Define or Refine?

Good morning.

Wow, what a great song.

If you want to follow along this morning, I would encourage you to open to Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible with you, we're going to show it up on the screen so you're okay.

But if you do, it will be worth it to be able to make some notes.

For those of you who don't know my background, or how many of you have never seen me speak here before?

Raise your hands real quick.

Excellent.

So glad you're here this morning.

Steve is normally here.

He's on vacation.

And they bring in the relief pitcher every now and then to fill in for him.

And I absolutely love being here.

And today you're in for a treat, but I got to set it up, especially if you're new to his hands, because we are going to do it a little bit differently.

Your takeaway today will really be completely and totally based on how you personally and how I personally connect with God and how much we desire to do that.

If we want to just sit back and go, hmm, okay, I'm going to check it out.

You're definitely going to be encouraged and something's going to hit you and it'll be good.

But if you want to experience what we call life change, and hey, I want to move in a direction where I'm literally becoming the person I was meant to be, it's going to take a little interaction.

And God's going to direct your hearts in that way.

So with that, I want to ask God to do that individually and intimately where we are, just through prayer.

If you'll join me and just pray with me.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for this place.

Thank you for this beautiful gifted musician talent song, as we can just sing to you your praises and how amazingly beautiful you are.

Father, I pray that every single individual in here today would connect with you on that individual basis.

Lord, as only your spirit can move on our hearts.

Let us see clearly that step, decision, that choice we need to make today.

And Lord, as only you can through your spirit, lay that upon us.

And Lord, then give us the strength to take that step.

And it really is only through the precious gift through Jesus on the cross that we have the privilege of praying and the power of your spirit that we do pray that.

Amen.

I coach basketball.

I love coaching basketball.

One of my passions.

I do not get paid to coach basketball.

It's said in coaching, you usually coach up to a level above your competency.

And I coach seventh grade.

And it's just a half a step above my competency.

But I love it.

And I just got done coaching a spring season of 14-year-old and under basketball in a AAU, YBOA league, and just had a blast.

Because I get to see these guys get overwhelmed against the competition because it's kind of like an all-star league.

And we come out and we get overwhelmed.

These kids are taller, they're faster, they're quicker, and it's overwhelming.

And then to see these guys, and I coach them, I see, look for this, look for this one area.

This is where we are better because we play as a team and you are good in here, and to call them up and call them out, and to see them step on the floor and then rise to their potential that they don't even realize.

And to get to see that happen and to see them go from overwhelmed to overcomers and to see them play against players who are, by all measures, faster and stronger and bigger, and then to beat them is just amazing.

And I love to see that happen.

And one of the young men on my team this year, I'll call him David, because that was his name.

And David, David is one of my favorite guys because he's this big kid, and he's just this heart is bigger than any other muscle in his body, and he just plays with heart.

And he's out on the floor and he's banging against these big guys who are older than him and bigger than him, and he's making it happen.

And in one particular game, it broke my heart because he he comes out of the scrum.

There was kind of a pile of guys, and he's he kind of limps over to the side.

There was a foul, and he's standing there, and and and the guys on the team are like, Are you okay?

Are you okay?

He's like, Yeah, I'm good, I'm good.

And he stands there, and I'm like, Dave, are you okay?

And I could tell he was not moving the way he normally moves.

And and so I subbed in for him and he comes out and he's limping and he's like, Hey, I'm like, Dave, are you all right?

He says, Yeah, I'm good, I'm good.

And he sits down, we'll come to find out he broke his ankle.

And he's good.

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, you know, and and he was gonna stay in the game with a broken ankle.

And I, as much as I love that heart, I'm just like, dude, you gotta face you got a broken ankle, you know?

And but then to see how he replies and he responds to this broken ankle.

He keeps coming to the games and supporting his teammates.

He's got a cast on, and then three weeks later, he's going from crutches to this little walking brace.

I'm like, dude, you got a walking brace already?

He's like, Yeah, the doctor said it's really doing well, and I'm walking on it now, and he's I can't I can't do a lot, but I can put weight on it.

