August 16, 2026 - The Words That Form Us - James 1:5-8

Welcome to the Fourth St.

John Alliance Sermon Podcast.

I'm Nate Perry, the youth pastor here at the church.

We're so glad you've joined us today.

Our desire as a church is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.

Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and to be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.

Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.

John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.

Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

All right.

We are in James chapter 1, verses 5 through 8.

James 1:5–8

Oh dear.

In the same way, or sorry, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning, everyone.

My wife and I uh and our kids were away for uh about a month.

I shouldn't say my wife was away for a month.

She worked for two of those weeks, so she uh she didn't fully resent me, but it was uh hard to it was hard for her to see me sit at home while she went to work for a couple days.

But um, but no, we had a great time away.

Uh we spent about a week on the coast and just really enjoyed our time.

We feel rested, we feel um ready for the for the next season ahead.

And so we are thrilled to be back.

We love you guys.

Uh this just is such home.

Like I just I love this church.

Truly just love this church.

Love what Jesus is doing.

Um one of the things that we really enjoyed while we were away uh was one day down in uh Seattle.

I'm a huge fan of baseball.

I love baseball.

Uh my wife likes it.

Uh the kids have never been to a game, and so we thought we'd head down for the day.

We would you know go to the pier, we'd head down to the market there at Pike Place, we would go to Starbucks, buy an overpriced mug.

Uh, and then we would finish the day off with the game there at the ballpark.

And knowing that walking would be a large part of our day, I decided to find a spot to park that was close to the ballpark because I just knew myself at the end of the day, I don't want to walk a long way back.

I'm gonna be tired as it is.

So we actually parked about a block away, which was really perfect.

Um, and so we got to the city around 10:30 a.m.

We made the roughly half an hour walk down to the pier.

Um, at this point in the trip already, we've already been down there for about two days in general in in the area on the coast.

And so my kids are tired of walking.

Uh, but that's what we do on holiday.

We walk a lot.

Um, and so after about that, just I mean a half hour walk to the pier, and as we arrived down there, I found all my senses activated by all the smells of food.

I thought, oh man, I am hungry.

I am hungry.

Uh, and we got closer and closer to a uh fish and chip stand uh there.

And in my mind, I'm thinking, right, that 11 o'clock is never too early for anything fried.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to get some lunch.

And so I started to think about okay, should I pay with my card?

Should I just pay with my phone?

I can think of, well, maybe I should actually have my wallet out and I start doing this.

I'm like, that really important thing that's got all my identification, that's got my credit cards, is in the car half hour away.

And it dawns on me as I'm thinking about it that not only that, but it's in a place in which anyone who was there simply walking by could see it.

And I start thinking to myself, well, I'm in a strange city, and I'm now starting to feel anxious and a little bit panicked.

Um, and so I just, I mean, I turned to Christy and I said, You're not gonna believe this, but I left my wallet back in the car, which is easily on her end very mistaken for a joke because I like to stress her out on purpose.

Um, this was not that in the moment, but after finally saying, No, no, no, like I actually left my wallet back in the car.

Um, I'm left with some things that I kind of have to choose and decide in the moment, right?

I'm my first one is I have to ask myself, do I really go back and get it?

And this was an easy, easy, easy decision.

Yes, I have to go back and get my wallet.

I can't leave it there.

That one didn't take long.

But the next decision felt a little harder.

Do I take my family back with me who are tired of walking and they're exhausted, uh, just so I can make sure we're all together?

Or do I go back by myself?

Do I leave my wife and kids in a strange city that I've never been in before?

And I walk back all the way to the car as they wait almost an hour for me to get back total.

And wanting to try to save them from a lot of walking, I sort of reluctantly just said, okay, why don't you guys just stay here on this bench?

It looked pretty safe in my mind.

I'm like, why don't you just stay here?

But the whole time that I power walked slash light jogged back to the car on a day that felt like plus 30 in Seattle, um, I found worry starting to take over.

Worried that I would get back to the car to find it smashed and the wallet gone.

Worried that I would get back to the pier and find uh I can't find my family, like they've all of a sudden vanished.

