Following God's Plans: 2 Corinthians 2-3

Morning. So Terry, Terry, she's not here.

She's in the other room. I was just wondering when you're

going to do that for the guys. You know, we feel outnumbered,

right? But anyway, boy, what an amazing

morning. I'm just got a sense of God's

presence today, like I don't think I've ever sensed before.

There's a ton of people in Washington, DC praying right now

as we speak for our nation. There's born again believers

that serve in our government and they're crying out to God to

rededicate our nation to once again understand that we are one

nation under God. That's huge.

I've been on this planet for a good many years and have been

watching what happens in our nation's capital, and I don't

remember any other time that this has ever happened.

Does any of you guys ever remember anything like this?

Yeah. George Washington.

That's that was it, huh? Wow.

That's a long time coming, right?

Wow. That's that's pretty

embarrassing. But anyway, we're as a nation

endeavoring to get back on track.

Franklin Graham will be one of the speakers there.

I know he's a real blessing. He'll bring the gospel.

Mark Rubio is a on fire servant of God.

If you heard his testimony, it's amazing he he doesn't.

He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, that's for sure.

So we need more people like that as we pray for our nation and

pray someone saying Amen over there.

And what, what's interesting about this event too, because I,

I just looked over you, brother, you know, Bishop Baron speaking

there. You know, he's one of the big

speakers and he's a Catholic Bishop, right?

Born again Catholic Bishop. And it's, it's an enter

denominational meeting of prayer of people from all backgrounds

of Christian community. And we need that too, to

understand that we, we need each other in these last days to

stand for the Lord. And so pray for these guys.

Thank God for for their stand for the gospel and their concern

for our country. And also I'd like you guys to

pray for there's nine of us that will be at the Pastors

Conference tomorrow in Philly. It'll be probably around 2000 of

us down there seeking the Lord to be re energized and

rededicate our own lives to the ministry and the calling of

God's given us. And there'll be people from all

ages, all ethnic backgrounds, all different countries will be

missionaries there. Some of our missionaries will be

there. I believe the Marquis will be

there and the Belmont and Hope and her husband from Chile that

we support. So we'll see them there and

it'll just be a wonderful time. So pray for the speakers, pray

for those of us who are attending that our hearts will

be opened and it will come back changed and be deeper, deeper

with the Lord. That's the whole purpose of

these of these conferences. It'll be 94° down there tomorrow

in Philly. Well, that's going to be hot.

And we eat outside. They have like tents and they'll

have, we'll be suffering having steak and you know, baked potato

and all this stuff and in the heat.

So pray for us while we're eating really good food and 94°

temperatures. But anyway, we are in the book

of Second Corinthians. If you have your Bibles turn

there this morning. We finished up last time at 2nd

Corinthians chapter 2 and we're going to look at verses 12 to

the end of the chapter. And then we're going to look at

the 1st 6 verses of chapter 3 this morning.

So let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much

and we we unite our hearts with those in Washington and all of

our country today that understand the significance of

rededicating. This nation is 250 years old

this year. So many events that are going to

happen to celebrate the freedom we have in the greatest country

in the world, United States of America.

And Lord, we pray for those who are working so hard to keep the

truth of this land shining like a bright light throughout the

midst of a very, very Dark World.

Lord, we understand that with the freedom we have here, so

different than what people experience in the Soviet Union

and China, Iran, Iraq, all the Mideast countries, the 10:40

window in India and Pakistan and what's happening, Lord, in

Africa and this Lord, we, we take it for granted.

I think I know I do at times. We have all this freedom to

worship you and to talk about you.

And then there's places in the world that are persecuting

people like us just for telling people about what Jesus has done

for us, where we think about the man and Ireland, Lord and

Dublin, this on the streets sharing John 316.

He was arrested and fined. This simple message of God's

love. And so, God, help us in these

days, help us to have a biblical worldview, to understand what

the Bible says about your desire for this nation and your desire

for this world, this creation that you've made, that we would

turn back to you, that we would get saved, that we would become

born again. Nothing changes until our hearts

change. And then only comes by the work

of the Holy Spirit when we're born again.

No other way, Lord, not through legalism, not through guilt

trips, but by your grace and by your love.

So, Lord Goddess, this morning as we share your word together,

may you feed us your sheep. We need to be fed.

