Exodus - 12:1-14

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

Yeah. OK, so here's where we are.

We have been walking with Moses for the last couple weeks.

And what we've found is last week we were in Chapter 3.

We're making a pretty substantial jump to Chapter 12

of Exodus. And you're saying to yourself,

man, that's a big jump. That's a lot of pages to skip.

And you're right, it is. So let me just kind of let you

in on what's been happening since then.

Moses spurred on by God, even though he doesn't want to

because he's like, Lord, I'm really not good at talking.

I'm not good at this whole speaking thing.

And so he he pushes back against God a few times.

God finally gets annoyed enough and says, OK, I got you.

Your brother Aaron is already in Egypt and he's I'm going to have

him help you out. And so Moses somewhat kind of

reluctantly goes and, and as they approach Egypt and as they

get into Egypt, Moses does exactly what God wants him to.

He goes to Pharaoh and he says these famous words, Let my

people go, let them go. Pharaoh, having all of the

negotiating power, laughs him out of the room the first time,

as he should, because who are you?

You're just a guy who fled 40 years ago.

You are nothing to me. You are less than an Ant.

You have nothing to offer you. There is no reason on this earth

that I should get rid of my free workforce.

Because think about it, that's what Pharaoh has.

He has probably in the neighborhood of 1.2 million

people as free labor. Now, I don't know about you, but

if you have that many people doing free labor, you can

probably get a lot done at very little cost.

And So what happens from chapters basically 4 through 11

is Moses keeps coming back and God keeps on doing these

terrible plagues. These are the 10 plagues of the

Bible. And so in order we turn, but God

turns water into blood. And then there's frogs

everywhere and then there's gnats.

Now this is a weird thing that I'll just give you as an aside.

I, I looked hard into this, this third one, the gnats, because

some, some of your Bibles will say it's lice, which seems way

grosser to me. Like everybody's just like, like

that seems way worse. But scholars are kind of in

disagreement on whether it's gnats or lice because the Hebrew

word is kind of strange. Anyway, that's just a fun fact

for you. But we're going to go with.

And then after the gnats, we've got flies that cover everything.

And then we've got the death of livestock.

And then we've got boils, which is really disgusting.

And then we've got hail coming down ruining crops and killing

people. And then of course, we have the

swarm of locusts. That seems super fun because I

hate bugs. And then we have utter darkness

for days on end. The Bible reports that without a

fire, you couldn't see your hand in front of your own face.

It was so dark, unnaturally dark, in fact.

And so all of this. And each time as as Moses goes

back to Pharaoh, he says, all right, God did this thing.

If you want it gone, you have to let my people go.

And every single time without fail, Pharaoh's like fine, fine,

fine, fine, fine. I'll do it, But then as soon as

the plague is taken away, as soon as the frogs are dead and

they're no longer bothering his wife in bed, which I'm sure that

was a fun conversation. Oh, honey, just move the frogs

over. Anyway, all these times and and,

and and eventually God is God is fed up.

He's had enough because or Pharaoh keeps hardening his

heart against God as soon as the pain is taken away.

I'm sure you can relate to this Pharaoh, because sometimes we

will just ask God for things and we're like, Lord, I need you to

do this or I need you to take this thing away.

And, and I and we negotiate. We negotiate with God and we're

like, I promise I will go to church.

I will join a group. I will do whatever.

And then The thing is gone, or The thing is given and you're

like, that's fine. She doesn't really need me to do

that. I don't really have to

participate, do I? Some days are my day to sleep

in. I don't really need to go, do I?

All right, here we go. So we're not so disliked,

Pharaoh, are we? I suspect not.

Well, anyway, so the 10th plague is coming.

And in Chapter 11, if you read that, what you're going to see

is you're going to see that God lays out the 10th plague and he

tells Moses his plan for the 10th plague.

And to say it is a doozy is a ridiculous understatement.

What God is going to do is what Pharaoh did to God's people.

He is going to create a genocide situation.

He is going to bring his Angel of death, what the Bible calls

the destroyer. He's going to bring him through

town and he's going to kill all the male first born throughout

all of Egypt. Just like Pharaoh created

genocide and killed all of the male Hebrew, Hebrew born babies

for an entire generation. God is going to treat him

likewise and his people and it's going to get dark in a fat it

really, really fast. So it's kind of a sobering text

that we're going to be looking at.

