Meditation

I know. I say that when the storm seems gone,

you never leave me alone. I say that when the

storm seems gone, you never leave me alone. Amen.

Just need a little bit of space. Okay. Did we

have enough? It's always the question, isn't

it? I don't know. Did everybody get a paper?

Does everyone have one? Okay. Do we have exactly

enough? God does that sometimes. All right. If

you see anybody come in late, we'll need to make

some copies. Oh, we've got one left. We can have

one more person come in. Get on the phone right

now and invite them. I'm just kidding. You can

if you want. After that, we'll need copies. Okay.

So as you can see by looking at the screen, we're

going to talk about meditation. Now we spent

a six months emphasis on meditation just ended

three months ago. So we've talked a lot about

meditation. So this is not going to go over the

full topic of meditation. If you hang around

at New Heights long enough, we will have another

six months emphasis on meditation and we'll really

delve into it a lot more. And I would encourage

you to study, to work through it, learn as much

as you can about it. There really is no end to

how beneficial it can be. Before we fill in any

blanks, we're going to look at the scripture,

and I'm going to read some texts, and they're

up there in a row right under the title. So if

you have your Bible, you get a little head start

to potentially flip along through those texts

with me. I did not pre -mark them or anything,

and so it'll take me whatever time it gets me

to get through. Although I might know one or

two of them from memory, but I'll try to take

that into account so I don't take off on you.

So, you know, the book of Psalms, the book of

Psalms is prayers and readings and writings from

the temple and the tabernacle before that. And

so everything we got here is really old, comes

from a long time ago, really God focused type

stuff before Jesus, but still feeling the Holy

Spirit and trying to figure out everything about

God that they possibly could. OK, so Psalm one,

you can take a handful of them if you need to.

Psalm one says as follows. How blessed is the

man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in

the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the

law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates

day and night. So really all we would need would

be that last part where it says, in his law he

meditates day and night. Now, we're not going

to do this, but if I went around the room and

I said, which one of you thinks about the Bible

every day and every night? So you got some Bible

verses memorized, you get your Bible out, you

read some things, whatever, and you spend every

day and every night you make a point of thinking

about the Bible. I'm guessing our numbers would

not be super high, okay? But the idea of thinking,

so the word there where it says meditates, right,

is to think deeply, and we'll break that down

a little bit more in a minute, but it's to think

deeply about the word. It goes back a long time

before Jesus came, a long time before people

were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a long time

before Jesus and the New Testament gave us the

commands to do exactly what we're talking about

today. So it's kind of almost always been like

that. I want you to think about all the way back

before, let's go back as far as like Abraham's

day. And we have every reason to believe that

Moses essentially wrote down pretty much most

of what we have prior to that, the Septuagint.

The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible,

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Nebuchadnezzar, he

pretty much wrote that down, okay? How is it

that people remembered it so clearly if that

was the first time that the whole thing was written

down? It was because families told each other

the stories. They didn't have books. Some of

them couldn't read. The printing press certainly

did not exist. That didn't come about for thousands

of years, right? And so there weren't copies.

And if you talk about a book, you're talking

about a big scroll, right? There was a certain

amount length of how much could be written on

a scroll. And it would be like the maximum scroll

that you could roll up then and carry around

like on your shoulder kind of thing or tucked

under your arm like a big log like this. And

there's a certain length that it could be. And

we noticed that a number of the biblical books

are like that. They're about that general length.

Right. And and shorter. None of them are longer

than that. And so the point is, they would pass

the stories to each other. And then as they pass

the stories to each other, they would talk about

it like. we'd talk about the story of Noah. So

there was a guy named Noah. He was pretty much

the last righteous guy on the earth. And God

was ready to wipe out the earth. The guy was

sick of mankind. He was grieved at what he had

done in making mankind because there's so much

evil. Man, it was wicked all the time everywhere.

