The Weekly Church Gathering

[0:00] Good morning, everybody, and those who are new, so glad you're here. If you're listening online, glad you're doing that as well. And like Kirk said, we're in this series. Actually, this is the final installment of our series, and we chose to launch into 2024 this way.

[0:14] And the name of the series is titled The Way, Becoming More Like Jesus, which is what following Jesus means. We follow Jesus to become more like him. That is the actual goal. And we've looked at what he calls us to do and what that looks like following him in a few different environments.

[0:30] We looked at solitude. We looked at the small kind of one another gatherings. We would call them community groups, spiritual friendships, that kind of thing. But today, we are looking at the weekly church gathering, which is what we're doing right now.

[0:44] So give yourself a pat on the back. Well done. You're already like following Jesus in the way. Those of you who are here in the room. And to be honest, it's probably the most followed Christian discipline. And I also realize that as much as it's the most followed, that's not true for everybody.

[1:01] Some of us, we might prefer the solitude or the small group environment. And while those things are absolutely pivotal important, it shouldn't come at the expense of the weekly church gathering.

[1:12] These aren't like either or things. They are and, and, and when it comes to following Jesus. And you know, we can even look at Jesus's life. He modeled it for us.

[1:22] If you wanted to find Jesus on a, on a Sabbath day, your best bet was to go to your local synagogue. You see it all through the gospels. On the Sabbath, Jesus is in the synagogue, teaching, healing, doing all kinds of stuff.

[1:33] That's where he was on that day. And it was important for Jesus. And so as his followers should be important for us, right? And the Bible explicitly says to us in Hebrews 10, 25, that not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

[1:51] And all the more as you see the day drawing near. And so we, we see this encouragement, this command to the disciples in this letter to Hebrew Christians.

[2:02] And they, in their day, were being persecuted. It wasn't that easy for them to meet together. But you can look at this and you can see like, okay, meet together. Is that like just any kind of meeting, any kind of size gathering, no matter where it is, as long as Jesus is kind of sprinkled in.

[2:16] But saying a prayer at the beginning of game night with some friends isn't what this verse had in mind. That's not what is going on here. You might argue this fact, but doesn't Jesus say that he's present wherever two or three are gathered in his name?

[2:31] And I would say yes and amen to that, right? He did say that. You might even say, isn't the most, isn't that what church is? Church is people, not a building. Absolutely. People plus Jesus equals the church.

[2:44] And in a sense, that is absolutely right. Church isn't a building, it's people. But in another sense, it's actually a bad interpretation of that particular scripture that we just read. Because that Greek word translated meet together, it doesn't mean just any simple form of grouping of Christians being gathered together.

[3:02] It has something very specific in mind. It means a complete collection or a full accounting of. So if you're thinking about this Hebrew author is writing to Hebrew Christians, he's expecting them to be connected to a local church body.

[3:17] And he's saying, hey, don't neglect that full collection, that being counted in that full assembly when that happens, right? On the Lord's day or on resurrection day, which is what they did.

[3:30] And what the church has continued to do throughout the last 2,000 years. And that means this Hebrew writer had that specifically in mind.

[3:41] And this verse is an encouragement to everybody to attend their local church gathering. Now again, back then, that was written as an encouragement for very legitimate reasons.

[3:52] Because there was this growing hostility, outright hostility towards Christians. And it was more than just people saying mean things to you. People who were labeled Jesus followers were open to persecution.

[4:07] Persecutions like imprisonment, the confiscation of their property, all the way up to death even in some cases. And yet, God is telling us and telling his people in his word, don't forsake that full assembly.

[4:20] Don't do it. No matter what it may cost you, it is one of the most important things that you need to engage in. Why? Because, like as it said in that verse, we all need encouragement.

[4:31] And that is a great place we can find encouragement. And today, we need that same reminder. Today, we need those same encouragements as we go about living our life. Because we are tempted to treat this gathering, what we do on a Sunday, as kind of an optional extra of following Jesus.

