Glorious Reminders From The Holy Spirit

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We come to you completely dependent.

You are an unchanging God.

The Bible says you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So we come completely dependent on your faithfulness.

God, we're wholly bound to you, means that we're we're free.

And we're not condemned.

God, in this moment, I just thank you for who you are.

I have access to the God of the universe right now.

Lord, as millions and millions of angels are singing to you right now, I pray that we can continue honoring you right now.

We can join in that choir with our lives, Lord.

And now, Lord, would you please bless our time as we open up your word?

Again, we're completely dependent on what we're gonna hear from your word today.

God, would you open up our hearts and you open up our minds and have us walk out of here with a little more Jesus, a little less us?

Oh, may the words in my mouth, the meditation in my heart be wholly and acceptable to you because you're my rock.

God, if nothing else, I pray that the gospel is more and more clear.

It's in your beautiful, access-granting, chain-breaking, everlasting name, I pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Good morning, Hora.

Are we good?

Hey, if you're your Bibles, would you go ahead and grab those and go to Romans chapter 8?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Okay, Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible here with you, you can just relax as the text is gonna appear here on the screen.

Either way, I would love for all of us to be um following along with me on Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Again, for the next five weeks, we're gonna be exploring um one of the mountaintops of the whole Bible.

And I said it last week, but listen, um, you should never trust a pastor when he says this, but this is one of my favorite passages.

We're gonna be exploring that for the next um five weeks.

And last week we looked at the very first um 11 verses.

So um I have very, very sensitive teeth.

Very, very sensitive teeth, okay?

Beautiful smile, as you can tell.

Okay, don't laugh.

Come on now.

But very, very sensitive teeth, so much so that whenever I eat ice cream, whether it's a popsicle or it's a or it's a it's a cone, whatever it is, I have to take a long time in between bites, and inevitably there is ice cream or popsicle dripping down my hand.

And I tell you that because that's how I felt last week when I was beholding the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Okay, just a little two-minute review of what we saw previously on this passage.

We find out in this passage that the penalty is lifted, that in Christ there is no more condemnation.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God right now looks as Leo as innocent because Leo's condemnation went to Jesus on a cross.

That's huge.

That should give you a lot of freedom and a lot of joy just in and of itself.

Okay, so one way I illustrate it now is that picture, imagine if I had a roommate and my roommate went out of town.

And since August has come earlier this year, imagine that I cranked the AC all the way down to 40.

Made my house really, really cold for the whole weekend.

Now imagine if my roommate came back and out of mercy just paid for the entire bill.

He paid the whole bill.

Wouldn't it be ridiculous for the electric company to call my phone and say, the bill is paid, but technically it's your fault, you pay too.

That wouldn't make much sense.

In that same way, it would be unjust for God to hold Leo accountable for what Jesus already paid for.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So we saw that the penalty is lifted, and we also saw that the power has been gifted.

To the Christian, the power you have new vitalizing power.

You are now able to do things that you could not do apart from the Holy Spirit.

The gospel is not just forgiveness over there, heaven over there.

There's power now.

And I wonder how many Christians are actually walking and living in that.

How do you train an elephant?

One of the ways is you tie its arm up to a fence.

And whenever it's younger, it's gonna try to pull and yank as hard as it can to get free.

It's gonna try to break free, but it can't.

But when it's older, it's just gonna assume it can't.

It's just gonna assume it can't move.

So that mammoth of an animal will be conditioned to feel rope and go, nah, I can't move.

When in fact, he has the power to lift that whole thing up.

In that same way, I wonder that the Bible says that you have immeasurable power working towards you right now.

I wonder how many Christians actually view themselves like this.

So the power has been gifted, the penalties have been lifted, and therefore our aim should be shifted.

We're called to uh focus on minds on things of the Spirit.

We're called to be aware of Him and listen to His voice and listen to His leading.

Okay, again, this is not, we're calling this series filled, but this is not about how much Holy Spirit you have, but this is about how much the Holy Spirit has you.

And that's what we saw in the first 11 verse.

Let's keep moving here in the uh verses 12 through 17.

Read along with me.

So then, brothers, we are debtors.

Not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For you if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.

For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

It's the word of the Lord.

There was a man named William Randolph Hearst, a very famous American man.

