Breaking the Chains of Shame and Regret (John 8)

In John 8 we read how Jesus showed grace and disarmed hypocrites for a woman caught in a shameful sin. Our evil adversary tempts us to give into sin, tries to push us away from abiding in Christ by his accusations, and tries to paralyze our Christian walk and works through our deep regret. This story is amazing and encouraging, but Bible scholars reveal that it might not be part of the original Gospel of John. Come to Rockwell Church this Sunday to be encouraged to break the chains of shame and regret while also seeing the Bible that we have is reliable and authoritative. It is also Communion Sunday. 

Notes:

Rockwell Church     July 7, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
Breaking the Chains of Shame & Regret
John 8:1-11
1. Credibility of this Passage? 
2. Caught (8:1-4)
3. Condemnation (8:5-6)
4. Comparison (8:7)
5. Compassion (8:8-11a)
6. Conditions (8:11b, Jn 5:14)
7. Communion

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Breaking the chains of shame and regret. Breaking the chains of shame and regret. I bet that if we all you know had an opportunity to share, there's probably you know something that we've done in our lives that uh we're not especially proud of, or um maybe there was a temptation that we didn't give into that we were kind of glad that we didn't give into. So I've already, you know, shared some of mine. I think that when I was a kid in the mid-70s, yeah, I'm old. I'm a grandpa, but um, I got caught stealing Hot Wheels. And not only did I get caught, but some dude brought a videotape recorder and a large briefcase to my babysitter child care person's house and showed a picture of me and her son stealing the Hot Wheels. So, one, that was early technology, and two, that was really embarrassing. So, and it was actually the first time I had done that too. So I was the first timer. I guess the guy, the kid that I was with, that that kid, I guess he was uh all-timer. He's like, You want to know how to get free Hot Wheels? But we were we were smart kids because we knew that Hot Wheels was what you wanted to steal, not matchbox. No sense stealing matchbox, the the wheels would crush. But chains of shame and regret can go so much farther, can go uh so much bigger, where your name is always remembered on the internet, where uh your face is posted on some crime site. And even if you were found innocent, your face may still stand out there. I mentioned, I think, in a previous message about the couple who fell off the cruise ship that did everything possible to try to get them not to release their name so they wouldn't always be known as the couple who fell off the cruise ship. But here we're looking in John chapter 8 about the woman caught in adultery. And it's real interesting. I could probably talk for a couple hours on this, so I'll try not to. But the passage starts out with in these parentheses the earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7.53 through 8.11. A few managed manuscripts include these verses wholly or in part after John 7.36 or John 21.25 or Luke 21.38 or Luke 24. So, and it starts out with uh Jesus' teaching, then they all went home. So the question we have is can we trust our Bible? I mean, so here it points out that you know the manuscripts, the earliest manuscripts don't contain this passage, nor does it contain the end of Mark. Uh but then, you know, a few hundred years later it appears and then is, you know, copied and uh carried on. So is it in there or is it not? Should we even should I even be doing a message on this if there's like no guarantee that it's truly from the book of John or is it truly scripture? And reading the Bible commentaries, it's really interesting to see um different takes on the passage. So um you'll remember that the Bible came to us as the Holy Spirit moved the writers to write down on the original manuscripts what God wanted us to know, what would be taken as scripture, and we don't have those original manuscripts anymore, and that's probably a good thing because people would probably worship the original manuscripts. Um they were written on parchment and they kind of disintegrated over time. So um, but there are thousands of manuscripts. There's like over 5,000 New Testament manuscripts, and so when you compare them, they are generally all saying the same thing, which is amazing over time that God preserves his word. Interesting uh study on that that we don't have time for today. But I do remember Dr. Don Byerly when I went to Crown College or St. Paul Bible College, who uh wrote a book on that, surprised by faith, and I think he addresses that. So he's retired now, but we used to have him come as a speaker and share how we can trust the New Testament, how we can trust the manuscripts for today. So, in a Bible commentary where um the guy from Dallas Theological Seminary did his work, uh he wrote about textual criticism, and I found it very interesting that uh some of the quotes that that he had. So he writes the problem is that John 753 to 811 is not found in any of the earliest manuscripts or versions. Um, the earliest manuscript to contain it is from the 5th century A.D. All the early church fathers omit this narrative in their commentaries on John, moving from 752 to 812. No Eastern father before the 10th