[4:48] Hey, I love Jesus. And that Sunday gathering, yeah, if I can make it, I can make it. But if I don't, it's really no big deal. Now, we don't have the same persecution problem as Christian Hebrews did back then.

[5:00] But we may have a priority problem today because we have a lot of good options besides going to church on a Sunday, right? We can put a lot of other things before the Sunday gathering.

[5:12] And a lot of this, what we're talking about today, it begins with this idea of just putting God first. It is about priorities. And so, my hope is that I can help us recover this prioritizing of the weekly church gathering by giving us a more robust, a biblical vision of what can happen in this meeting today.

[5:34] And let me be honest. Like, so far, what's happened in service today has made the case pretty easy so far, right? I mean, it's been amazing. God, there's joy in the house of the Lord, like we sang.

[5:46] I mean, you can feel it. You can sense it. The baptism, everything. Man, there's been good things. But still, there is so much more for us to learn and grab a hold of. And let me just say this.

[5:59] You might be thinking like, man, is this absolutely necessary? Well, I want to say you can still go to heaven and rarely attend the weekly church gathering.

[6:10] Absolutely, you can. But that isn't the argument. We're not talking about salvation and eternal life and entrance into eternal life. You're not getting up to heaven and God saying like, let me check your church attendance. Okay, cool.

[6:22] That's good enough. You can come in. No, no, we're not talking about that, right? We're talking about becoming more like Jesus, right? We're talking about the way, becoming more like him. That's the goal. And here's the thing.

[6:32] The more you and I become like Jesus, the more you love what he loves. And his love for us, you know what it did? It took him to the cross. Because love does whatever it takes to close the gap, to be in relationship, to be connected with one another.

[6:50] And Jesus wants that personal relationship with us. But that's not all. Jesus died to create a loving family. But he also died to bring us into that loving family.

[7:03] And nothing expresses this more clearly than Ephesians 2, verse 13. It says, Check this out.

[7:47] Check this out. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then, because of all that Jesus did, all that we just talked about, all that he accomplished, we didn't do any of this.

[7:59] So then, you are no longer strangers. What are you? You're not aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, with those who have been set apart, sanctified, made holy through the blood of Jesus and all that he has done.

[8:15] And you are now members of the household of God. That's who you are. All right? We were far off. Now we're brought near by the blood of Jesus.

[8:27] We were separated from God and from his family, but in Jesus' broken body and his bloodshed, we are now brought together, united to him, through him, and around him. We are fellow citizens, saints, and members of God's household.

[8:41] That's family language. Church. Now, I realize this could be good news for many, but for some, this could be difficult to wrap our minds and our hearts around because we might have grown up in great homes.

[8:56] We might have grown up in dysfunctional or abusive homes. So it's difficult to appreciate this idea of church as family. Or you might have been to church and been hurt by church. And so you carry those wounds with you.

[9:07] And it's hard to think of like, man, coming into a place where you could be the household of God and feel that willingness to open up and be interconnected with other human beings.

[9:19] And let's be honest, we're a little bit messy. We're all in process of being sanctified. We're not perfect. We're saved. We're not perfect. But as we follow Jesus, we're becoming more like him.

[9:29] Now, both of those things that I talked about, whether you come from a difficult, dysfunctional, abusive home, or you came from church hurt, those are unfortunate outcomes.

[9:40] And those are realities in the fallen world that we live in. But I've heard it said, and I think this is very wise saying, when you get hurt in community, you can only be healed in community.

[9:51] So if you've been hurt in your family of origin or by your family of origin, your healing can only take place in the household of God. The church is God's family.

[10:04] We are God's family. Brought together by the blood of Jesus around the person of Jesus. The Bible says we are held together, not by our own works, but by these bonds of peace that he keeps and he binds us together in him and his love and through the spirit.