It's not one of these fun like, hey, Pastor Chris is going to

crack jokes and it's going to be great.

I'm not really a good stand up comedian anyway.

So just know that this is where we're going.

We are going to the Lord's Passover and it is a heavy,

burdensome text. But what God is going to do here

is he is going to cast judgement on the people who sat back and

benefited from oppression and slavery.

He is going to cast judgement on all of the gods of Egypt who

couldn't save a single soul. And he is going to cast

judgement on Pharaoh himself, because that's what he's got

coming. That's what anybody has coming

who hardens their heart against God.

Judgement is coming, sobering, like I said.

So here's how we're going to view this today.

We're going to look at the scapegoat.

We're going to kind of see the a little bit of the history of

that. We can't do the full thing

because that's an entire 2 hour class that I would have to

teach. So we're just going to touch it

real quick. And then we're going to see

God's provision for life and we're going to meet the real

Lamb of God, not simply the white fluffy Passover lamb that

we'll read about today. So with that in mind, we're

going to read Exodus chapter 12 verses one through 14.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

And we read this in Jesus name. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron

in the land of Egypt. This month shall be for you the

beginning of all months. It shall be the first month of

the year for you. Tell all the congregation of

Israel that on the 10th day of this month every man shall take

a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a

household. And if the household is too

small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take

accordingly to the number of persons, according to what each

can eat, and you shall make account for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male one year old.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

You shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the

whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall

kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the

blood and put it on the doorpost and the lentil of the houses in

which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that

night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter

herbs. They shall eat it.

Do not eat any of its raw or boiled in water, but roasted

with its head, its legs, and its inner parts.

And you shall let none of it remain until morning.

Anything that remains until morning, you shall burn in this

manner. You shall eat it with your belt

fastened and your sandals on your feet and your staff in your

hand, and you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land

of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the first born in the

land of Egypt, both man and beast, on and on all of the gods

of Egypt. I will execute my judgements.

I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for

you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will

Passover you, and no plague will befall to destroy you when I

strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a

Memorial Day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord

throughout your generations as the statute forever.

You shall keep it as a feast here in the reading of God's

Word. So where does all this begin?

Because this idea is not necessarily original to this

moment. If we go back to Genesis 22, let

me go back to Genesis 22. Hey, there it is.

If we go back to Genesis 22, we have a couple people named

Abraham and Sarah. You probably know a little bit

about them, and if you don't, that's OK because I'll just tell

you. So Abraham and Sarah are very

old and it takes them a long time to finally have a child.

But this child is really special.

This child is really unique because it is the child that God

had promised this couple that is far too old to be having

children anymore. And in that, you know, God

tells, I will make your descendants as numerous as the

stars through your sun. That's an incredible promise.

We're talking about populating the world through your sun.

That's pretty specific and pretty spectacular.

But then something really strange happens in in Genesis 22

and I'll and I'll kind of read it to you.

God looks at Abraham and he says, take your son, your only

son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer

him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains so that I

will tell you. Are you kidding me?

Did you hear that? Hey, I promised you a son and I

gave you a son, now I need you to go sacrifice him.

What kind of a God is this? I think that's a fair question.

What kind of God makes a promise and then looks at the very thing

that the promise is and says, now go ahead and go kill it?

How would he do that? It's a strange thing.

Well, let me keep reading on a little bit.

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father.

And he said, Yep, here I am, my son.

And he said, behold, here's the fire in the wood, but where's

the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said God will provide

for himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

My son. Really.

Is he just straight up lying? Because that's what it feels

like, and I know that feelings aren't always true, but that's

what it feels like. It feels like Abraham just is

just putting off the inevitable insane.

I can't tell you that God has told me to sacrifice you.

So we're just going to push that conversation down the road a

little bit. I think we do that with our

kids, don't we? We have something that will

probably tell them at some point because they are on a need to

know basis for information. Kids, I'm sorry, that's true.

But it is we. But we push that out, that

information, that conversation off because we really don't want

to have the conversation or because it's just, it's too

painful to talk about just yet. So we have to wait till that

inevitable moment when it finally strikes.

Well, Fast forward a little bit and Abraham does exactly what

God tells him to do. They get to the top of the

mountain and you can imagine what Isaac must be thinking when

Abraham, probably by force, takes his son, ties him up, sets

him on the wood, pulls out the knife.

