Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.citygracechurch.com/sermons/69715/the-church-needs-gods-grace-and-power/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Well, I would just love to add my word of welcome to those already expressed by Elliot this morning. I had him a little bit nervous. I said, Elliot, this is a good time for me to throw you under the bus. And he goes, now, now, Andrew, you need to just pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you this morning.

[0:16] And I said, well, how do you know he didn't put this on my heart? And I said, there you go. So I've had him pretty nervous this morning. But it is always a great honor to come and to open God's word with you.

[0:27] And I'm just really rejoicing in your new venue and just hope this morning that I can kind of speak into you. Jesse has always been very gracious in allowing me the opportunity to come.

[0:39] And, in fact, I kind of wrote him a little bit the last time he was at my house. I said, look, Fricky's been up here, but I have not been invited yet. And so, anyway, he said, I'll take care of that.

[0:50] So he got me here this morning. And I really rejoice in this because it's a great encouragement to me as a man just to be able to open God's word with you. For those of you who don't know me, I am not a staff pastor.

[1:03] In other words, I don't work for the church. I'm what they would call a marketplace pastor. And what I do for a living is handle ships for a living.

[1:14] I'm a pilot at the Port of Moorhead. That's what I do. And so that's where this thick accent comes from. I am not from Bulgaria or Romania. I am a United States citizen.

[1:26] I have people say, what nationality are you? I say, well, I'm American, I think, the last time I checked. So that's where my accent comes from is because I work on the water. And so, you know, I think Jesse would hire me.

[1:41] But then Bear would fire me. So I wouldn't last very long. I mean, I'd get to hire, but then I'd get fired by Bear. And my only hope is that Haley would get in between the two of them and keep me here.

[1:55] But it is such an honor this morning to end your series on the church, the local church. Over the course of this series, you have probably heard some things like this, that the church is historical and it is local.

[2:09] Now, One Harbor Havlock has morphed into One Harbor New Bern. And so this is your, you know, your locale now. This is where you are planted. And so that's a good thing is that you can kind of get the vibe of this place driving in this morning.

[2:25] You're in Old New Bern and it's a beautiful place. And so that's kind of where you are now. And so that's the vibe of your church. But you're also very historical. Now, when you look at a church that is historical in nature, you need to understand that your successes are part of your history.

[2:43] Your struggles are also part of your history. And so as you're, as a church, as you grow from this morning onward, understand that you are building a history as you go forward.

[2:54] And it is the highs and the lows. And so you can't look back at lows and say, oh, that's so terrible. You need to just say, that's part of our history. And God will work you through those things.

[3:05] So remember that. Secondly, it is a gathering of people. You're all gathered this morning. And you're here to worship. You're here to sing. You're here to hear the word preached. That's what we are. We are a gathering of people of like mind.

[3:18] The church also is an entity that needs loving leadership. You need elders or you need bishops. Funny story. Two weeks ago, I was working on a Sunday morning during the first service in Moorhead.

[3:35] And Brian Hart was preaching on that subject of needing leaders, good leaders, loving leaders. And so as he was talking, he says, Andrew is not here to protect himself this morning.

[3:46] And so when he comes in, I want everybody to text him and call him bishop. So I come walking into the church and I'm kind of in a good mood. And all of a sudden, good morning, bishop. Good morning, bishop.

[3:56] Good morning, bishop. And this went on. And finally, I walked up to him and said, what have you done to me? And he said, I mean, him and Donnie were about to die laughing. I said, you've killed me here.

[4:08] And they are still calling me bishop now. I mean, I just said, he's ruined me. But you do need elders. You need loving people to guide. You need people that love you and are going to care for you and lead you.

[4:22] And so that's part of what the church needs. It's also a gathering of people that are gifted. All of you who are followers of Jesus have great giftings.

[4:33] Now, you may not know what they are just yet, but God has gifted all of you. And the church needs for you to be engaged in the use of your gifts.

[4:45] It is using those things that God gives you a passion to do. And so you just kind of have to go with it and say, Lord God, I'm trusting you that you are leading me in this. And so use your gifts that God has given you.

[4:58] And so that was probably one of your last sermons you heard in this series. This morning, we're going to look at what the church needs most. What is one of the things that the church needs the most? Well, in order to flourish, the church needs God's grace and he needs his power.