[10:23] And there's this beautiful calling of commitment to one another in that truth. And that is meant to be good news for us. That is not bad news. See, when we come together, committed to one another, just like Jesus is committed to each of us, it creates this space for God to work in two ways.

[10:42] First, like we are the object of his grace. Jesus, so when you're here today, you have probably, many of us in the room have already felt like, man, God has so blessed me with the singing and all these ways.

[10:56] Beholding this baptism, this young man professing his faith in Jesus, man, that grace comes to us and it hits us. We are the object of God's love and affection. And that's one way that it works.

[11:07] He works in us. He does, it flows to us, but he also works through us. Meaning his grace doesn't just come to us, it flows to us as well.

[11:17] And that's what can happen at the weekly gathering. At the weekly gathering, God's grace flows to us and it flows through us. One of the greatest expressions of God's grace can happen here on a Sunday, but we have to believe this to be true, what I just said.

[11:34] We have to believe that God's grace flows in those two directions, to us and through us. And when we come to the weekly church gathering, what it means, it's this opportunity to bring our best.

[11:48] And I'm not talking about dressing your best. I'm not talking about being fake and slapping on a fake smile, even if you might be hurting or I'm not talking about that kind of stuff. What I mean is that when we gather together like this, it's an opportunity to bring what God has given you.

[12:03] But this means we have to have, we have to understand the fullness of God's grace toward us. And what happens is we often narrow that to our sins being washed away, being forgiven, being made a new creation, being justified in Christ.

[12:16] And I don't want to downplay that. I don't want to say that like that's not important. Actually, we need to hold on to that because that is absolutely amazing. And that is never going to change. That is like the bedrock, the foundation of your identity in Christ and who you are.

[12:30] And you need to be solidified in those things. Never let go of that. But I just want to say this, God has even more grace than that. It goes even beyond that. The Greek word for grace in the New Testament is this word charis.

[12:45] And I'm not saying that to try to impress you, but it's going to be helpful in a moment. You'll see why. And that word charis, it refers to a king or a master that extends himself towards his servants, towards those lower than him in order that he might bless them simply because he wants to do that, not because they earned it.

[13:05] And that's what God does, doesn't he? He is this almighty father. Jesus is the king of heaven who unceasingly extends himself to us with favor, with his loving kindness, and with his goodwill towards us.

[13:20] And he constantly, unceasingly does that all the time. And that is God's grace flowing to you. And then there's the other side of this grace.

[13:31] How does it flow through you to others? How does that work? Well, one of the ways is by the fruits of the spirit that flow out of our lives, right? The fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness.

[13:44] Think about all those things, man. When those things are in you and coming out of you, who does it benefit? Well, it benefits you to a degree, but it really benefits those that are around you, right? It flows to you and through others.

[13:57] People of the spirit that are full of the spirit are displaying his character. That is the fruits of the spirit coming out of us. And yet another way God's grace flows through you to others is by the gifts of grace that he gives to you.

[14:10] And this gets back to the idea of like, hey, we need to be grounded in the understanding that like this word for grace, charis, guess what? It is worked out how God extends himself to us in that grace, comes through in these things called gifts of grace, which is charismas, spelled the same way.

[14:29] It's that word grace with the word M-A-S on the end of it. God extends himself to us, charis, by giving gifts to us, charismas. But these gifts are how God's grace flows through us to others.

[14:45] And you know what? He uses regular people like you and me. Like there's no like varsity versus JV Christianity. It just doesn't exist.

[14:56] So how does this work out? Well, here's a sample where we see both charis and charismas in the same sentence. Romans 12 verse 6. It says this, having gifts, charismas, that differ according to the grace or charis given to us, let us use them.

[15:16] If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in his generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

[15:32] And that's not the only place this appears. In 1 Corinthians 12, charisma occurs five times. Now there are a variety of gifts, charismas, but the same spirit.

