Understanding Authority and Communion

Oh, Crossing family, I want to welcome those of you joining in

all of our different locations, those of you who are part of the

crossing inside, and to those of you who are part of the Crossing

online. In fact, I want to wish a very

special welcome to Destiny watching online from Colorado.

Crossing families, you welcome Destiny from Colorado.

Here's Destiny's story. Last week, 1045 service Destiny

joined our online services for the first time and a couple of

our difference makers reached out and kind of said hello and

invited her into the private chat.

And later that day, we got a word from one of our difference

makers that have welcomed her that when they went into the

private chat, Destiny said that she was about ready to get off

the online service because she had decided that church was not

for her. But because she hopped in the

chat, the difference maker met her there.

She stayed through the service and realized her words.

It was for her. She felt like the sermon was

perfect for her and she couldn't wait to come back next week.

So hopefully, Destiny, you're joining us right now.

The difference maker again, they're great.

The difference maker was so moved that he reached out and

said, hey, I want to serve every service because I want to do the

best I can do to help other people find what I found in

Jesus. And to those of you who are

joining from all over, wherever you're watching from, we're

trying to do a better job as a church administering to our

online community. And if you're interested in

helping out, you can send an e-mail to [email protected]

and they'd love to have you join as you're traveling and doing

things like that. You might go, you know what,

even while I'm gone, I still want to be a part of helping

people find what I have found in Jesus.

Well, it was the winter of last year.

We are in a series called 50 for 50 where we are spending 50

minutes a day for 50 days, spending time reading our Bible,

praying, and doing some exercise.

And over the course of those 50 days, we were going to read

through the entire New Testament.

And as I was going through the readings in the morning, I would

be so excited to have you read what I had just read.

And I was thrilled to see our entire church all across this

region being exposed to the power of God's Word.

I mean, when you think about our people, reading through Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John and getting a more beautiful picture of

Jesus, it's exciting. Then I was thinking about us all

going through the book of Acts and realizing what happens when

the Holy Spirit comes into a person's life and they live out

faith and obedience and finding out what's possible.

But I got to be honest with you, there were, as we were going

through the series, there were three specific times where I

kind of had a, a check in my spirit going, man, I don't know

how our people are going to handle this.

One was when you guys were reading through the Book of

Revelation. I was like, Oh my goodness,

they've got to have way more questions than we have answers.

And so I just want you to hear me say this.

We're going to tackle the Book of Revelation.

It'll be one of the 1st 10 series that we put out when we

get inside the, the new production center in the new

multi site offices. Then there was a chapter in

First Timothy that I was going, you know what, we need to

definitely address it. And I want, you know, in the

next 10 years as a church, we'll treat the pastoral epistles

first and second Timothy and Titus just like we treated

Romans. But there was one book in

particular that I was going, we need to make sure that we do

something. I'm sure it caused a little bit

of concern in your life and you're going, man, what does all

this mean? And instead of running from it,

we ran to it, which is why we are in the book of First

Corinthians. I knew that chapters 7 and 8

would be a little bumpy. To those of you who don't

remember Chapter 7, that's the one that your husband took notes

in. OK chapter.

He's like, he's never taken notes before then.

But to be honest with you, chapters 1112 and 14 are going

to be a little jarring. So I just want you to know as

you're reading through it, you're going to go, are you

kidding me? Yep.

And so over the next couple of weeks, as we're going through

what my opinion are some of the three most difficult chunks of

scripture to navigate, we're going to get through it.

You're going to be fine. On the other side, if you had a

hard time parking at one of our locations, it'll probably

lighten up over the next couple of weeks.

Now before we jump into these three chapters, Chapter 11,

Chapter 12 and Chapter 14, what I want to do is I want to kind

of give you a gift and these are pillars to help you navigate the

scriptures. OK, so the first pillar is this

is not just the crossing, but here at the crossing.

But all Christians believe that God's way is the best way.

What that means is if God says it, we believe it that it's the

best way for us to live our lives and we should build our

lives upon it. Jesus says this in John chapter

John 10:10

10 verse 10. I have this is Jesus talking.

