Causing To Forget | JOSEPH: From Pit To Palace

Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Churches podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow

generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.

We hope that you enjoy this message.

We have been in a series called Joseph, and we've been walking

through the life and the narrative of a guy whose story

is given to us in the book of Genesis, God by the name of

Joseph. If you call Riverbend home or

you've been with us throughout this series, whether in the room

or online, you've been journeying with us throughout

these weeks. We got this week and we got next

week to where we'll be closing out our Joseph series.

We didn't go into this in our into our 930 service, but I'll

tell you as 11:00, our next series is called The Unseen

World to where we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare.

So it's something that you most definitely do not, do not, do

not want to miss. But let me go ahead and kick

things off, ask you just to contemplate a question really

quick. Has there ever been a time, a

situation, a circumstance in your life to where there was

deep pain, there was a lot of hurt, but then the more that

situation or circumstance unfolded, the beauty that came

out of that caused all the pain and the hurt to pale in

comparison. Now let me go ahead and tell you

as a guy, as a dude, you're guy's men.

We, we got to think a minute for that to to the ladies,

especially the moms in the room. You know exactly what I'm

talking about. You know exactly what I'm

talking about. Like if just thinking back to

the birth of that little baby, you know, thinking about maybe

the, the weeks or months of, of morning sickness or just the,

the restless nights just struggling to get comfortable

or, or, or the pain, the overall pains involved in labor and

delivery. And if you're a guy in here, do

not say I had bronchitis once. So I know what it's like.

Because ladies, if you want to slap them, that's pre forgiven.

So, but I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, mom's like the moment

that they handed you that newborn baby, man, everything

changed, right? Everything paled in comparison.

Like it, it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean that you weren't

sick all those mornings or all those days.

And it doesn't mean that that that you were well rested and

that you were comfortable for all those months.

And it certainly doesn't mean that you didn't go through a lot

of intense pain during labor. It just means that when you held

that newborn baby, the, the, the joy and the blessing of holding

that baby caused all the pain to pale in comparison, right?

And I wonder, I wonder if you and I, I wonder if we together,

if there's some things that we were, were holding on to the,

the points of pain and the points of, of hurt and trauma

that keep us from living in what God has for us today.

You see, I firmly believe that that God wants to provide

breakthrough for every single one of us.

And that's going to look different for every single one

of us. But I firmly believe that God

wants to provide breakthrough for every single one of us.

But pain, isn't it true that like, pain has such a loud voice

and it has such a loud voice in our mind to where it almost

becomes all-encompassing and there's such a gravitational

pull backwards to relive that source of pain over and over and

over. So, you know, one of the things

that we've been talking about is there are certain things in our

lives that threaten to break us. And I would say that giving into

those loud voices to revisit yesterday's pains, to live

there, to set up shop there is actually one of the greatest

deterrents from us living in the blessings that God has for us

today. Or if you've been with us

throughout the series, this the the big idea, the truth that

we've been revolving around throughout the series will sound

familiar to you. If you're new to the series and

you're taking notes with us here, it is One of the things we

commonly come back to throughout the series is what can easily

break you, God turns in to breakthrough.

What can easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.

And here's what I would tell you.

Nothing threatens there's nothing that threatens our

living in the breakthrough that God has for us today.

Then giving in to the voices of yesterday's pains and, and, and

not only revisiting those, but setting up shop and living in

the midst of yesterday's pains. So how do we as a people, how do

we as a people, how do we, I wouldn't say ignore, how do we,

how do we kind of tune out the voices of yesterday's pains in

order to live in the blessings that God has in front of us

today? Well, if you've been with us

throughout the series, we've been going through the life of a

God by the name of Joseph. And if you have a Bible with

you, I encourage you to find Genesis chapter 41 with me,

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 41. And in Genesis chapter 41, we're

Genesis 41 · chapter mention Genesis 41 · chapter mention

going to be looking at just two verses this morning.

