WHY CHRISTIANS KEEP GOING // How Joy Fuels Endurance (James 1:2-8)

Amen. All right. Now,

I have a short message. I don't know if

it'll be short, but I have a short

message. And and it's if you haven't

been joining us of late, we've been in

the book of Revelation. I'm taking a bit

of a pause from Revelation today to talk

about a concept in Revelation. And that

concept, I'm just going to start with a

simple question.

It's all around the issue of endurance.

Why do some people keep going when life

falls apart? That's the main question I

want to get at. When life falls apart,

why do some people keep going and others

just combust? What keeps people going?

There's an element of the book of

Revelation where church after church

that John speaks through and ultimately

it's all about will you endure to the

end? Will your vision of the future keep

you amidst the chaos, the rattling, the

storms?

And can you remember the future while

you live present in the moment while

enduring in faithfulness? That's really

the overall arching concept.

But here I I want to just get back to

how why is it that people endure? And

I'm I'm going to give in a second just

like a story of false endurance because

I think sometimes we've got multiple

things coming at us at once and trying

to discern what's true is is is tricky.

But when life is hard, you know, when

when you get that diagnosis that you

weren't expecting, when that marriage is

struggling, when it was going great, uh

you know, when you have those prayers

that are completely unanswered, that

you've been praying and praying and

praying and nothing is budged and you

don't know why, and you were fine for

the first decade, but you're like, "What

gives? And why does that person sitting

next to me seemingly everything gets

answered?"

Some of you, it's a dream that's died

that you don't even you don't have the

strength to keep praying for that dream.

And some some of you are looking at the

job market where AI is looking at you in

the face going like, "We don't need you.

Life is hard. Why do some people keep

going? Why does a Christian keep going

is really the issue."

And here's here's what I want to get at.

There's there's a here's here's a false

endurance. Um, many of you know I'm uh,

you know, sometimes I just I pretend

that if in another life maybe I would do

standup or something. And uh, I think

I'd be really bad. I think I'd be really

really bad at it. But I'd like to I'd

like to think that I could have a

moment. But I I was watching this um,

comedian. I can't remember his name. He

has like the most amazing like I grew up

in in the South. Um, my family's not

southern, so I I kind of always had an

identity crisis, but but I do have kind

of a soft spot spot for rednecks. And

uh, this guy's name is like Rocky Dale

Junior. I mean, he has like such a like

a NASCAR name. And um, but he's he's

telling this story. I forget I forget

exactly like the context. And I'm I'm

going to give you like the church

version. So just that's for free. That

part is for free. It's not a word for

word because uh that'd be inappropriate

here on a Sunday morning. But he's

essentially talking about like urban

people and uh country people, city

people and and country people. And he he

talks about he has a he has a he lives

in the city now and he has a roommate

that uh city person that uh you know he

goes you city people are so sad like all

the time. And uh you know I asked my

friend to come out and and he go I don't

know if I can man. It's just you know

with all that's going on in the world

you know I don't even think I can get

out of bed. And he's and he's like,

"Well, that's because your I mean it's

because your dad I mean your dad pays

your rent and you're sleeping in a

$9,000 tempropedic. That's why it's hard

to get out of bed."

And and he's just kind of making light

of like the problems of this guy that's

like basically he doesn't have any

personal problems. He's just so

overwhelmed by everyone else's problems.

And and then he goes, you know, I go

home, you know, for the holidays and

I'll I'll run into I don't know who he

calls her, like Miss Brenda down down

the street and and Miss Brenda will just

like in in two seconds give you like the

whole last six months history. And she

goes, uh, you know, something to the

effect of like, I was taking the

Christmas lights off the trailer in June

and and uh I fell off, broke my ankle,

went to the hospital. As I was in the

hospital, couldn't get a hold of my

husband, found out he was he was

shacking up with that so and so down by

the bank.

By the way, my daughter just got

divorced. Didn't get custody of the kids

as they were coming to pick up the kids.

Uh they hit the dog, killed it.

But I'm just blessed, you know, just

blessed.