And worried that I just made a series of wrong choices that would spoil the whole trip.

How many of you have ever felt like you lack wisdom?

Yeah.

Amen.

I see those hands.

I uh I lack wisdom.

We live in a time where wisdom feels harder and harder to come by, even though what we have with the internet has actually given us limitless access to all kinds of information.

It hasn't seemed to provide every answer or solution.

Nearly six billion people access the internet on a daily basis, and nearly every survey about how we use the internet shows that almost every user turns to the internet for advice, how-tos, and tips to solve daily problems.

We're always at it.

Nearly one-third of all users who use uh Chat GPT and AI and those things like that use it as a mental health app.

It's a therapist for most people.

And 70% of all things that we search on the internet are aimed at trying to find an answer to life's problems.

Isn't that something?

And yet, all this and yet, though with all of this information right there at our fingertips, we are more anxious, more worried, more stressed, and more uncertain than any other time in history.

For all the knowledge that we carry around in our back pocket, we are still searching for answers, aren't we?

Right?

Like it hasn't made us even more calm.

It's made us more anxious.

But here's what I want you to note that that wisdom is available to you and me.

Right?

That wisdom is readily available, that God isn't holding it all to himself or only sharing it with those who are spiritually elite.

He's not doing that.

The wisdom of God and its peace that comes with it is available to anyone.

But there is a condition to it, and that is it will require something of you.

But how do you gain wisdom?

You could say that age is maybe a factor in it, right?

That maybe the more time you've lived, the more wise you get, and that you know, could be said.

Or maybe it's because you you know you've gone to school a lot, and so you have lots of knowledge, so therefore that is applied in a way that is wise.

But what if real wisdom, the kind that God offers freely, the kind that He's extending what we see in this passage to you and me, is less about how long you lived or what you know, and it's more about what you want.

It's actually more about what you are seeking than anything else.

And so this morning, you know, whether you've been just I'm here with us for a long time or a short time, or maybe you're just here because maybe someone invited you to lunch afterwards.

I'm glad you're here, but you might find yourself like me lacking in wisdom today and just asking, oh man, I just want to know what to do, when to do it.

I want to be able to lead my life well.

I want to be able to make right choices and decisions.

Maybe you're unsure of what to do, where to turn.

Let me encourage you.

What God has for you today on offer is available if you want it.

You have to want it.

So with that, I invite you to turn to James chapter one.

Uh, you might already be there in your Bibles.

Want to encourage you just to turn there.

We're gonna start in verse one uh rather than up in verse five, just to kind of give a little bit more of a just I mean a context to where we are.

James here's the brother of Jesus.

You know, he spent all kinds of time with him as a kid.

He knew what it what it was like to be with him in the home and was originally a skeptic of Jesus when he first launched his ministry, right?

Was not really too sure that what he saw in Jesus he wanted to be a part of.

But just imagine being James for a second.

Imagine being in that home growing up with Jesus.

I don't know if that's an easy assignment, actually, right?

Like I don't know if that just feels I can do this every day.

That that that sounds challenging.

And it's not that hard to just, I mean, I believe that his that just maybe for James, he would have a hard time really embracing Jesus for who he said he was once he launched his ministry.

That if that were me and my brother, and my brother told me that, that's a hard sell for me, right?

Because I've seen my brother in all kinds of contexts, and so is James, right?

But it's just a hard sell.

And so he is a skeptic of Jesus.

It wasn't until after Jesus, just his, I mean, like it wasn't until after his death and resurrection that everything changed for James.

He became a catalyst in the early church.

Did you know that?

He was actually mentioned as one who helped to launch the early church.

He was such a part of it, and it's clear in this letter that he writes to the church that his heart and mind have been transformed, that it is full of wisdom in this letter on how to live the way of Jesus.

It's just clear.

And James wants us to experience it for ourselves.

So we're gonna start in verse one.

That's the context of where we're at.

This is what James says.

James, who is a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.

How's it going?

Greetings.

James wrote this letter sometime after the early church, um after they uh uh scattered after the uh death of Stephen.

And so the early church in particular, those who were there in that city of Jerusalem find themselves in different parts of the known world now.

