Thank you for being here, everybody.
If there is something that you need that you feel like didn't get resolved in the course of communion, we will have individuals up here to pray for you. We really do welcome you to come and receive prayer for anything. Prayer is a wonderful thing and we are experiencing a lot of answers lately. So for those of you who need something, come and get the prayer because we would like to hear about more answers. God bless you all. Thanks so much for being here. Pastor Brian.
Brian: If any of you have not yet met Norbert and Leslie, make sure you introduce yourself to them after the service today. We are so thankful that you are here celebrating this wonderful Memorial, which is remembering Jesus. We do thank all the people who have defended us throughout the years. My dad and Jacque's dad were world war II vets. And we also remember Lou limbo. I know Nick and Joe, you are watching by live stream down in Arizona. We are so thankful for your dad, Nick. Lou, who was part of the Battle of the Bulge. My father-in-law was a navigator and a B17. My dad was instrumental in part of the D-Day invasion and the Canadian Navy back in the day. So we are thankful for people who have given their lives, our freedoms, but the greatest freedom that we celebrate is the freedom from sin. We celebrated that today. And so thank you for celebrating that with us. Let's raise our hands together. Let me bless you.
Now, may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and 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 walk in the love of Jesus now and forever more. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit on. Amen. Have a wonderful day. Have a great vacation day tomorrow. If you need prayer, please feel free to come forward and we'll pray for you here today. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-29-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.