SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Father's Day.
SPEAKER_00: And all the things that we've been talking about are so critical to the life of Connect Church.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just a place where you hear a sermon, we're a place where we're a part of a community.
SPEAKER_00: And we're wanting to share the love of Jesus across this state and across this community and around the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the lead pastor and I get the privilege of sharing with you for just a few moments today.
SPEAKER_00: I was in my prayer time recently, and I have a stack of cards that I pray through for different people in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I was praying for my friend Charles.
SPEAKER_00: That's not his real name.
SPEAKER_00: It's not someone you know, but I'll use a different name.
SPEAKER_00: I was praying for my my my I was praying for Charles, and I said, Lord, bless my friend Charles.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit said to me, and by the way, I'm learning to discern his voice.
SPEAKER_00: You learn to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit by reading his word, hanging out with his people, asking for discernment, asking for wisdom from above, as James teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm learning to hear his voice more and more the grow more I walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the voices that we hear are the voices of culture.
SPEAKER_00: They're loud, but the loudest voices is the voices of self.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The voices we speak.
SPEAKER_00: But I was confident this was the Holy Spirit speaking to me.
SPEAKER_00: And it was as clear as day that the Holy Spirit said to me, stop calling him your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Stop calling him your friend.
SPEAKER_00: You two don't get along.
SPEAKER_00: It was as clear as day.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're continuing our series on the metaphors of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Brenda started this wonderfully last week, didn't she?
SPEAKER_00: And helping us understand that in Christ, God brings together people who are vastly different, sometimes even opposed to each other, and creates this unified but diverse group of people that the scriptures call the called-out ones, the ecclesia, the called-out ones.
SPEAKER_00: Who, as we are called out and called into Christ, we learn to work together.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: For our own benefit?
SPEAKER_00: Not so much.
SPEAKER_00: But more so that we can be God's, a display of God's redemptive love in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now that benefits us.
SPEAKER_00: We become better people when we do God's will.
SPEAKER_00: But the purpose of the church is to be this redemptive voice in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And last week, Brenda introduced this idea of the body as one of those metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be five of them.
SPEAKER_00: And she she gave this word bank, I think you call these, I'm not sure, but I loved it.
SPEAKER_00: And it really is not like I'm not preaching on this again, but I loved that oneness as the key, uh the main word in the passage that she read and showed us.
SPEAKER_00: That the body is one and we have all these other pieces.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to introduce the next metaphor, and that is family.
SPEAKER_00: Family, which is another metaphor in Scripture that runs through both the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the apostles, particularly the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to look at this today, and we're asking the same three questions that Brenda introduced for us last week.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just going to put them on the screen so you know these questions.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're going to explore every week in this series.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the question we're going to answer is why this metaphor?
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul in this case addressing with the original readers?
SPEAKER_00: Why did he use this metaphor to speak in this letter to the Ephesians, by the way, and use this to explain his idea that he wanted to get uh across about the ecclesia, the called out one?
SPEAKER_00: So why this metaphor?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, how do what does this metaphor say about the purpose of the church for the original readers?
SPEAKER_00: Like, so as this metaphor was used, how did the early church hear that?
SPEAKER_00: But by the way, that's the way you should read scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You should read scripture two things.
SPEAKER_00: Looking, what does it teach me about God?
SPEAKER_00: And then, secondly, what did the original hearers hear and understand?
SPEAKER_00: That's where you start.
SPEAKER_00: Too often we say, Well, what can I get from the scripture?
SPEAKER_00: That's such a like God's the Holy Spirit is still gonna honor and help you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't stop reading the scripture if you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep just do it better, right?
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, what does this teach me about God?
SPEAKER_00: And then the question really then, as we interpret what this teach me about God, is how did the people that heard it the first time understand it?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the question we'll explore.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, there's this idea that scripture then can apply to us.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that strongly.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that if you do good exegetical work, more importantly, if the Holy Spirit helps you, you can begin to take what the original hearers were understanding and apply it to your life.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna try to do with this concept of the family.
SPEAKER_00: So if we back up a little bit from Ephesians, where we're gonna be in a moment, back to Jesus, which seems like a good place to start.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna be in Matthew in a second, but to understand what's going on in Matthew chapter 12 with this metaphor of family, I'm gonna take us to Mark 30, Mark III, and just say that in Mark 3, the scripture tells us that Jesus fought, Jesus' mother and brothers came from one community to another.
SPEAKER_00: What's important to think about that is it's about a 30-mile walk.
SPEAKER_00: So they walked from here to the edge of Topeka, or whichever direction you want to go.
