SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_04: Today we're gonna we're starting a new series called In Focus.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and during the month of September, we're gonna look at the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_04: And during this month, I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna give you a couple of challenges as we look at at Colossians.
SPEAKER_04: First, I want to I want to challenge you to read the entire book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_04: Now, if you know Colossians, it's only four chapters, and you're thinking, well, that's not much of a challenge.
SPEAKER_04: Well, here's the challenge.
SPEAKER_04: There's a simple challenge, and there's a hardcore challenge.
SPEAKER_04: The simple challenge is you're gonna read uh every week, you're gonna read the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_04: So tomorrow morning, Monday, you're gonna read Colossians 1, Tuesday, you're gonna read Colossians 2, and then 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Thursday.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: And then next week you're gonna repeat it again.
SPEAKER_04: So you'll read through Colossians four times.
SPEAKER_04: Now the hardcore challenge is this.
SPEAKER_04: It's not a long book.
SPEAKER_04: Starting tomorrow morning, I want you to read the whole book.
SPEAKER_04: If you want to take the hardcore challenge, read the whole book every day, Monday through Thursday.
SPEAKER_04: So that means you'll read it 16 times.
SPEAKER_04: You say, well, that seems like a lot.
SPEAKER_04: It is, but you'll get more out of it if you do it that way.
SPEAKER_04: And while you're reading, what I want you to do is make lots of notes in your Bible.
SPEAKER_04: Circle stuff, underline stuff, write stuff in your margin.
SPEAKER_04: If you don't like writing in your Bibles, get a journal, get, you know, on a napkin or something.
SPEAKER_04: Write down what God is showing you as you read it and go into it.
SPEAKER_04: Open the Word and say, okay, God, I'm gonna read this.
SPEAKER_04: I need the Holy Spirit to bring this book to life in my heart and my mind and show me things.
SPEAKER_04: Show me things in my life that needs to be changed.
SPEAKER_04: Teach me things about my Savior that I didn't know before.
SPEAKER_04: All right?
SPEAKER_04: So that's the challenge.
SPEAKER_04: I want you to read, I want you to make notes, and you can do the you can take the simple challenge, you can take the hardcore challenge, but as a church, this is a great book for us to be reading because the the church in Colossians, the Colossian church was very much like family church.
SPEAKER_04: So that makes that that means this is a great book for us to be to be spending time in.
SPEAKER_04: Um it's a lot like us because it was a church plant from a larger church.
SPEAKER_04: You know, we're a church plant from Park Valley.
SPEAKER_04: Uh we're be we're working on becoming our our an independent church.
SPEAKER_04: Well, the church in in Colossae was a church plant from the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_04: Paul started the church in Ephesus, and then uh Ephesus, as it grew, grew, started planting other churches.
SPEAKER_04: One of them was in Colossae, which is, you know, all of this is in Turkey, um in modern-day Turkey, but it was in Colossae.
SPEAKER_04: It was started by Paul mentions a man named Epaphras, was kind of the founder of that church, and with the help of the Ephesian church, um started the church at Colossae.
SPEAKER_04: So they're much like us in that way, but they're also a lot like us in that they're they're a very mature church.
SPEAKER_04: You know, when Paul wrote his letters, a lot of times he would start with, hey, I love you, but I gotta talk to you about something.
SPEAKER_04: And he would say, Here's what you're doing wrong, okay?
SPEAKER_04: You know, here's what you're doing right, but you're doing, you're kind of doing this wrong.
SPEAKER_04: And he would point out theological things or or methodological things that they were doing that they needed to change.
SPEAKER_04: That was almost all of the churches except for the Colossian church.
SPEAKER_04: The Colossian church had he had nothing but good to say about them.
SPEAKER_04: And and family church is a lot like that because it was a mature church.
SPEAKER_04: He he says they were a mature church, and and a big sign of spiritual maturity is is serving.
SPEAKER_04: You know, someone someone is going to become more spiritually mature if they're serving.
SPEAKER_04: And and I look at our church, you know, the national average for serving in a church, you know, is about 40% of the church.
SPEAKER_04: 40% of the people in the church are involved in serving somewhere.
SPEAKER_04: At family church, it's it's over 60%.