And I mean, it's an overexaggeration,

but that there is that dynamic. Anyway,

you grow up in the country and it's just

like the answer to everything's like,

I'm just blessed, you know, bless her

heart. Uh, well, that's a that's called

false blessing, false endurance. I don't

I'm not sure anyone in the country is

more holy than anyone in the city. They

do they do kind of tend to kind of put a

nice little bow on life's problems, and

they do have a bit of a grit sometimes

that maybe a us folk could learn from,

but that's a false endurance. In a

moment, I want I want to take us to what

real endurance looks like. Um, and here

here's here's another story and then

we're going to get into uh actually a

couple passages in the the book of

James. Um,

and in this story, this is this is one

that's much more emotional. And this is

one that that um, man, I must have

listened to it 10 times this week

because it just it just hit me in all

the right ways. Um, it's a church story

and I I heard it from uh, actually a

lawyer. His name was David Gibbs. he

founded the Christian Law Association.

And uh he was talking about being

invited to uh to a black church that

he'd never spoken at before. And and he

sits down and this lady comes and sits

next to him and says hello. He says

hello. And uh and what he said is what I

didn't realize was this lady was going

to change my life forever in this one

interaction. And uh she said as as you

would expect as as this white man comes

and and sits down at a black church, she

says, "What are you doing here, white

boy?

And uh he goes, "Well, um I'm going to

be uh I'm going to be preaching this

morning." And she goes, "You got the

stuff, white boy?"

He goes, "Um,

beg your pardon?" She She says something

to the like she go like, "Don't play

stupid. Like, do you have the stuff? If

if if the preacher ain't got the stuff,

we don't have church." I love that line.

And if you don't got it, you might as

well sit down and let somebody else that

does.

And so, wipe away. Do you got the stuff?

And he and he says,

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got the stuff."

And then she goes, "Did we tell you did

they tell you what what we do around

here? What it looks like?" And uh and

and he goes, "No." And she goes, "Well,

the service will start right on time and

then we're going to sing for at least an

hour.

Do you sing, White Boy?" And he goes,

"Yeah.

Do you like to sing?"

And the conversation goes on. She

explains like, you know, after after the

singing, there's testimonies and and

oftentimes with the testimonies there's

uh you know, people share what they've

been delivered from. Gio, sometimes

people confess a crime

and then we marched them right down to

the police station.

He didn't know what to say to that.

And she go, "You haven't done any

crimes, have you, white boy?"

Like I'm like, "Is this real?" He was

dead serious. I mean, he's like teeyed

as he's telling this whole story.

And uh so then

she goes, "After that, we take the

offering."

You love to give, don't you, white boy?

And he goes,

"All I knew is I didn't know what was in

my pockets, but it was all coming out."

And then [laughter] she goes, "Then

there's the preaching." And you hear me,

white boy. We didn't come to get out. We

come to go to church.

What is she saying? She's saying if you

come to get what you can get out of it,

you've got the complete wrong heart and

you might as well leave.

That first thing is the preacher that's

going to preach. He goes, "You come to

get out. You might as well you might as

well get out.

If you come to get out, it's best you

don't come because she says it's an

insult to God."

I love that. I wrote that part down.

And then she goes, "Whatever stuff you

got, make sure we get it and do not cut

it short."

And the preacher in me just goes.

Now, finally, she goes, "Can you do me a

favor, white boy?" I love how many times

she said white boy. I've never said

white boy so many times in my life,

especially from this pulpit. It's making

me uncomfortable. But that's the story.

That's how he told it. Sure.

She said, [snorts] "Can you move over?"

And he go, "Oh, is someone else coming?"

And she goes, "No, I just need space

when I praise."

And uh I like that a lot. And so he

moved over and and uh she goes, "You

see, I'm addicted to praising him.

I don't like it. I adore it.

It's the passion of my life, she said,

praising him. The passion of my life.

So, it got started. She got singing.

He's singing. She starts crying. He

goes, "I'm crying. I don't know why

we're crying. I never cry in worship."

And he said, he basically goes, "Her

passion pulled me in to the worship. Her

passion pulled me in." I I I can relate

to that so much. Some of your passions

have pulled me in at times

here on a Sunday morning, but in your

lives when you tell the story of God.

Our passion is meant to pull people in.

Later, he gets up um and and speaks to

the pastor of the church and and he's

he's talking about this lady. I was

like, "Oh, this amazing lady." And he

goes, "Oh, Miss Abby, did she tell your

testimony?" He goes, "No."

He goes, "Uh, a couple years ago, um,

her, uh, her husband and two teenage

boys, they got up one morning, went down

to the bus stop, and there was an

incident with some shotguns and they

were killed."