They have scattered everywhere because where they once felt safe, they don't feel safe anymore.

So they have gone to different, just I mean, spaces and places, trying to live as faithful followers of Jesus.

This letter is not so much teaching about Jesus and just and just you know, you know, that it's not so much kind of what what he's like, but it's about how to live the way of Jesus.

There's a difference between knowing about Jesus and living his way, and James is making that clear in this letter because knowledge doesn't always equate wisdom, right?

Like we can know a lot of things, but it doesn't necessarily make us wise.

But we are not so different than the early church when James is writing this.

We find ourselves scattered in a pagan culture all around us, still learning what it is to not just learn about Jesus, but to live the way of Jesus, right?

Like we are the same in so many regards.

Right?

We are still asking the same thing that they're asking.

If Jesus was living my life, how would he live it?

In this context, in this moment, in this city, in this space, at your job, in your home.

These are the questions that we're asking Jesus, the same ones that they are asking.

Verse 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because remember again, they're scattered.

They're not around the same space anymore, they're enduring all kinds of things, because you know that the uh uh testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James understands that we all face trials, all kinds of trials, right?

He actually makes the statement pretty broad here, though, too, like in the original language.

He's not just saying for the really hard things, he's actually painting a broad picture for all the trials that we go through.

Trials can just vary in intensity, some regarding relationships, some have to do with our health and well-being.

Maybe it's a dark season in your marriage, it's something going on with your finances that feels like a crisis, overwhelmed with your kids and how you're parenting.

Here's the thing about just when it just I mean it comes comes to pain and hardship in trials, it's pretty subjective, actually.

Sometimes we are quick to say about what others are experiencing.

Well, that's not as bad as blank, or at least it's not blank.

We even say that to ourselves and in order to try and say it's not that big of a deal to ourselves.

We downplay pain in our lives and in the lives of others, and we and don't hear me say that everything that actually happens to us is a crisis.

That's not true.

Me, just I mean, just though, like to the in Seattle when I don't have my wallet, that's not a crisis.

That's a oh darn, like that's what that is, right?

Um, it is small in the grand scheme of life.

I get that.

It is a just I mean a consequence of me forgetting it in the car.

But trials and hardships, as much as they have things that happen to us on the outside, it's also what they do to us on the inside.

It's how they really affect the soul, it's how they affect what's going on underneath.

It's all the anxiety that they bring.

It's the worry.

It's all the uncertainty.

I remember 15 years ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop sharing with a close friend I had just been just, I mean, I diagnosed with cancer.

We had a really hard conversation.

It was a good one but hard one.

And he asked me, Dan, aren't you worried about what's gonna happen to you?

And I said, I'm not worried about what happens to me.

I'm actually worried about what happens to my family.

That was worse than anything that I might experience was thinking, what about them?

You see, our trials, our pain, our suffering, they may have bodily and physical implications to them.

But for most people, most of the time, it's what it's doing to your soul, it's what it's doing internally.

It's the worry, it's the anxiety, it's those nights that just keep you lying awake in bed, staring into the uncertain darkness and feeling like you can't see your way out of a situation.

It's those just, I mean, questions that we just say, what if this happens?

That just keep us up.

It's hard to remember the words of Jesus when he says, Who of you by worrying has ever made an hour of your life in the midst of worry?

It's hard for those to come to mind.

Trials at a soul level have a far-reaching impact.

They steal our peace, our confidence, our joy.

They steal so much from us.

It's not so much the outside, it's the inside.

But yet James tells us to consider it joy, but not just joy, he says pure joy, right?

This like total joy.

James can see that trials aren't just something to endure, but he says it's actually a moment to seize.

It's actually something to choose, to join in in what God is doing, to join him in seeing your situation, your pain, your discomfort, to seeing it through God's eyes.

That God is still at work, that he is forming something in you that only pressure can form.

That only pressure can form.

I remember a number of years ago I was sitting in a um, it was a gas station parking lot with a friend around midnight.

I had rushed over there um right after a youth event, and he actually called me um just to tell me that his wife had just been been unfaithful to him.

