Living Hope in a World of Hurt Week 2 | Living Hope Motivates Us To Holy Living

We bow before you, Heavenly Father, acknowledging you as a holy God.

There is no one like you.

You are completely unstained by sin or evil.

But we also come to you as our Father, as our God, as our Creator, as our Redeemer, and as our friend.

And now, God, as we open your word, we need to hear from you.

Would you please teach us?

Please help us to have greater faith so that we can receive everything that you have for us from your word by faith.

And we do pledge to receive it in Jesus' name.

And all God's people say, Amen.

You can't be seated.

Welcome again to Family Church.

I'm glad all of you guys are here.

Welcome to the 10 a.m.

service.

My name is Jimmy Scrogans.

I'm one of the pastors here.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you before you leave today, I would love to have the chance to meet you personally to get to know your name and get to know a little bit about your story.

But right now we're going to have a Bible study.

We have a Bible study every Sunday at Family Church.

So go ahead and get your Bibles out.

Turn your Bibles on on your devices.

Grab a Bible from the pew in front of you and open up to the book of First Peter.

The book of First Peter.

It's almost at the end of the Bible.

It's at the very back.

And we're doing a series for the next several weeks where we're teaching through the books of 1 and 2 Peter.

And that's what we're doing here at Family Church.

And while you're turning there, I do just want to celebrate with you all of the baptisms that we saw on the screen.

Those are great from all of our family.

We have churches across South Florida.

It was also really fun to see Caitlin's baptism this morning.

And what a what a what a joy that was, and how how much fun all of that is.

And then Carlos and Kelsey, you guys letting us uh share with you the joy of dedicating Leona to the Lord.

And you guys are doing the right thing and a good thing.

It doesn't mean everything's perfect, but you're you're taking the right kind of steps, sending a signal to everybody about what you're all about.

So thank you for doing that and letting us share and what a what a beautiful day.

And then all of your family that's here.

Thank you guys for joining us today.

It's an honor to us.

We're glad that all of you are here.

And then I don't know if you noticed, but uh this morning uh my our our friend uh Caroline Levitt and her husband Nick and their children are here.

Caroline Levitt has served as the press secretary for the president of the United States, and she is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I want you to know how thankful I am.

She goes around Washington, D.C., and people treat her poorly and they throw things at her, and but when she comes to family church, she knows she's among friends who love her and care for her and are so grateful.

Caroline, I know you don't make the news, you just have to explain it.

And uh boy, what a what a what a great job you do.

So we're grateful for people who are Christians who are serving in significant positions in this nation, influencing the world for Christ.

So, our Bible study, 1 Peter chapter 1, in the Bible, the Bible says that Christians are supposed to live holy lives.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Christians are supposed to live holy lives.

This book, 1 Peter, was written by Saint Peter, one of Jesus' best friends.

He was a Jewish man, and he was writing to a congregation that was so there's some Jewish people who had become Christians and mostly Gentile people who had become Christians, and he's writing to them and he's trying to explain to them how a Christian is supposed to live a holy life.

And 1 Peter is written to Christians who feel like they are under pressure.

Things are not always going great for these people.

These people are under pressure, they're having a hard time, things aren't working out the way that they thought, and yet in the middle of that pressure and grief and betrayal and frustration, St.

Peter says Christians are supposed to live a holy life.

How do Christians live for Christ when things aren't going great?

I mean, you watch TV, you know, guys, how much I love college football.

I watched it all day yesterday, and college football is awesome.

But I always think about that coach in the winning locker room who always says, we want to thank God for giving us this great win.

What's the coach in the losing locker room saying?

You know, he's just in there trying to figure things out.

Some of you guys in business, when you close a huge deal or you sell your company or things go public and you say, wow, God's really blessing our company right now.

But what about when you have a terrible quarter?

Or what about when your boss calls you in and puts you on a performance improvement plan?

What then?

How do you live like a Christian?

How do you live a holy life when you're under pressure?

So let's read our text.

1 Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 13.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

And this is what the word of God says.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

And if you call on him his Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere, brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again.

Not a perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

And this is the word of God.

And all God's people say, Amen.

We received God's word at family church.

If you still have your Bible open, look down at the text.

Look at the words of the text.

Check out verse 13, the very first word of the text.

Therefore.