Genesis 41 verses 50 and 51, verses 50 and 51.

Genesis 41:50

Here's what Genesis 4150 says. Before the year the famine came,

two sons were born to Joseph. As an act, the daughter of

Potiphar, priest of own, bore them to him.

Joseph called the name of the first Manasseh, for he said, God

has made me forget all my hardships and all my father's

house. So what in the world did these

two verses, these two seemingly random verses, what in the world

did these have to do with us moving forward in what God has

for us? Well, if you're new to this

series, we've been really kind of walking through the life of

Joseph asking and these different passages asking 3

primary questions. What does it tell me about

Joseph? What does it tell me about God?

And what does this tell me about me?

Let's tackle that first one first.

If you're taking notes with us, what this tells me about Joseph

is #1 Joseph's current blessings far outweighed his past pains.

His current blessings far outweighed his past pains.

His current blessings far outweighed his past pains.

Now, I think it's probably really important for us to have

some historical background in what's going on here.

You see in Joseph's day and in his age, it was very, very

common that a parent would name their child on the basis of a

situation or circumstance of what that parent was going

through at that time. So for example, Jacob, who we

know is Joseph's dad, Jacob had ten other boys before Joseph was

born. Joseph, Jacob named Joseph,

Joseph because Joseph literally means increaser or God will add.

So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to go, hey, listen, I

got 10 other boys, we'll name them Joseph.

That means increaser. God's going to add 1.

That's why Joseph was named Joseph.

God. God called Adam Adam because

Adam literally means man or mankind or humankind.

Our oldest son, we have three kids.

Our oldest son, Landon, we named Landon.

Landon because Landon literally means my parents are dirt poor.

My dad has never changed a diaper in his entire life, but

he's about to get a lot of practice.

So Landon for short, you see, names in that day and age had a

lot of significance. They had a lot of weight.

As a matter of fact. You ever been reading through

the Old Testament and you come up on a passage or a verse or or

chapter and you're like, man, I have no idea how to even

pronounce that name. I will call him Bob.

And Bob saith unto the Lord. I'll tell you something that's

pretty fascinating. If you ever like as you're going

through the Old Testament, as you're reading through the

Bible, when you come up on some like really weird sounding

names, if you look up what they meant in Hebrew, it is

fascinating. You'll get much more of a depth

of what's going on in the background.

So Joseph had Joseph had had two sons born to him.

The first one, the oldest ones named Manasseh.

So what does Manasseh mean? Manasseh means God has caused me

to forget. God has caused me to forget.

Now, the way that that word forget is used here, it doesn't

mean that through all of Joseph's past, his pain, his

hurt, his trauma, his betrayal, all of it, it doesn't mean that

God wiped his memory of it. It doesn't mean that God erased

his memory of all of that that happened to him.

What it does mean is that that that all that God had blessed

him with, that everything that he had gone through, man that

paled in comparison. It completely paled in

comparison. So he named his son Manasseh.

But here's the thing, I don't think that that came easy for

Joseph. I don't think that it, it came

easy for Joseph because like we talked about last week, and as

we've been reminding ourselves throughout this series, Joseph

was a real man with real feelings, real emotions, real

hurts, real pains, all the above.

He wasn't some fictitious character.

He was a real man. So I don't think that it came

natural for Joseph just to look at all of his current blessings

and sit there and go. God has caused me to forget.

You see, I think that there was a lot of intentionality behind

it. Let me show you what I mean.

Second thing that we learn about Joseph is this.

He embraced the blessings in front of him rather than cling

to the pains behind him. Joseph embrace the blessings in

front of him rather than cling to the pains behind him.

Like we said, God did not erase Joseph's memory of his pains.

So for example, it is 1000% true that is a 17 year old Joseph was

beaten, betrayed, thrown into a pit, and sold into slavery by

the very brothers that he once looked up to.

It is 100% true that Joseph was was falsely accused of sexual

misconduct by his master's wife and thrown into prison.