I can't imagine what this kid is feeling.

More so as a parent. I can't imagine what Abraham is

feeling right now. This is breaking him.

It is crushing his soul to do this to his son.

But then something happens. An Angel comes and says, do not

lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him for now.

I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your

son, your only son, from me. Do you see it?

Because it's right there on the surface.

God looks at Abraham and honors him.

You have not withheld your son from me.

But we all know if you've read the back half of the book,

that's exactly what God's going to do.

He's he's going to give his son away for people who rebel and

hate him. But this is where this kind of

sacrificial system starts. And so we have to ask the

question, why can't God just forgive sins?

Why the why the blood? Why the need for sacrifice and

judgement? Well, I want you to think about

it this way. Going even further back in

Genesis with Adam and Eve, they sin.

What happens? They hide because they're all

naked and they're like, oh, this is awkward.

And so they hide. And God asked them, hey, where,

what's up? Where you guys at?

All the confessions come out. All the things happen.

Adam blames his wife. Good job, Adam, it's that woman

you gave me. It's her fault.

Husbands, be careful. Be careful.

That probably started a fight, but but so you know, it goes on.

And what happens is God seeks to cover up their shame because

they're ashamed. They're naked and they know

that's weird and it's awkward now.

And so how does he cover them up?

He covers them up by the first death on the planet Earth.

He kills an animal and he makes skins to cover them up.

And so what's happening here and what we need to recognize is

that the Bible tells us that life is in our blood.

So therefore, in order to cover sin, in order to cover the thing

that takes our life away, because that's sin and our in

our in our payment for sin is death.

So God takes life out of a creature to cover sin.

That is the first death in the Bible.

Now you say to me still, but yeah, come on, He's all

powerful. If he is God, if he's all

powerful and he's all loving, can't he just let the thing go?

I mean, like, you know, we do that sometimes with our kids

and, and, you know, spouses or friends or whatever, like they

do something stupid, they sin against us.

And we're like, you know what? We don't even say I forgive you.

No, you know what you usually say?

What do you usually say? It's fine, it's fine, whatever.

It's fine. Don't even worry about it.

That's what we do. We don't forgive.

We're like, Nah, it's fine. And so we expect God to do the

same. We expect God not to be a God of

justice, but a God of no, that's fine.

Don't even worry about it. But that's not how that works.

Let me give you an example because there always has to be a

payment. Kristen, I love what you said.

I love what you said about the pies.

I thought, man, you are spot on. Let me make a slight theological

correction without without, like, being mean to you,

theology guy. Sorry, this young man in the

front row just called me a nerd. That's fine.

That's fine. That's fine.

It's OK. I I agree with you.

Slight theological correction. Here's the thing.

As ERC went yesterday and gave away 500 pies, who paid for the

ingredients? No, no, all of you did.

If you give to the Mansfield Church, you guys paid for that.

There was a payment made for the free thing.

There is always a payment made. Think about this too.

If you loan your friend your car and they go and they wreck it,

you have a couple options. You can say, you know what I'm

going to take on? I'm going to take that on

myself. I'll pay for a new car because I

need a car, so I'll pay for the new one.

You're you're free and clear. The payment has been made for

you. Or you can look at them and say,

hey, you wrecked the car, you're going to pay for it.

Or third option insurance, you can say, well, I'll just file it

with my insurance. But guess what?

There's a payment there too. The insurance company is paying

for it, which means you're paying higher premiums.

There's always a payer. There's always someone who has

to pay. The only thing free in this

world is the love of God. And I'm telling you, that is the

only free thing in this entire planet, friends.

And some of you are like, oh, the air is free, whatever.

Let me just make the point. So you see, I argue with myself

in my head all the time. That's why I say those things

because I'm arguing against myself right now.

But anyway, the, the, the idea that that anything is free is

just false. There always has to be a pair,

and that goes for sins too. So if we can follow along with

the narrative, we're seeing that God can't just simply be like,

it's fine. He can't do that because there's

always a pair. Now, how does this work?

What does God's provision look like?

He tells the people of Israel you are going to need a lamb

without spot or blemish, something that is seemingly

perfect and innocent. And I think part of that, part

of the reason for that is God doesn't want your leftovers.

God wants your first and your best.