And the most basic rule of all Bible study is when you see the word therefore, you must look back up above that word and figure out what the therefore is, therefore.

So what is the word, therefore, therefore?

Look at it, verse 1 in the text.

You've got to use your eyes.

Look at verse 1.

In verse 1, St.

Peter calls the people he's writing to his God's elect.

The elect.

And when you see the word the elect, that's always referring to the Christians.

We can unpack everything that means another time, but it's talking about people who are already believers in Jesus.

So when St.

Peter says the elect, he's talking about people who have turned from their sins, who have turned to Christ, who have received Jesus by faith for themselves.

These are the elect.

And during the first half of the chapter last Sunday, Pastor Derek did such a great job teaching the Bible, teaching the whole first half of the chapter, and he talks some about what that all means.

But this is about, this is written to people who are already believers in Jesus.

And they they were, the Bible says that God had foreknowledge, verse 2, about Christ and about what would happen to them.

And he says that the way that they became believers in Jesus, they were sprinkled with the blood of Christ.

So because all that's happened to you, you are God's elect.

But Peter says that you were the elect of God, but you are elect exiles.

You are exiles in the world.

And I want you to know that is how you're going to feel sometimes when you're a Christian living in this world.

You're going to feel like an exile.

You're going to feel like you don't belong.

Exile describes your circumstances sometimes when things aren't going great.

But the word elect describes your identity no matter what.

The word exiles describes what you may be facing right in front of you, but the word elect describes what you know is coming for you in the future because Jesus is coming back.

So when you look at verse 13, and he says, Therefore, he's saying, Since you are a Christian, since you have been saved, and listen, if you're a Christian, he's saying you're supposed to live a certain kind of a way.

If you are a Christian, you are supposed to live a certain kind of a way.

And verse 15 and 16 tells you what kind of a way it is.

You're supposed to live a holy life.

If you're going to be a Christian, you are supposed to live a holy life.

What does the word holy mean?

Because some of you are like, I don't think I want to be holy.

I don't like that word holy.

I mean, if I'm a holy, if I if I get too holy, someone's going to call me a holy roller.

And I don't want to be a holy roller.

If I get too holy, somebody's going to think, you think you're better than me.

You're holier than thou.

That's not what he's saying to do.

What does the word holy mean?

The word holy means set apart.

Set apart, which means if you're going to be a Christian, you're going to have to agree to be different.

Different than you used to be before you became a Christian, and different from other people who are not Christians.

You're going to believe some different things, you're going to choose some different things, you're going to do some different things.

You've got to be willing to be different.

But it doesn't just mean different.

Holy also means pure, undefiled, unstained by sin and evil.

Pure and undefiled and unstained by sin and evil.

That's what the Bible means when God says we're supposed to be holy.

And here Christians are instructed to live holy lives.

Not perfect, but different.

Less sin, more righteousness over time.

Well, how do we actually do that?

And if you're going to take notes, I'd encourage you.

It's a great place for you to take notes.

We gave you a program.

There's some fill-in-the-blanks there.

It'd be good for you to be in the habit of writing things down when we have a Bible study.

So here's what holy living means for believers.

Number one, if you're going to live holy, number one, you must anchor down.

You must anchor down.

Now we have some church members, there might be some in the room, who attended Vanderbilt University.

And Vanderbilt, I like them because they're moving their entire graduate school of business here to downtown West Palm Beach.

And Vanderbilt has this slogan for their athletic programs that I really like.

The slogan for their athletic programs is Anchor Down.

Anchor Down.

Now, Vanderbilt, in case you didn't know, they're not really known for their football program.

Okay?

Now, sometimes they have some good teams.

They have a decent team right now, but they're not famous for their football program.

They're almost always underdogs when they play the teams that they play.

They play the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, they play LSU.

I mean, these guys got a tough schedule, and they're almost always underdogs.

And when you're a David facing Goliath every week, you learn how to anchor down.

You've got to learn how to do it.

And so that's what St.

Peter's is telling Christians in this text.

If we're going to live in this world, we've got to learn how to anchor down.

That's why verse 13 is so powerful.

Look at it.

It says you're supposed to prepare your minds for action, and you're supposed to be sober-minded.

Prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded.

You have to be prepared for action.

That phrase, prepare your minds for action, actually means gird up the loins of your mind.

Gird up the loins of your mind.

So that is the weirdest phrase I've ever heard in my life.