And then he's just getting better and better, and he's still supportive, and all the good things you would hope for somebody to deal with a pain he was doing.

And now he's getting better, and now he's gonna play.

And and I share that because what would happen if you and I saw someone in that same situation, and and maybe you have been there, and maybe I've been there, where the injury stinks, but something subconsciously hits us to where we kind of like the attention.

That it kind of, I got a broken little, I got crutches.

Oh, what happened?

Oh, you know, I hurt my life playing basketball, and you know, doing this, and we love the attention.

Well, you sign my cast, and and and we just kind of dig that, and and that's okay.

That's okay to a point.

What would it be like if I saw David at the start of school next year and he still has a cast on his leg?

I would think something's drastically wrong.

David, are you okay?

What happened?

Well, you remember, coach, I broke my leg.

I broke my leg back in the spring.

Yeah, but what's up with the cast?

Yeah, I just um, I don't know, I just kind of like it.

There's some attention.

People come up to me.

That would just be weird, okay?

And it would start to smell.

The cast would smell, and that would, I mean, teenage boys smell bad enough on its own, you know, so have the extra smell, that's not good.

And it would just be weird.

And what would happen if you or I knew somebody from high school, okay?

Think about when you were in high school.

All right, some of you, I'm not in high school yet.

Some of you are like, well, that was a long time ago.

And you see somebody today that you knew in high school and they broke their leg.

And you see them now and go, man, what happened to your leg?

Oh, you remember in high school?

I broke my leg.

Okay, yeah, but did you have surgery or something?

No, I just, you know, I like the cast.

I walk around.

That's that's really seriously wrong at that point.

The smell would be atrocious, and they're just like, Why do you have that?

Well, you know, I just kind of I got used to it, and I just kind of learned to live with it.

And uh, you know, some cool people signed my cast.

Uh, you know, the president signed it.

Look right over there.

Obama signed it?

No, President Reagan, he signed it right over there.

He's he's dead, you know that, right?

He's dead, but that's just it's unhealthy.

Because what would happen is that leg, although it had healed, would now begin to atrophy and it would become useless because we're not using it, and it's unhealthy to get to that point.

Physically, I share that for you and I to deal with the the secret door of today.

And that secret door is hurt because what physically happens to us with bones and bumps and bruises and cuts also happens to our soul.

And there are within us, if we are honest today, certain hurts that, if left unattended, will affect us just as sad spiritually and emotionally as a physical hurt would, leaving a cast on for years.

And yet, because it's not outwardly visible, it becomes something we just kind of lock away in a part of our heart and our mind and just leave there.

But the truth is that we have to deal with these secret hurts.

Jesus gives us an amazing opportunity and clarity of how to deal with that.

So this morning I do pray that God would raise to your mind and your heart that secret hurt of your life, whatever it is.

Maybe it's something that was imposed upon you.

Maybe it was I never wanted my parents to get divorced, and I had to deal with that my whole life.

Maybe it's I never wanted this.

I I gave some money to someone and it failed, and then it broke the relationship, and they never paid it back, and there's just this underlying pain and distrust.

I don't know what your hurt is, but I know that all of us have a secret hurt if we have not dealt with it.

Jesus is faced with this and he's asked a question about it.

And what some of my favorite parts of scripture, I really like all the Bible, I really do, but some of them are when Jesus tells a story.

And Peter comes up to him.

Peter's kind of the flamboyant of the disciples.

He's just like, um, ready, fire, aim.

That's Peter, okay?

He's just, I'm not gonna think about it, I'm just gonna say it and no filter, and that's Peter.

And in Matthew chapter 18, Peter comes to Jesus, starting in verse 21.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

And he says, Then Peter came to Jesus.

I just told you that.

See, it's in here, and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?

Up to seven times.

And see, he's trying to sound spiritual.

Lord, I know seven, that's a spiritual number, right?

And that's more than just once.

It's seven, right?

And he's kind of asking it rhetorically, and then Jesus is gonna just totally blow his mind and go, uh, yeah.

Here's the deal.

Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.

And if you've ever seen that RCA dog or the Scooby-Doo thing, I think Peter at this point just went, huh?