He doesn't want your leftovers. Oh well, and this is going to

sound, this is going to sound mean, but I'm going to say it

anyway because it's true. Well, you know, I got to the end

of my paycheck and I have $6.00 left that I don't need.

So I guess I'll give that to God.

Guess what? If you don't care about that

amount of money, neither does He.

And it's not about the amount, it's about your heart.

It's about does this cost me something?

Does this feel heavy? Is this my first and my best?

And that doesn't just go for money, that goes for our entire

lives. If I'm not giving God my first

and my best, why does He want it?

He deserves it. He created me.

He sustains my life. He should get my first and my

best. Whether that's my time, that's

my attention, that's my money, it doesn't matter.

He deserves my first and my best.

Well, let's keep thinking through this.

I also want you to notice that in this text that faith is not a

thing of individuality. And I've said this before, and

I'm just going to keep on saying it until it's tattooed on your

brains. That faith is personal, but it

is not private. Your Christian faith is not

meant to be something that you go and you, you hide and you do

your little Bible studies by yourself and you're never in

community. That's not how this works.

How do we know that from this text?

We know that because entire households shared the lamb.

And when there wasn't enough people in the household, you

know what they did? They went over their neighbor

just, hey, we don't have enough people for a lamb.

Let's do this together. Do you see how God wants faith

inside of community? And this is not an

individualistic thing. So I'll make a push for you

right now. Very practically speaking, if

you are not meeting with other Christians outside of Sunday

morning, you are doing something wrong.

You're doing something wrong. Now I feel like I'm just hitting

you guys left and right this morning.

I'm sorry, but this is just where the text is taking us.

So we're going to live in that for a little bit.

Now let's go a different direction for a moment.

I really love animals. I do.

Yeah. I got this tiny little dog at

home. It's like, it's like 10 lbs of

fluff and attitude and it's annoying, but I'm like, I love

you. I just, I just, I'll pick you up

and I'll just, you know, there's these old Bugs Bunny cartoons

where, like, I can't remember the little girl's name.

I think it's Elvira. She takes the animal and she's

like, I'm going to love you and hold you and squeeze you.

And the animal's like me. That's how I I do.

I feel that way about animals, and I suspect a lot of you do,

too. So then we look at this

situation. We say that poor little fluffy

lamb, What are we doing that doesn't feel right?

What what did that innocent, fluffy, cute lamb do anything to

deserve this? Friends, imagine you're a

Hebrew. Imagine you are in that scenario

and God has said, all right, I need you to sacrifice the

spotless blemish, blemishless lamb.

And you're like, I don't know. I really love that thing and

it's my best one because God wants my first and my best.

But then you look down at your son and all of a sudden the

decision becomes really easy. It's really easy.

So the lamb is slaughtered and the blood is spread across the

doorposts and the lentils. And what happens is if you were

to do that today, you know what you would see?

You would see a cross. You would see a cross across

your door, and what happens is the destroyer, the Angel of

death. He comes through Egypt that

night and as he sees the cross, he passes over because the blood

of an innocent one has already been shed.

The sacrifice for sins is already done.

There needs to be no more death where there is the cross.

But the cries, the cries that night in Egypt and into the

early morning, parents finding their son dead, wailing,

weeping, screaming. This is a nightmare.

You wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy.

But this is the cost of sin. This is the cost of judgement.

This is the cost of hardening our hearts against God.

But it doesn't have to be that way, does it?

Because there is a first born, there is a Son, there is a Lamb

who was slain for all of our sins, and that is Jesus Christ,

is it not? Amen.

It doesn't have to be that way. So let's explore the Lamb of

God. You see, The thing is, moving

forward from this moment, the Israelites were called to

celebrate the Passover. From that year forward, every

single year, a slain lamb unleavened bread to atone for

the sins and remind all of the people what God had done in

order to bring them out of slavery, in order to bring them

out of oppression, in order to keep them out of oppression and

to keep their sins off of them. A slain lamb, year in and year

out. And yet I think we can see that

something is very broken in that system, is it not?

Now I'm going to teach you something that I've been

teaching my confirmation kids the last two weeks.

The problem with this system is it is an old covenant.

Now we have the Old and New Testament in the Bible, right?