The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.

But I have come that you may have life and have it to the

full, which means that life that is designed and directed and

submitted to God is the best life.

You can't live the life that you were designed and created or

commanded to be apart from Him. So we believe, and Christians

believe that God's way is the best way.

Even if we don't like the way, we know that it's the best way.

The second one is that all Scripture is useful.

All scripture is useful for you. Look what it says in Second

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 3. All scripture is God breathed,

which means it originated not from man, but from God.

It is God breathed and it is, what's the next word useful.

What's it useful for? Teaching, rebuking, correcting

and training in righteousness. If you want to live the right

kind of life, the kind of life that God created you for,

designed you for, and commanded you to do, you need to be a

person who is a person of the Word of God.

It will help you to live the righteous life and but check

this out so that every servant of God may be thoroughly

equipped for every good work. What that means is you cannot do

the good thing that God has called you and commanded you to

do unless you are a person of the Word of God, submitted to

the Word of God. There are going to be times in

your life when you need to be taught something that you didn't

know. There are going to be times in

your life when you need to be rebuked for doing something you

should not do, corrected for believing something that you

should not believe, and trained to do the things of God.

Pillar one. God's way is the best way.

Pillar 2. All scripture is useful.

Pillar 3. Obedience to God's word matters.

Not just knowing about God's word, but doing what God's Word

says matters. Look at what Jesus says in

Matthew Chapter 7. Therefore, everyone who hears

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a

wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against that house, yet it did not fall.

Why? Because it had its foundation on

the rock. But everyone who hears these

words of mine and does not put them into practice is like what

kind of man? A Yeah, a foolish man who built

his house on the sand. The same rain came, and the

streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and

it fell with a great crash. You can know God's Word, but

unless you submit your life to God's Word, you are not building

your house, your life, your family on a firm foundation.

God's way is the best way. It's the only way to have the

life that you're designed to have, the full life.

All Scripture is useful in helping us find out and live and

experience God's way. But ultimately, unless you apply

what God's Word says to your life, you will not have the life

that God designed you to have. Today we're jumping into First

Corinthians 11, and I'm going to be honest with you.

There's a lot to cover, and contained in it are some of the

most confusing and frustrating chunks of Scripture.

You're ready. Here we go, verses 11 through

16. This is Paul talking to the

Corinthian church. Follow my example as I follow

the example of Christ. I praise you for remembering me

in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed

them on to you. But I want you to realize that

the head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is

man, and the head of Christ is God.

Every man who prays or prophecies with his head covered

dishonors his head, but every woman who prays or prophecies

with her head uncovered dishonors her head.

It is the same as having her head shaved, for if a woman does

not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off.

But it it If it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut

off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.

A man ought not cover his head, since he is the image and the

glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

For man did not come from woman, but woman from man.

Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority

over her own head, have her head covered because of the angels.

Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor

is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so

also man is born of woman, But everything comes from God.

Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray

to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of

things teach you that if a man has long hair, is it a disgrace

to him? But that if a woman has long

hair, it is to her, or it is her glory?

For long hair is given to her as a covering.

So you don't have to wear a hat, but you have to have long hair.

We'll get into that. Which isn't true.

Don't worry, you're fine. If anyone wants to be

contentious about this, we have no other practice, nor do the

churches of God. And I'm assuming after I read

that you guys are going, this makes perfect sense.

Let's just pray and get out of here.

We could get our grocery shopping done early today.

Clayton. All right, let me level with

you. If you're scratching your head,

you're not alone. If you're a little confused,

you're not alone. That's why I want to walk you

through this again. God's way is the best way.

All scripture is useful and obedience matters.

There is a reason this is given to us.

Now what? When you and I are walking in

life, we have to understand that God's word is given to us for

our good. But there are two errors.

When we find ourselves with a confusing or a frustrating text,

one of the errors is to under apply it, skip over it, move

past it, Don't give it any chance to do a work in US.

