Do YOU Believe? - Patrosky Anderson

Welcome to Day 4, the final day of our sermon series, "The Creed!" Join us as we get back to the basics of our faith and walk through the Apostle's Creed.

"I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the Brick by Brick podcast from Renovation Church, where faith gets built one truth at a time. In this sermon episode, you'll listen to our most recent Sunday morning message. So whether you're new to faith or have been walking with Jesus for years, there's something here for you. So kickback, hit play, and let's build this thing together.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

This morning we're gonna wrap up our series looking at the creed, the apostles' creed, specifically, uh, with the understanding that there are there are three main creeds, and all of these three main creeds, they are rooted in scripture, and they are created to unify the capital C church, to unify the body of believers around some very uh concrete elements of our faith, right? And so the the elements of our faith that matter the most, okay, in the time of right after uh the time after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, as you can imagine, now uh this growing but yet established movement called Christianity has spread both far and wide, and it's reached so far that some of the elemental, fundamental truths of this movement people are beginning to question. And over the years, as these questions kind of rose to the top, there were a group of people who came together and said that this thing that we believe in is so important. It's so um, the facts and the and the elements of what we believe are so important that they cannot be left to interpretation. They cannot be left up to the telephone game. How many of you have ever played the telephone game in your life? Yes. How many of you know that the telephone game is not just a game, it is real life, isn't it? How you can tell someone something with the greatest of intentions, and as they try to repeat it with the greatest of intentions, before you know it, all of a sudden something that was here has gone to here. And so naturally, as the gospel is spreading far and wide, beyond eyewitness accounts, it's moving into this place of like where people are sharing their faith with other people, with other people, with other people, and now all of a sudden they've just moved ever so slightly off. And these three main creeds, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene's Creed, and the Athanasian's Creed, were all created to serve for the believer as anchors, not to anchor them in these magical words that are the creeds, no, to anchor them in the magical words, right, or the or the biblical words that these words represent. And that's very important, that the creeds are anchored in. There are many creeds, but specifically these three creeds, they are anchored in uh scripture. Over the last three weeks, we've been looking at specifically the Apostles' Creed, which is believed to be the oldest of the creeds. And I hope that, I hope that you have, over the last three weeks, you have um begun to believe yourself as a creedle Christian. A creedal Christian. And that now you understand that simply to believe and be a follower of Christ is to have a faith that is rooted in Scripture. And these creeds, if they are rooted in Scripture, then you yourself, you are a creedal Christian. Right? And to believe in specifically the apostles' creed is to believe that we believe in God the Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, right? Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior, and that he is the creator of heaven and earth. Amen? That's what you believe. To call yourself a credal Christian, that's what you believe. I hope you also understand that because you would say, Yes, I'm a creedal Christian, that is not because you belong to a certain denomination, that is not because you belong to a certain church, that is not because you choose to worship here or worship there. It is solely because you believe in the word of God. And the word of God stands on its own, and to say, I believe, is really what a creed is. It's that's that's what it means. I believe. I believe in this, and all things follow, right? The first part of it says, I believe in God the Father, Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Christ Jesus, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was crucified, died, and buried. Amen. To believe, to be a believer is to believe in those words. Why? Because those words were at the beginning of all time. Amen. Do you believe is the question that I want you to leave with today. Like, do you believe? In a world where opinions and let's be honest, sometimes even truth is believed, that it can somehow shift from day to day. The fact that to claim to be a creedal Christian is to say, no, no, no, no, despite the times in which that I live, despite the ways in which I worship, despite the ways in which I grew up, I'm standing on the word of God, and the word of God tells me that He, He being Jesus, descended to the dead, and on the third day he rose again, and he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. If that is not the anticipation that you hold in your heart, then what do you believe? Amen. And equal to that, I would say, no matter how much it may please you, no matter how much it may scare you, quite honestly, no matter how much it may cause you to wonder in the logistics of how this is gonna happen, you also must believe, and Pastor Steve talked about this last