And that was him at this point.

So Jesus, seeing that he's just like, What?

I don't get that.

He's gonna say, I'm gonna explain it to you.

And Peter's, uh what I love about Peter, Peter is so much like me.

I'm like, I learn through stories.

Jesus told me a story.

Okay, here's your story, Peter.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

As he began to settle, a man who owed him 10,000 talents, quick translation, millions of dollars.

Owed him millions of dollars, was brought to him.

Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

In other words, he's selling him, his possessions and him into slavery.

So the servant master, okay, 26, the servant fell on his knees before him.

Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything.

The servant's master took pity on him, cancel the debt, and let him go.

That's the first part of the story.

But when the servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

This is literally translation, a few bucks, less than twenty bucks.

He grabbed him and began to choke him, pay back what you owe me, he demanded.

His fellow servant, follow this, fell on his knees and begged him, Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.

But he refused.

Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and went and told the master everything that had happened.

Then the master called the servant in.

Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?

In anger, his master turned him over to the jailer to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed.

Verse 35, and we'll land here at the end.

This is how your heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart.

That is painful to read.

Because the truth is that we want to hold on to our hurts.

Sometimes we want to wear that cast of our heart forever because it justifies how we feel and what we think.

I want to look at some facts about this secret hurt.

This secret hurt in order to deal with it properly, and I believe Jesus shows us here how to do that.

First, the first fact is the hurt is real.

It's real.

We don't have to pretend it's not raining and I'm not wet.

It's real.

You can look in verses 24 and 28.

It says, here's what he owed.

This was the debt that was owed.

When you and I have a hurt, it is real.

But what are we going to do to deal with that?

That real hurt.

Where's the perspective going to come in?

We'll get to that in a minute.

But I'll never forget, I was invited several years ago by a friend of mine who worked for the Orlando Magic to come down and speak to the staff, and I got to meet some of the team and met several of the players and all.

And then they said, hey, you get to sit courtside at the game, and I'm at the end of the court.

It was incredible.

And I'm sitting there, and they were playing at the time the Utah Jazz.

And the Jazz came down there.

Carl Malone and uh Stockton were on the team and they were doing their pick and roll, and I'm a huge basketball nut, and I'm getting to see them like closer than me to the front row, and I'm like, this is unbelievable.

It was just one breakaway, and the ball was kind of going, and Carl Malone comes running to the end, dives, saves the ball, and falls into the stands.

Falls into the stands.

He's literally his head.

I could have reached up and patted him on the head.

That's how close he was.

Well, in the row in front of me, there was a woman who had had a few beverages, we'll call them, and she was a bit inebriated, and Carl Malone's standing right there, and she starts screaming at Carl Malone.

Just starts yelling, Carl Malone, you stink, you stink, Carl Malone.

And he was just like, what?

He's trying to get his bearings, and she's some people are trying to help him, and she's just screaming.

They're helping.

She's going, Yes, stink, Carl Malone, yes, stink.

And he gets up and and he's he's standing there and she yells louder.

She says like five, six times, and she goes, Come alone, you stink.

And there was a break in the action, and he he starts to walk off.

And after she yells it one more time, he turns around and he just looks at her and she goes, You know, you stink.

And he just went, You're right.

And he just ran off.

And I was like, How cool is that?

You know what?

I'm playing basketball, I'm sweating, I know I stink.

It's just part of the process.

And when you and I will face our hurts and go, you know what?

That was a hurt.

That was wrong.

I didn't deserve that.

It wasn't something I should have to deal with.

Or it was wrong.

It was a real hurt.

That is something that we have to do in order to overcome it.

But Jesus has given us a paradigm shift here.

It's not to hold on to that.

That's not where we stop.

Unfortunately, in our society, we stop there.

What God wants us to realize, and here's the point of admitting that the hurt is real, the fact that it's real, is simply this.

Where we are hurt, if we put it in that secret door and lock it away, if we're hurt, our hurts will either define me, or I will allow God to use them to refine me.

I have to decide.

Is this hurt going to define who I am?

Define how I'm going to live?

And if I don't face it, it will subconsciously begin to define everything I do.