[5:15] Now, this kind of flies in the face of conventional wisdom of our day. What most people will say in the church growth movement will say that you need a very strong leader who is up front, really the face of the church.

[5:31] And then you need the coolest music there is. And if Philip was not here today, this would be very cool music. So just go with that. But he's here today.

[5:42] So anyway, so you need cool music and then you need a hipster venue. You know, sort of like this. Hey, hey, you know, you're checking two of the boxes this morning already.

[5:53] You got a hipster venue and cool music. But what they say is if you have all of these things, then everything's golden and the church will grow because we have these things in place.

[6:03] We have a very strong presence of man. We have music. We have a venue. And all of these things are going to grow the church. You know, scripture paints a very different picture to what the church really needs.

[6:17] And so this morning, we're going to spend some time in the book of Thessalonians looking at the church of Thessalonica. But before I read the text, I need to give you just a little bit of a historical context of what Thessalonians is about.

[6:29] First of all, the city of Thessalonica was named after Alexander the Great's half-sister. Now, Alexander the Great is a very interesting figure in history.

[6:44] I've been doing an advanced theological study with some guys in Moorhead. I lead to study. And we are at the intertestinal period in the church or in the Bible where the Old Testament canon stops and the New Testament canon starts.

[6:58] And so there's a period between those two. And Alexander the Great was in the center of that. And he conquered Persia, which was a huge entity. And the Persian king had conquered everything around.

[7:11] And Alexander, as a young man, came and just took over. He whipped everything in sight. And served for 10 years as a leader and then dies at about 32.

[7:24] Very interesting character in Scripture. And in the book of Daniel, it points to him. And it says a kingdom is going to come, but it won't last long. And it's going to be split into four pieces.

[7:35] And so that is, you know, this city is named after his sister, his half-sister. And so it is a Gentile city. It is not a Jewish city. And so that means that the congregation in that church was mostly Gentiles, like it is this morning here.

[7:52] It's a mostly Gentile church. But yet Paul and Silas and Timothy had planted the church of Thessalonians. They had planted the church during his second missionary journey.

[8:04] And you see that in Acts. And so this church was planted by Paul. And it was strengthened by him. And it has done very well. And what we see in this is that Paul's ministry had not really changed.

[8:17] And when he first started ministering and preaching the word, he went to Jews only. But because of their desire to turn a deaf ear to the gospel, Paul said, I am now turning to the Gentiles.

[8:30] And what this shows is that Paul's ministry did not lag after that, that God continued to use him by building up Gentile churches. And this is one of them that did very well.

[8:42] Now, the church suffered some persecution in the city. The Jews in the city stirred up the people. And so there was persecution in the church. And because of this, in both 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Paul has an undercurrent of the last days or the end times.

[9:04] And the reason I think he does that is to encourage the church and say, look, I know things are tough right now. I know that you're going through some trials right now. But Jesus is coming. And so that is an encouragement to the church.

[9:17] And so having said all that, let me read the passage. We're in 1 Thessalonians 1, and I'll read the first 10 verses. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace.

[9:37] We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. Remembering before our God the Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[9:52] For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

[10:06] You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and the Lord. For you received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit.

[10:18] So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere.

[10:30] So that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we have among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

[10:52] And so there's that in days undertone that you see there. Now, question for you. If you want to encourage someone, how would you go about accomplishing this?

[11:06] Now most of us would probably watch them, key on something they're doing well and just simply say, man, you're doing a good job. You're doing very well. You know, trying to encourage them in that sense.

[11:19] Years ago as a young man when I was a little bit more cocky than I am now. And my father was still training me as a pilot. And so I told my dad one day that I was very good at what I did. I brought a ship in and everything was going well.

[11:32] And I looked at dad and I just said, dad, you know I'm good. And he just kind of looked at me. He didn't say a word. A couple of days later, things did not go as well.

[11:44] And so my dad looked at me and he just says, yeah, you're good and you know it. And so that was like a cut. He stuck me in the ribs. But you know, he said something that I thought was very, and I've never forgotten it to this day.

[11:55] He looked at me. He says, son, let me tell you something. He said, you let your work speak for itself. If you do a good job, people will notice it and they will say something to you.