[15:43] And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

[15:57] Grace to you, grace through you. Most churches, most Christians, I think, would have no problem saying yes and amen to what 1 Corinthians 12 describes here as practicing every variety of service, all these variety of activities or ministries.

[16:13] Man, those are great. But we do get a little spooked at the variety of gifts. And let's be honest, there's good reason for that. Because from charisma, you get the term charismatic. And under that banner of Christianity, some good stuff has happened, but some really weird stuff has happened.

[16:28] Let's be honest, right? There's been a lot of abuse that's happened with that. A lot of heresy that has happened with that. But you know what? I can look back through church history at different times in church history and different flows and point to some bad practices in the reform camp, in the Baptist camp, in the Presbyterian camp too.

[16:45] What I'm saying is, I'm not trying to point fingers and make people feel bad about themselves. I'm saying, you know what? We shouldn't chuck the charisma baby out with the dirty charismatic bathwater. Okay? See, not too long ago, many USA churches practiced segregation in their service.

[17:01] A lot of different denominations did that. So black members could show up, but they had to sit in the cheap seats, separated from the white people. And when they took communion, they didn't even get to take from the same place.

[17:14] The white people did. That was not Bible. That was not God. That was terrible. And the church had to repent of that, and they had to correct that. But we don't chuck out the Bible because people mishandled it and misapplied it.

[17:29] What we have to do is we have to get back to living out the truth of the Bible and what it calls us and who it calls us to be. Right? The same goes with God's charismas.

[17:41] Look, if an undeniable, unchanging attribute of God is his grace, and I trust that we all believe that, so if that is true of God, is that he is a God of charis, a God of grace, then logically we should expect a God of charis to still be giving his people charismas.

[17:59] Right? And abuses in the charismatic world always come down to people using the gifts selfishly. But let's relook at verse 7 as to why God gives us these charismas, because it can help us understand this a little bit better.

[18:14] Verse 7, it says, Here's what I want us to realize, is that when each of us bring God's gifts, everyone experiences more of God's grace.

[18:33] It benefits the common good. It benefits all of us. So here's an analogy I like to use to make sense of this, right? I grew up going to these amazing Thanksgiving dinners in my family.

[18:44] Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, grandpa were there. It was full on. It was amazing. But you know what made it wonderful besides getting to see cousins and playing and all that? Is that Thanksgiving dinner, everybody brought their best dish.

[19:01] And because they did that, we feasted. And we feasted on the best. And it was amazing. We would come together and we would play and we would laugh and we would feast with the best food we'd have all year.

[19:15] Some of my fondest memories happened around that table. And that is a picture of what the weekly church gathering could be. Every member of my family was accounted for at those holiday dinners.

[19:27] And everyone brought their best to share, to add. And what that did, it just elevated the joy of that moment of being together. Now, you and I, we are a part of God's household.

[19:41] And we are a loving, connected family created by God's charism, created by his grace. And what he does is he gives us differing charismas or differing, different evidences of that grace so that when we come together, we can bring his best for all to enjoy.

[20:01] And when we come with that mindset, when we gather together here, our weekly gathering, when we come with that mindset that that can happen, God could use us to add to the feast of grace that we all get to enjoy.

[20:16] You know what? This turns into a buffet of God's grace. But what does it mean? What does that mean practically? What does it mean to bring what God's given you?

[20:27] Well, let's first consider what God says his gifts are. And there's two places where you see that most clearly. That's Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And you can look at that and there's a nice little list compiled of specific and general gifts.

[20:42] And these aren't exhausted, but it's a good start. And so we see things like prophecy and teaching, teaching like what I'm doing now, exhortation, you know, encouraging one another, provoking one another.

[20:53] They're serving. And we got serve teams that do all kinds of things on a Sunday. Kids ministry folks over there, hospitality team, our musicians that come. And all these folks, they come together and they serve and they pour themselves out.