OK, Old New Testament. Well, what does that word

Testament mean? My confirmation kids ought to

know that word Testament also means covenant, which means an

agreement. So see, under God's old

agreement with all of his people, what happens is there

needs to be this non-stop continuous sacrifice of blood

over and over again. And the other thing about this

agreement that's really kind of broken is the agreement is based

on the law. The agreement's based on the

law. It's based on the do's and

don'ts of life. Now how about you?

I'm not doing great with that agreement.

Like honestly, every single day and thought and word and deed, I

am breaking that agreement. I'm breaking that covenant with

God. I mean, I'm doing this thing

constantly. Even if I had some fluffy little

sheep in my yard, guess what? There wouldn't be enough of

them. Not for me.

And besides, that is a temporary solution to a permanent sin

problem. It doesn't work and therefore we

need a new agreement. We need a new covenant.

We need to have a new arrangement.

So what does God do? Let me tell you what God does.

I'm going to flip over here because I want to make sure I

get this correct. I'm going to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

I haven't marked, so I should be fast, but I'm going to John

chapter one, verse 29, and here's the new agreement.

Here's what it sounds like the next day, he which is John the

Baptist, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and

said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Did you hear it? Did you hear the new covenant?

Because it's right there on the surface.

You see, here's the thing. In the old covenant, God covers

sins. There's the sacrifice of blood,

which is life, and God covers sins just like he did with Adam

and Eve. Now when I was a little kid, and

probably all you guys did this to, and when I was a little kid,

here's what happened. Sometimes you like take your

blankets and you cover up your whole body and you're like, I'm

invisible. That's fun, isn't it?

Modern day I still do that, but it's because my dear sweet

loving wife freezes me out of the bedroom.

So I cover up and I'm like, I'm invisible and I'm still cold.

I love you. Here's the thing, take off the

covers. I'm still there.

I'm gone anywhere. I just hid.

Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

There's a big difference between covering something up and taking

it away completely, is there not?

All right, so here's the problem with covering, and I think most

of us do it most of the time. We cover our sins, we hide.

We're in shame. Because if anybody ever found

out how bad I really was or the thoughts I had or the things I

said behind that person's back, boom, boom, boom, name a million

things. We're just like waiting to be

uncovered, waiting to be found out.

Well, friends, guess what? You will be found out.

There is not a sin that will not be brought to light.

And that is a sobering thought. That is an incredibly sobering

thought because if I had to confess everything I've done

just in the last week to you, you'd be like, that guy's fired.

See ya. We're going to get a pastor

who's more holy than this guy. You can't just cover your sins

and expect to be OK. You can't.

Here's the thing, and I heard this recently.

This is not mine, somebody else's.

But when you cover, you know what you're doing, the fake you,

the fake me is doing so good. You realize that when I walk

through this atrium, when I walk into this church, when I walk

into any business and do it, how you doing?

I'm doing great. I'm killing it.

The fake me is doing awesome. But you know what?

The real need me. The real me needs the real me,

needs the real blood of Jesus. Not to just cover the things so

I'm afraid of being exposed, but to actually fully take them

away. So that way I am now free.

Friends, the reason why I'm such a weirdo, and I've said it

before, is because I'm free. This is what free looks like.

Sometimes it looks like the weirdo standing on stage saying

far too many things with far too much enthusiasm.

But that's freedom. We say it around here.

We want you to be weird because free people are weird.

They don't make sense because the most of the world, what

they're doing is they're putting on the mask and they're covering

things up all the time, and that's the norm.

I don't want to be like that. I refuse to be like that because

my sins aren't just covered up, they're fully taken away.

That's right. That's right.

They're fully taken away now after all that you say to me.

But Pastor Chris, how do we really know?

How do we really know that Jesus doesn't just cover sins, but he

fully takes them away? How can I trust that I can walk

out of here and complete freedom without any hiding, without any

shame? How can I possibly know that?

Well, I want to, before we close, I want to take you to

Jesus's Passover meal with his friends.

And we're going to explore that momentarily because it really

shows us what's happening here. Now, the Passover meal being

celebrated by Jewish people for in perpetuity for all times.

What happens is during that meal, you have a rabbi, you have

a household leader, usually a father rabbi, whatever.

And what they're doing is they're leading the service.

They're walking you through the Exodus story and they're walking

you through the steps, and they're reminding because that's

what God says. Remind the people of what I did

in order to give you freedom. And so they're walking through

the story and they're reminding, but Jesus is doing it all wrong.