SPEAKER_00: And they walked with intent to speak to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So understand that as they made this journey, Mark chapter 3 tells us they walked to take charge of Jesus because he was out of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: So here's mommy and brothers coming to their brother and saying, Hey man, you're losing it.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so then that that's in Mark, but Matthew tells the same story, not with that context, but Matthew tells the same story.
SPEAKER_00: So here when they arrive, here's what happens in Mark in Matthew chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, again, after that 30-mile walk, asking to speak to him.
SPEAKER_00: And someone told Jesus, Your mother and brothers are standing outside and they want to speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asked, Well, who is my mother?
SPEAKER_00: That's not where they got the title for that book that you read to your kids.
SPEAKER_00: That's not, but maybe like, who is my mother?
SPEAKER_00: And who are my brothers?
SPEAKER_00: Then he pointed to his disciples and said, Look, these are my mother and brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' words here indicate that not even your own parents, brothers or sisters, are necessarily a part of your family.
SPEAKER_00: That's shocking.
SPEAKER_00: We read over these words sometimes as just like, uh-da-da.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, when he picks up this idea of family, is thinking about that.
SPEAKER_00: That there is this thing that Jesus came to create that's different and unique and challenging.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is not really the main part of the sermon, but let me just say something here very quickly but clearly.
SPEAKER_00: That a temptation on Father's Day or or Mother's Day or any day that Hallmark makes up to help us think about family, we can make an idol out of our family.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be an extension of our own self-interests to feel good about ourselves or proud of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: This puts all kind of pressures on each other and family.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you understand the dynamic I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to help us understand something about family.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna we're not gonna uncover all of this.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna leave you with some questions to wrestle, or as they say in Oklahoma, wrestle with.
SPEAKER_00: But uh there's something new being started here that Jesus is bringing about.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something that can be helpful, I think.
SPEAKER_00: And here's also not the main point, but something I want you to clearly hear that when you get this right, you'll be a better father.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be a better mother, son, or daughter, when you recognize that family is not your possession to hold and shape and mold and control and release and be proud of and show off.
SPEAKER_00: But they are just like all they are those that you can love deeply and de and love the most for sure.
SPEAKER_00: And in a different way than you love others, right?
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: We gotta get this right.
SPEAKER_00: We've we're I'm I'm saying way more than I intended, but I feel a pretty deep passion about what we can do to make our families idols.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we should get back to the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 14, he doubles down on this idea, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, it's not gonna get easier.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 14, Jesus says now there, or the scriptures say now there now, large crowds were going along with him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate what does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, and there's the key phrase.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come before after me cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_00: So just think about what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: We use this phrase, die to self, carry the cross, and we think it means something fun and easy.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying is listen, there's a there's a level of discipleship that that I want you to get to where you die to self-interest so that you can be filled with my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And and and part of that Jesus seems to be saying here is that you view your family not as your possession, or not as your failure or success, but as you surrender your family, just as you are as you surrender yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, in the past, if you're a Jew, you are a part of God's chosen family, but God's purpose has always been that adoption into his family is for people from every nation, tribe, and people.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is reorienting reorienting believers to a new way of family one.
SPEAKER_00: He says that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus as Son of God is a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, and think how radical that was for the Jewish people to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Even Gentiles can be a part of the family of God, and Jesus is going on to say, and not all Jews will be.
SPEAKER_00: He's creating something new.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this metaphor say about the purpose of the church for the original reader?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the that's why Jesus chose the metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: He chose the metaphor, a family.
SPEAKER_00: Why this metaphor?
SPEAKER_00: Because he was talking about something new.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he was wanting, that's the why.
SPEAKER_00: How did this land with those who heard it first?
SPEAKER_00: Is the next question.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Jews were God's chosen people, and their unique identity was to make a path for the Messiah to come and rescue all of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God created the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have Joseph and the 12 tribes and all the history in the Old Testament, was so that God could prepare a people through which to send a Savior to rescue the world.
SPEAKER_00: However, their unique identity also meant a separation.
SPEAKER_00: God said, I want you to be different.
SPEAKER_00: As I prepare this people through which the Messiah will come, you will be a unique people, you will have unique laws, you will have unique governance and customs, you will be called out and chosen.
SPEAKER_00: And so the the the the the the Jew the Israelites had two sort of mandates.
SPEAKER_00: One, be a be a group of people through which the whole world can save, and two, be people who are very unique.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like almost opposites.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, you've ever heard the phrase, you can go down the road and get it wrong by going to one ditch or the other.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites went down the road and got it wrong by going into both ditches.