But Noah wasn't like that. So God said to Noah,

build an ark, right? And then he memorized the

dimensions of the ark. And then they talk about

what the ark would look like. Not like a big

boat, but more like a big box, right? And then

after they told the story of Noah, Then the kids

and the teenagers and the family, they would

all talk about it. And that talking about it,

just having conversation without writing anything

down, was the process of meditation. Then the

next day while they're working in the field,

what are they thinking about? They didn't watch

TV. They didn't have a cell phone. They didn't

do anything electronic, play video games, any

of that, right? So the next day when they're

working in the field, they're thinking about

the stories from the night before, right? And

that was meditating day and night, all day, thinking

about what God... had given them to remember

notice though it says our delight is in the law

of the lord that's where we find joy so if you're

finding a lot of joy and a lot of other things

things on your phone things on your tv relationships

other people things like that realize that there

is a higher joy in knowing the things that god

has for you that's huge okay all right the next

text to look at then is joshua 1 8 i have them

written down i don't know why i looked up there

all right but you can follow along so joshua

So Joshua was the guy who basically replaces

Moses. So the story of Moses goes kind of like

this. Moses is the leader, brings them out of

Egypt, leads them. They don't go into the promised

land like they're supposed to, 40 years wandering

in the desert. They're told that no one except

Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to go into

the promised land, because they were the only

two that brought back a godly report. They also

said that the land was full of big people, but

they said, it's okay, we need to go anyway, God's

going to take care of it. And the other 10 people

were chickening out. So then they wound up trying

to fight without God on their side. Then they

wind up in the wilderness for four years. Moses

leads them that entire time. Now they're after

all that, and they're finally going to go into

the promised land. But while they were in the

wilderness, Moses sinned. Moses was their leader.

He had done everything that he was supposed to

do. But at a certain moment in time, he sinned

against God. God told him to go and speak to

a rock. The Israelites were complaining for lack

of water. He said, go speak to the rock. And

instead... Moses struck the rock with his staff

and yelled at the Israelites and said, must I

give you water out of this rock to get you to

stop complaining, basically? And he was angry

at them. And so his anger at them and his yelling

at them and striking the rock, right, when all

God did was tell him to command the rock to yield

water and it would, God said, now you will not

go into the promised land. So right before they're

supposed to go in the promised land, Moses gives

a huge speech. Two of them, actually, that's

the book of Deuteronomy. That's why it's called

that, because it's two huge speeches. And then

he hands the mantle over to Joshua. Joshua will

now lead them into the promised land. Moses goes

up on the mountain with God. And there's a very

interesting verse there. In the Hebrew, it says

this. It says that God spoke him dead. So he

lived to be 120 years old. His body was still

strong. It says that his eyes were still good.

And then God spoke him dead. So God took Moses'

life. And then it says that God hid Moses' body

so they wouldn't know where they put it. He buried

it somewhere in a big valley, but he didn't tell

anybody where. Right. And why didn't he do that?

Because he didn't want the people to worry about

Moses or worship Moses or venerate his tomb,

make a worship place out of it, anything like

that. So so then Joshua takes over and he's going

to take him into the promised land. That starts

Joshua, the first chapter of the book of Joshua.

And we're listening to Joshua as he's getting

his commission. Verse seven says, only be strong

and very courageous. Be careful to do according

to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded

you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the

left so that you may have success wherever you

go. And then in verse eight, it says, this book

of the law shall not depart from your mouth,

but you shall meditate on it day and night so

that you may be careful to do according to all

that is written, for then you will make your

way prosperous and then you will have success.

And so even before Christianity, before the coming

of the Holy Spirit, before Jesus promises blessings,

even before people could be invited into the

family of God, pass their sins and whatever,

God was saying, you do what I tell you, I'll

take care of you. How are you going to do what

God tells you unless you, according to what it

says, meditate on the word of God? You have to

focus on what God is telling you to do. And people

say, well, I can't, I can't do it. I can't beat

my, I can't overcome my, I can't deal with my

whatever. And then here it is, you know, focus

on the word of God, meditate on it day and night.

And God provides. All right. Now, if you, if

you think it's sorcery. If I just focus on the

word of God, God is required to provide something

for me. That's not really true. It's not a spell

that you cast. But if you truly delight in the

law of the Lord, delight in what God has given

you to know, then God will show up and do things.

That's what it says. I'll read it again. This

book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,

but you shall meditate on it day and night so

that you may be careful to do according to all

that is written in it. For then you will make

your way prosperous and then you will have success.

Good promises. Three left. Next is Philippians

4 .8. Moving right along. Philippians 4 .8. So

now Paul is writing to the church in Philippi.