[21:05] And you know what? A lot of us are blessed because of that, whether we realize it or not. You got banging coffee in the back because somebody shows up and they do, they make the coffee.

[21:16] Communion gets prepared and set out and we make sure that there's chairs out, you know. And even this week we have cushions to sit on. It's amazing. And the musicians, man, they practice and they prepare and they come super early.

[21:31] Why? Man, because they're bringing their best so that we can all feast on the grace of God. That's what's happening. And we see from 1 Corinthians 12 stuff like wisdom and knowledge and faith and healing and working of miracles and distinguishing of spirits and tongues and interpretations.

[21:52] And now that's a whole different category list that we're like, say what? Is that really still possible? Is that a thing? And some of those, man, I want to be honest, they sound like way out there, right?

[22:05] We're comfy with the preaching and the teaching, the serving, the leading, the generosity, acts of mercy. Like we're familiar with that. All right? That's pretty kosher with us. And some of the other stuff, we're just like, what about that?

[22:19] It's a little bit scary, a little bit wild. We don't really know how that can work out in a Sunday gathering like this. It might involve a degree of possibly being wrong.

[22:31] And also, you know, there's this reality of you can't just turn them on and off at will, those kind of gifts. Like you can with serving, right? And those are all like legitimate concerns.

[22:44] I just want to honor that. Those are legitimate concerns we can have. And it's helpful to remember that we don't get to turn those on and off. Like nobody can point at me and say, okay, JC, prophesy right now.

[22:55] It's like, man, I got, you know, it's like the Holy Spirit's got to give me something. I can't just do that. And we have to remember that. It's the Holy Spirit who enables and empowers these gifts to happen.

[23:07] He is sovereign. God is sovereign. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of those are sovereign. We don't get to twist the Holy Spirit's arm. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, he is like the wind.

[23:21] He blows where he wants to. He blows where he wills. So don't try to force these things to happen. But we have to live with this expectation that the Spirit can operate in this way.

[23:33] With anyone, at any time, as he pleases. And that includes you and me. And that includes a possibility of that happening at our Sunday gatherings. Now, I want to say this.

[23:45] Just because the Spirit can bring grace through anyone at any time doesn't mean that the weekly gathering turns into a free-for-all. God's gifts are meant to be brought humbly, and they must yield to order and peace.

[24:01] That's really important. The Holy Spirit isn't about turning our Sunday, our weekly gatherings into open mic night, right? And I've known churches that have done that, and it doesn't work well.

[24:13] My dad's church, like, it started in the Jesus People movement. And if you're not familiar with that, that's like a long time ago, back in the 60s and 70s, with the hippies.

[24:23] And it was crazy, and it was out there. And so one of their services on a Saturday night, and it was evangelistic. And so one of the things they would do is they would do open mic. And anybody who had a testimony or felt they had a song from the Lord or a word from the Lord, they could come up and give it.

[24:38] So one day, this sincere man, young man, probably on drugs, because that was pretty normal back then. He walked up, took a guitar, and began to sing a song of the Lord that went like this.

[24:54] There's flies on you, and there's flies on me, but there ain't no flies on Jesus. Yes and amen, I guess, right? I'm just saying, when there is no checks and balances, when there is no boundary set into place, when there is no gatekeeping, things can get really, really weird in the name of being open to what the Spirit can do.

[25:28] That's all you're going to remember from this song, from this preach. You're just like, yeah. You're going to try to figure out what tune. You're like, well, let's set that to a tune. 1 Corinthians 14, 26 puts it this way.

[25:41] You know, what then, brothers? And Paul is speaking to a church that had a lot of spiritual gifts operating in, but they were doing it very messy. What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn and a lesson and a revelation and a tongue or an interpretation.

[25:57] Let all things be done for building up. So Paul's encouraging them like, hey, you know what? There should be these things happening. I'm encouraging you, man. When you're coming, come with something. That's what he's telling them to do.