Sometimes when people find something in scriptures that

they don't like, what they functionally do is they take

scissors to it and just cut it out.

The problem is, is the moment you start doing that, you are

now making God into your image and you as a God do not save.

Selective Christianity becomes progressive Christianity and

progressive Christianity becomes no Christianity.

So we have to give the text a chance, the Holy Spirit time,

because it is for us. The second one is to over apply

it and to become legalistic with it.

Where you go so far that you make a minor issue, a major

issue. Hear me.

What we're going to talk about today is what I would call a

secondary issue. What do I mean by a secondary

issue? A secondary issue is something

that you and I could disagree on and we still get to give each

other high fives in heaven because we're both there.

A primary issue is an issue that if we, you and I are not in

agreement on that thing, we can't high 5 each other in

heaven because you and I are not in the same place.

So a primary issue. God created the world.

That man has sinned, that he sent his Son Jesus to die on the

cross to pay the price that you and I could not pay.

Three days later, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, is

seated on the throne, and has sent his Holy Spirit to empower

us. If you don't believe that Jesus

is the way, the truth, and the life, that is a primary issue

that separates people from heaven and people from hell.

But these things are secondary issues, things that good godly

Christian people can disagree on how to apply a particular text.

Now, what I'm going to do today is I'm going to walk you through

what I genuinely believe the Bible is teaching.

And you may not agree with me, but I will tell you, make sure

that the reason you do not agree with me, you are still finding a

way for you to allow this text to work on your heart.

You can go, Clayton, I've read this book.

I want you to know I've read that book too.

There is a reason why we're going through this.

And there's all kinds of things inside of here that are

confusing and frustrating. For instance, in the original

language, the words husband and wife could also be man and

woman. So you could walk away from this

saying on some level that all women should be subjected to or

under the authority of all men. What I believe is what it's

saying is that husbands and wives so that women are to be in

submission to their husbands. But we'll unpack that in just a

second. Now, when this was written, the

Bible was written for us, but not necessarily to us.

We were a part of its intended audience, but we were not its

primary audience, which is why we're reading First Corinthians,

not First Crossings. Does that make sense?

So Paul is writing to this group of people and he is trying to

help a young church make a godly difference in a Pagan culture.

And now you're like, well, that's kind of us, a church

trying to make a a godly difference in a Pagan culture.

Starting in chapter 8, for those of you who are here, he's

addressing how Christians are to leverage and steward their

freedoms in Christ. And what you're going to see in

chapters 11/12/13 and 14 is Paul addressing how you and I are to

express ourselves and leverage our lives when we gather

together as Christians and how we present ourselves as we go

out into the world. Paul is encouraging them to

consider how best to leverage their freedom and how they look

and how they operate in light of what is loving to others and

draws attention to God. Because Christians are others

focused people. So let's break it down #1 why

all the headship talk? Paul is reminding them that

Christians are people who live under authority.

You want to be a person who lives in submission to

authority. If you find a person who doesn't

let anybody speak into their life or have authority over

their life, that is a dangerous person.

So like my life, I live under the authority of our elders.

I surround myself with other people who I lean on and allow

to speak into how I direct my life.

And when God created humanity, He made it in order on purpose.

So men are to be in under the authority of Jesus.

Women are to be in authority or live under authority to Jesus,

but they are also to live under the authority of their husband.

In other words, godly women submit to their our godly wives

submit to their godly husbands. You see, God created man and

then out of Adam he created women or created Eve, and out of

Eve came all men. This does not mean, pay

attention here that women are less than men, because in this

very text it says that God is the head of Christ.

Is Jesus less than God? No equal.

But when Jesus was walking here on earth, he lived in submission

to the Father. That is why he says in the

Garden of Gethsemane, not my will be done, but your will be

done. Men are to live in submission to

our, husbands are to live in submission to Jesus, and wives

are to live in godly submission to their husbands.

This does not mean that men make all the decisions.

This does not mean pay attention, men, that we Lord our

authority over our wives. Our model is Jesus.

Jesus said that the greatest among you will be your servant.