Philippi was a city, kind of a city -state, but

it had been kind of consumed by the Roman Empire.

And so he's writing to the church that has been

established in Philippi, and he's kind of telling

them how to live as a church and as God's people.

Talking about rejoicing, don't worry, don't be

anxious, lift everything up to God in prayer.

It says the peace of God will surpass all comprehension,

right? And then in verse eight, he says, finally,

brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,

whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever

is lovely, whatever is of good repute, that means

that has a good reputation. If there is any excellence

and if anything worthy of praise, and here it

is, here's the phrase, dwell on these things.

To dwell on a thing is to meditate on it, is

to focus on it, to let that be the only thing

you see, hear, and take in, right? Dwell on it.

If you're focused on one thing, then everything

else sort of falls away. Everything else becomes

not as important. And that's what we were called

to do. And that's Paul writing to the church

of Philippi, okay? Then we go Colossians 3 .16.

I know these are going kind of fast, but it's

okay because the... The points, as we fill in

the points, are going to, on the worksheet, are

going to help us get it. Some people are doing

the worksheet right now. There's some really

cool coloring things. Maybe not cool, but fun.

Okay. All right. Now he's writing. So again,

Paul, he's writing to the church at Colossae.

Okay. And in chapter three of the book that he

wrote, it's really a long letter to the church

at Colossae. We'll go back as far as verse 12,

and I'm just going to kind of skip some through.

I'm not going to read the whole thing. So as

those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved.

Put on a heart of compassion. And he goes on

to say, give a list of how they should live.

Bear with one another. 14. Beyond all these things,

put on love. 15. Let the peace of Christ rule

in your hearts. The peace of Christ rule in your

hearts. Okay. And then 16. Let the word of God,

the word of Christ, richly dwell within you.

With all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one

another. with psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts

to God. Get that first part. Let the word of

Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom,

teaching, admonishing, singing, hymns, etc. Okay?

Last one. 1 Timothy 4 .15. Okay. 1 Timothy. So

now, this is Paul's letter to Timothy. So Timothy

is a young church leader. He's been raised in

a godly home, right? So he was raised by... godly

women but not necessarily christians right meditate

on the word focus on the word that kind of thing

but not necessarily knowing for sure who jesus

was because jesus hadn't come yet then his public

ministry hadn't happened yet then he commissions

timothy to be a leader in the church and everything

in the book in first timothy is about how to

be a leader in the church all right how to be

a servant like what god has called us to so 11

he says prescribe and teach these things Let

no one look down on you for being a young person

or for your youthfulness, but rather in speech,

conduct, love, faith, purity, all that. Show

yourself an example. Then 13 says, until I come,

give attention to the public reading of scripture.

14, do not neglect the spiritual gift within

you. 15, take pains with these things, be absorbed

in them. That means they should be your main

focus. What the church does, what God's people

does, that's the most important thing. The rest

of it is all distraction, every bit of it. Not

that you can't take the word to school with you,

but school is largely a distraction from the

kingdom of God. Unless you're there for God,

you can't take it to work. That's a problem.

And that kind of thing. Then we're in 1 Timothy

4 .15. It says, Take pains with these things.

Be absorbed in them so that your progress will

be evident to all. Pay close attention to your

teaching. I'm sorry, to yourself. and to your

teaching and persevere in these things. For as

you do this, you will ensure salvation both for

your house and for those who hear you. I'm sorry,

for yourself and for those who hear you. There

we go. Got it. Okay. So now we've read the verses.

Now we have the worksheet. It was my extra person.

All right. Move right along. Now, if you've got

a chance to peruse the worksheet, you see that

I also gave you the answers. Okay. But here's

what we're going to do. We're going to read the

sentence. We're going to fill in the word when

we fill in the sentence. And then someone, preferably

not me all the time. OK, someone is going to

tell us what it means. So just restate it in

your own words. OK. All right. So now we're talking

about meditation. Bearing in mind the things

that we just read. It says biblical meditation

is the active, prayerful blank of God's word.