century cites the text. Many later manuscripts that include the passage mark it off to show that it's of doubtful authority. And you're like, how could they go from 752 to 812? Well, actually, uh the Bible verses and the references that they had didn't come along for a long time later. So sometimes people will complain that in the more modern versions that it's missing verses that are found in the King James Version, but the whole numbering reference system, key to the King James, um, is sometimes changed when uh the newer translations translate the Greek or Hebrew, and then they're like, you know, this actually should be this section here, or um, you know, so um textual criticism uh looks at that. And we've got 2,000 years of Bible scholars that have uh figured it out, but nobody agrees on the credibility of this passage. So they're like uh D.A. Carson says the Greek constructions, the vocabulary of the story differ significantly from the rest of the Gospel of John. So um anyway, so this uh Donald or Stephen Cole, uh who wrote this commentary, uh, writes the reasons cause many reputable evangelical scholars to conclude that the story is not a part of John's original gospel. Among these are, and there's this huge list, uh, some you may know or heard of, uh, Merrill Tenney, D.A. Carson, John Piper, uh G. Campbell Morgan, A.T. Robertson, uh generally hold that it wasn't part of John's original gospel, but they do hold that it reports an authentic historical event that is true to the character of Jesus. Some scholars, however, argue that in spite of the weak textual support, the story should be included in John's Gospel and treated as inspired scripture based largely on internal evidence, including R. C. Sproull, John MacArthur, James Boyce, William Hendrickson, A. W. Pink, J.C. Ryle, um, David Brown from the Jameson Fawcett and Brown commentary, and John Calvin. They argued that the story fits the flow of John's Gospel, uh, that the theme uh follows. Uh they also point out that both Augustine and Ambrose in the late fourth and fifth centuries believe that the story may have been omitted because it seems to suggest that Jesus condoned adultery. So there are solid men on both sides of the issue. So, and then Bruce Metzger, I'm almost done reading. Bruce Metzger writes, if we cannot feel that this is part of John's gospel, we can feel that the story is true to the character of Jesus. Throughout the history of the church, it has been held that whoever wrote this little story is uh whoever wrote it, this little story is authentic. It rings true, it speaks to our condition, and is thus worth our while to study it, though not as authentic as part of John's writing. So I think it's worth considering. I think that it clearly shows uh the way that Jesus would care, the way that Jesus would teach the things that he taught. Um, when he told about uh the good Samaritan, when he found the woman at the well who had multiple husbands, um, he was full of grace. And actually, we're gonna find out as we look into the passage that this woman who was caught in adultery uh was probably being set up by the Pharisees and the scribes to trap Jesus because they were doing everything they could to discredit Jesus and to try to make him look bad and try to discredit his teaching because Jesus was creating waves and trouble for them and they didn't appreciate it. So, okay, so in John uh 8, chapter 1, I'm sorry, John chapter 8, verse 1, um Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. And the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery, and they made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught, was caught in the act of adultery. She was caught. It was a big deal to be caught in the act of adultery. It's the law said that you're supposed to catch both the man and the woman in the act of adultery, not just uh, you know, in the same house together behind closed doors, but actually caught in the act together, and they were to be stoned together. But for some reason, um the woman is brought forward to Jesus, and who knows where the man is. So some Bible scholars say it was probably a setup that they probably held this woman from the night before. She was at a festival, at a party, where there was dancing and drinking and all sorts of things that might lead to such a thing. And so uh to set this woman up so that they could bring her before Jesus while he's teaching all these people to try to discredit Jesus and to say that, hey, either Jesus doesn't follow our law, which says that uh two caught in adult adultery needed to be stoned, or um that he's soft in sin and that he's not a good teacher, he shouldn't be followed. So it probably was all the setup. It was probably um something that was very unfair to the woman. Um, and the man, who knows where people wonder where the man was. So maybe maybe he ran off and they couldn't catch him. Maybe he was somebody that uh was powerful, that they feared or highly esteemed, or rich, and he bought his way out of it, or anyway. So the Pharisees and the scribes, they weren't actually following the law because they held this, most likely held this woman uh overnight and then brought her to Jesus by herself, which isn't good. But caught, caught. Think about how we can be caught in sin and how that can destroy our lives. Think about