He was famous for a lot of things, but one of the things he was famous for, he was a collector, a big time collector of fine art.

And at one point of his life, he became infatuated with these two pieces of art.

He had to have them.

He didn't have them, he had to have them.

So he commissions his art guy, because when you're rich, you have an art guy.

He commissions his art guy to go find them.

At all costs, you find it and you bring it back, you buy it.

No matter how much it costs, no matter how far you have to go, you buy them.

So his agent, his art guy, goes all over the world looking, tracking down these two pieces, and one day he calls William Hearst and says, Hey, found them.

And William Hurst goes, All right, two questions.

How much and where are they?

And the agent goes, Well, they're free because they're sitting here in your warehouse.

So William Hearst was longing for something he forgot he already had.

He longed for something that he already had, but he did not remember it.

And oh, how often do we do the same?

Friends, the Holy Spirit is the great reminder.

He is the great reminder.

He's not just dwelling in believers for the sake of party tricks.

We don't get to spend our lives drawing on the power of God just so we can impress people.

Like, oh, God told me you like the color blue.

Okay, no, no, no, no.

But he still speaks to us and he leads us, and it's not just to reveal what's up ahead, but to back you up and remind.

He's the great reminder.

Like, Christian, do you know what you already have?

Do you know who you are?

Friends, that seems so simple, but remind in this marathon called following Jesus, reminders are vital.

Because sometimes Satan does not have to touch you.

He'll just back up and watch spiritual amnesia ruin your life.

He'll just watch you forget to remember.

I mean, how else do the Israelites cross the Red Sea and in 72 hours they're doubting if God is good or not?

That's not all Satan messing with their antennas.

Part of that, they just forgot to remember.

So we need simple reminders, and the Holy Spirit is the great reminders.

He gives us simple but glorious reminders.

Christian, do you know what you already have?

So a few things.

The Holy Spirit in this passage reminds us that we have one, a new identity.

Look at verse 14.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Christian, let this be your primary identity.

So much talk about gender identity, political identity, sexual identity, racial identity.

Let you live here.

Let this be, those four things can explain you.

Do not let them define you.

You are first and foremost, you are a son of God.

Okay?

I don't know how who I am to you, um, but to a lot of people, um, I'm a black speaker guy who's kind of hip.

But I get a lot of solace knowing that right now, when God is looking at me, he doesn't see primarily those things.

He goes, That's my boy.

That's my son down there.

He's being obedient to me.

Look at me, he's nervous, but he's still gone.

Right?

I get a lot of solace in that because those things about me are true, besides the hip part.

Those things are true.

I mentioned this first service.

I was at uh dinner last Tuesday with my buddy Kristen and her husband Tommy.

I said a joke, and in the punchline of the joke, I did the finger guns.

I got back to my car, I was like, it's over.

Like it's I've lost.

So not hip, but I'm not letting my my my blackness or my speaking gift define me.

Because what happens if I if I if I get in an accident, I lose my voice, or I lose my job?

Or what happens if someone looks at me and decides, Leah, you're not black enough?

What then?

That's a huge part of my story.

Therefore, I want to live here.

I am a son.

I am a son.

Those things explain, but they do not define me.

And friends, listen, there is a lot of opportunity for you to place your um identity on all sorts of things, but there is a lot of danger in doing that.

That's subtle, but there's danger in doing that.

In fact, this is how I first heard of depression.

Sean, this is in high school.

I remember Sean McIntyre trying to explain to me what happens to Michael Phelps in between Olympics.

And I remember him talking about how Michael Phelps slips into this deep depression in between Olympics.

And obviously, I'm not saying this to condemn Michael Phelps, man.

I I am a human, he is a human, but man, it's it's pretty predictable.

I mean, if every four years for eight weeks, you are the most famous person on the planet, and then as soon as that's over, and those subway uh commercials die out, and AM football starts again, we're like, all right, thanks, man, but we're you know that that if you play straight, that's hard.

That is so that is a role, that is hard, and it is not built for that.

So listen to me clearly, listen, moms and dads, okay?

Some of you are getting a whopping one hour of sleep per night right now.

You're in that you're in that world.

Others of you, you're taxi right now, you're taking your kids to practice after practice after practice.