[12:06] But don't talk about yourself. And it was a hard lesson for me to learn. And my father has been right that over 37 years as a pilot, I've had captains always thank me for what I do.

[12:18] Pilot, you've done a great job. And they do that because they see my effort on their behalf. So giving somebody an encouraging word like that helps, right?

[12:28] I mean, it does help. Everybody likes to be encouraged. Everybody likes to hear good job. We all like that. However, when you're going through very difficult times, sometimes what we hear more than an encouraging word would be, the pain I'm going through right now.

[12:46] And that speaks the loudest in our hearts. And I think that's why Paul starts this letter. He starts off very encouraging to the church of the Thessalonians.

[12:57] He says, look, man, you're doing so good. You're doing so good. But then I want to remind you of some things. And he wants to remind them of the evidence of God's grace in their life.

[13:08] He wants to remind them of what God has been doing in their life. And the reason is because remembering the doctrines of grace encourages the church. It encourages us.

[13:19] Now, the truest definition of grace is God's unmerited favor. Okay? If you want to know what grace is, it is God's unmerited favor to you.

[13:33] We have done absolutely nothing to earn his favor or his grace. It is not about what we have done. It's about his grace. Now, there are two aspects of grace that we see in Scripture.

[13:45] One is common grace. Just everyday common grace to all who live. All living beings get God's common grace.

[13:56] That is why in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this in Matthew 5, 43 through 45. He says this, You have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

[14:13] For he, the Father, makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. And so Jesus says, look, the Father does this out of his own common grace.

[14:28] The sun comes up every morning. The rain falls when it falls because God allows it to happen in his common grace. And it does not matter if you're wicked or if you're good.

[14:42] You see, God doesn't care. His common grace covers us in that. But there is another aspect that Scripture also shows, and that is the specific grace of God.

[14:55] The specific grace of God falls on those that he loves. Okay? And it is tied to his sovereign will to choose his own. God chooses his own.

[15:08] Listen to how it reads again in our text. Verses 4 and 5. For we know, brothers, loved by God. That's a key for you. You are loved by God that he has chosen you.

[15:23] Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. And so Paul says, look, you have been chosen.

[15:33] And the reason I say that is because you heard the gospel. The Spirit of God came on you in power. And the conviction of the Spirit was in you. You have been chosen. And that's God's love on you.

[15:46] That is his specific love on his people. Now, the word chosen carries a lot of baggage. Because most people are going to think, okay, that is just reformed thinking.

[15:59] It is, you know, the elect, chosen. Very true. A lot of the reformers talked about such a word. But I want you to know that it was not invented by John Calvin or Martin Luther or Pink or any of the great reformed thinkers the other day.

[16:18] It is a biblical word. And Paul uses that word to express how much God loves them. God loves you because he's done these things for you.

[16:32] He has, you've understood the gospel. He has given you the ability to do that. To believe in your hearts. The Spirit has come on you in power and conviction.

[16:45] Those are things that God has done. And so his love for you has been proven. And so if you're going through times of great testing, remember God's love. It's his graces in play.

[16:57] Now, why is that so important to us? Why should we remember grace? Why is that so important? Because there is a danger, I think, in forgetting about God's grace. There is a great danger.

[17:08] And one of them is, without grace, we become rule-keeping moralists. We just become very moral in how we handle ourselves. And so for some strange reason, grace, it's easy to move away from grace into just what we do.

[17:23] And just keeping the rules. My wife is here this morning. I can throw her under the bus. She has never met a rule that she couldn't keep or wouldn't keep.

[17:37] And I have never seen a rule that I would even try to keep. We are so different. I am a rule-breaker and she is a rule-keeper. Now, that resonates within us, doesn't it?

[17:48] It is quite natural for us to move away from grace. We are saved by grace. But then we also say, okay, I've got to work my way into God's pleasure.

[17:59] I have to do things to keep him loving me. Okay? Remember, Paul says he loves you because you're saved in the first place. He loves you because he's called you.

[18:11] But we want to go, no, I have to do something to earn it. And so that's a natural thing for us to do. Now, the text does commend them very much. And he tells them, look, you've received the word implanted.