the things that we have done in the past that make it so that um we feel disqualified, so that we don't want to move on, so we don't want to move forward anymore. All right, well, Adam and Eve regretted disobeying God by eating the forbidden fruit. Cain regretted his punishment after killing Abel. Esau regretted selling his birthright and losing his father's blessing. Reuben regretted his involvement in selling Joseph into slavery. Moses regretted striking the rock in disobedience to God and preventing preventing him from entering the promised land. And I had so many more. But um, yeah, oh well. Caught. Think about how when someone is caught in a sin that it can destroy their life. Think about how when somebody gives into temptation and a godly man or woman finds out about it, um, they have an opportunity to go to that person and help them to confess that sin to the Lord, um, maybe make things right, and to move forward. Galatians 6 1 says, brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. Be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you're only fooling yourself. You're not that important. And we have these peacemaker brochures, peacemaking principles, uh brochures out there, and we've had a message on peacemaking, but basically the idea is that the first thing you do is you go to the person individually, and uh then if they refuse to change repent, um, then you bring someone else or some other people. Um, there's a long process before it gets brought to the church. There's a long process before you publicly bring it before Jesus, teaching a bunch of people and putting this woman in the spotlight. But um caught. Um when we think about the damage that sin does to a person, um, and we think about how we could show grace and mercy and help, and if they choose to repent and change, then we just keep that to ourselves and we don't need to share that with someone that can help them to move forward. There's other things that uh when a someone is caught that you are obligated to call the authorities and make a big issue of it, and so you can't cover that up. But when we think about how we can be caught in chains, how we can be caught in sin, it's a it's a two-way street. One we could deserve it, and then we should own it, and we should say, yes, that was me. I did that. That was that was a terrible accident, that was a terrible thing, that was a bad choice, that was a bad decision. Um, I've changed, I've gotten help, I've asked for forgiveness, I've moved forward. So I constantly think of this teenage girl uh back where we used to live who was um driving. I think she had recently gotten her license, but she's driving along, messing around on her phone, and she runs over a bicyclist and kills this guy. And um, she part of her sentence was community service. She had to go around and tell other students in other schools about how uh being distracted on her phone, she killed someone. Um and Grace, this man's wife, said, I feel like my husband is here with me in the courtroom as we look at the sentencing. And I I know that he would want you to go on and live your life and be successful, though it's hard for me to forgive you in the sense of this loss, but to own that and to say, you know, that was a terrible thing. Um, I wish it never had happened to own it. Um now with the woman caught in adultery, it never says if she's repentant because she got caught. So, but it does say that she was brought before Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes and the people, and she was facing being stoned, being um condemned for what she did. And so many times temptation comes our way, and people give in to temptation. Um, we being Christ followers, following Jesus who is quick to forgive, should be quick to forgive and help people find restoration. And our church should be a hospital for the hurting where no perfect people are allowed, and um, we don't condone sin, um, we don't overlook sin, but we know that people do sin. And so sometimes we even we even help them to get caught, and we reveal um what we saw or what we heard or what we know, and we help them to be restored to Christ. So um caught. So John 8, 5, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? They asked Jesus, and they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. So um so condemnation. What do you say, Jesus? Are you going to condemn this woman? Are you going to um agree with us that what she did is terrible and therefore she should be stoned? Um, or are you just gonna let her off the hook because everybody's saying that you're all about grace and forgiveness? So, I mean, the Jewish leaders had already, as I mentioned, disregarded the law by arresting the woman without the man. Um so they're trying to uh trap Jesus. And Jesus as he stops and as he thinks about it, he's writing something in the sand. Nobody knows what he's writing in the sand. So um John Calvin in his commentary said, Oh, Jesus needed a moment to process it and to think about that. But that doesn't seem like Jesus. I'm pretty sure Jesus already knew what was going on and already knew what to say. So maybe he was writing um parts of the Ten Commandments in the sand. It's actually the only place I think in scripture where Jesus writes things. So um maybe he is writing the names of her accusers and um, but he's