Others of you, you are you're empty nesters, or you're here, you're or some of you're you're grieving wayward children.

But listen, in Christ, you are not your parental status.

Furthermore, um from a from a person who's well acquainted with with disease, gosh, what what sickle cell and single what sickle cell anemia has done to my family?

Good grief.

How many doctors' visits and we've had to do for my grandparents and parents, it's hard.

But listen, you are not your disease.

You are not your mental health journey.

You are not what what whatever um social cause that you're super passionate about.

You are a son.

Your primary identity is that you are a son.

And what's happening right now, there's a lot of godly women in the crowd that are translating it, goes, I'm a daughter.

I'm a daughter.

Okay, just hold, pop the brakes for a second, okay?

Two reasons.

One, if I have to be the bride of Christ, you get to be a son, okay?

Fair's fair.

Fair is fair.

Okay?

And two, Paul is using the word sons here strategically, because back then in the Greco-Roman world, women were considered second-class citizens.

It was the sons that had the legal standing, it was the sons that had the access, it was the sons that had the inheritance.

And he's saying, listen, if you are led by the Spirit, everyone led by the Spirit has a sonship status with God.

You are adopted.

You were adopted.

Now, what's adoption?

I heard someone say, adoption is when a child grows in your heart instead of your tummy.

Saw that on Pinterest.

It's pretty good.

It's infallible, right?

Nevertheless, look at Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Paul bursts out into praise before he starts his letter to the Ephesians about this adoption.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the blessing, the worship goes to God first.

He didn't say, kudos to you, because you were good enough in your orphanage that he adopted you.

No, no, no.

Blessings be to him.

Okay?

Who has blessed us with Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Okay, the first sentence of the Bible is that um in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And there's so much debate about when was that?

When was that?

Next time your coworkers or your friends debate about the timing of that, walk away from that argument going, even before that, God set his sights on me.

That we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Again, this is all about the grace of God.

This is why placing your stake in I'm the good businessman or I'm the guy who can sing is but to the praise of his glorious grace with which he blessed us in the beloved.

Friends, because of his grace, you have a new identity.

You have a brand new identity.

Now, your identity determines your activity.

Okay, you do what you do because of who you think you are.

Okay, and when he also shows, but the Holy Spirit also reminds us not only our new identity, but also our brand new intimacy.

Look at verse 15 through 16.

Says this.

Okay, the spirit of adoption.

That's not that's not necessarily a nickname.

What's happening there is Paul is describing the spirit as the one who reminds or confirms that we have been adopted.

And this is something you see throughout your New Testament is that the Holy Spirit is consistently testifying to us, hey, you're a son, you're a son, you're a son, you're a son.

Why?

Why all these notifications to our soul that you're a son?

You're why?

Is it so we can feel superior to our coworkers?

Or enter beauty pageants because we feel better about ourselves?

No, it's so we can act on our sonship.

That assurance that we're sons that the Holy Spirit gives us should lead us right into action.

And what's this action?

Well, look again, it says receive the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

You know you are filled with the Spirit.

When God is Father and prayer is irresistible.

You know you are filled with the Spirit when God is Father and prayer is irresistible.

People who are filled with the Spirit go to God for hard things, big things.

Okay, this word cry right here, this is the same word that's used in the New Testament to describe the sound that demons make when they're coming out of someone's body.

This is a shriek.

So the Holy Spirit enables us to go to God in complete, utter desperation.

So people who are filled, they pray to God when they don't even know what to pray.

They approach the throne of grace and just pray to God when they don't even know what to pray.

And the good news is actually later on this passage, we found out the Spirit's praying with us or praying for us as well.

But they go to God for big things, but they also go to God for small things.

There's nothing too small.

They pray when the world says they don't even have to.

In 2017, um, I had the honor of going to um a mission trip um to Nicaragua, and my job, one of my jobs through the mission trip was to assort the bags on the way down there.

I had to make sure the bags were filled up, just financially want to store the money well.

What bags should we check and whatnot?

And we're taking a bunch of VBS stuff down there so there's a lot of bags.

So I think it was after I finished preaching, you get this kind of euphoria, you can do anything.

So I finished preaching, and it was me and this man named Jonathan Castillo that were in charge of these bags.

He's a 50-year-old guy, doctor, faithful, faithful, faithful.