It is 100% true that Joseph was forgotten about in prison, and

it's probably sinking to those emotional depths.

But it's also 100% true that God protected Joseph every step of

the way. It's also 100% true that God

prepared Joseph every step of the way for what he had prepared

for Joseph. It's also 100% true that God

through Joseph, interpreted Pharaoh's dreams.

And Pharaoh exalted Joseph to not only being over the warden

of the prison and Potiphar and his lying wife, but over all the

people of Egypt except for Pharaoh himself.

And it was also true that Joseph, while in Egypt, he had a

wife. God gave him a wife, and God

gave them sons. He had a family of his own.

Listen, Joseph only had enough bandwidth to live in one day.

He could have lived in his yesterday, or he could have

lived in his today. Joseph chose to intentionally

embrace the blessings in front of him rather than cling to the

pains behind him. How did he do that?

You know how we said that Manasseh literally means God has

caused me to forget? Do you know that there's also a

different translation for Manasseh?

Manasseh can also be translated a different way.

It's not only God has caused me to forget.

It is also not only God has caused me for to forget, but to

let go of something. Manasseh literally means to let

go of something. Listen, not in a not in some

like Bible superhero way at all. Not in an uncompassionate way at

all, but Joseph realized that he only had enough bandwidth to

live into one, live in one day. He could live in yesterday's

hurts and pains, or he could live in today's blessings.

So in order to live in today's blessings, he had to let go of

yesterday's hurts and pains. So that's what it tells us about

Joseph. Here's the second question.

What does it tell us about God? These two seemingly random

verses, verses 50 and 51 of Genesis 41.

First thing it tells us. God's plans for me are always

for my good. God's plans for me are always

for my good. God's plans for you are always

for your good. God's plans for us are always

for our good. Not because I'm good, not

because you're good, not because we're good, but because God is

good. OK.

God's plans for you are for good, not because you're good,

but because he's good. Don't fall into the trap of

determining or trying to distinguish if God is good or

not based off of your personal experiences.

How easy is it to go? Man, life is good, God is good

or man, life is tough? I'm not so sure about God's

goodness anymore, man. That that's some shaky sand that

you're building your theology and that you're building your

faith and that you're building your life on.

You may say, well then it doesn't seem like God is good.

At this particular time and moment in my life.

I get it, I really do. If you're a parent in the room,

I'm not going to ask that you raise your hand or anything like

that, but see if you can track with me.

If you're a parent in the room, you know that the best thing for

your kid is not just to allow them to eat junk food.

The best thing for your kid is to establish a bedtime for them.

The best thing for your kid is to to make them go to school and

if you're the parent of a middle schooler, the best thing for

your kid and the best thing for all of us is make them take a

shower pack out of pulse. Now listen, if it was up to your

kid, if it was up to your kid, your, your kids going to just be

eating like Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew and staying up all

hours of the night online or, or playing video games.

And they certainly don't want to go to school.

So they so they won't go to school.

And for whatever reason, middle schoolers don't like taking

shower like they're allergic to water and soap.

But listen, as a parent, you desire ultimate good for your

kid. So you establish these

boundaries right now, what you know is established for the

ultimate good of your kid. Your kid doesn't always see it

that way. Your kid doesn't feel it that

way. But as a, as a, as a good loving

parent, you know that it's for their ultimate good.

Here's the point. Did you know that God will call

us to do hard things and He will guide us through hard seasons

that may not seem good, may not look good, smell good, feel

good, but it doesn't mean that He is not good and that He

doesn't desire good for us. There are ways in which God, as

a perfect heavenly Father, is working all things for the good,

even when we can't quite comprehend it, and even when we

don't quite like it and when we don't quite feel like it.

God is always working things for the good.

He desires our ultimate good, for our good and for His glory.

Second thing that we know about God is God alone has the power

to redeem my deepest wounds. God alone has the power to

redeem my deepest wounds. Give you a moment to jot that

down. Then I want to unpack that.