writing something. And um in that pause, as everybody waited to see what Jesus would say, uh, they wondered. They wondered what Jesus would do, they wondered what Jesus would say, they wondered how he would process this. How do we process it? I mean, here they're the religious leaders, so they think they're better than everyone else. The scribes wrote down the laws and they wrote down the records, and so they're just waiting to write down something that Jesus did wrong or Jesus said wrong. And so condemnation is a big thing. So when we think about how we are condemned because of our sin without Christ, um can keep us from wanting to follow Christ or even come to church. But then when we come to Christ, Romans 8:1 says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So it's not a license to sin, but it is an opportunity to be forgiven of sin. Actually, when we come to Christ, uh then we have an ability to say no to sin. Those chains of sin are broken if you read in Romans, uh, especially like Romans chapter 6. Uh, shall we continue in sin that grace may increase? By no means. Um we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? But will Jesus condemn her? Will he side with the religious leaders? Verse 7. When they kept on questioning Jesus, he straightened up and he said to them, let any one of you who is out at sin be the first to throw a stone at her. So basically he's like, okay, if that's the law, then go ahead and stone her. But why don't you who are without sin, why don't you be the first to throw the first stone? Why don't why don't you start off? And so I wonder if Jesus looked up with his convicting eyes and they all knew that um there was something in their lives that would cause them to walk away and say, you know what, I guess I'm not without sin. So I've probably shared this before too, but I always thought it was kind of funny. I don't know if it's a true story or not, but um, in the old days, a rich man uh had a bunch of rich friends, and he sent a telegram out to his friends as a practical joke that says, All is found out, flee at once. And many rich men all fled. So he didn't say what was found out, he was just kidding around. So they fled because they all had some form of guilt. And I don't know what your form of guilt is. I don't know if you're living in sin now or if there's a sin in the past that uh maybe Jesus has forgiven you of, but you haven't forgiven yourself, or maybe there's something in the past that you haven't dealt with. But to think about that, to think about the grace that is shown and the mercy that is shown when we want to follow after the Lord when it comes to condemning others. Um we should be, we should be fixers, we should be godly counselors, we should be encouragers and know that we don't shoot our wounded, and together we want to move forward. Sometimes the people that fall into sin, that have the biggest regrets, are the most powerful when it comes to sharing their faith and living for Jesus. So look at the apostle Paul as an example. He um was a persecutor of Christians and it bothered him. It bothered him a lot. He continued to write about it as he wrote in um 1 Corinthians, I think, 15. Um 11. But so much of our history, of our past, can cause us to want to shut down and to give up, and so we compare ourselves. And sometimes we think we're better now, but when we look back, we think about you know, I wasn't perfect. Maybe, maybe like you were, and I asked a few people in my last church not to share this with my grandkids or my kids, but um they would tell stories about like when they were in high school or they were in college and the things that they would do. So I had one godly elder who's like, Yeah, I used to go in the ditch to try to kill cats with my car, and I'm like, please don't ever tell that to any of my kids or kids in the youth group. It sounds really dangerous and kind of mean. But anyway, uh, when we compare ourselves, sometimes we think we're better, sometimes we think we're worse. But we When we consider let who was ever without sin let them cast the first stone. That doesn't mean that we don't have laws and rules and guidelines that we can enforce. It doesn't mean that every judge needs to be perfect in every way. But we should show grace and kindness. All right, verse eight. Again, Jesus, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? So why does the text point out that the older ones left first? So I think that as we grow older, we grow in wisdom and we evaluate our lives and we realize that some of the things that we did in the past were not good. And there's wisdom that comes with time. Sometimes we have more of a desire to know what's right and wrong, and we can see the results of the things that maybe young people think are okay. You know, it's like, well, you know, it's not that bad. Oh, it's fun, oh um, yeah, everybody's giving into that temptation. It's not a big deal, but older people can see how it plays out and the harm and the harshness and the difficulty and the sadness and all of the hard things that it can cause. So adultery is one of the sins that destroy marriages, destroy relationships, destroy people, destroy churches. So it is a it is a big deal. So you do incredible damage to your spouse. Um, you become one with that other person and you lose the trust