It will seep into every area.

It will affect my attitude.

It'll affect my actions.

It'll affect my outlook on life.

Is it going to define me?

Or am I going to admit this is real?

Lord, I'm hurt.

And show me how to properly deal with this.

And if I choose to do that, I can take this same fact and God will use that to begin to refine me.

I love the way scripture defines refinement.

It says that gold is refined through fire.

And they literally heat it up until the solid gold becomes liquid.

That's really hot.

And then the impurities raise to the top and they skim them off so it can become pure.

That's what these secret hurts are.

They're gold waiting to be refined.

And when we step into God and say, God, I want this to refine me, not define me, He will heat it up.

And He will say, I will skim that impurity off.

I will let you understand why you feel this.

It's real.

It's real.

I know that pain, but I want to use it to refine you into something that you are meant to be.

But it's our choice to do that.

I used to teach a single study down in Orlando about 800,000 singles on a Tuesday night.

I would go down every week.

This young lady came up one time afterwards.

She goes, Can I talk to you?

And she was talking to me about her secret hurt.

She talked about a relationship that had gone on for several years and in great detail about this guy and how they had connected and that they were meant to be and they were going to do that.

And he just decided, I'm not going to do that.

You know what?

I changed my mind.

I'm going a different direction.

And she described in detail this relationship and she shared it with just the freshness of pain that I could feel, and it drew me back to times where girls had dumped me, and I just I was empathizing and I couldn't help it.

I said, Wow.

I said, when when did he break it up?

When did he break it off?

And she said, eight years ago.

I mean, the clarity of the details she was sharing, I thought it was eight days ago.

And she was just getting up the courage to do that.

And it affected every part of her life.

See, she had literally allowed it to define her instead of refine her.

And we started talking about this forgiveness and letting go of that and validating that's real.

What he said and what he promised and how he broke that, that's real.

I'm not saying pretend it didn't happen.

I'm saying it did happen.

Now you and I have a choice to say, am I gonna let this define me or refine me?

Which is it gonna be?

Because the second fact about dealing with these secret hurts is that perspective is powerful.

God longs for you and I to have perspective of these hurts, proper perspective.

Because if we don't deal with it, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and we justify it and rationalize it and say this is how I'm gonna be, period.

But if we'll say, God, refine me through this, it is a hurt, give me your perspective.

I want to give you a financial example of this perspective of our soul, and I hope it fits.

And it's simply this that would you agree we live in a very instant gratification society?

Would you would you go that far?

With apps and electronics, everything is instantaneous.

If I hit my map app and put in the address and I don't instantly have them, then I need to buy a new phone.

Because I'm waiting two minutes, two minutes of my life is gone waiting for this.

What is wrong with this?

Because we just want it now.

And yet God wants to give us the perspective, say, hey, there's there's a big picture here.

I'm over your entire life, and I've got a plan.

And I want to take this area of hurts, and it does, I'm admitted it hurts, but I want to give you a big perspective.

It's simply this.

Um, I need somebody towards the front that's a student.

Are you guys students?

How old are you right there?

How old are you?

Yes.

12.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Tell me your name real quick.

It's what?

Jasmine.

I love Jasmine.

Okay, Jasmine, what grade are you in?

Seventh grade, right on.

Okay, Jasmine, here's the deal.

I'm gonna give you a choice.

For the next 30 days, you can choose one of these two, okay?

I'm either gonna give you$1,000 every day.

A thousand dollars every day.

Or I'm gonna give you one penny.

But every day I'm gonna double it.

So the second day will be two pennies.

You got two thousand dollars or two pennies every day for 30 days.

Right now, at the top of your head, if you had to choose one of those two, a penny doubled every day or a thousand dollars every day for 30 days, honestly, which one would you take?

$1,000.

See, because that's a thousand dollars.

Because you're thinking today, I got a thousand dollars today.

Man, that's awesome.

See, here's what's gonna happen.

After two weeks, you would have$14,000.

You could buy a car at that point.

If you chose the penny, guess how much money you would have?

No, no, doubled.

It's doubled.

You'd have$81.92.