Why would I want to gird up the loins of your mind?

Here's what it means.

Back in those days, men wore long flowing garments, long flowing robes.

And if you were an athlete or if you were a farmer or if you're a soldier, you'd walk around with this long flowing outfit on.

But if you ever got ready to do what you need to do, you're ready to work, you're ready to fight, you're ready to compete.

You couldn't fight, work, or compete with this long flowing garment.

You would have to gird up the garment and you put a belt on and you would gird up your robe, your garment, so that you could do what you were supposed to do.

And see, Peter says you're supposed to gird up the loins of your mind.

Prepare your minds for action.

You're not supposed to sit there and then when something happens, you act like, oh, I didn't know that anything was going to happen.

I didn't know I was supposed to react to anything.

I didn't know I was supposed to respond to anything.

You're supposed to be sitting there prepared for action.

That's what Christians have to do.

Be ready to move, be ready to act, to do something.

And if you don't live like that, what will happen to you is you will always refer, revert to your default setting.

And your default setting is passivity.

Your default setting is just, well, I'll just let whatever happens happen.

I'll just let whatever happens happen.

That's not God's design for you.

Prepare your mind for action.

Be ready to respond.

Be ready to do something.

We have a lot of people in our church that are in recovery a lot.

And if you're in recovery, a lot of people go to Alcoholics Anonymous, which is a good program.

And one of the things they do is they ask you to go to a meeting at least once a week.

And the reason you go to that meeting is every week you've got to get refocused and you've got to prepare your mind for action so you don't revert back to those old habits that got you in trouble.

And you go to the meeting, that meeting reminds you to do it.

Well, Alcoholics Anonymous didn't come up with that pattern.

Christians have been doing this for 2,000 years.

You come to church every week, you get with your church family to remind you to be prepared for action.

So you don't revert back to the old ways before you met Christ.

That's how you stay sober-minded, like it says in the text.

That's how you anchor down.

That's how you set your hope.

So being a Christian means you're simultaneously ready to move, and yet you are not being moved.

You're ready to move, prepare your mind for action, but you're not going to just be moved by someone else because you're going to set your hope.

You're going to anchor down.

So you've heard somebody say, hey man, don't just stand there, do something.

St.

Peter would say the same thing, prepare for action.

But St.

Peter would also say, don't just do something, stand there.

Set your hope, you see.

Anchor down.

That's how the Christian life is.

And notice that he says, you're supposed to fully set your hope on Christ.

Fully set your hope on Christ.

This is a tough one.

Being a Christian is not supposed to be like your spiritual side hustle.

Being a Christian is not supposed to be your spiritual side hustle.

Either do it or you don't do it.

Either go all in or stay all out.

Be hot or be cold.

God doesn't like lukewarm.

Being a Christian, he says, fully set your hope on Christ.

Not 50-50.

Not Sunday, praise Jesus.

Monday, something else.

Not Christian-ish.

If you want to live like a Christian, anchor down all the way.

Set your hope.

Set your hope.

Set it.

Lock it in and rip the knob off.

No retreat, no surrender.

Burn the ships.

Burn the bridges.

Anchor down with Jesus.

And if you don't, here's what's going to happen to you.

If you don't make a decision to do that, you're going to be a spiritually unstable person.

And you will just go from podcast to podcast.

From TikToker to TikToker.

From favorite pastor on YouTube to favorite pastor on YouTube.

From church to church, and you'll just be a church hopper and you'll never be locked in and you'll never have any consistency and you'll never develop any personal sense of theology or doctrine.

You gotta anchor down somewhere with Christ.

Set your hope.

And that's why, if you've never been converted to Christ, could I just invite you, could I encourage you to consider converting to Christ?

Consider becoming a Christian.

Consider turning from your sins and turning to Christ and receiving Jesus by faith for yourself.

Because if you would do that, that's how you start this process of anchoring down, setting your hope on Christ.

That's why you should be baptized.

So awesome having Caitlin baptized in here.

I mean, she got up here in front of all of you guys, and she doesn't even know all of you guys, and she got right in this water and she let us baptize her, put her all the way under the water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And why did she do that?

Because she's sending a signal to you.

I'm anchoring down in Christ.

And I'm anchoring down in this church.

It's the same thing that happened.

Same thing that happened.

We have a parent-child dedication.