of your spouse. Adultery can destroy relationships. So Jesus actually gave an out for adultery that you can end the marriage contract. You don't have to get divorced, uh, but you may. Um you don't have to end the relationship, but you can. Sometimes relationships can be restored. And so it does incredible damage to yourself. So not only do you open yourself up to disease and all these other things, but you also um open yourself up to giving into more temptation because you know, once you've given in once, then it's easier to give in again and again and cross that line a second and third time. And you may say, Oh, God will forgive me, um, but other people may be slow to forgive you or not forgive you. And God may discipline you or punish you for it. So don't say that I can continue in sin, that grace may increase. Don't say, Oh, I can give in to this because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So just because you may be given, because Jesus paid the cost and the price for your sins with his blood, doesn't mean that you won't face God's discipline. And you're opening yourself up to terrible consequences. You do incredible damage to your children. Your children may never forgive you. Your children may not want to have anything to do with you. Your children may become promiscuous because you did. You may be sitting there going, Stop, don't, don't do that. Um, they'll say, Well, you did. That would be heartbreaking. You'll do incredible damage to the church. If you're a leader in the church, if you are known as you know being part of a church, people will see you as a hypocrite, people will see you as um someone who wasn't living the life that they spoke of. Um, you when someone falls into sin, it grieves us, breaks our hearts. You do incredible damage to your witness in the cause of Christ, and you sin against the Lord. It is a good thing when we don't give in to sin because we don't want to bring shame to the Lord. Um, it is a good thing when we take precautions and do all that we can to make sure there's no appearance of evil. So um pastors are taught to do everything they can to avoid appearances of evil, have windows on their office doors, not to meet with women at church alone, especially for counseling, um, all these different things. Um insurance years ago, the insurance company guy came in when I was on staff and we had multiple pastors at another church, and he's like, you know, um our biggest payout, our biggest expense isn't church fires, it's not church theft. It's trying to defend pastors from accusations of things that they may or may have not done wrong. Even um, even if you don't do anything wrong, just the fact that there's a way that someone could accuse you could cost us a ton of money and cost you your ministry and your future. So we need to show compassion. So Jesus says again, woman, where are they? No one has condemned you. And she says, No one, sir, and then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go and leave your life of sin. So he didn't just say in his great compassion, he just didn't go and say, you know, oh, it's okay, um, but leave your life of sin again. Um he didn't say, you're forgiven, go on, carry on, um, but go and leave your life of sin. So there were conditions. There were conditions. So stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. Actually, what that's what he told the layman that he healed. Um in John 5. We talked about that. Later, Jesus found the layman at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. So stop sinning, confess, um, accept God's forgiveness, maybe make a restitution or ask forgiveness of other people and move on. And don't fall into that sin again, don't do those things again. Sometimes people are trapped in a besetting sin. Sometimes people keep falling into the same sin over and over again, and maybe they need to find a godly counselor or an accountability partner to do everything that they can to stay away from these things that cause them to give into that temptation. So um, drugs, alcohol, um, gambling are all things that can be incredibly addicting and can destroy your life. So, um, and some things are getting easier and easier to give into. So before uh you'd like have to go, you know, play cards somewhere or go to a casino or something to get addicted to gambling, but now you can get addicted to gambling on your phone. It's just like right there with you. And so you could be, you know, gambling and spending money with your with your phone and um so many different ways to fall into sin. But um, Jesus is full of grace. So the adulterous woman, she was condemned before all these people, but rather than Jesus condemning her because of his sovereign grace, he loved her enough to die in her place and offer her a full pardon. And we have that. And when we come to communion, we remember that Jesus is the embodiment of grace and mercy that um he chooses not to remember our sins anymore because of what he's done. And when we confess our sins, like 1 John 1 9 says, um, it shouldn't just be, oh Jesus, I'm sorry, or I'm sorry I got caught. But Lord, please forgive me for doing this thing that I know um grieves your heart, that is sinful, that causes damage, that um is wrong according to your word. Please forgive me of doing that. Help me not to do it again. I want