You know how we're able to look and to read about the life of

Joseph from start to finish. If you were to start at the very

beginning, you can turn to Genesis chapter 37 to where

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

you're introduced to a 17 year old Joseph.

And you can read all the way from Genesis 37 all the way to

Genesis 50. And you can see how God's hand

was with him and how God guided him.

And we're, we're able to not just to have a 30,000 foot view

of Joseph's life, we're able to have like Joseph's life, we're

able to see it from start to finish.

And that's a complete game changer while we read the

different portions of Joseph's life, right?

So, for example, our hearts could be broken for a 17 year

old kid that he's betrayed by his brothers and sold into

slavery by them. However, our hearts may be

broken, but that broken heartedness is still tempered by

the fact that we're able to read ahead and go, hey, Joseph, hold

on man, because God is going to use this for your good and for

his glory. He's going to elevate you to the

palace in Egypt. Or we can read about how Joe

Joseph was falsely accused by his master's wife about like

when she pursued him, when she hit on him and he didn't

compromise. And because she was offended and

because she was hurt and because she wanted to save face, she

made-up a lie and twisted the whole narrative and said, no, it

was Joseph that hit on me and made improper advances towards

me. And nobody would listen to him.

And there was no recourse. He was actually just thrown into

prison. And we can just get angry at the

injustice of that, but our anger at that injustice is still

tempered by the fact that we just want to almost say, man,

just hold on, Joseph, hold on. God is going to use the prison

to prepare you for, for the palace that he has prepared for

you. Or you know, how sad is it that

Joseph finally encounters 2 guys from the Royal Court, a Baker

and A and a cupbearer and he tells them he goes hey listen

would y'all just just just remember my name, Remember my

name and remember my case because I was unjustly brought

here. I'm in justly imprisoned here.

And the cupbearer, he gets into the palace and the next thing we

hear about that guy's, he forgot about Joseph.

And Joseph there in a, in a prison cell for two more years,

forgotten. But our heart still goes out to

him because we're like, hey, Joseph, just hold on, man.

God is preparing you for what he has prepared for you and he's

about to elevate you to the palace.

Why are we able to do that? Because we know the whole story,

right? We'll think about it this way.

Because God exists out of what we think of as space and time.

He's able to look at my life and your life and our lives the same

way that we're able to look at Joseph's life in totality.

That's not meant to confuse you. It's actually meant to comfort

you that there are certain things that God will allow into

our lives to prepare us for what He has prepared for us, and He

wants to take past hurts and pains and and trauma to redeem

those things. Here's what I mean by that.

Who else do you think could be most powerfully used by God to

speak hope into the life of someone who has lost their

spouse than someone who has lost their spouse?

Who else do you think could be more you?

Most you powerfully used by God to speak hope into the life of

someone who's struggling with addiction than someone who has

been freed by the chains of addiction through the cross of

Jesus. Who else do you think could be

used most powerfully by God to speak hope into the life of

someone who has experienced abuse than someone than a

daughter or a son of God that has walked that painful path but

has found healing by the blood of the cross?

You see, our past pain, our past hurt, our past trauma, It

doesn't have to be wasted. God never calls us to forget it.

God never calls us, hey, just like move on from it.

He wants to redeem it. So this is what it tells us

about God. What does all of this?

What are these two verses? What does it tell me about me #1

I cannot move forward in what God has for me while clinging to

my past. I cannot move forward and what

God has for me while clinging to my past.

Give you a moment, jot that down.

Let then let me unpack it. This does not say you just need

to get over it. This does not say you'll ever

seen the bumper stickers like let go and let God or let God

and let go. It doesn't matter the order.

Both of them are really bad theology and very unloving and

in compassion uncompassionate. So uncompassionate or in

compassionate we don't know. Both of them are wrong and

unloving. Cannot move forward and what God

has for me while clinging to my past.