We want to be fed. We want to become a little bit

more like you today than we were yesterday, and we know that's

Your will as well. We love you, Lord, and we're

thankful for Your great love for us as we sang over and over and

over again. How great is our God and how

truly that affirms what it is we're all to exemplify every day

of our life, understanding Your greatness and all the many

blessings you've bestowed upon us individually and as our

families and as a nation. And we pray all these things in

Jesus name, Amen. OK, we are going to pick it up

here in verse 12. Let me read and then we'll make

some comments. Furthermore, when I came to

Troas, this is Paul speaking about his missionary journey to

preach Christ's gospel, and the door was opened to me by the

Lord. I had no rest in my spirit

because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of

them, I departed from Macedonia. So here's Paul and I, I love how

the Bible is so down to earth because it shares real life and

struggles that that we can have as as human beings.

And here's Paul in this particular instance talking

about the privilege he had and the door that was open to share

the gospel in this community of Troas.

And because his partner and his Co labor wasn't there, he didn't

have the confidence or sense that he should continue without

the help of of Titus O. I'm sure that had to discourage

him. He's all excited about the

opportunity and he doesn't know where Titus is and he's not

going to do anything without him.

It goes to show that ministry is a team effort.

It isn't a one man show. And Paul never wanted to do

anything in his own strength, let alone by himself.

He wanted to do it with his band of brothers like we do here at

Calvary Chapel Westmoreland. We do everything as a team of

men and women of God. We work together for the same

purpose, following our only leader, and that's Jesus Christ.

So you may be in a situation right now in your life where

things maybe aren't working out exactly the way you want them to

work out. Situations aren't occurring the

way maybe you're praying right now.

It could be a job issue, could be a financial issue, could be a

relationship issue, could be a health issue.

It could be a number of things that you're asking God to

intervene. And many times God will

intervene, and sometimes he interviews very, very quickly,

but he moves and acts after the counsel of his own will, not my

will or your will. And many times in the

adversities of life and the difficulties of life, those are

allowed and used by God to make us realize how much we need the

Lord, humbles us, gets us on our face before the Lord, and we

finally say to him, Lord, I can't do this without you.

I don't see a way out of this without you.

I need you, Lord, more than ever in my life because of this

particular thing that might be causing concern in your life.

And Paul had this awareness because of his experiences

walking with the Lord for years, that God is always faithful.

He never forsakes us. He never let's us down that you

might say, well, he's letting me down because this didn't happen

or that didn't happen. You can think that way as a

human intellectually, but God's sovereign and there's nothing

happening in your life today that he isn't part of or

allowing to occur. And that's that takes a lot of

depths of understanding in regard to who God is, his

attributes, his faithfulness to be able to have that trust that

can't be demolished or can't be circumvented or minimized.

You, you have this deep interior understanding that no matter

what he's going to come through for you in the way that he knows

it's best for you. So Paul goes into this verse in

verse 14 here he says, and this just shows how he believes his

faith. He says now thanks be to God who

always leads us in triumph in Christ.

He doesn't say thanks be to God who may sometimes lead us in

triumph. He says he always leads us in

triumph in Christ and through US diffuses the fragrance of his

knowledge in every place. So Paul had this complete trust

and awareness that God is in control and that he's already

working from a place of victory, not defeat.

So that's where we all are as Christians, even though we're in

a world that's in chaos at times and and all kind of difficult

situations arise. The victory was one for US

against the evil. 1 When Jesus died on the cross and rose

again, what Jesus did at that crucifixion, that tells us in

Colossians he spoiled the power of the principalities and powers

and rulers of darkness of this world.

So those things are still working in the world, but they

don't have dominant ability to control anything.

Only what you allow them to control is you yield.

Unfortunately, at times that maybe things that you shouldn't

yield to and you end up in trouble because of that.

Spiritually speaking, sin issues in our lives, but if we're

walking with the Lord, even in the aging process and the body

deteriorating and different things occurring in our lives

that we never anticipated, we have a hope that's eternal and

we have a life that's promised that will never end.

This is a short time here, 7080 years maybe, if we're fortunate,

But then we're out of here and we get a brand new body that'll

be no more suffering, no more sickness, no more disease, no

more persecution, no more martyrdom.

All these things will be be dealt with.