And after all the questions of why, we sat in that parking lot, we cried together, we wept together, we I mean, I shared together, out of all the questions of why and asking what's gonna happen, all the uncertainty of what's gonna go on in his life and his marriage with his kids, it just felt so challenging.

I remember he said to me, Dan, I don't want to waste this moment and miss out on what God has for me, though.

That just floored me.

That's just floored me that he wouldn't want to waste the pain.

He wouldn't want to waste the moment.

Can I just share some of it with you?

No matter what season you find yourself in today, right?

No matter where you are, no matter the trial, the hardship, it is not merely something to endure.

Rather, it's a moment to cease.

It's a moment to cease to count it joy because of what the Lord is doing, even when you can't see it.

The days might seem bleak, the outcome may feel questionable, but hold on to what Paul says of the church in Corinth and 2 Corinthians, for our present troubles are small and won't last very long.

Yet they produce for us a glory.

In other words, they form in us something that vastly outweighs those trials, those pains, and will last forever.

It is under pressure that we are formed the most, that God is doing something.

I like this quote from uh uh uh Saint uh uh Saint uh uh John of the cross.

He says, a man who, or or rather sorry, this is a man who lived just I mean in just I mean loads of poverty, spent time in prison, wrote about what pain does to you in just a really, really great way, and he died this painful death after a long battle with illness.

He said this, as for trials, the more the better.

As for trials, the more the better.

How many of us can say that?

James hits this home when he says these things are cultivating a perseverance in you and me, and it is leading to deeper maturity in Christ.

If we choose that, we choose how we answer and respond to moments in our lives.

If we choose joy as a response, if we say to ourselves, regardless of how the trial came about, whether it's through my own actions or the actions of others, or just because we live in a fallen world where awful things happen that we don't have say in, that we might say, God, I don't want to waste this moment.

I don't want to waste it.

Use this to form something in me that lasts longer than the moment I find myself in.

Shape joy in me, shape patience in me, long-suffering in me, mercy, grace for others in me.

And yet we need the wisdom to know how to do that, though, right?

We need wisdom to know how to do that.

And this is what James is getting at when he says this in verse 5.

He says, if any of you lacks wisdom in the context of all of the pain and hardship that you're going through, that's what he's saying.

He should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

So James says, if if any of you in the midst of trials, uncertainty, anything that you're going through, if you feel like you don't know what to do, you can ask God.

Full stop.

Just ask him.

You can ask him.

He gives to all, regardless of your just social status, where you are, with your financial position.

Doesn't matter where you are in life, he gives it to everyone and he gives generously.

Or put another way, what he says though to the original Greek, it means simply.

Meaning that this is just who God is.

God simply and generously and bountifully, out of his character, out of his love, offers it to you freely.

He just says, if you don't know what to do, just ask.

If you are stuck, just ask.

If you feel like life feels oblique, just ask.

Just ask and he and he offers this not because you are good, he offers it because he's good.

He offers it because that's who he is.

It is out of his heart, out of his character.

If you just read that one verse alone today and walked away, that would be enough.

Because you can continually ask for wisdom.

Full stop.

If you lack wisdom, ask.

Right?

Just we see that all throughout scripture, in particular, just with uh Solomon, who actually did the same thing.

You know, God said to him, Ask for whatever you want and I'll give it to you.

And Solomon, in his wisdom in the moment, says, I need to be more wise than I already am.

I need wisdom.

Right?

But what he's really asking for, and what James is getting at, is it's not asking for knowledge, it's not asking for just all the facts, it's not asking just for all the just how many answers, but rather wisdom is wanting what God wants.

This is the catch.

You need to want what he wants.

That's true wisdom.

That God, I want to do what you would do if you were in my shoes.

Right?

So James says, you can ask for that at any point, right?

But he says this in verse 6, but when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, double-minded person, unstable in all that they do.

You see, there is this caveat to this.

James says, When you ask, you have to believe and not doubt.

That you and I would choose to believe that God can give us what we ask for, right?

We see that even straight from this.

We actually see that um You know, all the way back in the Gospels of Jesus.

He says, Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe it, and it will be yours.

He says that to us.