What goes into blank? Pondering. OK, so now tell

me. Somebody tell me what that means. Biblical

meditation. Is the active, prayerful pondering

of God's Word, what does that mean? Or just restate

it in your own words. Say again? Okay, yeah,

for example. Yeah, so you're saying it is wondering

about God's Word, wondering of God's Word, how

awesome it is, that kind of thing? Yeah, okay.

Can somebody add anything? Biblical meditation

is the act of prayerful pondering of God's word.

How does this make it different from, say, Eastern

meditation, like Asian, African? When they talk

about meditation outside the church, what is

meditation? Say it again. Okay, yeah, so he's

making the face and he's got the hands out and

it's om, right? Exactly. So when the world talks

about meditation, most of the time they're talking

about not thinking about anything. Emptying your

head. And that's what this is. That sound is

supposedly able to get you to only focus on the

sound and nothing else. Om. Om is a mystical

sound that makes you not think about anything

else. Just making the sound over and over again.

It's a droning. And so biblical meditation is

not that. If you say, I'm doing meditation the

way God told me to do meditation, you're thinking

about nothing. You are not doing meditation.

That's wrong. That's a lie. Meditation is not.

So when you sit in front of your TV and zone

out, that cannot be meditation. In fact, if you're

watching a Christian show and it's teaching you

something, that's not necessarily meditation.

It's when you step away from the show. and meditate

on the teaching. Biblical meditation is that

wonder. It's that pondering, thinking about,

ask the questions. What does this mean to me?

What am I going to do about this? Okay. All right.

Next one. We believe the Bible is the inspired,

inerrant, and that is a typo. Okay. Authority

of our faith. Authoritative is the word. I'm

not even sure what I was putting in there. So,

okay. Anyway, it's authoritative for our faith.

All right. So if the Bible is inspired, inerrant,

and authoritative, what does that mean? What

does inspired mean? Give them to me one at a

time. Somebody tell me what inspired means. It's

a key phrase that we always use when we talk

about inspired. It means God breathed. That's

what the literal definition of the word inspired

in the Bible means. God breathed. Okay? So inspired

is God breathed. Inerrant. What does that mean?

Always correct. Always correct. No mistakes.

No errors. Simple. Okay? And then authoritative.

What does that mean? It has authority. So what

does it mean to have authority? Say it again.

Have control. So it deserves to have control.

It's authoritative. It can tell us what to do.

According to Joshua 1 .8, the book of the law

should not depart from your mouth. So what does

that mean? That was a pretty easy one. Somebody

can answer what it means. Reagan, what does that

mean? The book of the law should not depart from

your mouth. What does it mean? You got it. So

if we say the book of the law is the Bible, if

we say the Bible should not depart from your

mouth, what does that mean? It means you should

always eat it. Exactly. You should always talk

about it. So those conversations that you have

about everything else and the Bible never enters

in, that's when you know you're doing it wrong.

Any other time you might be saying nothing or

you might be talking about the Bible. You might

or might not be talking about the right part

of the Bible. But when you have whole conversations

and the Bible doesn't enter in at all, that's

when you know you're doing it wrong. You should

at least be talking with your mouth full. The

Bible's in there too, right? So the Bible's here,

and I'm talking around the Bible. So I'm thinking

about the Bible, and I should be talking about

the Bible, but I'm talking around it so we can

have the conversation that we have, and we'll

get to it in a minute or whatever. Talk with

your mouth full, because the Bible should never

depart from your mouth, according to Scripture,

okay? The blessed man in Psalm 1 -2 finds his

blank in the law of the Lord. Delight, okay?

What does that mean? Yes, he's good. It makes

you happy, right? There is something great about

this. If you're like, oh, man, I got to read

my Bible again today. Oh, Pastor Dan's preaching

on the Bible again today. We're going to talk

about more. We got to go to Bible study. If that's

the case, you got a problem. I would assume if

you have that problem, it's because something

else is your delight, right? So ask yourself,

what else is your delight? And then get your

priorities in order because it should be the

delight. Now, not that you can't delight in anything

else, but your chief delight is in the word of

the Lord, okay? Jesus Christ, who is fully God

and fully man, is our perfect blank for meditation.

Example. All right. So what does that mean? Follow

Jesus's lead. So tell me, how did Jesus meditate?

Think about the stories you've heard. What are

some things he did? Generally isolate himself

and pray for him. Yep. So he isolated himself.