Men, pay attention here because you thought you were going to

like the sermon. You're not.

Look at me when young people come up to me and say, Clayton,

we're thinking about getting married.

Here's one of the questions I ask young men and young women.

Do you want to serve them for the rest of your life?

Not are they cute, not how do you feel when they walk into the

room? But do you want to wake up every

day and serve them? Married people, husbands right

here. Here's a great way for you to

live this out in your life. Serve your family, serve your

spouse. Here's a way to do it.

Ask them how can I serve you today Because how you want to

serve them? I'm going to give you space,

babe, and go play golf. Her answer is different than

your answer. Does that make sense?

So let me tell you tangibly how this looks.

I hate running errands. I mean this.

I would rather serve time in prison than run errands.

I mean this. I hate it, and I'll tell you

why. I feel like there is a calling

on my life that every waking moment should be directed to the

advancement of the gospel and to make this region the hardest

place on planet earth to get to hell from.

And when I am about that, I feel the most alive and energized.

And to stop doing that, to wait in a line somewhere is a death

sentence. And God and His great mercy gave

me my wife. And if I ask her, how can I

serve you today, she would say, could you go get me some coffee?

Which means I have to stay in a line.

So every Friday and Saturday morning I get up early and I go

and get coffee and have it on her by her bed so when she wakes

up there is hot coffee. It means that on Sunday

afternoons, I go grocery shopping.

I hate it. And ladies, if you guys want to

do me a huge favor between like 3:00 and 5:00 on Sundays, if you

could be there and help me find the stuff that she's put on the

list, I would love it. Now my job is to show up in my

home to serve. Second thing, men are called to

die. The reason why men get to make

the final decision in the home is because men are to pay the

ultimate price for the decisions in the home.

Here's what I mean by that. When Paul is writing the church

in Ephesus, he says wives submit to your husbands.

And then he says, men love your wives as Christ loved the

church. What was the dominant thing that

Jesus did on behalf of the church?

He died for it. So men, if you're single and

you're going, I think I want to marry her, you need to ask

yourself this question, am I prepared to die for her and all

of her subsequent personalities? And if your answer, if you're a

yeah, if your answer is I'm not willing to die for that, she's

not the one you marry. Your job is you're the first one

that dies in the home. Let me unpack this, ladies.

I bet this has happened zero times in your marriage.

You're both under the covers, and as you're getting into bed,

your husband goes, oh, my goodness.

What is that? I'm so scared.

Sweetie, will you go check on that for us?

No. What does she do?

Go find out what that is. It's nothing.

Go find out what that is and whatever it is, you're either

killing it or it is killing you. That is how it works.

We are hard wired. Now listen, we are hard wired

completely differently. Now let me say this, OK ladies,

this was not planned to be on Rise weekend, OK?

This is not like a subtle flex. Like did you enjoy your

spiritual gathering? Now submit, OK?

That was not that was not why this was OK.

They moved the day to Rise so it ended up here.

So God was trying to work on you.

Let me explain. Men are called by God to serve

their family through death. We die for them.

We die first. If we were to go to Rise and we

were to put a kangaroo with boxing gloves in the middle of

Rise on stage, thousands of women, kangaroo with boxing

gloves. Here's what the women would go.

I wonder what his name is. That is such a cute kangaroo.

If you were to do the same thing and uncommon guys would go home

with black eyes, they would go home and go honey, this was the

best conference ever. Why baby?

Because I found out that if we are ever in Australia and a

kangaroo comes up on us, you're going to be just fine.

Because a man would see a kangaroo in boxing gloves and

go, I'm going to find out. I'm going to find out.

So we're a little dumb, but that's because we're supposed to

die first. Men make the final decision

because men make the ultimate sacrifice.

Hear me men, I believe that you will be held accountable for God

for the spiritual temperature of your home because you are to

lead it and you are to sacrifice for it.

You will be held accountable by God for how you led your home.

Wives, I believe you will not be held accountable for the

spiritual temperature of your home.