week, that you also must believe that there is coming a day that Jesus is going to return, and on his return all will be judged. And that's the one where we're like, wow, man, just me. Because we believe that he will one day come to judge the living and the dead. If you weren't here last week, I think Pastor Steve did an amazing job breaking this down, looking at this, and I encourage you to go back and watch this, but but to just echo with some of what he said, I want to read Matthew chapter 25, uh 31 through 46. And so would you turn there with me, Matthew? And we're not putting any of the words up on the screen today because I want you to read for yourself the scriptures this morning. There's Bibles in the seatbacks, your phone is on there, push back all the notifications and stuff. Open your Bible and let's read Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 through 46. And let me tell you why I want us to read this together. Because this is one of those scriptures that you got to read for yourself. You got to read this for yourself because there are certain things in our Christian culture that you could argue that this pushes up against, and I don't want to be the pastor that stands before God and says, We never read this. Yes, we did. In fact, you read it for yourself. Right? How many of you grew up? Thank you. You're all here. Pastor Craig, stop it. No, seriously, how many of you grew up with this understanding? That you, that, that it's it it is it is all about grace, no works. You know me well enough to be like, yeah, but you're gonna say this. But you don't have to raise your hand. I know a lot of you grew up with that, right? And and don't get me wrong, salvation is built on grace, nothing else. Amen? Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This pushes not against that, but this opens up a new understanding that should tell you, hey, you better get up. You better get moving, you better get to doing things because God is coming back for a church who's on the move. He's not coming back for a church who's just sitting here listening to somebody talk and get their ears tickled and waiting for one day God is coming back. This says, no, you better get on the move. This tells us, oh man, this tells us that one day there's gonna be a separation. And this tells us that one day you're either gonna be on one side or you're gonna be on the other. And I don't want to stand up here and I don't want to tell you this and try to motivate you to get on the right side. I wanna say, when the Lord looks at me, I'll be like, God, on such and such and such day. We read that for ourselves. You talk to them. Because I'm over here. Are you there yet? Matthew chapter 25 and verse 31, it says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, we believe in this. We are waiting for him to come back, and all of the angels with him. It says, He will sit in his or on his glorious throne, and all the nations, and I say this all the time, it's very important that we know this. It says, All the nations. When it says all the nations, that word there, we talked about this this morning in our membership class. That is the word ethnos. It's where we get the word ethnicity. He's not saying that all of the nations, he's gonna gather all of the nations to him, like he's gonna put America over there, Africa over there, Asia over there. That's not what he's saying. Don't confuse that. He's saying that he's gonna gather all of the people to himself: red, yellow, black, and white. He's gonna gather all of the people to himself. Do you get that? All the people. They're all gathered before him, and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates a sheep from the goats. Are you reading this for yourself? There will be a separation. There are famous books out there that would tell you, no, no, no, we're all going to the same place. The most famous book tells us there's going to be a separation. You decide which book you believe. Right? Like a sheep separates the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Are you with me so far? Jesus comes back, he gathers all the people, all the nations to himself, and it says, Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. And this is what I think many believers say this. We read, pastors say this, but we don't pause enough to let it sink in. Many times, Christians, we book we read this and we don't really let this sink in. This morning, let this sink in. Because he explains to the ones on the right why they're on the right. Why? Verse 35. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. He says, I was a stranger and you invited me in. Let that sink in, church. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. He says, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. And then the righteous, this is what's so weird, but you're reading it for yourself. And then the righteous, these are the ones on the right. They look at him and they say, God, they answered him. Lord, when did you see? When did we see you hungry? When did we see you thirsty? When did we give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invited you in, needing clothes and we closed you? When did we see you sick and imprisoned and we visited you? And it says the king replied to you, Truly, I tell you, whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did to me. Woo. They're like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, Jesus, when did we see you? When did we see you? I'm so glad I'm on the right. But just tell me, like, when did I do this awesome thing that