We are anchoring down right here in this church.

We are anchoring down on Christ.

That's why you should be in a group.

That's why you should take the Lord's Supper every week here at family church.

That's why you should not be a church hopper or an occasional attender.

Anchored down.

Set your hope in Christ.

Do it with a church family that will love you and help you.

A set of pastors that will coach you and encourage you, that will circle the wagons around you when you need it.

And let me just ask you: are you anchored down spiritually?

Is that described who you are?

Are you anchored down in Christ?

Do you have a place?

And if you're not, why not?

What's holding you back?

I say I'll tell you what's holding you back, Pastor Jimmy.

Don't love you.

And don't think this place is so great.

It's okay.

We're not the only church in the world.

Man, go find a church that you believe in.

Go find a pastor that you love and anchor down there.

But anchor down with Christ and find a church family and anchor down.

Set your hope.

Number two, thing you've got to do.

If you want to live a holy life, even when you're in a pressure, number you've got to learn to be obedient.

You must be obedient.

And I'm not going to spend all day here, but you must learn to live your life according to God's design.

And let's look at the text.

Keep your Bibles open.

Look at the text.

Look at verse 14.

What does he say?

Be like obedient children.

Look at verse 17.

It says, and you're going to call upon God as your father.

So there's this relational component.

Obedience to God doesn't start with some dictator in the sky throwing down authoritarian commands on you.

Obedience starts with a relationship with God.

You're obedient children to a heavenly father.

You know, I feel bad sometimes.

I meet some people and they don't understand this about God.

This isn't about following a bunch of rules.

This isn't about somebody jerking you around all the time, telling you you're a bad person.

This is about you developing a relationship with God where you see Him as a loving but strong heavenly father.

Plenty of people want to call themselves God's children, but God's true children figure out what God wants from them because they read the Bible and then they try to do it.

So what does that look like in practice?

Verse 14, look at the text, look at your look at your Bibles.

Don't be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

Verse 15, be holy in all of your conduct.

Verse 17, conduct yourselves with fear.

And some of you are like, uh, I don't like that.

Pastor Jimmy, we're not supposed to be afraid of God.

He loves us so much.

I know he does love you so much, and you don't have to be afraid of him like that.

But I'll just tell you this: my dad goes to this church.

He's in his 80s.

I had a loving dad who disciplined me.

And let me tell you, when I was out of line, I did have a little sense of healthy fear when I was dealing with my dad.

And I've raised six sons and two daughters.

You know what I want for them?

When they're out of line, I don't want them to know I love them.

I'm never going to abuse them, but I want them to have a little sense of healthy fear if they're out of line.

That's called parenting.

And God is your heavenly father.

Do you think God is just going to let you do whatever you want?

God is trying to get you to line up just as surely as you're trying to get your children to line up.

Verse 22, you're supposed to be obedient if you're calling yourself a child of God.

Your life and your choices after you become a Christian have to be different than your life and your choices before you became a Christian.

And you've got to resist the pull of your old patterns of sinful thoughts and activity.

And it is a pull.

It just is.

You know how it is?

You're trying to live the Christian life, you're doing pretty good.

Then all of a sudden you run into that one person that you used to run with, and you can just feel the pull.

You kind of want to go back and do that again.

Or you listen to that song that comes on.

That song you used to listen to all the time.

When you used to do the things that you used to do, and it comes on, you're like, yeah.

I remember that.

1985.

I'm back, you know.

I know half of y'all weren't even born now, but I was.

But that's what St.

Peter says.

He says, Don't be conform to those old things.

Don't be conform when it comes to the world.

Christians have to learn to be non-conformists.

You don't have to be like everybody else.

You're not going to believe what everybody else believes.

You're not going to do what everybody else does.

Don't conform.

And why don't you conform?

Verse 17, because God's the judge of your life.

One day you're going to face God and you're going to account for all of the deeds of your life.

You're going to count to God.

And God is your father, but God is your judge.

You say, yeah, but it's hard for me to think about being obedient just because God's my father, because God's my judge.

If nothing else, be obedient because you're grateful for Jesus.

You know what Jesus has done for you?

His body has been broken, his blood has been shed so that you could be forgiven of your sins.

That's why it says in here that you were purchased by the precious blood of Christ.

So, how let me just ask you, how are you doing with that?

Hey, if you're a believer, how are you doing with that?