Your husband is, but you will be held accountable for whether or

not you are an asset or a liability to that 'cause now

don't take this to crazy extremes.

Here's what I mean, if you're here today and you have a

deadbeat husband who is a drunk and is scary and all those

things, none of this, we are talking about how you are to be

rightly ordered in the home under God's protection.

OK? So if you have a bad dude,

you're going to have to make decisions that are outside of

his leadership to protect your family from a person who is not

doing what God has called him to.

Two second thing, what is all the head covering stuff that the

Bible's talking about? Well, Corinth was a messed up

place. Women were mistreated, enslaved,

prostituted, and there was all kinds of gender confusion.

When this happens, the value of women is destroyed.

The distinction between men and women is blurred.

Pagan priests would wear coverings over their head when

they would go about their practices, and women would cover

their heads indicating that they were married.

So when all of a sudden the church shows up, the men are

dressing like the pagans, and then the married women are not

keeping their head covered. So they're basically showing up

for church. And they're saying either one of

two things as married women. They're either saying, hey, I do

not respect the authority of my husband and I want you to know

it, or two, I'm married, but I'm on the market and that's a

problem. So he's saying, hey, this is how

we are to show up. This is how we are to behave.

We are to be salt and light. In a culture that confuses

gender, Christians respect it. In a culture that's trying to

unorder the family, Christians seek to reorder the family in

God's design. What does this mean for you and

I today? That you and I are to present

ourselves in a submissive way to God and to one another.

You and I are to think about how we dress and how we conduct

ourselves and what we put forth in culture to draw people's

attention to God. Like one of my rules for our

staff is any time we're in a place we should be better

dressed than 80% of the people around us.

If I'm dressed at 105% and I'm wearing a three piece suit,

nobody's going to want to talk to me.

If I show up and I look like I just rolled out of the trunk of

a car, nobody's going to want to talk to me.

I specifically put this outfit on because my wife laid it out

for me. OK, Yeah, she did a good job.

Although this shirt got a bunch of hits last year because they

thought it was made by Coleman and it's a tent.

But what I want you to think is, is when I go places, how am I

presenting myself? How am I honoring God and the

cause and others? How am I making sure that I'm

living in submission to somebody or something?

How am I living in a life that is serving others and pointing

other people to Jesus? Hear me.

When it comes to women, we are to recognize and respect our

differences. Men have value.

Women have value. Each have something to

contribute. Each has something to protect.

God chose to place his image in men and women with their

differences, and when one gender is elevated too far, it can

undervalue the other, or it can remove the distinction between

gender all together. And you and I, as Christians,

protect that. Then Paul takes a really hard

right turn. You just survived the tough

stuff. Take a deep breath, let it out.

You made it through the weird stuff.

OK? 17 through 34 in the following

directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more

harm than good. So when they gathered together

as a church, it was a dumpster fire in the 1st place.

I hear that when you come together as a church, there are

divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show

which of you have God's approval.

So then when you come together, it is not the eating, it is not

the Lord's Supper that you eat. They're talking about communion,

for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own

private suppers. As a result, one person remains

hungry and another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and

drink in? Or do you despise the Church of

God by humiliating those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?

Certainly not in this matter, for I received from the Lord

what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he

was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, that

word in the Greek is Eucharisto. For those of you who are

Catholics. He broke it and said, This is My

body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup

is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in

remembrance of Me. For whenever you eat this bread

and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in

an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the

body and the blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine

themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the

cup. For those who eat and drink

without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgement

on themselves. That is why many of you are weak

and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we

would not come under such judgment.

Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are

being our disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned

with the world. So then my brothers and sisters,

when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.

Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home so that when

you meet together and may not result in judgement.

And when I come, I will give further directions.

Let's unpack it early. Church is not meeting in a

building like this. They're meeting in people's

homes. If you're going to try and get a

bunch of people into a house, you're going to go to a large

house. A large house is going to be a

wealthy person's house. So they're having church at

wealthy people's houses and the wealthy people are inviting all

their wealthy friends over and they're pre gaming and all the

food that they were going to eat when they had the meal, which is

more than just a moment like we do, They were going to celebrate

the meal while the rich people got together and they ate all

the food and they started to drink all the wine.