But this goes even deeper than just what we hope to happen and not doubting.

But look back to what James says here again.

Because he who doubts is like what?

Like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's double-minded and unstable in all he does.

James is the first author in Scripture to coin this phrase, double-minded man.

First person to say it.

This is what it means in the original Greek, that those listening to this letter would hear a two-souled person.

Right?

That they basically want two different things, that they say one thing, but they actually mean another.

They just say that, and their actions speak differently.

They are a two-souled person.

Or even put another way, it's someone who externally presents themselves as someone who wants what God wants, but inside there's a whole nother story to them.

It's someone who is continually going back and forth like a wave of the sea, tossed all the time, going back and forth on whether or not God's way is the best way.

It's saying, I got it is it is actually saying, God, I want what you want, but not living that out.

That's what a double-minded person is.

It's like asking God to show mercy to you without ever showing any mercy to anybody else yourself.

It's like asking God to show you grace, but never offering grace to other people.

It's asking God for forgiveness, but holding on to a grudge and bitterness in your own heart, even for someone else in this room.

James says that kind of person is as chaotic as a wave on the sea.

Going back and forth between what you think is best and what God says is best, wanting different things at different times, becoming incapable of really receiving anything from God.

And it in fact, if I could just say this in love to you as much as I can as your pastor, that the kind of wisdom that God is offering here is wasted on someone like that.

It's actually not accessible in the way you want it to be.

It's wasted.

Because the condition of the kind of wisdom that God is offering is that you and I would lay down what we want.

That we would stop doubting that God's way is best.

That we would stop doubting it was not even so much our words, but our action.

That we would fully embrace what He's making available to us.

The doubt here that James is talking about isn't just what we think, but it's in how we live.

It's actually shown in our actions.

When I think about, you know, how these words have just shaped and formed me over the years, because this is really what you know this is all about this summer.

It's really in how I pray.

These words have shaped how I pray in incredible ways.

I'm gonna be honest with you, I really struggle with wanting to control outcomes.

I really struggle with outcomes.

Like I want outcomes to work out the way that I want them to be.

I don't know if anyone else can relate to me in that.

I struggle with outcomes.

And it manifests itself in anxiety.

And it comes up in my home life, in my work, in my relationships, and my finances.

And as a result, every time I come to God in prayer, I have this predisposition of telling God how things should go.

I don't know if anyone can relate that.

How I think they should be, that I can just ask God for anything like a genie in a bottle, he'll just do it because that's what he says.

I struggle with this immensely.

And yet Jesus, in his kindness, reminds me all the time that is not the whole picture of prayer.

In fact, when I catch myself doing that, he points me back to another, just I'm gonna passage that realigns my heart.

Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6.

He says, This then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And then this one, your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There is a reason this prayer has been actually part of the church for thousands of years.

It has been a practice of the church for centuries.

In fact, the early church would say this prayer every day at noon as a realignment of the heart, to remind themselves to get off of their own agenda and onto God's.

Because it's so easy in the middle of the day to lose that.

And it was a reminder to say it's it is less about what I want and more about what God wants.

Every day at noon, they would say this prayer.

He doesn't say ask for your way, he says ask for God's way.

God can work with that.

He can work with that.

To want what God wants in whatever space you find yourself in.

On the night before Jesus faced the cross, when faced with a trial like no other pain and heartache for Jesus, he says in this honest prayer in a garden, he says, Father, if there's any way that you can take this from me, do it.

But not my will, but your will be done.

You know what's actually kind of sort of wild about that?

He actually asked for that twice.

He actually prays for that twice.

He says, if there's any other way, but not what I want, what you want.

But he lived his whole life saying, I only do what the Father tells me.

You see, he trains his own heart, he practiced that so often, and he modeled it so often that he did what the Lord wanted in the ordinary things, that he was ready to do what the Father wanted in the extraordinary things.

He models that.

When it felt like it didn't matter, that you would still pause and ask, what would you do if you were me?

And this is what James is getting at.

He's a man who just, I mean, I grew up with Jesus, sat at the breakfast table, saw all that he did, and doubted not just his life, but his way.

He doubted the way he lived.