He prayed fervently. And while he did that, the

word came out, right? So that's what he was thinking

about. That's what he was talking about. But

he got away from everybody. So think of it like

this. Back it up for one second. A spiritual

discipline. He chose to do it. He planned to

do it. He committed to do it. He set out to do

it. And he finished the job. He carried it out,

right? So Jesus practiced it as a spiritual discipline.

So when we talk about it, that's why. Because

he set the example for us. We do it the way he

did it. Take some time. Now. Can you meditate

with another person like back and forth? Sure,

you can. Right. But there needs to be some kind

of time where you yourself are blocking out of

time with just you and God and God's word. OK,

because that's what Jesus did. Jesus had people

around him that he was going back and forth with

about the word. And you could say some of the

things they talk about were meditations. But

he took time to get away, not just to pray, but

also to meditate. OK, we are transformed by the

blank of our minds, as written in Romans 12 to

can't give me the word. The renewing, okay? So

what does it mean to renew something? Don't give

me the whole thing yet. What does it mean to

renew something? Say, let's say, right, make

it as good as it once was, right? So now if we

put it as a renew your mind, what would that

be like? Good. changing your thinking and the

ways, especially the ways that arise out of the

thinking, right? So you know that most of your

decisions are made in one of two places. They're

in your conscious or your subconscious. Psychologists

will tell you that's the only two places, really,

right? But a Christian psychologist would say,

well, there's a spirit involved in there, right?

But the point is, your mind makes the decision

oftentimes before you even realize it. Like,

you've already made the decision. So the only

way you're going to make a decision that you

make before you even realize it correctly...

is to get your mind working on the right track,

right? So one of the ways we do that, not to

get ahead of ourselves, is to focus on the pure,

right? So your mind's not going to go to doing

bad things if you're focused always on good things.

That make sense? Okay. Paul encourages us to

think on things that are true, honorable, and

pure. True, honorable, and pure, right? So what

is true, simply? What is true? It's a fact. It

is what it is, right? And by the way, true is

only true if it's 100 % true. What is something

if it's mostly true? Okay, so if something is

mostly true, what would you call that? It's false,

right? If it's mostly true, it's actually false.

A thing is only true if it's 100 % true. Now,

you could take out the true part. Say it's 61

% true. Then you could say that part, that 61

% is 100 % true. That's true. But if you look

at a thing and it's 61 % true and... 39 % false,

it's actually false, right? Try to start your

car. If it mostly starts, did it start? It did

not start. Turn the lights on. If they come off

or a split second go off or they brown out, are

they on? No, they're off. If something is mostly

something, then it's actually not that something.

That's what we mean. We're not there yet. We

didn't get it. So true is only true if it's 100

% true. And when Jesus says, I am the way and

the truth and the life, Jesus is pretty much

the only person who ever lived that was 100 %

true, right? Okay, so true we get. Then it's,

what was the next thing? Honorable. A little

tougher. What's something that's honorable? What

does that mean? So it means people can accept

it and think good things about it. It's not going

to start people thinking like, oh, that's not

bad. That's bad. People are not going to judge

it. People are not going to question you because

of it. It's honorable. It has honor. It gives

you honor. Okay. And then the last one is pure.

And pure is without impurities, without stuff

mixed into it. Say it again. Yeah, without blemish

also, right? And so a pure lamb would be a lamb

with no blemish. Okay, we got to go faster. We're

not going to get to our stop. We are to be blank

of the word, not just hearers. This is easy.

Yeah, and we already kind of covered this when

we talked about renewing our minds. You have

to do what you know to do. You can't just say

you know what to do. You actually have to do

it, right? And that's what the Bible calls us

to. In fact, James goes not there, but elsewhere.

James goes as far as to say faith without works

is dead. If you say you believe, but you don't

do what you say you believe. you probably don't

actually believe. Meditation empowers us to pursue

evangelism. And there's two blanks there, but

there's not supposed to be. So it's missions.

The word is missions in obedience to the Great

Commission. So the last thing that Jesus said

on the earth was go ye therefore. And so if you

know that, meditate on that. And now you're going

to act on that. What are you going to do? You're

going to go. Go do what? Make disciples. That's

what he said. Right? All right. We possess direct

access to God because every believer is a priest.