I did? And he tells him, Look, when when you did to my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me. Are we reading the word of God right now? Yes or no? Are you receiving this as the word of God, or do you think this is your pastor telling you this? Is this not the word of God? Because you're reading it for yourself. Okay. Then he says to those on the left, none of us want to be on the left. In case you hadn't caught on to that. Then he says to those on the left, depart from me, you are cursed. Into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, aka what? Hell. Hell. And he doesn't just send them away without an equal explanation. He tells them. Verse 42, for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not let me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. And they also answered. They also answered in verse 44. They said, Lord, when did we see you thirsty or a stranger and needed clothes and in prison and did not help you? He will, he says, he will reply, Truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do to the least of these, you did not do to me. He says, Go, he said, then go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. There are books out there that are telling you that at the end of it all, we're all gonna go to the same place. The only book that matters tells you that there's gonna be a separation between the sheep and the goats. And the reason they're gonna be separated is because when they saw the Lord hungry, they didn't feed him. When they saw the Lord thirsty, they didn't give him a drink. When they saw him destitute and needing entry, they didn't give it to him. And you can say, God, but when did I see you? Because man, trust me, if I would have known that was Jesus, I'd have, I'd have, oh man, I'd have walked through hell to get to him and help him. You know you would. I would. If I would have known that was you, Lord, I would have sold everything that I had, I would have done all that I could to get to you. But I didn't see you. And God's like, yeah, you did. This is not your pastor talking, this is what you read. And I'm telling you, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. And when we say that, we often say, Amen. He's coming back before he scoops you up and takes you into eternal life. Church, there will be a judgment. And I love this analogy that Pastor Steve gave. That it's like when you get on the roller coaster and you put the thing down and it clicks in place. I have felt that before, and I'm like, dang, I guess I'm doing this. I guess that is death. Not to be so morbid, but but that's it. And upon our death, that that roller coaster latch closes. And you will await judgment. And let it not be said of me that you will find yourself on judgment day in ignorance. Let it not be said of me that on that day when there is a great separation, that you would not look to the right and wonder why you are on the right. Let it be said of me that you did not get there and you, and I pray no one is on the left, but you would find yourself on the left and be like, How did I get here? This morning, you read it for yourself. And to be a creedle Christian is to understand that Jesus Christ is coming back to judge both the living and the dead. And while I still have breath in my body, I will say yes to the Lord to do the things that will have me here one day, good and well done, faithful servant. That's it. To be a creedle Christian is to understand, is to not walk with our heads in the sand and think that we can live a life that does not equal up to Matthew 25. You read it for yourself, church. Amen. Make no mistake, I'm just trying to clear my own conscience. So when I get there, I'll be like, no, I'm joking. It was getting a little heavy in here. But but I just I want you to know, I you gotta know this. You gotta know this. You gotta know this. And I love how the scripture, and we'll move on. But I love how the scripture says that the people were like, we didn't know. Right? And what this does is it pushes against some of us just believe that like God is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace, and within him there is no, there is no justice, there is no judgment. To believe that is to believe in an incomplete God. Because those people who were like, God, when do we know? Those on the left who said, When did we know? What did he do to them? You read it for yourself. He cast them out into eternal punishment, did he not? Ignorance is not a thing on that day. So I would suggest today you get rid of it. Because it will not serve you on the last day. Amen? Okay. One day Jesus is coming back, he will judge us. This morning, this morning I want to look at the last piece of the apostles' creed. And it says this. We have it up there? Yep. It says, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church. We're gonna talk about that one, that one trips people up, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. And I want to keep with this theme of like, I want you to read scripture for yourselves. There is there's one that um several there's one passage that kind of encompasses several of these, and I want to read all of that together with you. Um, but I want to just kind of get the get the elephant out of the room first and foremost. The Holy Catholic Church. Some of y'all are like, I'm not Catholic, man. Like I I love the creed, man, but I'm not Catholic. I would say it, but I'm not Catholic. Um the simplest way to say it is it's not talking about like the Catholic Church. It's not talking about like St. Mary's