And so somebody gets drunk on the stuff that was supposed to

be for communion, which is why we give you guys the itty bitty

stuff because if you want to get drunk on that, take you all day.

Right now, poor people are showing up at the church, at the

rich person's house, and they were going, hey, you know what,

things have been a little tight this week.

The pantry's a little empty. You know what we're going to do?

We're going to use communion to kind of get our bellies full.

And what Paul's saying is, no, when you show up to take

communion, you know what you're supposed to do Take communion.

You're supposed to remember what Jesus has done on your behalf

and to mold and shift your life to be in alignment with him.

Paul's saying communion is about Jesus paying the price that you

could never pray or pay. It would be like you showing up

at a War Memorial acting like a fool.

Everybody would go, how can you do that in this place, in this

moment? So when you and I get ready to

take communion, there's four things we can do to make sure

that we're doing it in a way that honors the Lord that

remembers what he did. 1 You can look back at what Jesus has

saved you from. Nothing will produce humility in

your life like thinking back through all the dumb things that

you used to do. 2 You look within.

When you look within and you self examine, you realize that

there's some areas in your life that are still way out of

alignment with the cause of Christ. 3 We can look around and

realize that the way we live impacts our brothers and sisters

in Christ and the mission that God has called us to live on.

Number 4, you can look forward to when you get to eat it with

him in heaven. That's one of the promises that

Jesus gives. He says I will not eat of the

bread or drink of the cup until I do it with you in my Father's

Kingdom, which means there will come a day where you and I will

actually take communion with Jesus in heaven.

What a glorious moment that will be.

Now, about the warning. You're going well, Clayton.

It says I don't want to do it in an unworthy way because if I do

it in an unworthy way, I'm going to be judged.

Yeah, you are. That makes total sense.

Think about this. Your God, you send your son to

die on behalf of all humanity, and then people make light of

your son's sacrifice. Would you take that personally?

Yeah. God's saying if you show up to

remember what my son did and you do it in a haphazard manner,

that's I'm. I'm going to judge you for that.

That's not OK. Now you might be going, but

Clayton, I always feel unworthy. You should.

We will always feel unworthy when we take communion because

we will remember that Jesus came on our behalf to save us from

ourselves. We will never be worthy, but he

was worthy and because he was worthy, we are made worthy to be

able to take communion now with I may not feel like I'm worthy,

but that's not the issue. The issue is, am I acting in an

unworthy way? So how do I make sure that I'm

not operating in an unworthy way when I take communion?

There's a couple things you can do.

One, make sure the posture of your heart is right.

When you get ready to take communion, you can feel

unworthy, but you can make sure that you do not act unworthy.

And the way you make sure you don't act unworthy is with the

right heart posture. So here's a couple questions.

Am I being self reliant? Am I thinking to myself, I am

who I am because of what I have done?

Hear me, if you are in Christ, it has nothing to do with you.

It has everything to do with Him.

You are who you are because of who's you are, and you are who's

you are because of what He did on the cross on your behalf #2

are you defiant? Is there a sin or a pattern of

your life that is out of alignment with God's Word that

you keep repeating? And if you keep showing up for

communion to remember the sacrifice that Jesus paid on

your behalf for your sins, and yet you keep doing the sins over

and over and over again, that ain't right.

Three, are you self-centered? Are you only thinking about

yourself and not thinking about the mission and the cause of

Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ?

That's why I've told you guys this.

That's why I pray these four prayers.

One, thank you for paying a price that I could not pay.

It is important for me to remember that my salvation is

because of him, not because of me.

Two, thank you for not giving up on me.

Hear me, I am not on my like fifth chance with God.

I'm in I don't know how many digits.

I'm on the millionth chance for sure.

Let me say something to you. There is nobody on planet Earth

who has been worse to you than you have been to God.

And yet He still hears you when you call on His name.