It does not mean that we do not have past hurts, pains, traumas,

wounds and scars. It just means that we refuse to

be defined by those things. You see, there's some of us in

here we are experiencing even now in this moment.

It could be the passing of a loved one.

It could be the betrayal of a friend.

It could be a lot of doubts. It could be anything,

everything. There could be a lot of anger.

There could be a lot of fear. There could be a lot of doubt in

your life. It could be anything and

everything from your past, the voices of the past.

That gravitational pull is pulling you back.

And here's where I would tell you is if you have given those

areas of your life, those pain points of your life over to

Jesus, said Jesus, and you know that I'm struggling so mightily

in this way. Would you meet me at a place

deep within my soul that only your Holy Spirit can go?

His answer every single time is a resounding yes.

And here's what that yes means. That means that through the

blood of Jesus, He has already won the victory.

You see, when we fight against those voices that pull us

backwards to define ourselves by the past hurt, pain, and trauma,

we're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory

because Jesus has already won the victory.

It doesn't mean that we don't fight.

It doesn't mean that we don't grieve.

It doesn't mean that we don't cry.

It doesn't mean that we don't weep.

It doesn't mean that we don't weep.

We don't have a lot of pent up emotions about.

It just means that we don't allow that past pain, hurt, and

trauma to define us, to define us.

And just like Joseph, did you know that you and I, we only

have enough bandwidth to live in one day.

We can live, we can choose to live in today and all that God

has ahead of us, or we can choose to be trapped by the

past, by yesterday. We cannot live in both.

We cannot live in both today and yesterday.

So maybe today jotted this note down.

Maybe today as we're talking about Manasseh, your Manasseh

prayer goes something a little bit like this.

God, I need to let go of my past so that I can move forward and

all that you have for me. It doesn't mean letting go of

your past. It doesn't mean, hey, you just

need to get over it. You just need to move on.

God, I need your blood, the blood of the cross to cover my

past. I don't want to.

I don't want to allow my past to define me anymore.

God, I know that you desire good for me.

And if you can use my past hurts, pains and trauma for the

good, for my good and for your glory, God, I'm all yours.

Second thing that this passage tells us about Joseph is this is

I'm living for the day when I can look back and say it was

worth it all. It was worth it all.

Listen, even in this room, our 930 service was full of men and

women that are experiencing a lot of hurt, a lot of struggle.

You've been praying for years and years and years.

You may, you may find yourself in here this morning like we had

people in the 930 service in the room and online that you're

struggling. You're fighting those chains of

addiction. You're struggling like with all

that is within you, to walk in alignment with God's will and

his ways and his word. You're struggling to fight for

your family that you're walking and God's will for your family.

And here's what I would tell you, don't give up.

And the struggle is worth it. As your pastor and as your

friend, I want to remind you of something.

Two things actually, in one sentence #1 the best is yet to

come. The best is yet to come.

And it will all be worth it. It will all be worth it.

I cannot wait for us to experience all that God has for

us and to look back over all that we've been through.

And we can reminisce over past hurts and pains and trauma

together, but to look together at that and go, you know what?

It was worth it all. God, you did something so

amazing out of something so hard and so gross and so evil, but it

was worth it all. Look at all the glory that you

get from this. So maybe your Manasseh type of

prayer is God. Would you give me the strength

and the faith to discover? Would you give me the strength

and the faith to discover that the that the blessings that you

have in front of me make the pain that you have behind me all

worth it? Would you give me the strength

and the faith to discover that the blessings that you have in

front of me are greater than the pains that you have behind me?

If you've been with us over the past several weeks throughout

this series, one of the things that we do at the end of our

time together is we kind of turn it to the personal.

We walk through three key questions together as a church

and I basically just challenge you, Hey, I want you to think

about these three key questions. Pray about them in your, in your

time, where you are right now. And then respond.

Here's what we're going to do. If you look at the bottom of

your note sheet there, there are some key questions there.