SPEAKER_04: That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_04: That's a sign of a mature church.
SPEAKER_04: You know, another sign of a mature church are the number of people involved in small groups and Bible studies and discipleship opportunities.
SPEAKER_04: And the national average for that in churches is 25 to 30 percent.
SPEAKER_04: Again, family church is over 60% of the people in this room are involved in small groups or a Bible study of some kind.
SPEAKER_04: That's a sign of a mature church, you know?
SPEAKER_04: And Melin and I are so grateful that we get to pastor a church that is mature like that, and people that are committed to serving and to studying the Word of God.
SPEAKER_04: We're blessed to be part of this church.
SPEAKER_04: And Paul said the same thing to the Colossian church.
SPEAKER_04: Look at Colossians verse, uh, chapter one, verse three.
SPEAKER_04: He says, We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God's people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.
SPEAKER_04: You have had the this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the good news.
SPEAKER_04: So Paul commended them for three things.
SPEAKER_04: First, he said, Hey, you know, I've heard of your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_04: You have a reputation of being a church full of people who have put their faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_04: And I've heard of your love for all people.
SPEAKER_04: That is the biggest sign of maturity in a church when a church is known for its love for each other.
SPEAKER_04: You know, Jesus said, said, You will they will know you're my disciples because of your love for each other.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and so so that's a church that is known.
SPEAKER_04: You know, this is a church that is known for that.
SPEAKER_04: And I I loved, I loved, and I don't want to embarrass somebody, but I heard I heard a first-time guest walk in this morning.
SPEAKER_04: They got through the lobby and they were walking into the into the uh the auditorium, and they said, This is the friendliest church I've ever been to.
SPEAKER_04: I love that, you know, because that's because we care about people.
SPEAKER_04: This is a church that cares about people.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, you can say yay.
SPEAKER_04: That's close to amen, but you can still say yay.
SPEAKER_04: But thank you, thank you for for being a friendly church.
SPEAKER_04: And the Colossian church was known for being a church that loves people.
SPEAKER_04: Finally, it says they they were known as a church for their confident hope of the promise of heaven.
SPEAKER_04: You know, they were known for that.
SPEAKER_04: So those are signs of a mature church, and anytime a church is doing what it's supposed to do, there's going to be an attack on that church.
SPEAKER_04: You know, Satan is gonna put a Satan is gonna put a bullseye on the members of that church and try to try to disrupt the good things that are going on in that church.
SPEAKER_04: And Satan is always really subtle, you know?
SPEAKER_04: He doesn't come at you with a full-on frontal attack.
SPEAKER_04: He is very subtle.
SPEAKER_04: And he does small things that that will that will distract you from doing the things that we are supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_04: He did that in the church in Colossae.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: They they had all of these small distractions, like, like there were there were people in that church in the Colossian church that were insisting that it was necessary to keep all of the Jewish rituals, all the feasts, all the cleansing rituals.
SPEAKER_04: You know, the the they were saying you had you had to do those things if you were gonna be saved.
SPEAKER_04: Um, others were promoting the worship of angels.
SPEAKER_04: Um, some were practicing self-denial, insisting you had to be poor and destitute in order to be in God's will.
SPEAKER_04: And others were simply just buying into popular false doctrine or secular philosophies of that day.
SPEAKER_04: No one was saying, saying, hey, I'm I'm gonna turn my back on God and I'm gonna hurt this church.
SPEAKER_04: Nobody is saying that.
SPEAKER_04: They were just distracted by the small things, the small, confusing things, other options.
SPEAKER_04: They were distracted by that.
SPEAKER_04: And that's the biggest danger to most churches is that we are distracted from following Christ.
SPEAKER_04: We are distracted from keeping our focus on Him.
SPEAKER_04: And, you know, we we have obvious distractions in our life.
SPEAKER_04: You know, smartphones, smart TVs are a huge, huge distraction.
SPEAKER_04: You know, we we it is so easy to get sucked into that, and you know, you start scrolling because you, you know, you're you're scrolling because you're you're looking for you know something important.
SPEAKER_04: You're looking for a Bible verse or something, and you're scrolling, and before you know it, you've been on there for an hour and you haven't seen a single Bible verse.