$81.92 or$14,000.

And halfway through you'd think this is the greatest decision of my life until you got to the 30 days.

Because at 30 days, I'm gonna ask you to do a little math here, okay?

If you got a thousand dollars a day for 30 days, at the end of 30 days, how much money would you have?

$30,000.

Very good.

I knew you were a math wizard.

Now, let me ask you this, Jasmine.

How much money do you think you would have if you took that penny and doubled it to two, doubled it to four, doubled it to eight?

How much money do you think you'd have at the end of 30 days?

I told you you'd have$81.92 after 14 days.

How much do you think you'd have after 30 days?

Okay, about$164.

Well, here's the truth.

If you keep doubling that penny and you double it and double it, after 30 days, you would have 10 million seven hundred and thirty-seven dollars, four hundred and eighteen dollars and twenty-three cents after thirty days.

If you take a penny and double it every day for 30 days, see, most of us literally, if we had that thousand, oh, you know,$1,000 or a penny, oh, the$1,000, that's that's instant mindset.

And it's the same with hurt.

I want to hold on to the pain that I know have, that I have it now, but there's something so much dramatically better.

And Jesus is saying to you and I say, you know what, the power perspective is amazing.

I want you to experience this power because the forgiveness we have received is monumental.

It may not feel like it in the moment that I need to forgive, but here's the truth: our first response to this gift is what really makes the difference.

When Jesus says, look not at where you've been hurt, look at the accumulation of all the sin and pain that you'll ever commit, and I'm gonna forgive that.

Last week we looked at our secret shame, and if you look at these crosses on the side, we just took that shame and we said, God, I'm I'm tired of this shame.

And we just got to connect with God and say, God, I'm gonna give this to you once and for all.

And being able to give that shame away, and then to have that hurt, he's saying, the perspective is monumental if you'll let me just write that on your heart.

We have to deal with the fact that his perspective is powerful.

Let me make this statement.

He's gonna put it on the screen.

Is it not true that we want grace when we do wrong?

We want justice when we've been wronged.

Does that make sense?

When I've done something wrong, mercy, mercy, forgive me, please, forgive me.

When somebody does us wrong, justice.

I want justice.

And God is both.

And what God is saying is, let me handle that.

He says, What you what I want you to have is this perspective.

Is when you're given, give.

The first thing that we get, we should give.

That's the power of perspective.

So anytime we are wronged, we should instantly look back at what we've been given as forgiveness and give that.

It's one of the reasons why we have part of our worship here are these giving stations.

You see them by the post, and you can do it online, you can do it electronically, you can put it in the little slot there.

But giving is just saying, God, I want to connect with you.

I want this bigger perspective that when I get from you, I want to be so appreciative to say, Lord, you've given me the ability, the opportunity, the capacity to do this.

And God, I want to give back to whatever it is you're doing.

It's a natural response.

It's a mode of operation that God longs for us to grab so that when we've been hurt, our first is to give forgiveness like we've been given it.

Because basically, I've shared this before, did a whole talk on it one Sunday.

We are living out of one, two capacities every day.

We live to get or we live to give.

Which am I doing on a weekly basis?

This morning, I want to just have the opportunity.

The crosses are still here.

On the tables in the corner of the room on both sides, there's a small piece of paper, and there's some pens.

This morning, I want to encourage you, if you're harboring one of those secret hurts, to live out this perspective.

We'll have a time at the end.

Take one of those sheets of paper, take the greatest hurt, your secret hurt, and write it on that sheet of paper.

And then take it to one of the four crosses that where we pasted our shame last week and just say, God, look at all the shame you've forgiven.

And all we have to do is accept that.

I'm gonna take my cross, and I'm gonna put the hurt that has been done to me as if this is my cross, just like you took the cross and took mine.

And just have an active way of saying, God, I'm not gonna harbor this anymore.

I'm gonna I'm gonna put it on the cross, I'm gonna deal with this.

See, because the truth, another fact about pain, the secret pain is it doesn't just go away.

It's either dealt with or not dealt with, it doesn't disappear.

And then when the enemy brings it back and starts throwing it as well, they deserve that.