Jesus is the high priest and every believer is

a priest. And that's the Bible. You can read

about it in Peter, a little more in detail, and

also in Hebrews. I encourage you to do that at

another time. Unlike popular culture, which offers

fleeting opinions, God's word is unchanging.

Now notice that that is a capital W there. So

we understand that the Bible is not written in

English. So translators do the best they can

to move the language from Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek,

etc. into English. Even if you could go back

and learn Greek or Hebrew with 100 % proficiency,

you'd still be in trouble to be able to read

those texts and understand what they mean. Because

our minds don't work the same way they did 3

,000 years ago. The context is different. So

the best you've got going for you is a two -part

work. It is a translation, meaning an authoritative

person has worked hard to move it from one language

to another. So get a good translation, and then

the Holy Spirit. And if you read it in the original

language, you would need the Holy Spirit to understand

it. So if you're like, well, I'm not saved, but

I understand the Bible, you are wrong. That's

not actually true. People understand the Bible

when they're saved, when the Holy Spirit makes

it possible. That's what the Word says. History

shows us that blank, like Daniel, remained faithful

because they anchored their minds in God. Prophets,

servants, right? It isn't easy. The reality is

to be a servant of God and do what God wants

you to do isn't easy sometimes. Sometimes it's

really hard. You have to divorce yourself of

certain desires. You have to walk away from people

who want you to do certain things. You have to

not conform to the world. Don't do things the

way the world does things. So you can tell one

little white lie and get ahead at work, but now

you can't do that because you're a Christian,

right? You can sneak around the corner, make

a phone call, and your wife, your brother, your

sister, your mother's really waiting for that

call, your other boss, whatever. But you'd be

on the clock. That would be stealing, so now

you can't do that. There are things that sometimes

it's hard to be a servant or a prophet, but you

can remain faithful and do what God has called

you to if you anchor your mind in God. Through

blank, we align our desires with the will. I'm

missing a couple letters there. You can tell

I made this kind of quickly. Of the Father. Okay?

And it is meditation. That's what we're talking

about. Focusing on the word indwelt. Thinking

about it. Processing it mentally. Wondering at

it. Thinking how awesome it is. Delighting in

it. That's the meditation we're talking about.

The blank indwells the believer to help us understand

and apply. I helped out with that one. It's the

Holy Spirit. He is the Holy Spirit. It's the

third person of the Trinity. And the last one,

our ultimate goal in meditation is to bring blank

to Christ in all we do. Glory. And what does

the word glory mean? I guarantee you there's

not one person in the room probably that remembers

what the biblical word glory actually tells us.

What does it mean? Anybody? That's hard. It's

toughy. Say it again. It's like glorify. Glorify,

yep. So to bring glory to a thing is to shine

a light on it, to bring it into the light. That's

what the word means. To glorify a thing is to

lift it up so it can be seen or to bring it into

the light, to lift it into the light. All right.

So we do not have time probably to do our tickets,

but here's what we'll do. We'll do the start

real quick. Then we'll let the kids, after we

do the Lord's Supper, we'll let the kids go to

the snack and y 'all can stay in here briefly

and we'll do the drawings. Okay, does that sound

like a plan? So we can do that. Alright, because

we're going to need to do the stuff real quick.

Alright, if you want to try the snack, you can.

It involves just cups. And I have a gazillion

cups, so probably any number of people can. One,

two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four,

five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two,

three, four, five. Five cups. Four. Five. Four.

Five. Five. You need one more. You need one more.

Alright, is that everybody? Okay. When I start

the timer, you have 60 seconds to stack the cups.

The bottom cup must be bottom down. And then

you're going to stack the cups one on top of

the other straight up. So it's down, then up

like that. And then keep going. Don't start yet.

Can't practice. Okay. It may not be as hard.

If you succeed, you will get two tickets. If

you try, you will get one. You will have 60 seconds

only. Go. Bottom one down. Yep. Two. If you drop

any cup, you must start from the beginning. And

close. Last one. I got one. I see one. Here we

go. Ace has got it. Mike is close. That counts.

Look at that. You're coming up all over the place.

Everybody's watching you now, man. It still counts.

It was there. You got 13 seconds. No pressure.