[26:10] Come with something. But then how does that work out? When do you make that contribution? Well, isn't just shout it from your seat whenever you want?

[26:20] Because he goes on to explain, no, there's got to be order to this. These things have to be submitted to leaders to be tested and weighed up before they are given. Right?

[26:32] And that's the whole point. The gist of it is that every gift should be humbly submitted to trusted leadership. And so we come, we might come to our weekly gatherings with a plan, and we do. We know who's doing call to worship, what they're going to say, and the songs, and the sermon, and that, you know.

[26:46] We have a plan. And it's there for a good reason, right? If I showed up every Sunday just kind of like five minutes before, I was like, all right, Lord, what do you want to say today? It would not go very well.

[26:58] All right? The sermons would be terrible. The same if the musicians just showed up and didn't practice. So we got a plan. We got to prepare. But we realize at the same time, we have to be open that God might have something extra in store for us.

[27:13] So we kind of use the phrase, hey, we have a plan, but it's in pencil. And so we have to value and appreciate both. We plan and prepare. But, man, we're always open. Like, God, what are you saying and doing in this moment?

[27:25] What are you wanting to highlight? And the unexpected things, they have to come. They got to be weighed up by those who've planned and prepped for the Sunday and also have the spiritual authority in the room.

[27:37] And in the local church, that is the elders of the church, right? And the elders of the church is what we call the pastors or the overseers or the bishops, whatever you want to call them. It's the same office.

[27:50] They provide the oversight and care over the local church. So if you feel you got a prophetic word or an encouraging scripture to give or a word of knowledge from God that you feel might not just be for you but might be something that the whole church needs to hear, you don't shout it from your seat.

[28:05] You don't, like, try to run up here and grab the microphone and go for it. No, no, you come and you submit it for it to be tested and weighed before it's given publicly. I've seen this work very effectively in many, many churches, and we need those kind of safeguards and boundaries.

[28:20] And as Paul kind of closes the argument on this here, he says this in verse 33, God is not a God of confusion but a God of peace or a God of order.

[28:32] So where does that leave us today? Well, we can walk away with a whole lot of new information in our heads and being like, oh, that was a great teaching. Cool. I learned a lot of new stuff and do nothing about it.

[28:46] But I just want to say this. These gifts that we're talking about, they aren't a suggestion. Followers of Jesus are commanded to earnestly desire them. We're commanded to earnestly desire God's spiritual gifts.

[28:58] Paul writes to this church that we were just this Corinthian church. Again, full of spiritual gifts, messy with them, using them unwisely. But you know what? Just because they weren't using them well, he doesn't say like, you know what, just give it up.

[29:10] Just abandon them. Stop going after them. Stop using them. Actually, he doubles down. 1 Corinthians 14.1, he says this. Guys, pursue love. But you know what? As you pursue love, also earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.

[29:27] And the word earnestly desire means to be jealous for. It means to have an eagerness to possess. Do we have that?

[29:41] And what keeps us from doing this? Well, maybe you just never knew this was even an option. Maybe this is all brand new to you. And I'm like, awesome. Cool.

[29:52] You don't have any of the weird baggage of this. And now I would encourage you, man, go and eagerly pursue. It's simply praying and asking God for some of these gifts. I'm gonna use Elliot as a case of this.

[30:04] A while back, he just felt like God was putting it on his heart to pray for the gift of healing. And he started to pray for the gift of healing. And you know what? It didn't suddenly start happening. He prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed over a long period of time.

[30:17] And you know what? Suddenly, stuff started happening. People would just come to him and say like, man, I need prayer because I'm not feeling well. But God, I feel like God wants you to pray for me. You know? Which I'm like, well, what's wrong with me?

[30:29] No, I'm just kidding. No. But that's happened. And he's laid hands on people and he's prayed a simple prayer. And people have been healed.