But Paul's living in a time where Christians are being

martyred, where Christians are being persecuted, and he's

working through this all the time, every day in his ministry.

But he has this assurance that Christ is the victor and we're

triumphant as we identify ourselves with him.

And what happens to whenever we live that way.

And when Paul lived this way, whenever he was around people,

he diffused this fragrance of like, wow, how can he be this

way? How can he live this way?

I want to be like that. I want to be able to to go

through adversity and difficulties and challenges with

this kind of confidence and this kind of positive mindset that

the Lord's he's everything's OK and I don't have to be shaken.

And because of the Holy Spirit's power in Paul's life, in your

life and my life. And we wanted to be more evident

is that whenever we're sharing our faith or living our lives,

people will be around us and they'll marvel at the fragrance

of, of the goodness and the presence and the love and the

power of God, the joy of God coming off of our lives.

And we, we don't make this happen.

This is a supernatural outpouring of God who lives in

US, Jesus who lives in US, right?

It's his life that lives in US, and it's his life that lives

through us. And when his life lives through

us, we are living a supernatural kind of existence.

When Jesus said I've come that you might have life and you

might have it more abundantly, this, that this wasn't a phrase.

That was the reality that he said, if you have me, if you

have Christ, if you have my life, then you have life.

If you don't have Christ, you don't really have life.

And I touched on this last week a little bit.

You're living, you're existing, but you're really not living

until you have the life of Christ in you.

And all of you here today who have experienced being born

again, you know the difference between what your life was like

before you were saved and before you were born again, how you

responded to life, how you reacted to situations, and how

you act now because Christ is in you.

It's, it's incredible and it's his grace, it's his power and

it's his life in US and through US.

And so wherever you go, and I'm sure at times people will maybe

say to you, you know, something different about you or you, how

do you get through this? Or you got this illness thing

and you, you don't seem like it's, it's bothering you that

much. What is, what's making you like

live this way? And then you have a chance to

tell him it's Christ Jesus is in you and you give him the glory.

And whenever you're proclaiming the goodness of God in the land

of the living, it impacts everyone around you who who

hears you. And you look for these

opportunities as Paul did, because this is an evangelist

here, his ministry. Where can I go to tell people

about what Jesus did for me? That's simple, isn't it?

Who can I talk to about what Christ has done for me?

And I'm sure you're probably like me, You have a lot of

people you care about, and you think about your family, your

neighbors, your coworkers, whoever it is that you run into

at a store or whatever. You see people's lives and many,

many are obviously broken. Like how can I get this

conversation going into this direction to tell them about who

Jesus is and whenever the fragrance is on you and coming

out of you, you're sort of irresistible, even though maybe

some people don't want to hear it.

They're like, I mean, I'm curious.

I'm intrigued about what makes you tick, What makes you, how

you, how you wired. I was on the phone with a

business conversation 2 days ago.

Second time I've talked to this guy about an arrangement we may

be doing together. And in in my industry, the

industry I'm in, one of the words that's used the most is

the F word. I don't know what it is about

guys, but they think the more they say that word in sentences

a more macho they are. And you know, and, and I'm like,

OK, you know, whatever, you know, they don't hear me talking

that way. And they're probably like, why

isn't this guy saying that stuff?

Why isn't he talking that way? And so as we're as we're talking

this guy, I think he only used it one time.

So the Holy Spirit was maybe like Clark's a little different

here. This isn't really rolling really

good with him this kind of conversation.

So we began to get the talk about success in business and I

was telling him about all the Lord has done for me and the

things I've accomplished in my life.

I I know it's because of Jesus and I give all the glory to him

and he's just listening and it's ironic.

You know what he says, this guy's part Jewish and part

Protestant. His his dad was a Russian Jew

and his mom was, I think Methodist or something.

He says, well, he says I'm, I'm, I'm sort of seeking right now.

He said, I have mansions, I have fancy cars, I have watches, I

have all this stuff and it doesn't satisfy me anymore.

And I said, you know, it's ironic you say that because

Jesus said a man's life does not consist and the abundance of the

things he possesses, it's, it doesn't fill you up.

And he says, yeah, this, there's this thing in my soul that's

empty and it's dry and it, it's, it's meaningless.

And all my family, we live on Long Island, we have this

affluent lifestyle and, and it doesn't do it for me anymore.