And I finished preaching and my cape's flying in the wind.

And I show up in this room, like, all right, here we go.

What do we gotta do first?

I'm here, Pastor Lee's here.

What do we have to do first?

Remember Jonathan going, well, first, let's just pray.

Because we're never above prayer.

Let's just pray.

And I was like, that's what I was gonna say.

Duh.

I took the words out of my mouth.

But it wasn't small enough for him to go to the Father.

Now, what's the most American excuse for a prayerless life?

I'm too busy.

Okay, let me step on your toes here.

Let's go, let's look at Mark chapter one.

It says this this is Jesus rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place.

And there he prayed.

And Simon and those who were with him, they searched for him, and they found him and said, Everyone's looking for you.

And he said to them, Let us go to the next towns that I may preach there also.

For that is why I came out.

And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Friends, I know you're busy.

Jesus was really, really busy.

In fact, it doesn't show he.

Here, but in the paragraph before what I just read, it is that Jesus was up for a large part of the night, and they said that the whole city was gathered together at the door.

It's probably Peter's house, and they're gathered there together to be healed of their diseases and to be preached to hear about Jesus.

So he's working very hard, and what he could keep doing, what he could do is he can keep going.

But no matter how busy he got, Jesus never forgot who he was.

He was a son.

Jesus' joy in his sonship was the engine of his ministry.

It was also the anchor of his life.

He always forgot, he always remembered, I'm a son.

I am a son.

He would consistently steal time away to be with the Father.

I think it's Mark chapter 5 talks about him doing this exact same thing.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

And he says, as was his custom.

He would consistently steal time away to be with the Father, not out of a spirit of slavery.

Slavery to a hard master.

But no, this is fellowship to a good dad.

Fellowship with the good dad.

He wasn't doing those things out of slavish fear that God's gonna change his mind about him, or that God's gonna change his character or crush him if he doesn't pray enough.

But because he always remembered who he was.

I am a son.

Friends, 70 times in the Gospels, okay, Jesus referred to God as Father.

It's one of the things that got him killed.

Okay?

Back then, the Jewish people that had this view of God that he was so powerful, so transcendent, so other, they didn't even want to utter or write down his name.

Some communities, some Jewish communities would call God Hashem, which is literally the word for name.

Hey name, dear name, but here comes Jesus calling him Father.

Listen, if the God man Jesus had a moment-to-moment dependent on Father, so should you.

If the Godman Jesus had to depend on the Father, so do you.

Mom, so do you.

Dad, so do you.

Ministry leaders, so do you.

Your wit won't get it done.

Okay?

Your arduous breath won't get that.

You need to depend.

So do you.

You need to depend.

CEO, so do you.

Don't get so smart and so rich and so established that you stop depending on the Father.

And I and I and I say this, I'm gonna say this and I well, no qualifier, I just say it.

Listen, sometimes our problems is that we're sometimes our problem is that we're more American than we are Christian.

We have this right-knuckled, do-it-yourself autonomy.

I got this, that is not as cute as you think.

It is not as godly and as spiritual as you think.

Sometimes to our core, we find out that we're a little bit more American than we are Christian, but right here, this passage is inviting us, depend.

Depend.

No matter how old you are or how strong you are, depend.

By the Spirit, we cry out, Abba Father.

This word was an intimate way of saying father.

It can translate to the word papa.

We are adopted children.

Okay, children.

Okay, we have the Holy Spirit.

What He's done is He's replaced the spirit of fear and replaced it with acceptance.

By the way, the spirit of fear is okay.

I'm a Christian, I've got to read my Bible.

One of the duties.

Spirit of adoption is I get to know my dad.

What'd he do?

Okay, we have that spirit within us.

And with that spirit, we cry out to the Father, knowing He hears us and He loves us.

So the Holy Spirit is the great reminder.

He's gonna remind you of your new identity, remind you of your new intimacy.

And lastly, he reminds you of your brand new inheritance.

Look at verses 16 and 17.

16 and 17.

It says this.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we also may also, that we may also be glorified with him.

Now, in a Roman adoption, okay, someone who is adopted, they lose all their rights of their previous family and they gain all the rights of the new family.

In other words, you can't get kind of adopted.

You're not kind of someone's kid.