to follow you. Help me to have victory over this in Jesus' name. Amen. Something like that. When we come to communion, and so if you haven't already grabbed a communion cup, they're on the edges of your seats. Um, the ones with the white lids are just the regular ones. Um, the other ones are marked in blue when they say gluten-free. If you're watching online, you can grab um some bread or um crackers or whatever, some grape juice or wine and have communion with us here in a minute. But we come before the communion table. And it's interesting when we come to communion that if we read further on in the passage in 1 Corinthians 11, 27, it says, So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick. A number of you have fallen asleep or died. So as we look at who are in Christ, we take communion seriously. It's not crackers and juice time, it is a time to remember what Christ has done. So it is a holy ordinance that Jesus wanted us to do uh until he returns. And so, unworthy. Who is unworthy? The person who has not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior is unworthy. The saved person who struggles with sin finds their worthiness in Christ and Christ's forgiveness. Um, again, it's not a license to sin, it is um Jesus uh taking care of sin so that we can live righteously and do what's right. We should examine ourselves. Examine ourselves, ask the Holy Spirit if there's any sin in our life that we need to confess, any sin that is keeping us from following Jesus, from being blessed by Jesus, for serving effectively in Jesus as we have communion. So um, 1 Corinthians 11 23 says, I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So uh why don't we just take a moment and the Holy Spirit brings anything to mind, just in your seat right there, just confess that to the Lord. Think about um who you are in Christ. As um, if you received him as your Lord and Savior, if you haven't, maybe you could call out to him right now, Lord Jesus, pray something like this. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and to come into my life and save me. Make me the person you created me to be. I want to I want to follow you and live your way and do your will in Jesus' name. For the rest of us, maybe we need to recommit our lives to Christ. Maybe our hearts have been far away from Christ with all the summer activities or the difficulties of summer flooding. Help us to recommit ourselves. Anything that comes to mind. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve, for his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the East is from the West. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna take this section of right here. Jesus, I thank you so much that we have your word. Thank you that we can trust the manuscripts that you've given us, Lord, and um all of those 66 books. There's two um very small passages that we wonder if they were part of the original gospel. But they're still there for us to read because they seem consistent with what you did and taught. Lord, we pray that we would place our faith in the book and live like our lives depended on it, that we would apply your word to our lives and um use it to uh be equipped and to teach others. Jesus, we thank you that you shed um your that you gave your body on the cross, that you were pierced for our transgressions, for our iniquities. Uh, we thank you. We take this and we eat. All right, keep thinking about communion. We're gonna show a little video clip about communion, but you can stay in your seat and um pray or watch the video, but just think about what Jesus did to make this possible.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Today we are reminded of the sacrifice of our Savior, his body broken, his blood spilled, the weight of our sin crushing his shoulders. Today we confess our unrighteousness, we lay down our arrogance, we surrender in obedience at the foot of the cross. Today, we remember.

Chris T 37:03

So this might be a good time to in prayer, thank Jesus and praise Jesus, and um, maybe even remember who you used to be before you came to Christ and who you are now. And as you do, I will read a little more from Psalm 103. So let all that I am praise the Lord. With my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord. May I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases, he redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him, for he knows how weak we are. He remembers that we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass, like wildflowers we bloom and die. The wind blows and we are gone, as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments. Jesus, I thank you that you shed your blood on the cross. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. You are the ultimate sacrificial lamb that was sacrificed to cover the sins of those whom you knew would follow after you. Um help us to live in such a way that we live righteously but full of grace. Uh we are full of compassion and kindness and care. Um Lord, help us to show compassion to those uh who are struggling. And if we are struggling, help us to uh maybe get help. Jesus, we thank you. We take this and we drink. All right, the worship team is gonna come up. Come up uh next week. The message is on strikeout doubt with faith. We're gonna sing broken and beautiful.