He doubted what he was up to, but now he says to you in me, there is no peace in that.

There's no rest for the soul in doing things on your own.

He said, You're like a wave of the sea, if that's the case.

Here's a quote from uh uh uh uh uh St.

Augustine.

He says this no one is really happy merely because he has what he wants, but only if he wants things he ought to want.

And so this morning, here is the invitation today.

Wisdom is available, but you have to want it.

Meaning you have to want the things that God wants.

You have to be asking yourself, do I truly want his way over my way?

Because if that's the case, he can work with that.

He's more than willing to work with that.

Is this available?

Just ask.

You know, as I walked, you know, uh sorry, like as I walked all the way back to the car that day in Seattle, feeling anxious, worried, a little foolish for leaving my wallet there.

I just said this simple prayer.

I just said, Jesus, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Expecting him to say, walk faster, because I just want to control outcomes.

I heard this gentle invitation just to slow my heart down for a moment.

And and to remember that even if what I think the worst will happen, even if I think that, I just gently heard him say, Dan, I'm not anxious right now.

I'm not worried, I'm not stressed.

So just slow your heart down.

Just pause.

And in that moment I found my pace to slow down just ever so much.

Still quick, but just ever so much.

And I just began to thank God for my family.

And just to thank him for the time away we've had so far, just to thank him for the gift of just being able to rest with my wife and kids in such a meaningful way.

I thank him for all the things we've gotten to do so far.

But then just to ask him just to continue to form in me what it means to be a non-anxious presence.

I still have a long way to go with that.

A long way to go.

I get there, the car's there, the wallet's there, everything's okay.

And in that moment, I even then realized I still have a long way to go.

It was a good walk.

Jesus and I needed it.

I'm gonna invite the band up here at this time.

This morning, just as we close here, I just was though I was thinking about what we could do as a practice.

You know, if you you know you've been a part of the church for any length of time, you know, you know that I love to offer these at the end of sermons because I really, really, really believe in my heart that if we are to be shaped and formed by Jesus, we need to start to do the things that Jesus does.

And so that's really you know kind of where these just come from.

And as I was thinking about this, what could be a practice that might be helpful?

Because I think if we practice these in the ordinary, then we're ready for the big moments in which they really feel weighty.

And so I thought to myself, it's this simple question that I've actually offered many times before, and I'm gonna offer it again.

And it's just this simple thing.

Whenever you come to a moment this next week in which you start wondering what to do, whether it's big or small, it doesn't matter.

But especially in the small, I think actually, especially in the little things, that you might just say, Jesus, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

What would happen to your life over time if you just began to ask that in the ordinary moments of your day?

That you just began to invite in God's will, his heart, his presence for you.

You just began to ask him in just a winsome way, Jesus, what would you do?

If you were in my shoes, if you were in my job, if you were in my home, if you were in this marriage, if you had to be in charge of these kids, Lord, what would you do?

You know what I found over time, the more that I asked that question, he's really good to answer it.

He's really good to answer it because over time you begin to hear his voice all the more.

It begins to be even more just, you know, you could just, yeah, you can hear it.

You begin to hear his voice.

And so that is why, just you know, that's that that's a challenge to you over the next little while that you would put that into practice, that you would start to make that question just regular in your life.

So here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna actually move down to the communion table here in just a moment.

So let me pray, because I actually just kind of have something for you as we close the sermon portion here.

So, Lord Jesus, thank you that you modeled for us and everything that you do.

You said this.

You said, I only do what I hear the Father telling me to do.

And Jesus, if we look at that for what it actually meant, it didn't mean in just the big things, but it meant in the ordinary moments of your life, in the ordinary things, how you acted when you sat down for a meal, how you were when those that you were around the most started to get anxious, when they started to fight or quarrel, that you continually would even separate yourself from everyone else so you could get a way to be with the Father, that you might ask Him further, what would you do?

And Jesus, thank you that you invite us into that practice today.

And even right now, in this moment, you invite us into that.

Lord, I am aware, just as you are aware, that all throughout this room there are so many people that are experiencing a hard moment in their life where they are not sure what to do, that even beyond what it's doing to them externally, it is impacting them internally.