Okay, you are fully someone's son whenever you are adopted.

You have equal standing, equal standing as the natural-born children in that family.

And this has implications when it comes to your inheritance.

And that, my friends, is the metaphor that he is drawing on.

Friends, listen, you are an heir of God.

An heir of God.

My temptation, because a sermon, I'm about to land a plane here.

My temptation is like, all right, make one more funny joke to keep their attention strike and finish strong.

But let's sit in this.

You are an heir of God.

Let me read some scripture to you.

First Peter says like this.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy.

Not his great evaluation of how good you were being, but his great mercy.

He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance.

Okay?

And this inheritance is imperishable, it's undefiled, and it's unfading.

And watch this.

It's kept in heaven for you.

It's kept.

So this past week, I was reading some articles about people who bought a butt who like invested 15 years ago in a Bitcoin, but they forgot their password.

And it's getting so much money, but they're sitting there locked out.

That's not the case with you when you sin.

It is kept.

Your inheritance is kept by God's power.

Okay, it's being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

Now watch verse 6.

In this you rejoice.

Though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

That's been one of the things I've been I've been journeying in my soul.

How do you rejoice and grieve simultaneously?

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if it's necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That's big.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you don't now see him, you believe in him and you rejoice with the joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, salvation of your soul.

You're an heir of God.

But Paul takes it a step further.

He says, You're in co-wir with Christ.

Everything that Jesus received by divine right, we do we we receive by divine grace.

There's two implications for this, and I'll end right here.

Two implications.

Number one, friends, this, use this, weaponize this.

This is how you fight your sin.

Verses 12 and 13 talk about putting to death the deeds of the flesh.

If you don't put them to death, they'll kill you.

But if you put them to death, you're gonna live.

Death is gonna happen.

Either they'll kill you or you kill them.

Choose your heart.

Both are hard.

Choose your heart.

But we fight those things by the flesh, not by self-deprecation.

Last time I messed up, I cried this much.

Let me cry this much.

Not by your own willpower, but by the spirit.

And this is one of the ways by thinking about your inheritance.

In 2011-ish, there was um a rap song that pop I never heard it, okay.

Someone sent it to me.

That popularized the term YOLO.

Okay, which means there you go.

You heard the song, haven't you?

YOLO.

This is a huge this is when I was my freshman year of college, YOLO.

People would be tempted to do something, go, you only live once, and they jump in and do it.

Okay?

On the surface, that seems fun.

But the Bible would say in Hebrews 2, behind that, there's fear.

Hebrews 2 says that Jesus came to deliver everyone who, through fear of death, was subject to lifelong slavery.

What that means is there's people who are stuffing their faces now with fun sin because they're thinking, this is all there is.

There is no sequel.

I better get busy and stuffing my face with as much pleasure as as possible.

And you and I can mock that, but that's how we're that's what we're tempted to believe whenever you and I are tempted.

What is temptation but just glorified FOMO, fear of missing out?

Right?

And in those moments, man, I'm inviting you to talk to yourself, preach to yourself.

Say, listen, I am an heir of God.

This thing is nice, but the epic is coming.

Okay, the epic, the epic is coming.

This is how you put your sins to death.

Okay, so it means this is how you fight your sin and two.

The other implication of this inheritance is joy now.

Oh man, joy is a non-negotiable now.

Okay.

When I lost a basketball game back in elementary, fifth grade, I played for the owls.

Okay.

When I lost a basketball game, you did not want to be around me.

The curse was you play on Saturday, and if you lose, you gotta sit with that all the way till next Saturday.

You did not want to be in my house in that week.

I was not fun to be around, slamming doors, pounding Capri Sun.

And my signature move is I would have this scowl about me.

And I would walk around with this frown, and I hated everything, and I was always mad, and I would have this furrowed brown, this brow, this frown the whole time.

And my dad also has a temper, would be like, hey, check this out.

Fix your face, or else.

Let me tell you, in those moments, I never quite knew what to do.

Do I hold my ground and just like stick it out?

Or do I just go, never mind?

Like I never, I never knew what to do.

Nevertheless, friends, when I'm telling you that joy is a non-negotiable, that's not my that's not me telling you, hey, fix your mood or else.

That's not that.