Did she tell you that she's got uh,

cancer and she has no money for the

treatment? He goes, "No."

The pastor goes, um,

when when her when her when her family

died, I met I met her at the hospital

and I said, "Abby, what do you want to

do?" And and her response was, "Let's

have church, pastor."

And

and she goes, "I need to get back to my

passion."

And what this

What this visiting preacher was saying

was that what gripped him was

she had the heaviest things in the world

that she could have told him about. And

she didn't mention any of it. All she

did was tell him about her passion for

Jesus.

And he goes, "All I know is that I want

to be like her."

And his question

his question for the people he was

talking to that day was simply like,

"Will will any of us just say what

Would anyone say that about you and I?

And do you have a passion to praise? Do

you have a passion that pulls others in?

That message can speak all by itself.

With that context, I want to read the

first verses of the book of James.

And James says this, "The brother of

Jesus who had endured everything

had the most reason to doubt in many

ways.

And yet the own flesh and blood of Jesus

eventually gives his life for the

gospel." And he writes this letter and

he says, "My brothers and sisters, James

James 1:2

1:2, whenever you face various trials,

consider it all joy because you know

that the testing of your faith produces

endurance."

Endurance.

And let endurance complete its work so

that you may be complete and whole,

lacking in nothing.

When endurance completes its work, you'd

lack nothing.

We talk a lot about faith. We talk a lot

about a lot of things in church. I don't

think we talk enough about endurance

because if you have endurance, you lack

nothing.

You can't have endurance without faith.

Faith hasn't been refined without

endurance. And if you still feel like

you're lacking in something, it's the

process of endurance. The word testing

there, it says that testing of your

faith produces endurance. The word

testing there carries the idea of

proving something genuine like refining

a metal in a fire. The goal then is

never to do with information. Your faith

has nothing to do with information. It's

always to do what gets transformed in

the fire of testing.

So

when when you when you receive the gift

of faith, when you see endurance in

another person, when someone's passion

pulls your heart, it's probably because

their faith has been refined in the

fires that cause an endurance in their

faith. It's not been cheap. It has been

costly.

And I I've just been going through an

extended midlife crisis

where I'm like, I don't care about

anything that doesn't matter. And yet my

flesh cares about things that don't

matter all the time. I'm like in this

most conflicted state ever where I just

get more dissatisfied at whatever time I

waste or whatever actions that are

wasteful. But the the issue is, do I get

heavy and do I stay in bed in my $9,000

tempropetic? I don't have a $9,000

tempropita. I want one if you have one.

[laughter]

I actually bought ours for $300 off a

very wealthy man in Chicago and we still

have it. It's great.

>> We threw that one away.

>> All right,

that was a lot of information in two. We

have Suzanne Shaw's old mattress. Thank

you, Suzanne, for giving us your old

mattress when you moved. Praise God.

That's not weird. Okay,

it's a great mattress. I'm very

comfortable. Apparently, we don't have

the tempropetic I thought we had. Never

mind.

They don't last very long. Okay.

[snorts] But in in reality, I I really

am in this constant conflict. Are you

guys in the same thing? Constant

conflict of completely dissatisfied at

little temporary things. I'm still

finding myself in this this just cycle

of yuck. And yet, like my heart is

getting more and more softened to the

things that matter as I age. And I think

that's good. like a holy

dissatisfaction. But here's what here's

what the enemy wants to do to pervert

that holy fire and passion that I can

feel our hearts burning for. He wants us

to feel so heavy.

He wants us to feel so like constricted

and so like unable to do anything about

it that we just want to do that like

that metaphor of just staying in bed

because it just feels too impossible and

too heavy.

And the Christian life is get up.

Get up in your process.

Remember that he got up. And if he got

up out of that grave, you can get up out

of whatever circumstances, whatever

loss, whatever pain, whatever tragedy,

whatever injustice has come your into

your life, into your lane, into your

story. And he's looking at you and

saying like,

"Let the passion of the saints and the

passion of the Christ pull you to what

your heart burns for." And don't be

discouraged at how your daily life and

your daily grind seem to not be living

up to that standard. Like we can get so

in our own heads that we can't

appreciate what's right in front of us.

Endurance.

Many of you do not even realize how much

you are enduring.

You are here this morning despite

everything that's happened to you. You

are here on a Sunday morning not because

of the coffee because you thought they

were bringing the popup back and it

wasn't here today.