And I want to just invite you, take this, take this note sheet

home with you. And I I pray that you would pray

through these questions that you would you would invite the Holy

Spirit into these three questions to reveal to you what

needs to be revealed to you to grow you where you need to grow

through these three key questions.

It just in your time alone with God this week.

But I want to circle back to that last light, Manasseh type

of prayer, the one to where we say, God, would you give me the

strength and the faith to discover that the, that that the

blessings ahead of me are far greater than the pains behind

me, that it was worth it, that God is, is, is is going to be

worth it all? I'm going to spend a little bit

of time on that one because did you know when, when we go into a

heart posture, an attitude of our heart, an attitude of our

mind, when we go into that type of heart posture, do you know

that we're closely walking in the footsteps of Jesus and the

heart posture that he put on at the very end of his life?

Remember how Jesus, right before he was betrayed by one of his

best friends, Judas, he goes out and he prays in the Garden of

Gethsemane. And, and, and it's not just like

this kneel prayer, like God bless the gift and the giver.

You know, some like rote prayer. The Bible tells us that he's

praying so intently that like he begins to sweat drops of blood

that it actually burst the capillaries in his forehead,

which is a real medical condition under mass distress.

And what what was this prayer? If you grew up in church, you

know that essentially his prayer was Father, if there's any other

way, let this cup pass from me. In other words, Father, I know

what's about to happen. But if there's any other way

that could happen in any other way, please let it be made

known. But that's not where he stopped

his prayer. He ends it with but not my will,

but your will be done. I want to show you something

about the cross of Jesus and it comes to us from the book of

Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2.

Hebrews 12:2

Check out what the writer of Hebrews says.

He says as we look to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our

faith, who for the joy that was set before him endure the cross,

despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the

throne of God. Here's what this means.

For the joy that was set before him, endure the cross.

What in the world is that about? It doesn't mean that the the the

the crown of thorns didn't hurt. It doesn't mean that, as he had

nails driven into his wrists and into his ankles, that they did

not hurt. It doesn't mean that as he was

laughed at and scoffed at and spit at and he was hung,

humiliated for just the entertainment of anybody that

wanted to walk by hanging on a cross.

It doesn't mean that none of that hurt.

What it does mean, however, is as he is seated at the right

hand of the throne of God, because we know that Jesus

didn't stay dead. He was resurrected from the dead

three days later. He is seated at the right hand

of the right hand of the throne of God going, it was all worth

it. It was all worth it.

And I love how we get a picture of the resurrected Jesus to

where he appears to his disciples and especially Thomas.

And he goes, Thomas, put your hand in my wrist.

In other words, the resurrected Jesus still maintain the scars.

And I think the scars are there as a reminder.

It was all worth it. It was all Jesus went through,

everything that he went through so that your sins and my sins

can be forgiven and so that we can be made right with God.

It was all worth it. So when we begin to pray, God,

give me the faith and give me the strength to discover that

the blessings that you have ahead of me are far greater than

the pains that are behind me. In many ways, we're following in

the footsteps of Jesus. So in just a few moments we're

going to partake of the Lord's Supper together to where we we

we take of the bread and we take of the cup.

But before we get there, I want to show you something that the

apostle Paul warns us about and taking the Lord's Supper.

This is in First Corinthians Chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

Paul wrote, Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup

of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning

the body and the blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread

and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks

without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

So Church, here's the big question.

How in the world do we make sure that we're not about to take the

bread and the cup in an unworthy manner?

Well, it has everything to do with we have to examine ourself.

So here's what I want to invite you to do before we take the

bread, before we take the cup, I just want to invite you just

across the room. If you would bow your heads and,

and close your eyes. And this is not some religious

sacred posture. It's not that, you know, we get

heaven's attention when we bow our heads and close our eyes.

We bow our heads and close our eyes to be able to tune out all

distractions around us. And I would just, I would just

say make every effort not to move during this moment because

you don't want to distract the people around you.