It's an invitation to understand that no matter what is grieving you, our inheritance is so great that it's gonna make every trouble we go through seem small in comparison.

We didn't get to it, it's not a part of this brickope, but look at verse 18.

We're gonna throw more this week.

Verse 18 says this for I considered that the sufferings of this present time, Paul was a man who was well acquainted with suffering.

For I considered that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Friends, in light of this inheritance, joy is a non-negotiable.

Join me.

Join me in finding out what it's like to grieve and have joy at the same time.

I'm figuring that out.

Join me.

Christian, start reacting to what you know is coming.

We're called to that.

It's the essence of faith.

Start reacting to what you're waiting for.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of our new identity, our new intimacy, and our new inheritance.

Let's not be like William Randolph Hearst and forget what we already have, but let's be still.

Let's be still enough and allow ourselves to remember.

Allow ourselves to be reminded of what we already have.

Let me pray.

And Lord, I God, sermons have a way of just slipping off of you by Tuesday, Wednesday-ish.

But Holy Spirit, I know you are faithful to continue to pull me back into these spiritual truths.

Whether I'm tempted to grieve as though as one who has no hope, or I'm tempted to get bored with my mission here, keep reminding me that I am a son.

I'm a son.

Lord, give me the boldness to react to what I know is coming.

Oh Jesus, we are one more Sunday.

We are one more sermon closer to seeing you.

Only a matter of time to my teaching gift is obsolete.

Because everyone will know you and see you.

I pray these things land on hearts.

It's in your beautiful name I pray.

Amen.

Um, at the end of our services, I'd like to step back and give some time just to reflect.

Um, so what's happening here?

We have some questions here on the screen.

And what you can do is you can take a picture of them, or you can just zero in on one of them.

Either way, we want to take a step back and take some time to reflect on the truths that we just heard, or just step back and just just by yourself, allow the Holy Spirit to remind you of who you already are and what you already have.

I'm gonna do that right now.

Holy Spirit, I trust that you're you're working right now.

Um you have the strength to move the mountains of history and the strength to move the mountains of our hearts.

So I'm confident that throughout this week, you're gonna keep on contending with our spirit that we are sons, we are sons, we are sons.

Help us to live primarily out of that so we can hold those other things loosely.

It's in your beautiful name, I pray.

Amen.

Um, as always, church, um, it is so good to be here with you.

Um, if you're new here, welcome.

I'm gonna welcome you, and uh, um, my name is Leo Almeida.

I'm one of the teaching pastors here on staff.

And on behalf of our staff and our behalf of our church, if you're if you're new to us, man, you you matter to God, therefore you already matter to us.

And would you please just text that number here on your screen if you're new?

That just gives us a record of our our visit.

Um, if you don't have a church home, we would love to be your church home, and I would love to be one of your pastors.

Um, in fact, after this service here in the front, we're gonna have a few of our pastors here ready to pray with you or help you process what you just heard, or just help or just to introduce ourselves um to you.

If this is your church home and today is the day that you worship through giving, um, there are some boxes here.

Obviously, you can do it online, but there are some boxes here in the back that you can do so um in.

Now we want to let you know what's happening in the life of our church.

Would you please point your director, uh give your direction to the screens, please?

The past couple of years, I've been closing up my grandmother's homestead.

It was built by my great-grandfather over 150 years ago.

Last year, I was crawling under the house and found the original handmade table that used to sit in their dining room.

Well, I found myself staring at it and imagining all the meals and arguments, laughter and prayer that must have happened around that table as they navigated seasons of death and war, the Great Depression, births, and bounty.

Well, when Jesus was on earth, he gathered around tables over and over, teaching, laughing, eating with the ones who never dared to hope that a Messiah would look their way, much less eat with them.

God has always been one to come to his people in their times of wilderness to set a table where he can feed us, nourish us, and be to us more than enough.

I want us women to gather in the sanctuary to feast on the Bible and sing songs to God that remind us of his table overflowing nature.

I'll be teaching from the best bread God's word, and Lindsay Freilick will be leading us in worship.

I hope you'll come to the table and bring friends.

Children of God, you have a new identity.

You are invited to depend on the Father.

Be reminded of who you are and whose you are as you go out this week.

You have access to boldly approach the throne of grace.

I say these things and declare these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.