You got this. Yeah. We're rooting for you. We're

rooting for you. 10 seconds. No. Go. Oh, okay.

Time's up. Hey. Hey. All right. Back the cups

up, please. I know you can. Back them up. You

can put them in the box because they'll be the

only ones out of the sleeve. Okay, so they are

actually supposed to be here now. Let's see how

close they are. Oh, you're watching her? You

get two tickets if you completed your worksheet.

You get two tickets if you completed the challenge.

You get one ticket if you failed to complete

the challenge. They'll tell you how many they

get. Don't cheat. Thank you. Thank you. Okay,

are you with me? Alright, thank you very much.

Welcome to this very short, but very, very important

Lord's Supper show. So I'm going to tell you

a brief story. Kids, listen to a brief story,

okay? There was a huge storm. A blizzard. Feet

of snow fell in about 12 hours. City services

failed to keep up. And pretty soon, cars were

getting stuck all over the place. A mom was traveling

with her kids. She had two kids under seven.

It was a five -year -old and a three -year -old.

their car got stuck in a snowdrift. They were

kind of away from city streetlights. They were

kind of away from the plowing. And so she started

to worry that they wouldn't be found in time.

The car stalled when they went into the snowdrift,

so now there's no heat. It was warm to start

with, so at first it really wasn't a problem.

And then it started getting colder and colder.

Now, they all had coats. It was winter. They

had been outside in coats. They put off with

their winter coats on. They put their mittens

on. They put their hats on, put their mittens

on, whatever. Maybe there was a blanket, I don't

know. But the car kept getting colder and colder.

Now, leaving the kids in the car and going to

try to find help when they're pretty far away

from lights and in a blinding snow didn't seem

like a viable option to her. It was hard for

her to think, I can go wandering around in the

snow and try to find help and leave my little

kids in the car, right? And at the same time...

taking the little kids with her and going wandering

around in the snow when it was only going to

be a few minutes and they would surely be sick

or hurt. But it didn't seem like a good option

either. So she took her coat off, took her hat,

her gloves, whatever, everything that she had.

She bundled and wrapped the kids up the best

that she could. And then she crawled in the backseat

with them and kind of lay on top of them and

tried to keep them warm. The story has a sad

ending. And that is that the emergency services

did eventually find the car and the kids were

alive and safe. But the mom died. Now that's

a sad story. And I'm sorry to tell you a sad

story. But I want to tell you that when Jesus

was walking on the earth, it seemed like a sad

story. Jesus had shared with tons of people his

ability to heal. He healed the blind. He brought

people back to life. He made people who could

not walk, walk. He healed lepers. He had preached

all about God and told everybody to come to God

for salvation. He walked on water, calmed the

storm. There were people that thought he would

rise up and be the new king. and that he would

call up generals and soldiers, and that they

would cast off the Roman yoke and be a free nation

once again. And then on the day in question,

they hung him on a cross. And a lot of people

came out to see, and a lot of people's motives

for coming out to see wasn't very good. They

came because when people were hung on a cross,

they would say crazy things, nasty things, or

exposing people's secrets. They would talk about

how so -and -so sold money or so -and -so lied

or so -and -so gypsied the government or whatever.

He would expose everybody's secrets while they

were hanging on the cross because they were going

to die anyway and they were trying to hurt anybody

that they could because they were going to die.

And so people would come out like a big crowd

gathered to see what Jesus would do. But Jesus

didn't do any of that. He hung there kind of

in peace. He even granted forgiveness to one

of the thieves who was hung on the cross next

to him. The other thief was mocking him and he

said, you really shouldn't do that. We're being

killed. Because of crimes that we committed.

But Jesus is not, he didn't do anything wrong.

And then he looked at that thief and he said,

you will be with me today in paradise. And he

prayed. He said, forgive them for they know not

what they do. That's not what they usually do

when they're being crucified. And so the story

looked like a very sad story. But you and I both

know it doesn't end there. It really wasn't a

sad story. Because three days later, when they

went to the tomb to try to finish taking care

of Jesus' body, lo and behold, he wasn't there.

because while they were busy doing what they

were doing, he had gotten up. He was dead and

now he's alive. And when Jesus was that night

about to be arrested, he told them when all this

happens, I die, come back again. And then later

I go and I'm going to be with my father. You're

going to stay here and you're going to spread

all the truth. You're going to tell everybody

about me. You're going to start the church and

all that's going to happen. While all that's

happening, here's something I want you to never

do. I want you to never forget that sad day.