Where's the lamb? Where's the meat?

I mean, the disciples, they're probably kind of disappointed.

They're like, dude, this is not enough food for me, and you're

saying all the wrong words. Well, what are the wrong words

that Jesus says? Now, as they were eating, Jesus

took bread and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to

his disciples and said take and eat.

This is my body. This is my body.

Now, if you're one of the disciples, this is kind of a

weird moment because you've seen Jesus heal the blind, you see

him made the lame walk, you've seen him cast out demons, you've

seen him bring dead people to life.

And when he says this is my body, you're like, oh, I'm, I'm

so full, Jesus, I'm so full. I can't even believe it.

I'm so full. But then he does another weird

thing and he took a cup and we'd give him thanks.

He gave it to them saying drink of it, all of you.

For this is my blood of the covenant, the new agreement.

My blood is the new agreement which is poured out for many for

the forgiveness of sins. That's how you know, because

Jesus gave his life, He gave his body, He gave his blood, and as

we believe in Him, we consume that, we take that in.

He is the spotless lamb. There is not another on the

planet earth who can, who can not just cover sins, but take

them away forever. That is Jesus Christ.

He's the only one, and he's proving it time and time again.

Some of you are hearing this for the first time and you don't

know what to think about it. I know we're in church and

everybody goes to church already believes.

No, I disagree. I went to church for a long time

without believing anything. Here we are.

We have a choice. Do you want your sins, which

require judgment to be covered, or do you want them taken away?

Your choice. Nobody else can choose that for

you. I know what I choose.

I choose Jesus because I will never do it on my own.

Maybe you're the kind of person who you believe in the

background of your life. So when somebody presses you,

here's what happens. You say, yeah, I believe that

there's God, it's fine, and nobody can tell.

There's nothing about your life that shows people that you

believe in Jesus Christ, that you are free because just like

everybody else around you, you're wearing this stupid mask

with all these things covered up.

There's a better way. There's a better way to freedom.

Here's the only way to freedom. So here's what we're going to do

in a moment. I'm going to have you bow your

heads. I'm going to pray with you that

if you were the person who for the first time wants to be free,

I'm going to pray with you through that.

And if you're the person who has strayed so far from your faith

that you don't even know if you're a Christian, I'm going to

pray with you too. Let's do that.

Our Father in Heaven, for those who want to be free for the

first time. Lord, I pray the power of your

Holy Spirit comes upon them in such a way that they are

convicted. They are cut to the heart, the

Lord, that they are instantaneously healed because

they understand that faith in You is the only thing that sets

them free. It's the only thing that brings

them from life to better life. Father, for those amongst us

right now, let them not be ashamed.

Let them not be awkward. Let them rejoice in the

salvation that they have found in You today.

All praise be to you for changed hearts.

And Father, for those who have strayed, for those who have let

Christianity just become a background noise in their head,

Lord, bring them home. Bring them back to the fold, to

bring them back to the place where they're only leaning on

you, where they call out to you, where they cry out to you, not

just because they need something, but because they love

you. Father, for those of us who are

found amongst your flock, who are buried deep inside Your

grace, and we live in that freedom every day, for those

Lord bless us, keep us on the straight and narrow path of the

gospel. Give us courage and boldness to

speak your truth, to speak your love over the lives of those who

we know. Father, you are good and you are

gracious. You have taken away the sins of

the world through your Son, Jesus Christ.

May you be glorified in all of this.

And we pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

Friends, I'm going to tell you something.

If you prayed either of those first two prayers with me today,

here's what I'm going to ask you to do.

Just stick around. Just stick around for a few

minutes. Don't leave this room.

I'm going to stay in this room. Pastor Matt's going to stay in

this room. We'd love to pray with you.

We'd love to encourage you. We'd love to make sure that you

are free before you walk out of these doors.

And if you're in that second group and you're just giving

your life back to God, you're getting back on the bike.

You can stick around too. I'd love to pray that God would

strengthen you. Doesn't have to be awkward,

friends. It should be joyful.

Make a joyous noise to the Lord. We get to do that when we find

freedom. Amen.

All right, let's worship. Thanks for listening to ERC

Sundays. To support the work God is doing

at Emmaus Rd. Church, visit

emmausrdonline.org/giving.