He still moves on your behalf, His mercy and His grace is still

available. So when you come into communion

with a heart posture that says thank you for doing what I could

never do, thank you for not giving up on me, you are well on

your way to taking communion in a worthy manner.

The third prayer that I pray is to help me to live a life in

response to your love. How could I receive it and do

nothing with it and for it and four, help me to remember, you

did not die for just me, but for the sins of the world, which

means that I will never put my eyes on somebody that God did

not send his son to die on the cross for.

So that means I change how I treat other people.

Like I said, Christianity is others focused.

Why does all this matter? I'll tell you the very first

verse in first Corinthians Chapter 11, Paul says follow me

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

as I follow Christ. So can you say that when you

think about your home life, are you living your life in a way

where other people could follow you and end up with Jesus?

When you go into your work, when you present yourself in culture,

in society, are you living your life in such a way that it

points and draws people to Christ?

Because if you are not pointing them and drawing them to Christ,

you are pulling them away from him.

And that's like the worst thing you could do for a person who's

found Jesus. I want you to think about that

as we move to this time of decision.

To those of you in here or watching online who have never

started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

let me just level with you. You will live in submission to

something. You just want to make sure that

whatever you're submitting to leads you where you want to go.

And if your life is not found in Jesus, you are walking a road

that you do not want to walk and it ends at a place that you do

not want to go. It requires no change, no

repentance. It allows you to make all your

own decisions, live life exactly the way you want to live, but it

will not put you where you ultimately want to go because

the truth is you are either following Jesus or you are

following Satan. You might be clean.

I'm not following Satan, I'm just following me.

Well, following you doesn't lead to heaven.

The Bible puts out two roads. One's a wide Rd. that requires

nothing of you but you to keep walking.

It's full of hardship and pain, and where it leads is no good.

But there's a narrow Rd. this road.

For the record, it's also hard. So hard, in fact, that God says

He has to give you the power of the Holy Spirit in order for you

to walk it. Just like the wide Rd. the

narrow Rd. has valleys. The difference is that the

Christian, when they're walking the narrow Rd. of Christ, does

not walk that road alone. Because even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

for you're with me. Jesus promises to walk the

valleys with you, and Jesus comes.

And this is what Jesus says to those of you who want to get to

God. You want to be where God is.

You want heaven on your horizon. This is what he says.

Jesus says I am the way, I am the truth.

I am the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. Heaven is the place where God

dwells. If you want to be in heaven, you

need to be on the road that leads to God.

The road that leads to God goes through the person, the work,

the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and every other Rd.

doesn't. So you have a choice today.

You can be found in Christ, in submission to Christ, or you can

say no. I just want you to know what's

at stake. You can either be where God is,

which is heaven, or you can walk the road to lead where God

isn't, which is hell. Today.

The decision you make matters, and not making a decision is a

decision. And so just a few moments when

the people around you stand and sing and some of the people come

to the steps and pray, I want to encourage you to walk right over

there next to that baptistry underneath the screen and talk

to somebody about how to start a relationship with Jesus Christ.

To the rest of you in the room, to those of you who would call

yourself a Christian, I just want you to really allow this

question to have the kind of weight it deserves in your life.

Can you say follow me as I follow Christ?

If your home were to follow you as you follow Christ, would they

actually draw close to Christ? When you go into your workplace,

can you say follow me as I follow Christ?

And if they were to follow you, would they draw closer to

Christ? Paul says, listen, I'm not a

perfect person, but I'm a person who's under the authority of

Christ and I'm chasing him. And as Christians, if you are

not in a spot today where you can say follow me, do what I do

as I follow after Jesus, then this is a perfect time for us to

re examine, repent and make things right.

Would you do that? Would you stand with me,

Heavenly Father? Would you reveal to us what it

is that we need to do? You know every step that every

person needs to take. You know every challenge that

they're presently navigating. You know the work that needs

done. And so, God, in faith, we're

asking you to not just reveal to us what it is that you want us

to do, but God, that you'd give us the courage to do it.

Your name I pray. Amen.