It's not because of the feel-goods. It's

because we are sitting under the weight

of a bigger story than ourselves.

And we know that we can't live this out

alone.

And I can't be the author.

We're all screwed.

I can't be the God. I can't be the

author. I have to sit under something

else that's solid. And so James is

saying, "Let endurance complete its work

so that you may be complete, whole,

lacking in nothing." that word testing

again

refined in the fire. So he's saying

faith that has never been tested, it's

just a theory. Faith that's been tested

remains faithful and becomes endurance.

A lot of the book of Revelation talks

about endurance.

But it's giving you a vision.

What I want why I want to get into this

this passage in James today is because

this passage in James invites you

of what how do you get formed? How's the

formation of endurance? What does that

look like? What does it look like for

endurance to form you?

Last couple verses. If any of you lack,

if you're lacking in wisdom, ask God who

gives to all generously and ungrudgingly

and it will be given to you. That sounds

great.

And then he says, "But but ask in faith,

never doubting. For the one who doubts

is like a wave of the sea driven and

tossed by the wind. For the doubter

being double-minded and unstable in

every way, must not expect to receive

anything from the Lord." That is a

roller coaster. First of all, you can

ask anything and it's going to be given

to you. But if you doubt like at all,

nothing. You're double-minded and you

must not expect anything. And then we're

all like

I'm kind of like when I read that I'm

just kind of like well that's useless

James because I doubt constantly

constantly James. I'm like so thanks

impossible standard but if I don't doubt

at all then I'll get anything.

This is why the Bible is is is something

to sit on. It's so obvious that the

context is deeper than that. Right? It's

even that you don't even have to know

the Greek fully. It says, "For the

doubter being doubleminded and unstable

in every way." He's not worried about

doubts.

He's worried about your

double-mindedness. My double-mindedness,

me being pulled in different directions.

I'm unstable in every way. What does

that mean? So, here here's here's the

here's the issue. Um,

if you're double-minded,

you've got two allegiances.

And he's basically saying you can't be a

you you can't serve me and you can't

serve the world. That's the only issue.

He's not saying every little doubt about

like about God is like he's going to be

analyzed and then you're not going to

get anything. He's simply saying is he

king?

Do you want to serve him? Because if you

if you think you're going to do that by

by saying like giving him lip service

here and then living completely

differently, then you might as well not

even ask. That's all he's saying.

The book of Revelation is all about here

are the people who endure and it gives

you these seven churches and it shows

you a picture of enduring. But James is

saying here is how they became those

people. And here's the pause in in the

in the story of Revelation. I want us to

say how do we become those people of

endurance?

And it's only going to be a a partial

glimpse today.

But telling these stories and anchoring

ourselves in these scriptures, these are

the things that hit that hit me. I don't

know if it hits any of you. This is the

stuff that hits me where it's just like

there's not much else in life I want to

figure out than how to live towards this

direction.

Again, this isn't about like if you have

any doubts, God's not going to answer

why. I just want to remind you what's in

the Bible. Like Abraham, Abraham, you're

going to have a son.

He didn't just doubt. He laughed and

then he tried to make it happen by

sleeping with another woman. That's like

beyond doubt.

Just imagine if we did that. Can't get

pregnant. No problem. God. Well, you

said I was going to have a kid. So next

I What is And it was her idea. They're

both culpable in many ways.

I'm not. That was too No,

I'd like to sleep on our not tempropedic

tonight. Okay.

Abraham laughed. Moses argued with God.

He hit a rock out of anger and

frustration. He murdered people. David

murdered people. Elijah had deep

depression. John the Baptist asked

Jesus, "Are you the one or should we

look for another?"

Scripture isn't saying here's the people

that never doubted

it. Literally, we have a word for Thomas

called doubting Thomas.

Jesus isn't rebuking you for this this

kind of mixed faith,

struggling faith. If you're struggling

with faith and you're here wrestling

with faith, Jesus doesn't

doesn't curse it. He invites it.

Look at my hands.

Look at my feet.

So James is what he doesn't mean is

you're never going to experience

uncertainty.

And we've talked a lot about that in the

in the series. What do we do in the

midst of uncertainty? James is not

talking about never experience

uncertainty in your thought life. What

he is talking about doubt. This word for

doubt can mean to waver, to be divided,

to be internally conflicted, to be

pulled in two directions.