SPEAKER_04: You know, that's the way that happens.
SPEAKER_04: You get sucked into it, and those are big distractions.
SPEAKER_04: And there are things that, you know, we we kind of focus on that will distract us.
SPEAKER_04: They, you know, they're things that are good for our life, things that will improve our life, but they distract us from focusing on God.
SPEAKER_04: You know, new new uh uh health and fitness trends or new new diet trends, things like that.
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's always something new, you know, and they might be good, but to a lot of people they just become a distraction.
SPEAKER_04: You know, a few years ago, everybody was into essential oils.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and some people I knew were so into it, it's like, you know, have you read your Bible?
SPEAKER_04: You know, have you gone to church?
SPEAKER_04: You spend so much time on essential oils.
SPEAKER_04: Now, now it's uh red light therapy and uh uh creatine, you know.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's always something new.
SPEAKER_04: My favorite, my favorite health trend is mouth taping.
SPEAKER_04: Have you heard of mouth taping?
SPEAKER_04: You literally put tape over your mouth at night to encourage healthy nasal breathing.
SPEAKER_04: I guarantee you, the guy that invented that had a wife that snored.
SPEAKER_04: I guarantee you, that's the only way he could put tape over his wife's mouth.
SPEAKER_04: Honey, hold still.
SPEAKER_04: This is good for you.
SPEAKER_04: You know?
SPEAKER_04: We tried that with our kids when they were small, but they didn't call it mouth taping, they called it unlawful uh uh uh restraint.
SPEAKER_04: So, so uh so not a good idea.
SPEAKER_04: Don't tape your kids' mouth shut as much as you want to.
SPEAKER_04: Teachers, you know, don't tape your kids' mouth shut.
SPEAKER_04: I actually got my mouth taped shut in seventh grade.
SPEAKER_04: You could get away with it back then.
SPEAKER_04: But uh, so except maybe for mouth taping, all of those things, you know, they're they have some merit.
SPEAKER_04: You know, they're good for you in some way, but too many times they become a distraction, and you focus so much on improving your life with those things that you forget that that focusing on Christ is going to improve your life more than anything else.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and so we've got all these distractions, and and you know, uh in Colossians, Paul points out, and we'll talk about these the next the next few weeks, Paul points out where our focus should be.
SPEAKER_04: What are we supposed to be focusing on?
SPEAKER_04: And and he starts with the obvious.
SPEAKER_04: He's you know, he starts with, you know, we should focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna talk about that today.
SPEAKER_04: We should be focused on Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: He also says we should focus on the church and we should focus on heaven.
SPEAKER_04: We should be focused on heaven.
SPEAKER_04: Then he said we should be focused on our relationships.
SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna talk about those four things this month.
SPEAKER_04: And and our focus on uh on the church and heaven and relationships, those are all meaningless unless you're focused on Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: If you're not focused on Jesus, your focus on the church is not gonna be a biblical focus, it's gonna be a selfish focus.
SPEAKER_04: And you're gonna make church and relationships and your your uh uh uh perspective on heaven, you're gonna make those things whatever you want them to be to fit your uh life and for your needs.
SPEAKER_04: So without focusing on Jesus, none of those other things matter.
SPEAKER_04: So the first thing Paul talks about is that we need to focus on knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: We need to focus on knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Look at Colossians 1 9.
SPEAKER_04: He says, So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.
SPEAKER_04: We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_04: So Paul said, you know, we're constantly praying for you, and we want you to have a complete knowledge.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: Now that word knowledge, when we use the word knowledge, we we have you know a single kind of definition for that, what it means.
SPEAKER_04: But that word knowledge, when you translate it from the Greek, there are actually two Greek words that are translated into the one word we use as knowledge or know.
SPEAKER_04: The first word is gonosko, the second word is epigonosko.
SPEAKER_04: Now, gonosko is a factual knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: It's the facts of the matter.
SPEAKER_04: Epigonosko is a more intimate knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: So, for instance, you know, you you all know, you all have a factual knowledge about me for the most part.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm your pastor, you know, I've got five kids and lots of grandkids.
SPEAKER_04: You know that I'm a, you know, he's a fair preacher, but man, he is devastatingly good looking.