And he says, I'm in a workbook right now and I'm studying about

Jesus and why I need Jesus and how can I follow Jesus?

So all of a sudden the conversation went that way.

Isn't that amazing? And so I told him I'd be praying

for him about his situation, what he's considering.

I said whether we work together or not is immaterial.

What the reason we actually got together was to have this

conversation today. And that'll continue with this

guy 'cause he's, he's very open another situation.

And I'm just sharing these things because sometimes I get

it right and other times I miss the opportunity, right?

God gives you a layup, a real simple layup to be able to tell

someone about him. And you miss it sometimes, don't

you Kasin as many layups as you've done, then you got one in

the net. Sometimes you think, spiritually

speaking, I missed that opportunity.

But God doesn't condemn us. There's always these new

opportunities, right? But there's this Hawaiian guy I

work with in San Francisco and I've reached out and had a

relationship with him. I met him in Spain when I was

there and, and we connected and, and he just resigned.

He's taking a job with someone else and, and he sent me this

really nice like note about the impact that I had made on his

life and how I showed that I cared about him and no one was

forcing me to do this. This is the stuff we do as

Christians, right? We care for people, we love

people and we want to have a relationship with people.

And so you never know what God will do.

And he writes us like amazing story about, you know, our

friendship. And so I called him up the next

day to talk to him personally about what he was dealing with

and he sent me a picture of his beautiful kids and his wife.

And he was saying he, he uses mahalo and all those, you know,

Hawaiian kind of religion comments and that.

And, and I said, well, I'll be, I'll be praying for you for the

future, which goes on. And I said, matter of fact, let

me pray for you now. So I prayed for him and there

was dead silence and he, and you could tell he was choking up.

Isn't that the Lord? But he says that that prayer

really touched my heart, you know, and then the guy, another

Christian guy I work with, I told him because he had been

praying for this guy. He, he sent him a text and he,

he told me he was praying for him.

And then yesterday he, he was all excited.

He says, I got that new job and thank you guys for praying.

And we'll stay in touch, right? These are providential

opportunities. And so this is the fragrance

that we're supposed to be. Giving out now sometimes that

fragrance is really strong in my life and then other times, like

Cindy will tell me she's I stink, right?

She says, you know, I'm blowing it right, right.

The person I love the most, I blow it the most with right.

So it's good, good days and bad days, right?

And all this journey of, of our of our experiences here with the

Lord, but he says here we are to God the fragrance of Christ

among those who are being saved. So most of you here are saved

today, I trust. So everything is being said from

the word and the preaching in that is smelling good.

You, you like it, you feed on it.

It's energizing. And among this fragrance also is

is working among those who are perishing.

To one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the

other, the aroma of life leading to life.

So when you're around unbelievers and you're sharing

what it is you believe or what you love about Christ and what

He's done for you, they don't like it, do they?

They like, don't want to be around you.

They find a way to change a conversation.

If they see you again, they go the other way.

They're just totally, totally turned off because what you're

saying in their deep conscience, they know they don't understand

what we understand, but they know there's more to life.

There's a creator God, whether they want to deny him or believe

in Him or not, they're going to have to stand before this

Creator judge, and they're under the wrath of God until they come

to faith in Christ. That's pretty intense.

He that hath the Son hath life. He that does not have the Son of

God hath not life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

So in the conscience, in the back of the mind, after all the

partying and all the wealth and all the experiences and all the

stuff you try to fill yourself up with, you lay your head on

the pillow at night and your conscience haunts you because

you know you're not living the way you need to live.

The Bible tells us in the Romans that we have this conscience and

awareness of God. And so to us who are saved, we

can't get enough of the word and worship and talking about Jesus.

We love that. That's, that's our DNA now

because of Christ and being born again.

But if you're, you're not a Christian, it's, it's a turn off

until you have your eyes open to realize.

So Paul's talking about this and to to, he goes on to say, and

who is sufficient for these things?

In other words, like sufficiency is this idea of understanding

from God's vantage point in Philippians 413.

I can do all the things through Christ who strengthens me, and

there's all things that are things that God's calling me to

do and to live out. I can't say, well, I like

keyboards, so I'm going to take over at the end of the service

and play the keyboard. I say, Jesus, you know, as you

said, I can do all things. I'll get up there.