SPEAKER_00: Because what they began to do is forget their calling as the as the people through which the Redeemer of the world would come through, and they began to see their exclusivity as something they earned or they deserved, and they begin to forget, and they forgot that God was doing something, and maybe it wasn't so much forgetting as maybe it wasn't as clear to them as it is to us now.
SPEAKER_00: But the prophets would remind them, and the scriptures were clear, that you are created.
SPEAKER_00: It was in the original call of Abraham, you're going to bless the nations, you're going to be a blessing to all nations.
SPEAKER_00: And they forgot that as a people.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, every human group would have forgotten that as well.
SPEAKER_00: They became proud of who they were.
SPEAKER_00: And the other danger was they forgot that they were supposed to be unique.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They forgot the laws.
SPEAKER_00: They walked away from the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't obey the mandates.
SPEAKER_00: And so God sent prophets and punishments and restitution and all the things that you're in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews are forgetting it both.
SPEAKER_00: One, they forgot they were supposed to be a blessing to the world, and two, they forgot they were supposed to be unique.
SPEAKER_00: And so they have this dual failure as you go through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And so after returning from exile, this all kind of came to ahead.
SPEAKER_00: They returned from exile.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they went into Babylon, and God brought them back after 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: And when they came back from exile, which by the way was their punishment for aligning with pagan gods.
SPEAKER_00: Their exile was punishment for forgetting that they were unique, that they were to serve one God.
SPEAKER_00: They were not to sacrifice their children to Molech.
SPEAKER_00: They were to serve one God.
SPEAKER_00: And they forgot that.
SPEAKER_00: So God sent them into exile because they had forgot the nature of their uniqueness, their chosenness.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they came back from exile, you know what they decided?
SPEAKER_00: Never again.
SPEAKER_00: So they set up strict rules.
SPEAKER_00: They doubled down on their uniqueness, but they did it in their own humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not going to let this happen again.
SPEAKER_00: They set out strict rules, including never participating in food and never hanging out with Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And so they began to see their separateness as something they needed to protect themselves and their identity became how do we keep ourselves separate from those pagan people out there?
SPEAKER_00: And they developed these laws and rules which bound up their own people.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of accepting God's uh God's commissioning of them as unique people and with unique laws, they decided they were going to create laws in order to be a unique people.
SPEAKER_00: They took control of what God wanted to do for them.
SPEAKER_00: And this became their national identity.
SPEAKER_00: The separation from Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: So then Jesus comes along and he says, I'm going to change the definition of family.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be just the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to, I'm going to, the family, the family is going to be any who will trust and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Family is going to be any who will take up their cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Jews, Gentiles, and even Americans and Algerians.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul doubled down on this idea in his letter to the Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the text for this morning that we're going to read.
SPEAKER_00: If you read the book of Ephesians in the second chapter, we often love as we should, verses 1 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: I love verses 1 through 10, which show us this incredible grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's not from yourselves, it's the gift of God, so no one can boast about it.
SPEAKER_00: We love that verse.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2 8 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: We absolutely should love that verse.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul goes on in Ephesians 11 and says this.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are far away from God, Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ, Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Now in Christ, you who are formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them to both in one body to God through the cross by it, the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
SPEAKER_00: And he came and preached peace to you who are far away, and peace to those who were near.
SPEAKER_00: For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And there was also a very real sense in which the Gentiles were further away from God.
SPEAKER_00: They sought after multiple gods to appease them because they lived without hope and without the one true God.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have the prophets coming to them and saying, God's not done with you.
SPEAKER_00: So they sought God in any way they could find them.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you come to this time of Judaism in Jerusalem, and the temple is now, the second temple is up and operating.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were to walk into the temple, you would see this separation literally in how the temple was constructed.
SPEAKER_00: There were places where Gentiles could come into the temple area, but there was a wall that said, you can't come past here.
SPEAKER_00: And this wall was constructed.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Jews were protecting their identity and their own strength.
SPEAKER_00: This was not commanded in the Old Testament building of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they chose to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's a metaphor of how they lived their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles can come this close to God, but no closer.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a plaque that was found in an archaeological dig in 1871 that says this near the temple, no man or of another nation is to enter within the fence and enclosure round the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever is caught will have himself to blame that, have himself to blame that his death ensues.
SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty strong.
SPEAKER_00: And this wall represented this chasm between Jews and Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: This chasm formed by Gentiles who didn't know any better were trying to find God, and the Jews who were trying to hold on to their identity, forgetting that God wanted to use them to bless the world.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to hear this because this is the point of the mourning.
