WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.960 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:10.720 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:25.199 Well, I mentioned you you got came in and got this COVID-safe communion set up. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.239 And this is what we're calling a communion Sunday. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:33.679 Seasonally at awakening, we like to pause what we do and just focus back on this communion meal. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.439 If you're new to church or just started coming to church during the pandemic, and this is new to you, that's okay. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:46.479 Communion is for those that believe in Jesus, that call Jesus Lord, it is a reminder of God's work on the cross. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:54.640 And as a church, we like to seasonally, regularly pause and just look at that bread and that cup and remind ourselves of its importance. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:56.880 Communion is often called the Lord's Supper. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:58.079 It's also called Eucharist. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:19.439 You may have heard these other terms for it, but it simply is, refers to the bread and the cup that symbolizes the broken body of Jesus, the bread, and the shed blood of Jesus, the cup, that was given for us on the cross to forgive our sins and make us right with God and bring us into everlasting life with Him. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:22.799 That is what the communion meal symbolizes. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:24.560 It is a place of remembrance. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:33.920 You know, in Luke 22, which is the end of Jesus' story in one of the Gospels, Luke, he's with uh his friends at a meal and he institutes this meal. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:44.640 He places this meal before his disciples and he says, When you take this bread and when you take this cup, he says, Do this in remembrance of me. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:56.000 So if you want to think about communion simply, it's this remembering Jesus and remembering all that Jesus is and all that Jesus did for us on the cross. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.920 He said, When you take this, do this in remembrance of me. 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:06.640 What does it take for you to remember the important things in your life? 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:12.639 What does it take for you to remember what is most important to you? 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:14.639 Is it a song? 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:16.159 Is it a meal? 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:23.039 You know, it's interesting how physical things remind us of non-physical realities all the time. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:30.400 Like somewhat insignificant physical things can remind us of the most significant non-physical things. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:37.360 We've all maybe heard that song before that transports us back to a time in our life that was really special. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:45.199 Or that meal that reminds us of that person that has passed away and the love that existed between us and them. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:55.520 Or perhaps that place, that place you go to that reminds you of when you were a kid and some type of feeling is evoked in you of love and memory. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:58.319 It's interesting how we are built this way. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:11.520 It's almost as if God knew this, that God knew that we would need a tactile physical experience to remind us of something we were not there for, but something that deeply is important and impacts us, right? 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:22.240 So the communion meal is this physical piece that connects us to this non-physical reality, this idea that we are forgiven. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:24.080 And it connects us to history. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:33.439 It connects us to something that actually physically happened, that Jesus physically died and physically resurrected from the dead in order to bond us to himself. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:39.360 It's interesting, isn't it, how easy it is for us to forget the most important things. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:51.120 We're so busy, life is so fast that we remember very easily insignificant things, like how many calories are burning, our watch will tell us and beep at us on those kinds of things. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:56.560 But like our relationships with the most important people, we have to remember, oh yeah, we got to get together with them. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.439 We really got to make plans with them, we really got to make sure that happens, right? 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:00.960 We're like, oh, Mother's Day coming up. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:02.639 I gotta think about that, you know? 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.479 Important things, it's easy to forget. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:08.080 Today, we refuse to forget the most important thing. 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:11.120 We're gonna refuse to forget and we're going to remember Jesus. 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:17.199 And we're gonna do that by taking communion here at the end, but also by using God's word to guide us there. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:22.160 So if you have a Bible, let's go to Hebrews 10 and um open it up on your phone. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:24.560 It's also the only thing in your notes, okay? 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:28.639 So if you want to take notes, God bless you, type A's, take those notes. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:29.600 Get after it. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.920 But I also just want you to sit in this text with me to reflect a little bit. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:37.920 Um, Hebrews 10, if you got a Bible, starting in verse 11. 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:42.959 Um, it says this requires some context, but let's just read this, okay? 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.160 Let's just read this and then we'll we'll lift the context out of it a little bit. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.319 All right, Hebrews 10, verse 11. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:59.600 And every priest stands daily at his, at God's service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:13.279 But when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he, Jesus, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:18.560 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:22.079 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:30.959 For after saying, and this is a quote from Jeremiah, we'll talk about in a little bit, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:35.519 I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:40.480 Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:46.160 Where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer any offering for sin. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:56.639 Uh, this little passage of scripture, I want us, I want it to guide us to communion, to lead us there by remembering three very simple and quick things. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:00.959 Through this text, looking at the weariness of self-improvement. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:12.240 When we come to communion, we need to remind be reminded of the weariness of self-improvement, the explosive grace of the cross, and the new conditions for the relationship that we have with God. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:20.959 The weariness of self-improvement, the explosive grace of the cross of Jesus, and the new conditions we have with God through Jesus. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.759 Let's just look at this passage, three thoughts. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:30.480 First is this passage reminds us of the weariness of self-improvement, which is something we are reminded when we look at the bread in the cup. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:36.319 The bread in the cup signify, again, Jesus' broken body, Jesus' shed blood, his sacrifice. 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:41.279 And it reminds us that our sacrifices will end up falling short. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.399 In the text, it begins with this image of a Jewish religious ritual, right? 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:55.040 Of a priest standing daily, offering animal sacrifices, cutting these animals open in order to atone for the sins of the people. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:07:08.639 Hebrews, which is a book written primarily to a persecuted Jewish audience, it is obsessed, obsessed with uh the ways in which Jesus' life and work fulfills the first half of your Bible through the Old Testament. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:17.360 This book is repeatedly taking the images and situations of the Old Testament and showing Jesus' complete fulfillment of them. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:30.560 And right here, there's a very specific one about Jesus' replacement of the old sacrificial system, that there's no longer any need for these daily self-sacrifices, animal sacrifices, because of the work that Jesus has done. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:40.079 The priest, it says in verse 11, it says, daily, look at this, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:42.240 What do we remember when we come to communion? 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:44.480 We remember what doesn't work. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:54.160 What doesn't work, which is the repeated efforts of our own self-improvement, trying ourselves to make our life better. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:08:06.959 We remember the weariness that comes with trying to make us right before God, us doing what we need to do before God in order to be loved by Him, that God might love us because we do certain things. 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:15.680 At communion, we kind of remember the pointless nature of constantly trying to approve of ourselves through the work that we do. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:37.200 Like you might be going to work every week and sacrificing every week in order to receive affirmation from your career, either from your career itself, like wanting to find identity and affirmation from your career, or even from a boss or superior or peers at work, that you want them to see your work and you want them to think that you're a great person. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.639 Or we're constantly working in this way as parents. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:44.960 We wake up every day to try to, you know, appease our children and to love our children. 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:53.759 We want other parents to think that we're great parents, or maybe you're in school and you're constantly sacrificing your life to be a great student so that other people would show you love. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:57.519 We're constantly offering ourselves up in order to try to receive love. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:08.799 And we're constantly getting new invitations to do so through various places in our culture to constantly try to uh be approved because of a sacrifice we might give. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:13.519 But here's the problem: your career is never gonna die for you. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.679 You might die for your career, but it'll never die for you. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:18.559 Right? 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:24.159 You might just sacrifice your life for school, but school will never give you anything back, right? 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:29.360 As much as we give to our children, we already know that what we give to them will outweigh what they give to us. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:36.799 At some level, our constant laying down of our lives is only asking us to continue to lay down our life over and over again. 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:49.600 And if we are doing that with the wrong motivation, the motivation being that we might receive love from these daily sacrifices, we will only continue to grow weary in sacrificing ourselves so that others might love us. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.120 We get invitations to this all the time. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:58.159 Invitations to change our diet so that people might think we're conscious about what we eat, right? 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:02.879 Thrifty purchases and life hacks that make us presentable in some type of way, right? 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:17.679 Have a deep understanding of modern politics and injustices and project those opinions on social media so that other people can applaud us and enjoy the things that we say, so that all these invitations are constantly coming at us and we are constantly taking them, uh taking them up on it, aren't we? 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:22.480 Constantly doing these things that are maybe trying to get people to love us in some way. 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:24.879 See me, love me because of what I've done. 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:26.960 Aren't you exhausted, right? 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.600 And you were exhausted before the pandemic, right? 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:32.879 And then the pandemic came and you had to crush it at the pandemic. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:41.440 You had to like crush it at being in quarantine and clean out all your closets and rearrange your workspace and get those desks that move up and down and show people how cool it is where you work. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:45.519 And like, it's individualism is exhausting. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:50.720 Self-improvement is exhausting when the self is the problem. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:59.600 Constantly rearranging your life to present it as something someone would love is constantly inviting you to do that again and again and again. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:07.759 It's the classic example of like the young boy whose father only really shows him affection when he produces good results of the sport he plays, right? 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:17.759 The only way that child receives the affection is by constantly performing for the father in a particular way, in a particular arena, in a space, right, where that father is showing the affection. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.399 It only demands more and more sacrifice, and it never really pays off. 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.480 Because you're only loved because of what you do for yourself. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:37.759 And self-improvement and individualism is the prize of our modern world to find within yourself the vast potentials that other people should look at and love. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:44.159 They should look at the things, and we've dumped more and more resources into it than ever before in the last 50 to 75 years. 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:49.279 There are more resources towards individualism and self-realization than ever before. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:53.120 And yet we're more anxious and scared than ever before. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.519 Like I've been watching this um, there's this BBC series right now. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:03.120 Um, there's a six-part BBC series called Can't Get You Out of My Head, An Emotional History of the Modern World. 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:13.600 And it's by this um filmmaker named Adam Curtis, and he is not a Christian, but he's critiquing individualism across 50 to 75 years of you know global history, basically. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:28.080 And the critique being this: we have put so much resources of money and products and um inventions into the journey of becoming a great individual. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:37.519 And yet we are more disunified and violent and chaotic and rising levels of anxiety and depression than ever before. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:41.919 So his question is this if individualism works, how come we're here? 00:12:43.200 --> 00:13:02.159 You see, constantly reinventing ourselves has only brought new reinventions of depravity, new ways in which our own darkness is exposed, because we're constantly obsessed with the thing that is broken within us and constantly trying to tweak it and not truly heal it. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:13.679 And there is a difference between sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing for approval, and a difference of sacrificing out of an approval. 00:13:14.399 --> 00:13:18.159 And that's the difference that the Hebrews writer brings us to. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:23.360 Not just the weariness of self-improvement, but the explosive grace of the cross. 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:24.480 I love verse 12. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:25.840 Look down back at the text. 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:34.320 Every priest is sacrificing daily, and then he comes to verse 12, but when Christ, which is a very New Testament way of introducing the gospel. 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:47.840 There's one of these in Galatians 1, there's another one in Ephesians 2, where the writers are making this move of showing us the darkness of our own self-involvement, and then bringing us into what Christ has done through very simple words like this. 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.080 But when Christ. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:54.159 Not but when you, but when you began to do something, right? 00:13:54.399 --> 00:14:09.120 But when Christ, look it, but when Christ had offered for a single, for all time, a single sacrifice, not multiple sacrifices, one single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:12.960 This is the great gospel, the great invasion of grace. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:22.000 Look at that verse in verse 12 very closely, and notice this the contrast between the priest and the Christ. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:29.600 The priest got up to sacrifice, to sacrifice again, and then went to sleep and then sacrificed again. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:32.480 He sacrificed only to sacrifice again. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:35.600 Christ sacrificed and he sat down. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:52.799 See, you and I are in the hamster wheel of self-improvement, where we will constantly sacrifice only to sacrifice again, to constantly lay down our life to try to get us people's approval or try to get even our own approval, only to get up and do it again. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:58.559 Because we are now defined based off of what we produce, not because of who we are. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:09.519 And if we're constantly only loved because of what we produce, we will only be invited to continue to produce again, daily, daily, daily, offering the same sacrifices, which never take away sin, the root of the problem. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:10.960 It never takes it away. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:15.120 It constantly just reintroduces us to the same problem over and over again. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:24.399 But when Christ, because he was not just a man, because he was God, came and sacrificed his life, a single sacrifice, he sat. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:28.960 When you and I sacrifice, we get up and sacrifice again. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:32.720 When Jesus sacrificed, he sat down. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:35.919 Because that's how powerful his work is. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:39.600 Our sacrifices will only produce the need to sacrifice again. 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:47.039 Jesus' sacrifice produces the need to sit down and rest in what he has done. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:58.000 This means that we are now able to receive love not based off of our performance of what we might do, but off of Christ's performance and what he has done. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.639 And that's what we see in communion. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.120 We see Christ's performance. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:04.480 And look at verse 13. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:16.720 It says that He he sits and then waiting from that time, he's sitting after he sacrifices, Jesus Christ, crucified, risen from the dead, sitting at the right hand of God, and he puts his feet up. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:23.679 And it says this in verse 13, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:26.399 He didn't just sit down, he put his feet up. 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:32.639 He sat down because he was so confident in the work that he did, he knew his enemies would be defeated. 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:41.039 This image of Jesus giving his life, being crucified, and rising from the dead, sitting at the throne, and just it says, waiting. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:44.399 Waiting until the enemies are slowly defeated. 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:46.399 He doesn't have to do anything anymore. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:50.960 And if Jesus doesn't have to do anything anymore, I don't think you and I have to do anything anymore. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:17:00.080 You see, after you meet Jesus, after you know his sacrifice, after you take this meal and receive it in the way that Jesus provided, do this in remembrance of me. 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:03.600 After that, there's nothing left to earn. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.640 There's nothing left to earn. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:08.640 There's nothing left to accomplish. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.000 There's plenty to do. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:12.160 There's plenty to be involved with. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:24.000 Because Jesus Christ has shown it to us on the cross. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:27.279 And his enemies, make no mistake, he has them. 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:39.680 Satan, sin, and death, and the evil works that exist in this world, his enemies are slowly defeated and brought to a footstool position as he sits in victorious confirmation over them. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:48.160 He sits in complete victory because of his work, because he wasn't just a man, because he was God giving his life for us and defeating the enemies. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.400 And you know this is true if you know the gospel. 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:56.400 If you're a Christian, you know the greatest weapon against the enemies of your life is the gospel itself. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:58.400 It's not a new way of thinking spiritually. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:00.799 It's not some mindfulness trick or anything like that. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:06.799 The simple defeat of the enemies in your life happens through the reminding of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.640 You know this to be true, do you not? 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:09.359 Right? 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:17.519 Simply, you say, man, I am loved not based off of what I produce, but because what Christ has done on the cross. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:29.359 The enemy of career fulfillment is defeated, of trying to find your fulfillment in what you do for work is slowly brought to low positions in your life because of your security in Jesus Christ. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:40.079 Your fear and anxiety about a potential relationship and how it might work is cast asunder at the light of Jesus Christ, saying, I don't love you because of what that person thinks about you. 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:43.039 I love you, and my demonstration of it was on the cross. 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:45.119 And that enemy is silenced and defeated. 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:57.599 This idea that I'm not worthy, I don't have enough worth in this world, is defeated and silenced at the work of the cross because you see the God who died for you, who doesn't want you to lose your life because he gave his life for you on your behalf. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:06.799 And because of that, when the gospel is announced, when it is preached in a room like this, enemies are silenced, and Jesus puts his foot up on them to say they are defeated, they are done. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:13.279 Not because of what you might do, but because of what I have done and the word that is now announced on your life. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:15.440 See, that's how good the good news is. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:17.519 And when we come to the cross, we see this. 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:21.599 We see that we there is an explosive grace to the cross. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:28.400 There's this kind of bomb that's set off in our life that clears the space and destroys the things that have been damaging us. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:38.240 And as that space is cleared, we don't only see the weariness of self-improvement and this explosive, beautiful grace of the cross, but we see new conditions for this relationship. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.039 New conditions for the relationship. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:49.200 Hebrews closes this section by appealing, I said, to Jeremiah 31, which is a prophet in the Old Testament. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:20:01.680 And in that section, if you look through 15, verses 15 through 18 in your notes, there in your Bible, you'll see Jeremiah saying, like, my people will no longer relate to me based off of their actions. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:03.920 My people will now relate with me. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:16.240 This covenant will be based on my action, what I have done, to choose to forgive their sins, to make right, and put their the law that I've given on their hearts. 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:21.440 Now you and I, if you are a Christian, you stand in a beneficial arrangement. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:26.880 We don't relate to God because of what we might do, we relate to God because what he has done. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:30.559 Do you feel like God is unavailable to you? 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:31.920 Do you feel like you're not good enough? 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:41.200 Do you feel like you keep falling into the same addictions or patterns over and over again and you think God is not talking back, he's not listening, he's far away? 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:49.119 Let that enemy be defeated today in the light of this good news that you don't relate to God based off of what you promise him you'll do. 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:53.279 You relate to God based off what he has already accomplished. 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:59.680 And so he is with you, he is available, he does know you, he is with you, he is present right now. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:04.319 And as you take this meal, be reminded of that new relationship. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:10.559 Come and remember, are you tired of the pursuit of self-improvement and individualization? 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:15.119 Are you ready to receive the explosive grace of the cross? 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:21.759 Because if you are, you stand in the beneficial new relationship and new arrangement of your relationship with God. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.599 It is all based on what He has done. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:35.920 And you and I now get to sacrifice and lay our lives down and show up to work and be the people we are, not so that we can be approved, but because we already have it. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:44.319 We have it in Christ and we live a life now free of the potential entanglements of our own dark nature. 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:51.200 And so I'm gonna invite the band up and we're gonna take this communion together to remember these things. 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:57.039 I'd like you to take this out now and um consider some of these things. 00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:04.640 And I want to remind you of the night that Jesus died, the night he was betrayed before he died. 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:08.240 He had this meal with his friends, as I said. 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:13.680 And you can take this bread out now, this COVID-safe thing. 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:24.000 And I want you to pause, and I want you to hear what Jesus said the night that he instituted this meal. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:36.079 On the night he was betrayed, he took the bread, and after he had given thanks for it, he broke the bread, he gave it to his disciples, and he said, This, take this, all of you, and eat it. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:45.359 This is my body that is broken for you, and it is broken for all, so that sins might be forgiven. 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:56.000 In other words, I have offered my life and broken my life for you, so that you don't have to offer your life for approval. 00:22:56.160 --> 00:22:58.319 You can offer your life now from it. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:02.000 And so take this bread in remembrance of Jesus. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:06.240 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:11.440 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.000 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:20.160 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash card.