That, Lord, it's bringing them all kinds of angst, it's bringing them all kinds of anxiety.

Lord, I just pray that even right now that you would just simply bring to mind something perhaps that we feel like we don't know what to do.

Lord, for each one in this room, would you just start to gently bring to mind something where we feel lost in, where we're not sure the next step, we're not sure the outcome, it feels uncertain.

Could you just bring that to mind?

And Lord, as we consider that, Lord, I just want to offer up to you how you taught us to pray.

Just this beautiful expression of what it means to get our eyes on you.

It says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Father, give us this day our daily bread.

Lord, forgive those who just forgive those just as you've forgiven us, who just I mean, sin against us.

Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.

Amen.

So Lord, I pray for each one here that they might find themselves in a space in which they would bring to you the things that matter most on their hearts.

And that they would begin to ask the question, Jesus, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Lord, what would you do?

So, Jesus, thank you that you are available to us, that you offer yourself to us, and that wisdom is available to each one today.

So, Lord, we love you, and we just ask these things in your name.

Amen.

This morning, as we come here to the just to the table, as I was thinking about just I mean, Jesus in the garden, and as I sat in that passage most of the week, and and again, I was just struck, and maybe it's because it was just, I don't know, felt maybe fresh, but I was so struck that as I read here in Matthew, that he asked for this to pass him twice.

That in his own just I don't want to go through this if I don't have to.

He asked the Father twice if there's any way that this cup can pass from me.

And I want that.

But then he says this in verse 42, he says, But your will be done.

Your will be done.

As we come here to the table, we recognize what he has done for us.

That he took all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our pain, all the things, and he put it on himself.

It says, He became sin.

All of the worst things that you've ever done, all the things that you are most ashamed of, he became that for you.

He became that for you.

And he became that for me.

And so this morning, as we come to the table, I want us just to sit in that reality for a moment.

That we would recognize our deep need for his love, for his grace, for his mercy.

We all have need of it.

And so this morning, here's what we're gonna do.

In just a minute, I'm gonna ask you just to simply come up here and just to receive the elements, and then you can go back in your seat.

And so when you are ready, you can take them right where you're seated.

You don't have to wait for anybody else in the room.

Just take them exactly where you are.

Whenever you feel like Jesus is inviting you in.

But what I want to encourage you to do is to sit with Jesus in this for a bit today.

To not rush to take the elements, but to really sit and recognize what he has done for you.

That he died on a cross, that he died a horrible, horrible death.

And then he was raised to life so that you might be raised to life, so that you might have a new life in Christ.

This is a beautiful moment for the church that we get to do this together.

This is not a moment to rush through.

This is a moment to sit in, to sit at the table, to recognize what Jesus is doing.

So I'm gonna invite those who've been asked to serve just to come forward at this time.

And as they come forward, I'm just gonna pray.

And then when you're ready, I just want to invite you to come.

Simply just, I'm gonna gather the elements.

This is an open table, but I do ask that you pause and consider where you are with Jesus before you come.

To ask, is this the right time for you to come?

Are there things in your life that maybe have to be just I'm gonna sort it out first before you come to the table?

This is an open table, but it's a wrestle with Jesus at the same time.

So let me pray.

So, Lord Jesus, we love you.

And we just thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your goodness to us.

We thank you for the cross.

We thank you for your love that was poured out, for your blood that was poured out.

And Jesus, as we take the elements today, we recognize that as we take the bread, your body was broken for us.

Jesus, as we drink the juice, we recognize that you're just you're just that it was just, I mean, it poured out for us, Lord.

Your blood was poured out for us so that we might be dead to our old selves and raised again to new life in Christ.

So, Lord Jesus, help us to sit in this moment to not rush through it.

If there's sin that we have to share and confess, that we might do that, if there's somebody else in this room that we have to go make things right, that we would actually do the hard and awkward thing and not take it until we have made things right with that other person.

Jesus, would you just lead us in your way, in the way that you live?

So, Lord Jesus, we love you and we just give you these moments and ask these things in your name.

Amen.

So, again, as you're ready, feel free to come.