Yeah, they do, but you know what?

I've dealt with it.

I've dealt with it.

I've pinned it on it, I've I've bared my cross, I've dealt with it, it's done.

I'm not bringing it up anymore.

It's forgiven, it's over.

When we give in anything, our first response should be give.

If I can give it a mental picture, how many of you have pets of any kind?

Pets?

Now, how many of you have dogs?

Okay, these are my favorite people.

Don't take that personally.

I love dogs.

We recently went to a restaurant.

We got a doggy bag, had a steak, had a great time, and I brought the bone home.

And it had two bones.

So I gave one to our pug and one to our shihuawa mixed dog.

And I'm just thinking, man, they are gonna love these bones.

They're gonna love the bones.

I can't wait to give them the bones.

And sure enough, I'm like, look at the bones.

And they do you know dogs have like five million sensors in their nose and they're they can smell things, and they're just like, I walked in the door and they just went straight to this.

I don't know I know something's in there and I'm one of it, and they're just like and then I pull them out the bones and then we start doing the happy things like they just turn it there going nuts.

And I'm like, and they start coming around and start coming up in the other one, she just goes, I'm the floor.

She's stomach, let's come up to make a map, it's like take a moment's common, and then I still get your bones, and I give them the bones, and then take the bones and skittles immediately, runs away, and he's up on the hill, and he's just like Princess goes to the edge of the porch, and she starts gnawing on hers, and I walk out and I sit down next to her, and she puts both hands over that bone, and she looks at me and she goes, I said, You have got to be killing me.

I just gave you that bone.

Who do you think you are?

How crazy are you gonna grow at the person who gave you that bone?

You know how dumb that is.

That's a dumbest dumbest talking to a dog.

That's how dumb that is.

Really?

That's that's your response.

That's exactly what God is saying right here and saying, you know what, you know how dumb it is to hold on to a pain?

I've forgiven you of everything, and now you're gonna turn and you're gonna growl at somebody else for something this big compared to me forgiving everything?

No, don't be foolish.

Have my perspective.

I don't want you to have the power of perspective.

Because when we make that choice, and here's the next last fact, our response to this secret pain, the fact is our response will be and is life-changing.

It's life-changing.

One way or another, bad or good, it is life-changing.

If we look in verses 32 through 34, then the master called him, he said, You wicked slave, I canceled all your debts.

And then in verse 33, shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?

In anger, his master turned him over to the jailer to be tortured until he should pay it back.

If we refuse to forgive, if we refuse to forgive, we will experience pain.

My friend Ken Williams shared an incredible quote on this.

He said, failing to forgive, being unforgiveful, is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

That's unforgiveness.

And if you and I will grasp that reality and say, you know what?

Do I really want to pay the price for all my faults?

Do I really want to experience that?

Or do I want to have the power of humility and say, God, I'm going to constantly walk back and thank you for all you have and are and will forgive me of.

And thus, I'm going to pass that on.

And let you let this hurt not define me, but refine me.

The crosses are a place to write down that hurt and pin it there, but I want us to have an opportunity to pray through this as well.

And refinement happens in precious metals through fire.

These tables towards the front here, they have matches on them in the little bucket, and they have a bunch of candles.

And I would encourage you, if you're one of those who I was and I've participated in this, that there's a hurt, and you're like, you know what?

I keep having to deal with this and say, you know what?

I'm going to deal with it.

I'm going to pin it to the cross.

And today, you can take this match and just light from one of the candles and just pray a simple prayer.

God, I want this not to define my life anymore.

I want you to use it to refine me.

And light a candle to just say, God, what this light is and this fire is in the simple candle, I want you to do to my heart.

Refine me through this.

And you can take that and light it, and there's some little pieces of little pots of sand at the end, and you just stick it in there after you've done that.

But say, God, refine my heart.

God, I don't want to deal with this hurt anymore.

I want to have it dealt with completely.

Because the truth is, a secret hurt will either be a moment or a monument.

And what we do when we light that and say, God, refine me through it, it changes from being something that builds in our life as a monument that is hard to break down to a moment where God says, I will refine you through it.