He doesn't care about your intellectual

questions. He doesn't care about your

wrestling. He's con he's concerned about

where is your allegiance and how is it

divided. He's basically saying a

double-minded human being is unstable.

That's what you want to uproot and get.

You have two souls.

He's saying one foot with God and one

with someone else. Here's a distinction.

There's there's honest doubt. Honest

doubt looks like this. So, here's what I

want you to do today. I want you to

embrace your honest doubt. And I want us

to root out divided trust. Honest doubt

looks like this. You know, I'm str I

believe, but I'm struggling. It It looks

like I don't understand everything. This

is hard. God, where are you? Many I

mean, read the Psalms. I encourage most

of you read a psalm every day. You can

just for a few moments. It's a song

that's written for the cries of your

heart. Every single psalm somewhere in

it has some kind of legitimate honest

doubt. But where are you taking the

doubt? You're taking it to the author.

So what are you saying is that I'm

doubting. I'm wrestling. But I'm trying

to trust you with it.

Divided trust goes, I'll ask God, but

ultimately I'm relying on my own

control.

I've already decided. Oh, God. I want

your wisdom, but I'm already committed

to doing what I'm going to do.

I want God.

I want you, God, as an option.

And then I I want to be able to pursue

all these other options.

And that's what he's really hitting

home. It's like you and you know in your

own heart when it's just like you want

God to bless it. You but you want prayer

for something but you've already made

your mind up.

You've already made your mind up that

this relationship you're going for it

even though you know that's a bad idea.

This move you made your mind up already.

This thing you may or may not be able to

afford. or you made your mind up already

and you're just asking God

to support your decisions

or it's really just like

your heart's not fully surrendered to

him.

You'd like it if he's got some nuggets

of wisdom, but you just put him in the

you put him in the same scroll as all

your other things you're looking to for

just like nice ideas.

And what James is saying is like that's

just not going to work. That's unstable.

There's nothing even you can read all

the nice verses. You can read the Psalms

and then you can go to sleep on your

tempropedic and it's not going to do any

good for you.

When suffering comes is what James ends

up saying. When the suffering comes,

don't ask God for wisdom while you're

simultaneously refusing to trust him.

That's what he's saying. So it looks

like this posture. Lord, I I may not

understand. I may have questions, but I

genuinely want your wisdom and your way.

That's the heart of a Christian.

I may not understand everything, but I

want your heart and your way.

And that's when I hear stories like Miss

Abby, who has every reason to be

offended at God. She said, "Every

injustice, every pain, can anything be

stripped of you more valuable than your

husband and two teenage boys?"

No.

Why did Christ have to suffer and die?

Why did God have to give his one and

only son? He has to show us that he's

not asking us to do anything that he's

not willing to lay down for us. There's

this concept constantly where it's like

if something was taken from you, would

it completely change you?

And sometimes it's not until that

valuable thing was taken from you that

you find out over time how it refineses

you, how it challenges you, how it

breaks you. And some of you know exactly

what that is. Some of you haven't had

that happen to you yet. It's going to

happen at some point. And and some of

you maybe more like me where there's

just been these like like slow

consistent things. Not maybe this one or

two super dramatic things, but this over

time you start realizing like, man, life

hits

and it challenges and it tests and it

refineses and I just want to be a man

that endures.

And this is the most natural thing for a

Christian.

most natural thing in the world is for

us not to make excuses for tragedy and

suffering.

James isn't condemning believers who

wrestle with doubt. He's simply warning

with a divided heart. So the question is

just analyze your heart. Is it divided?

There's a difference between like God I

don't understand and God I don't trust

you and I refuse to trust you. That's

the issue. Now three three quick points

and then we're going to close. The first

is this. I've kind of already said it.

Endurance is formed through trials. If

you want endurance, you're going to have

to be formed through trials. The testing

of your faith produces endurance. He's

not saying trials are good. He's simply

saying he can produce something through

them. And that's what we all want. God,

if I have to go through this, just do

something valuable with it. And most

people, you are expecting when you go

through things, all the typical

bitterness, cynicism, anger, whatever it

is. And this woman that I started with,

the reason why it's valuable is because

instead of being consumed with rage,

bitterness, and cynicism, she's consumed

with praise. That doesn't make sense.

And it's not possible in our own

strength. It's not possible.