SPEAKER_04: You know, those those are that that is factual knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, you know those things about me.
SPEAKER_04: Now, Melin and I have been married for 36 years, two months and 20 days.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: So, so yeah, I did the math.
SPEAKER_04: Don't think that, you know, I won't be able to do that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_04: But we've been married long enough that we have an intimate knowledge of each other.
SPEAKER_04: You know, she knows me on an intimate level.
SPEAKER_04: You know me on a Genosco level, she knows me on an epigonosco level.
SPEAKER_04: She knows, she knows what makes me happy, what makes me angry, she knows what I worry about the most.
SPEAKER_04: She knows what will cheer me up when I'm when I'm when I'm down.
SPEAKER_04: You know, she knows things about me that other people do not.
SPEAKER_04: And she knows those things because not only does she have a factual knowledge of me, she has experience with me.
SPEAKER_04: And that experience creates an intimate knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: And that's the kind of knowledge that Paul says we're praying that the church in Colossae has an intimate knowledge of God, an intimate knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: It goes beyond that factual knowledge and it becomes that intimate epigenosco knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: And here's what that looks like.
SPEAKER_04: So this week you're going to start reading Colossians.
SPEAKER_04: So Wednesday morning, you get up, you open to Colossians 3, and you start reading, and you come across this verse.
SPEAKER_04: Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you.
SPEAKER_04: Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: That's a great verse to know.
SPEAKER_04: Make allowance for each other's fault.
SPEAKER_04: Be ready to forgive because Jesus forgave you.
SPEAKER_04: You know, that's a great verse for all of us to know.
SPEAKER_04: So Wednesday morning, you read that verse, and then you stop and you think, you know, my my husband was uh, you know, he was a little impatient last night, and and I I lost my temper and said some things I wish I hadn't.
SPEAKER_04: So, so, you know, I I I need to make that right.
SPEAKER_04: I need to make allowances for his faults.
SPEAKER_04: I know he was tired, he had a rough day, and you know, took it out on me, took it out on the kids, but you know, I I need I need to be understanding during that time.
SPEAKER_04: I need to make allowances for his faults, and I need to be forgiving because Jesus forgave me.
SPEAKER_04: Or you think, you know what, that I was pretty hard on that guy at work the other day, he's new, you know, he's just he's just trying to get his feet wet and trying to figure this job out, and and I said some things I wish I hadn't.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I I need to I need to make allowances for his faults.
SPEAKER_04: So so you you see that verse, you recognize this is what I need to do, and then you act on it.
SPEAKER_04: And and instead of uh coming down hard on them, you make allowances for their faults, and then then you do something to make it right.
SPEAKER_04: You apologize to them, or or you become helpful instead of critical.
SPEAKER_04: You make sure that that they know that you value them as a person rather than their performance.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: So so that that's what that looks like.
SPEAKER_04: You're you you are reading God's word, you're learning God's word, and you see something that is a fact from the word of God, make allowance for each other's faults.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus forgave you, so you need to be forgiving of other people.
SPEAKER_04: Then you say, okay, I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna put it into practice.
SPEAKER_04: And when you do that over a period of time, then then you get an intimate knowledge of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_04: Because if you're practicing forgiveness because Jesus forgave you, you learn to know this is what it means to forgive the way Jesus forgives.
SPEAKER_04: And you you have that experience that gives you an intimate knowledge of Christ.
SPEAKER_04: And that's the kind of knowledge that Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_04: A knowledge that comes not just from knowing the facts, but putting them into practice and having that experience that creates that intimate knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: That's what Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_04: And then when you do that, when you make that a habit, and you do that over time, you read God's word, and you put those principles into practice, and you come to know Christ intimately, this is what happens next.
SPEAKER_04: It says, then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit, all the while you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
SPEAKER_04: We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power, so you will have all the endurance and patience you need.
SPEAKER_04: May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.
SPEAKER_04: He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people who live in the light, for he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
SPEAKER_04: So that's a pretty exhaustive list of this is what happens when you have that intimate knowledge of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_04: This is what happens in your life.
SPEAKER_04: It says you honor and please the Lord, you produce every kind of good fruit, you grow as you learn to know God.