It's going to sound like a mess. That's not the thing that God

has for me, right? But in regard to following the

Lord, preaching the Word, doing my job, whatever, at times I'm

overwhelmed, I'm intimidated. I know down deep inside I can't

do any of this stuff apart from the enablement and strength of

God. He's, he's my sufficiency.

But what happens is when you're failing in your life, the answer

is, where's the sufficiency at? Is your sufficiency Jesus, or is

it yourself? I've talked to many people,

especially guys when they're going through tough times and

try to help him out and they'll, you know, I, I can handle this.

I, I can, you hear that I can get through this.

I can take care of it. I'll figure it out, right?

That's just the normal issue of arrogance and pride that we we

have versus I need help. Jesus, show me how to trust you

more. Forgive me for my sin of

rejecting you and trying to live my life without you.

And that's really the conversation we have to have

with people when they're broken. Are you getting tired of living

your life and your own strength? Are you realizing you can't do

this anymore and that you need God's help?

And at that point in time, many people will say, yes, tell me

how. And then we get into the gospel

and that's how people become believers.

And that's, that's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

But this idea of sufficiency is really interesting because even

as a Christian, you can find yourself try to do stuff in your

own strength, in your job, in your career, in in some

insurmountable situation. And then someone will talk with

you and they'll say, well, let's pray about it.

And you're thinking, wow, why didn't I think of that this

whole time? You're trying to do it yourself.

And someone reminds you, let's pray and see what the Lord might

do. And of course, when we pray, God

does exceedingly, abundantly above whatever we could ask or

think according to his power that works in us, His power that

works. And it's not my power, not your

power, but his power that works in us.

I think of Jesus in John 15, five.

He says I am the vine, you are the branches.

He that abides in me, he that lives in me, and my strength, my

sufficiency, will bear much fruit.

And then he says without me you can do nothing, right?

How many times have you read that and agree with it?

Yeah, but how many times you try to do stuff without him?

I mean, the simlest thing, you're in the traffic jam and

it's driving you crazy and you wonder why, why the traffic

isn't moving and you're stressing and you're frustrated

and you're striving and you're trying to Google the quick way

out of the traffic jam to figure out like how you can get out of

it quicker. And instead of just like, OK,

Lord, you have me here right now in this traffic jam.

You're with me and I want to buy with you, and I want you to give

me that stability and that Peace of Mind that I can realize that

only through you while I get through this traffic jam, right?

Or an argument with your wife or your family or something,

relying either on your own wisdom, your own ability, or, or

just saying really upfront with Jesus, I can't deal with this, I

can't handle it. Help me, I need you.

Show me how to do this. Paul also talks about this verse

in Philippians 413. This is a powerful verse in

regard to Paul writes this because he had to personally

experience in himself in regard to his own journey in the

Christian life. And so everything Paul writes

he's he had to personally experience it with the Lord or

it wouldn't mean anything right. But he says this this idea of

the importance of of being able to that was the wrong reference

to to skip that one. But it says his strength is made

perfect in our weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon

us. So when I recognize my weakness

and you do too. The sufficiency is Jesus, and

that life of Christ is what causes us to be able to

persevere in the midst of challenging situations.

And then he says, for we are not as so many peddling the Word of

God, but as of sincerity, but as from God.

We speak in the sight of God and in Christ.

So we're not manipulating you through what it is we do here in

any given Sunday or Wednesday or any kind of time that we're

teaching the Word. We're teaching the word as it is

as a word of God. In truth, we're not adding

anything to it. We're not subtracting anything

to it. There's there's no agenda that

we have secretly in regard to what they would say.

Paul said here peddling the word of God.

And what was happening was at that time people would go around

to the churches and say, Paul's a friend of mine, he told me to

come here and speak. Well, they couldn't call or

e-mail and say, do you know who this person is?

They just assumed, OK, well, they had to have letters of

commendation recommending this person is a legitimate minister

or servant of the Lord and people could fraudulently fill

these forms out and, and give it to the elders of the church and

they would assume it was from Paul.

These things were happening, unfortunately.

And So what was going on at that time, the Judaizers and, and

this is the, the Jews that were upset because the gospel was

circumventing what they wanted to have as the focus, the law,

the 10 commandments externally trying to live the law with your

own strength externally to prove that you were a true Christian.

So they would mix legalism with grace and law with the gospel.