I love people that show us things that

aren't possible in our own strength. And

if you look at her,

if you look at her not as not as an

equal,

that has an impossible standard because

she just has something better than you

that you've looked at it with the wrong

lens. No one no one can take that

posture of praise in the midst of that

kind of pain unless something has been

exchanged. Unless transformation has

happened in the brokenness, unless the

testing has produced an endurance

refined in fire.

I just I just feel like there are seeds

of hope being released right now in this

room for those of you that feel so

discouraged with your pain and your

suffering, your brokenness and the

injustices that maybe you can offer

those to the Lord and he can refine

them. Not tell you that it's like not

painful,

but to use them to shape you and to form

you.

Suffering can produce something. That's

endurance. Secondly, it requires trust.

James is talking about that in verses 5

to8. That's where that becomes crucial.

Crucial. He he says when trials come, we

need what? Wisdom.

He says ask for it. Ask in faith. Not

because you don't doubt, but because you

keep turning in a certain direction,

which is what? To him.

The main issue when stuff happens to you

is not doubt. It's what direction do you

turn?

Oftenimes I can't forgive. I can't fully

trust. I can't even pray the right

things. But I can turn my emotion

towards him instead of something else.

And for some of us today that it's just

too painful to fully trust, to fully let

go, to fully forgive. Can you just aim

all of that emotion, all of that rage,

all of that unforgiveness at him? That's

all God is asking you to do is fixate it

towards me. I paid for this.

Will you give it to me?

We keep turning to him. So just to

simplify what James is saying, the

opposite of faith isn't questions. The

opposite of faith is a divided heart.

It's okay to say you don't understand,

that it hurts, that there's some

unbelief. The issue is, will I keep

turning towards God or away from him?

That's really the issue of the heart.

Endurance is never going to be certainty

ever. It's never going to be certainty.

Endurance is always going to be an issue

of trust. That's number two. And third,

and final,

I don't understand this one, but I do

like it and I do need it. Endurance is

fueled by joy.

The last thing I feel when I when I hear

the heaviness and the sufferings of the

world is joy.

And the last thing I even want to feel

when I'm going through pain is even to

be joyful. But the thing that that I

think the the angels are most in awe of

is how a human being created in God's

image, which they are not, can

experience the atrocities of the world

and still worship and have joy. And they

look at that in awe and wonder.

And it's the it's it's maybe the most

holy thing that we can do in this life

that throughout eternity we won't be

able to do is to give him give him our

praise and to let him t turn our

mourning into joy.

in the midst of this life of questions.

So James is saying this, count it all

joy.

One of the most famous verses in all of

scripture. Count it all joy when you go

through trials and tribulations of every

kind. Why? Because endurance is formed.

The book of Hebrews says Jesus endured

the cross for the joy set before him.

Joy doesn't remove suffering. It gives

meaning to the suffering.

Your suffering isn't to be removed.

It's to be put with purpose and meaning.

In Revelation, we've been talking now

for weeks about the throne, the lamb,

the kingdom, this new creation. And and

Revelation has given us reasons for joy.

And joy that fuels endurance. But

Revelation never just says endure.

Revelation always is going back to this

idea as it speaks to the churches. It

says, "Keep showing us what is true.

Keep showing us what's beautiful. Keep

your eyes fixed on Jesus, on what is

coming. Remember the future." That's

what Revelation is doing. John's giving

a vision of what's to come so you can

live faithful in the present. And that

vision keeps giving us the strength to

keep going.

But why do Christians keep going?

It's quiet in here. Geez.

Why do we keep going?

Three because we keep going because

trials produce endurance.

Because we keep turning to God

and because joy gives endurance

strength.

And at the end of the day, Jesus is

worth it and he's worthy and he's worth

following all the way to the end. It's

why you're here

because nothing else in this life has

been worthy of following. Nothing is

worth following all the way to the end.

Nothing. Nothing.

And as we close this morning, we're

going to bring these little cups of of

bread and juice. And I want to invite

the team to come up. They're going to

play. I'm going to give us an

invitation. I also want to invite our

prayer team to come up because this

morning as we close, I want us to be

given communion, the bread and the cup,

as a holy sacrament and act of

remembering what he's done for us and

the story that we're part of. As they do

that, and I know there's a lot of

movement,

I just want to invite you

to just close your eyes and let me and

let me kind of give you a blessing and

connection here to communion. And then

we're going to stand. I'm going to give

you something to aim at and then and

then we're going to respond with

communion. But here's here's how here's

how I want us to step into communion

today.