SPEAKER_04: Strength, endurance, patience, joy, gratitude, sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: All of that because you intimately know Jesus, because you've taken the facts and put them into practice, and you have that intimate knowledge of him.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: So that's focusing on knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: When you focus on knowing Jesus, the more you know him, you can learn that you can trust him.
SPEAKER_04: You you can focus on trusting Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Focus on trusting Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: The next few verses are the longest uh continuous explanation of the deity of Jesus, the fact that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_04: It's the longest one that does that.
SPEAKER_04: And remember, in this church, in the Colossian church, there were people saying, you still have to do this, you have to keep the feasts, you have to keep the rituals, you have to do this, you know, all that to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: You have to do all that stuff.
SPEAKER_04: And Paul is saying, no, you really don't, because Jesus is enough because Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_04: You know, he is the fulfillment of all those things.
SPEAKER_04: And all you need to do is trust him because he's God.
SPEAKER_04: Look at what it says.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_04: He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.
SPEAKER_04: For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
SPEAKER_04: He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
SPEAKER_04: Everything was created through him, and for him he existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
SPEAKER_04: So these verses are actually a hymn that they would sing in the first century.
SPEAKER_04: So they would the the in the churches they would sing these verses.
SPEAKER_04: It was a hymn.
SPEAKER_04: And every statement that is made in there about Jesus is a statement that was made in the Old Testament about God, making the point that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_04: You can trust Jesus because he is God.
SPEAKER_04: You can trust him because he is God.
SPEAKER_04: Then look at the next verse, uh, verse 18.
SPEAKER_04: It says, Christ is also the head of his church, which is his body.
SPEAKER_04: He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead, so he is first in everything.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, you can trust Jesus because he is the head of the church.
SPEAKER_04: You can trust Jesus because he gave you a family in the church.
SPEAKER_04: He adopted you into a family, and you can trust him because of that.
SPEAKER_04: You know, you were you were not designed, you were not created to go through the Christian life alone.
SPEAKER_04: Not at all.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and you may think, well, I don't need anybody, and you may you can feel that way until you actually need somebody.
SPEAKER_04: And then you understand, boy, you know, I was I was made to go through life with other believers.
SPEAKER_04: I need them in my life.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna talk about that more next week.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna talk about the church, but you were created to live in unity with believers, and so God gave you a family called the church for that reason.
SPEAKER_04: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_04: For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him, God reconciled everything to himself.
SPEAKER_04: He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: He made peace with everything through Christ's blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: You can trust Jesus because he died for you.
SPEAKER_04: There are not many people that you're gonna know in your lifetime that will die for you.
SPEAKER_04: You probably have lots of people in your life that would, given the opportunity, but you're not gonna know a lot of people that did die for you.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus is the one who did.
SPEAKER_04: And so you can trust him because he died for you.
SPEAKER_04: And I love this is one of my favorite, favorite lines in the whole scripture.
SPEAKER_04: It just said he reconciled everything, made peace with everything in heaven and earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: The next verse says, This includes you.
SPEAKER_04: This includes you.
SPEAKER_04: Everybody say, This includes me.
SPEAKER_04: He made peace with everything on earth, including you.
SPEAKER_04: Including me.
SPEAKER_04: I just think that's amazing that he would do that.
SPEAKER_04: You know, in this explanation of the fact that Jesus is God in this important passage, he points out all of this is for you.
SPEAKER_04: I think that's amazing.
SPEAKER_04: And and you know, you might think, you know, I I find that hard to believe, John.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I talk to people all the time and say, I just I can't believe that I don't have to do anything to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: I can't believe that I don't have to do anything to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_04: That Jesus did it all for me.
SPEAKER_04: I find that hard to believe.
SPEAKER_04: And and and they say, you know, if you if you knew what my life was like, and if you knew some of the things that I did, you know, or or how I ran from God, how I turned my back on God, how I cursed God, you know, I can't believe that there's nothing that I have to do to make up for that.
SPEAKER_04: But look at the rest of the verse, chapter 21.
SPEAKER_04: This includes you who were once far away from God.
SPEAKER_04: You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
SPEAKER_04: Yet now he has reconciled you to himself.