And people got confused and they got stumbled and they got, they

had problems. And what happened was when they

were there, they would get the people to give them money to do

their ministry. And so whenever the real

ministers came around, there was nothing left in the churches or

the offerings for the poor people in Jerusalem because

these false people peddling the word of God with wrong agendas

were in the on the area then. So in verse 1 of chapter 3 says,

do we begin again to commend ourselves?

Paul never went around bragging about himself.

The evidence of Paul's ministry was the impact it had on the

hearers of the word of God. The people's lives were changed

because of Jesus and getting saved and being born again.

So if someone said, well, how did you hear about the gospel or

how did you get taught the word of God?

Well, we were with Paul for a period of time and then this is

what happened because of what God gave him to teach us.

So Paul didn't need any kind of papers to commend themselves.

Or do we need some others epistles of commendation to you,

or letters of commendation from you?

You are epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all

men. Clearly.

You are the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not

with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tabled

tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

And So what happens is when you get saved, like before I was a

Christian, and maybe you can relate to this.

I was in this church that told me that if I lived a good life

and I knew the 10 commandments, we had to memorize them in

Sunday school, then I would be OK.

Like God grades on a curve. So if my percentages were

higher, my success of the law, then I'd be OK.

Most of us thought that that was the gospel.

A lot of people, when you talk to them about the Gospel, well,

I'm pretty good. They'll say I'm Presbyterian or

I'm Catholic or I'm losing. You know, they, they they want

you to hear that and think, oh, yeah, you must be OK because you

go to that church instead of pursuing it even more.

Well, that's nice. You go there.

Who are you trusting in for your salvation?

Well, I'm, I'm a pretty good person.

That's what they'll always say, well, I'm not saying you're a

bad person, but you are a Sinner.

Do you know that? Well, everybody sins.

OK. Yeah.

Well, what does God do about your sin?

Does he just say it's OK and there's no big deal?

Do you need forgiven for your sin or how do you get forgiven

for your sin? What do you have to do?

And they sort of look at you like a deer in the headlight.

They'll say, well, I, I I give offerings.

I help little old ladies across the street.

I, I don't steal, I'm, I'm not bitter.

They'll give you this list of stuff that sort of wants you to

think that they're OK and they don't need Jesus.

But as you pursue it more, you know, and I love the guy that

does the, the preaching out in the streets with Kirk Cameron.

He he will always use the law not for salvation, but for

conviction of sin. And he'll just start.

Well, that's nice. You, you sounds like you are a

pretty good person. By the way, you know, we're on

the beach here in California. Some pretty cute girls here.

Do you ever look at them and lust at them?

Oh, well, Well, yeah. OK.

Well, it happens. If you look upon a woman with

lust in your heart, you've committed adultery.

So you're an adulterer. And the guys gets real big.

Have you ever hated anybody? Well, everybody has Some people,

they don't like you. I've hated what the Bible says.

If you have hatred in your heart, you've you've committed

murders, so you're a murderer. And then he just goes down.

All of a sudden you just see the gravity of the reality of the

word of God that convicts people of their sin.

And until you're convicted of your sin, what do you need to

get saved for? If you just go to church and

they got a nice happy message and everybody's OK, you're OK,

I'm OK. And then we just leave.

And we don't have any changed life.

We don't have any convictions about anything.

We don't have any kind of prayer life.

We don't have any kind of remorse or humility for the

things we've done against not any God, but against one

another. It's a mess, right?

And so that's why you drive down the highway and you see John 33

signs once in a while and of course you would know it.

You must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

I wonder how many people drive down and then Google and say,

what's that verse say? And then they read it and then

they think, well, what does that verse mean?

And 2nd Corinthians 517, This is the power of John 33.

If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become

new. So I'm not intentionally wanting

to lust anymore. I'm not wanting to hate people

anymore. I'm not because Christ is in me

now. He's giving me a new nature.

I'm, I'm a child of God now and you are too.

And so we want to live like that.

We want to live to please the Lord.

We, we're, we're part of his family and, and the whole nature

now is changed. We were dead in sin and we get

saved. We're now alive in Christ.

And so all of a sudden our eyes are open and man are they open.

When you first come to Christ, everything you see, like, I

can't believe I used to live this way.

I can't believe I used to do this.

I, I can't believe I acted this way.