And then probably the most powerful is verse 35.

The final fact is that God's reaction to the way we deal with it is very clear.

Look at verse 35.

This is how your heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart.

Do I want torture?

Do I want torture and pain, or do I want forgiveness and freedom?

Which do I want?

I want freedom.

I want forgiveness.

And there's a wonderful opportunity on the tables to the side.

There's a way to connect with God very personally.

And Jesus did it before he left.

He says, every time you break bread, realize this is my body broken for you.

This is my blood spilled for you.

And connect with me.

Accept my forgiveness.

And when we take that, Lord's Supper, and we say, Lord, I accept your forgiveness.

And I accept your covering.

Not anything I can do.

We connect within God's way, saying, I want your way, not my way.

In just a second, I'm going to pray.

And we're going to have an opportunity to connect with God through these elements.

I want you to feel free to do one, two, all three, or none.

Because this is the part where we get to individually get along with God.

Maybe it's to take that piece of paper and say, God, here's the hurt that I've been harboring for months, years.

And Lord, I've never dealt with it.

So Lord, I'm going to write it down.

I know there's nothing magic here, but I'm going to nail it to the cross and say, just like you've forgiven me, I'm dealing with this.

I know it doesn't disappear, but I'm dealing with it.

It doesn't resolve the circumstances.

But God, your picture, your perspective is way bigger.

And then maybe it's to light that candle going, God, I want you to refine me through this.

I don't want it to define me anymore.

I want you to refine me and take advantage of on both sides up by the stage these candles and just light that.

Pray that God refine me and do that.

And maybe it's communion just going, God, I want you with me all the time.

Thank you for all that you have done.

Lead me in this.

So if you would, go ahead and stand up where you are.

And let's pray.

And at the end of the prayer, I want you to feel free to take part in whatever piece you want to take part in.

And the guys will play, and we'll have that opportunity, and then we'll close in one of the coolest celebration songs.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for this time where we can tangibly connect.

That you truly took our sin and shame and died for them.

So, Lord, we take these and we pin these to your cross.

As we take those pieces of paper and we write it down and we take one of those thumbtacks and we just put it there.

Let it just be acknowledgement.

God, I'm dealing with this.

I'm letting it go.

Or maybe it's to say, Lord, they don't even think about it anymore.

I want to refine me, Lord.

I want to light this candle, just refine who I am to become who you meant me to be as precious metal.

And Lord, even communion, that we would just say, God, walk with me through this.

You've forgiven me.

Let me just walk in a sense of receiving your forgiveness where it's just naturally forgiving.

So, Lord, as they as we play in just this moment, I pray that we just have a time to connect with you.

And it is only through the gift of your son and the power of your spirit we can pray.

Amen.

Take a few minutes and go.

But if you've taken the cup and the bread and you've taken it back, please take it with me now and just say, Lord, thank you for your body.

Broken for me, break me to forgive in that way as well.

And I took the bread.

And then Jesus took the cup and was showing what was about to happen.

He says, My blood will be spilled just like a sacrifice.

And this I do willingly for you.

And he took the cup and they drank.

Continue on for just a minute, and we'll do the closing song in just a minute.

Maybe you didn't have a chance to come up, or you thought it's a little crowded, or I'm not sure.

After we do this closing song, there will be people hanging out for a while.

Feel free to make your way to the corner and fill one of those out.

Feel free to light a candle.

Whatever way you connect with God is key.

And take your time.

We're going to do the closing song here, but take your time in this.

And this is a celebration.

When they told me about this song, I thought, what an incredible opportunity.

So if you would join me, stand up and pray with me.

Father, thank you for this time and this moment.

And I pray that it would not just be a moment, that we would build this as a monument of saying, Lord, I want to deal with these secret parts of my life.

And Lord, I want you to refine me.

And Lord, I thank you for bringing to my heart just what you've refined me already for and already brought me through.

So, Father, right now, as we celebrate in closing, I pray we would just continue to open our lives up in every way and let you flood in and refine us and make us who you made us to be.

And it is only through Christ we can pray.

Amen.