SPEAKER_00: The chasm between the Jews and the Gentiles was minor compared to the chasm between all of us and God.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta hear that.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
SPEAKER_00: What happened when Jesus died?
SPEAKER_00: You see, there was another barrier in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, the Gentiles couldn't come where the Jews could go.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a but there was a holy place where only the priest could go, and there was a holy of holy place where only the priest could go once a year.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember when Jesus died, one of the things that happened was that temple curtain that separated the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: That place where only the high priest could enter once a year to make atonement for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: One of these laws that made the Jewish people unique, that God was trying to teach them about access to Him.
SPEAKER_00: This curtain was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Paul said in the passage I said?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were at that time, Gentiles, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So the access that Paul talks about in Ephesians 2.18 is now available not only to the Gentiles, but also to the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles can now not only go into the Jewish area, but all of us can go into the very presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought Jews and Gentiles together by bringing Jews and Gentiles to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought Jews and Gentiles together by bringing Jews and Gentiles to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so when he talks about family, he's not saying to the Jews and Gentiles, get along.
SPEAKER_00: Have a conference.
SPEAKER_00: Have a pop, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get along.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be good citizens.
SPEAKER_00: We need to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: But what Jesus is saying, I'm creating something.
SPEAKER_00: New, where people can be reconciled to God so that they can be reconciled to one another.
SPEAKER_00: It makes all the difference when we talk about reconciliation, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Being reconciled to God opens up the door for reconciliation with us.
SPEAKER_00: Does it guarantee that people are going to be your buddies after that?
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: But stop, I think we need to stop trying to reconcile to our brothers and sisters until we first pass through that wall that has now been torn down into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: So how might this apply to us today?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of said this, but just because I made a note for it and it's on the screen, I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus tore down the curtain between humanity and God, he also tore down the walls of hostility that divide humanity and one another.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus tore down the curtain, he made it possible for us to be born again, born into a new family, so that everyone that's born again is part of this new family.
SPEAKER_00: Or as Mark Holmes says, Jews, Jesus, excuse me, did not just tear down the wall between Jews and Gentiles, but between gender and race and ideology and socioeconomic levels and more.
SPEAKER_00: If we are in Christ, we are equal.
SPEAKER_00: All distinctions must give way to the one overall title for all of God's children, the redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: As with the Jews and Gentiles of Paul Day, God has combined the many people of this world into one unique and blessed existence known as the church, the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are no walls of separation here.
SPEAKER_00: See, choosing to follow Jesus does not mean that the family of God displaces your biological family.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Probably for all of it, it's a little bit of both.
SPEAKER_00: I was just at a family reunion yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you something, you come to a family reunion with Rovensteins, you're about to walk into a whole bunch of opinions.
SPEAKER_00: And I brought mine with me too.
SPEAKER_00: I love family.
SPEAKER_00: I love Father's Day, and to remind us of the importance of family.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not suggesting for a moment that we abandon our families or think less of our families.
SPEAKER_00: I'm simply saying that Christ created a new thing.
SPEAKER_00: A new thing.
SPEAKER_00: He brought the Jews and the Gentiles together in one body, one family.
SPEAKER_00: Then that means that those people who are different from me now are a part of my family.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are a little concerned about my words from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't finish what the Holy Spirit said to me.
SPEAKER_00: So come back with me to that.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit said to me, Charles, stop calling Charles your brother.
SPEAKER_00: You two don't get along.
SPEAKER_00: He's not your brother.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I gave it away, didn't I?
SPEAKER_00: Stop calling Charles your friend.
SPEAKER_00: You two don't get along.
SPEAKER_00: Charles is not your friend.
SPEAKER_00: He's your brother.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that helped me so much.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Charles and I are ever going to go out for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of what happened between us seems too deep for us to really ever want to hang out a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But if we do go out for dinner, it will be his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: I have this, I have this tendency in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where I came from.
SPEAKER_00: I have a pretty good idea.
SPEAKER_00: Dad who's watching.
SPEAKER_00: Have everybody be my friend.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just settle it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be friends with everybody.
SPEAKER_00: But if they're in Christ, you're brothers and sisters with him.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing we cannot miss.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't choose my biological family, and I don't choose my spiritual family.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably the negative side of this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: The positive side is in Christ, and the walls come down, our sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: We have release from shame.
SPEAKER_00: We have the opportunity for healthy relationships as we grow towards each other.
SPEAKER_00: We do it in a different way than just saying we're going to try to get along.
SPEAKER_00: We do it under the banner of the cross with the love of Jesus in our heart and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: That it gives us an opportunity for deep and powerful relationships.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give three next steps.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be quick.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: The curtain is down, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Come to God.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it means you just believe that what Christ did on the cross dropped that barrier between God and you.