And just like it's overwhelming, but you got this new life and

God's mercy and his forgiveness. And until God does that work of

new birth in the heart, you're a legalist, you're in a church

maybe and you're judging someone because of the way they dress or

you're always criticizing people thinking that you're better than

them or, or you disdain certain people.

And you have these attitudes in your heart that are just

unchrist like and the and the real reality that you've really

been changed and that your life is made new is that you begin to

live like Jesus lived and the apostles and the disciples.

All the things we read about here and study every week are

for people like us and have a new nature.

Now we're learning to become more like Christ.

And if people show up here, watch online, whatever, that

don't know Jesus yet, through the teaching of the word, it

becomes obvious after a while, like I'm here, but I'm really

not here. I need to be like these people

here, like Jesus. And how does that happen?

And every week we give the opportunity, should you want to

pray, you don't have to come up front.

You can stay in your seat. Whatever.

You can just say as we take the communion, Lord, I need you to

save me from my sin. I'm at the end of myself and I

can't keep living the way I'm living.

I've destroyed too many people. I'm destroying myself and I'm

fearful of what will happen to me now if I die and I don't have

you. I know I'm guilty.

I know I'm worthy of hell. And I don't definitely don't

want to go to hell. And Jesus is the rescuer.

He's a deliverer. And he says, whosoever calls

upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

He said, whosoever comes to me, I will no wise cast out meaning

I won't say no, I'll take him and her, but I won't take you.

No anybody that comes with a brokenness and an open heart and

says, Lord, please save me and forgive me in my sin.

I want to have this new birth. I want my life to be made brand

new. He'll do that for you like he

has for me and many others. So as we prepare our hearts for

the Lord's Supper, worship team is going to get a break today.

They don't have to come up because we're going to do

something different at the end. It's a surprise.

So if you're here, you're going to get a surprise.

Yeah. If you're not here, I'll tell

you about it. If you want to call me what

happened, you have to give me 10 bucks first, though.

No, I'm just kidding. Well, the Lord's Supper has been

given to us as a gift to break bread with Jesus.

We when we do this, we do it with Jesus and we do it with

each other, which is awesome, right?

And we're part of the body of Christ and we get this privilege

of, of breaking bread every time we gather with the Lord.

It's like Jesus is sitting up here in this chair.

He's, he's physical, He's sitting on the right hand of the

father right now, but he's also omnipresent.

So he's, he's with us completely, all of us here.

And he's omniscient. He knows everything about us and

he knows what needs to go in my life and, and what's OK right

now and what needs to change and what I need to surrender and

what I need to yield to. And this is a weekly process for

me. I'm sure it is for you because

every week I'm sort of thinking a little bit more about what

needs to change in me. And, and if I don't understand

that, like I say, I got a great wife that'll remind me of what

it is I need to work on still. That's a that's a good thing,

right? But anyway, it's also an

opportunity before you take the bread, break the bread and take

the bread and the, and the cup is if you're unsaved, you don't

need to take this because it's, it won't accomplish anything.

But if you commit your life to Jesus today.

And ask him to save you. This could be the first time you

ever had to have had a chance to have a meal with the Lord

physically present with us right now.

And then the warning too is always like if I'm not serious

in my life right now, I've gotten off track with the Lord

and maybe I'm sinning and I need I'm messed up right now and I

sort of lost my way didn't lose my salvation.

I've lost my way. I need help to get back on track

with God, right? That's an opportunity to don't

take this without getting back on track with God because

there's a judgment, taking it unworthily, not understanding

what this means, the Lord's Supper.

So let's take this together. Lord, we're thankful again for

the apostle Paul and breaking things down so simple for us to

understand how to live and follow you.

Lord, we do pray today for each other that, Lord, this would be

meaningful. This time together, breaking

bread with you and having supper with you right now, Lord,

remembering what you've done for us, what this represents, what

it is, Lord, as you said that night.

And Lord, we also think of those who might be here that have

never been born again. Lord, we can't make that happen.

That's a work of your Holy Spirit.

But Lord, if there's anyone here today that's convicted of their

sin and though they need to be saved, may the day be the day of

their salvation. May they just simply say, Lord,

I know the truth. I need you, Jesus, forgive me of

my sin and save me. You'll do that.

Lord, we thank you for that on the night that you.