[18:23] You have turned from idolatry. You have done all these things. You're full of works of faith. You are full of the labor of love. And you're steadfast in your hope.

[18:34] So, Thessalonians, you are doing great. These are things that are evident in your life. But see, the danger is when you forget about God's grace, if you forget about the doctrines of grace, what ends up happening is that we become rule-keeping moralists.

[18:50] And we say, if we don't keep the rules, God will not love us. Now, all those things they did were good, right? I mean, all those things that they were successful in their church, in their history, was good.

[19:02] They were doing some good things. So, where is the rub? I mean, if the church is doing some good things, and if it's keeping the rules, you know, quote-unquote, what's the rub?

[19:13] Well, second thing is that moralism keeps us swinging from pride in what we're doing to despair for what we're not doing, okay? So, when you are overly proud about yourself, you're living in pride.

[19:27] But then if you fail in any way, you fall into just despair. Now, pride is one of the great dangers of any church. It is an enemy of the church, and it's an enemy of the life of the people in the church.

[19:42] Being proud is a great, great enemy of us. You know, it was the desire to be like God in the garden that turned Adam's heart away from following God to eating the tree of life, or good and evil, excuse me.

[19:58] I mean, it was his desire to be like God that made him eat what he knew was forbidden to do. It was his pride. So, pride is extremely destructive in every area of the church.

[20:12] It's destructive in the pulpit. It is destructive in your leadership. It is destructive in your music. It is destructive in how you handle yourselves. Pride can creep in, and it can do great damage to the church.

[20:24] That is why Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says this. There are six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him.

[20:38] Haughty eyes. That's a proud look. A proud look. A lying tongue. And hands that shed innocent blood.

[20:48] A heart that devises wickedness or wicked plans. Feet that make haste to run to evil. A false witness who breathes out lies.

[21:00] And one who sows discord among brothers. You know, you'll sow discord in a church among brothers when you think that you have all the answers and everything lies in you.

[21:13] Pride is terrible to the church. It will destroy what God has put together. And so that's why I think that, you know, if you're turning from grace, you're either turning to pride, or you're going to turn to despair.

[21:28] Now, despair is just as bad because it plays with our minds. It plays with our emotions. You know, understand that.

[21:39] When you despair of the cross, when you despair of what you're doing, it does play with your emotions. It yanks you around. And it raises itself up just as easy as pride does.

[21:52] Pride kind of creeps in, but so does despair. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to grieve sin. We always grieve sin and we repent. But despair is not repentance.

[22:03] Despair is, I'm not matching up. I cannot do this. God doesn't love me anymore. I'm a failure. And that plays great harm on our emotions.

[22:15] It just, we're either up or we're down. We can't stay level. Okay? So understand that. And that is one of the great tensions of faith is that we start by being saved by grace and we migrate straight over to works and pride and despair.

[22:33] We do that very easily. It's not a hard transition to make. And I think, I would speak to you just as a friend and as a pastor this morning, beware of pride in your midst.

[22:46] Beware of how you handle things because it will creep in unnoticed and then all of a sudden it opens itself up. So be careful with those things. But the problem is, we all live in that tension.

[22:59] We all at times feel like we're not, we're not doing well in our walk with Jesus. We are not really honoring him in what we're doing. And so what do we do? I mean, how do we handle this? Well, Paul speaks about the power of the spirit in the church of Thessalonica.

[23:14] He says, you have been empowered by the church or the church has been empowered by the spirit. And so one thing is, we need to live faithfully in the power of the spirit. No doubt, I can do great things in my own strength.

[23:28] I do my job every day. Just, I, I multitask. I got people talking to me. I'm giving orders and talking to people on the radio. I can do all that stuff because I'm trained to do that.

[23:40] We can all do these things in our strength. But we need the power of the spirit of God. If, if as a church, we are going to continue beyond today and into days after.

[23:53] We need this power of the spirit. Now we live in a, well, you live, or some of you do anyway, live in an area that has vast open waters and it has very fast boats.

[24:07] You know, when I was growing up, two engines were, was the most that you would ever see on an outboard boat. Two. And that was fast. Now we have four across the back of boats.