SPEAKER_00: And you confess that you need that barrier dropped, that there's brokenness, there's sin in your life, and you trust that Jesus can overcome that.
SPEAKER_00: And you may not understand it all completely, but like if we're, it's it's so if you're if there's something in your heart that I was talking to this today said, okay, I want this in my life, I just say, just trust Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: The curtain's down.
SPEAKER_00: Just in this moment, even in this moment, to say, Jesus, I I I confess I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you died for me, and I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it completely.
SPEAKER_00: By faith, I trust that you died for me, and I want your life, and I want to follow you and walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever done that, never done that, I encourage you to do that today and tell somebody about it and start a journey with him.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing I would say is the world is watching.
SPEAKER_00: Step towards your siblings.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean by this like we got to do better, church.
SPEAKER_00: We got to show the world that Jesus loves us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean by this, like when you come to the Father and you die to self, as you step, as you get up from worship, as you stand up from your knees, either literally or figuratively, look around and understand that there are people that are your brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the world's watching to see if we act like family or not.
SPEAKER_00: There's a I don't know what that means in your life, but step towards your siblings.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Charles and I, we're good.
SPEAKER_00: We're good.
SPEAKER_00: We we understand and respect and love each other.
SPEAKER_00: We understand the conflict that happened.
SPEAKER_00: I will see him sometime, and it will be good.
SPEAKER_00: We're just not gonna hang out.
SPEAKER_00: Step towards your brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, I'll say this the cross is our DNA.
SPEAKER_00: Let it guide our path.
SPEAKER_00: I love the cross because it has so much to teach us.
SPEAKER_00: One, it is our path to access with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's primary, foundational.
SPEAKER_00: Never take that away.
SPEAKER_00: But something we often don't talk about, well, we talk about it some here, we should more, is also how we're supposed to live our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, carry your cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, This is the way.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way Christians live.
SPEAKER_00: The surrendered life.
SPEAKER_00: It's what makes us family.
SPEAKER_00: It's what tore the curtain into, it's in our DNA.
SPEAKER_00: It's really not optional.
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons Rovensteins have so many opinions is because it's in our DNA.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons we are committed to reconciliation should be that it's in our DNA, and reconciliation doesn't happen without a cross.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're not going to die on the cross, it's up to us too.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say we lose our identity.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say we give in to falsehood.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say we lose our sense of self.
SPEAKER_00: It is to say we lose the power to control others and surrender to Jesus and say, What could you do in this family brokenness?
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to take communion, which I think is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: Way to lean into this idea of the DNA of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So you have elements there.
SPEAKER_00: You grab those.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read from 1 Corinthians 11, which we often read as sort of the preparation for communion, sort of the how we take communion.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great passage.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read a little bit more of it this time, though.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read the verses before the familiar verses.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, in the following directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.
SPEAKER_00: In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you.
SPEAKER_00: And to some extent, I believe it.
SPEAKER_00: So then when you come together, it's not the Lord's Supper you eat.
SPEAKER_00: For when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers.
SPEAKER_00: I get the idea, it's like maybe the Jews were over in the corner saying, We're not going to eat with the Gentiles, or the rich people were over here, we're not going to eat with those folks.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it was, but it's like they weren't coming together around the meal.
SPEAKER_00: They were using the meal as a way to show their social status.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, one remains hungry and another gets drunk.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you have homes to eat and drink in?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you despise the church of God by humilitying those who have nothing?
SPEAKER_00: What shall I say to you?
SPEAKER_00: Shall I praise you?
SPEAKER_00: Certainly not in this matter.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying you forgot the way of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You forgot that the cross is in your DNA, Church of Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we take communion, as I move to these more familiar words from 1 Corinthians 11, and you take the bread out that's in there in your little plastic container there.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not only reminding us that the curtain has been torn down between God and us, he's reminding us that the curtain, the wall, the man-made wall, has been torn down between Jews and Gentiles, between whatever group and whatever group you want to say.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling us to remember this when he says, For I receive from you, I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that 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.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me, you may take.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_00: Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes, and if I might add, and as you proclaim his death, you are shouting, the curtain has come down between God and me, and the walls are coming down between me and my siblings.
SPEAKER_00: You may partake.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for the cross, which makes reconciliation with you and others possible.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that we would come to you and then turn around and see our brothers and sisters and walk towards them because the world is watching to see if the gospel really works.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, help us to walk towards our brothers and sisters with the DNA of the cross coursing through our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand in worship.