SPEAKER_04: Through the uh death of Christ in his physical body as a result, he has brought you into his own presence and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single thought.
SPEAKER_04: Everything that you did, everything you think disqualifies you from that kind of love and that kind of salvation, that you don't have to do anything for.
SPEAKER_04: Anything you think disqualifies you from that.
SPEAKER_04: You're blameless.
SPEAKER_04: That's because Christ took that blame on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: He took the blame for whatever sin it was that you committed.
SPEAKER_04: And look at the things he said far away from God.
SPEAKER_04: Enemy of God.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus died for that when you said you were blameless.
SPEAKER_04: What Jesus did on the cross was more powerful than anything you bring to the conversation.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus act on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: There's nothing else that you have to do to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and you think I still just I still don't mind.
SPEAKER_04: Well, think about who wrote this.
SPEAKER_04: Who wrote this passage?
SPEAKER_04: The Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_04: Before he was the Apostle Paul, his name was Saul.
SPEAKER_04: And here's Saul's resume from before he met Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: He was a religious zealot, he was a murderer.
SPEAKER_04: He was a terrorist.
SPEAKER_04: He used to threaten and kill Christians.
SPEAKER_04: And his life's purpose was to destroy the movement of Christianity that was moving throughout the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_04: That's who wrote this.
SPEAKER_04: The guy who has more stuff on his scorecard that would disqualify him from going to heaven.
SPEAKER_04: And he wrote what what we just read.
SPEAKER_04: He wrote about being blameless.
SPEAKER_04: And he knew that when he stands before God, God's not going to look at his sin.
SPEAKER_04: God's going to look look at the blood of Jesus that covers that sin.
SPEAKER_04: And he's going to stand before him blameless.
SPEAKER_04: In a moment, we're going to remember Jesus' death and his shed blood through the Lord's Supper, through communion.
SPEAKER_04: We're going to take the elements just to, you know, he said, do this to remember me.
SPEAKER_04: Remember what I did for you.
SPEAKER_04: And so we're going to take that in a minute.
SPEAKER_04: But I really want to challenge you, if you're here today and this is kind of new to you, maybe you came up in a you know in a different tradition or something or a different church or whatever and you've never heard that, man, I don't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_04: I don't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_04: Or maybe you're just one that you've you've heard this over and over again, but you've just been running from God.
SPEAKER_04: I just want you to know that that all of this applies to you.
SPEAKER_04: That verse, this includes you.
SPEAKER_04: Really does include you.
SPEAKER_04: And today you can you can accept Christ as your Savior and stand before him blameless.
SPEAKER_04: Stand before him as if you had never sinned.
SPEAKER_04: And and when you take when you take the elements of communion, you know, you're you're you're taking the bread, and he says, take this bread that is my broken body, and it's a representation, it's a symbol that represents Christ's body that was broken and beaten and hanging on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: And you take it to remember that.
SPEAKER_04: Then you take the cup, and that's that that is a symbol of the blood that Jesus shed so that you can have forgiveness of your sin.
SPEAKER_04: Scripture says in in Hebrews 9, it says, There is no forgiveness of sin apart from the shedding of blood.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus' blood had to be shed so that you can have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_04: So I I would ask you this this morning, why would you take the symbolic Jesus if you've never accepted the death of the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_04: If you've never accepted him as your Savior.
SPEAKER_04: There's never been a time in your life when you've said, I'm gonna follow Jesus, I'm gonna confess my sin to him, I'm gonna trust in the death, burial, and resurrection for my salvation, and trust in his shed blood for the forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_04: I've never done that before.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna do it today.
SPEAKER_04: If that's you, it's it's simple.
SPEAKER_04: And we say this every week.
SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's simple because God would not God would not hang your eternal soul on something complicated that is hard for you to figure out.
SPEAKER_04: A loving God wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_04: Just like if you're if your child were in the middle of a lake crying out for help, you wouldn't dangle a life preserver over there saying, You have to figure out how to get this.
SPEAKER_04: This is up to you.
SPEAKER_04: You know, you would toss them that life preserver.
SPEAKER_04: God does the same thing, just like through through Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus is that life preserver that he just tossed it to you and you you don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_04: You know, you you you didn't do anything to earn it.