But with your head bowed and with your eyes closed, it's just

a picture. It's just, it's just you and God

in this moment. And I want you to ask God.

Take a few moments to ask God. God, is there anything in my

life that is not pleasing to you?

Is there anything in my life that shouldn't be in my life?

Give Him access to every part of you, the deepest parts of you,

the darkest parts of you. Listen, He already knows them

anyway. Give Him access to those deep

parts. God, would you reveal to me any

part of my life that is displeasing to you?

That's not an alignment with you?

And when He reveals those things to us, when He causes those

things to rise to the surface of our minds, he's not doing it

because he's angry with you. He's doing it because he's

calling you to confess those things to him as sin.

If you were with us last week, we talked about how the the two

ways in which we fast track our relationship with God is being

quick to forgive and practicing regular confession.

God's not revealing these things to you about you because He

hates you. He's revealing these things to

you, about you because He loves you and He's pointing out to you

spiritual cancer in your life and confession to Him is the

only cure. So confess it as sin before Him

and ask Him to forgive it, and then ask Him to cleanse you.

God, I don't want to take the bread in the cup in an unworthy

manner. God, whatever it looks like for

me to take the bread in the cup in a worthy manner, God, the

answer is yes. God, we thank you for knowing

everything that there is to know about us and still choosing to

love us anyway. Because God, we understand that

your love for us is not based on who we are or what we do.

It's based on who you are. So God, as you have revealed

things to us about us this morning, God, would you remind

us that they're not because it's not because you hate us, It's

actually because you love us. And you've brought these things

you, you've caused these things that are inconsistent in our

lives, inconsistent with who you are and what you would have for

us. You brought sin to the to the

top of our minds so that we can hand that sin over to you and

call it what it is, sin and ask that you take it and ask that

you forgive us and ask that you cleanse us and clean us from the

inside. God, I pray that you would over

the next few moments as we take the bread, as we take the cup,

God, that you're to remind us of your incredible love for each

and everyone of us, and not just your love for us, but your love

for the people in which you, every single person that you

bring into our lives. So God, I pray that you would

focus our hearts, focus our minds, focus our lives on you

during these moments. And it's in Jesus name that we

pray, Amen. So the Bible tells us that on

that night, the Passover night, Jesus disciples, they met with

Jesus in the upper room and these guys, they've done the

Passover meal couple times already.

But there was something different about this night.

On this night, Jesus took the bread and it said that he broke

the bread. And as he broke it, I can

imagine he looks around the room, probably looks at every

single one of the people in that room that night, straight in the

eyes. And then he said, this is my

body, which is broken for you. And even though I'm sure that in

the moment, just as disciples, they didn't quite get what he

was talking about, they had no way of knowing what was just a

few hours away. But before they departed that

room, Jesus took the cup. And I can imagine these guys,

they had, they've been a part of this Passover meal for years.

And for the past couple years they've been a part of the

Passover meal with Jesus. And the person over the meal,

they would take that cup and they would hold this cup up and

then they would go through the Passover rituals.

But again, there was something different about that night.

That night Jesus took the cup and I believe that he looked

them in the eyes and he said, this is my blood which is given,

which is poured out for you. God, in times like this, we are

so aware of how inadequate our words are.

But God, from the deepest parts of us, from those guttural parts

of us, Lord, we say thank you. Thank you for dying in our

place. Thank you for sending your son

into this world to die in our place.

Everything that he went through for me, everything that he went

through for us, God, we thank you.

God, we pray that you would continue to challenge us to live

differently because of it. Got to keep our eyes focused on

you and your love for us and how that changes everything, and

your love for the people around us and how that changes

everything. God, we pray that you would

continue to guide us, to grow us, to use us, and to prepare

us. God, I pray that you would

redeem our deepest hurts in our past for our good and for your

glory. Can I pray that you will

continue to guide us. And it's in Jesus name that we

pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.