Is there an area of your life where you've just kind of tried to make a deal with God and say, hey, this area, I'm just not gonna do it?

These other areas, I'm on board.

This area, not on board, God.

He wants you to be holy in all of your conduct.

And when it comes to God, he wants it all.

What needs to change about you?

What decisions do you need to make that are different?

Is there some area of your life that you need to say, man, I need to line up here?

You're already forgiven if you're a believer in Jesus.

Jesus has been crucified for your sins.

It's not like you're gonna go to hell, but the question is, why aren't you lining up?

Like obedient children.

And my kids disobey me.

They're not gonna stop being my kids.

But why don't you line up?

I want what's best for you.

I love you.

I'm trying to help you.

That's how God feels about you.

So what needs to change?

Hey, maybe maybe you're sleeping with somebody you're not supposed to be sleeping with.

Maybe you should stop doing that.

Or marry them.

Maybe you should break up with them.

Maybe you need to get some help.

Maybe you need to get sober.

Maybe you should stop being such a big gossip.

Maybe you should clean up your mouth because it's dirty.

Maybe you should clean up your jokes because they're nasty.

Maybe you should learn to give money.

Maybe you should learn to pray.

Maybe you should learn to study the Bible for yourself.

What would God in heaven say to you if he was whispering in your ear right now?

If God in heaven is just you and him and he knows you very well, what would God say?

Here's what you need to do to be obedient to me.

Here's what you need to do to live a holy life.

And I would just encourage you, why don't you become like an obedient child who has the right attitude towards their dad?

Become like an obedient child who has the right attitude towards their dad who loves them.

You say, Yeah, but Pastor Jimmy, I don't feel like I can do that.

There's too much water under the bridge.

You don't know how I grew up.

I didn't grow up with a dad who was a football coach and a Marine and a Christian and a stay-at-home mom.

I didn't get to grow up like that, Jimmy.

You don't even know what I'm dealing with.

You don't know what I've done.

You don't know the pit that I've fallen into.

You're right, I probably don't.

But Jesus does.

I probably don't, but Jesus does.

And listen to what St.

Peter says to you, number three, on your notes.

You must live free if you're gonna live holy.

If you're gonna live holy, you've got to learn to live free.

Look at the text.

This is the best, guys, this is the best part of the Bible study this morning.

This is the best part.

So wake up.

If you've gone away, come back to me.

Put your phones away.

Fantasy lineups will wait.

Just dial in for a second.

The reason you can actually obey Jesus and live a holy life, no matter what has happened, no matter where you're coming from, verse 18.

Because if you're a Christian, you were ransomed.

You were ransomed.

That's a picture.

You were held hostage by your past and your parents and your family tree and your decisions and what has happened to you.

You were held a hostage, and it was like you're never gonna get out.

But then here comes Jesus, and his body is broken, and his blood is shed, and you are ransomed.

No, you say, Well, no, there's not enough money in the world that could buy me out of the trouble that I've been in.

You're right, that's why he didn't buy you with perishable things like silver or gold, the text says.

You've been bought with the precious blood of Christ.

Come on.

Recently, this really happened.

This really happened.

Recently, there was a woman, her name is Cecilia.

And Cecilia started coming to our church and she shared her story with us.

She said that she once was in this terribly abusive relationship, and some of you have been there.

And her husband was so mean to her.

Sometimes when he went to work, he would lock her in the bathroom.

And he put a TV in there and turned the TV up loud so that no one could hear if she tried to get out.

But he started leaving the TV TV on, and it was on a Christian station.

And while she was locked in that bathroom, she heard the gospel of Jesus.

And her captor, who abused her, actually provided a way for her to hear the gospel unbeknownst to him.

And after listening to the gospel day after day, Cecilia came to the point where she made a decision to turn from her sins and turn to Christ.

And here's what she says.

In that bathroom, his her own words, in that moment, the chains that had kept me bound were broken.

And Jesus began to set me free.

And so Cecilia began to walk with Jesus, and she came to our church.

And a few weeks ago, Cecilia got baptized at family church up in Stewart.

And I just tell you that to say, this is Cecilia's own words.

This is what she said.

She said, Here's what God's doing in my life.

She said, I want to know God and grow in my relationship with Him.

I want to read and understand His Word.

I want to live in obedience to His will.