SPEAKER_04: It's just the way.
SPEAKER_04: And so if you've never accepted Christ today, today is the day.
SPEAKER_04: So let me have every head bowed and every eye closed.
SPEAKER_04: If you've never accepted Jesus as your Savior, like I said, it's very simple.
SPEAKER_04: You just tell him.
SPEAKER_04: Just tell him God, I trust you.
SPEAKER_04: I I trust Jesus today.
SPEAKER_04: I know now that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_04: He is the only way that I can get to heaven.
SPEAKER_04: I know that now.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna put my trust in him.
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna put my faith in him.
SPEAKER_04: So today I trust and just pray and tell God that today I trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for my salvation.
SPEAKER_04: I confess my sin to him and trust in his shed blood for the forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_04: And say, dear God, today I choose to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Still with heads bowed and eyes closed.
SPEAKER_04: If you if you prayed that prayer today, if you prayed that prayer today, that means a number of things.
SPEAKER_04: But most importantly, it means that you have a relationship with Jesus, that the Holy Spirit lives within you, and that you have a guaranteed permanent home in heaven, and nothing can change that.
SPEAKER_04: The Bible says that when you make that decision, you cross from death to life.
SPEAKER_04: Eternal life.
SPEAKER_04: So if you just pray today and you just pray to receive Jesus, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_04: So I would love it if you just lift your hand real quick, let me know that you pray that.
SPEAKER_04: Alright, God, thank you for your love for us.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, thank you for uh the shed blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, thank you for what Jesus did on the cross so that we can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_04: And Lord, as we take take this uh communion in a moment, Lord, I pray that you would just use it uh as a way to remember what you did for us.
SPEAKER_04: As a way to honor you and to worship you for the price that Jesus paid on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: So the band is gonna come and play and sing now.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna ask you to stand and remain in a prayerful attitude.
SPEAKER_04: You know, the scripture says that that you know, before you take this, you should really this is a time to search your heart, search your soul, search your mind, and it's a time to confess, confess sin.
SPEAKER_04: You know, there might be something, even the smallest thing, you know, you know, on the on the way this morning, you you said something to a driver that you shouldn't have said, or maybe it's something bigger.
SPEAKER_04: This is a time to confess sin before you take uh the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_04: So let's stand together, remain in this prayerful attitude.
SPEAKER_04: Take this time to search, search your heart, search your and see what exactly do you need to turn over to Christ as our band plays.
SPEAKER_03: Every weapon has formed the thief and his plans will pass over when he sees the red on the door.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not afraid to remind him.
SPEAKER_04: If you did not get them as you came in, if you want to lift your hand, our ushers will bring it bring it to you.
SPEAKER_04: It says in First Corinthians eleven, verse 23, Paul wrote this also.
SPEAKER_04: So he says, For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself.
SPEAKER_04: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
SPEAKER_04: Then he broke it in pieces and said, This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_04: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: God, this morning we remember your broken body, Lord, that was beaten and whipped and pierced.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, that you did this for us so that we can have salvation.
SPEAKER_04: We thank you for that.
SPEAKER_04: Take the bread.
SPEAKER_04: An agreement confirmed with my blood.
SPEAKER_04: Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.
SPEAKER_04: For every time you eat the bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.
SPEAKER_04: God, thank you for your shed blood.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, we know that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, we know that you you loved us so much that you took our penalty on the cross and your blood was shed so that we can have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_04: And this morning we do this in remembrance of you.
SPEAKER_04: Would you take the cup?
SPEAKER_04: God, thank you for the shed blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, thank you that he hung on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: He he died so that we don't have to.
SPEAKER_04: We can have eternal life in heaven because of what he did.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, help us to celebrate that today.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, as we go into a difficult week with our community, Lord, help help us to be to be ever mindful of the sacrifice that you made and pray that it would be so much on our minds and so much on our hearts that we share it with hurting people this week.
SPEAKER_04: God, thank you for sending your son.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, thank you for Family Church.
SPEAKER_04: We are so excited about all that you're doing here.
SPEAKER_04: And we ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow so you never miss a new episode.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about Family Church at myfamilychurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in the area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We meet at Patriot High School 10504 Kittle Run Drive.