[30:39] How do we go about eagerly pursuing God's spiritual gifts? He says, ask, seek, and knock. Ask, seek, and knock.

[30:52] Earnestly desire to possess them. It's a command, not a suggestion. Now, this may be something that's like, man, I just don't know.

[31:06] I just don't know. And I'm wondering if a part of our lack of openness to the spiritual gifts doesn't go a little bit deeper spiritually in our hearts.

[31:16] And I'm wondering if it's because we have a hard time believing that that is really what God wants for every single one of his children. I wonder if our struggle with that is that we've forgotten that our God is a generous father who gives lavishly.

[31:37] That his very nature is to give us good things from his hands. That he loves and cares for each one of us. And he loves and cares for his bride, his church.

[31:50] So much. So much. That he wants his grace to flow through us to one another so that we can be encouraged.

[32:02] So that we can be built up. So that we can be strengthened. So that we can become more and more like Jesus. He's a generous, generous father. He's a good father who holds nothing back.

[32:13] How do we know? He did not hold back his most precious gift. His most beloved son. He sent him for our sake.

[32:25] For us. I want to end by reading a passage of scripture that describes the kind of father that God is to us. Ephesians 1 verse 3 to 6.

[32:38] It says this. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

[32:50] He's a father that holds nothing back. Even as he chose us in him. Before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

[33:01] In love he predestined us for adoption. You are in the family of God. In love he did that.

[33:14] Adoption to himself. Because of that we are sons. We are daughters through Christ Jesus. According to the purpose of his will. To the praise of his glorious grace.

[33:25] With which he has blessed us in the beloved. In Jesus Christ. He's a father who adopts you.

[33:36] Into his family. To lavish grace upon grace upon you. He gave his precious beloved son. And he continues to pour himself out.

[33:48] With his spirit. He fills us. And fills us. And fills us. And fills us. And fills us. And it's never ending. You never have to earn the father's love.

[34:02] You never have to earn his gifts. All you have to do is believe. And ask. And receive them. As the band comes up. And respond. In a moment.

[34:13] We're going to take communion. But I just want to speak to those of us in the room. There's two groups here. And if you're here. You're not yet a follower of Jesus. Before we come and we take communion. Man. I just want to say.

[34:23] This moment to take communion. It's not for you to take just yet. I would say. Before you can come to the table. Come to the one. That this table points to. This table points to Jesus. And it points to his sacrifice.

[34:35] That he made for you. And he's calling you today. To come to him. Come to him in faith. Come to him believing. That he is. The only begotten son of God. Who was sent. To die for the sins of this world.

[34:46] To die for your sins. To die in your place. His body broken for you. His blood shed for you. For the remission of your sins. So you could be adopted. And made his son. And his daughter.

[34:58] God. He wants to lavish his grace upon you. Come to him today. Repent. Believe. And it says you will be saved. There's going to be a prayer for you to pray.

[35:08] If that's you. Up on the screen in a moment here. Now I want to say to the rest of us. In the room. If you're here. You're already a follower of Jesus. Before you come to the table. I want us.

[35:19] To give us all a chance. Just come. Come to this good good father. That we have. All that he's been revealing to you. Come with what he's been revealing to you.

[35:30] Whatever needs to be adjusted. That he's been highlighting. In a communion. It reminds us that. We have a father who doesn't withhold his most excellent gifts.

[35:42] He gave his only son. We come. And we're going to take in a moment bread. It's his body broken. Jesus' body broken for you. We're going to drink this cup.

[35:53] Represents his blood. Jesus' blood shed for you. Why? So that we could be adopted. Jesus said. I am the way. The truth. And the life. No one can come to the father.

[36:03] But through me. And through him. We get to come to this father. Who lavishes us. With grace. Upon grace. Upon grace. So go ahead. And take a moment.

[36:13] To pray right now. And then when you're ready. Come to the table. Take it back. And take communion. When you're back at your seat. To pray right now. Thank you.