[24:19] There's four 300 horsepower engines on the back of a boat. And so speed and power has become a norm. just in boating. Well, just like boating, the church, the church needs the presence of the Holy Spirit to empower it.

[24:36] you need to desire those things. In fact, it was the presence and the power of the spirit of God that energized the church from the very beginning. In Acts chapter 2, it says this, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

[24:53] And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues of fire appeared on them and rested on each of them.

[25:07] And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Listen to me. The spirit of God energized the early church.

[25:18] And it is the energy in which we live and move today. It is not based on our abilities as men and women to generate these things. If we do not live in the power of the spirit, we won't see these kind of things.

[25:34] So in a corporate sense, do you desire the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? In a corporate sense, I'm talking to you as a body this morning of all the people in here.

[25:47] Do you desire this? I mean, you need to ask that question. Are you afraid of that? Does it cause you fear? Do you believe that it's not for today?

[25:59] It used to be, but it's not for today? A lot of those are questions that come up. I'm simply asking you, do you want to see the power of the spirit move in your being, in your midst? Do you want to see it just explode with the power of the spirit of God?

[26:13] Because if you do not desire that, I believe what ends up happening to a church is it ends up languishing and it ends up failing.

[26:24] Because what ends up happening, instead of relying on the spirit, we rely on ourselves and then we become inward looking. It's inward look. And we say, man, you know, when you get inward looking, it's all over.

[26:37] I mean, it's all over. Because you don't even see the people around you anymore. So consider that this morning. But, what does that say about me and you personally? Do you realize that, you know, you can ask God for more of the Holy Spirit?

[26:53] In fact, you know, you should desire more of the Holy Spirit. Personally, you should desire more. In Luke chapter 11, verse 13, it says this, and Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and he says, if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks him?

[27:18] All right, now think about that. God says, if you ask me for more of the Spirit, I will give it. Now, to be clear, as followers of Jesus, when you put your faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God came on you in power.

[27:34] Okay? You already have the Spirit of God living in you. In fact, it was the Spirit of God that changed your heart of stone and made it a heart of flesh. And so, so you could believe.

[27:45] And so, the Spirit is in you. And so, you need to understand that, that you are sealed in him today, just like you are.

[27:56] But, if the Father is willing to ongoingly fill you, why would you not ask for that? why would you hang back and say, no, I don't want any more of that?

[28:09] The Father is willing to give it to you. Because God has things for you and me to do. I have things prepared for me to do. And each one of you in this room this morning, if you're following Jesus, you have things that God has prepared beforehand for you to walk in them and do.

[28:27] And he wants you to be empowered in that. And he wants you to have an ongoing filling of the spirit every day to complete those tasks. And so the question you have to ask yourself, are we actively seeking the spirit of God in this manner?

[28:43] And how are we doing in kingdom work? How are we doing in this kingdom work that God has given us to do? Are we satisfied with simply saying, I'm happy with the status quo?

[28:55] I don't want to rock the boat, I just want to do that. I just don't, don't, you know, don't go beyond that I'm happy where I am. Or do you want more? And I'm asking that very plainly this morning.

[29:09] Do you want more of the spirit of God in your life? John Bloom in an article on Desiring God.org speaks into this tension, this tension of being satisfied where you are, yet having God say, I will give you more of the spirit if you only ask.

[29:28] And he says this, a very good quote, if we are not disillusioned with how much we have allowed our talk to pass for our walk, discontented with the sparse amount of spiritual fruit we are truly bearing, kingdom work, not doing too good at that either, and disappointed by the impotence of our own efforts, we will never be distressed enough to really plead with God to fill us with the Holy Spirit.

[30:01] Do you see why I'm asking you, do you desire more or are you saying no, that's enough? Because in order to say that you want more, you have to understand that maybe you're not as successful as you thought.

[30:15] And that's what he's saying here, look, when you get to the point where you realize these things about yourself, then you're going to say, Father, give me more, give me more of your spirit. So, what do we do with this, this morning?

[30:31] Well, firstly, if you're not yet a follower of Jesus and you're here this morning, I'm just glad you're here because it takes a lot of courage to walk in a place and not really know what's going on or you know that you're different from some of the people in this room and so I'm just glad that you're here this morning.