Communion is all about remembering the

plot.

I find myself whenever whenever I'm just

feeling lost, isolated, lonely,

distracted, uh hopeless, uh just meaning

is is like evaporated. I just feel like

that like I just need to be re-anchored

and reconnected.

Ultimately, I've lost the plot in some

way.

Why is coming to a to a table to have a

little piece of bread and a little cup

of juice?

Why is that significant? Why have

Christians done it through our entire

history? Why is it so valuable?

It anchors us on the plot.

James says, "All these trials are going

to produce endurance. Revelation reminds

us why it really matters to endure. And

ultimately, when we come to communion,

it brings us back to the very center of

the plot of the story. And at the table,

it's all about Christ's body broken for

us, his blood shed for us, what Jesus's

own endurance produced in his suffering,

and how his death is not the final word,

and neither is yours. the death that

you're carrying, the heaviness you're

carrying.

The only issue whether it'll be the

final word is whether you can bring it

to this table and lay it down.

Jesus, I just want to invite you right

now as we come to your table.

bring all of our shame, all of our pain,

all of our process. Just one thing

though that you want to put your hand

on, not in an overwhelming fashion, just

in one where I saw some of us are just

like all over the map. It's like all of

our entire life, it's just swirling

before us right now. And I just I just

feel the Lord just wanting to put a

touch on one thing,

one thing that he can just meet you with

today.

Maybe that's a maybe that's a a moment

from from being a small boy or girl.

Maybe it's from the last week of

something that just had you enraged,

[music] an injustice that happened to

you. Maybe it's something you've been

putting off for a decade or more.

Just let him meet you in one thing.

We bring back that question. Why do we

keep going when life is hard? Oftenimes

we don't just need answers.

[sighs] We just need the reminders.

Reminders of the plot.

And I just invite you into what what

helped me this week is to remember the

story is bigger than me. The plot's

bigger than me. And if he got up out of

that grave,

I don't need to lose sleep on finances.

I don't need to lose sleep on my

teenagers.

And I certainly don't need to le lose

sleep about my pastoral appointments

[music] in Jesus name.

What is it that you're losing sleep

over? What is it that you're churning

on? Where is it that you're stuck? And

where is it that the plot will just

reenter you? Convict you in his

kindness. And then once you surrender it

in trust,

what does he promise?

Joy.

As I was praying for us [music] this

morning, I just saw the joy of our

salvation being restored.

Some of you haven't even experienced the

joy of [music] salvation and it's for

you. If you haven't experienced the deep

spirit joy in your inner personhood, I

want to invite you to just pray a simple

prayer. Jesus, if you're real,

show me.

Show me that joy

that you died for.

Show me what you think of me.

And show me that I can trust you

with my entire being.

Trust you to save me. And trust you to

lead me, to give you my allegiance.

Many of us just the act

of communion is all we needed today.

I just want to invite you forward. you

first stand to your feet and I'm going

to bless it. [music] And then this team,

in fact, if if one of one of you on the

team could hold the baskets, there's a

basket here and a basket there. If one

of you guys on the prayer team could

just hold it,

you can come up either side. I just want

to get pause for a moment as you take

just the plastic cup that has the little

bread and the little juice in it and

just let them bless you. His body broken

for you, his blood shed for you. And

then you can come up. You can get on

your face here. You can go back to your

seat. You can continue to worship as

this team plays.

They'll be hanging out here. If you need

extended prayer after service, they'll

be here.

But come to the table this morning and

remember the plot. Remember the story.

Put yourself just one thing before you.

and then step into your week with utter

confidence that you can bring your

trials to him, that you can remember the

story, and that you can keep showing up

every single day. That's what we're

inviting into. Keep showing up. Bring it

to him

and remember what he's done. every

single trial, every single pain. Let the

stories of those of old, from your word

into the modern era,

from those on my left and my right, stir

me with the passion that pulls my heart

to something bigger than myself. And

make it as simple as remembering

through a little cracker and a little

piece of juice

that there's something worth enduring

that releases joy.

As you surrender this, [music] I just

feel something being restored. Some of

may be some may be just a quiet moment.

Some might be crying softly. [music]

Some may be even laughing with just like

joy being restored in situations that

felt heavy. Let the Holy Spirit meet you

this morning. And then go out into your

week convinced

that remembering the plot has everything

to do with how you live today, tomorrow,

and into the future.

Thank you God.