Catholic lowercase C church. I don't know of that church, but there's gotta be a Catholic church out there called St. Mary's. Um, I want no smoke from the Catholic Church. I feel like that's a very safe guess. I don't know. I was not roasting on the church, but there's gotta be. Um, it's not talking about that. It's talking the word um Catholic there means universal. So it's talking about like I believe in the universal church, not like I believe in the Catholic Church, right? That by and large wasn't even there when this was written, right? So it's not talking about that. It's talking about I believe in the holy uh universal church. And so I'm less tripped up by the word Catholic because it means universal. And I think it's more important that you know scripturally that it's talking about um that that the church, that you have been made holy as a part of the church. Turn your Bibles to uh Ephesians chapter 5. And I just want to say this morning, we may go a little long. Wow! No, no, no. Because I just want we have to know these things. You just do. But I feel good about saying that because, like, you don't have lunch plans this afternoon. You you're good. You're good. Um, are you there yet? Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21. We're talking about the holy uh universal church, right? And Ephesians chapter 5, 21 says this you're there yet, you're gonna read this for yourself. It says, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. I think it's important that we say this that depending upon the translation of the Bible you're reading out of right now, that is the end of a section. And then for some of you, that's the beginning of a section, right? If you're looking at someone else, maybe look at their Bible. If they're reading out of an ESV, I'm sure that is the end of the section, verse 21. If they're reading out of an NIV, that's the start of the section. Isn't that funny? Can I just tell you this? The headers, I love that y'all are looking at your. Why are you and your wife reading a different translation? No, I'm joking. Total joke. Did you know that the headers there, that is not the Bible? Seriously. Sometimes we just be like, it's in there. It's the Bible. That like the headers that we that the translators use to break up the sections, that's not the Bible. I'm saying this out loud, and you're like, yeah, that's common sense, but it's not. Really, it's not. And so you just have to understand that if you're reading the, well, it doesn't matter, the translation. You have to read that altogether. And why is that specific? Because sometimes, at least when I see a header, I think, okay, they're giving me a new header because it's a whole new thought. This particular case, it's not. So if you're in an ESV and 21 is the end of that section, and then you're going to a new header that says like wives and husbands, it's not a new section. That wife and that's not the Bible. You know what I'm saying? Like when he wrote this, he didn't write it with those headers. They translated it that way. And so you have to read because it makes sense. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And then we're going to go into, because he's talking about, some call it the household code, some call it, you know, husband and wife's marriage. It starts out with verse 21. Submit to one another out of reverence of Christ. And so he's talking about this mutual submission that goes back and forth. And that could get lost in the sauce if there's a break right there. Because now you're like, oh, it's a whole different thing. That doesn't make any sense. Because the words above it, why would that, why would they end with submit to one another with Christ? It makes all the sense in the world that he's talking about submit to one another, reverence of Christ, and now I'm going to break down what it looks like for the wife and for the husband with the understanding that you read verse 21. Right? Because if we're not careful, we don't see 21, we just see 22, and now the wives are the only ones submitting. Which don't get me wrong, as a husband, what's up? Out of order. This is my wife's getting out of order. So make sense. I just want to like you gotta say, like it's not the Bible. You gotta read it in context. You gotta take in this full breath. So, verse 21 submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. You're both doing this. Here's how it looks wives, submit yourself to your husband as you do unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as as Christ is the head of the church. His body, right? And this is all gonna make sense in a minute, and you'll see you might have even been reading this wrong, right? It says, His body of which he is the Savior. That doesn't make what? Hold on. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives submit themselves to their husbands and everything. Verse 25. Husbands love your wives just as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her what? What? To make her what? Holy. Right? Cleansing her by the washing with the water through the word. By the time you get to verse 27, you gotta be thinking, like, what are we talking about? Making her holy, washing her clean with the word? Like, what are we talking about? And now we try to interpret that like, oh man, like, you know, as a husband, I'm gonna get up every morning and I'm gonna read scripture to my wife, and that's gonna forgive her of all of her sin. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? Right? It's the lens in which we're reading things, right? And so, right, verse 27 here, it says, and present her to or present her to himself as a radiant what? What are we talking about here? Without stain and wrinkle, right? And any other blemish, but the whole but uh but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, right? Who loves his wife? Uh he who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the what? For we are members of his body. Verse 31 for this reason, man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery. He's he's it's almost like he's saying, like, I know you're reading this, and you are confused. Because you thought we were talking about husbands and wives, and guess what? We are. Some of you think, man, we're talking about the church, and guess what? We are. And he's like, Look, this is a profound mystery, but let me take the mystery away from you. He says, But I am talking about what Christ in the church. Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. You will make her holy in doing this as Christ loves the church. I know this is a mystery, but let me take all that away. I'm talking about Christ in the church. Doesn't mean these aren't household codes, doesn't mean this is not good for husbands and wives to do and functioning, but like read the scripture for the context in which the scripture was written, and he tells them this is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife. And that's when he switches it. And he says, However, don't just throw this out now and put it all in the church. He says, Oh, no, no, no. But look, however, each one of you must also love his wife as you love himself, and the wife must respect their husbands. So he comes back and says, Yes, yes, yes, I just gave you this this analogy here, and the analogy was meant for you to be taken as this was for the church. But also, husbands and wives, know that this is also good wisdom that I'm giving you. And husbands, you should love your wives, and wives, you should also respect your husbands. But he's telling you, I'm talking about the church, but it's also applicable for your marriage. Make sense? And if you don't receive it that way, A, you don't see how you are made holy as being a part of the church of God, and then you can also see how we've got some some twisted ideology can come out of this. You better submit to me. And my wife, who can read, is like, wow, you just started at 22. You can't read 21? I'm like, nah, I read DSV, baby. That's a whole nother. You gotta take it all in. You see what I'm saying? He's talking about the church, but it is applicable to your marriage. Take it all in. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Because we also know that there's forgiveness in sin. We know that that's found through the cross. There's no pushback there. We also know that there's a resurrection of the body. But not only, right? There's a resurrection of the body. And this one is kind of you gotta read this for yourself too. And so, but I'm gonna speed us up here. 1 Corinthians 15, 42 through 47, it says, um, so will it be the resurrection of the dead? The body that is sown is perishable and raised imperishable. He says, it is sown in dishonor, and it is raised in glory. That's awesome. It's sown in weakness, but it's raised in power. It's sown what? As a natural body, and it's raised what? As a spiritual body. And he talks about how, how, and we'll paraphrase this, but it talks about like there's a natural body, and the natural body came first, and later there's a spiritual body. It makes sense. We are in our natural bodies, but later, upon our resurrection, that we believe that there will also be a spiritual body. That's where we get that from. That we are creedal Christians who believe in the resurrection of the body. It says, first the man was from the dust of the earth, the second man is of heaven. Amen. Last passage. I want to read this to you, and I and I and I want you to just, as the words are on the screen, I want you to understand and see what you are reading here. It says, if uh if you love me and keep my commands, this is Jesus, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. Do you see that? The spirit of truth says the world cannot accept him because they neither see him nor know him, right? But you know him. He says, You know him. You know him, for he lives in you and he will be with you. He says, I will not be with, I will not leave you as orphans. Amen. I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you. He says, Before long, the world will not see me anymore. Imagine Christ telling this to you. If you were one of his disciples, the world will not uh see me anymore. He says, but you will see me because I uh live. Because I live, you also will live. Church, because he lives, you will also live. Life everlasting. That's why we believe that. Jesus told us so. He says, one day you will realize that I that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. The communion of the saints. We are together because we have all gathered around the communion table, we've all which we're gonna do here in a minute, because we've all came underneath the banner of Christ. He is in us, therefore we are one. Whosoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will uh also be loved by my father, and to you will love them and show and to them I will show myself. Then Judas, I love how it says, not Judas Iscariot. Then Judas said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus replied, in 23, it says, Can anyone who loves me, um, anyone who loves me will obey my teachings? My father will love them, and he will come to