I want to pursue peace, holiness, and integrity.

I want to forgive instead of holding on to bitterness.

I want to love others as Christ has loved me.

And so for all of you who wrestle with all the things that you've done and all the things that have happened to you, and all the terrible memories that you can never push out of your mind, and all the things that are messed up about your family.

St.

Peter specifically says to you, you are ransomed from the futile ways you have inherited from your forefathers.

So you can't say, I can't do anything for God because of my past.

I can't do anything for God because of my parents.

If you're a Christian, you have been ransomed.

You have been ransomed, delivered from all of that.

So you don't have to go around beating yourself up about your past or apologizing for your family tree.

It's amazing that God can actually use the worst things that have ever happened to you to create a picture of his grace and his ransom.

Now look, I'm not acting like when you became a Christian, everything gets okay.

That's not true.

And some of you know that.

Your parents split up, and then you became a Christian, and you still have to go to two Christmases every year.

If you were abused and you become a Christian, it doesn't erase that from your life.

If you had some bad habits that you developed because of choices that you made, you become a Christian, you may still have to work on that.

If you have mental health challenges, you may still have to work on that.

But none of that should keep you from loving Jesus and trying to live a holy life.

You should anchor down.

You should be obedient.

You should recognize I'm free from my sins.

That's your situation in Christ.

Okay, but where do we find out what to actually do?

Number four, on your notes.

Stand on God's word.

Stand on God's word.

How can we be holy?

St.

Peter says the only way you can live a holy life is you learn to focus on things that will last.

Learn to focus on things that will last.

And he gives this example.

He says, listen, let's look at the grass and the flowers.

Now let me just ask you something, family church.

Do you think grass and flowers are good or bad?

Which one?

They're good, right?

Grass is good, flowers are good.

Without grass, you can't feed the animals.

Without animals, we can't eat.

Flowers are good.

They're supposed to be cultivated.

We're grateful to God.

Those are gifts of God in our lives.

But those things do not last.

The flower falls and the grass withers.

The grass withers and the flower falls.

So you don't set your hope in grass or flowers.

Hey, I wonder if any of us are ever tempted.

I wonder if any of us are ever tempted to treat things in this life like grass or flowers.

Things that are actually good, but they don't last.

Maybe it's a job or a certain relationship or a certain level of status or a number of followers or a degree or a certain amount of money you want to sock away so you feel comfortable.

I don't know what it is for you.

Those things can all be good things.

There's nothing wrong with those things.

But those aren't eternal things.

Those things don't last.

Those things are perishable like silver or gold.

So you set your hope on God.

You set your hope on Christ.

And where do you find out about it?

From God's word, the Bible.

That is the teaching of the apostles and the prophets.

That's the teachings of Jesus and the disciples.

And that's why he says in verse 23, you have been born again through the living and abiding word of God.

Why do we go through books of the Bible here at Family Church?

Why don't we come here, you know?

We don't sit up here and try to tell you, you know, here's five tips for time management, and here's seven habits of being successful.

I'm for time management and I'm for being successful.

We're gonna try to teach you the word of God.

You know why?

Because all the grass and all the grass is gonna wither and all the flowers are gonna fall, but the word of God is what is gonna last forever.

And what does the word of God teach you?

The word of God from Genesis to revelation is about Jesus.

The word of God from Genesis to Revelation is pointing you to Christ.

And Christianity is not about something else.

Christianity is about Christ.

And this church is not about something else.

This church is about Christ.

And if you're a Christian, your life shouldn't be about something else.

Your life should be about Christ.

And one of the ways we remind ourselves of how we got here and how we're ransomed and how we're saved.

And we remind ourselves of why God calls us and empowers us to live holy lives, is because of the precious blood of Christ.

And every Sunday at Family Church, to help you anchor down, we take the Lord's Supper together, which we're going to do right now.

And the Lord's Supper is the way that believers remember the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And the Lord's Supper is for Christians.

If you're here today, you're not a Christian, you should not take the Lord's Supper.

And after you become a part of a neighborhood church.

If you would take the Lord's Supper at your church, take it with us today as part of the extended family of Jesus that goes around the world.

But right now, let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes, let's draw close to the Lord, let's confess our sins to the Lord.

Let's thank God for ransoming us with the precious blood of Christ.

And then in just a moment, we'll eat and drink the Lord's Supper together.