That day when everyone thought that that was

the sad ending of my life. But it wasn't. It

was my great victory. I won back people for God.

And now, from now on, those who believe in Jesus

Christ as Lord and Savior will go to heaven.

And they will live with me from the moment that

they believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior until

they go to heaven. It's life and life abundantly

on this earth and for all the way through. That's

not sad. That's joyous. And I don't want you

to forget. But for a moment, everybody thought

that was a sad ending of my life. And that's

why we do the Lord's Supper. Because he said,

take this bread, which represents my body, and

never forget what I did. Take this blood, which

represents my blood, and never forget. And so

we do the Lord's Supper. And we're going to do

it now. Sherry and Caitlin, would you come up

to the table? And I'll ask the deacons to come

forward, please. These men stand before you and

serve the Lord's Supper because we have chosen,

God has chosen, and we have chosen them to serve

in our body as servants. A deacon means servant.

And Mike, all of it together. So these men have

been called as servants and they will now serve

the Lord's table for us so that we can work together

and seek the Lord's Supper. So I'm going to ask

Deacon Conley, would you please ask a blessing

upon the brethren. Father God, we thank you for

everyone that we have here. And more importantly,

thank you for the sacrifice that you did for

us. As we take this, let us remember the body

that was broken and the sacrifice and the pain

that you went through for us. Something that

you didn't have to do, something you didn't have

to go for. And instead, because you love us so

much, you died for us. In your name I pray. Amen.

And at this time, we'll distribute the bread.

As the bread comes around. Jesus said that night,

this is my body which is broken for you. It's

unleavened bread because they were celebrating

Passover. As much as you might be really desiring

to eat that piece of bread, that unleavened piece

of bread, you have to wait. It's like a cookie

with no flavor. Very old. Tim, would you serve

them? On that night, he took the bread. He said,

this is my body which is broken for you. Never

forget, and as much as you do this, do it in

remembrance of me. Okay, Deacon Aaron, would

you ask the blessing of God with us? Of course.

How are we doing to this day? Thank you for the

opportunity to be here to worship, to study.

Even at times when it may feel difficult to focus

or difficult to stay interested, we know that

there's something to learn, something to gain

from spending our time with you, pursuing you.

Thank you for it. The story that at first seems

sad, but you turn for your glory. The story of

your son, his sacrifice for us. You help us to

take this juice in remembrance of that sacrifice

and how great that sacrifice truly is. Distribute

the juice. You take one and just hold on to it.

Very careful not to spill it. Very carefully.

Well done. How did you get one? And the same

with the juice, which represents his blood. And

as often as we do this, we will never forget

that story that was sad. have turned glorious.

Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we partake

of this symbol, this worship, this recognition,

this meditation, because you are glorious, and

you did what we could not do. When there was

no mediator for mankind, you sent your own Son.

You came in the flesh, God the Son, to be the

mediator for us. You made it possible. Because

of that, we can understand these things. Because

of that, we can receive your Holy Spirit. And

if there's someone in this room who has not,

If it's not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and

Savior, I pray that right now in this moment

they will say, come and get to me. I need you.

I'm done playing games. I want to submit all

that I am to you. To do what they should please.

Take over my life and bring me in the rule that

you have me to be. You be in charge. You be boss.

Thank you for saving me. And let them know, Lord,

that they prayed that prayer, they thought this

thought, that right now they're turning to you

that they're being saved perhaps for the first

time ever. And I'm not going to displace with

any doubts in their minds. Let us be true. We

pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, now at

this time, the children and the children's workers

may go to their camp. Okay. Hopefully by now

you've had the opportunity. Hopefully by now

you've had the opportunity to put your initials

on your tickets, and all of the prizes are on

this side of the room, so you don't have to go

near the Lord's Supper stuff. You may come put

your tickets on the prizes. That is a giant pickle.

Can't read? It says giant pickle right on the

package. Just put it down. Choose quickly. Why

are you looking tired? It's your problem. You

do but don't. How did that work? Yeah, choose

quickly.