them and make uh make and we will make ourselves with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teachings. These words are not of my own. He says, They belong to the Father who sent me. All this has been spoken while I was with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit. But I believe in the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace. This is the thing I want to highlight to you. It says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give you peace as the world gives you. Church, understand that you are looking for peace, and if you're looking for peace from the world, it will not satisfy. Many of you are wondering why you are not at peace. Can I just tell you you're not at peace because you think the things of this world, you think money, you think stuff, you think relationships, you think those things will bring you peace. And Christ said, Peace I give you, and the peace that I give you, I don't give it to you as the world gives it to you. Church, we got to stop trying to accept the peace of God through the means of the world. Maybe if you don't have peace, maybe you should slow down, go into your prayer closet and ask the Lord genuinely, what peace are you trying to give me that I just can't see? Because in my mind I've just I've I have uh designed peace to look like security. I've designed peace to look like this and like this, and yet you're offering me peace like this, and I just don't know it as peace. And you cannot get that to fit through this lens, because he says, the peace that I give you is not as the world. And they were like, Oh, oh, I don't know. And he says, No, no, no, no, don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You've heard me say that I'm going away, he says, but I am coming back, and if you love me, you should be glad that I'm going to the Father. And the Father, he's greater than I am. He says, and I've told you before what will happen. So it will happen. You will believe. And then he says, I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. And I wish they would have put this in the creed. The prince of this world is coming, and he has no hold over me. He says, But he comes so that the world will learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my father has commanded of me. So as you can see, as I read all of that, you can see where the creed pops right out. This morning, what I want us to do is I want us to take communion. I want to I want to pray for the elements. I want you to come up. I want you to take the elements back to your seat. And this morning, I want us to say the creed aloud to ourselves before we take communion. Because it is a profession of what you believe. Confess with your mouth. Confess with your mouth. And then we own up with obedience, and Christ told us to be obedient in doing these things, remembering Him in doing these things. Is that not the complete call of the church that we would profess in what we believe, united together, both in our words and in our actions? That's a beautiful picture. I think it's a beautiful picture that we don't do enough in church. But in your heart, for you to be a believer, you must be a creedle Christian. That is that is the line. Amen. And it has nothing to do with your religion, it has nothing to do with what church you belong to, it has nothing to do with any of that, and it has everything to do whether or not you believe in scripture or not. Amen. Maybe if we could just get some music in the background, whether live or or not. And then I'd like you to come up and receive the elements, but don't take them. We're gonna put the creed up on the screen. And I want us to just say it together. Here's the thing. If you don't believe, if you don't believe in, it's like, oh man, I was good with day one and day three. I struggle with day two. That's not how truth works. I'm sorry. But that's not how truth works. Amen. You can't be like, oh, I the stuff about the Holy Spirit I struggle with, but then you struggle with Christianity. And I'm sorry. But it will not be said of me on the last day that you're on the left because I told you it was okay. You're like, oh man, I just don't. That's okay. That's okay. Stay in your seat. Pray to God, who still hears you, and ask him to reveal to you the truth about the things that you are struggling with. That is a mature prayer. And that's a prayer that you should pray instead of coming up here grabbing these elements and faking it. And here's the thing there will be zero judgment for you. Zero. Shame on anybody who would judge somebody for working out their faith with much fear and trembling. Amen. Because there will be people on the right side of heaven who spent their entire life working it out. And there will be people on the left who said they believed from day one and yet they did not do the things. And so if it were me, I would rather sit there and work it out. So that I know that I know that I know on that last day. Amen? There will be no judgment. I am proud of you for staying seated and saying, I'm working out the things that you said on day two. Good for you. It's what you should do. This is the place for you. Amen. Let me pray. Don't all rush to the elements at once. Follow the system that I've failed to say every week. But I think it's come up, come up from your left and go to your right. There's gluten-free here for those of you who are gluten-free. Special prayers go out to you. Umgive me, Lord. Let's pray.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

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