[30:49] It takes a lot of courage to walk in here. But I want you to understand something before you leave this morning. That God has poured out his grace on you today. Not because I'm here, but because we're talking about the gospel, we're talking about Jesus, we're talking about faith, we're talking about the spirit of God, we're talking about conviction, we're talking about turning, we're talking about all those kind of things.

[31:13] And so if you're here this morning and you're not yet a follower of Jesus, man, God is showing his grace to you this morning. And he's allowing you to hear the good news of the gospel.

[31:26] And I want you to fully understand this, he expects nothing out of you. He does not expect you to work yourself into his good graces and hopefully one of these days you will make it.

[31:37] He says, in Christ Jesus, you've already made it. And his love is based not on what you do, but it's based on who he is and that's why he loves.

[31:48] And so I would just encourage you this morning, if you're feeling convicted by the spirit of God, then you come and we will stand up here after the service and we'll talk to you about who Jesus is and we will just share the gospel with you and we'll pray with you, whatever you want to do.

[32:01] If you are here this morning and you are following Jesus, you know, as you begin your journey, one harbor new burn, remember the doctrines of grace.

[32:13] Do not forget the doctrines of grace. grace. I don't think Jesse will let you. I know that Bear won't and I don't think Elliot will. But as a church, keep in the forefront of your mind that God chose you before the foundation of the world to be in Christ and that he has set his love on you.

[32:33] And it's not based on anything you've done, good or bad or otherwise. He loves you because he loves you. And that will sustain you in times of trouble because there will be times of trouble and they will come.

[32:45] But if you focus on God's love for you, it is a buttress against those things. Live in and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[32:58] Continue to live in that. Live faithfully in that. His presence is here whether you sense him or not this morning. The Spirit of God is here. Live in the presence of that power and even say, Lord God, pour out more.

[33:13] Do this individually, that's very important, but also corporately, as a body. And I think that's one thing that corporately as you worship and as you hear the Word express and you do all these things, I think that's how the Spirit of God just strengthens you as a church.

[33:28] And finally, don't be afraid to ask the Father for more and more and more of the Spirit. Don't be afraid of that. Just say, Lord God, grant me more of your presence.

[33:41] Grant me more of your Spirit. All right? Let me pray for us. Lord God, we love you much. I love this church. I love these people sitting here this morning, Lord God. And that's not of me, that's of you.

[33:53] But Father, I lift up Newburn. I lift up this site. I lift up these people. I pray that they would live in and through the power of grace, Father God. it is so easy to turn from your grace and to look at ourselves and try to judge our holiness, Father, on what we do.

[34:08] But it is a lie. And so, Lord God, protect us all from this desire to turn to works. Help us to understand grace. Help us to live in grace. Help us to speak of grace and grace alone.

[34:21] But also, Father God, may your Spirit rest on this place powerfully. I pray that you would move among the people, that you would just grant them great success in their ministries, that you would strengthen them to serve well and to just love well this area that you've put them in.

[34:38] We love you, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you've paid the price that we could not pay. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that my sin is atoned for, not because of me, but because of what you've already done.

[34:50] It is finished. And so, Lord God, just speak to us this morning and draw near to us. And we ask all these things in your name. Amen and amen.

[35:00] It's time for communion. I will be glad when we get done with these cups. But we have to use them this morning so everybody get one of these cups and we will have communion this morning.

[35:18] In the New Testament, Paul speaks about the fact that Jesus gave himself up for the church. and so one of the things we always have to remember at communion is what that exactly meant, that his body was broken and that he did it for the church.

[35:35] He did it for the joy that was set before him because he knew that the Father would give you to him. That's deep. That is deep.

[35:47] And so this morning as you finish your time together, just thank God for his giving of his son and that he broke, his body was broken for you. It was mutilated beyond resemblance.

[36:00] You couldn't tell he was a man, but he did that for you. And so take the bread and worship Jesus in that. And finally, as we take the cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[36:17] That's what communion is all about. We proclaim his death, but also live in the power of forgiveness of sin. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we do that.

[36:33] And so if you have sinned this morning, you come to him, you say, Lord God, I have sinned. You confess it and it's forgiven and it's because of the blood that was poured out on you. And so you worship him. Know for a fact this morning that your sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus.

[36:47]  And so you take the cup.